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The Infuriation That Is Dave Winer

Someone on 8 Bits (thanks, Ian) pointed me to an entry at Idle Words entitled “Dave Winer Considered Harmful”. It wonderfully sums up a lot of what I’ve been feeling over the past few weeks with the Echo fight.
Of course, this is extremely well timed because of what I just read on my aggregator. Dave wrote tonight:

We were working on the XML level five years ago. Now we need it to stay quiet down there so we can rock and roll at the political and societal level. It’s not just about ones and zeros boys and girls, it’s about changing the world. The arguments of the software world are so boring. “Let me stand on your toes for a while.” Oy;

This is the same guy who has also said, in recent weeks:

“An open offer to IBM. Anybody but Sam Ruby, please. We need server space and bandwidth for our bootstraps. Provide the space and we’ll give you sponsorship credit, and our thanks. The way you’re entering this market is disgusting. Re-boot and do it right. It’s not too late.”
“At the same time IBM, a staid company of starched white shirts and wing-tip shoes is entering our market under a hail of personal attacks. I grew up in an IBM household. How far they’ve strayed from their roots.”
“So don’t think the fights are trivial, they aren’t. They cut off growth.”

Dave, you’ve made some wonderful contributions to the net in general. But don’t you think you’re being just a smidge hypocritical by claiming that the arguments software world are “so boring” after subjecting the rest of the world to them for the past x months?