Reiser Says Wife Vanished After He Accused Her of Embezzlement

OAKLAND, California -- Linux guru Hans Reiser, on the witness stand here for the fourth day Monday, denied again that he killed his missing wife. 

"Did you have anything whatsoever to do with her disappearance?" defense attorney William DuBois asked his client.

"No. I did not," the developer of the ReiserFS filesystem testified.

The open source programmer is accused of killing his wife Nina Reiser, who vanished when she dropped off the divorcing couple's two young children to Hans Reiser's residence in the Oakland hills. The authorities said she never left the house alive that Sept. 3, 2006, day.

For his part, the 44-year-old defendant claims his wife, whom he met in Russia while hiring programmers for his Namesys company, abandoned their two kids, a boy now 8 and girl now 6. He claims she left the country and moved back to Russia after he accused her of stealing from him.

"You saw her drive away from the house. Is that right?" his attorney asked under direct examination.

"Yes."

For the first time during the trial's duration, the defendant claimed his 31-year-old wife, whom he married in 1999, abandoned her children because she embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from his Oakland-based Namesys company.

"Did you conduct yourself in any manner that contributed to her disappearance?" DuBois asked.

"I put a lot of pressure on her," the defendant said, noting that he accused her that Sept. 3 day of bilking him.

DuBois asked the defendant to elaborate. The defendant used terms like embezzlement and forgery.

"I caught her at it. That was pressure," he said. "I told her embezzlement was a serious crime." He added: "We had a contentious divorce.

Hans Reiser, 44, faces a maximum life sentence if convicted. He remains jailed without bail.

For the first time since the Nov. 6, 2007, opening statements, the defendant was wearing a blue, collared dress shirt. He had been wearing a similar white shirt through the trial. The blue sports coat and light pants appeared to be the same outfit.

Later the evening of Sept. 3, 2006,Resier put the two kids to bed after his estranged wife left, he testified. "We sang the Bathtub Blues."

The 12 jurors and two remaining alternates took some notes but sat slumped in their swivel chairs. Often, they did not look at the defendant.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Larry Goodman looked tan and relaxed. Trial was recessed last week for the judge's vacation.

At one point, it seemed as if the defendant was about to begin pining for his wife. When testifying he watched her walk out the house on Sept. 3, 2006, he said "she looked beautiful."

"I had a mix of emotions," he added.

After a long pause, DuBois asked: "What were you thinking about at that moment in time?"

Perhaps it wasn't pining after all.

"I was thinking," the defendant answered, "I wanted to go downstairs and play with the kids."

Sketches by Norman Quebedeau/Wired.com.

See Also:

• Live Blog: Hans Reiser Denies Murdering His Wife
• Defense Planting Seeds of Doubt; Hans Reiser Likely to Testify ...
• Hans Reiser Taking Witness Stand Now; Did You Kill Your Wife?
• Hans Reiser Evading Police Because He Was Upset, Feared Arrest ...
• Hans Reiser Murder Trial: The Vilification Defense Begins -- UPDATE II
• Hans Reiser Murder Trial: Indigent, Technospeak and Evading Detection
• Hans Reiser Murder Trial: The Ego, the Filesystem and No Mention ...
• Hans Reiser to Testify; Judge Says Sufficient Evidence to 'Sustain ...

Russia Charges Blogger for Inciting Police Hatred

Russian blogger Savva Terentyev is being charged for inciting hatred toward the authorities for a post that, among other things, labeled the police "uneducated representatives of the animal world."

Terentyev said Wednesday that the charges were a result of a February 2007 posting in which he chastised local authorities for raiding an opposition newspaper.

Terentyev's comments, first published by The Associated Press, come amid a government crackdown on Russian internet and media outlets.

"They're trash - and those that become cops are simply trash, dumb, uneducated representatives of the animal world," Terentyev wrote. "It would be good if in the center of every town in Russia ... an oven was built, like at Auschwitz, in which ceremonially, every day, and better yet, twice a day ... the infidel cops were burnt. This would be the first step toward cleaning society of these cop-hoodlum scum."

If Terentyev doesn't like restrictions to his voice in Russia, he should move to the United States.

That's the country where President Bush, as commander in chief, has drift-netted American's electronic communications in a bid to protect their freedoms, including the right of free speech. It's also the country where web sites critical of the police are taken down for murky reasons.

Photo hwayoungjung

See Also:

• Secret Spy Ruling Contaminates Debate
• House Rejects Spy Bill Extension, Setting Stage for Adoption of ...
• Senate Approves Telco Amnesty, Legalizes Bush's Secret Spy Program
• Secret Phone Slip Shows Telco Called for Spy Help
• Secret Spy Court Won't Release Anti-Wiretapping Rulings
• Spy Official Calling Anonymity Dead Simply Summarizing Gov Spying ...
• Top Spy Pushed Congress For Wider Powers, Citing High Summer ...

Guerrilla Filmmaking Group Fights Anti-Obama Virus

Left-leaning Brave New Films on Friday launched a viral video campaign that seeks to diminish Fox News' influence on the rest of the political news media (good luck!)

The four minute video airs footage of Fox News reports that compare senator Barack Obama to Chairman Mao, and radio commentary comparing him to Hitler. It also shows how some of the controversial commentary makes its way into other popular news outlets.

In an e-mail blast, the group's founder Robert Greenwald asks supporters to sign a petition that he says he plans on sending to news rooms chiefs. He wants the rest of the media to stop following Fox's lead.

This video is the latest in a series that Brave New Films has made over the past few months. The series is called Fox Attacks!      

My question: Can we get through an election without any over-the-top references to Hitler? It seems that Godwin's Law applies just as much to presidential elections these days as they do to online discussions.

Music Review: Ramiro Musotto -

Don't fight it and don't try to figure it out. Submit to it.
I'm walking down a long corridor in my head and the doors are all closed. I'm listening to my iPod. 17,000 are in my left front pocket and I want to talk about them but I don't know what to say. Ramiro Musotto's Sudaka was waiting for me in my mail box when we returned from our trip to Columbia, South Carolina. I felt a rush of...

Presented By: Did you know... How to disable the prompt for deleting Task List User Tasks? - #173

Did you know... How to disable the prompt for deleting Task List User Tasks? - #173   So after yesterday's tip, you've probably created a few tasks and deleted them, and noticed that annoying prompt.  Here's how you can get rid of it. On each user task, you'll see the delete command on the context menu, as shown below. And you'll get this prompt To disable this prompt, go to Tools - Options - Environment - Task List, and uncheck Confirm Deletion of Tasks. Technorati Tags: VS2005Tip,VS2008Tip >> Subscribe to Feed
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Peter Morén: The Last Tycoon

Though Björn Yttling and John Eriksson may not be present, the distinctive voice of their partner, Peter Morén, on "Social Competence," the first offering from his solo album The Last Tycoon makes it hard to shake the shadow of his regular band. Peter Björn and John's Writer's Block pretty much had a lock on catchy pop songs until Leslie Feist returned, and it appears that Morén is set to reclaim the crown of indie pop with this highly anticipated new album, due out April 8th on Touch & Go/Quarterstick. In the meantime, he and his band mates are at work on the follow-up to Writer's Block, an as-yet untitled instrumental album.

Peter Morén "Social Competence"
[The Last Tycoon, 2008, Touch & Go/Quarterstick]

hype machine : elbo.ws

CONTEST: Mason Brothers are Ready, set, go

Every once in awhile, Myspace sends me a little treasure that seems to have fallen from heaven right into my mailbox to make me believe that there is good music yet to be made. The latest little treasure is the gorgeous debut album from Richmond, Virginia's Mason Brothers. The Sun, The Moon and the Sea, is an album that conjures up all its namesakes by way of acoustic ballads laced with lap steel, percussion, and subtle piano flourishes, and the surprisingly velvet voices of brothers James and Christian Mason.

James released a solo CD in 2003 called Carnival Sky which featured his brother Christian on several tracks. The positive press and word of mouth publicity that the album garnered enticed them to work together on this album of moody (but not depressing), stark arrangements that recall Elliott Smith, and Nick Drake. I also hear a bit of The Grapes Of Wrath (how's that for an obscure Canadiana reference?) in their harmonies, which makes me nostalgic for all those great folk-pop records I haven't listened to in a good long time. No need to dust off the vinyl though, Mason Brothers fill the void quite nicely all on their own.

Mason Brothers "Ghost at the Wheel"
[The Sun, The Moon and the Sea, 2007, self-released]

myspace : hype machine : elbo.ws

I almost forgot to mention! I have a copy of this CD to giveaway to one lucky QBiM winner! Just sign up on the Quick Before It Melts Facebook Group (if you haven't already) and post a comment in the discussion thread called Mason Brothers CD. Contest closes Thursday, march 13 at 11:59 pm.