Rachel Bryk, an active developer for the Dolphin Emulator[*] project, passed away on the 23rd of April at the age of 23.
While this is hardly the kind of news that would shake the tech world and be featured on major news site, I think the SoylentNews community can fully appreciate her work and commemorate that tragic loss with the team and the retro gaming and TAS community at large.
Most of her work was focused on making the Dolphin more suited to make tool assisted speedruns.
A full announcement and commemorative post can be found on the official Dolphin project blog.
Dolphin is an emulator for two recent Nintendo video game consoles: the GameCube and the Wii. It allows PC gamers to enjoy games for these two consoles in full HD (1080p) with several enhancements: compatibility with all PC controllers, turbo speed, networked multiplayer, and even more!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 27 2015, @05:31AM
You may want to add a briefly note on what "Dolphin" or "Dolphin Emulator project" is.
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Monday April 27 2015, @05:38AM
(dolphin-emu.org ... grumble... what a name! Is it a dolphin or an emu?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 27 2015, @08:13AM
(dolphin-emu.org ... grumble... what a name! Is it a dolphin or an emu?
Haha, kudos all around good Sir!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 27 2015, @10:39AM
Dolphin riding an emu or an emu riding a dolphin? Someone should draw that.
(Score: 5, Informative) by ikanreed on Monday April 27 2015, @01:11PM
For the overly-interested-in-meaningless-facts, why it's called that: the Gamecube, while it was in development at Nintendo, was called project Dolphin. The emulator is named after that.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Monday April 27 2015, @04:17PM
You may want to add a briefly note on what "Dolphin" or "Dolphin Emulator project" is.
It's a artificial intelligence that can pass the Flipper Test.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 27 2015, @06:10AM
¯\(°_O)/¯
(Score: 3, Informative) by pbnjoe on Monday April 27 2015, @06:53AM
23 is an awfully young age to go.
Also, it seems her surname was Bryk, not Byrk; might wanna edit that.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by anubi on Monday April 27 2015, @07:41AM
She sure was a beautiful person. I would have liked to have known her as a friend.
There is more discussion of this on Reddit [reddit.com]
I may be wrong in this, but It is my understanding from what I saw there that she was tormented by a lot of needless social issues. I wish I could have been there to have given her some support.
It really saddens me to see some young person go through so much needless hell. It just illustrated a complete lack of compassion - and its compassion that sets us aside as a species.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 5, Informative) by q.kontinuum on Monday April 27 2015, @07:55AM
Where did you get that information? From what I read, she was suffering from depressions, which does not necessarily mean anyone else was giving her a hard time. Depressions are just a hell of a disease, like dying from inside but not being allowed to actually go. And socially often not really accepted as a disease, more likely to receive recommendations to just buckle up, rough it, get a grip or whatever. If it was really depressions, I'm not sure I would have wanted to be her friend [*]; I find depressive people extremely hard to deal with since I always try to cheer them up and never ever have any chance to really succeed. It's not rewarding to "help" them to stay alive one day at a time and see them suffering through life every day, their suffering just prolonged by ones own effort. Depressive people might need social support, but in the first place they need professional support. Depression is a disease, not a mood.
[*] I do not give up on friends because they are depressed, but I'm not strong enough to carry additional burden, and I definitely wouldn't want to break down and fall into depression myself, losing the ability to help those friends I already have. That wouldn't help anyone in the end.
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday April 27 2015, @08:12AM
I did some google [google.com] searches on her, and found several, read them, cited one of them, and tried to piece together what happened. I felt sad this happened 23 years into a life.
I have several gay and transgender friends. I see some of the things they are facing. I was just saddened by the whole affair. I will try to get others out of a pit if I can, but like you say, I cannot allow them to drag me into the pit.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by wantkitteh on Monday April 27 2015, @08:43AM
This story contains three things guaranteed to generate flames in this day and age that really shouldn't:
1) A depression-related suicide
2) A transgender-related suicide
3) A female developer working on a gaming-related project
I'm no SJW, far from it, but I'm buying up aspirin in anticipation of the headache this story is going to cause. As tragic the death of this talented coder is, I'll bet anyone £20 that the resulting comment sh*tstorm this will attract anywhere it's covered will be an even more tragic example of humans being intolerant jackasses to each other.
(Score: 1) by Michelle on Tuesday April 28 2015, @02:12AM
Indeed, I'm surprised I haven't seen the hate here (yet). I suppose I only say that because I see it just about every time the issue of gender dysphoria is brought up. As a transgender person, I can definitely relate to what she was going through, even I though I don't have RA or fibromyalgia on top of it (though I do have degenerative disc disease which makes my back very angry and painful).
At any rate, there's an awful lot of sick people out there that WANT trans people to be depressed; they WANT us to kill ourselves or be killed. I'll be damned if I'm going to let them win. I'll stay alive just to spite the bastards.
R.I.P. Rachel
"Right now is the only moment you'll ever have; so why be miserable?"
(Score: 1) by Michelle on Tuesday April 28 2015, @02:17AM
Oh, and by the way, there's no shame in being an "SJW" - at least if you are, you stand for something you're passionate about and willing to fight for.
"Right now is the only moment you'll ever have; so why be miserable?"
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @04:48AM
That depends on the kind of SJW. Tumblr nutjobs that, for instance, insist practically all sex is rape, are obviously insane.
(Score: 2) by wantkitteh on Tuesday April 28 2015, @08:22AM
...way to unintentionally illustrate my point right there - everyone's definition of "nutjob" is different.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @06:13AM
So THAT'S why this is "newsworthy".
If it was some vanilla forever alone cis-man contributor to dolphin we wouldn't be reading about it (because that story wouldn't do anything to further the cause of promoting cis-guilt).
SN has definitely jumped the shark. Time to find a less SJW sympathetic site.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday April 28 2015, @09:58AM
Riiiiiiight... If this article is all about some kind of "positive discrimination" towards transgendered folks, why isn't that even mentioned in the summary, genius?
Take your persecution complex elsewhere.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 27 2015, @12:08PM
Nobody is. I have had chronic depression my whole life. Nobody notices, even when things get really bad. I let people I care about not notice, even when I'm suicidal. No one can help anyway. They think they can, putting guilt and shame on a person unable to bear it simply by offering too much support. If it isn't the temporary sort most people go through, you have to find a way through it all alone.
Don't be like the majority. Don't mourn the loss of someone that didn't want to live, but don't antagonize or criticize either. With depression, finesse in perception and emotional interaction has material consequences. Acceptance is best.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 27 2015, @01:32PM
You ever tried counselling?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 27 2015, @02:29PM
Yeah. Six psychiatrists over the years. After a few weeks they all say the same thing. Paraphrased: The way you have responded and coped with your life experiences is perfectly rational. Well isn't that a punch in the face. It is rational to want to die having gone through what I have. Medication doesn't work either. It just makes me angry for no reason or sleep.
Some say it is a deep existential depression. People say that sort is permanent and has no cure when you think too deeply about stuff for too long. I disagree, but only because it is a coping mechanism that works.
The best thing I can say to anyone that has seemingly never ending depression is that it may not get better, but you do. Eventually, slowly, you get better at doing things. Like how someone who has lost a limb learns how to live a normal life, but will never regrow the limb.
If only I could get the rest of society to accept that it is okay if someone wants to be dead and looks like they are losing it. That does not mean that they don't have respect or can't be happy for others or can't get things done. It is a strange but satisfying feeling to be experiencing what is a nervous breakdown but you have went through it so many times that it barely slows your work down. The hardest part eventually becomes smiling and pretending to be something you are not. That is probably what Rachel here could no longer accept. Life would be so much better if everyone wasn't expected to be an extroverted optimist.
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Monday April 27 2015, @02:49PM
Afaik, a psychiatrist is a medical practitioner who can only help you, if something is wrong with you, not if something is/was wrong with your environment. Did you try a psychotherapist instead?
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 27 2015, @07:38PM
The way you have responded and coped with your life experiences is perfectly rational
That is when you get mad not more depressed.
You are dealing with an industry that builds itself on psudo-intellectualism. You will deal with a *LOT* of people who dont really care and think they are good at it. It is not your fault it is theirs. Sometimes money makes people think what they are doing is a good job. When it is further from the truth. Move on and just try the next dude. I am sad to say in that field you will have to go thru a lot more than 6.
Do this. Find a group (or groups) try them out. But not for the support, they will spew the same goop. Ask for references (your real mission). You will find 'oh try this dude he is amazing'. After awhile you will see some patterns. For example I have been misdiagnosed for years with my eyes. Found the right doctor and my eyesight is actually the best it has been in 40 years with a lower prescription than I had before and judging by my eyesight recently I need to go down again. I have been thru no less than 10 different doctors over the years. My current dude rocks. I to got him thru no less than 5 different people recommending him.
Getting the right doctor is a chore but *very* worth it. The best part is they are a dime a dozen. So you have lots to sift thru. The downside is 'time wasted' but you learn to find the ones who are any good pretty quickly.
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Monday April 27 2015, @02:22PM
I think, professionals can help. It's amazing, what a few micro-gram of [missing/surplus] [hormones/chemicals] can do to a brain, and this might be fixed, if your depressions are physiologically caused. Might be different if they are based on some trauma or other psychological precondition, in that case it would probably take a lot of hard and unpleasant work to get out of it.
I had a depressive phase myself (self-diagnosed, so take it with a grain of salt if it really qualified as a depression), and for me the problem was the "thinking in circles". Problem A leads to problem B leads to problem C leads to A. Thinking in circles, ever faster. For me, suicide was no option because I didn't want others to blame themselves. Instead I took insane risks, until I started smoking weed one day. Suddenly my thinking went "A->B->C->...wait, why don't I take a branch out to D?", I stopped smoking weed some time after, and didn't touch it for > 10 years.
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 27 2015, @07:57AM
At the time I'm posting this, parent is modded "Flamebait". Why the fuck would that be?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 27 2015, @08:35AM
+1 wth!
(Score: 5, Informative) by Magic Oddball on Monday April 27 2015, @07:33AM
It took me a while to find information (only partly due to the spelling), but for others wondering what happened, evidently Rachel Bryk committed suicide, assumedly in connection to being trans [ign.com].
Oddly, that IGN link was the only place I could find that stated that outright — one subreddit noted it was a suicide (and one comment mentioned her seeming depressed), seemingly everywhere else was using the polite phrasing "passed away."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Ox0000 on Monday April 27 2015, @09:24AM
OT
seemingly everywhere else was using the polite phrasing "passed away."
As a society, we can't deal very well any more with things that are just part of life. Dying is one of them, so we created a euphemism "to pass away". Committing suicide is another one where we call it "a desperate act of a brave individual" (if we like the person) or "a cowardly act of a vile individual trying to avoid accountability" (if we didn't).
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Monday April 27 2015, @10:26AM
I'm not sure it is a matter of being able to deal with suicide. I think it's the lacking ability to keep our nose out of other peoples business (I'm including myself in this kind of sensationalism, although I like to think of me being concerned about general shortcomings in our society). A suicide usually has a lot of complex aspects, backgrounds etc. To understand, what's behind a single suicide is probably several days full-time effort if you want to have at least a rudimentary understanding, and probably involves invading the privacy of a lot of living people who treasure their own privacy. Therefore I'd like to avoid speculating if discrimination was part of the motivation for this particular suicide. If statistics show a higher suicide rate for [transgender],[female sw developers],[sw developers] or any other group Rachel belonged to, this might be a valid data point to investigate.
For transgender in general , I think people should live their life however they want to. If an operation is planned, I advocate thorough counselling since the op is afaik irreversible, and I consider it plausible that some people might falsely consider themselves transgender because they feel estranged from their own body for some other reason. It would be a tragedy to go to operation to later find out the gender was not the problem in the first place.
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 3, Informative) by Magic Oddball on Monday April 27 2015, @09:40AM
A tip for anyone that is at the edge, now or in the future:
If you don't think you can sit on your hands long enough to get help, take oldschool Benadryl. It will knock you into a dreamless sleep at a dose far below toxic levels (try taking the recommended dose plus one, then a second if needed), and when you wake up you'll also be numb for anywhere from an hour to the rest of the day. If needed, you can take another in a certain number of hours (I think it's 6) and keep doing that day after day while needed.
That 'trick' can also be used pre-emptively right after something traumatic happens if you start ASAP, preferably before the shock has finished wearing off. You won't need it remotely as long, and from my one experience using it this way, it somehow makes you more able to veer away from thinking about the incident if something leads you in that direction.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday April 27 2015, @10:24AM
Clearly you are trying to help, and I'm not a pharmacist so I'm in no position to comment on the safety or otherwise of your advice. Maybe your post will save lives. I'd like to think so.
However I can't help but think that suggesting vulnerable people who are likely to be on all kinds of other meds exceed the recommended dose of a pharmaceutical product is potentially... shall we say... contraversial. To be doing so under a pseudanonymous login on the interwebs, where any blame-seeking asspillar with a web connection and a no-win-no-fee lawyer could probably identify you, is either very brave or very stupid.
I'm going to go with "brave" and say "well done sir." Nevertheless, perhaps some kind of disclaimer at the bottom of your post would have been in order..?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday April 27 2015, @05:30PM
You just about described my entire College experience as I had to take allergy medicine most of the time. ;-)
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 27 2015, @08:49AM
Its the Illuminati.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_enigma [wikipedia.org]
Maybe she found out something she was not supposed to know. Maybe she was going to find out something in the future, and would tell us all about it, so they decided to get rid of her.
(Score: 1) by archshade on Monday April 27 2015, @11:15AM
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people involved with Dolphin for there time and effort. The NGC is one of my favourite platforms as a gamer and Dolphin alowed me to keep playing long after my cube died. Thank you to all for your hard work.
I would like to add my condolences to all the people who are touched by Rachel. Her efforts will be missed by those people in the NGC/Wii emu comuntiy and I am sure she will be missed by people who knew her personally.
RIP Rachel you will be missed.
(Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday April 28 2015, @03:14AM
Abu eh… abu eh id ma
Stria arlia ajam
Toddo no rabam
Naim na em na
Em do…
Abu eh… abu eh id ma
Stria arlia ajam
Toddo no rabam
Naim na em na
Travial em donia
Ravel a da
Em de et jadde
Nam nah em…
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 30 2015, @03:51AM
I guess you could say he bryked himself, amirite? (See what I did there?)