Hans Reiser Interview from Prison 611
JLester writes "Wired Magazine has an interview this month with Hans Reiser (of the ReiserFS journaling file system for Linux) from prison. It contains more details about the murder case against him. Some of the questions still go unanswered though."
Theres a Difference (Score:2, Informative)
Re:So what about Sean Sturgeon (Score:2, Informative)
It's possible to tell when someone's lying (Score:3, Informative)
e.g.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.01/lying.ht
As a geek who's been falsely accused, I'm sure he'd be happy to submit to such a scan. Additional evidence for his defence lawyer.
Re:my theory after reading TFA (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Wow that's bizzarre (Score:5, Informative)
file znode.c, item 5:
diff -puN
---
+++ 25-akpm/fs/reiser4/znode.c Wed Mar 30 14:55:08 2005
@@ -0,0 +1,1141 @@
* reiser4/README */
separately from the node itself so that it does not get written to
disk. In this respect znode is like buffer head or page head. We
also use znodes for additional reiser4 specific purposes:
. they are organized into tree structure which is a part of whole
reiser4 tree.
. they are used to implement node grained locking
. they are used to keep additional state associated with a
node
. they contain links to lists used by the transaction manager
Znode is attached to some variable "block number" which is instance of
fs/reiser4/tree.h:reiser4_block_nr type. Znode can exist without
appropriate node being actually loaded in memory. Existence of znode itself
is regulated by reference count (->x_count) in it. Each time thread
acquires reference to znode through call to zget(), ->x_count is
incremented and decremented on call to zput(). Data (content of node) are
brought in memory through call to zload(), which also increments ->d_count
reference counter. zload can block waiting on IO. Call to zrelse()
decreases this counter. Also, ->c_count keeps track of number of child
znodes and prevents parent znode from being recycled until all of its
children are. ->c_count is decremented whenever child goes out of existence
(being actually recycled in zdestroy()) which can be some time after last
reference to this child dies if we support some form of LRU cache for
znodes.
*/
1. His infancy.
Once upon a time, the znode was born deep inside of zget() by call to
zalloc(). At the return from zget() znode had:
. reference counter (x_count) of 1
. assigned block number, marked as used in bitmap
. pointer to parent znode. Root znode parent pointer points
to its father: "fake" znode. This, in turn, has NULL parent pointer.
. hash table linkage
. no data loaded from disk
. no node plugin
. no sibling linkage
2. His childhood
Each node is either brought into memory as a result of tree traversal, or
created afresh, creation of the root being a special case of the latter. In
either case it's inserted into sibling list. This will typically require
some ancillary tree traversing, but ultimately both sibling pointers will
exist and JNODE_LEFT_CONNECTED and JNODE_RIGHT_CONNECTED will be true in
zjnode.state.
Re:This story is going from 'weird' to 'surreal' (Score:5, Informative)
For the geeks out there, here is it, edited to pass slashdot's "few-characters-per-line" filter:
To paraphrase Chris Rock... (Score:4, Informative)
"I'm not saying he should have killed her, but I understand..."
Anytime you can't explain things like missing vehicles and scrubbed interiors, you got problems. I was expecting a police conspiracy after reading the comments, but there are a lot of arrows pointing at him. And, what's with his "friend" Sturgeon? It's almost as if he doesn't get that banging your buddy's wife might cause some strain on your relationship!
No sympathy for the guy, though. A hot Russian mail order bride doctor and you don't suspect the package might be a little too good to be true?
Sensationalist nonsense (Score:5, Informative)
While he launches into the intricacies of database science, I'm thinking, "Where is the front passenger seat of your car?" He has never explained this. It seems a fundamental hole in his defense. But he won't stop talking. When I try to interrupt, he insists I let him finish. It's as if the file system holds all the answers.
So I take the hint, and that night, in my office, I start scouring the 80,496 lines of the Reiser4 source code. Eventually I stumble across a passage that starts at line 78,077. It's not part of the program itself it's an annotation, a piece of non-executable text in plain English. It's there for the benefit of someone who has chosen to read this far into the code. The passage explains how memory structures are born, grow, and eventually die. It concludes: "Death is a complex process."
So I guess this is a confession now? I'm sorry but that's just deceiving and wrong. He calls a patch against the kernel tree a "program" and all the pluses he didn't remove before the code reaffirm this suspicion that he doesn't even know what proper code looks like. He makes it sound as if this comment describing how a specific file structure of the file system works as some sort of "secret confession" hidden there for the unscrupulous researcher. Joshua Davis, please turn in your geek badge!
With someone that calls himself a geek to come with such a preposterous conclusion leaves me little room for hope that any sort of truth of this case from either side will come out or that any real justice will be done. It speaks volumes of the "blindness of justice" and how our prisons end up being jammed with people placed on death row with DNA evidence later exonerating them and having no recourse to repair their life or credibility. So truly, Death really is a Complex Process.
Here is the actual passage he was talking about:
Re:So what about Sean Sturgeon (Score:3, Informative)
Did you read the article? First the CRX goes missing for a long time. Then...
On September 13, the Oakland police get a search warrant to scour the Reiser household. They find a drop of blood on a support post in the entry. Oakland's crime lab identifies the sample as a mix of Nina's and Reiser's, though it can't determine how old the blood is. Five days later, the police follow Reiser to the CRX, which is parked on a quiet street in nearby Berkeley. He moves it to a secluded, wooded area of Oakland and dashes uphill toward his mother's house 3 miles away.
Police search the CRX and find that the front passenger seat has recently been removed. The floor is soaked, as if it had been washed. There are heavy-duty garbage bags, cloth towels, masking tape, and two books: Masterpieces of Murder and Homicide. Police also find another drop of blood and match it to Nina.
Not that Sturgeon doesn't make this story even more bizarre, but... it can also be said that you learn a lot about a person by the friends they hang out with.
Re:my theory after reading TFA (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I tend to ... rebuttal from original poster :-) (Score:4, Informative)
I'm not arguing against innocent until proven guilty, thats just as important in the UK as it is in the US.
what I *am* saying is that there are a number of huge unknowns here and some damn compelling circumstantial evidence. Amongst others
1. the missing car seat
2. the freshly washed car
3. the fact of the passport and wads of cash he had on him
4. the book on murder
5. the missing wife
6. the motive
7. thoroughly strange behavior (driving around, leaving the car)
I'll admit I phrased badly though.
Re:my theory after reading TFA (Score:1, Informative)
If you were a fugitive attempting to be dead, would you let your best friends know?
Re:Theres a Difference (Score:4, Informative)
Care to back that up?
Sure. Read the definitions of Black's Law Dictionary http://west.thomson.com/store/product.aspx?product _id=40231642&promcode=520963 [thomson.com], the definitive source of such definitions in American jurisprudence. (Hint: Reiser is held in an American facility facing American charges in an American court. Thus, American definitions words apply.)
In England (where I expect you sourced gaol from), jails == prisons; the same facilities are used for both unconvicted inmates "on remand" and those who have been duly convicted and are serving out their sentences.
In America, jails (except for Texas, which has "state jails" for sentences up to 2 years, and the federal system, which often houses in BOP "prison" facilities pre-trial) are used for pre-trial detention and for sentences up to a year. Prisons are much larger facilities exclusively for sentenced inmates serving a year or more.
Re:Mod Parent Up (Score:3, Informative)
Re:obHumor (Score:3, Informative)