Bonum Certa Men Certa

A Discussion About Suicides in Science and Technology (Including Debian and the European Patent Office)

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Apr 29, 2024,
updated Apr 30, 2024

Talk of a psychologist with a drug addict

Related: People Who Cover Suicide Aren't Suicidal

OVER the years I witnessed people wanting or trying to commit suicide, but I never myself contemplated it. So my awareness of the issue is derived from things I have unfortunately witnessed/seen, not felt.

In the case of the EPO, the suicidal tendencies are a well known problem that we wrote about many times in the past. Many smart and talented people became ill - physically and/or mentally - while working in that toxic environment. Some never recovered and some ended their own lives.

In Debian, there is a long history of deaths, suicides, and mysterious disappearances (Arjen Kamphuis). A former Webhost of ours, who had worked as a Debian Developer, died in a car accident a few years ago.

Lack of sleep, sleep deprivation, stress and a lack of financial rewards (even to make ends meet) can be contributing factors. Poor diet, isolation, a lack of breaks etc. won't help, either. Health deteriorates over time.

At the moment, SPI (fronting for Debian) is trying to hijack "debian" domains that are unflattering because they speak about these issues. It has become a very dangerous attack on the Internet (Net) because they target any domain that contains the substring "debian" somewhere (there must be hundreds of sites like these).

Debian tombstone

Those of us who value the freedom of the Net (superset w.r.t. the Web) are deeply concerned. The Internet (Net) was conceived as a decentralised platform, unlike social control media (even DNS is partly decentralised or semi-federated), so what SPI does is worse than just an attack on a Free software developer. Unknowingly, or at least unwittingly, it is attacking free speech. It protects nobody except some rich people's egos.

So what is it that they're so desperate to hide? Well, it's a whole bunch of things, but one of them is the suicides (under the guise of "privacy"). We saw EPO management resorting to similar tactics in an effort to 'hide the bodies'...

This is the man who Debian (and SPI) fears the most and tries to ban:

Daniel Pocock

I recently told Daniel Pocock: "The West (broadly speaking) developed regulations for working hours because of an understanding of human biology, not excluding the mind. In Techrights we cover a lot of this in relation to ILO, ILOAT, and EPO. At the EPO many workers are injured, then thrown away. Some threw themselves from the top of building, even during working hours (a form of protest). The EPO management responded by bolting the windows shut."

"Sadly," Pocock told me, "there is a subset of companies in Switzerland who run their HR like that. In some jobs it is easy for the employee to quit and find an equivalent job across the road but for more specialized jobs it is harder to find an equivalent job in a reasonable timeframe and reasonable distance because the workforce is so small here. Many people end up sick in a workplace that isn't right for them."

"That is exactly what happens in EPO (as I was told by insiders). They are stuck," I told him. "Last night I saw this in the news: Excessive Sitting Raises Risk of Early Death: Now We Know How Much" (a bit old by now).

"I think I had heard a few other permutations of the same thing already a few times," Pocock replied. "On the suicide stuff, some journalists are very resistant to publish anybody's name because they don't want to be shut out of the industry or run into lawsuits about privacy. There has to be something really notable about a suicide case for them to reveal the name. Even the Debian Day thing is not notable enough for most journalists to publish the name Frans Pop. But the story of a suicide cluster doesn't need names. As long as the journalists know who the people are and they know the story is real, they can use the term "suicide cluster" in their headline and know it is rare enough to be a notable piece of clickbait for their readers. An individual tech worker committing suicide is not rare enough these days."

"Yes, this is exactly what happened in EPO," I told him. "They use the term "suicide wave" (I think French in origin), a la France Télécom scandal."

There's a conviction [1, 2]. "He lost the appeals too IIRC," or that was my mere recollection of that. People in companies like Google and IBM, maybe even Canonical's founder, can be held legally accountable for these suicides. To them, hiring some lawyers to muzzle critics is "slush funds" well worth the "investment".

Over the next few days I plan to rerun some old articles with evidence of the correlation between work on Debian and the suicides. That needs to be seen, even if it is inconvenient to some people.

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

Social Control Media Relies on Advertisers, So It'll Always Be Hostile Towards Free Software
Sales, sales, sales
Fragmentation of Data
Life is too short to "hoard" data
Jamie Zawinski Complained About Wayland, Then Decided to Give It a Go, Now Complains Again About Wayland
Ask IBM (Red Hat) why it's worth throwing so much away just for Wayland fanaticism
Russia Set to Ban Facebook?
If WhatsApp is made to "leave", that means Facebook or "Meta".
Taking Stock of a Good and Productive Week
We shall now be taking a break, unpacking the new hard drive (8 TB), and making backups of everything
 
The Tactics of the Opposition (Microsoft Lunduke): Associate With K00ks, Throw in Vaccines to Muddy the Water
Who stands to gain from this?
Europe's Second-Largest Institution (EPO) and Largest Patent Monopoly Office Needs More Transparency, Not Less Transparency
In the EPO, what good are elections when one candidate literally bribes all the voters?
How Not to Report News About Microsoft
This pattern of misreporting is so widespread that it's hard to believe it's not intentional
Computer Science is Under Attack, They Want Everyone to be a Consumer
If people can no longer acquire Computer Science education and real Computer Science experience, they will not know how to control their own digital destiny or emancipate the very same universities that now control the syllabus and instead of teaching Computer Science encourage the outsourcing of systems
The Best Tools Are the Simplest Tools
There's a hidden message here about the merits of sticking with X
Ofcom Online Safety Group Speaks of Protecting Women Online, Will Brett Wilson LLP Ever Listen?
They've essentially became like the Taliban's "burka police"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 20, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 20, 2025
In Defence of "Spinning Rust"
Just because something is "old" (or older) doesn't mean it ought to become extinct
Using Free Software to Prepare Legal Documents
LibreOffice is openly complaining about OOXML as an obstacle
Tech and Technology Are Not the Same Anymore
"Are you into tech, Sir?"
Our Articles About SLAPPs Receive Recognition and Interest
This week we shall continue writing about the 3 lawsuits we filed
Are You Served?
For many people, advocacy of Free software and GPL enforcement are assumed to be happening
Conspiracy or grooming? Alex Jurado, Voice of Reason compared to Outreachy
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 20/07/2025: Security Breaches and Former 'Open' 'AI' Engineer on Hype and Culture Issues
Links for the day
Links 20/07/2025: Fending Off BRICS and US Government Attacks Its Own Media (Like China and Russia)
Links for the day
Framed by social control media: Alex Belfield, Voice of Reason
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 20/07/2025: Summertime and OCC25 Wrap-up
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Planet Ubuntu, LinuxSecurity, and More
former "Linux" blogs which basically became slopfarms
Links 20/07/2025: More GAFAM Lawsuits, Layoffs, and SLAPPs
Links for the day
Nice Recovery (From Actual Fire) by PCLinuxOS, New Version of PCLinuxOS Released, Now Top of DistoWatch
PCLinuxOS is a community-driven distro
More Microsoft Shutdowns That Mostly Slipped Under the Radar
Remember what happened to books 'sold' by Microsoft?
Microsoft Lunduke Still Fighting Cancel Culture With... Cancel Culture
There will be no "winners" in such 'debates'
The History of Daily Links and Politics
"I support Wayland, but I also support abortion..."
Ageism in Tech
Your protocol is "old"...
Microsoft is at 0% "Market Share" in Most Areas
Depending on the taxonomy chosen, there may be dozens of categories other than desktops and laptops
"The moment MSFT stock fails to start tumbling, that’s the beginning of another corporate giant going under."
There are far more layoffs at Microsoft than at Intel, but you would not get this impression based on Wall Street media
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 19, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 19, 2025
Gemini Links 19/07/2025: Git For Authors and Filtered Antenna
Links for the day
UEFI 'Secure' Boot Abuses by Microsoft to be Brought Up in the UK High Court in 3 Months
we'll seek compensation
Next Year It'll Be Half a Decade Since the Fall of Freenode (and IRC is Still Doing OK)
Our IRC network is still accessible using the exact same software that ran in Windows 3.x
Lupa Will Soon Know of 3,100+ Active Gemini Capsules
And some people in the "Small Web" try to tell us that Gemini is dying?
The Slopfarms Are Taking Real News Articles and Replacing Them With Lies Generated by Machines
Bluntly speaking, Fagioli is nothing short of an online scammer
Links 19/07/2025: Techtarget to Cull 10% of Staff, New Threats to Free Press in the US (Home of Dangerous and Violent Stranglers From Microsoft)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/07/2025: "Climate Justice” and Forking Programs
Links for the day
What Wayland and Microsoft/IBM systemd Have in Common
focus on what IBM (Red Hat) is pushing while running over critics.
Linux Already Has About 60% of the "Market"
"When mentioning the client side," opines an associate, "it is essential to recite the list of other markets where Microsoft is negligible or a no-show. It is repetitive to do so, but it needs saying -- often."
In Norway, Android/Linux Has Just Hit All-Time High (First Time Since 2020), GNU/Linux Already Very Prevalent
Despite its small population size, Norway gave us Qt and many other things
Finland (and NATO) Must Move to GNU/Linux and Dump Microsoft Even Faster
"Microsoft is not a technology problem, it is a staffing problem."
Microsoft's Mass Layoffs Very Wide-Ranging, Media Focused on Gaming Though Microsoft Mass-Firing Lawyers and "AI" Staff (Contradicting Its Supposed "Investment" in "AI")
Microsoft plans to fire almost half a thousand people in legal roles
2012 Article About the Free Software Foundation Blasting Canonical/Ubuntu Over Adoption of "Secure" Boot (Microsoft's Remote Control Over GNU/Linux Since PCs' Power-on)
By Katherine Noyes (article has since then became 404, not found)
The Microsofters We Sued Helped Microsoft Make GNU/Linux 'Expire' This Year
"Linux and Secure Boot certificate expiration"
linuxconfig.org Joins linuxtechlab.com and Others, Becomes a Slopfarm With Fake Linux 'Articles' (LLM Slop)
They contain "linux" in their domain names, but they are just slopfarms
Links 19/07/2025: Microsoft Cuts in China and Wall Street Journal Sued for Reporting on Jeffrey Epstein
Links for the day
Debian Can Dump Blind Users Because I am Not Blind
the sort of mentality we're up against
Fascistic Policies Got 'Normalised' in 'Public Office'. Let's Not Let the Same Happen in 'Tech'.
Political discourse typically guides what's "normal" and what "good citizens" should believe/feel
The European Patent Office Cannot Attract Proficient Patent Examiners Who Master Their Domain
They are enablers and facilitators of corruption
Yes, Your Mastodon Instance Will Also Shut Down
Few people run a one-person instance in the Fediverse
The Demise of GAFAM Necessitates Greater and Broader Awareness
Morale at Microsoft is really bad
Free Software Foundation Reaches 75% of Funding Goal
Not bad for this "Fosschild"
Slopwatch: 7 New Examples of Fake 'Linux' Slop Pieces (Plagiarism With Misinformation)
Serial Sloppers need to be shunned
Links 19/07/2025: Kapo-berg Settles, Software Patents Challenged
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 18, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 18, 2025