As fair as I am concerned, anything he says he is saying because he is being paid, wants to be paid to continue saying it, or wants to be paid to stop saying it. Well, that or because he is bored and hasn't harassed PJ recently; his obsession with Pamela Jones is rather unnerving.
So you don't believe the "legal consulting" was "posting legal analysis on his blog"?
I wonder what you think it is, since he has literally no legal background at all.
He also finally admitted he was engaged by oracle to do roughly the same.
> his obsession with Pamela Jones is rather unnerving
As someone who follows both it actually started with PJ and for a long while Florian never responded. And even the responses were far more professional than PJ's usually hyperbolic posts.
And being paid by a company does not make you a shill. Bias comes in many, many forms and the only way to cut through it is to provide facts.
Their professional interaction is not what I find unnerving, but rather Florian's insistence that she reveal herself personally, as well as the rest of his general interaction with her. It puts off seriously creepy vibes.
So maybe you are right. Maybe this isn't always about money to him, and is some other sort of obsession.
There is a keen difference between questioning not even who someone's employer is but merely if that employer is a particular firm that they are defending, and demanding that someone who wishes to remain anonymous reveal their identity.
The fact that Florian likes to brag about his dubious credentials while PJ lets her analysis stand on its own merit really adds to it. Florian believes his identity to be vital to the worth of what he says, PJ thinks the opposite of herself.
Go read some of Florian's rants about PJ, and tell me with a straight face that you don't find it creepy and are surprised that she would choose to keep identity out of it.
This can be explained away with Cognitive bias, which is something we see a lot in these sorts of discussions. I find both protagonist in this case to be economic with facts.
I'm well aware that I'm as guilty of it as anyone.
And sources: http://www.dailytech.com/Top+AntiAndroid+Blogger+Florian+Mue... http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57440902-94/microsoft-legal...
As fair as I am concerned, anything he says he is saying because he is being paid, wants to be paid to continue saying it, or wants to be paid to stop saying it. Well, that or because he is bored and hasn't harassed PJ recently; his obsession with Pamela Jones is rather unnerving.
http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=Florian+dis...
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2428809
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2428141