Right back here just a few posts ago, I said:
Now I'm just praying that the tux500 gang doesn't pressure their driver to win so hard that he takes crazy chances which he can't handle and ends up crashing. Pressure is what they do best, you know! I don't like this scenario... it's the only thing that hasn't gone wrong yet.
I hate getting gut feelings. Not only are they always right, but they're never good news.
But no, I thought afterwards, they couldn't be that stupid. Well, they could!
Congratulations to the Tux500 team. Along with your reckless destruction of Linux, your insane pressure on a driver to carry out your mad scheme has driven him to the breaking point. He's now hospitalized with back pain.
I hope all the tux500 marketing mafia are proud of themselves. Yes, it IS their fault. Had they thought things through, had they thought of ANYTHING but lining their pockets, they would not have forced this driver into this situation. Just like they forced the Linux community into a state of polarized chaos with their witch hunt!
I probably shouldn't be blogging on it yet. Right now, I'm so mad I could bite through cement.
Considering the reaction by helios and gang is to JOKE about it:
And the Tux500 website is already trying to minimize the incident by calling his condition "OK", I guess I might as well be angry. At least *I* care...
UPDATE: Oh, so Tux500.com is admitting that Gregoire has a broken vertebra, now. And of course, not satisfied with this disaster, they want to FIND ANOTHER DRIVER!
I have a great suggestion: Put Ken Starks at the wheel. I understand he has a lot of drive to make this project happen.
UPDATE 2: It seems helios (aka ken Starks) ran a smear article back at some *other* site critical of Tux500. What is remarkable is this comment about it posted to tuxmachines.org, which, at this moment in time, sums up the whole scandal in better words than I can right now:
"Another failed Linux fanboy project that spent more time and energy arguing about the would'a/should'a/could'a issues instead of just doing something great (hard to believe they couldn't convince one person with real marketing/pr campaign experience to help them avoid the hundreds of fatal errors they made on this fiasco).
As to feeling sorry for any of the collateral fallout - you must be kidding (sniff - poor Tom Chastain). Next time do your homework and have a VIABLE business plan before launching some half-ass'd project that assumes you speak for the majority of the Linux community."
Jesus, yes. I'm just sad we couldn't stop it in time, before it took such a gruesome toll. I can't believe these ghouls actually broke somebody's back, totaled the car, and they're *STILL* just going to plow ahead like everything's going smooth. After all, they still get their money...
19 feedbacks
Comments:
Sorry, pal, but yes, I really think that. I didn't say through any of this that I was running for a popularity contest. In fact, I know that I've pissed off more readers than I'll probably ever have again (even people who are just sick of hearing about it), but it is important to do what you think is right.
In real life, racing in one of the most challenging race events on the planet is something you plan for a WHOLE YEAR in advance. Not slapped together at the last minute.
Yes, Gregoire knew, and cared who was sponsoring him, at least, if this live chat transcript is for real.
Is it so hard to believe that Bob Moore, in between takes of filming him day after day on the track (where all the clips came from), might have told S.G.: "I've made a lot of big promises to a lot of skeptical people, and they're all riding on you."?
It's what I think. I didn't say anywhere that I was *happy* to think that.
Your screenshot merely shows that the tux500 folks thought the driver was okay. (Those were the initial indications, since he walked away from the crash.)
I really think you need to show a little class.
He's already prone to pushing himself at the wrong times. "Too nervous" is something you don't want to be on a racetrack.
I (and many others) asked at the beginning: why *this* driver?
Maybe because most drivers would laugh when they saw these clowns coming towards them. But if you take somebody who's insecure, prone to be unsure of themselves, but came frustratingly close to greatness once - so close, they only missed by a nose - and then forever afterwards was plagued by hard luck, you have somebody who's ripe to be exploited.
Kind of like the Tux500 P.R. crew worked on Linux user's insecurities the whole way through: "Oh, no, the Microsoft boogeyman is going to beat you to the car! You have to show your peers how much you love Linux! Hey, that other distro is donating more than your distro, you aren't going to let that happen, are you? Linux will NEVER SURVIVE unless we get money for this..."
Fact was, he turned out to HAVE A CRACKED VERTEBRA, so they didn't bother to check that he was OK, just go "Did we get it on tape?"
Class, my foot. The day I expect people to trust me with $600,000 of their money is the day I'll need to show class.
Anyway, I thought maybe you were a misguided but reasonable person. My mistake. Good luck to you.
My reply to you addressed all that needed to be addressed. It might be worth mentioning that the other three crashes resulted in no injuries, and were hence minor bumps in the normal course of racing... but I chose not to.
I respect that you write what you think. Even if some of what you think is plainly wrong. ;)
I think they could've done a lot worse than Stephane Gregoire (Willy T. Ribbs anyone?). The point I was trying to make was that I think the driver (while he's on the track) is focused on the driving. The big pressure to do well is largely self-inflicted. The linux sponsorship would have put no more pressure than any other sponsorship costing 13K.
As far as Bob Moore taping the driver day in and day out, I would be disappointed if he wasn't trying to capture the event to maximize it's use for PR. That's getting the most out of your 13K. I'd be pissed if I pledged money and didn't see any video of it.
"Is it so hard to believe that Bob Moore, in between takes of filming him day after day on the track (where all the clips came from), might have told S.G. ..."
Might have? You are accusing someone of causing a serious injury based on 'might'? Sure it's not hard to believe. But you don't go accusing someone because what they 'might have done is not hard to believe'.
ps. If you didn't stick to your guns about what you think is right, it'd be downright boring. Especially if I always agreed with you.
Well, shoot, glad I have some saving grace.
Let it sit for a few days. This story isn't over yet. But with crystal clear certainty, I know that had S.G. been in somebody else's hands, this would not have happened. Something ELSE might have happened for OTHER reasons, but not this.
BTW, after becoming the round-the-clock Tux500 sh**-shoveler for the past month, I'm shocked to have any readers left at all. Like I always say, "If it wasn't fun for me to write, it won't be fun for others to read."
That way, the penguin would become a source of curious inquiry as it could conceivably wind up on many cars without any funds being solicited.
For that matter, we already have the outfits like NYSE (in the news this last week) running Linux. "Every time you use Google, you use Linux" was going around this week. Last week the web re-discovered that the major movie studios do their film editing on Linux. Now consider Linux's domination on the server market.
Imagine, for a minute, if every user of Linux loudly proclaimed as much, on every web page served by Apache, in the credits of every movie edited on a Linux box, on the header of every web product programmed using GNU tools. You wouldn't be able to *find* Microsoft in all of that.
A healthy dose of skepticism is good, especially before parting with your money. Kudos for raising the questions. But after checking around they seem legit (possibly arrogant, but legit).
The Chastain team has been around for a long time, and they would be racing with or without tux500. To imply that tux500 has any significant influence over what happens to the car or driver of the Chastain team is simply ludicrous.
What's really amazing is that the Chastain team might allow a logo on the car despite the pittance of sponsorship that's being offered by the community via tux500.
"Pete, why all the venom?"
You might also ask that question of the dozens of detractors protesting the posting of Tux500's story on Slashdot today.
I'm not alone. I'm in the majority. And "venom" is a natural response to the campaign of hate that was being run by the Tux500 crew against everybody who dared to have the audacity to question the idea - before and continuing after I even knew the story existed.
There are hurt people out there because of Tux500, and they MATTER, dammit! Sorry if you haven't noticed...
There isn't anything amazing about the Chastain Motorsports "generosity" at all. As sports competitors THEY SUCK! They lose - over and over again! And they suck so bad that they can't get money out of corporate sponsors, so they look to a group of hobbyist computer geeks who would naturally know nothing about racing as a business and demand up to $600,000 up front, but "settle" for $12,000, for a product whose effective value is $0.00.
Where does the $12,000 go? They already had the team and the cars; they already had a replacement driver and a back-up car. So the raw materials were already paid for - guess what? The $12,000 goes into the marketers pocket. For a team so bad, they couldn't get any *real* sponsorship - what, like they didn't try?
We're being charged an Andretti price tag for a Chastain product. That's the scam part.
The only good news left is it will be over in a week, and when the project fails to make Linux the new Microsoft in a month, the rest of the naive will finally look up and wonder what happened...
Bullshit. There are dozens of logos/sponsorships on every single car. None of them have anything to do with crashes.
I'm talking about the Linux community in that comment, not the driver.
No, you're talking about the driver. Tux500 had nothing to do with that or any other crash.
Aaaand YOUUUU quoted:
"There are hurt people out there because of Tux500"
Whiiiich caaaame from my comment in reply to asynchronous13, not my blog post...
Are you sure you're up to this?
your insane pressure on a driver to carry out your mad scheme has driven him to the breaking point. He's now hospitalized with back pain.
Like it or not, Stephan is a professional driver, and a measly $15k in sponsorship isn't going to "drive him to the breaking point". To even make such a suggestion is a huge insult.
But with crystal clear certainty, I know that had S.G. been in somebody else's hands, this would not have happened.
Can I borrow your crystal ball?
Actually, it was your blog that caused S.G. to crash. All of your criticism of his driving record drove him to the breaking point.
Regrettably, no one here would even tell you "nice troll" like they would on Slashdot.
Mismanaged teams don't do well - end of story.
Do you really even think Stephan Gregoire knew (or cared) that Linux was sponsoring his car? Do you really think the sponsor pressure is what makes driver's crash? What makes drivers crash is their pseudo-insane addiction to drive as fast as they possibly can around the track. That means you push the limits of the machinery. Sponsorship is not on their minds at all.
If you intended sarcasm in your post, I missed it. If you really meant to blame a sponsor for the crash, frankly, it is you who sounds stupid.
The reality of it is that the teams are trying to get their car into the race. Which driver gets it into the race is somewhat secondary. This is not true in all forms of racing, but in the 500 it is, and has been for years.
And if you really think the sponsor pressure was too much, then you should be blaming sponsors who really pay the big bucks - not the $13k low-buck effort of Linux.
I'm a regular reader of your blog Pete, and I somewhat understand your skepticism of the Tux500 effort, but trying to pin poor Gregoire's injury on the Tux500 guys in absolutely *any* measure, sounds ridiculous.