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Re: Announcement: The Linux Event



Please, don't!  Please stop this thread (ICQ) before it will become
another flame war.

I'm afraid some of us don't understand the meaning of "keynote".
Keynote Speaker is a very important person, usually without much
knowledge in the subject of the event, but with much vision, and
somebody who is attractive to the public, who has a very positive
appreciation for the subject.

Usually, keynotes are politicians. But when I had to choose who will
be the first one to ask to keynote, I decided that an objective
person, from the hi-tech area and NOT from the politics, is better,
especially before elections. I guess somebody else would try to
contact Eitan or the Minister of Science (well, I didn't have any
idea that Silvan Shalom would win the primaries and become one of
the most important politicians in Israel; My fault!  ;-)

I remember one computer's conference, in which the keynote was Yossi
Peled, who was asked to talk about the impact of the Gulf War on the
future war field. Typically to his character, he opened his talk by
saying: "Well, when I see all the pyrotechnic and the lasers here, I
really don't know what I am doing here", he took the clock which was
included with the folders which were given to the people, and
continued: "well, maybe for the clock" :-)

I remember another hi-tech event, in which Ezer Weizmann was the
keynote. He was the biggest success of that conference, and the real
star of it.

When I was a member of the board in AMIX (Irgun Mishtamshei UNIX Be-
Israel), we loved to invite seniors from Minitry of Finance, in
order to hear (good) news about the policy of the government
regarding to UNIX (and the impact of these lectures, summed by
millions of dollars). To summarize: A keynote is more a symbol, a
message of: "Hey, go on, I am behind you!".

IT IS A GREAT HONOR FOR US TO HAVE VARDI AS OUR KEYNOTE, no matter
how much Linux he knows. He was awarded by the Israeli press as THE
start-upist of 1998. And he is still one of the most modest men I
know. Such a man will never offend another person that he even does
not know. So please, don't offend him. He is not going to spend the
time of the event, because I asked him earlier to have a short talk.

Although he agreed IMMEDIATELY to keynote, didn't have any terms,
and agreed in advance to any demand of me (like time, etc.), he was
a little curious why I chose him. Let me share you with my answers;
I find some of them funny and humoristic:

1. Keynote should be a VIP, and can be even a newbie in the subject
   of the event.
2. Moshe Horev mentioned you as the one who opened his eyes regarding
   to Linux (by telling him about the huge number of downloads).
3. The rise of the Internet helped underdogs like Linux and Mirabilis
   to develop free stuff and to gain millions of users rapidly. Both
   share many things (though ICQ is not underdog anymore...).
4. When I had to decide between you and Minister of Science, I could
   not know that he would reach the first place in the primaries, and
   become one of the most important politician  ;-)
   But in any case, everybody prefers a leading Internet start-upist
   over a politician...
5. Some of us love the Rolling Stones  :-)

Notes and Explanations:
======================
2. Moshe Horev is the manager of Oracle Israel.
5. CEO and President of America On-Line, said that the staff of ICQ
   are like the Rolling Stones for AOL.

> is this a joke?
Yes, at least answers #4 and #5. I love jokes.


Please, a little less jealousy (maybe you will the next one to earn
$400 million), and a little more open mind.

P.S. Thanks God, nobody offended Oracle/Compaq/etc. for their history
or for things that they didn't do in the past for Linux.
-- 
Eli Marmor