Aaron Swartz commits suicide - <AUTHOR> http://tech.mit.edu/V132/N61/swartz.html <comment><USER2> Man this so sucks.

If you hit someone with enough felony counts sooner or later something can snap. This in response to those that claim the DOJ didn't have anything to do with Aaron killing himself.

For some people the mere fact of being suspected of a crime they didn't commit is enough to push them over the edge. When you're placed in a holding cell the police will remove your laces from your boots so you don't hang yourself, that's how heavy being imprisoned can weigh on some.

Aaron did something that he thought was right, that he truly believed in and that upset a large number of applecarts and that had far reaching implications, had the proverbial book thrown at him and then some. The prospect of significant amounts of jail time (35 years for downloading scientific papers, it shouldn't even _be_ a crime) and/or a felony record must have weighed very heavy on him.

For a person that is of a very stable mental make-up that would already be extreme pressure.

For someone with a mental issue it may very well be all it takes.

Aaron was inspiring to me, I think that no copyrighted piece of paper is worth a human life and that the DOJ, even if they are not directly responsible at least indirectly carry some of the responsibility here for beating down someone who was fighting for an extremely good cause in a somewhat haphazard way. The letter of the law _and_ the spirit of the law should both be taken into account.

I hope those that had a hand in Aarons' continued prosecution will sleep miserably for a long time to come. Likely it won't weigh on their consciousness at all.

<comment><USER3> It really rubs me the wrong way when something like this happens and folks jump to conclusions as you have here. You didn't know this person. For all we know he could have not given two shits about the whole legal process and this is linked to family or relationship problems or long term general depression.

<comment><USER2> > You didn't know this person.

That's an assumption on your part.

And this was in response to people jumping to completely different conclusions, for instance that these things are not related at all. I wouldn't be so quick to make that call.

Maybe you feel like arguing this line with his mom? : <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5047398>

<comment><USER4> "Maybe you feel like arguing this line with his mom?"

How do you know the person who setup that account and posted that is actually his mom?

<comment><USER2> I don't. How do you know she isn't? Until I have evidence to the contrary I tend to believe what people say.

<comment><USER4> "How do you know she isn't?"

I questioned what you said I didn't (when I asked you) state that the poster wasn't his mother. I don't know that she is or isn't.

That said I will now say that I feel that it's _highly_ unlikely that a mother who has lost her son to suicide is going to open up a HN account [1] and post something when a loss like this happens.

Of course if a HN admin has access to IP addresses or where and how the account was setup or some other non public information that's something else.

[1] Adding: so quickly after the loss

<comment><USER2> I hope you can restrain yourself and that you won't be asking for their passports and birth certificates:

[http://rememberaaronsw.tumblr.com/post/40372208044/official-...](http://rememberaaronsw.tumblr.com/post/40372208044/official- statement-from-the-family-and-partner-of-aaron)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I never met Aaron Swartz but always wanted to. His work has had a profound impact on my life.

His blog was thought-provoking. <http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/>

His work on the RSS 1.0 Specification enabled richer, more efficient information consumption. <http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/spec>

His work on Markdown enabled intuitive, unobtrusive formatting and structuring of information in plaintext and conversion to HTML. [http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/#acknowledgement...](http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/#acknowledgements)

His work on reddit enabled thousands—now millions—to share online information in a social manner. <http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rewritingreddit>

His work on the web.py framework gave countless Python programmers a head- start on serving information through web applications. <http://webpy.org/>

His work with DemandProgress gave Americans a political voice to protect and win back their freedom and the freedom of information. <http://blog.demandprogress.org/people>

His work with Creative Commons promoted the freedom of information and fair use and helped inform content creators of options other than copyright. <http://creativecommons.org/>

Thank you, Aaron Swartz, for all the above and all the other activism and works (<https://github.com/aaronsw>) I haven't mentioned here. You'll be missed and remembered by many.

.

<comment><USER6> Aaron was an old friend of mine, I really appreciate you making this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Better eulogies will follow, to be sure, but in the mean time, much of what can be said about him is captured in a touching talk he gave called "How to Get a Job Like Mine" [1]. What I think is especially touching about this is how he gently deconstructs his success, demystifying his own legend by pulling back the curtain on what would have otherwise appeared to be a string of miraculous accomplishments. In the process, he reveals himself to be a sensitive, seemingly grateful, and thoughtful person.

May he be remembered well; he seems to deserve it.

[1] <https://aaronsw.jottit.com/howtoget>

<comment><USER8> > he reveals himself to be a sensitive, seemingly grateful, and thoughtful > person.

Definitely. He wrote a bunch of blogposts last year on improving life, called "Raw Nerve": <http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rawnerve>

Wonderful writing.

<comment><USER9> This. I first saw a raw_nerve post here on HN, and that's how i got to know of Aaron. Such writing requires an ability for introspection, among many other things. I find it hard to contemplate how someone with such a mind could possibly commit suicide. Sad day, indeed :(.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> It's easy to deride suicide but fact of the matter is that it is the final but a very powerful option we have at our disposal. Instead of saying that a particular person should not have committed suicide, our hope should be that if a suicide happens, it is well thought through and is not done in haste. If a particular person decides that decades of painful life is much worse than simply ending the existence, who are we to question such a personal decision?

Of course, if everything was alright, I would have loved to see Aaron existing in this world for many more years and do wonderful things but not knowing what led him to this step and how he judged the current/future life for himself. Simply commenting that he should not have committed suicide is being insensitive to a person who has already done so much great work for humanity.

Life is not _always_ better than no life. Context matters. A lot.

<comment><USER11> Context certainly matters.

Depressed people are not perfectly rational agents. By the time you are contemplating suicide, it's not even close.

And depression is a factor in almost every suicide.

Depression is insidious because it makes all the alternatives to suicide seem much more difficult than they actually are.

<comment><USER12> > By the time you are contemplating suicide, it's not even close.

This is classic begging the question. One could easily say someone who claims suicide is never a rational option is the altered one. It must be seriously condescending for those trying to help someone contemplating suicide to offer such plainly specious arguments against it, especially if that person is the contemplative type. It likely does more harm than good.

<comment><USER13> No, if you want to be logical, it's clear that suicide is rarely the right choice, and that it's the suicidal person whose critical thinking abilities are impaired.

It's simple: Most people who feel suicidal are feeling suicidal because of/in conditions which are shared by hundreds, thousands, millions of other people. All you have to do, as a rational actor, to decide if suicide makes sense, is to look at what those other people are making of the same situation. In the case of being prosecuted for white collar crimes, most people go on to take their lumps (deserved or not), then go back to their families and a perfectly reasonable existence. There is life afterwards, plenty of it. In some cases, like fraud and hacking etc., quite a few folks turn their experience on the wrong side of the law into valuable consulting gigs. Humans have been evolutionarily selected for resilience.

And, on the flip side, if we're talking interminable physical pain or a fatal disease which is incurable & will only lead to worse and worse deterioration and an unbearably slow death, you can use the same approach to see that suicide may make sense in that situation, to avoid an inescapable fate that all those other people in the same situation are _definitely_ and _verifiably_ experiencing.

The thing about suicidal depression is it cuts off your ability to think like this. You cannot even IMAGINE a world where things get better, where there's an "After." You feel utterly alone… often because you cut yourself off from people who love you & would help you. You think your pains are so special and unique, nobody could understand, and you may even get angry when people try to help you because they can't possibly "get it". You think they're against you. You imagine how much your death will hurt the parties trying to persecute you (real or imagined). Maybe you even think "I'll show them!" or that you will make a good martyr. All of which is nonsense, even though it's very persuasive nonsense… when you're in a suicidal depression.

That's why suicidal depression is clearly, logically, and provably the impairment.

This is why, if you're even remotely contemplating suicide, you should ALWAYS, ALWAYS reach out and seek help. Because if you make a permanent decision, you will have been working off false information. As one of my favorite authors says, "DEPRESSION LIES."

In most cases, suicide is literally stupid. And such a damn shame.

<comment><USER14> What if he wanted to become a martyr for this particular cause would it then be stupid?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Here's the JSTOR Statement related to the downloading incident: [http://about.jstor.org/news/jstor-statement-misuse- incident-...](http://about.jstor.org/news/jstor-statement-misuse-incident-and- criminal-case)

 _What Happened

Last fall and winter, JSTOR experienced a significant misuse of our database. A substantial portion of our publisher partners' content was downloaded in an unauthorized fashion using the network at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of our participating institutions. The content taken was systematically downloaded using an approach designed to avoid detection by our monitoring systems.

The downloaded content included more than 4 million articles, book reviews, and other content from our publisher partners' academic journals and other publications; it did not include any personally identifying information about JSTOR users.

We stopped this downloading activity, and the individual responsible, Mr. Swartz, was identified. We secured from Mr. Swartz the content that was taken, and received confirmation that the content was not and would not be used, copied, transferred, or distributed.

The criminal investigation and today's indictment of Mr. Swartz has been directed by the United States Attorney's Office. It was the government's decision whether to prosecute, not JSTOR's. As noted previously, our interest was in securing the content. Once this was achieved, we had no interest in this becoming an ongoing legal matter._

<comment><USER16> Can we not know who exactly (their faces/names etc.) were the people working in the "US Attorney Office" bent to indict him? It's easy for people to term it was not JSTOR, it was the Attorney Office but ultimately these things happen only because people forget how to treat other people properly.

<comment><USER17> I'm not sure what you're getting at here. While I'll agree it was overzealous to make a federal case out of this, you can't blame federal prosecutors for doing their fucking jobs just because someone kills themselves. Many people have survived federal prosecution without dying or killing themselves.

I'm shocked and horrified by this news too. It's awful that Aaron died. But it's foolish to blame anybody but him for his actions in this.

<comment><USER18> I mostly agree. But a potential 35 year prison sentence hanging over people for a white collar crime is sure to send a percentage of them over the edge.

With a more realistic and efficient judicial system, people would be under a lot less unnecessary stress and there'd be fewer straws to break the proverbial camels' backs. Being threatened with 35 years in prison for what he did is indicative of a sick judicial system.

<comment><USER19> I wouldn't even call it a 'white collar crime'. It was downloading some scientific papers, which the site didn't really care about. White collar crime is like Bernie Madoff.

<comment><USER18> True, I didn't realize white collar crime had a financial motivation. So, it was even less serious than that.

<comment><USER19> Well, white collar just means generally "conducted using computers, paper, etc." vs. guns or sticks or fists. So defrauding people via the mail is white collar, or ponzi schemes, etc. There is usually a financial component, but the FBI 30k foot overview is "lying, cheating, or stealing". What aaronsw is alleged to have done was a white collar activity (except that he did sneaky wiring closet stuff), but not what people immediately think of as "white collar crime".

I mostly don't believe what Aaron did was a crime at all. If it was wrong, it was a civil tort against JSTOR or JSTOR's authors, who declined to give a shit (and I suspect most authors in JSTOR would support him). If it was a crime, it was a very minor crime -- not a 35 year federal felony.

I'm sad Aaron is gone, and angry he didn't fight this to the end. He probably could have won, or at least ended up with a suspended sentence or something like that, and this could have been a catalyst for reform of copyright laws (if not general laws, the scientific-papers-created-with-government-funding laws).

<comment><USER20> Scariest part of about these things is, these are victimless crimes. Barely anybody is harmed by them.

At the end its all about some prosecutor increasing his kill count.

<comment><USER19> There's probably some copyright/ip crime which does have victims, but it's usually civil victims, and in this case, I don't think even that.

(If you hacked in or bribed an employee and a trade secret and started making something in competition after someone spent 30 years researching, there's probably a civil case there)

<comment><USER21> That is actually also criminal.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts. Aaron has been depressed about his case/upcoming trial, but we had no idea what he was going through was this painful.

Aaron was a terrific young man. He contributed a lot to the world in his short life and I regret the loss of all the things he had yet to accomplish. As you can imagine, we all miss him dearly. The grief is unfathomable.

Aaron's mother

<comment><USER23> suck copyright, world miss a genius,rip.

<comment><USER24> I'm so sorry for your loss. RIP Aron

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Aaron suffered from a brain disorder. He had documented periods of extreme withdrawn depression and others of mild manic productivity.

Because of that brain disorder, perhaps because it was not attacked with the requisite treatment, he is dead.

If you or a loved one are ever feeling suicidal, depressed, or are acting abnormally erratic, contact an expert. It's nothing to be ashamed about. It's just a lottery of genetic expression.

There are others going through the same thing. There are excellent treatments available, and they get better each year. You might save someone's life.

<http://www.reddit.com/r/suicidewatch> <http://www.reddit.com/r/depression> <http://www.reddit.com/r/bipolarreddit>

I find it bizarre how quickly our minds jump to impossibly unlikely reasons when tragic events like this happen. Troubles with the justice department don't alone cause a bright young man to kill himself.

> I was miserable. I couldn't stand San Francisco. I couldn't stand office > life. I couldn't stand Wired. I took a long Christmas vacation. I got sick. > I thought of suicide. I ran from the police. And when I got back on Monday > morning, I was asked to resign.

> I followed these rules. And here I am today, with a dozen projects on my > plate and my stress level through the roof once again.

<https://aaronsw.jottit.com/howtoget>

<http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/dying>

> I have a lot of illnesses. I don't talk about it much, for a variety of > reasons. I feel ashamed to have an illness. (It sounds absurd, but there > still is an enormous stigma around being sick.)

> Sadly, depression (like other mental illnesses, especially addiction) is not > seen as "real" enough to deserve the investment and awareness of conditions > like breast cancer (1 in 8) or AIDS (1 in 150). And there is, of course, the > shame.

<http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/verysick>

In his short life Aaron has produced a wonderful collection of writing, code, and actions, which will all be available for years to come. He will be missed. His effects have not yet ceased.

<comment><USER26> Can you provide more information about which brain disorder?

<comment><USER27> It's a way of describing "depression" in a way that doesn't feel compatible with blame.

<comment><USER28> He was more accurately describing bipolar disorder, whether he realized it or not.

Are you implying that depression or BPD is 'compatibile with blame'? If so, that's absurd.

<comment><USER29> I think he meant that there's a stigma associated with depression—that many of us unfortunately view depression as the "fault" of depressed individuals, as if it were some sort of choice they make.

No one would ever blame you for a [genetic] heart disorder. In the same way, no one would ever blame you for a [genetic] brain disorder. Phrasing it as such removes some of the stigma.

<comment><USER11> I used to use the analogy of type I diabetes, but now people are mixing it up with type II.

I think that the way to beat the stigma is talk openly about it.

<comment><USER30> > I think that the way to beat the stigma is talk openly about it.

Easier to say than to do. If you're depressed / bipolar / schizophrenic and talk about it openly it can make people very uncomfortable, which can result in their not wanting to be around you, which can result in further isolation for you, which can make your situation worse.

<comment><USER11> It can be. I've found that being very matter-of-fact about it works for me, but I have a reasonably social personality.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Fuck this country.

EDIT: The guy was facing 13 felony counts for downloading academic articles.

<comment><USER32> Context?

<comment><USER33> He was being charged with the felony of downloading/distributing research done using public funding so that it could be made freely available to the taxpayers who funded it. JSTOR had no interest in prosecuting him, but the US Attorney's Office decided to go ahead anyway.

<comment><USER34> This would be a perfect opportunity for a White House pardon.

<comment><USER35> Those are only available to the guilty.

<comment><USER36> Is that the case in the US? My impression is that Ford gave Nixon a blanket pardon even though Nixon had not (yet, probably) been found guilty of anything.

<comment> iso-8859-1 You are correct: <http://www.factcheck.org/2008/06/blanket-pardons/>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> I've thought of suicide. Not "seriously," but it's crossed my mind. Sometimes life just seems so hard.

My reaction to this is that he was a brilliant guy, and it was such a waste. Such a pointless waste.

It makes the idea of giving up myself seem so wrong.

Rest in Peace Aaron. I'm sorry it had to end this way.

<comment><USER11> > _I've thought of suicide. Not "seriously," but it's crossed my mind._

If it happens again, get help. I'm quite serious.

<comment><USER38> It's not your job to give this sort of advice to people here. It's not some sort of mental disfigurement to think about these things you know. He and everyone else has the right to explore and experience unhappiness. And anyway, by fixating on a peripheral detail of his post you derail the conversation and force him into a rather supplicatory posture. Not cool.

<comment><USER11> There's a difference between unhappiness and depression.

<comment><USER38> Maybe there is, maybe there isn't. I fail to see the relevance. The real issue here I would say is that you seem to have worked yourself up into a bit of a soul-saving frenzy, but your efforts are misplaced and frankly not appreciated. You seem not to realise that Hackernews is by and large a community of smart, stable, motivated and successful people, rather than a casualty ward for self-imploding depressives.

I would suggest you shift your efforts to a forum where people are actually starkly discussing hopelessness and self-destruction, rather than just briefly mentioning completely normal moments of weakness, and might even appreciate your help. For example, <http://boards.4chan.org/r9k/>. Enjoy.

<comment><USER11> > _The real issue here I would say is that you seem to have worked yourself up > into a bit of a soul-saving frenzy,_

It's graceless of me. Oh noes, I might seem like a wanker who wants to help people.

> _but your efforts are misplaced and frankly not appreciated._

By you.

> _I would suggest you shift your efforts to a forum where people are actually > starkly discussing hopelessness and self-destruction, rather than just > briefly mentioning completely normal moments of weakness, and might even > appreciate your help._

Honestly?

I'm not strong enough to do that. I'm just not. Soul-saving frenzies are as good as it gets for me.

<comment><USER38> You seem pretty upset. I think you should try and relax. Take a break from the computer. Go get some fresh air. I'm sorry if I pushed your buttons but I do think you are over-reacting. Nobody on Hackernews is going to hurt themselves any time soon, okay?

<comment><USER39> Given the context of this discussion that's insensitive and very presumptive. It's you that needs to step away from the computer.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is terrible news.

Depression is treatable. If you find that you are thinking about suicide, even speculatively, seek help _immediately_.

You are not alone and it _will_ get better.

<comment><USER40> There is a mental illness here and the mental illness is thinking that his suicide is unrelated to the massive witch hunt against him by the US Federal Government hellbent on his personal destruction at any cost.

Those who deny that that had anything to do with this, and it was only a "brain disorder" or other such claptrap are truly insane.

I've had students who for years were systematically abused and tortured by adults. This abuse caused them pain, distress, depression, and suicide ideation, not a chemical imbalance. Despite this, counselors they saw diagnosed them as having a chemical imbalance and pumped them full of pills that have psychosis and suicide as known and documented side effects.

Who is insane in this situation? Who is responsible for the damage it causes when a young person is targeted for destruction by sociopaths and it causes them to crack? A chemical imbalance? Not the things that are being done to them by others intentionally trying to harm them?

This attitude justifies the abuse of people. This attitude leads to suicide. This attitude needs to stop.

<comment><USER11> None of these strawmen remotely resemble anything I've said.

<comment><USER41> Seems like they do, though, because you only mentioned "depression" and how "it's treatable", in describing this particular case, and not one line about his prosecution.

Many a totally non-depressed people have committed suicide under prosecution. Heck, many non-depressed people even became depressed under prosecution.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> For some reason this is a shock to me. It shouldn't be, I didn't know the guy. But I was just playing with web.py framework. It is so strange, I thought just today, I wonder if Aaron would accept a pull request, I could see a few things to improve.

Looking back at his activity on github he was pulling in commits less than a week ago:

<https://github.com/aaronsw?tab=activity>

I don't know details about the "JSTOR" case or about what he did at Reddit but I can see in his code that he cared and wanted to make something better, smaller and elegant. I respect that and it is a loss to have him gone forever.

<comment><USER43> I also never met him, but this really upsets me too.

It was a bummer when I saw the headline, but I'm really, really upset now that I was reminded of his legal troubles.

Suicide is complex, so I don't want to speculate on whether or not he committed suicide to avoid a trial and probably incarceration. Regardless, it had to be a factor and it certainly fucked up his life somewhere between a little bit and a lot a bit.

When I realized just how many spiders I've written... When I think about that spider with a $240B+ market cap... When I think "This could have been me or one of my friends"... I started to cry :-(

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> Meanwhile, the guys who wiped out literally trillions of dollars of wealth by cratered the global economy in an orgy of greed, fraud, and reckless disregard for everything but their own inflated bonuses couldn't get arrested if they tired.

There are a lot of things wrong with this situation, but the egregiously misaligned priorities of the US Attorneys are near the top of the list.

</comment><comment><USER45> Aaron Swartz may have left everything to Givewell. This makes it even sadder somehow in ways I can't fully describe.

<http://www.reddit.com/user/AaronSw#c4e7n4h>

The same page shows that the last Reddit comment he ever made was on /r/HPMOR. I don't think I noticed at the time - I don't think I knew he was a fan.

I have said and will say that Aaron Swartz acted heroically in trying to free the scientific literature. It was a good try.

</comment><comment><USER46> Aaron Swartz's presence in various networks:

In HN: <http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=aaronsw>

Pinboard: <https://pinboard.in/u:aaronsw>

His last tweet was on Jan 9th, <https://twitter.com/aaronsw>

Reddit: <https://aaronsw.jottit.com/reddit>

Google Scholar: <http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PGTlB14AAAAJ>

Writings: <https://aaronsw.jottit.com/writings>

\</comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>---

Things he made:

<https://www.jottit.com/>

<http://openlibrary.org/>

<http://watchdog.net/>

<http://reddit.com/>

<http://webpy.org/>

HN will miss your contributions.

Rest in Peace. #Love.

</comment><comment><USER47> Headline is a little misleading as Reddit admins deny his cofounder status.

[http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/9r8on/aaron_swar...](http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/9r8on/aaron_swartz_cofounder_of_reddit_was_investigated/c0e2p9m)

<https://twitter.com/alexisohanian/status/93374221685755904>

Still very sad, of course. I was fully in support of Aaron during the JSTOR fallout.

<comment><USER48> <https://aaronsw.jottit.com/reddit>

<comment><USER47> I'm sorry, but merging with a company doesn't make you a cofounder of that company. You were not there when it was founded, thus it's not an applicable label.

I'm just asking for a title correction, not trying to slander the guy.

<comment><USER49> Not the place for this argument.

<comment><USER47> Do quit it with the high and mighty attitude. I've made it very clear I'm not attempting to slander anybody, just clearing up a misconception. When you allow misinformation it will spread, and that shouldn't be acceptable.

<comment><USER49> It's not so clear as you claim. It's disputed, and there are arguments both ways, as "reddit" was part of another company, "not a bug", which was the result of the merger w/infogami.

Nonetheless I did not mean to appear "high and mighty", but that there are other threads regarding the reddit situation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> Shocking and saddening. I've been working with Python lately and feel a particular loss because of web.py and all the other good work he did. My prayers go out to his family.

I wonder why some people here are assuming this tragedy is because of the JSTOR incident. It seems to me that everyone should just meditate on what's been lost, and defer judgement about why he would do this until there is evidence.

<comment><USER51> _> I wonder why some people here are assuming this tragedy is because of the JSTOR incident. It seems to me that everyone should just meditate on what's been lost, and defer judgement about why he would do this until there is evidence._

Thank you so much. It's awful to see people in here blaming the trial when suicide is much more complex than a single incident pushing someone to the edge like that.

<comment><USER29> See charonn0's comment below (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5047044>).

"This sort of stress tends to eat away at your insides. You can't make long- term plans of any kind; meet a nice person at the bar and you're reminded that you can't start anything serious since you might be going away for a long time. A thousand tiny reminders every day that you are already a prisoner and will be for an indefinite period while the lawyers are lawyering. All the defendant has is time to think about is what prison would be like, how the course of their life is not in their hands. It is a feeling of abject powerlessness."

<comment><USER51> Apparently he suffered from depression for many years: <http://boingboing.net/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz.html>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER52> I'm speechless.

He had his troubles and he made some bad decisions, but it didn't have to be like this.

I wish his family peace and clarity in this dark hour. I'm just so sorry.

<comment><USER53> Sad, he just wanted to make the world a better place.

<comment><USER52> Read the statement above.

If you're looking anywhere its probably towards the US Attorney's office, not JSTOR.

<comment><USER40> They went on a witch hunt against the guy and destroyed his life. There's only so much a man can take. More blood on their hands.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER54> Every single person employed by the US Attorney Office involved in this tragedy should be sued to hell by the family. Have some goddamn responsibility for once.

This is utterly disgraceful, I feel for his family.

<comment><USER55> Did any of the employees of US Attorney Office forced him (like putting a gun to a head of one of his loved ones) to do it? It was his own choice to end his life.

<comment><USER42> > Did any of the employees of US Attorney Office forced him

No, but they absolutely chose to prosecute him to the fullest. They also I am guessing didn't do it randomly. Some decision went into it. If you look at a post above, even the original journal (at least "officially") lost interest, someone, a cog in the DOJ, for whatever reason (I assume, political) must have said "pedal to the metal with this one".

Here is DOJ, spending tax dollars, trying to shove this person in prison for 30 years or so, for downloading scientific papers. There is really no other more dangerous or more pressing cases?

<comment><USER56> There are people out their who through their own greed destroyed the economy. They will not be prosecuted. Hell, no one will even give them a talking to.

Threaten someone's profit model, and you go to prison though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER57> <https://www.google.com/search?q=doj+presecute> gives me : DOJ Will Not Prosecute Goldman Sachs in Financial ... - ABC News 9 Aug 2012 – The Justice Department has decided it will not prosecute Goldman Sachs or its employees for their role in the financial crisis...

<http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/productivity>

Share the load Even if your friends aren't cheerful, just working on a hard problem with someone else makes it much easier. For one thing, the mental weight gets spread across both people. For another, having someone else there forces you to work instead of getting distracted.

</comment><comment><USER58> It's always a shame when someone commits suicide in a situation like this. There's always a better option. Everyone makes mistakes.

I've seen this happen in my own life. I had a family friend that committed suicide after being indicted of a felony DUI charge because he swore he never would go to prison.

Tragic. My thoughts are with his family.

</comment><comment><USER59> A tragedy that this caring young man has taken his own life. My heart goes out to his family.

This feels a bit inappropriate but at the moment I hope that some members of the US Attorney's Office are wracked by guilt.

<comment><USER60> You're being a bit unfair. It's equally inappropriate for me to speculate about his motives, but I recall there being an undercurrent of melancholia in Aaron's writings even pre-indictment.

<comment><USER61> In which case the prosecution should have realised he was a suicide risk and acted appropriately. They seemingly did not.

<comment><USER62> How would prosecutors go about that? Going through all his blog posts to look for depression? And that would be standard procedure for everyone they prosecute?

<comment><USER61> Psychiatric assessment is a routine element of any criminal case. At any rate, it is in the UK.

<comment><USER63> So you're saying that in the UK they don't prosecute people who are depressed? As a Brit, that's news to me.

Come on. This prosecution may be unjust for other reasons, but it's just daft to claim that they should not have prosecuted him because he was depressed.

<comment><USER61> Did I say at any point that depression should exempt someone from prosecution? No. I said their handling was inappropriate.

If someone is a suicide risk you _watch_ them, and typically ensure they're not left alone.

Stick your straw man where the sun don't shine.

<comment><USER63> You think Aaron would have let the DA put him on some kind of suicide watch when he wasn't even in custody?

I don't think you're thinking this through. It's natural to be angry, but the DA didn't do anything wrong in relation to his depression, even if the prosecution was unjust for other reasons.

<comment><USER61> Social care doesn't require custody.

See [http://www.mind.org.uk/mental_health_a-z/8042_mental_health_...](http://www.mind.org.uk/mental_health_a-z/8042_mental_health_and_the_police) for an explanation of (in the UK, at least) the rights for those with mental health issues in prosecutorial circumstances.

<comment><USER63> 1) This occurred in the US, not the UK.

2) All of that requires the consent of the person involved. Do you think AS would have suddenly decided to accept support because the DA prosecuting his case offered it? If his family and friends couldn't stop his suicide, you think the DA could have done so?

3) Are you sure it is typically the responsibility of the DA to sort that stuff out in the US?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER64> I think it's tragic that we all, with our laws and courts and systems of 'justice', can ruin a brilliant kid's life to the point where he decides it's not worth living anymore.

All over 'stealing' some ideas.

</comment><comment><USER49> _Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do._

rip

</comment><comment><USER19> This makes me think of Len Sassaman's (cypherpunk, remailer developer,etc.) suicide from 18 months ago :( It's terrible when anyone kills himself, but when it's someone who was doing something which pushed the limits like this, it's worse.

</comment><comment><USER65> I'd like to write something nice, but I'm in too much shock to even know where to start. He showed his brilliance through code and his humanity through his writing.

And as much as it is "right" to respect him for his very personal decision, I can't help but wish he were still here. This is the premature end of the life of someone who could have dramatically changed the world. Reminds us that, now more than ever, that's our job here, too.

<comment><USER66> The only way I can really react is to say that I'm here to talk for any friends (or anyone dammit). Community support is community.

</comment></comment><comment><USER67> I didn't know aaronsw personally but I have just checked out his web.py that others have been praising and it's really neat because it's so simple. What an amazing piece of work. For others who may not be aware, just see this brief tutorial [1].

His writings on life and how to get better at it are also phenomenal [2]

It's very sad that aaronsw is no longer with us for he was very gifted and talented. May he rest in peace and my thoughts go out to his family and friends.

[1] - <http://webpy.org/docs/0.3/tutorial> [2] - <http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rawnerve>

</comment><comment><USER68> I remember most of the teachings from those days, back in the early 2000's. Before hacking, before startups, before entrepreneurs, before changing the world felt like a cool, common thing.

Before all of that, I remember this guy doing it, doing it well. And that inspired me to believe I can do it.

An artist's only passion is to create, until the day you die. In between you fight all sorts of battles that they don't warn you about. But the most important being that when you create, you carry with you a savagery of sorts, of making something new, of living in the edge.

And it's hard to survive. Nowadays we take for granted the Google style lunches and buslines, but being at the edge of something has always been trying to eke out in an hostile environment.

But this guy was there, all day, all night.

And that's special. Because it's an isolating experience.

I get the same suicidal thoughts that drift in and out too. It's partly chemical and it's just your personality. When you stand outside of the system long enough, watch long enough, suffer the heartbreak of seeing the wrongs enough, you may end up there too.

This was the glorious ending I wished for him.

May he truly rest now in peace.

<comment><USER69> Upvoted before I got to the "glorious ending" line. Wish I could take it back.

<comment><USER68> Typo. Meant to write wasn't.

<comment><USER69> Ahh, good. Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> The other fucked up thing about this is that if he'd done this at Stanford, Berkeley, or anywhere else in the 9th Circuit (which is the best circuit!), or the 4th circuit, he wouldn't have been charged under CFAA. It's only the backward backwaters of the 5th, 7th, and 11th who would charge under CFAA. He was in the 1st, which hadn't yet ruled. SCOTUS would have been very likely to side with the 9th, since the 9th is the best in general, and was correct in this case.

So, yet another reason to be angry -- this case was perfect for removing ToS violations from CFAA.

</comment><comment><USER70> This is so sad. I just responded today to an email from him about demandprogress.org. RIP.

</comment><comment><USER71> I read this as I was preparing to head to my brothers memorial service in a couple of hours. He committed suicide last week.

I just wanted to say that I understand why some people do it. My brother suffered from schizophrenia - he was an incredibly nice and giving person who kept on hurting people due to his disease. I understand why he took his own life and I don't fault him for it. Of course I am incredibly sad about it and wish I could have done so much more, but 20 years of intense suffering wears on a person.

We don't know the exact details behind Aaron's decision. A significant percent of the people who knew Stephen, even those who knew him well, didn't know about his diagnosis either. It's impossible to draw any more conclusion than "he was suffering and couldn't bear the burden anymore". My condolences to his family, I truly know what they are going through and it's absolutely shit.

<comment><USER72> This post terrifies me. My own brother has been diagnosed with schizophrenia (then they retracted that diagnosis and came up with a different one), but the bottom line is that he has been suffering for most of his life and it seems like no one can help him. It feels inevitable that a day will come that will bring tragedy in some form or another.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

</comment></comment><comment><USER73> You can see some of his recent work here <https://github.com/webpy/webpy>

</comment><comment><USER74> I used to read his blog. Here's something I will always remember. When they sold Reddit to Conde Nast, back in 2007 or so, Aaron Swartz wrote something about it on his blog, saying how he felt about it and how he didn't have to worry about money anymore, etc. And then he decided to give away some money to startups in need. I replied to his blog post and he gave my old startup a $100 donation. It felt really generous. RIP Aaron.

</comment><comment><USER75> This makes me incredibly sad.

The work I do now is made possible by Aaron's work on PACER (<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13records.html>). We are all in his debt.

Accordingly, I've added a memorial banner to PlainSite to ensure that everyone who uses it daily to find cases (including many in government and the DOJ specifically) will be reminded of his contribution--one of many.

</comment><comment><USER76> Here is a thing you can do: Boycott JSTOR from now on. And refuse to publish to any journal / conference that demands $10 or more for downloading a paper that should be free (if you are not that lucky to have access to a subscription of that journal / conference).

</comment><comment><USER57> In April 2011 i was accused of a small crime that could have given prison also. I was judged in January 2012 and accused to pay a fine of 500€ despite the accusation had no proofs. Every day i though about how to prove my innocence despite being a small accusation, it destroyed my work and mood for the whole year.

How to fix ? if no damage was done there is nothing to accuse of.

And distribution of knowledge should be free, or ransom ware the release of that info to the public should be made available upon compen$ation for the work done, ransomware maybe.

Aaron ideals of greater good and sharing are nobler than any politician or any other bullshitter that get media coverage and have the power to change the world for the better.

</comment><comment><USER77> I know a lot is being speculated about how the whole JSTOR story is what could have possibly pushed Aaron over the edge. And I think the discussion is important in its own right, about easy access to academic journals. But, I think it is very important that we do get to know what it actually was that triggered this extreme act on part of Aaron. If someone as capable and intellectual as Aaron could fall prey to something that makes one end his life, what becomes of the average hacker who tries hard to achieve a level of success such as that of Aaron, and goes through phases of depression in life.

There has to be more to it then just the JSTOR case.

</comment><comment><USER78> It's simply awe-inspiring how much he was able to do with his short life. Time to revisit one of my favourite talks:

<http://youtube.com/watch?v=4GwftoQElJ0>

<comment><USER29> This talk makes me sick to my stomach. There's so much life, so much energy, so much passion. So much potential—you can feel, through a videotaped talk no less—that he wants to go somewhere in life.

What a screwed up world.

<comment><USER78> Agreed. Others already described it as a waste, and it's hard to disagree with the sentiment, but I doubt he would have been able to appreciate the amazing life he lived. In some of his writings there is little room for anything but the immediacy of his crippling disease and it's all the more inspiring what he was able to accomplish even while battling this condition.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER79> Wow. Shocking news! I've been reading Aaron's stuff online and following him on twitter for years. Only last week I re-read his amazing "Raw Nerve" blog post series <http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rawnerve>

Lost for words!

</comment><comment><USER9> Aaron Swartz was an excellent programmer and writer. I have bumped into his code and writings often. The raw nerve series ( <http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rawnerve> ) have been especially influential in shaping my thinking. Above all, he was a wonderful human being: the world is a bit worse off and a sadder place without him. Rest in peace, Aaron.

</comment><comment><USER80> Will HN's colors be going black?

<comment><USER81> this was posted an hour ago, pg is probably in bed already.

</comment></comment><comment><USER82> Just the other day I emailed aaronsw asking about OCLC and his plans to topple it. His response wasn't very optimistic. I should have asked him a more humane question, like "sup" or "how's it hanging".

For whatever reason, I keep bumping into his work, whether it's through the python world or through BOSSlab, geurrilla open access, or The Sprouts. He has had a very strong impact on some very important problems in the world. I suspect that he might have seen some (perhaps twisted) value in being a martyr, especially in the face of extreme stress.. So far I prefer the living version of aaronsw.

I think a lot of us can see parts of each other in Aaron, both in his values and work. Another someone pointed out, just how many spiders have you written? Everyone does it, but hardly nobody talks about it. Is it really so terrible that we want to read science? or share code? And then this happens.

All of the criminal documents from his last court case are published on the Internet Archive. This one in particular is rather thrilling to read:

[http://ia601205.us.archive.org/25/items/UsaV.AaronSwartz- Cri...](http://ia601205.us.archive.org/25/items/UsaV.AaronSwartz- CriminalDocument53/UsaV.AaronSwartz-CriminalDocument53.pdf)

"An analysis of one of the fingerprints on the Acer laptop purchased and used by the defendant cannot exclude his friend, Alec Resnick."

"Promises, rewards, or inducements have been given to witness Erin Quinn Norton. Copies of the letter agreement with her and order of immunity with respect to her grand jury testimony are disclosed on Disk 3."

"a. The computer was registered under the fictitious guest name "Gary Host." b. The computer's client name was specified as "ghost laptop." A computer's client name helps to identify it on a network and can be chosen by its user. In this case, the name was simply created by abridging the pseudonym "Gary Host," combining the first initial "g" with the last name "host." c. The fictitious "Gary Host's" e-mail address was identified as "email@example.com." This was a "throwaway" e-mail address. Mailinator is a free, disposable e-mail service that allows a user to create a new e-mail address as needed, without even registering the address with Mailinator. Mailinator provides this service for users to have an anonymous and temporary e-mail address. Mailinator accepts mail for any e-mail address directed to the mailinator.com domain without need for a prior registration, and it allows anyone in the world to read that mail without having to create an account or enter a password. All mail sent to mailinator.com is automatically deleted after several hours whether read or not."

"... "The defendant has requested first that the government provide ".. any and all notes and reports provided to USSS or USAO by CERT in relation to the forensic analysis of the ACER laptop, or any analysis of any evidence including but not limited to the PCAP log information"."

`.. earlier posted on one of his websites, guerrillaopenaccess.com, a call-to- arms entitled "Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto" which concluded "We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerrilla Open Access."`

Context for some of these quotes can be found here: <http://gnusha.org/logs/2012-09-15.log>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=aaronsw>

</comment><comment><USER83> My housemate committed suicide four years ago; his wife and I found the body. Since then my charity of choice has been AFSP: their programs and support were very important to nth of us afterwards. They do good work.

[http://www.afsp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&p...](http://www.afsp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&page_id=742A2CD1-073C-16AE-C84160536A4EC34F)

</comment><comment><USER84> OMG, the shock of it ...

He was such a terrific writer, easy to see why he could code so well

</comment><comment><USER85> Oh gosh, I am so sorry to read this.

I communicated with him once or twice re: rss, and I enjoyed his postings at photo net.

He was young, bright, witty. This is terrible.

I will miss you Aaron, I had such hopes for you.

</comment><comment><USER86> That is so goddamn sad. Rest in peace, Aaron.

</comment><comment><USER46> In this blog article, he speaks a little about his illness -

<http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/verysick>

</comment><comment><USER87> Rest in peace, Mr. Swartz.

As life moves as the currents in the ocean, some of us find ourselves in tropical paradises, whilst others are gifted the horrible cold of the artic. There are some who manage to hang on to another current and make headway towards warmer climates, there are some who do not. The world is now saddened to learn that you were caught up in the harsh artic cold of life. We could ask questions as to why did you not swim harder or faster, but none of us were in your place.

Your short life was anything but worthy of such tragic end. You decided to leave too early, too soon. Still, your presence still lives through your work, the community you helped build, and the people you touched.

Farewell.

</comment><comment><USER88> As someone who has read pg's writings and watched YC grew, the reddit story is very close to my heart. I always felt I knew Aaron, Steve and Alexis well even though I never met or interacted with them. This is such a shock. RIP.

</comment><comment><USER89> I am really upset by this. I normally feel pretty far away from news stories I read anywhere, but this feels close to home. =(

</comment><comment><USER90> Just read the talk. I didn't realise it was given at the college I studied in. Sad to hear the news. Only today morning my daughter was saying how depressing classes are at school because every subject they study talks about how humans might become extinct. We can sometimes get too focused on problems and such times all that we need is a person to just say "It is not too bad. There are good things happening as well". Perhaps a lot of suicides are down to this missing person in our lives. We are all more connected thanks to the Internet, and also increasingly isolated.

</comment><comment><USER91> This should be a call to action to academia. Please open your journal archives to the online community free of charge.

</comment><comment><USER92> He made huge impact in the tech world. RIP

</comment><comment><USER77> This is just absolutely shocking.

Aaron Swartz was an inspiration. To know that a person you looked up to, someone from whom you learned so much through his writings and his projects, ended up finishing his life like that...

Speechless!

</comment><comment><USER93> I'm sad, really sad. I didn't know him personally and have never spoken to him. But few times when I read one of his tweets or when I visited a page of his site from a link elsewhere, I was saying to myself that it should be hard to be in his position actually, that it must put your life on hold and shut any of your plans to be stuck in such a preposterous legal situation. I as a simple citizen command you Aaron Swartz for all your inspirational work, Thank You.

</comment><comment><USER94> I am deeply sorry to hear about this and it brings back memories of last year when a friend of mine did the same.

Depression is a terrible thing, and I hope we are one day able to cure it. It _is_ treatable, seek help immediately if you are thinking about suicide! I hate that you cannot look upon someone and instantly know if they are depressed or not. If I could, I would drop everything to help a person I saw having trouble.

I hope Aaron found peace, and I wish his family the best.

</comment><comment><USER95> Aaron was one of the genuinely good guys. May he rest in peace.

</comment><comment><USER96> I only met Aaron once, in 2000, when he looked like this: <http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/000291>

I was always amazed that the wunderkind with the pizza stain on his shirt that visited us at Arsdigita University accomplished so much. He was reserved, but focused, forthright at such an early age. I couldn't help but feel he was a little disappointed in the rest of us, but he never showed it.

RIP, Aaron. We'll miss you.

</comment><comment><USER97> How Google (and we) encourage suicide:

The first link to "suicide" search results (<https://www.google.com/search?q=suicide>) to <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide> which unfortunately has "Reasons" & "Methods" before "Prevention" and has no mention of why you shouldn't commit suicide.

At the bottom of the first page of the results, the first related search is "suicide methods" <http://imgur.com/7lJ02>

Further search for "suicide methods" results in the following first three links:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_methods>

[http://wantdeath.blogspot.in/2011/07/fastest-and-painless- su...](http://wantdeath.blogspot.in/2011/07/fastest-and-painless-suicide- method.html)

and

<http://frater.com/suicidelist.html>

There is no mention of why suicide is bad and it just gives the depressed person a way to end his/her life.

I don't blame only Google, but I think the entire web & the web community (with SEO, SEM, etc) contributes a lot for this disaster.

</comment><comment><USER98> He was an inspiration to me. What a loss to his family and internet. Rest in peace.

</comment><comment><USER99> For the record, a few months ago we had a back and forth about his writing process, and he was kind enough to write one of his pieces in one of those editors that keeps track of your changes so you can see the piece evolving. Very insightful.

At the end of that, I wrote a reply commenting on what I thought about his writing process, and never got anything back. He must have not been feeling great at that point.

I feel bad now.

</comment><comment><USER100> Aaron,

I miss you, we never met, but you inspired me. You burned so brightly, yet so briefly.

</comment><comment><USER101> Aaron, thank you for all you've done. It's had a tremendous impact on my life.

Aaron had a really interesting blog post on pain worth reading called, "Leaning into the Pain". It's worth considering that pain doesn't just impact the individual. Try to let others help. <http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/dalio>

</comment><comment><USER102> This is tragic. :(

You were an inspiration at times. And more importantly, one among those who make people want to change for the better.

</comment><comment><USER103> I didn't know Aaron, but I've been using web.py for years, so I kind of felt like I knew him from hanging around the online community. I really don't know what to say - he was incredibly intelligent, and made great contributions - the 'net gets a little lonelier every time we lose someone like this. :( RIP.

</comment><comment><USER104> My condolences to everyone who knew Aaron. This is really sad.

</comment><comment><USER105> This is sad both for me as a person, and for the internet community as a whole.

Aaron Swartz was the sort of person I wanted to be, his works, his personality, and what he stood for.

Since nothing can ever be done to reverse this, may this occurence illuminate the fact that laws are made for people, and not people for laws..

</comment><comment><USER106> Why isn't this anywhere on reddit.com?

<comment><USER107> The news got removed from multiple subreddits. Even a picture of him was on the frontpage and on top of /r/pics/ for a short time is now removed.

<comment><USER108> This is a good thing.

I guess Reddit is trying to avoid the Werther Effect (copycat suicides) and a huge Reddit Mob attacking random bystanders.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER109> I find it odd that, to my knowledge at least, no one on HN has so far noted the connection between Aaron's activism against the US government re: SOPA/PIPA and his terrible treatment by them. Surely it's one of the reasons why they went after him.

</comment><comment><USER110> Rest in peace Aaron. Someone I looked up to in more ways than words any words can explain.

</comment><comment><USER111> OH NO!

Stunned & heartbroken.

</comment><comment><USER112> 35 years for downloading something that is morally, and supposedly be free (funded by taxpayer money)? This is a big joke! I believe homicide cases dished out lighter sentences.

If access to journals, or more accurately scientific research, is to be restricted in such manner, then all government should stop funding/ providing grants for scientific researches, at least not from taxpayers money. These interested parties, namely the journals publishers, should come out with such funds as eventually they are making money from such works. It's ridiculous for the public to fund their business.

RIP Aaron Swartz.... you have make yourself heard, loud and clear, to the civil society.

</comment><comment><USER113> This has hit me hard. So much potential, and gone so young. So sad. Rest in peace Aaron.

</comment><comment><USER114> If anybody is partial to listening to music during times like these, I recommend Tchaikovsky's Symphony no. 6 [1]. The fourth movement in particular is extraordinarily moving and an ice cold glimpse of disdain, depression, and ultimately the death (some say suicide) of a romantic genius [2]. Of course the entire work is something to behold in all its movements.

1) <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._6_(Tchaikovsky)> 2) <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtLq8wj0p80>

</comment><comment><USER115> Sad. Terrible news.

I was just reading 5ish year old comments on reddit about him and suicide [http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/1octb/reddit_cof...](http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/1octb/reddit_cofounder_aaron_swartz_discusses_how_he/c1oe1d) which lead my to this blog post of his describing a suicide <http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/dying>

I lost a friend to suicide. It is and was the worst thing ever. I still miss him dearly about 1.5 years on. Breaks my heart. My love and condolences to his friends and family.

</comment><comment><USER116> It's a sad, sad world we live in. RIP Aaron.

</comment><comment><USER117> RIP

</comment><comment><USER118> I'm so sorry to hear this. My heart goes out to the Swartz family. No matter anyone's contributions, this gets the volume turned down on everything else turned down.

The only thing we have on this earth is time.

</comment><comment><USER119> When think about it, what PG's close friend and buddy Robert Tappan Morris did with bringing down a vast number of computer on the internet back then; was incomparably and inexorably worse.

Yet, Robert Morris has had a great life, both as an acclaimed professor at the greatest technological institution that has ever existed (MIT), and of course as a key member of Y Combinator.

Yet a petty non-criminal like Aaron is put through something infinitely worse than the "punishment" of community service that was dished out of RTM.

Ha. Some justice system indeed!

</comment><comment><USER120> In his young life Aaron demonstrated that he wanted the world to have knowledge, ethics and community. I think the best way we can honor his legacy is to carry those things forward as best we can.

RIP Aaron

</comment><comment><USER121> Shit! one of the most brilliant minds of all time, his series raw nerve <http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rawnerve> has inspired hundreds of people including me to overcome life pain and depression. how could he just do that ?

Aaron, you should have not done that .. I'm sure thousands of people of this community would have fought for you to get you out of your problems .. your contributions will always be remembered .. it's just so sad ..

</comment><comment><USER122> I can't stop reading his writings. He was a talented writer, amongst other things. I really feel the connection even though I never met him.

My condolences to his family and the entire community. :(

</comment><comment><USER123> I was very saddened to hear this news. I posted my thoughts to my blog. <http://benatkin.com/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz/> He accomplished a lot, and taught us a lot, and I think most of us can still learn from him. <http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/archive>

</comment><comment><USER124> True shame. Regardless of your opinion of his actions concerning JSTOR, it's undeniable he made a positive contribution to the web.

</comment><comment><USER125> R.I.P Aaron. You're get followed now and forever for all the good things you've done. We'll continue fighting for a better world.

</comment><comment><USER126> This is awful news.

I haven't been in touch with Aaron for several years, but I had a brief encounter with him in 2008. I was between jobs and decided to help out with his watchdog.net project of the time. He was always incredibly kinda and once tracked down my number and called to check that I was OK after I was unexpectedly offline for a several days.

Great guy; will be missed.

</comment><comment><USER127> Basically: if you feel strongly about JSTOR and it's ilk do the following in order of preference

1\. Publish in an open access journal 2\. Publish in a regular journal and make YOUR version available in <http://arxiv.org/> or your website

It will get you more citations and you will do your part in disseminating science

</comment><comment><USER128> RIP Aaron...

</comment><comment><USER8> Terrible terrible news. What troubles me the most is that this could happen to any one of us. RIP Aaron.

</comment><comment><USER129> This is extremely tragic. The world is a horrible place when some of its best people loose all hope and choose to leave it early. It is quite crazy that that downloading scientific papers can incur sentences longer than the maximum for crimes such as rape, manslaughter, etc.

</comment><comment><USER130> Fuck :(

</comment><comment><USER131> Is there a proof that it's a suicide? He dies yesterday, and annouced as `suicide` immediately?

<comment><USER132> Did you even read the posted link, or are you just responding to the headline?

</comment></comment><comment><USER133> Regardless of everything happening in his life, it's terrible in any instance when someone is pushed to the point where they rationalize taking their own life. Best wishes and thoughts to Aarons family and friends as they mourn during this horrible time.

</comment><comment><USER134> I find Aaron's responses on his own Wikipedia talk page quite a fascinating insight to his personality and humility. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Aaron_Swartz>

</comment><comment><USER135> Goddamnit, this is just horrible. My sympathies to Aaron's friends and families. I always found his work and his writings interesting and sometimes even inspiring. Our society would have benefitted from an extra 60 years of this guy.

</comment><comment><USER136> Does anyone have a copy of the source to theinfo.org or any of this previous versions? I have a complete archive of the mailing lists. I'd like to make sure it doesn't disappear, it and other things Aaron did inspired things I made.

</comment><comment><USER137> Spez, from Reddit, says he isn't a cofounder:

[http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/d2njs/til_the...](http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/d2njs/til_there_was_a_third_cofounder_of_reddit_who_was/c0x40yz)

</comment><comment><USER138> RIP Aaron. You will be missed.

</comment><comment><USER139> What a terrible loss. Aaron had many fruitful years ahead of him. He left us far too early. My condolences to his family and loved ones. I hope at least this compels others who have depression to seek help for themselves.

</comment><comment><USER140> RIP Aaron. You were awesome.

</comment><comment><USER141> Very sad, and very unexpected. He had so many interesting things going on.

</comment><comment><USER142> R.I.P. Aaron! We miss you!

</comment><comment><USER143> So sad to lose someone that's made such a dent on the world so young.

</comment><comment><USER144> [http://qblog.aaronsw.com/post/38405145996/part-of-the- player...](http://qblog.aaronsw.com/post/38405145996/part-of-the-player- character-code-is-that-you)

</comment><comment><USER145> Man. What a shame. We lost a seriously talented and creative guy.

</comment><comment><USER146> Somehow, a part of me hopes that he will have a few scheduled blog posts that get posted on his weblog in the future, hopefully revealing more things we didn't know about.

RIP Aaron Swartz.

</comment><comment><USER147> Can pg or someone with the access please put the black bar on?

</comment><comment><USER148> I am very saddened by this young man's taking of his life and the apparent reckless pursuit by the Government to prosecute him for a seemingly minor "crime."

</comment><comment><USER107> And all over Reddit the posts to the news get removed. :-(

</comment><comment><USER149> This is probably the first time a HN story has got so much traction in such little time. This explains how much people will miss Aaron. RIP bro.

</comment><comment><USER150> Wow, this is terribly, terribly sad news. :-(

Wish there was more that could be said, but I guess the only appropriate thing is:

R.I.P. aaronsw, you will be missed.

</comment><comment><USER151> So he could have gone to jail for hacking into the MIT machines/library. Machines where they knew had already gained access to.

</comment><comment><USER152> I hope that you have found peace and a better place Aaron. It was too soon to lose you, we need the brave ones.

</comment><comment><USER153> Suicide is almost never a solution. It's a real shame this couldn't be prevented in due time. Rest in peace!

</comment><comment><USER154> Thank you for your activism. RIP Aaron.

</comment><comment><USER155> We are all Aaron Swartz. Let's not let our generation down. Stick together people.

</comment><comment><USER156> OH my goodness this is terrible, my condolences to his friends and family.

</comment><comment><USER157> RIP

</comment><comment><USER158> RIP Aaron.

</comment><comment><USER159> I wonder if the DOJ will charge Google with scraping the whole Internet.

</comment><comment><USER160> This kid had it all, fame, fortune, brains.

So what we wrong? Why was he so unhappy?

</comment><comment><USER161> It's all over HN but Reddit's front page is still memes and cats.

</comment><comment><USER162> May he rest in peace and his legacy be remembered. That's all.

</comment><comment><USER163> I was hoping to hear from PG on this .... :( nothing yet

</comment><comment><USER164> I'm very sad. A piece of my hope is gone.

</comment><comment><USER165> Its sad that this is important and at the top of HN, yet Reddit is still full of cat pictures on the front page.

<comment><USER166> It's #2 on my front page (via /r/news).

</comment></comment><comment><USER167> RIP Aaron.

</comment><comment><USER168> ...

Thank you Aaron. RIP

</comment><comment><USER169> Can anyone find details about how he suicided? He might be faking is own death..

</comment><comment><USER170> wow. so sad.

</comment><comment><USER171> .

</comment><comment><USER172> .

</comment><comment><USER173> .

</comment><comment><USER174> .

</comment><comment><USER175> I have no words. I've been sitting with my phone's cursor blinking in this box and, for the first time in a long time, my stomach has turned so much from this news that I have nothing to write.

What an absolutely dreadful shame. My heart is wrenched for his family and all of us, who lost a brilliant young man. I'm a month older than he was, and to imagine someone _my age_ thinking there was no way out... with all of the possibilities of his life, a life just beginning.

Christ.

<comment><USER176> When you are faced with 35 years of jail and $1Mln fine - i guess you start thinking out of the box...

<comment><USER125> What about being in jail with a laptop and internet ? That kind of prison seems more human in this case.

<comment><USER177> A lot of prisoners have no access to the outside world, including the internet. Many prisons lack even a basic library. Inmates working with The Last Mile (<http://thelastmile.org/>) tweet by passing their tweets written on paper to volunteers who actually enter them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> RIP. So sad.

Like many others here, may path also crossed his several times as I kept bumping into his work. He had a ton of really cool side projects. I pinged him a few times about some of them and he was always really gracious and helpful in his responses. I didn't find out his stature in the community (reddit cofounder etc) until recently and was shocked he had taken the time to reply to me.

As for the reason he did this now: I'm sure it was a combination of things that had built up over many years, however in a criminal case like this, now would be the time his lawyer would be attempting to work out a plea bargain with the prosecutors. If they were demanding a long prison sentence and multiple felony convictions, and the evidence against him was very strong (as it sounds like it was) many people would probably contemplate suicide.

</comment><comment><USER178> My heart goes out to his family. I'm a big fan of his work, particularly web.py. He made a huge impact on the web by anyone's standards and his contributions have personally touched my life in many ways. Rest in peace, man.

</comment><comment><USER179> At 24, he was just a kid. I can't even imagine the amount of stress in his life. Who are we to question or speculate on why he did what he wanted to do. I'm glad he contributed what he did in this world. I'm glad we had 24 years. He decided we weren't getting any more. I never feel sad for suicide. You can't tell people you want to do it or they will have your freedom taken away.

Sorry for bad grammar... small comment boxes make me feel pressured to get out everything in a few lines quickly.

</comment><comment><USER180> I admired him quite a bit after the JSTOR thing.

</comment><comment><USER181> What can we do to help carry forward, and continue Aaron's work?

</comment><comment><USER182> .</comment>


Russian 2016 voter targeting effort doesn't seem to exist - <AUTHOR> http://archive.today/2019.01.13-011701/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/09/that-sophisticated-specific-russian-voter-targeting-effort-doesnt-seem-exist/ <comment><AUTHOR> Archive.is link submitted. Live article link is here: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/09/that- soph...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/09/that- sophisticated-specific-russian-voter-targeting-effort-doesnt-seem-exist/)</comment>


Apple's forgotten founder still wandering in the desert - <AUTHOR> http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_15214122 <comment><USER2> This might be unpopular, this might get me downvoted, but I have comment on this:

> But he cautioned Jobs never to forget that the money was just a vehicle for > creating things. "But he forgot," Wayne says now. "He probably won't like me > for saying this, but I think he got caught up in the business of business. > He became so enamored with succeeding at this stuff that he began doing it > for the sake of itself. He began making money for the sake of making money. > What can somebody do with $200 million that they can't do with $100 > million?"

That's loser talk. That's fully not getting it. Jobs isn't in it for the money at this point, he _is_ doing things that matter to him, he's got a team of crazy-bright designers and engineers and he's pushing the world forwards. I'm actually much less of an Apple fan than most people, I think the Apple's got a lot more hype and sizzle than steak, but you do have to hand it to them for what they've done.

And Jobs himself? Forced out of Apple. Builds up Pixar. I mean, Pixar! There's a happiness-spreading company right there, maybe even more than Apple. Then Apple gets into trouble, and Jobs goes and digs through the ruins and builds this amazing company.

So typical loser thinking goes, "Oh yeah, well, maybe he's got hundreds of millions, but he lost focus! Yeah, that's it, he's not doing things that _really_ matter!" Like playing penny slot machines?

Never fall into that trap. If you catch yourself making a loser statement about how much someone else has, stop yourself and be gracious. Not for the builder's sake, but for your own.

<comment><USER3> > And Jobs himself? Forced out of Apple. Builds up Pixar. I mean, Pixar!

Also, before Pixar he founded NeXT, absolutely breakthrough stuff, though not a big commercial success:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXT>

<comment><USER4> I actually consider NeXT a commercial success since the company was bought by Apple, and NeXT OS was essentially the basis for OSX.

<comment><USER5> Yeah, NeXT got acquired for $427 million, and that was in 1997 dollars. Jobs personally pocketed $100 million in that transaction, plus 1.5 million Apple shares (and remember the stock has split several times since then).

<comment><USER6> He sold all that stock later in 1997 as a gambit, though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Classic contrast bias. It's pretty interesting that he is considered super- unlucky when he is likely in the top 10% of humanity.

Number 9 in <http://freebsd.zaks.com/news/msg-1151459306-41182-0/>

</comment><comment><USER8> This story is a classic case of survivor bias. Magazines only interview the people who bailed out of companies that went on to succeed. Between 1976 and now, how many people have bailed out of startups that went on to flame out? How many of them are perfectly happy and possibly wealthy?

<comment><USER9> _This story is a classic case of survivor bias._

Not really. Merely telling the story of a survivor isn't survivorship bias; the bias would be extrapolating from this story to believe that his situation is common.

<comment><USER8> Or extrapolating from his story to infer that failing to take risks in an early-stage venture is a mistake.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The original Apple logo which he designed:

[http://www.digibarn.com/history/06-11-4-VCF9-Apple30/images/...](http://www.digibarn.com/history/06-11-4-VCF9-Apple30/images/original- newton-apple-logo.gif)

<comment><USER11> The way this story portrayed Ron Wayne makes me think the quote on the etching, "A mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought -- alone," might be quite revealing of Wayne's own psychology, which seemed to tend towards paranoia.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Counter point -

He was terrified of creditors, of debt, of risk - in other words of all the things that great entrepreneurs embrace and manage.

He was 42 and living with his mother at the time.

His role was to be the "problem solver" between Woz & Jobs.

He was to be the "respected adult" and provide guidance.

What if he'd blocked the development of the macintosh platform?

What if he'd blocked jobs from coming back?

Just useless after-lunch daydreaming, but my point is this guy looks more like a bullet Apple dodged, than a sure fire loser of billions . . .

</comment><comment><USER13> John Draper (a.k.a. Cap'n Crunch) is another of Apple's early core contributors who managed to slip through the cracks. Not directly or officially part of Apple, but arguably way more involved in the genesis and early success of Apple than Ron Wayne. Now he lives out of a van and has been to jail several times.

[http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB116863379291775523-lMy...](http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB116863379291775523-lMyQjAxMDE3NjE4MzYxMzMzWj.html)

<comment><USER14> Wow.

Google, Apple, Microsoft, etc. should pool some money and fund some sort of Social Security for aging hackers.

<comment><USER15> A core Linux kernel hacker and an IBM employee was kicked out of his home, and made homeless _while_ he worked on Linux. He was too sick to keep his job, so they let him go. He lived out of his car when I heard of him last, and last year someone heard me speak of him on IRC and messaged me in private to say he was on his death bed.

I wont discuss him further out of respect to him, but stuff happens, even to people with "jobs".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This actually came up in Woz's Founders at Work interview:

<http://www.foundersatwork.com/steve-wozniak.html>

Livingston: What about Ron Wayne? Wasn't he wasn't one of the founders?

Wozniak: Yes, but not when we incorporated as a real company. We had two phases. One was as a partnership with Steve Jobs for the Apple I and then for the Apple II, we became a corporation, Apple Computer Incorporated.

Steve knew Ron at Atari and liked him. Ron was a super conservative guy. I didn't know anything about politics of any sort; I avoided it. But he had read all these right-wing books like "None Dare Call it Treason" and he could rattle the stuff off. I didn't realize it until later.

He had instant answers to everything. He had experience with businesses and times he'd been gypped out of stock deals. He always had something very quick to say and, wow, it sounded like he was very knowledgeable about this stuff. He sat down at a typewriter and typed our partnership contract right out of his head using lawyer type words. I just thought, "How do you know what to say, all rights and privileges and all the different words that are in there"—I don't even know what they are. He did an etching of Newton under the apple tree for the cover of our Apple I manual. He wrote the manual. So he helped in a number of ways. Steve had 45% of this partnership, I had 45%, and Ron had 10% because both of us agreed that we could trust him to resolve any dispute, and we would trust his judgment.

Then what happened was that we were going to sell PC boards for $20 each and fund it out of our own pockets. I sold my HP calculator, Steve sold his van, so we had a few hundred bucks each. Then Steve got the $50,000 order. Over at the company that was making our PC board, as soon as the PC boards were made, they opened up a closet that had our parts and it started a 30-day clock ticking. We had 30 days to pay for the parts. The parts got stuffed into the computers, we made them work, we delivered them to the store and got paid in cash. The parts suppliers—the distributors in Mountain View—had checked with the store owner and knew that he was going to pay us. So basically, we didn't have the credit; he was good for it. But, here was the problem: What if he didn't accept them one time or didn't pay us? We would owe a ton of money on those chips.

I had no money and Steve had no money. We didn't own cars, we didn't have savings accounts, we didn't have houses. So Ron Wayne figured they'd come after him for his golden nuggets that he kept under his mattress. (He actually tells me it was in a safe—but he was afraid they'd come and get his gold.) So he sold out. It was too risky for him, so he sold out his 10% of Apple to us for a few hundred bucks. Maybe $600, maybe $800, maybe $300, but a few hundred bucks. And this was even when we had an Apple II designed and were heading toward future business. He was just scared that something was going to catch him.

</comment><comment><USER16> > I thought if I stayed with Apple I was going to wind up the richest man in > the cemetery.

Maybe he's right. If you're the type to worry - and everyone has that to some extent - it is very stressful.

I think you need to get to the point where it's in the lap of the gods; you just do your thing and the outcome does its thing. _I am a leaf on the wind_ Doesn't Steve Jobs have some non-attachment/buddhist/meditation thing? Like he doesn't have any furniture (or didn't at one point).

</comment><comment><USER17> _Wayne insists he has no regrets about the choice he made_

Fair enough, but I am going to regret it for him. 22 billion dollars. That's twice as much as eleventy billion!

<comment><USER18> I don't know what type of investment apple had but if he did stay wouldn't he's 10% have been diluted by future investment?

<comment><USER19> Given that Steve Jobs' net worth is $5.5 billion (source: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs>), that number does seem deliberately misleading.

<comment><USER20> 5 billion. 22 billion. Who cares what number comes in front of all those zeroes! It's the zeroes that matter. Once you start getting up in to the tens of millions I can't even imagine how to spend it all.

<comment><USER21> See, I understand if you meant "how to spend it all on my desires for luxuries."

But if you truly meant "how to spend it all," I disagree with you. Every day, I think of a new company that would make the world a slightly better place. Every day, I wish I had 50 billion dollars so I could call my manager up, tell him "you have 3 million, find someone who can solve this problem," and have it done.

Hey, just building a worldwide cellphone network with enough bandwidth to not suck and decent international rates could take up more money than I could ever possibly earn.

Dream big.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Serious question:

What's their rationale for forming a partnership and not incorporating right away as a means of protecting personal assets? Was the official / lawyering process radically different (i.e. terribly expensive) back then?

<comment><USER23> I'm sure that the startup legal process was a lot less popularly understood than it is now. And even today people ask a lot of questions about legal foundations for startups.

But I think you can't abstract away the particulars. I'm sure it didn't occur to the Steves to spend money to protect their assets, because they didn't have any. Assets or money, that is. And this fellow Ron could have done so, but perhaps it didn't occur to him because he was too busy burying gold nuggets in his backyard and cleaning his weapons collection.

The early history of Apple is such a fun story. I now have this awesome vision of the Apple cofounders as the bowling team from _The Big Lebowski_.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I think his attitude is wonderful and refreshing. It makes me happy to take him at his word.

I saw a story recently of a guy released from jail after some 20 years of wrongful incarceration, and his attitude was so amazing. Wayne reminds me of that. We can learn a lot from both - they both make me feel so petty.

</comment><comment><USER25> I honestly don't know if I could live with myself. I just turned down a really great position in favor of a start-up I'm working on, specifically because I don't want to be in this guy's position.

<comment><USER26> First, how many times are you willing to spin the wheel? It was pretty clear that he tried to start a business at least once before, and it blew up in his face. That probably changed his outlook on risk-reward tradeoffs.

Second, it confuses me that this guy is living off Social Security.

"After Apple, he spent two years creating the model shop at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, then was chief engineer at Thor Electronics in Salinas for 16 years. He holds a dozen patents, but he has never had the money to develop them into products."

Being a chief anything for 16 years in the Valley, I would think should let you sock enough away for a comfortable retirement, even investing conservatively. I suspect this guy is just bad at managing money all around, which he pretty much admits.

"I don't know why, it just never happened. It's probably because I'm not the businessman I should be."

<comment><USER27> Salinas isn't in Silicon Valley, it's in the Salinas Valley. It's mostly an agricultural area, and incomes are much lower.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> It's an interesting yet sad story, showing how a single decision, which probably seemed completely rational at the time, can make or break your future prospects.

Ron Wayne's conservative disposition probably helped him a great deal up to the point of selling out of Apple, but counted against him subsequently. None of us can know the future, and we can only rely upon previous experience to estimate the possible outcomes which a decision might have.

</comment><comment><USER29> Like what Mike Shuster said on Jason Calacanis' interview (or rephrased), "You have to give up your current job, be passionate on what you're doing with this startup, and then believe that it's going to work no matter what." Ok, I didn't say it right, but you get the point.

</comment><comment><USER9> One of the most interesting aspects of this story for me is that the guy was single and living with his mother. His risk profile should have been _ideal_ for keeping his stake in the company.

</comment><comment><USER30> Bad luck couldn't get any worse than this, I suppose.

I wonder why Jobs or Woz never gifted a tiny fraction of their shares in Apple at a later point to Wayne, as a token of appreciation (if tiny). It would have been a nice gesture.

<comment><USER6> Woz gave away a lot of his shares to early employees pre-IPO because he felt it was unfair that they didn't get any from the company. I suspect that by 1980, most of those employees did a lot more than Ron Wayne to make Apple what it was.</comment></comment>


Splix.io - <AUTHOR> http://splix.io/ <comment><USER2> Yet another .io game. A pretty good one, too, but rather heavy on resources, which tends to be a theme among the .io games.

Come on guys, test and optimize your code! it's not rocket science.

</comment><comment><USER3> It could use better memory management.

<comment><USER4> No kidding -- after a couple of minutes of play, it brought my 32GB Mac to a near halt.

<comment><USER5> Doesn't that mean your OS is rather broken as well?

<comment><USER6> Broken for respecting it's owners wish to run a program with most of the resources available to it?

<comment><USER7> Tangentially related — and I'm not dissing on OS X here — but I really like the Linux kernel's Magic SysRq keys. It's a simple concept: no matter what software does, the hardware will always pass through the kernel first; so set up special keybindings to command the kernel to do special things.

Alt-SysRq-f pulls out the OOM killer, which targets the worst memory abusing process and just mercilessly kills it. It's super handy on a desktop OS that's frequently pushed to its limits. Chrome eating too much RAM? Pull out Alt- SysRq-f and kill the fattest Chrome process!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Confession: I had to uninstall the app from my iphone because it was eating up too much of my time.

This game has a lot of interesting things to balance - defend my territory vs. expand into new, deciding when to grab territory boldly and when to be conservative, deciding whether another player is vulnerable to be cut off vs. the risk you put yourself into by trying to cut them off.

There's complexity that emerges from a simple ruleset that's more interesting than you'd think.

Also: watching other players to deduce their strategy, skill level,and understanding of the game.

I'm surprised that more players don't expand diagonally, which seems to me to be strategically strong.

I also like how the game requires different things as your territory grows: early stages are about survival, middle stages about growth, later stages involve defense. Oh, and I noticed that the youtube gamers enjoy it as well.

</comment><comment><USER9> For people saying this is the new agar.io/slither.io. There are loads of "io games" nowadays competing to be the next big thing. This is just another version of landix.io so it's nothing unique and will probably not be a landslide success. It does look more polished though.

</comment><comment><USER10> game doesn't seem to require flash, but the ads(?) do, and if you don't have flash, it blocks on the ad page seemingly indefinitely. FF 49.0.1 arch linux

<comment><USER11> No flash, no ads here. Played fine. ArchLinux Firefox 49.0.2.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> For those who like webgames: [https://www.reddit.com/r/WebGames/](https://www.reddit.com/r/WebGames/)

And in particular multiplayer webgames: [https://www.reddit.com/r/WebGames/comments/57v9jb/multiplaye...](https://www.reddit.com/r/WebGames/comments/57v9jb/multiplayer_monday/)

</comment><comment><USER13> This game is broken in so many ways.

</comment><comment><USER14> What technique does it use to keep the state consistent over all clients and the server?

</comment><comment><USER15> wow, it ates all the free memory available in the system regardless how much it is.

</comment><comment><USER16> Wow! The reincarnation of Xonix [0] in multi-player! You should check out Antix [1] as well!

[0]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xonix](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xonix)

[1]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antix_(video_game)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antix_\(video_game\))

<comment><USER17> thx nikolay!! I remember playing this game many years ago, but never managed to find it online.

<comment><USER16> And you can still do: [http://www.vemix.com/Games/xonix/xonix.php](http://www.vemix.com/Games/xonix/xonix.php)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> new agar.io/slither.io

though interesting to see how long and how well this game concept will evolve.

</comment><comment><USER19> I like the name

</comment><comment><USER20> Quite hooked to it. Best rank #3 Yes its a little heavy on resources, but then I was playing on my laptop so it was fine. A big thumbs up from me :)

</comment><comment><USER21> WebSocket connection is failing for me but it's probably because of my workplace's network limitations.

Shame, I was quite excited when I first saw the game :)

</comment><comment><USER22> The new agar.io , before that game became bloated :)

</comment><comment><USER23> Careful if you get addicted to simple games. This swallowed up several hours a few weeks ago :-D

<comment><USER20> Yes quite addictive indeed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Is it FLOSS ? or librejs friendly ?

</comment><comment><USER25> It's a rogue-like snake landgrab . Great concept and lovely minimal execution. More fun than it seems after 1 play.

<comment><USER26> How is it a roguelike?

<comment><USER27> That would be interesting. This is only a snake like. Bored after 5 seconds, not my kind of games anymore.

Probably GP wrote roguelike because the general look of the game.

<comment><USER2> He was referring to permadeath, but he's wrong. In an RL, the world would be regened when you died, and it would likely be singleplayer: this is just an multiplayer snakelike.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> disconnects way too fast.

<comment><USER29> It says I'm disconnected after a couple seconds too. Also, like most browser games, it manages to rev up the fan on my fairly modern laptop almost immediately.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Multiplayer Snake from Nokia 3310 :D Amazing!

</comment><comment><USER31> RIP RAM

</comment><comment><USER32> got bored after 5 mins</comment>


California's Air Pollution Cops Are Eyeing Uber and Lyft - <AUTHOR> https://www.wired.com/story/californias-air-pollution-cops-eyeing-uber-lyft/ <comment><USER2> CARB should be eyeing google maps.

Google maps regularly directs drivers on 20+ additional mile detours when their algorithms predict that doing so will just save minutes-- a benefit that is usually fictional in any case because they're working with noisy and delayed data.

Worse, even when the user manually tells google maps to not take the detour it will aggressively attempt to move the driver back onto the detour at random times without notice when it falsely believes the driver has gone off course.

The CO2 footprint from this default decision to is probably tremendous but no one except google has the data to assess what it is exactly.

Beyond the massive detours to (maybe) save seconds to a minute both maps and, especially, waze will aggressively route drivers onto surface streets for the same second-shaving motivations. The negative impact to community safety has been widely discussed, but this behaviour also increases pollution by creating longer paths and moves pollution closer to people's homes.</comment>