Rms has his bag stolen in Argentina

Something similar happened to Tom Preston Werner of Github when he was in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Conference organizers have a responsibility to emphasize the high incidence of theft and assist them however possible - most people coming from developed countries do not have experience with this type of danger. This seems like a situation that could have been avoided if someone was keeping an eye on Rms' bag.

I understand that Stallman is an important figure in the software community, but this really doesn't qualify as news in my opinion. To be fair, the server went down so I can't access the article, but unless he had something really important in that bag, like the only copy of a new C compiler written from scratch, this article is just a minor inconvenience in the life of a celebrity.

Damn, this is not nice. Maybe HN can pitch in to get him a new laptop? I'd donate a few bucks.<p>Edit: What the heck? What's wrong with what I suggested?

Considering RMS a careful person, he probably had backups for all the important information. However, for a person like him, that laptop is probably much more important: he needs to get a specific laptop that respects his freedom, as that one did, so he's probably going to be a bit behind on his e-mails until he gets a proper replacement.

Well he is not the first celebrity to get robbed in B.A. Bush daughter was visiting the city, the whole neighbourhood was crawling with CIA agents and her purse was still stolen...

&#62; Despite his controversial views on a variety of topics, his evangelism work all over the world is a true inspiration for countless people<p>I disagree, I think his evangelism is dangerous and offensive. He goes around telling programmers that they should give their code for free and he belittles anyone who doesn't follow his advice.

With so much traveling, all around the world, and dealing with thousands of people, something's bound to happen.<p>I hope RMS has an enrypted backup of his data on his home server. It isn't that hard to do, even if you care deeply about privacy and freedom.<p>As for the rest of the stuff ... I really hope that the organizers can obtain the medicine for him in short order. It's the least they can do. The stolen passport does slow him down, but he should contact the nearest embassy or consulate and they can help him:<p><a href="http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/emergencies/lostpassport/lostpassport_1197.html" rel="nofollow">http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/emergencies/lostpassport...</a><p>The stolen laptop sadly is unlikely to be recovered. The conference organizers should buy one for him.<p>Does RMS actually have any money saved up, or just the bare essentials? A public figure like that should make quite a decent amount of money from speaking engagements.

That sucks. I would have hoped that the university / event organisers would have provided any help possible to at least get his paperwork back in order though. The article makes it sound like he was pretty much left on his own devices after the theft.

&#62; The report goes on to convey the truly heartbreaking image of a hopeless RMS sitting at the university staircase, crying.<p>Words fail me.

That has to be perhaps the worst site ever. Without javascript enabled, the entire article is covered up by a CSS overlay telling me I need to enable javascript.. all while the actual content I want to read is behind it.

The passport replacement is relatively easy, right?<p>The bigger concern is the medicine. How does that work with prescription medicine outside the US?<p>The laptop is rather unique, so if someone pawned it you would think it could be hunted down.

I wonder if he'll add some basic security precautions (a locking area for his stuff while speaking) to his fairly detailed rider.

Had his bag stolen -- glad that he's okay! Normally, though, we wouldn't call this "robbery" in English. Strictly speaking, robbery is used for a theft where force (or threat of force) is involved.

That's sad, even though I don't like a lot of things he say I hope he can recover it soon.

On android the page is unreadable (at least in Dolphin) because of the undismissable menu.

I gnu I had a great quip about his property and identity being open sourced, but can't quite put it together.

Hope he had backups...

Reading about Stallman's reaction to this makes me wonder about his mental stability. "Punching himself in the head"? And cursing? Now, cursing I can understand but the picture painted in the story makes it look like Stallman was throwing a tantrum, screaming obscenities, punching himself in the head and then crying. We all knew he was an eccentric fellow but when you're punching yourself in the head, in public no less, you have to wonder what else is going on there. Losing a bag with such important items in it would put anyone in a pretty upset state. Putting aside who we're talking about I think a reaction like that definitely deviates from the norm to the point of maybe crossing the line from eccentricity to instability.

Sorry to hear what happened.<p>It's interesting that he was at a conference, presumably speaking about what he always speaks about.<p>This means his bag and things were to advance his mission, which is kind of to advance a 'commons'.<p>it nicely illustrate's RMS's philosophy (gpl). Even though he was speaking to advance the public good, a private enterprizer took his bag, removing it from the commons he worked so hard to advance.<p>RMS's philosophy, code, and bags require the protection of law.

if he had a chromebook he wouldn't be crying in the stairs. childish

Most of us have cloud backups like Mozy or Carbonite, or keep our documents in the cloud with tools like Google Docs, iCloud, or Zoho. To us, losing a laptop is an inconvenience... but not a cause for canceling future engagements. But RMS is different. He's ethically opposed to the "cloud," calling it a "trap." That is his prerogative. But you can't cry when you lose your data!!

I can't resist wondering if RMS has brought up the licensing of his medication with his doctor, who looked at him quizzically.