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posted by takyon on Tuesday March 26 2019, @04:20AM   Printer-friendly
from the News dept.

Mike Crawford Is Dead, Contributed to Mac System 7.5.X and Activist

Some of you might know him on the west coast. He worked for Apple fixing/debugging System 7.5.X and attended Cal Tech. He was an activist for the mentally ill and homeless. He was openly bisexual and open about his schizoaffective disorder. His Facebook page.

I had helped him with his project Soggy Jobs which is unfinished. It was his project he needed a business model for.

He was on CNN about the taking away of tax credit from software engineers.

His website is here.

He was a member here at Hacker News.

He had serious physical illnesses that made him suffer and he took his own life.

I was an online friend of his, and I too suffer from schizoaffective disorder.

His wish was not to be forgotten to be remembered through his works. To at least have a Wikipedia article written on him or some other Wiki. Wikipedia named him non-notable about ten years ago. But if you met him, he'd always show you respect and even if he disagreed with you he was nice about it.

takyon: Here is MDC's last post on Warp Life, and Last Will And Testament. User page. Twitter.


Original Submission

Related Stories

SoylentNews Update: Staffing and Finances (in Sickness and in Health) 53 comments

Staffing: We are fortunate at SoylentNews to have some extremely talented and hard-working people on our staff. It bears mentioning that all work done on the site is by volunteers — nobody has ever received any payment for any of the work done here. That includes maintaining the code, wrangling IRC (Internet Relay Chat), maintaining our e-mail servers, the databases, web servers, etc. It also covers editing community story submissions and posting them to the site as stories for the community to read and comment on.

So, it pains me to report that one of our staff has been having health issues and was in the hospital in February. The initial "event" has been handled, but one of the tests conducted there revealed another matter which is requiring some ongoing intervention. There's other IRL (In Real Life) stuff happening, as well. As he put it: "All in all 2019 is starting out as a major suck of a year."

I have instructed him to take whatever time he needs to take care of things — first things first.

I am sure this attention is somewhat embarrassing to him, but if I have learned anything at all from MDC's passing, is the wisdom behind this saying

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson:

Please join me in wishing a full, and speedy, recovery to Fnord666.

Finances: As alluded to above, it does take real money to run this site (paying for servers, domain registration, and filing taxes are the major expenses). Having just finished the first quarter of the year, I'm pleased to announce that subscriptions to the site have so far been on a trajectory to meet our funding goal for the first half of the year. As of this writing, we have raised $1143 towards a goal of $2000. Most people make ad hoc, one-time contributions. The amounts presented for the different durations are suggested minimums. The majority of contributions received are at the minimum suggested amount, but so far this year we have some generous contributions above that. We had 2 people at $200 (each), one at $100, one at $80, and a couple more at $25. We accept both PayPal and Stripe for payment processing. We do provide an option, should you so wish, to contribute a gift subscription. By default, we use UID #6 as the recipient, though you are free to choose any user on the site. If you run into any problems or have any questions, please post a comment here, post something on IRC, or send an e-mail to admin (at) soylentnews.org and someone will get back to you presently.

What it gets you is a shiny star next to your name whenever you post a comment (which you can toggle on/off in your preferences), some relaxed restrictions on the site, and knowledge that you are helping us continue to provide a unique venue for discussion with a primary focus on science and technology. And, need I say it? Buck Feta! I find it hard to believe it has been over five years since this site forked off from Slashdot, and we have remained advertising-free the whole time!

Thanks: Many, many thanks to all who have subscribed!

If you would like to subscribe or to check your subscription status, please click to go to our subscription page.

Again, please accept my deep and genuine thanks to all who have contributed to this site in any way. Above all, please keep those story submissions coming, moderate comments, and (of course) post new comments, too!

--martyb


Original Submission

MDC Fortunes 25 comments

As mentioned here on March 26, Michael David Crawford has passed away. One person in the SoylentNews community was concerned that MDC might, instead, be incapacitated and in a hospital somewhere. He spent a few hours calling around and reported back to me:

Just got off the phone with the Clark County medical examiner
"I can confirm that a Michael Crawford died on March 24th"

Further, we received news that there is an obituary page up for him.

Separately, takyon suggested in a comment to that story:

Maybe we can put a quote or two of his in the quotations thing.

"You say that like it's a bad thing."
"I Am Eternally In Your Debt."
"The Mind Simply Reels."
"Thank You For Your Submission. Our customer service personnel will respond to your request in the order it was received."
etc.

Both TheMightyBuzzard and I ran with the idea and independently posted journal stories asking to gather up MDC sayings.

I am happy to inform the community that, as of 2019-03-31 04:20:00 UTC this morning, SoylentNews now has 31 fortunes attributed to MDC in our fortune rotation. Note: fortunes are chosen at random from all of the fortunes we have, so this represents a very small fraction of those available. Point being that it could be quite a while before you actually see one pop up.

Now that I know how to create and update fortune files, it should be simple to add any additional quotes people suggest. Continue to post any sayings of his to either of those journal articles (with a link to the source for verification, please!) In another week or so, I'll take another look through and update the fortune file as needed.

[Updated 2019-04-02 18:29:28 UTC. MDC quotations can be provided us posting a comment to my journal entry or to TMB's Journal entry. Please provide a link to the source so we can validate it is genuine. Thanks. --martyb]


Original Submission

This Day in SoylentNews History: Anniversary of Michael David Crawford Passing Away 31 comments

Maybe the eds or someone already have something planned for the anniversary of MDC's death, or maybe the Coronavirus pandemic has overshadowed everything. I checked the subs queue and didn't see anything about MDC.

I'm sorry I don't have anything proper to submit, just a link to last year's article:
Michael David Crawford Passes Away.

His wish was not to be forgotten to be remembered through his works.

FWIW, I'm not the same AC who submitted that one; just a long-time /. & SN reader who was sincerely saddened by the news of MDC's death.

[Ed. addition follows. --martyb]

As a token of respect and thanks for his active participation on SoylentNews, staff updated our Subscribe page to facilitate making a site subscription in his memory. From Meta: Site News: Holiday Weekend, Staffing, Outage, Finances, Submissions, and Moderations (emphasis added):

When you subscribe, some of the site limits are relaxed and you get a shiny star next to any comments you post. For the humble, you can turn that star's display off in your preferences.

If you wish to help out, click on Subscribe and select whether you want the subscription to start/extend your own subscription or you wish to make a gift subscription. If it is a gift subscription, specify the UID for the recipient. The default of UID==6 is that of Michael Casadevall (another nick NCommander used when setting up the site) or you may replace the UID with 2339 in memory of Michael David Crawford, or any other UID that you want.

Penultimately, select a subscription duration and amount (the suggested amount is a minimum; any in excess of that is greatly appreciated), and click on the Continue button. NOTE: Javascript needs to have been enabled for the following step to work. Lastly, choose your payment method of either Paypal or Stripe, fill in the requested details, and submit.

As I have mentioned before, this site has real expenses with server hosting fees, domain name registration, paying for a CPA to file our taxes, and the like. Those who support us financially help "keep the lights on." Thank You!

Many years ago I came upon a definition that I believe embodies how MDC lived his life: "Honest is the absence of the intent to deceive." He set a very high bar that, though I try, do not know that I will be able to maintain the openness that I saw him exhibit.

Lastly, I find it timely that a fortune I saw on our site this morning seems apropos to his life:

So live that you wouldn't be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip.

He may not have been faultless (who is?), but I am sure he would have no fears about what might be revealed by selling "the family parrot."

Previously:
Meta: Site News: Holiday Weekend, Staffing, Outage, Finances, Submissions, and Moderations
'This is how expensive it is to attempt suicide': Patient's bill goes viral
MDC Fortunes
Michael David Crawford Passes Away
Depression Strongly Correlated with Taking Three or More Common Drugs Simultaneously


Original Submission

Remembering MDC RIP 24 March 2019 - One of Us. 16 comments

This month, on the 24th March, it will be 5 years since MDC, denied essential medication, ended his life.

Why was Michael David Crawford different? - well, he wasn't. In many ways he was just like many of us. By profession he was a software engineer. He wrote software for OSX. He first became well known - or reasonably so in our circles - for being on Kuro5hin. However, he was certainly different from many of us for the physical and mental health, and social problems that he experienced. Despite all of these things though he remained polite and open to having an interesting discussion on any technical issue that arose, both on Kuro5hin and subsequently here on SN. Someone who knew him far better than I did wrote about him here some 12 years ago. If you search on your favourite search engine I think that you will find his name appears quite a few times.

His journal on SN is still there for all to read although it does not do him justice. He was a 'nice guy' and intelligent too.

For example, in 2010 he was interviewed on CNN discussing employment problems that were being experienced by software engineers at that time. But this youtube link was not his only 'appearance' on that site. For some reason he thought others might want to hear him sing and elsewhere he thought that we all ought to know that he invented the internet. That last link perhaps shows the battle that he was having with mental problems yet here on this site he remained the same old 'MDC' that we had known since the start of SN and even before then for some of us.

An Anonymous Coward has reminded us:

Remember in his last words here, he begged us for help. For Theophylline or Aminophylline, or even bananas; he begged for help with "the desire to take my own life. I'll explain later, I can't just now as I cannot breathe and so am fighting for consciousness ... I Beg Of You! ... Please FIND SOME WAY I DO NOT HAVE TO DIE!"

Remember him. A good person, sometimes bewildered at the senseless cruelty of others, and at his best, indignant and retributive against those cruelties. Not a Vigilante, just a human who wanted children to be safe. Smart but too much of a misfit for society to let him live happily and productively for very long at a stretch.

MDC with hair: https://imgur.com/aQO4kyE
MDC without hair: https://imgur.com/IYPS7To

On this site it was our own takyon who broke the news to us that he had lost his struggle. But on the same day several other sites covered the loss that the community was feeling, including this page from HackerNews.

Please, if you have the time, tell us your memories of MDC. He was one of us, and he is not forgotten.

Thank you to all of those who have contributed submissions to make sure that we remembered MDC.


Original Submission

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(1) 2
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by martyb on Tuesday March 26 2019, @04:33AM (8 children)

    by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 26 2019, @04:33AM (#819929) Journal
    I never actually met him, but feel like I just lost a good friend. First learned of him from his posts on the green site. Then after the Slashcott he posted frequently here. Seemed like a good guy with a big heart who made the best of his life he could, even as he struggled with mental illness. I'm going to miss him.
    --
    Wit is intellect, dancing.
    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by c0lo on Tuesday March 26 2019, @04:40AM (7 children)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 26 2019, @04:40AM (#819935) Journal

      I'm going to miss him.

      Me too. As I suspect many others.
      RiP, MDC.

      I still hope this is a prank - if so, I can surely say I won't be mad.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @07:50AM (6 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @07:50AM (#820000)

        He seems like the kind of guy who would live stream his suicide, or at least write a script to automatically upload photos as he dies.

        Is there any actual info about a method, a time, or a place?

        How about "MDC did it with the lead pipe in the ballroom" or "MDC did it with the candlestick in the library"?

        • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @02:25PM (5 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @02:25PM (#820092)

          He seems like the kind of guy who would live stream his suicide

          He basically live streamed his life through his posts. It's a shame you lack what MDC was drowning in: empathy for his fellow man.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:43PM (4 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:43PM (#820218)

            He asks that his body be dumped in somebody's driveway in Hawaii. WTF. He means it I think.

            He did stream his life, and he automated lots of stuff, which is why I would expect him to have code running as he died. What that code would do I don't know, but posting photos or video is the obvious. Something more insane would not be surprising.

            • (Score: 1) by Sulla on Tuesday March 26 2019, @08:11PM

              by Sulla (5173) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @08:11PM (#820276) Journal

              Elsewhere he talks about that guy being a doctor and him wanting that guy to perform the autopsy and then to be cremated afterwards. Or at least that was my understanding.

              --
              Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @08:41PM (2 children)

              by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @08:41PM (#820293)

              He isn't telling them to dump the body there. In a will, you have to identify a person to such extent that a reasonable person would be able to ascertain the identity the beneficiary based on your description. The shorthand for doing that (when they don't have a designation or class, such as "my children," "my alma mater," "all red-headed graduates of my high school," etc.) is usually their address (it used to be SSNs). However, many people think that naming the address is required, which is why you will see "current address unknown" in wills, even from lawyers who should know better.

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 27 2019, @06:57PM (1 child)

                by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 27 2019, @06:57PM (#820870)

                There was actually a case in my state where someone left a ton of money in a bequest phrased like, "my best friend, John Smith, at 123 4th street." However, that John Smith moved and another one moved in. There was then a challenge in the probate court and the judge had to figure out who it should go to. The intended John Smith won, as he could prove he was the best friend, and the other John Smith was thrown in prison for multiple perjury and similar crimes. The case included such brilliant examination as "What was the deceased favorite color?", "How did you meet the deceased?", and "How often would you say you saw the deceased's train set?"

                • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday March 27 2019, @09:10PM

                  by RS3 (6367) on Wednesday March 27 2019, @09:10PM (#820960)

                  I can see where people try very hard to be clear and complete, and yet someone always finds a way to misinterpret and misunderstand (the story of my life) then tries to capitalize, and sadly they often do. Glad to know there's occasional sanity in the court system.

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday March 26 2019, @04:47AM (17 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday March 26 2019, @04:47AM (#819938) Journal

    He had more friends than detractors here, and some of the best off-topic comments.

    He was very self-deprecating, and would often upmod jokes made at his expense.

    I think I was only slightly concerned by the weird last journal [soylentnews.org] he made because he had posted similar stuff before. I checked his Facebook wall earlier and there was a lot more concerning activity there on the 19th. People did pick up on it and tried to get him some help. But alas, here we are.

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday March 26 2019, @04:56AM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday March 26 2019, @04:56AM (#819941) Journal
    • (Score: 5, Touché) by coolgopher on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:37AM (1 child)

      by coolgopher (1157) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:37AM (#819965)

      He had more friends than detractors here, and some of the best off-topic comments.

      You say that like it's a bad thing...

      • (Score: 2) by DeVilla on Saturday March 30 2019, @07:25PM

        by DeVilla (5354) on Saturday March 30 2019, @07:25PM (#822454)

        I never got to know him
        ... and even I get that reference.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by Magic Oddball on Tuesday March 26 2019, @10:35AM (12 children)

      by Magic Oddball (3847) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @10:35AM (#820029) Journal

      His posts over the past few months had increasingly concerned me, especially once he mentioned losing Medicaid and seemed to be stuck relying on crisis doses of his psych meds at the ER when desperate rather than being able to get full coverage again. I just figured that I was misinterpreting things since I didn't see anyone else mentioning it.

      I'll definitely miss his posts & comments... Even when I haven't had the time/energy to read the regular stories on SN, I was in the habit of loading the site to see if his username cropped up in the sidebar, then his journal to see if there were any new comments on his recent posts.

      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday March 26 2019, @02:25PM (11 children)

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 26 2019, @02:25PM (#820091) Journal

        Similar concerns here. I was thinking it sucked, but, I didn't see a suicide coming. Such is health care in America - if you've got a steady job, you can probably afford the basics, and maybe better than just basics. If you're not working steady, things go to hell fast. MDC probably should have been able to get disability, which is a whole different world of screwed up.

        • (Score: 1) by Sulla on Tuesday March 26 2019, @02:44PM

          by Sulla (5173) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @02:44PM (#820100) Journal

          Yeah, suicide is pretty unexpected. But from what I understand people who are talk about committing suicide are less likely to do it than those who are thinking about it but don't tell anyone. I guess him saying his funeral would be on April 1st was the only hint to it that he gave.

          --
          Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
        • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:56PM (9 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:56PM (#820225)

          MDC would not have been able to get disability. Thanks to various laws cracking down on disability, it is very hard to get it for the conditions that I am aware of his having. Short of a crooked P.C.P., diagnosing doctor or repeated holds, mental conditions like his are very difficult to get disability for. The reason it is that they are easier to fake, the moral failing fallacy of mental disease, the catch-22 of partial disability, and SSD representatives are less likely to take the cases due to economic motivations. Plus, when you apply for disability, it can take months for your lump-sum to come, plus you lose a huge chunk to your representative, so many don't bother as it isn't worth the hassle. PLUS, SSD is not as much as you would think especially given his employment history, and you don't even qualify if you don't have the equivalent of 10 paid-in years.

          • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday March 26 2019, @07:09PM (8 children)

            by Thexalon (636) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @07:09PM (#820232)

            And it's stuff like this that makes me think that universal health care and universal basic income would save lives. I didn't always agree with MDC, but I never wanted this kind of end to his story, and I have to think that getting the pills he needed to control his illnesses would have made the difference.

            --
            The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
            • (Score: 2, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday March 26 2019, @09:41PM (6 children)

              by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 26 2019, @09:41PM (#820339)

              He fell thru the cracks... if he was a little crazier he'd have been taken care of like a coma patient, or a little more connected to reality and he'd have been able to fill out his paperwork keeping medicare and his mind drugs.

              • (Score: 3, Informative) by Thexalon on Tuesday March 26 2019, @11:50PM (5 children)

                by Thexalon (636) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @11:50PM (#820404)

                That's the advantage of "universal": There are no cracks to slip through.

                --
                The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
                • (Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Wednesday March 27 2019, @12:28AM

                  by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday March 27 2019, @12:28AM (#820418) Journal
                • (Score: 3, Informative) by dry on Wednesday March 27 2019, @05:24AM (2 children)

                  by dry (223) on Wednesday March 27 2019, @05:24AM (#820494) Journal

                  Here in BC, you still have to register, pay a monthly fee or prove that you're low income (tax returns) to be covered. I'd assume that it is similar in most places though we're the only Canadian Province where people have to pay, about $70 a month for a working single person making over $35,000 a year IIRC. Drugs also aren't generally covered either though MDC may have been eligible for a Provincial disability check, and drug coverage, depending on his income. I doubt that he would have had a problem having a Dr sign off though who knows.

                  • (Score: 1) by Sulla on Wednesday March 27 2019, @02:32PM (1 child)

                    by Sulla (5173) on Wednesday March 27 2019, @02:32PM (#820658) Journal

                    Oregon's program before the affordable care act was better than that. Income requirements were somewhere around less than 40k/year, no monthly expense, and drug coverage. Big downside was that if you got too expensive the state would refuse to pay for treatment but offer to cover assisted suicide, this happened to a woman who was going through cancer her second time. After the ACA passed the paperwork got 10x worse, cheapest plans are several hundred a month, a deductible, bad drug coverage, less treatment coverage. To my understanding MDChad a hard time getting the paperwork filed. Last I heard on that he was working with someone helping him get it done, that mush have fallen through.

                    --
                    Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
                    • (Score: 2) by dry on Thursday March 28 2019, @06:06AM

                      by dry (223) on Thursday March 28 2019, @06:06AM (#821198) Journal

                      That coverage was only for low income people? Must have still left a lot of people without coverage unless they paid for insurance and I don't hear too many good things about the American medical insurance industry.
                      As for the ACA, it seems to have helped quite a few people and screwed quite a few too. The whole thing seems foreign to me as the most I've really had to worry about is paying for the occasional medications and as I've been healthy, there hasn't been much of that. Generally that $70 is taken out of the paycheck so most people don't notice it much and it is going away next year. I'm actually covered by the federal government due to my wife so haven't had to pay in a long time and she and my son gets full coverage, even glasses, dental as well as drugs.
                      Never heard of anyone getting pressured for assisted suicide, at that it sounds quite hard to qualify, despite what our Supreme Court ordered. There is some triage that will happen if your case is pretty hopeless though generally you will get treatment, especially if life threatening. Worst is elective types of surgeries where you can be waiting too long for a new knee.
                      As for the type of treatment that MDC needed, that seems harder and harder to get, besides some drugs. I think part of the problem is mental illness is invisible. You see someone with a broken leg and are understanding, someone who acts weirdly, not so much.

                • (Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday March 27 2019, @01:53PM

                  by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 27 2019, @01:53PM (#820629)

                  An individual program that doesn't require active sane cooperation would be a first for any government program, like, ever. Other than prison. And maybe the draft.

                  Its kinda like free state ID cards to support voter ID at the election polls; supposedly low agency people can't afford free, and have no time to visit an office every ten years to renew. This is claimed to be too high of a hurdle thus "proving" voter ID laws are bad.

                  Changing which giant organization sends bills to the other giant organization, isn't going to directly help people who can't interface with any organization, regardless which it is, because they're crazy. You do have an indirect argument that saving money on accounting COULD lead, in theory, to more money for mental health issues, so I don't entirely disagree with you, only maybe 90% disagree.

            • (Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Monday April 01 2019, @04:29PM

              by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday April 01 2019, @04:29PM (#823129)

              universal health care and universal basic income would save lives.

              That is an undeniable fact.

              What is incredible is the straight face with which politicians argue against them, and the uproarious applause they receive from certain sectors of the population in response to basically saying: "Let our own citizens suffer and die."

              --
              🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday March 27 2019, @09:16PM

      by RS3 (6367) on Wednesday March 27 2019, @09:16PM (#820963)

      > He had more friends than detractors here, and some of the best off-topic comments.

      Two major reasons I liked and greatly admired MDC: 1) he never seemed to be bothered by even the most cutting comments. Maybe it was the meds? Or lack of them? I often marveled at his responses to rudeness. TMB's another one I'm trying to learn from that way. 2) yeah, sometimes MDC was 100% off-topic but it was always interesting and I enjoyed the challenge of trying to connect his seemingly obtuse comment with the thread topic.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday March 26 2019, @04:49AM (1 child)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @04:49AM (#819939) Journal

    Rest in peace, MDC. I confess I didn't pay much attention to his posts and never engaged with him, but he was a Soylentil and when you saw his name you always knew you were in the right place.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:28AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:28AM (#819959)

      He was smart, but irrational. Likable, but crazy.

      As much as he stroked some people the wrong way, I don't think I recall he ever lost his temper with people here.
      My longest interaction with him was trying to convince him not to buy that stupid buttcoin miner rig. He ended up buying it, and as expected it wasn't amortizing itself at a reasonable rate. But I hope he had some fun with it.

      The last physical illness thing I heard from him was him getting a kidney removed. I hope the residual pain from that didn't drive him to suicide. What's worse: Leaving someone in constant pain driving them to suicide, vs providing effective analgesia at a risk of addiction? I believe being pain-free should be a human right.

      Rest in peace, MDC.

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @04:56AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @04:56AM (#819942)

    I'll pour one out for you tonight buddy. This place won't be the same without you.

    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:39AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:39AM (#819969)

      That isn't his style. Read his many journal entries and see. Don't pour one out. Rub one out. His photo is on Facebook and on his web site, just in case you need some, uh, inspiration.

      • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:35AM

        by krishnoid (1156) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:35AM (#819980)

        Hate to say it, but I gotta agree. Reading his posts and following his life, alcohol never seemed to be his style as much as his interest in sex and accompanying colorful descriptions. I'm sad he couldn't get help that would, well, help him.

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by FatPhil on Tuesday March 26 2019, @10:14AM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Tuesday March 26 2019, @10:14AM (#820021) Homepage
      In memory of MDC, I think tonight we should all go out and GET BLOWN THROUGH A GLORY HOLE, it's what he would have wanted.
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 27 2019, @10:10AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 27 2019, @10:10AM (#820562)

      It's weird but every time someone who had an impact on my life dies I have a weird tranquil day.

      I've been spending the whole day being productive, mostly in little ways (a wifi router here, a software update for someone else there.) Currently I am listening to death metal, pondering about my ladyfriend, not unlike he had discussed in the past months and trying to clean up both my digital and meatspace footprints, having let both become cluttered as life has beaten me down.

      Knowing that another soul I would have liked to meet has passed from this world, maybe I can finally overcome my own malaise, gather a few of the friends I'd like to journey through life with, and go and live a tale him and the others who've passed before would enjoy watching from their seats in the afterlife (for those whobelieve in an afterlife.)

      RIP MDC, you will be missed but, at least for this generation, you won't be forgotten.

  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @04:58AM (12 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @04:58AM (#819943)

    Why is it always the good ones who die and the a-holes stick around forever.

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:37AM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:37AM (#819966)

      I happen to think jmorris is in the top 10 best around here. He's up there with VLM, Runaway1956, and The Mighty Buzzard. He has the clear and logical thinking that so many lack.

      MDC seems to have been a socialist. That always leads to mass murder. MDC also personally took it upon himself to hurt people like my friend, causing these people's lives to be ruined over the possession of harmless data.

      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Sulla on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:57AM (1 child)

        by Sulla (5173) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:57AM (#819974) Journal

        "I hate MDC because my friend is sexually interested in children"

          MDC was fightin' the good fight to protect those who could not protect themselves, even when he could not protect himself.

        --
        Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
        • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 27 2019, @06:37AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 27 2019, @06:37AM (#820512)

          Prosecuting people for possessing data does not protect children, but just gives the illusion of doing so, which is actually harmful.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday March 26 2019, @02:35PM (2 children)

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 26 2019, @02:35PM (#820096) Journal

        I happened to think MDC was a good guy. Mixed up, confused, and misinformed in some respects, but a good guy all the same. For those who are Catholic, a votive candle wouldn't be wasted on the man. Hell, I might light one, and I'm not even Catholic.

        • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday March 26 2019, @02:41PM (1 child)

          by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @02:41PM (#820098) Journal

          Yeah, his posts started getting weirder and ..uh...more prolific?.... lately, posting about EVERYTHING....

          .....i have so little time anymore and wasn't keeping up on his posts which just seemed 'crazy' lately.

          Crazy like a fox.

          Too bad. RIP.

          --
          --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 27 2019, @10:15AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 27 2019, @10:15AM (#820565)

            It would be nice to do a comprehensive archiving of all his postings before any of his sites or feeds get taken down. I'm not very knowledgeable with those kinds of things, but if someone else is, any help ensuring his insight and craziness is archived and enshrined for future generations would be welcomed.

            archive.org or something.

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:15AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:15AM (#819978)

      I think people who bring up petty quarrels at a virtual funeral are assholes.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 28 2019, @03:55AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 28 2019, @03:55AM (#821158)

        too soon?

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday March 26 2019, @02:31PM (1 child)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 26 2019, @02:31PM (#820093) Journal

      I thought everyone knew the answer to that. Are you slow, or what? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMdOsk3fVAE [youtube.com]

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Tuesday March 26 2019, @04:30PM (1 child)

      by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @04:30PM (#820153)

      Life is like a box of chocolates.
      At the end, You're left with the one nobody else wants.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:06AM (4 children)

    by fido_dogstoyevsky (131) <axehandleNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:06AM (#819948)

    Shit.

    The world just got worse.

    --
    It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by janrinok on Tuesday March 26 2019, @09:13AM (1 child)

      by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 26 2019, @09:13AM (#820014) Journal
      I understand and agree with the sentiment of your comment, but I would rather remember MDC for what he was and what he did and the fact that he was one of us.
    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by RamiK on Tuesday March 26 2019, @04:31PM (1 child)

      by RamiK (1813) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @04:31PM (#820154)

      Seconded. MDC raised issues no one else did and made many discussions worthwhile engaging in that I'd usually just not care about.

      He would be sorely missed.

      --
      compiling...
      • (Score: 4, Funny) by Rivenaleem on Thursday March 28 2019, @01:08PM

        by Rivenaleem (3400) on Thursday March 28 2019, @01:08PM (#821280)

        When the character limit on comment titles fits just right.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by NotSanguine on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:09AM (5 children)

    Dealing with mental illness is an iffy proposition at best. It's a shame we don't have better ways to treat such diseases.

    MDC was, for all his (mostly endearing) wackiness, good to have around here.

    He will be missed by many, including me.

    --
    No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by FatPhil on Tuesday March 26 2019, @08:26AM (4 children)

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Tuesday March 26 2019, @08:26AM (#820007) Homepage
      I will confess to having foed him, not because I disliked anything about him, it's just that I couldn't deal with that level of off-the-wall sureality at unexpected moments in threads. I tend to prefer my SN reading boring - just the facts, ma'am - when I'm pressed for time. Of course, individual posts of his I would [+] open, if I felt it was safe, depending on the subject or the responses. It's been several days - I do miss him already. He had no filter, and laid himself bare, so we probably got to know him better than he got to know us.

      I am now cursed/blessed with not ever being able to forget him:
      > OH YEAH - Michael Crawford cycled through his Kuro5hin.org usernames regularly (he was good at getting himself banned). one of these was "Zombie Jesus Christ", which inspired me to name my kuro5hin.org account 'TaxiCabJesus':
      Because my current hobby project has a system account called "Zombie Jesus" (it is an account with godlike powers that's not associated with a living entity - hence Zombie Jesus - and it's even the most important account as it's the only account that exists at installation/bootstrap, and which permits you to grant permissions to other accounts that you create, etc.)

      One principle I've held as an extremely basic ethical tenet, is that it should be a fundamental human right to decide when to end ones own life, as to deny that right is to tangibly punish someone who needs no further punishment. I just hope that MDC's ridding himself of the physical and mental punishment it seems befell him most days was done in a way that was satisfactory to him.

      And I can just hope that the SoylentNews banter improved MDC's quality of life - it's the least we could have done.
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by AthanasiusKircher on Tuesday March 26 2019, @03:26PM (2 children)

        by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @03:26PM (#820116) Journal

        I will confess to having foed him, not because I disliked anything about him, it's just that I couldn't deal with that level of off-the-wall sureality at unexpected moments in threads.

        I didn't foe him (nor have I foed anyone), but I do regret now that I once called him a troll. (Only once.) I had occasional good-humored exchanges with him, but mostly he seemed to ignore my comments. Then one day I went through about four back-and-forth exchanges with him on a thread, and every time he ignored what I said, took some random three-word quotation from my post as the new subject line, and then started talking about something else that was only vaguely related to the thread but seemed to be trying to provoke some negative reaction. Or so I interpreted it, because I couldn't figure out why someone would act so apparently obtuse.

        After that, I mostly skimmed past his posts unless they seemed on-topic. I see now from so many positive posts about him here, and I'm not sure I understood how real and difficult things were for him.

        Because, honestly, he was a very confusing person here, and I regret not trying to learn more about him. (I understood his posts more back in the /. days.) Admittedly, we do have some people here who seem to post weird crap just for the sake of weird crap, and I was never quite sure whether MDC was legitimately a bit mentally off, or whether he was just playing with people sometimes. Some of his posts always just seemed so over-the-top, that I just assumed he was exaggerating (as other folks are known to do here).

        And now I'm sorry that led me to ignore what he had to say sometimes. I too sincerely hope that this forum was helpful to him in some way.

        • (Score: 4, Insightful) by RS3 on Wednesday March 27 2019, @07:20AM (1 child)

          by RS3 (6367) on Wednesday March 27 2019, @07:20AM (#820533)

          > ...I couldn't figure out why someone would act so apparently obtuse.

          He was super brilliant. He was messing with you. Ever watch the TV show "House (MD)"? Or "Elementary"? You were honored in that he interacted / responded.

          > And now I'm sorry that led me to ignore what he had to say sometimes.

          Oh I think it's okay. I wish I had the time to read much of the discussions here. We can't all respond to everyone else or the discussions would expand exponentially. And MDC's writings are all still here for everyone to read.

          > I too sincerely hope that this forum was helpful to him in some way.

          I think of SN as a think-tank. I think he considered SN and us as his family, certainly as friends. His openness here is proof, and what he left to SN in his Will is further proof and a great honor and we should honor his contribution, glean and use the wisdom and knowledge he gave us.

          • (Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Friday March 29 2019, @12:56AM

            by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Friday March 29 2019, @12:56AM (#821602) Journal

            > ...I couldn't figure out why someone would act so apparently obtuse.

            He was super brilliant. He was messing with you. Ever watch the TV show "House (MD)"? Or "Elementary"? You were honored in that he interacted / responded.

            No offense to MDC, or to you, but I know a lot of "brilliant" people. I, unlike MDC, haven't made much of my biography known here, as I don't like to plaster personal info around the internet. And I have known brilliant people who are fantastic as human beings, brilliant people who are incredibly weird, and brilliant people who are jerks (sometimes unintentionally, because they often have social interaction issues).

            Anyhow, again, no offense to him, but I in no way feel "honored" that he would deign to interact with me just to "mess" with me. That's juvenile bullshit, if that's what it was. House and that jerk on Elementary are asses. Entertaining, I'll agree. But asses nonetheless. If I had real-world colleagues like that, I wouldn't stand for the bullshit -- you can be brilliant and also a reasonable human. I've known many such people.

            And if what you said was true, I'll retract my apology for calling him a troll, because then that was what he was. I was instead willing to believe he acted out that way because he was a bit mentally off, but you're trying to claim he was trolling me. I will never approve of such behavior, even in a thread honoring a dead person.

      • (Score: 1) by visiblink on Wednesday March 27 2019, @03:12AM

        by visiblink (6609) on Wednesday March 27 2019, @03:12AM (#820473)

        I remember you both from Kuro5hin.org. I never really followed anything to do with him, but knew that he was a controversial figure there. I seem to recall you posting some stuff that ended up on the front page. Sadly, rusty must have no-robots'd everything, since there's no internet archive of it.

        In any case, I was only ever there for the McGrew posts. The Paxil Diaries still represent the high point of internet culture for me, such as it is (or rather, was).

        I hope he went out in the sublime, if you know what I mean. Sounds like he was an inspired and tormented soul. But then, most of us are.

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:14AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:14AM (#819951)

    I lost a friend to suicide. He was a nice person, a businessman, a job creator, and a person who collected pictures of 12-year-old girls naked. He got reported, lost his business, and ended up on the sex offender list. He tried to keep doing something, ending up making useless jewelry, but that was a far cry from the business of 500 people he'd built. (about $150,000,000 per year I'd guess) Useless jewelry here: http://gage20.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]

    MDC loved tracking down people like my friend, no matter how harmless they might be. MDC couldn't bear the thought that some curious person might have naked pictures of kids, and so MDC made it his mission in life to go after such people. I wonder how many suicides MDC caused over the years. Given that, it is entirely fitting that MDC should meet his own end that way.

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @07:40AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @07:40AM (#819996)

      MDC only tracked down people who were publicly sharing CP. He didn't break into computers.
      So if 'your friend' got busted it was because he was providing CP to other people, not just holding a stash.

    • (Score: 4, Touché) by Gaaark on Tuesday March 26 2019, @02:49PM

      by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @02:49PM (#820103) Journal

      So, your friend was a dirt-bag scum sucking asshole.
      Why do you have a problem with MDC again?

      --
      --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:40PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:40PM (#820216)

      Collecting pictures of naked children in published photography books by "renowned" photographers (Sally Mann, Jock Sturges) at Amazon is okay. Collecting pictures of naked children over the internet taken by (ahem) "interested amateurs" is not okay.

      Yeah, that seems inconsistent to me, too. *shrug*

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Tork on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:31AM

    by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:31AM (#819961)
    I feel like I've known MDC for precisely as long as I've been visiting SoylentNews. I feel like every time I've read one of his posts he was genuinely trying to provide some helpful insight. He wanted to share to help others. I feel like... it sucks because something nice in this world is, after today, no longer part of it. It's definitely a kick in the gut. What can I say? I liked the guy.

    Farewell MDC. Oh, and one last thing... I can tell you, you'll be remembered well.
    --
    🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Pslytely Psycho on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:38AM

    by Pslytely Psycho (1218) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:38AM (#819967)

    I engaged with him a few times here, very likable guy, a bit nutty but never an ass. Open and honest about his condition.
    Sad to hear he took his own life.
    One of the more interesting people here, I will certainly miss him.
    RIP MDC.

    --
    Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:39AM (1 child)

    by hemocyanin (186) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:39AM (#819968) Journal

    Just sad.

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:49AM

      by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:49AM (#819987) Homepage Journal

      I couldn't put it better myself. Absolutely could not put it better. My thoughts, prayers and condolences are with Michael's family, friends and colleagues. God and your Country are with you!

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by stormwyrm on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:48AM

    by stormwyrm (717) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:48AM (#819972) Journal
    When I first ran across his posts here I thought he was crazy, as he seemed to oscillate between deeply insightful and insanely off-topic, and I was saddened to learn later on that it was rather literally true. Even sadder now because even in the times he didn't contribute good insights, he could usually be very funny too. SN is poorer for his loss. :-(
    --
    Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by TaxiCabJesus on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:04AM (1 child)

    by TaxiCabJesus (6455) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:04AM (#819975) Homepage

    Oh man... I met Michael David Crawford (MDC) for the first time when he was mickeyed up in the San Louis Obispo (SLO) County Jail, in November 2012. One of the other kuro5hin.org users had figured out that MDC hadn't been posting because he was in jail. He'd headed south from Portland area, wrecked his car in SLO, and was arrested for being a nuisance at McDonald's -- probably for helping himself to free ketchup.

    They dropped the charges and released him the day after my jail visit. He'd been locked up for several months, also spending time at the Atascadero mental hospital [wikipedia.org].

    The criminal justice and mental health systems certainly did NOT do anything to help Michael with his actual problems.

    I told about my efforts to reach out to MDC on kuro5hin.org (k5 diaries reposted on my site):

    I sent some paper and envelopes to Mr. Crawford [taxiwars.org]

    Immigration anxiety at the county jail [taxiwars.org]

    More about visiting SLO [taxiwars.org]

    harvesting life's gardens [taxiwars.org] (a picture of the card I sent him - it had seeds embedded in it).

    Selective Electromagnetic Interference [taxiwars.org] - This one had a portion of the letter he'd sent me from jail: "... It really helps to know that I'm not forgotten in here."

    Some months later I went to Oregon, and swung through SLO on my way back to Arizona. He'd been living at a shelter, I bought him breakfast and gave him a crossover cable for his laptops (any old network cable probably would have worked).

    somewhere... pictures. They're on... .. . imgur. Picture of MDC pre-haircut [imgur.com] / post-haircut [imgur.com].

    Sometimes what a person really needs isn't much: someone who believes in you can make a huge difference. He got a job after my second visit... He made some progress at debugging their problem, but then he fell apart again, I don't remember the specifics.

    OH YEAH - Michael Crawford cycled through his Kuro5hin.org usernames regularly (he was good at getting himself banned). one of these was "Zombie Jesus Christ", which inspired me to name my kuro5hin.org account 'TaxiCabJesus': origin of the 'tcj' moniker [taxiwars.org]

    So long, and thanks for the 'nick.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Tuesday March 26 2019, @08:34AM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Tuesday March 26 2019, @08:34AM (#820008) Homepage
      Thank you for being the good neighbour that Michael clearly needed.
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
  • (Score: 2) by Subsentient on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:23AM (2 children)

    by Subsentient (1111) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:23AM (#819979) Homepage Journal

    I never paid much attention to MDC's posts, and I've been here since the very earliest days of Soylent News' existence. I feel kind of bad about it now.

    I saw his journal post and thought he was joking/being melodramatic. I wasn't following anything of his closely.

    I even posted one of my usual trolls on his last journal entry, thinking he was full of shit.

    I'm really glad that there are many who will miss him. Being missed by good people who know you is a good metric of a life's achievement.
    I'm sorry.

    --
    "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
    • (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday March 26 2019, @10:49AM (1 child)

      by bzipitidoo (4388) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @10:49AM (#820034) Journal

      His posts stood out as being rather more personal, and therefore vulnerable. He used his real name, not some handle. Nevertheless, I also did not pay especial attention to his posts and journal entries. There are many worthy people on here, and no one can get all the attention they perhaps deserve.

      I sure don't have attention to spare, even less when the writing isn't on point, as his was wont to be. I've become too much of a speed reader. I'm too used to rapidly skimming text, and skipping to the end of long paragraphs. And, with reports that constant engagement with social media is stressful, I think anyone can be forgiven for a little disengagement.

      I did read his journal entry of a week or so ago, and it didn't sound good. But I said nothing at all, just skimmed on to other things. Arguably that's worse than trolling him. But I doubt there's anything I could have written or done that would have made a difference. News of MDC's passing is sad, but does not come as a complete surprise.

      I lost my father, who passed away 4 months ago, and there was nothing more I could do about that either. Barring untimely death, that eventually happens to us all, of course. He had about as good a life as anyone can hope for, so I have no cause to complain. Perhaps he would have passed sooner, if not for my frequent visits. (The nursing home staff told me he had much better days when I visited.) I used 3D printing that is now available in many public libraries to make ear horns for him, and I thought he would be very interested in the 3D printing tech itself, but by then he was no longer mentally agile enough to really appreciate it. That was disappointing, and one of many scary signs that his downhill slide couldn't go on much longer. He would have tried it out himself if he could have.

  • (Score: 2) by Barenflimski on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:37AM

    by Barenflimski (6836) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:37AM (#819981)

    RIP MDC. Always enjoyed everything you did. You will be missed.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by stretch611 on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:37AM (1 child)

    by stretch611 (6199) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:37AM (#819982)

    May MDC achieve peace of mind in the afterlife that he had a problem with achieving in the physical realm.

    I had never met him... But I did have a respect for him. I feel bad now that I took a few jabs at a few of his comments, even though in the name of fun/humor, even though as mentioned, he generally poked fun at himself as well.

    I remember one of my first interactions with him... Even though software engineering has no physical toll on the body... it definitely has a ton of mental stress. He understood that, and sadly many people don't realize it until they miss a paycheck in this industry either due to age, older technology changing, or outsourcing. It does not take much to end up the same way... homeless and/or mentally stressed.

    This site is now a little more empty without him.

    --
    Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 27 2019, @10:17PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 27 2019, @10:17PM (#820998)

      I don't think MDC's suicide had anything to do with them, he very clearly stated he was breaking down, and he'd already had a lot of other issues. I was really sad upon reading this that he never got his conference of specialists to investigate his problems however, and wish he could've waited a few more months in the hope that one of us could have helped make that happen for him.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by MostCynical on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:39AM

    by MostCynical (2589) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:39AM (#819983) Journal

    most polarising
    Maddest
    Most frustrating
    Truly unique.

    He will be missed.

    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
  • (Score: 4, Touché) by stretch611 on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:45AM

    by stretch611 (6199) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:45AM (#819986)

    Wikipedia named him non-notable about ten years ago.

    Just wait until one day when wikipedia becomes non-notable. * - Citation needed

    --
    Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
  • (Score: 2) by lizardloop on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:53AM

    by lizardloop (4716) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:53AM (#819988) Journal

    I didn't know the guy but I was struck by his journal posts. Even reached out to him by email to say how entertaining I found his writings. Hope you have a better one MDC! Sorry to see you're gone.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @07:22AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @07:22AM (#819991)

    He writes he was in coma for 3 days. https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford/journal/4092 [soylentnews.org]

    We really don't treat crazy people right.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by janrinok on Tuesday March 26 2019, @07:32AM

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 26 2019, @07:32AM (#819992) Journal
    It is always sad to hear news of a friend's passing away. Although most of us never met MDC, he was a member of our community and a regular contributor. We all knew that he had problems - he himself made no secret of it - but our community will miss him. My thoughts are with his friends and family.
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by darkfeline on Tuesday March 26 2019, @07:39AM (1 child)

    by darkfeline (1030) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @07:39AM (#819995) Homepage

    I'm not glad he's dead, but hopefully he's free from his demons, such as they may be.

    In the spirit of actually reading the article, I see he has bequeathed a bunch of stuff to SN:

    I give, devise and Bequeath to SOYLENTNEWS PBC, a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation, the Copyrights to each file, including but not limited to Text, Digital or Silver Halide Firm or Paper Image, Word Processor, Spreadsheet that any one or more of:

    I, Michael David Crawford, an individual
    Soggy Wizards doing business as "Portland Custom Software Development, my Washington State Sole Proprietorship
    GoingWare Inc., a Delaware Corporation
    Dulcinea Technologies, the Nova Scotia, Canada Partnership owned equally by myself and Frances Bonita Hatcher
    Dulcinea Technologies Corporation, a California Corporation whose One Million Shares of Stock while Authorized remain Unissued
    Solving The Software Problem, a Non-Profit Unlicensed Sole Proprietorship
    as well as Ogg Frog, a California Sole Proprietorship
    ... have marked with my Personal Copyright Notices or the Copyright Notices of any of my Sole Proprietorships, Partnerships or Corporations whether Non-Profit or For-Profit, either of:

    The Four-Clause Berkeley Software Distribution License
    The Three-Clause Berkeley Software Distribution License
    The X/Consortium License – more commonly but incorrectly denoted as “The MIT License”
    The Free Software Foundation’s GNU General Public License version 2, version 3 or any later version thereof
    The Apache Software Foundation's Apache License versions 1.0, 2.0 or any later versions thereof
    The Apple Public Source License version 1, 2 or any later version thereof
    or the Boost Software License version 1.0 or any later version thereof.
    Loosely speaking, Soylent News gets all my Open Source and Free Software Source Code, and Binaries whether Executable or Digital Image, as well as all that "Tar Ball Backups" whether Off-Site or On-Site, my several Source Code "Trees" or Project-Specific Subdirectory Heirarchies as well as my Source Code Configuraion Management Repository Tar Ball Backups. For reasons I explained elsewhere, my preferences is for Manual, Date-Stamped Tarballs with Multiply-Redundant On- and Off-Site Backups rather for Revision Management.

    --
    Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
    • (Score: 5, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday March 26 2019, @10:28AM

      Yup, saw that back when he first posted it. I'll probably be the one gathering it all up but I won't have time to do much of anything with it beyond that for a while. I'll post a story about it when it's all squared away and if any of you lot see something you'd like to maintain and keep developing, let us know.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
  • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday March 26 2019, @07:41AM (11 children)

    by MostCynical (2589) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @07:41AM (#819997) Journal

    if the cited will is real/legal, who has to deal with this?

    I give, devise and Bequeath to SOYLENTNEWS PBC, a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation, the Copyrights to each file, including but not limited to Text, Digital or Silver Halide Firm or Paper Image, Word Processor, Spreadsheet that any one or more of:

    I, Michael David Crawford, an individual
    Soggy Wizards doing business as "Portland Custom Software Development, my Washington State Sole Proprietorship
    GoingWare Inc., a Delaware Corporation
    Dulcinea Technologies, the Nova Scotia, Canada Partnership owned equally by myself and Frances Bonita Hatcher
    Dulcinea Technologies Corporation, a California Corporation whose One Million Shares of Stock while Authorized remain Unissued
    Solving The Software Problem, a Non-Profit Unlicensed Sole Proprietorship
    as well as Ogg Frog, a California Sole Proprietorship
    ... have marked with my Personal Copyright Notices or the Copyright Notices of any of my Sole Proprietorships, Partnerships or Corporations whether Non-Profit or For-Profit, either of:

    The Four-Clause Berkeley Software Distribution License
    The Three-Clause Berkeley Software Distribution License
    The X/Consortium License – more commonly but incorrectly denoted as “The MIT License”
    The Free Software Foundation’s GNU General Public License version 2, version 3 or any later version thereof
    The Apache Software Foundation's Apache License versions 1.0, 2.0 or any later versions thereof
    The Apple Public Source License version 1, 2 or any later version thereof
    or the Boost Software License version 1.0 or any later version thereof.
    Loosely speaking, Soylent News gets all my Open Source and Free Software Source Code, and Binaries whether Executable or Digital Image, as well as all that "Tar Ball Backups" whether Off-Site or On-Site, my several Source Code "Trees" or Project-Specific Subdirectory Heirarchies as well as my Source Code Configuraion Management Repository Tar Ball Backups. For reasons I explained elsewhere, my preferences is for Manual, Date-Stamped Tarballs with Multiply-Redundant On- and Off-Site Backups rather for Revision Management.

    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday March 26 2019, @07:53AM (10 children)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 26 2019, @07:53AM (#820002) Journal

      Can we (S/N) arrange for his sites to stay up? Warplife.com at the very least?

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday March 26 2019, @08:07AM (2 children)

        by MostCynical (2589) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @08:07AM (#820004) Journal

        Strangely, that domain isn't in his will

        --
        "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
      • (Score: 2, Informative) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday March 26 2019, @08:09AM

        by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Tuesday March 26 2019, @08:09AM (#820005) Homepage Journal

        Smart idea. Another of Michael's very special sights -- and one of my top favorites of the entire www -- is hydrogenbomb.org.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Tuesday March 26 2019, @09:16AM (3 children)

        by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Tuesday March 26 2019, @09:16AM (#820015) Homepage
        If we can get in contact with an executor before they expire, then that's one possibility. At least if we can ensure his robots.txt files permit the wayback machine, then they will at least be preserved, even if it's rather faceless, is designed precisely for this purpose.

        Another alternative, looking at the "that's practical" rather than "that's would be nice" side, is to have them mirrored somehow (merged into just one), and to then sell off the (other) domains to raise money for either settling his estate, or an appropriate charity if there's excess.

        These all seem to be his:
        http://www.warplife.com/
        http://soggymike.com/
        http://soggywizards.com/
        http://soggy.jobs/
        http://hydrogenbomb.org/

        This seems to imply that geometricvisions.com was at least once his too: https://www.jamendo.com/artist/7794/michael-david-crawford , but it seems he may have sold that or let it lapse.
        --
        Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
        • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday March 26 2019, @09:39AM (2 children)

          by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 26 2019, @09:39AM (#820016) Journal

          At least if we can ensure his robots.txt files permit the wayback machine

          He didn't seem to care much about crawlers, even some of the site directories are "naked" (no index page, no directory listing protection)

          some warplife links on wayback machne. I hope it captures most of it [soylentnews.org]

          --
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
          • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday March 26 2019, @10:03AM (1 child)

            by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Tuesday March 26 2019, @10:03AM (#820019) Homepage
            I'd missed this in his LW&T:

            I give, devise and bequeath to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso the Title and Ownership of the Internet Domain Names “soggy.jobs”, “uae.org.in”, “hydrogenbomb.org”, “globalemployerindex.com”, “globalemployerindex.jobs” as well as the Trademarks and Logos of each of “Soggy Jobs”, “Global Computer Industry Index” and “Global Employer Index”.

            (other domains mentioned in other paragraphs)
            --
            Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 28 2019, @06:06AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 28 2019, @06:06AM (#821197)

              HEY - a thought - we as SN are in his will and His Holiness might not know what to do with the domains. Perhaps an offer of "please don't let his domains lapse; if you don't know what to do, he entrusted us with his software, we'd give it our best with his domains, but we expect he had good reasons for choosing you insomuch as you're willing to be responsible" ?

      • (Score: 2, Informative) by tvleavitt on Friday April 05 2019, @06:32AM (1 child)

        by tvleavitt (7622) on Friday April 05 2019, @06:32AM (#824816) Homepage

        I'm mentioned in the will. I dug through my email, and found that he'd offered me the items in question last year. :/

        I'm interested in keeping his sites up, and I have the capacity to do so through a web hosting reseller account that my wife has, among many other options. Mike wrote the paragraphs below in an email last year (my inbox is full of them), classic grandiosity with a grain of truth:

        ***

        After some careful thought as to how my writing could still be widely
        read a thousand years hence, I mailed my whole family to tell them
        that the only thing I asked of them were I to die or to become
        incapacitated was that I wanted them to ensure my writing stayed
        online - forever.

        That's why I renewed soggywizards.com for nine years, and shall soon
        do the same for _all_ my domains.

        ***

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @06:55AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @06:55AM (#824819)

          Are you able to check if he indeed get to actually do it?
          (I'm on transit now)

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @08:48AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @08:48AM (#820011)

    I came here when I was reading but the Slashdot beta. But I stayed because of MDC.
    His honesty about himself and his struggles gave me the strength I needed to seek out help.
    Prior to my encounters with his writings, I thought I was normal and the world was crazy. My mind was filled with all kinds of fear narratives and self aggrandizement.
    The combination of these narratives drove a wedge between my wife, my children and myself.

    Then I read MDC.

    I came to realize that I was crazy and that I needed professional help.
    I got help and now I am re-united with my wife and children.

    This man, literally saved my family and probably my life.
    I always wanted to thank him, but for some reason I never found the time or the words.

    Sadly I find that this is the most appropriate tribute I can muster...
    http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/friendship [smbc-comics.com]

    MDC I hope where ever you are they have highspeed internet so you can read the tributes. You changed lives, you saved lives. Wish I would have realized before it was too late that you needed savin too!

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by RS3 on Wednesday March 27 2019, @07:35AM

      by RS3 (6367) on Wednesday March 27 2019, @07:35AM (#820537)

      Thank you for sharing all of that. It's very inspiring, and it's awesome to know how much MDC's openness has inspired and helped people. Most intelligent and caring people, like MDC, want to feel like they've done something to make the world a better place. You and your family are part of MDC's living legacy and have given him that, and by sharing your story (including MDC's) you might help others too.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @09:07AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @09:07AM (#820012)

    Such a sad ending for an intelligent but troubled person.

    I tried to engage him on SN whenever I could, and defend him when necessary. I also sent him the MBP power adaptor and donated to his go fund me page.

    He didn't ask for much, but the one thing he lusted after was a resolution to his mental illness. I'm sad that he never got what he deserved regarding his health.

    Rest In Peace, MDC.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday March 26 2019, @10:38AM (7 children)

    Mike, you were nuttier than squirrel shit but you were intelligent, funny, and had a better attitude towards life, the universe, and everything than most people. We'll miss you, you goofy bastard.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
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