1-13-2005
As some of you know, Patrick V. and I correspond from time to time.... just
chat... nothing technical... so I have no "insider info" on anything
Slackware. I received a note from him this evening and he asked that I post
the following to the a.o.l.s group.

Al Canton, President
Adams-Blake Company, Inc.
Fair Oaks, CA
http://www.jaya123.com

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Hey all concerned folks,

I'd rather keep my silence, but I guess it's just not that easy. For one
thing, I've heard some rumors of takeover plans recently. Any folks
thinking of mounting a takeover effort could work with Vector or one of
the existing Slackware forks. If they "take over", it won't be Slackware,
it will be another Slackware fork. The only people chartered by me to be
issuing Slackware fixes while I'm recovering are Piter Punk, Bruno, and
the GUS group in Brazil, and in the unlikely event that I leave this
planet unexpectedly, they will be in charge of Slackware. Slackware has
been my baby for a large part of my life, and I'm still devoted to the
folks that use it. It is also my only livelihood. I would humbly ask for
patience, as I intend to be back at it, and I have bills to pay (more so
than usual, and with the 10.1 release so delayed the cash won't last
forever), but I am not looking for handouts. Instead, send your extra
money to a tsunami fund like Oxfam, or to the UN Humanitarian fund, or any
good charity tsumani-related or not. Project Open Hand and Seva are two
other wonderful organizations that need your money much more than I do.
Please consider this.

However, when Slackware 10.1 does release, I will be most grateful to
those who find it worthy of their continued support, and choose to pick up
a copy from us. :-)

I'm not looking for attention, and don't want to be a Slashdot story again
or anything like that. In fact, I've stopped reading that site because I
tend to let the trolls get to me (whether it's about me or not). It
reminds me too much of grade-school-style torment. Something I once read
on a site about Kempo (a martial-arts practice):

"Those of our ways are kind to all creatures, for hurtful thoughts are
quiet draining and aren't worth the loss of energy."

This is true, and I find it hard to control my own thoughts when reading
that site, and so it's best to let it out of my life for now. I'm
thankful for the site though, and for some people it's a great place to
hang out. I like nearly all the people there, but need to stay away for
now to conserve my energy and keep my balance.

That said, I clearly have to say something, because I know there's some
turmoil occuring out there in Slackware-land. And it's not that I want to
keep people in the dark, or that I knew something but wasn't telling (at
least not until recently). I made the choice to go public with this in
mid-November as what I perceived as a last effort to see if the medical
community could help me regain my health, and so of course the public is
interested in what's going on and many feel they are entitled to know.
Understand that posting about my health is not a hobby I enjoy (regardless
of how it may have looked last year. ;-) The most common query I'm
getting is "what did it turn out to be?", and well, if that was known I'd
have said something. It's still an unknown. I know that it is not HIV or
Syphilus. It is also quite unlikely that it's cancer, as I've had
numerous CT and X-ray studies that don't show such things, and it responds
to some antibiotics (but not others). Also, it's not in my head (as some
have suggested.) I'm under the care of my long-time (5 years) physician
here in California and he also thinks it's bacterial, but we don't know
what bacteria. I have not yet been tested for Lyme, and that's being seen
as more of a possibility since I have camped in the woods of New York
state (the #1 Lyme state by a huge margin) for a week or so every summer
since 1998. The usual tests for Lyme are notoriously unreliable (see
seronegative Lyme), and we may look into a newer DNA based test.
Understand that this is still just another guess, though, and it could
easily be something else. My doctor says that I need to see an infectious
disease specialist and has given me a referral to see one on 2/2. This
will be the second ID specialist I've seen.

So, what new information do I have? Well, I already mentioned in November
that I suffered from severe pleuritic chest pain (and X-rays later showed
a thickening of the pleura), followed about a week later by pericarditis
(confirmed by the typical ECG S-ST elevation, and it went through the
usual stages in later ECG tests). The doctors suspected that it was
viral, but although many antibiotics did nothing for me, Amox, Amox/Clav,
Penicillin-VK, and 24 hours of Penicillin G IV all improved my condition
(given some time to start working), and ceasing the antibiotics always
resulted in a relapse beginning a few days later and slowly worsening.
As a result, I was kept on Amox/Clav for a while. I ran out on 12/23, and
most of the doctors I'd seen in the midwest felt that would be enough to
get rid of just about any bacterial infection (assuming from my previous
improvement on some antibiotics that it was one). It amounted to about 5
weeks of amox/clav following a week or so of plain amoxicillin. Around
this time I had a checkup with my doctor here and got a normal ECG, and
felt better. A little bit of residual pain, but nothing too severe. By
then I'd put in the ChangeLog that I was feeling better and had started to
try to catch up on Slackware things that had fallen behind.

Anyway, time to cut to the chase. A week or so later the chest pain began
to come back, but quite slowly. I saw my doctor again after noting an
elevated resting pulse (around 80, where it was normally 55 before any of
this really began in October). Otherwise I seemed to be in better shape.
My weight was up to 150 pounds, in fact. He thought we should wait a week
to see if the pain was just some after effects that would go away, and I
agreed that seemed reasonable. Going back in the amox/clav was not big on
my TODO list, as the side effects can be pretty bad. Meanwhile, I'd been
eliminating everything unhealthy that I could think of from my lifestyle
hoping to get my natural immune system to finish off whatever bugs might
(or might not) remain, eating a primarily vegetarian diet with no coffee
or soda, drinking lots of water, and avoiding sugar. In spite of this, it
wasn't enough to cure me. I saw him again at the beginning of this year,
doing somewhat worse but it was decided to wait it out a little longer.
By a few days ago I had almost no energy, I was looking at a resting pulse
over 110, and was finding it hard to make it up (or down) the stairs (even
one slow step at a time), and waking up sweating and short of breath
again. These symptoms built up slowly and steadily since the last week of
December. I went back to the doctor again, who put me on Zithromax (a
macrolide antibiotic, which is a class the "shotgun" hadn't been loaded
with yet), and after a couple of days of that I have a resting pulse of
70, and less pain (except for my stomach, which the pills aren't too kind
on). It's no miracle yet, though (and I wouldn't expect one after just a
couple of days). However, it does seem to be working fast (about as well
as the brief Pen G IV in November did). My hope is that the ID guy will
be able to get a handle on this and that we'll know what it is and what
the best treatment is. Otherwise, if they have to keep guessing at what
to do, I hope to get a sufficient treatment to finish this off (if this
is, in fact, some strange bacteria), since every failed treatment may make
the infection more antibiotic resistant. Some of the other possibilities
doctors have mentioned would be a tough row to hoe (like heart failure due
to a virus). I'm long through trying to figure out what this is myself,
but I'm happy that it seems to be responding to Zithromax and that my
cardiac function is improving.

Well, that's about it. Didn't want to "go there" again, and I'm not
requesting help. This is just in response to the many concerned people
who are emailing me, and to try to set the record straight so that rumors
of my imminent demise from cancer (or something else) do not abound. I've
been asked to make another comment, so now I have.

Thanks for bearing with me through this, and to everyone who has helped,
listened, or offered advice. Also, special thanks this time to someone
named David from Etobicoke, Ontario who I would love to hear from via
phone or email. The nutritional advice you mailed to me was great.

Peace,

Pat

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Al. C <no.spam.acanton@take.out.adams-blake.no.spam.com> wrote:
> 1-13-2005
> As some of you know, Patrick V. and I correspond from time to time.... just
> chat... nothing technical... so I have no "insider info" on anything
> Slackware. I received a note from him this evening and he asked that I post
> the following to the a.o.l.s group.

Thanks for the post. I think it is pretty understandable that he is over
some of the initial panic and now would rather not continue talking about
it with the world now that he is making progress until the problem is
resolved. I'm sure a lot of us have been in similar situations.

- Kurt

Thanks for the update - I had been wondering how things were coming out.

On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 15:54:30 +0000, ~kurt wrote:
>
> Thanks for the post. I think it is pretty understandable that he is over
> some of the initial panic and now would rather not continue talking about
> it with the world now that he is making progress until the problem is
> resolved. I'm sure a lot of us have been in similar situations.
>
> - Kurt

True, though I have met an awful lot of people who are just waiting for
the chance to tell you about their most recent surgery, illness, reaction
to medicine, etc.

But I'm with you -- I'm really glad to get an update. It sounds as if
things are generally moving in the right direction, though his recovery is
slower than I'm sure he or anyone else had wanted.

On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 05:22:34 +0000, Al. C wrote:

> 1-13-2005
> As some of you know, Patrick V. and I correspond from time to time.... just
> chat... nothing technical... so I have no "insider info" on anything
> Slackware. I received a note from him this evening and he asked that I post
> the following to the a.o.l.s group.
>
> Al Canton, President
> Adams-Blake Company, Inc.
> Fair Oaks, CA
> http://www.jaya123.com
>
><snipped message>

Al, do you think it would be OK to repost this at the linuxquestions.org
site as it is listed as the official slackware web forum. I would be
happy to do so, but will not unless I have the OK. It will most likely
happen anyway, but I am not going to do so unless I can be assured it is
what PV would want.

Good to hear something. I felt he might still be ill based on lack of
activity.

regards

Franklin

Franklin wrote:
> On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 05:22:34 +0000, Al. C wrote:
>
>
>>1-13-2005
>>As some of you know, Patrick V. and I correspond from time to time.... just
>>chat... nothing technical... so I have no "insider info" on anything
>>Slackware. I received a note from him this evening and he asked that I post
>>the following to the a.o.l.s group.
>>
>>Al Canton, President
>>Adams-Blake Company, Inc.
>>Fair Oaks, CA
>>http://www.jaya123.com
>>
>><snipped message>
>
>
> Al, do you think it would be OK to repost this at the linuxquestions.org
> site as it is listed as the official slackware web forum. I would be
> happy to do so, but will not unless I have the OK. It will most likely
> happen anyway, but I am not going to do so unless I can be assured it is
> what PV would want.
>
> Good to hear something. I felt he might still be ill based on lack of
> activity.
>
> regards
>
> Franklin

Never mind, a link has been posted allready.

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In alt.os.linux.slackware, Al. C dared to utter,
> 1-13-2005
> As some of you know, Patrick V. and I correspond from time to time.... just
> chat... nothing technical... so I have no "insider info" on anything
> Slackware. I received a note from him this evening and he asked that I post
> the following to the a.o.l.s group.

Pat also asked me to pass this reply around. It's not GPG signed, so if
you don't trust me feel free to ask Pat yourself. Pat was also in ##slackware
on irc.freenode.net today. Everyone had a good discussion with him.
We've talked it over and he could use some help maintaining 10.0 and
earlier, so the guys of SlackSec and GUS are going to start working
together again to do that.

================================================== ====================

- From volkerdi@slackware.com Fri Jan 14 13:08:50 2005
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Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 10:04:37 -0800 (PST)
From: "Patrick J. Volkerding" <volkerdi@slackware.com>
To: Alan Hicks <alan@lizella.net>
Subject: Re: SlackSec
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On Fri, 14 Jan 2005, Alan Hicks wrote:
> Howdy, glad to hear from you again.
>
> A friend of mine fired a log file of your conversation in ##slackware
> the other day over to me. A good read, which cleared something up for
> me. You never got/read the e-mail we who did SlackSec sent you.
>
> 16:32 <+volkerdi> well, I'd already designated Bruno, Piter, and
> friends to be in charge of that. Slacksec never even bothered to email
> me...
>
> Back on the 17th of November I sent you an e-mail entitled "Slackware
> Security Updates". In it I mentioned that we wanted to do something
> like the GUS-Br project for while you were out.

Ouch. I am _so_ sorry! I guess there's a reason I stay off of IRC, and
that's largely because while being questioned from so many different
angles I tend to suffer foot-in-mouth disease.

> I don't write 'cause I want some sort of acknowledgment or anything. I
> simply write because I don't want you to have the wrong impression of
> us. We started work almost immediately after your "blog" was
> published, because we'd have to do those sort of things for ourselves,
> so why not go the extra mile an make it public? We'd not heard of GUS
> and when you wrote to say to use their packages we began to work
> together with them. I must say that Piter and Bruno are very
> intelligent people, blessed with an abundance of Clue and patience.
> Working with them was fun.

Thanks for clearing that up. I understand how that could have happened,
since GUS isn't all that well known, although they've been working closely
with me for years. I'm happy to hear that you're working together with
them... I was still under the impression that various splinter groups
were working in isolation from each other, and of course we have known
each other a long time and I trust that you also grok the Slackware
philosophy. Again, please accept my humble apologies for the
misunderstanding, and spread the word. With all that's been going on I've
been far too out of the loop, and I'm still trying to catch up. I found
your original email, which I now remember reading (but didn't reply to)
from the 17th of Novemeber almost right after the original post went up
from me. At that time I was in some bad shape and getting several hundred
emails a day, but that's still not a decent excuse. You guys have been
doing a good thing, and the Christmas card you point together on your site
really touched me. I hope it's still there because I still haven't read
everything that was posted...

> I just don't want you or anyone else to think that we at SlackSec were
> trying to somehow subvert the Slackware community or take away your
> job, and I think you know me well enough to know I wouldn't do such a
> thing.

Absolutely, and as far as that goes I didn't think SlackSec was after a
take over. In fact, like I said, I'm more than a little distracted and
out of touch with things for the last couple of months, and my condition
has been a lot of that since day to day I'm not sure my ticker will keep
ticking, and I've wondered where all of this will end up. Please pardon
my ignorance. I should have known better. SlackSec is a true friend of
Slackware, and I don't know how I managed to get that confused. Really, I
just didn't want to think that some kind of "turf wars" were about to
ensue, and don't know how I arrived at a place where I would have uttered
such an untrue statement on IRC. You did write to me about this (most
kindly), and I forgot. I hope you will forgive me.

Very best regards,

Pat

================================================== ====================

- --
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:5
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On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 05:22:34 +0000, Al. C wrote:

> As some of you know, Patrick V. and I correspond from time to time....
> just chat... nothing technical... so I have no "insider info" on
> anything Slackware. I received a note from him this evening and he asked
> that I post the following to the a.o.l.s group.

Thanks for that info, Al. Very nice to read some actual facts after
trying to sort out the secretive self-important hinting from a certain Mr.
Hicks... I'm sure you've made him very jealous!

--
If you're not on the edge, you're taking up too much space.
Linux Registered User #327951

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+Alan Hicks+ <alan@lizella.network> trolled:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> In alt.os.linux.slackware, Al. C dared to utter,
>> 1-13-2005
>> As some of you know, Patrick V. and I correspond from time to time.... just
>> chat... nothing technical... so I have no "insider info" on anything
>> Slackware. I received a note from him this evening and he asked that I post
>> the following to the a.o.l.s group.
>
> Pat also asked me to pass this reply around.

No, he didn't. You were overlooked by Mr. Volkerding. You have no
status. The letter has been passed around and you had nothing to
do with it. The letter didn't go to you - it went to Al C. And
your access to the letter was the same as everybody else's -
through this ng.

You're a joke. But nobody is laughing.

cordially, as always,

rm

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Pat,

It is great to hear you are doing better!

I have no problem waiting for another release until you are better. I,
being a fellow NoDak understand that you have to take care of yourself
before you can truly help others. I applaud the Slackware community
for picking up the 'slack'(no pun intended) while you are taking care
of yourself.

Pat, get some rest and get better soon!

Daniel