Apology

Hi everyone!

I would like to thank all the people who have written
about the issue of workers being paid a fair wage for
their work.

Please accept my apology for the manner in which I
communicated my ideas. They were ideas I wanted to
communicate for some time, but I was in an passionate and
emotional state, trying to express my feelings, when I
posted and I can see that those emotions were the tidal
wave on which my post rode, with the point I was making a
mere piece of seaweed, floating tiny and unnoticed.

In particular I want to apologize for using an actual post
of another list member (whose work I respect) as a
launching pad for what I was saying. I believe my ideas
would have been much more effectively communicated if I
had kept them general, with no loss in content. I regret
that I inappropriately made them personal and I humbly
apologize for this.

As a brief and hopefully unemotional summary of my ideas
let me offer the following:

I believe it is not constructive and harms our interest in
the furtherence of music and art when we hold the belief
that we are entitled to the work of others without
compensation. I believe that the destructiveness of this
idea is a demonstrable fact and that its truth is even
seen in nature. It is reflected in the way in which
livestock, soil, and relationships move towards death when
energy is always taken but never renewed.

I hope that that clarifies what I was saying and I am very
sorry that persons were hurt and offended because I was
unable to appropriately convey it the first time I tried.

I would also like to clear up a possible misunderstanding.

I publically responded to a post directing me to
information about the open source movement by making
comments that were completely inappropriate and totally
off topic and had no place whatsoever on this tuning
forum. I accept that it was completely inappropriate for
me to do so. At most, I should have responded privately
with my thoughts. To the extent they are out there, I hope
you will allow me to clarify what I was saying as I know
that some people may reasonably infer into what I said
things that I did not intend.

I understand that Mr. R. of the movement identifies
himself as a neopaganist, though I identify him as a
satanist. His writings are featured on web sites that
clearly identify themselves as satanist.

I have had pagans as friends and currently even have a
couple of family members who are pagans. My understanding
of paganism is that it seeks to honor ancient religions
and that it teaches respect for all life, for the earth,
the environment, and creation, for animals, and for other
people. "First Do No Harm" is one of their key tenets,
which is a value I respect, especially as it relates to an
attempt to improve the earth and lift people up rather
than take advantage of or oppress them.

I believe that even my belief in the dignity of work and
the need of people to be compensated fairly and not taken
advantage of is consistent with this. I do not find that
Mr. R's beliefs are consistent with true paganism, but
rather the opposite. Especially to the extent that he has
asserted his support for the elimination of large classes
of people simply because of their beliefs. I find his
position to be thoroughly evil and destructive. A good
summary of his own beliefs is found in his own quote which
he claims to be a neopagan motto, "Steal from any source
that doesn't run too fast." I think this clarifies what
his open source movement is about, a belief in evolution,
that the natural order is for the strong to hunt down and
destroy the weak in order for progress to occur. I do not
agree with this philosophy in any way and am instead
aligned with the opposite, that we should protect the
weak, the defenseless, and the oppressed. My beliefs are
indeed completely contrary to those held by an evolution
based system of nature belief.

Fortunately, many modern pagans and others do not think
this way. All those who respect life and creation and love
are friends of mine and are welcome to stop by and say
hello. To those who hate these things I only ask that they
evaluate carefully whether their beliefs are truly making
the world a better place or are actually destructive.

I know there is often a wide chasm between belief and
action, which we all are subject to, and that all we can
do is try to close this gap. Sometimes we fail. I am not
perfect and I am not better than any of you, and I am not
less valuable either. We all have intrinsic value. Again
this relates back to my belief in compensation for work.
Unwillingness to compensate others for work they have done
from which you benefit is a great dishonor to them, and is
ultimately self-destructive, in my humble opinion. This
applies not just to software, but to musicians who create
albums, and to artists and authors and the field hands who
pick the food we eat.

I understand that some emotions were running just as high
as mine and that some people said things to me in that
state. I do not hold any of these things against anyone. I
forgive those who have offended me, just as I ask
forgiveness for the offense I have caused you.

May Adonai keep you and bless you and protect you.

- Jeff

I discovered an incongruity with the calculator which rates 33/16 as good when it's clearly bad. I thought I had tested 33/16 in the past.
So, my deepest apologies and I'll be sure to test any future versions of the calculator more thoroughly before I upload it.

John.