The HANS REISER Murder Trial. Timeline and Analysis.

[StringCheesian]

So, it appears that certain kernel developers are deliberately crippling Reiser4. Or, perhaps, Hans Reiser and the Namesys developers are just much better coders, and the kernel developers adjustments, have just made good code, bad. Certainly, many people have been lying about the qualities and abilities of the Reiser4 filesystem, and such active sabotage, by a few developers, is the most likely explanation.

No, it's probably due to what some people call bit rot. You see, a patch's impact on performance is not a huge priority when said patch is an urgent security or crash fix. Therefore, reiser4 is going to degrade over time until most of the people with commit access really care about keeping it fast or until it has somebody constantly re-optimizing it to compensate.

Malice is not the only explanation. Apathy fits just fine. Try not to be so quick to jump to conspiracy theory.

[joshuapurcell]

No, it's probably due to what some people call bit rot. You see, a patch's impact on performance is not a huge priority when said patch is an urgent security or crash fix. Therefore, reiser4 is going to degrade over time until most of the people with commit access really care about keeping it fast or until it has somebody constantly re-optimizing it to compensate.

Malice is not the only explanation. Apathy fits just fine. Try not to be so quick to jump to conspiracy theory.

My point exactly. I don't understand why there has to be some huge hidden conspiracy behind Hans Reiser and the reiser filesystem. Jade, why do you believe there is this conspiracy? You've obviously spent alot of time following all this (if you've spent half has much time as you have making posts about it in this forum then that's alot), so where is the conspiracy? Who are the culprits? What is there motive? Why Hans Reiser?

[zappa86]

One of the articles you linked Jade mentioned that Redhat tried to sabotage parts of the kernel. Do you know how this conclusion was reached?

[edged]

Its not like filesystems is a big business like operating systems.

Actually they are. Examples would be in data mining, data warehousing, long-term data storage, specialized applications etc.

When you get into what most people would consider "extreme circumstances" in data storage requirements, it becomes a very serious topic.

Just look at who the main sponsors for Resier3 were...

[edged]

Thanks for the links, you should probably also put a link to the original this is based on (the Wired Blog).

Remember that in the country this takes place (the murder trial), it doesn't matter what you think. It doesn't even matter what the jury itself thinks of the person's character or "acting strangely" (atleast it's not supposed to) - what matters is what you can prove.

Guilt must be proven, a person is innocent until proven guilty in the USA. There has been a lot of conjecture and circumstantial evidence, which does not mean proof at all.

As to the "kernel saboteurs", uhhmmmm. I have been a user of reiserfs3 for years and never noticed all these "issues" that people all of a sudden came up with (after Reiser was arrested). In fact I never was affected by any sort of corruption or whatnot - in 6+ years of using the filesystem (since 2.4.0)!

ResierFS v4 is something I've wanted to try for a while, but it seems as if everytime I've gone to just do it that I've been "blocked" by one thing or another (boot CD lacks support, kernel patch is broken, developer kernel has bugs, etc.).

The problem was not that I couldn't just use a NameSys patch on my own kernel (I used my own kernel anyway), and do a double install to get the main install up on v4, the issue was that the last time I looked the last patch I could find to be easily hacked to use a recent kernel (one I wanted) did not support compression. That is the sole reason for me wanting to migrate from v3 to v4, is the realtime compression (not for space increase, but for performance increase).

What I can say from my experience personally is this: there were several reiserfs v4 patches in a certain kernel developer's tree that were not immediately apparant to be broken... but they were/are. An unnecessary kludge was introduced for no reason what-so-ever, which was the cause of the corruption. This developer is a very "big-name" person, and I will not tell you of whom I speak (this is not about flames, and I don't know why he did it i.e. a mistake or misunderstanding or what). Needless to say however, a lot of people use his patches for bleeding-edge features, mainly because he is supposed to be "dependable" and "official". So of course, eventually it was noticed - this few lines of code that was unecessarily introduced causing the coruption, and when asked he gave the most unbelievable answer. Then he proceeded to do a rewrite and what appeared as "cover his tracks".

Anyhow that is what happened. Make of it what you will, but it surely was NOT bitrot or anything so simple...

If you want to look at conspiracy theories, look at who the biggest sponsor was originally. There's your answer right there, and probably what they'd do to "get rid" of the filesystem (have the inventor locked away)

BTW I've never understood the obsession about ext2 and ext3. ext2 was the worst filesystem I've used since the old days of UFS, and the only filesystems I've personally had explode were both ext2/ext3.

I think I'll go install onto v4 now and do whatever necessary to get it done (if that means reintegrating compression back into the latest version then so be it). I want to do some benchmarks and stress-testing

[Jade]

As to the "kernel saboteurs", uhhmmmm....

What I can say from my experience personally is this: there were several reiserfs v4 patches in a certain kernel developer's tree that were not immediately apparant to be broken... but they were/are. An unnecessary kludge was introduced for no reason what-so-ever, which was the cause of the corruption. This developer is a very "big-name" person, and I will not tell you of whom I speak (this is not about flames, and I don't know why he did it i.e. a mistake or misunderstanding or what). Needless to say however, a lot of people use his patches for bleeding-edge features, mainly because he is supposed to be "dependable" and "official". So of course, eventually it was noticed - this few lines of code that was unecessarily introduced causing the coruption, and when asked he gave the most unbelievable answer. Then he proceeded to do a rewrite and what appeared as "cover his tracks".

"...and when asked he gave the most unbelievable answer..."

Would really like to hear his "excuse."

[Jade]

Notes From The First Two Days
Of The Hans Reiser Trial.
Continued from above.

It turns out that Nina wasn't the first person "of such ilk" whom Hans had met through the magazine. The first was Eleana, "more attractive than Nina," whom Hans "sent back" to Russia because she wasn't interested in having children. When Hans met Nina5279, they "hit it off" and Hans tells Nina all about Eleana, which led to Nina "putting into effect" her personal "five-year plan." (By "five-year plan," Du Bois is alluding to the former Soviet Union's penchant for formulating Five-Year Plans for the country's economic development. This was necessitated by the Soviet economy being a command economy of central planning, instead of a market economy based on supply and demand.)

Nina is unlikely to have had any fixed "Five-Year Plan." It seems she wanted to emigrate to the U.S. Her two years at high school in Providence, Rhode Island,[49,50] may have sold her on this idea. She probably would have been happy if the marriage with Hans had worked out, but it didn't. She waited until she had citizenship (May, 2004) to divorce him (filed May, 2004). On May 15, 2004, their fifth-year anniversary, Nina kicked him out of their house and told him she had arranged for him to live with his mother.[51]

True to her "five-year plan," Nina became pregnant within two months after meeting Hans. She was 5-months pregnant when they married. The wedding itself "is slightly less than bizarre, but close" because Sean Sturgeon (one of Hans' best friends who later became Nina's lover) showed up "in drag as the maid-of-honor." And so the marriage began "a marriage that begins in relative happiness and ends in vitriolic divorce," in which Nina "wasn't that much interested in Hans" but "tolerated him" because "that was part of her 5-year Plan."

Throughout their marriage - and after - Nina would make periodic trips back to Russia. After she separated from Hans in 2004, she went back for 3 months; just before she "went missing," she had been in Russia for 3 weeks.

Setting things up for her disappearance? She took Rory with her on this trip and (in defiance of a court order) arranged Russian citizenship for him.[52] She returns to the United States on July 23, 2006.[53]

"Not much is known about what Nina was doing in Russia." This much we do know "her father still works in a resort of the former KGB," the notorious secret police of the former Soviet Union, now renamed FSB (Federal Security Bureau). Du Bois darkly hints, "What Nina's connections with the KGB we don't know because we can't subpoena their records." But we must ask why someone from such a successful family and background was so desperate to get out of Russia as to advertise in "European Connections"?

It was in the latter part of their marriage while Hans was working for the U.S. Department of Justice, that Nina "took up with" Sean Sturgeon, "a sadomasochist" who had the word "rage" "carved, not tattooed, on his arm." Sean Sturgeon was also a druggie. But he was generous with Nina, providing her $8500 a month, which was why Nina could wear "designer clothes," such as the designer T-shirts she wears, "and lived a high life." Ultimately, after one-and-a-half years, Nina terminated the relationship. Her next boyfriend was Anthony who, like Sean, is "also a financially successful man" - all this "while Nina and Hans were fighting over their divorce and custody."

Nina began her three year extramarital sexual affair with Sturgeon, in the summer of 2001, shortly after the birth of her daughter, Niorlene.[54]

But Nina could not even be true to Anthony. After she went missing, Anthony had gone to her home and looked at her computer's Internet browsing history, hoping to find clues as to her whereabouts. As late as September 2, the day before she disappeared, she was "combing through Craig's List for new male liaisons." And she was doing this - downloading ads of "males with children" who want "liaisons with females with kids" - in the 45 minutes when Anthony left her home to run an errand! Du Bois then projects onto the screen pictures attached to a sample of the personal ads on Craig's List. The photos are dark and murky looking, but they appear pornographic. Some display genitals; one is of a female giving a man a BJ. Du Bois apologizes about the photos, but he is being disingenuous because he lets the photos linger on the screen. (This is where I think Du Bois crosses the line - he clearly is trying to taint the jury's image of Nina with these porno pics, although Nina does not appear in any of them.)

It is in her computer that "the true Nina" is found, says Du Bois. The photo-portrait of the lovely Madonna Nina is the image that she wants the world to have. "That's why she hung it over her bed." "This is the pattern of deception common in Nina's life." Du Bois then intimates rather ominously and archly, "Maybe she was seeing one of those (Craig's List) guys and something happened to her."

(2) Hans is innocent of murder:

Any defense attorney who has an unlikable person for a client has his work cut out of him. William Du Bois knows this. So he wisely chooses, as the second prong in his defense strategy, to admit this reality.

Right from the beginning of his Opening Statement, Du Bois says to the jury, "I can tell you from the beginning that Hans Reiser is an odd person. He is extremely intelligent if we mean by that" the kind of intelligence measured by IQ tests. He "may not be genius, but he's certainly one of the smartest people I've ever met."

In other words, Hans Reiser is the stereotypic geek. He invented the ReiserFS open-source filing system for computers, "the best in the world," which he "pretty much donated to Linux Operating System." Hans' invention became "a free system that anyone in the world can use free," which earned him much "applause from the community of geeks."

But although Hans may have a high IQ, he lacks emotional intelligence. Unlike Nina who is "a world class people's skills individual," Hans "is devoid of social skills" and "difficult to communicate with." Worse still, he is "irascible, self-centered," a "megalomaniac" who "has an inflated image of himself, almost as much as Nina's projected image of herself."

It is his egomania that explains that phone call he made to his mother Beverly on Sept. 23 in which he complained about Nina inventing illnesses and disorders about their son. Du Bois explains, "Hans is such an egomaniac, so self-centered and self-consumed" that "he doesn't even listen to people," including his mom. "The only thing that's important to Hans is what he thinks is important."

Hans also "is a lot paranoiac," even in the best circumstances as when he gives lectures to fellow "computer geeks who worship him." To Hans, "there's no such thing as a simple idea." Being paranoiac, he "asks what it means, what's the implications." Du Bois then refers to a TV show called "Big Bang Theory" and says that it "describes Hans perfectly." His paranoia and plain oddness mean that "no matter what Hans does, it's suspicious." In fact, Du Bois tells the jury that "I think you'll find that Hans ALWAYS acts suspiciously."

For example, the Prosecution has noted that on Sept. 5, 2 days after Nina's disappearance, Hans called her cell phone but left no message. Du Bois explains that Hans never leaves phone messages for Nina because in the early days of their divorce, his messages were "used against him." Then there is Hans' seemingly suspicious response to Nina's best friend Ellen's phone call that evening. Ellen said that she knows Nina had gone to his house on Sunday, Sept. 3. Hans' response was "I need to talk with my attorney." Du Bois explains that Hans knows Ellen doesn't like him, because she is Nina's best friend. So when Ellen says that she knows Nina had gone to Hans' house and that Hans was the last person to see her, Hans thought Ellen was "up to something." When he said, "I need to talk with my attorney," he meant his divorce attorney.

This "explanation" seems to be designed to hide the fact that Oakland police had just conducted a phone interview with Reiser and thus his "I need to talk with my attorney." is perfectly understandable.[16,17]

Then there are the two books on murder he purchased at Barnes and Noble on Sept. 8, 5 days after Nina's disappearance. Du Bois explains that the day before, Sept. 7, Hans "walked into" Du Bois's office where he was told that the police always regards the husband as the prime suspect in missing wife cases. So Hans decided to inform himself on police "excesses" in homicide investigation by buying the books. Nor is there anything sinister about Hans paying cash for his purchases. Hans wasn't trying to hide anything by paying with cash because he keeps all his receipts!

As for the counter-surveillance moves that Hans made vis-a-vis the police following him-driving fast, then slowly; exiting and quickly reentering the highway-Du Bois explains that, due to his business involvement in Russia, Hans "is convinced that he's being followed by the Russian mafia and the FSB (i.e., the KGB)."

His paranoia also explains his strange behavior concerning the Honda CRX. Du Bois says Hans' mother Beverly has testified that, after Nina disappeared, Hans was sleeping in the CRX's front seat. That was why he removed the passenger seat - for more room. He also "experimented with trying to live in a storage locker," which explains the flyers from the Manteca storage facility.

Continued below.

[Jade]

"...and when asked he gave the most unbelievable answer..."

Would really like to hear his "excuse."

edged -- Honest. I really would like to hear his answer.

[Jade]

(3) Prosecution cannot be trusted:

The third prong in the Defense's strategy is to introduce in the jurors skepticism about the Prosecution. Du Bois tries to do that by saying the following:

* DA Paul Hora has told the jury that Hans has a black belt in judo and that one of the skills in judo is "the art of strangling." Du Bois, very logically, asks if Hans indeed is this "master strangler," why was there no (significant amount of) blood in the Exeter residence? Those bloody smears on the wooden post in the living room "were left there for a long time." The stains (on the stuffsack) are not even "evident" except under the "special light" used by the forensic experts. (The blood on the pillar was quite visible.)

* It is precisely because there's no (significant amount of) blood, that explains why the police did not find any cuts, bruises, or scratches on Hans when they detained him on Sept. 28. Given that, how did his DNA get onto the pole and the sleeping bag stuffsack? Actually, his and Nina's DNA could well be because when they first married, they lived in the Exeter house and slept in the sleeping bag for a year.

* Nor is Hora credible in his account of the police chase on Sept. 18, specifically the account by one police officer of Hans "sprinting uphill" toward the Exeter house. Pointing to the defendant, Du Bois reminds the jury of the image of Hans captured by Barnes and Noble's security camera. "He was fat" - too fat to "sprint" up Shepherd Canyon. "You'd have to be in marathon shape to do that."

The police account of Sept. 18, is partially fabricated.[57]

* Then there is the matter of Hans' cell phone when the police detained and searched him on Sept. 28. Hora has said that the battery was removed from the cell phone - just as the battery was removed from Nina's cell phone when her car was found 6 days after her disappearance. Unlike Nina's cell phone, which was photographed by the police, clearly showing that its battery had been removed, Du Bois warns the jury that "you won't see a picture of his (Han's) cell phone with the battery out. Instead, the court saw "only a picture of his phone." Du Bois then outright accuses Prosecution of lying: "that's an attempt to make this case fit 'the glass slipper'."

The prosecution is more than willing to lie about any aspect of the case, if they feel they can get away with it.

Removing the battery of a cellphone stops it being tracked. However, turning it off, does the same. Jody Citizen, of Verizon Wireless, testified that you can't be located when the phone is turned off.[55] All the interest in batteries being removed from cellphones, revolves around the mistaken idea, that turning it off, is not sufficient to prevent it being traced. Apparently, this mistaken idea is due to Nina.[56] Isn't it strange that this mistaken idea, should feature so prominently in the case. It is almost like Nina is directing the action.

* Du Bois also argues that, contrary to what Prosecution claims, there is a witness. In Hora's Opening Statement, which Du Bois amiably but archly contends should more accurately be called an opening "argument," Hora has spent "so much time" telling the jury that they must not lend stock to any testimony by Hans and Nina's son Rory because his young age makes him unreliable as a witness (Rory was 6 when Nina disappeared; (He was 25 days from being 7.) he is now 8). Hora has said that Rory gave erroneous and conflicting accounts of that critical day. But Du Bois maintains that, despite the efforts of the police and child protective services to "get Rory to say something against his father," Rory actually testified "clearly and unequivocally" in the Preliminary Hearings that he saw his mother leave the Exeter house that day. More than that, Rory was precise. He said that, as she was leaving, Nina "gave him a hug" near the front door, with Hans standing "two feet" away. After she left, Hans and Rory went downstairs. Rory played computer games, while Hans was nearby in the same room. That night, the boy slept in Hans' bed.

In other words, Du Bois is saying that not only did Hans not kill Nina in the Exeter house because their son saw her leaving ("no amount of judo training can project through a wooden front door to the outside"), Hans also had no opportunity to kill her AFTER she left. Between 2:30 pm (when Nina left Exeter) and 6 pm (when Ellen reported Nina to be missing), Hans was downstairs in the same room with Rory. That is why the Prosecution wants the jury to dismiss the boy as "unreliable" This is when Du Bois makes the startling announcement that Rory will testify next Tuesday.

Of course, there was another witness to events that day, Niorline (then aged 5). The defense has not called Niorline.

Court will resume Tuesday, November 13, at 9:45 am.

Continued below.

[Jade]

References:

[1] Nina Reiser's best friend, Ellen Doren, lives on Capricorn.
[2] "She was planning to go shopping at Berkeley Bowl that afternoon," said Anthony Zografos, her boyfriend. "Then she was going to go to her friend's."
[3] Judge Larry Goodman,... may have caught it, because the jurist put his head in his hand and stared directly at the defense attorney, as if waiting to see whether Du Bois would go any further with the whole Capricorn thing. He didn't.
[4] At the police station, they photographed his body for signs of scratches or bruises. None were found.
[5] "Other than those acne or a scratch, you didn't find any other marks that indicate a struggle that day?" defense attorney William DuBois asked Grant, who was under cross examination. "Correct sir." ... He later added that "There were some small marks, but nothing of significance."
[6] Hans was taken to the PD, had his picture taken ... and examined. No scratches or bruises were found on his body.
[7] And DNA testing cannot determine the age of blood stains.
[8] Cavness acknowledged.., that DNA testing can't confirm when bloodstains are deposited.
[9] Under cross examination from DuBois, she recalled that when she returned home from the Burning Man festival the weekend Nina went missing, a wood pillar in the house with smudges on it looked the same as it did when she left.
[10] She said that her son told her that he and Nina had a disagreement over who was supposed to have the kids that weekend and that they "decided to share them and split it up."
[11] Instead, Porter said, Nina Reiser's friend, Ellen Doren, came to get the children in the middle of the afternoon.
[12] Ellen Doren, came to the school at about 2:30 p.m.
[13] But at about 5 p.m. that day,.. Hans Reiser showed up at Adventure Time,..
[14] Doren picked up the children at 5:15 p.m. after the after-school program got Hans Reiser's permission for her to do so.
[15] At 5:04 p.m. that day, an eight-second call was made on his (Hans Reiser's) cell phone to Nina Reiser's cell phone, the phone records showed.
[16] Jordan said police spoke to Hans Reiser by phone on Sept. 5, two days after Nina Reiser was last seen. Jordan described the conversation as "an interview, not an interrogation."
[17] Jordan said police spoke to Hans Reiser by phone on Sept. 5, two days after Nina Reiser was last seen. This was later changed to: Oakland police talked to Hans Reiser on Sept. 5, two days after Nina Reiser was last seen alive, but haven't talked to him since then.
[18] On cross-examination, Potter said that when Doren arrived, she told school employees that Nina Reiser, 31, was out of town. But the missing woman's daughter was with Doren at the time, and Doren made the remark "for the benefit of the child," Potter said.
[19] On Sept. 10, 2006, a week after Nina disappeared, Hans called her from the Fresh Choice restaurant at the Bayfair Mall in San Leandro,.. She testified that she took the hybrid and parked it outside a friend's house in Oakland.
[20] She then rented a car and used it for about a week. Police later seized her hybrid. She then rented a second car from a different rental-car company.
[21] Oakland police tailed Hans and his mother as they went to a Budget Rent-a-Car in Hayward on Sept. 21, according to testimony. "Do you know why Hans was renting a car there?" Hora asked. "Well, I assume it's because the police had the CRX and he needed a car," Palmer said.
[22] Officer Guerrero testified that on Sept. 18, he and a team of surveillance officers, including one in an airplane, trailed Hans Reiser, 42, as he was driven by a male companion to several locations.
[23] Sanchez was in an airplane surveilling Hans Reiser on Sept. 18, 2006, assisting ground surveillance units.
[24] According to a probable cause statement in the case, Hans Reiser and a male friend "appeared to be conducting counter surveillance" to avoid police by driving at varying speeds, turning down small quiet residential streets and making abrupt stops.
[25] Mishin testified that he had "no idea" at the time that Oakland police were secretly watching them. "They did a good job," Mishin said.
[26] "Did (Child Protective Services) say to you that they wouldn't let you have the children at the house if Hans was there?" Du Bois asked. "That's true," Palmer replied. Du Bois asked if it was after that CPS call that Hans said he was living in the car, and Palmer said, "That's right."
[27] Before his arrest, Child Protective Services, the mom testified, said he could not live in the Oakland hills house with his children.
[28] Palmer said she doesn't remember where her son stayed in the few days after Nina disappeared. She said she was told Hans was sleeping in the CRX by Child Protective Services. That made him a poor candidate for getting custody of the children, officials told her. Palmer said she never saw her son sleeping in the CRX.
[29] Du Bois says Hans' mother Beverly has testified that, after Nina disappeared, Hans was sleeping in the CRX's front seat.
[30] "Were you aware that Hans was living in his car?" DuBois asked the mother. "Yes."
[31] The defendant said he removed the seat to make room for him to sleep.
[32] Reiser's defense attorney, William DuBois, has said that Reiser removed the front seat because he began to sleep in the car,..
[33] But other neighbors say they saw him spraying water off of something in the driveway for half-an-hour shortly after Nina went missing.
[34] Stabb, however, said he did not have direct vision of the driveway, and could not say for sure whether a car was being washed.
[35]"Even in the distance," Stabb said, "I could see he was dressed for winter ... a hunting jacket or something. I thought, Jesus." The next morning, Stabb said, the driveway was still filthy and covered with pine needles.
[36] McGothigan said he and Palmer,.. had attended the Burning Man festival in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. The two returned from the festival about 2 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2006,..
[37] I thought it was kind of strange. ... 'What are you doing, washing the driveway?'"
[38] To support his change of heart, Du Bois asked Grant if he knew the book includes a chapter about police planting evidence.
[39] Yet, as Hans Reiser's attorney William DuBois pointed out, the books also discuss how police plant evidence to ensure victory in a case and, in the case of "Homicide," paints police department homicide units in an unfavorable light.
[40] His lawyer said the books contain chapters on how police plant evidence and set up murder scenes.

Continued below.