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Quando l’open source ti tocca il cuore

È tutto il giorno che leggo e rileggo un messaggio di Ian Hands, figlio di Adrian Hands, uomo che mi sento di definire un eroe.
Nonostante fosse affetto da sclerosi laterale amiotrofica, Adrian riusciva ad usare il suo computer tramite una tastiera Darci che permette di scrivere tramite codice morse.

 

 

 

La storia…

Padre e figlio amano l’open source, e Adrian con la sue ginocchia scrive una patch che migliora l’accessibilità di eog.

La patch è buona e utile, viene accettata, Adrian è contentissimo e scrive una mail al figlio per manifestargli la sua gioia.

Un mese dopo Adrian non ce la fa, e passa a vita migliore.

Il ringraziamento…

 

Ian, il figlio, scrive un ringraziamento al Gnome Team per aver regalato un gran bel momento con suo padre.

Non traduco in italiano, rischierei di rovinare le belle parole.

 

I would like to extend my thanks to the gnome team/community for a great last
moment with my dad.

Adrian Hands (my father) wrote the patch above to improve the usability of
gnome for himself and others. You see my dad was suffering from ALS and his
hands were so crippled he could no longer use a keyboard. Thus we used a Darci
usb morse code keyboard emulator to help him type. Even the morse code device
was a struggle as the sensitivity adjustment and positioning of the nice two
paddled key would fall out of whack. I rigged up a pvc cage that wrapped around
his knee and fixed remote switches to the cage so that he could use the
remaining strength in his legs to operate the Darci morse code device. He used
this last bit of body movement to write this patch.

Here is a photo of him using it:
https://picasaweb.google.com/HandsAdrian/ShotwellConnect#5549467460761802914

My father passed away yesterday. I went back through my email to find our last
correspondence (he was in India for treatment, and I live in Raleigh). I would
like to share the email with you.
<email>
On Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 12:16 PM, Adrian Hands <handsadrian@gmail.com> wrote:
> ACCEPTed
> COMMITed
> RESOLVEd
> BOO-YAH!
>
> commit 0b209b1ff16e863e60a1d86413aa57c5fbde76b0
> Author: Adrian Hands <handsadrian@gmail.com>
> Date:   Fri Dec 31 14:34:58 2010 +0100
>
>    Add Copy Image and Copy Path to clipboard functionality
>
>    Fixes bug 78514.
>
>  data/eog-ui.xml  |    9 +++++++
>  src/eog-window.c |   63 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  2 files changed, 72 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

I have the coolest Dad in the world!
</email>

I am so glad that my last comment to my Dad was something like this.

Adrian Hands loved free software / open source. I do as well.

Thanks so much for the great software, and a new great memory.
-Ian Page Hands

 

 

E questa è la risposta di Claudio Saavedra, eog developer

 

Ian, I am really touched to hear your father's story and at the same time
honored to know that he gave us this wonderful contribution. Please know that
we are more than grateful to your father and that his contribution and memory
will live with this project, forever.

My sympathies,

Claudio (eog maintainer)

 

L’open source ti regala anche questo, persone stupende che credono nella tua stessa filosofia, nei tuoi stessi valori.