12 ms·

Terry Davis has died

634 points by leibwiht 8y ago

johnzim 8y ago
Sad to see him go. TempleOS update discussions were always a really interesting read on this site and others.
AdmiralAsshat 8y ago
This was previously submitted[0] and deemed "unconfirmed". Does it showing up on the TempleOS page make it any more official? Who runs the website in his absence to make this update? [0]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17889547 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17889547
- fasafsafsf 8y ago
  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=113833548694790&story_fbid=1805200396224755 https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=113833548694790&st... https://media.8ch.net/file_store/8f7768746a7f506321a02470643aa737e0955efe715941cbc34c1325a4b03888.jpg https://media.8ch.net/file_store/8f7768746a7f506321a02470643...
- leibwiht 8y ago
  There is additional proof, from his sister's Facebook page, but I'm not sure I want to link it here because it seems rude to link his family's pages to random people. Is there a moderator here whose email address I can message with the proof?
  - jacquesm 8y ago
    hn@ycombinator.com
    - chris_wot 8y ago
      FWIW, I was always impressed how you looked out for Terry on HN.
      - jacquesm 8y ago
        It's a pity we never could be inclusive enough to take someone in who clearly needed a bit of support. Terry definitely was a troubled person, there is zero doubt about that but if you looked past the sillyness (which I understand is hard in an environment that puts great value on political correctness) he was a really nice guy with some surprising quirks and a good sense of humor. On off days he was not so nice. Nobody's perfect.
        forapurpose 8y ago
        > which I understand is hard in an environment that puts great value on political correctness Taking a shot at people with whom you disagree undermines your message. What might have been thoughtful is now a diatribe based on a stereotype.
  - DoreenMichele 8y ago
    You can email the mods at hn@ycombinator.com. Though Wikipedia already has such a link confirming it. I don't think you need to prove it. Edit: Or did. I can't find it now. I was sure there was a really short page for him on Wikipedia when I looked the other day. At the moment, he only appears on their disambiguation page without a page of his own. It also shows a death year of 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Davis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Davis
    - tazard 8y ago
      Odd, I thought I remembered reading it about two days ago too...
  - TeMPOraL 8y ago
    Try hn@ycombinator.com, it's actively monitored by the moderators.
  - rckclmbr 8y ago
    Maybe this will live on as a "Terry's death was never confirmed" (Andy Kaufman style). Would be a pretty cool way to memorialize him. Not sure if that would affect his family negatively though.
- icedchai 8y ago
  His Facebook page shows his account is memorialized. (I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to log in to FB and search for his name.)
  - dewey 8y ago
    That page is potentially a fake: https://www.reddit.com/r/TempleOS_Official/comments/9c63qr/terry_davis_hit_by_a_train/ https://www.reddit.com/r/TempleOS_Official/comments/9c63qr/t...
- basic1 8y ago
  It's still strange, doesn't the death rumor predate the website being updated?
  - sp332 8y ago
    I might have misunderstood you, but presumably he didn't update the website with his own death date.
DoofusOfDeath 8y ago
If true this is really sad. Based on the little information I have about Terry, he seems like a basically nice guy victimized by mental illness.
- Sileni 8y ago
  Yeah, and clearly bright as hell if he could string together something as complicated as TempleOS. Imagine what he could have done if he had been able to direct it towards something more globally useful. RIP dude, hope there's a reward for determination in the afterlife.
  - tokai 8y ago
    TempleOS is going to be hailed as one of the most impressive pieces of outsider art ever
    - Sileni 8y ago
      I hope so. I'm a little worried it'll only ever be appreciated in niche communities that really understand the depth of what he did. Maybe I'm not giving enough credit to fringe artists, but I don't know that it'd be easy to express how impressive it is to build a functional OS as a single person that could do as much as his did, with the hardware it was based on.
    - Retr0spectrum 8y ago
      Is it really outsider art though? Didn't he have a background in programming?
  - craftyguy 8y ago
    > Imagine what he could have done if he had been able to direct it towards something more globally useful I find this comment extremely offensive. Gosh, imagine what Sileni could have done if they didn't spend time on HN!
    - saganus 8y ago
justinator 8y ago
Rest easy. You have finally escaped your demons.
jhare 8y ago
Compiling TempleOS in its native environment. RIP.
- tomcam 8y ago
  That is a lovely epitaph for a hacker. Do not understand downvotes on this
  - jhare 8y ago
    I really appreciate Terry's work, if any consolation.
bencollier49 8y ago
What was the license on TempleOS? I know a lot of people thought it had clever language features. Will there be any continued development?
- daeken 8y ago
  It's released into the public domain.
- deadmetheny 8y ago
  It's public domain, and seeing as Terry was the sole author it's unlikely to have any sort of official continuation.
  - andrewchambers 8y ago
    a fork with tcp support lives on - https://github.com/minexew/Shrine https://github.com/minexew/Shrine
    - danmg 8y ago
      a network stack has no place in the temple.
newnewpdro 8y ago
It appears he committed suicide by train [0]. His last youtube video from the local library made it sound like he wasn't having a particularly good time there. He's suffered so long from his mental illness, frankly I'm surprised it didn't happen earlier. I can't begin to imagine how difficult it's been living such a challenging life for all these years. From what I saw, occasionally watching his streams, there was a significant amount of internet bullying and general predation going on with Terry and it really messed with his already strained life. It's all a huge bummer. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/TempleOS_Official/comments/9c63qr/terry_davis_hit_by_a_train/ https://www.reddit.com/r/TempleOS_Official/comments/9c63qr/t...
- pmarreck 8y ago
  Obligatory: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK (8255) Our lives have far more worth than we know, of this I am convinced. The Internet bullying angle angers me.
  - newnewpdro 8y ago
    > The Internet bullying angle angers me. He would probably still be alive had he never started streaming. It was brutal. He was unable to distinguish fake manipulative interactions from the truth. He live-streamed things like reading spoofed emails from internet crushes, presumably with those responsible watching as it unfolded, with total disregard for his well-being and mental condition.
    - pmarreck 8y ago
      I'd say I'd love to punch some people, but the sad truth is that whoever did those things likely had no idea what harm they were causing and did it for the attention
      - newnewpdro 8y ago
        You clearly haven't spent much time on 4chan.
sexydefinesher 8y ago
He will live on in legend.
m00dy 8y ago
I'm introduced to this guy via Hacker News. See you in another life, cowboy.
popsickle 8y ago
In his last YouTube upload (which is currently the only available video; it appears he deleted everything else from his channel) he says that he is now homeless and living outdoors. In the video he seems remarkably less lucid than he normally was in his previous videos, almost having problems with his speech, and his face looks like something entirely else than it did in his videos from a year ago when he was still living at his parents' home.
- nv-vn 8y ago
  Both of these are symptoms of schizophrenia. I imagine what we saw is him on meds vs. him off meds.
- chei0iaV 8y ago
  https://archive.org/details/TerryADavisTempleOSYouTubeChannelArchive/ https://archive.org/details/TerryADavisTempleOSYouTubeChanne...
- wolfgke 8y ago
  TempleOS Hardest Question in Programming > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uLzaKlZSQQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uLzaKlZSQQ
6nf 8y ago
I will miss you Terry
undershirt 8y ago
I overheard a guy gushing about TempleOS at a data jam last weekend. It was great. He really liked the fresh takes on the old-school freedoms of the commodore 64. I pried him for more and he graciously gave me a short walkthrough of his favorite features since he had it running on his laptop. I hope someone writes a book about it. I love learning about long term solo artworks like this that are difficult to appreciate. Pouring one out for this passionate artist tonight. rest in peace
- mlevental 8y ago
  >pried plied
- cbHXBY1D 8y ago
  Does anyone here have any contacts with the MOMA? I think TempleOS should be submitted.
  - jedimastert 8y ago
    I actually like that idea a lot. I definitely think it's a work of art.
DanielBMarkham 8y ago
I don't know if this is the correct post for this or not, but I've been thinking about it for some time. We hackers and founders obviously suffer from mental illness and poverty, yet some of us do really well -- rich beyond most folks' understanding. I don't want to get into a discussion of "what's wrong with society". I just want to know: why aren't we taking care of our own? We obviously have the resources. If we can do a basic income experiment, we can take care of the Terry Davis's in the world. Why aren't we?
- Fireflite 8y ago
  Money alone can't guarantee good outcomes in cases of severe mental illness sadly. Our medications are not good enough, nor are they well-tolerated enough, and sometimes even with medication and money and strong supports and a willingness to try to improve patients still don't get better.
  - DanielBMarkham 8y ago
    >>Money alone can't guarantee good outcomes in cases of severe mental illness sadly. An important point. I am not talking about giving people money. I'm asking if we care enough to try to figure out how to help them. I make no assumptions on what kinds of help would be useful or not.
    - saalweachter 8y ago
      There's going to be four things you have to confront when it comes to helping people. 1. Resources. Money and people are the two hardest resources, although space can also be a problem, especially when you start taking eg homeless shelters. It's not enough to have a big pile of money to spend on the problem, it's hard to find people who want to take on a front-line position in solving it. 2. Morality. It's odd to say, but one of the harder questions when trying to help people is how to do so morally. What if someone doesn't want help? What if they don't want the sort of help you want to give them? The low-hanging fruit of helping people is giving help to people who want it. What to do when someone refuses to leave a dangerous situation or refuses medical treatment is a hard question if you still want to help them. 3. Information. Having resources available to provide help to people who want it is all well and good, but if you don't know who needs help and people who need help don't know about you trying to give it, it doesn't do much good. Knowing who needs help is a really hard problem. Even if you have a vague notion that your neighbor is having a rough time of things, you don't always know how rough of a time, and they don't always tell you. 4. Risk. When you put yourself out there to help, you make yourself vulnerable. That scares a lot of people. Most people are nice people and most people aren't dangerous but some people aren't and are. If you do anything in the world that involves people, including helping them, problems will crop up. The challenge here is mitigating the risk of them without losing your humanity in the process. If the four points above don't daunt you, then the next thing is to avoid the classic hacker mistake: reinventing the wheel unnecessarily. There are countless organizations already trying to help people out there. Can you join one and help it help more hackers?
c3534l 8y ago
I'm not sure if Terry Davis should be considered like the outsider art of programming or more of a sad side show that captivated the internet's attention.
- rjbwork 8y ago
  Porque no los dos?
- jacquesm 8y ago
  Definitely the former.
Lapsa 8y ago
this dude taught me to really value simplicity. thank you
oh-kumudo 8y ago
Any introduction about this guy, his accomplishments and TempleOS in general?
- kevinmchugh 8y ago
  This is the only article I can remember reading about him: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/wnj43x/gods-lonely-programmer https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/wnj43x/gods-lonel...
  - wolfgke 8y ago
    Another article that centers not around the person, but TempleOS: http://www.codersnotes.com/notes/a-constructive-look-at-templeos/ http://www.codersnotes.com/notes/a-constructive-look-at-temp...
jbaudanza 8y ago
I always thought of Terry as somewhat of an anti-hero of the hacker community. Most of us know what it feels like to go down a rabbit hole building something technically impressive, yet ultimately useless, because the voices in our heads told us to. In this way, Terry seemed vaguely relatable. This is a tragic outcome and I hope his family can find some peace.
- yellowapple 8y ago
  I think there's a lot in TempleOS that could/should be useful, though. It's basically a Lisp machine but with HolyC instead of Lisp. Plenty of valuable lessons to be learned in OS and compiler design.
tombert 8y ago
I'm not entirely sure why this is upsetting me so much, but I think it has to largely to do with empathy. While I'm nowhere as severe as Terry, I do suffer from manic depression (bipolar II), and if it weren't for the support of friends and family I'm certain I would have offed myself years ago. Terry suffered from an illness, but he was undoubtedly a smart guy. TempleOS and HolyC, even if they were niche, are certainly interesting projects, and aren't something that any lay-person could make. While I'm relatively certain that his racist profanity-filled posts are how he's going to be remembered, I'll try and think of him as a misguided and misunderstood person who needed more help than society was really able to provide.
- malux85 8y ago
  Thank you, I feel exactly the same way. It would be nice to see the black bar on HN. He needed a lot of help, but a great hacker has passed, and we should remember him for his work
  - leibwiht 8y ago
    >It would be nice to see the black bar on HN. Seconding this. He was a great programmer, and deserves to be remembered.
    - zmix 8y ago
      Thirding this.
      - jacquesm 8y ago
        Terry definitely was an old-school hacker that didn't care about whether or not his products saw mass adoption, he did it because it was what he wanted to do most. There is a lot of humor in TempleOS and Terry in his more reasonable moments was actually a very nice and caring person. I spent some time trying to convince HN to look past his troubles but alas it did not come to pass.
        8y ago
nearmuse 8y ago
I have first heard of Terry Davis on HN. I am not American, so I couldn't probably do much. A lot of comments blame mental illness etc, whereas IMO, his condition being well known, an otherwise talented person like him should have been more taken care of by his relatives and anyone who was in capacity to recognize his good parts. So much people knew about him and him being so unique I thought someone would support him somehow.
- SwellJoe 8y ago
  As I understand it, some people did. He was living with his parents at one point, and had family support to at least some degree. Mental illness is tough sometimes...it's not always possible to protect an adult with mental illness from themselves (and it's not always safe to welcome an adult with mental illness into one's home or allow them to remain if their mental illness proves dangerous). There's a lot of discussion we, as citizens in the US, should have about safety nets for people with mental illness, and I think it's clear Terry wasn't getting the help he needed. There are homeless folks in every major city in America who are similarly dealing with mental illness, we just don't hear about them because they aren't brilliant programmers working on such an odd project that it almost demands attention from fellow nerds. We have no idea what hardships Terry's family dealt with. He was certainly brilliant, but not always kind or calm. I've found him fascinating for years (in a sort of "there but for the grace of god go I" sort of way, as severe mental illness runs in my family), but he could be incredibly hostile and unpredictable (in addition to the overt racism that ran throughout his work and words). He was banned from HN numerous times (someone linked an HN profile of his but he's had several) for his hostility and racism. I'm not saying this to speak ill of the dead here...it just seems awful to blame his surviving family when we know so little about what went on that led to him being homeless. I don't know that they'd ever see it, but it's still kinda shitty to blame someone's family for not doing enough, especially when we don't know anything about them or what they did for Terry.
  - cbHXBY1D 8y ago
    In some of his videos his parents yell at him for racism and anti-semitism. IIRC they kicked him out at some point.
radium3d 8y ago
Was looking for info about TempleOS and found this video of him installing it on a VM and going over some of its features. NSFW, prepare for an abundance of profanity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBgIBF9Y6PE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBgIBF9Y6PE
- hippiefahrzeug 8y ago
  this is absolutely amazing!
malkia 8y ago
This was just posted on the IRC channel (https://kiwiirc.com/client/irc.rizon.net/#templeos https://kiwiirc.com/client/irc.rizon.net/#templeos) http://ia600600.us.archive.org/31/items/TerryADavis_TempleOS_Archive/ http://ia600600.us.archive.org/31/items/TerryADavis_TempleOS... from what I can quickly see - lots of videos, articles, ISOs, etc. R.I.P. Terry!
- malkia 8y ago
  Actually full msg: https://thepasteb.in/p/O7h5jQ47DAQFq https://thepasteb.in/p/O7h5jQ47DAQFq In Memoriam Terrance "Terry Muthafuckin" Andrew Davis Rest in Peace, 1969 - August 11th, 2018 Terry was hit by a train on August 11th around 9pm in The Dalles, Oregon, where he had been living on the streets, shortly after uploading the last video to his youtube channel [citation: https://media.8ch.net/file_store/8f7768746a7f506321a02470643aa737e0955efe715941cbc34c1325a4b03888.jpg https://media.8ch.net/file_store/8f7768746a7f506321a02470643...] Furthermore, BipolarBear, var-g, and some others claim similar emails/ phone calls to the police, as well as to The Chronicle (the paper that first published the train story) In addition, Therese Davis (Terry's sister) released a FaceBook post about his death, as well as some other poorly timed deaths. Furthermore, it seems TheTemple, who opperated a fake Terry Davis FaceBook account, released rumors of a fake Terry's death shortly after the real death but before anyone had knowledge of it. Archives of Terry media:https://archive.org/services/xsl.php?xsl=/includes/locations.xsl&xml=https://archive.org/services/find_file.php%3Floconly%3D1%26file%3DTerryADavis_TempleOS_Archive https://archive.org/services/xsl.php?xsl=/includes/locations...
  - forapurpose 8y ago
    Who wrote that? > Therese Davis (Terry's sister) released a FaceBook post about his death, as well as some other poorly timed deaths. What does that mean?
- esaym 8y ago
  Looking at the archive and knowing that it will never have new content added is really hitting me hard right now :(
andrelaszlo 8y ago
Here's a few of the previous HN posts about Terry or TempleOS, unfortunately a lot of the links are broken: Terry's HN account https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=TerryADavis https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=TerryADavis TempleOS creator Terry Davis is homeless and living in a van https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16105043 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16105043 TempleOS is applying to Y Combinator. Partners desired, send an email https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9246855 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9246855 A Constructive Look at TempleOS https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9681501 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9681501 TempleOS: 5 minute random code walkthrough https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8349910 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8349910 Porting third-party programs to TempleOS https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9843065 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9843065 TempleOS: FlightSim and FirstPersonShooter https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9673554 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9673554 Mal Lisp for TempleOS https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15840054 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15840054 Mega Man for TempleOS https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13971627 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13971627
- daxorid 8y ago
  I believe that https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=TempleOS https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=TempleOS is also one of his HN accounts, with some more recent posts.
  - adamrezich 8y ago
    I wouldn't necessarily believe it, I've seen many posts on multiple boards on 4chan wherein people claim to make Terry impersonation accounts on HN specifically to troll
    - ayy_lmao 8y ago
      Yeah. His Facebook account was hijacked by someone pretending to be him / created a fake account and added Terry's family members. Lots of fake screenshots are circulating around, so "proofs" by screenshots of emails are doubtful at most. The guy who admittedly impressioned Terry on social networks is also known for taking money from Terry's PayPal. (Along with at least another guy who manipulated Terry into giving him $200). He said he did all of this "out of concern for Terry" It's the same guy who first claimed Terry's death on twitter. He's now in damage control and wiping his internet presence after the infinity Chan crowd is trying to link him to the events. Lot of disinformation around. Some people refuse to believe Terry's death until confirmed by a third party. Some other are spreading FUD and flood with stuff like "he's dead lads. Let's all forget and move on, shall we?" Some are just trolling around falsifying screenshots and "proofs". And some are just derailing threads to pull down any constructive discussion. And in this shitfest, kiwifarm is avoiding the blame and accuse others and whenever someone point a finger at them.
arionhardison 8y ago
Sometimes... racism is just racism, not mental illness. There seems this huge rush for people to "white wash" away all of the characteristics they don't like in someone; this is intellectually cowardly. The man was a great programmer...and a racist. The two things are not mutually exclusive but when people like you choose to just gloss over this and other acts of racism it helps to continue the cycle of racist patting each other on the back and telling each other its OK, wink wink
- tokai 8y ago
  Your indifference to the hardships of having a mental illness is nauseating. You think bigotry is a good tool to fight racism?
  - arionhardison 8y ago
    Your indifference to the troubles and hardship of people that have to deal with racist is nauseating. You think ignoring it and calling it by a different name is a good tool to fight racism?
    - tokai 8y ago
      You have no idea what psychosis does to you do you? Also you know nothing of my stance on racism. But I can clearly read how much of a bigot you are.
      - arionhardison 8y ago
        Its a bit ironic to be called a bigot by someone who is upset that I refuse to praise a racist.
        tokai 8y ago
        Again you are putting words in my mouth. I'm upset of your lack of understanding for the mentally ill.
VikingCoder 8y ago
Pretty sure this would be seen as defiling TempleOS... but as a way to preserve it, can someone get it to run inside WebAssembly? Maybe inside a VM?
- freedomben 8y ago
  Terry himself does it, so I think it can be run on a VM while maintaining the purity of the OS (there's a lot of profanity): https://youtu.be/mBgIBF9Y6PE https://youtu.be/mBgIBF9Y6PE
andreygrehov 8y ago
Terry was such an interesting dude. Just check out his response to all the haters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBgIBF9Y6PE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBgIBF9Y6PE
meddlepal 8y ago
Great programmer; unfortunate illness. RIP.
- ryan-allen 8y ago
  F
acali 8y ago
Terry Davis' legacy will be remembered by a lot of different communities. I found him through a YT video that focused on his controversial side but was pretty inspired by his projects. All I can say is he touched a lot of different people and his legacy/infamy is vast.
danso 8y ago
HN’s interactions involving Mr. Davis — at the user and admin level — was always interesting and enlightening to see, in terms of how an online community should accommodate someone with mental illness while not tolerating the rants he was prone to make. Thank you to everyone who have and continue to openly and honestly discuss mental health issues.
- danmg 8y ago
  Ultimately, it was very disappointing, since the resolution was to hellban him---The electronic version of trying not to make eye contact and treating him like an animal.
canhascodez 8y ago
I have absolutely no interest in TempleOS as a codebase, and I can't imagine that many people would ever want to use it as their main OS. However, Terry Davis and TempleOS expanded my conception of the possibilities of computing. Alan Perlis said, "A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing," and by that standard, I think that Terry and TempleOS have secured an eternal legacy.
peteforde 8y ago
Terry came to an event I helped host many years ago and showed off his baffling inventions. We felt a bit bad because it was really intended to be just a party, but he'd made a huge effort to come and so we set up and area and let him demo. It was the kind of crazy that I'm sure resembled Tesla's less-good ideas, but everyone there was in agreement that while we didn't plan to switch, what he showed was truly original. Like many of you, this story makes me really sad. I struggle with mental illness, but not like Terry did. It had to have been hard - not a strong enough word - and I never feel like we're doing enough to help. All I can do, at this point, is stand and be counted.
_zskd 8y ago
I am loving the empathy people are feeling for Terry Davis in this thread. His final video is heart breaking. Terry was the proverbial homeless person: Schizophrenic and paranoid. Too sick to be helped or supported. It's easy to get frustrated with the homeless people you see day to day, but I think it's extremely important we acknowledge these people's humanity and keep them from becoming wallpaper.
- jacquesm 8y ago
  > Too sick to be helped or supported. I disagree with that. He definitely was not too sick to be helped or supported.
noarchy 8y ago
Terry Davis was a bright individual who was, even with his handicaps, able to produce something noteworthy. Many people viewed his pursuits with some disdain, but I doubt most of them have produced anything on that level. It is worth noting that he would not have been able to truly participate in this very discussion, due to the shadowbans he received on multiple accounts.
EliRivers 8y ago
For those thinking about hacking on TempleOS, here's Jack Whitham getting started: https://www.jwhitham.org/2015/07/porting-third-party-programs-to-templeos.html https://www.jwhitham.org/2015/07/porting-third-party-program...
volkisch 8y ago
King Terry has risen.
leibwiht 8y ago
Why is this on the second page when it has >400 points + 135 comments in 2 hours? It was at the top position on the front page at first. Did someone manually alter it?
- eletious 8y ago
  Perhaps I am seeing patterns where there are none, but I've seen that articles with the wrong kind of controversial potential sometimes get bumped back. I'm having difficulty putting it to words, though, and can't produce any evidence to back it up. It's a real shame, sometimes. I feel there is a lot that can be learned from Terry Davis and TempleOS.
  - jey 8y ago
    Yes, there are definitely different weights for threads based on multiple factors such as flags, certain domains/topics, and manual intervention by the mods.
asveikau 8y ago
I saw from this image: https://ia600600.us.archive.org/31/items/TerryADavis_TempleOS_Archive/fan%20media/images/Terry%20Davis%20Death%20Evidence.png https://ia600600.us.archive.org/31/items/TerryADavis_TempleO... That somebody [his family?] was encouraging people to donate to the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation. I know from my own research into nonprofits that this is seemingly a good and legit charity for mental health research. I would encourage HN readers to check it out.
jason_slack 8y ago
Dear Terry, I didn’t know you...but I respected you. You had mad coding chops and a sense of humor one can appreciate when they view your YouTube videos. Reviewing the code of TempleOS made me a better programmer. Long live Holy C and 640x480... RIP and thank you. A virtual friend.
- thedragonline 8y ago
  Watching him drop undecorated assembly code into his Holy C editor and then wrap it in a for loop was an eye-opener for me. Even more interesting was the one-line function call with a sprite object argument that is 'printed' in the console. Thought-provoking to say the least. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBgIBF9Y6PE&t=451s&has_verified=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBgIBF9Y6PE&t=451s&has_verif... 9:20 mark. It's Terry so the language is NSFW. RIP
  - jason_slack 8y ago
    Thanks! Watching him over the years made me start writing my own tools for a lot of things instead of just accepting what functionality an app provide and how they choose to provide it.
HyperTalk2 8y ago
He would have been furious about the request to donate to mental health organizations being on his website.
tscherno 8y ago
Thanks for the inspiration, RIP
Apaec 8y ago
I was always fascinated by Terry Davis work, but for some strange reason I also watched a lot of his more casual videos, like "Picnic Monet" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBtkHMdh_V8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBtkHMdh_V8. I'll make sure to tell the legend of "el solitario programador de dios" to my fellow countrymen. Descansa en paz Terry.
johnalamosisi 8y ago
So sad
654wak654 8y ago
I think the reason he's so popular within the tech community is because he's _very_ relatable to some of us in a dark way. Most tech people see themselves as artistic geniuses who can hack things like TempleOS, but almost all are also suffering from mental illness in some way. Sure, being socially awkward in conversation isn't exactly comparable to Terry's schizophrenia; still it's very easy to reflect our physiological fears on him these days where depression (or detection of depression) rates have skyrocketed. I don't know, maybe I'm more crazy than average, but this feels like a good explanation of why people are so obsessed with him. Not every homeless person in the US gets enough donation money from 4chan to run their own website and video show.
sunseb 8y ago
This guy definitely belongs to the hacker community. He was a weirdo, a misfit, a nerd, like many of us. There is always a thin line between being a genius and being insane.
kyle-rb 8y ago
RIP Terry. I hope he finally gets his space alien.
Zelmor 8y ago
He was mentally ill, didn't take his medicine and harrassed female youtubers like Physics Girl via email on livestreams. Circlejerking degenerates took turns on praising him and baiting him while building a cult on 4chan's tech board, ultimately enabling his dementia induced behaviours. It was a downward cycle that only had one outcome: suicide. I'm not glad he is dead, but I'm glad he is gone.
- danmg 8y ago
  > "Version of SorryNotSorry You're dead" Fuck you.
newnewpdro 8y ago
For those wanting further confirmation that Terry was the man killed by a train in The Dalles, OR: http://www.thedalleschronicle.com/news/2018/sep/07/man-killed-train-had-tech-following/ http://www.thedalleschronicle.com/news/2018/sep/07/man-kille...
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

634 points by leibwiht 8y ago

Sad to see him go. TempleOS update discussions were always a really interesting read on this site and others.

This was previously submitted[0] and deemed "unconfirmed". Does it showing up on the TempleOS page make it any more official? Who runs the website in his absence to make this update? [0]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17889547 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17889547

fasafsafsf 8y ago
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=113833548694790&story_fbid=1805200396224755 https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=113833548694790&st... https://media.8ch.net/file_store/8f7768746a7f506321a02470643aa737e0955efe715941cbc34c1325a4b03888.jpg https://media.8ch.net/file_store/8f7768746a7f506321a02470643...
leibwiht 8y ago
There is additional proof, from his sister's Facebook page, but I'm not sure I want to link it here because it seems rude to link his family's pages to random people. Is there a moderator here whose email address I can message with the proof?
- jacquesm 8y ago
  hn@ycombinator.com
  - chris_wot 8y ago
    FWIW, I was always impressed how you looked out for Terry on HN.
    - jacquesm 8y ago
      It's a pity we never could be inclusive enough to take someone in who clearly needed a bit of support. Terry definitely was a troubled person, there is zero doubt about that but if you looked past the sillyness (which I understand is hard in an environment that puts great value on political correctness) he was a really nice guy with some surprising quirks and a good sense of humor. On off days he was not so nice. Nobody's perfect.
      - forapurpose 8y ago
        > which I understand is hard in an environment that puts great value on political correctness Taking a shot at people with whom you disagree undermines your message. What might have been thoughtful is now a diatribe based on a stereotype.
- DoreenMichele 8y ago
  You can email the mods at hn@ycombinator.com. Though Wikipedia already has such a link confirming it. I don't think you need to prove it. Edit: Or did. I can't find it now. I was sure there was a really short page for him on Wikipedia when I looked the other day. At the moment, he only appears on their disambiguation page without a page of his own. It also shows a death year of 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Davis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Davis
  - tazard 8y ago
    Odd, I thought I remembered reading it about two days ago too...
- TeMPOraL 8y ago
  Try hn@ycombinator.com, it's actively monitored by the moderators.
- rckclmbr 8y ago
  Maybe this will live on as a "Terry's death was never confirmed" (Andy Kaufman style). Would be a pretty cool way to memorialize him. Not sure if that would affect his family negatively though.
icedchai 8y ago
His Facebook page shows his account is memorialized. (I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to log in to FB and search for his name.)
- dewey 8y ago
  That page is potentially a fake: https://www.reddit.com/r/TempleOS_Official/comments/9c63qr/terry_davis_hit_by_a_train/ https://www.reddit.com/r/TempleOS_Official/comments/9c63qr/t...
basic1 8y ago
It's still strange, doesn't the death rumor predate the website being updated?
- sp332 8y ago
  I might have misunderstood you, but presumably he didn't update the website with his own death date.

DoofusOfDeath 8y ago

If true this is really sad. Based on the little information I have about Terry, he seems like a basically nice guy victimized by mental illness.

Sileni 8y ago
Yeah, and clearly bright as hell if he could string together something as complicated as TempleOS. Imagine what he could have done if he had been able to direct it towards something more globally useful. RIP dude, hope there's a reward for determination in the afterlife.
- tokai 8y ago
  TempleOS is going to be hailed as one of the most impressive pieces of outsider art ever
  - Sileni 8y ago
    I hope so. I'm a little worried it'll only ever be appreciated in niche communities that really understand the depth of what he did. Maybe I'm not giving enough credit to fringe artists, but I don't know that it'd be easy to express how impressive it is to build a functional OS as a single person that could do as much as his did, with the hardware it was based on.
  - Retr0spectrum 8y ago
    Is it really outsider art though? Didn't he have a background in programming?
- craftyguy 8y ago
  > Imagine what he could have done if he had been able to direct it towards something more globally useful I find this comment extremely offensive. Gosh, imagine what Sileni could have done if they didn't spend time on HN!
  - saganus 8y ago

justinator 8y ago

Rest easy. You have finally escaped your demons.

jhare 8y ago

Compiling TempleOS in its native environment. RIP.

tomcam 8y ago
That is a lovely epitaph for a hacker. Do not understand downvotes on this
- jhare 8y ago
  I really appreciate Terry's work, if any consolation.

bencollier49 8y ago

What was the license on TempleOS? I know a lot of people thought it had clever language features. Will there be any continued development?

daeken 8y ago
It's released into the public domain.
deadmetheny 8y ago
It's public domain, and seeing as Terry was the sole author it's unlikely to have any sort of official continuation.
- andrewchambers 8y ago
  a fork with tcp support lives on - https://github.com/minexew/Shrine https://github.com/minexew/Shrine
  - danmg 8y ago
    a network stack has no place in the temple.

newnewpdro 8y ago

It appears he committed suicide by train [0]. His last youtube video from the local library made it sound like he wasn't having a particularly good time there. He's suffered so long from his mental illness, frankly I'm surprised it didn't happen earlier. I can't begin to imagine how difficult it's been living such a challenging life for all these years. From what I saw, occasionally watching his streams, there was a significant amount of internet bullying and general predation going on with Terry and it really messed with his already strained life. It's all a huge bummer. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/TempleOS_Official/comments/9c63qr/terry_davis_hit_by_a_train/ https://www.reddit.com/r/TempleOS_Official/comments/9c63qr/t...

pmarreck 8y ago
Obligatory: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK (8255) Our lives have far more worth than we know, of this I am convinced. The Internet bullying angle angers me.
- newnewpdro 8y ago
  > The Internet bullying angle angers me. He would probably still be alive had he never started streaming. It was brutal. He was unable to distinguish fake manipulative interactions from the truth. He live-streamed things like reading spoofed emails from internet crushes, presumably with those responsible watching as it unfolded, with total disregard for his well-being and mental condition.
  - pmarreck 8y ago
    I'd say I'd love to punch some people, but the sad truth is that whoever did those things likely had no idea what harm they were causing and did it for the attention
    - newnewpdro 8y ago
      You clearly haven't spent much time on 4chan.

sexydefinesher 8y ago

He will live on in legend.

m00dy 8y ago

I'm introduced to this guy via Hacker News. See you in another life, cowboy.

popsickle 8y ago

In his last YouTube upload (which is currently the only available video; it appears he deleted everything else from his channel) he says that he is now homeless and living outdoors. In the video he seems remarkably less lucid than he normally was in his previous videos, almost having problems with his speech, and his face looks like something entirely else than it did in his videos from a year ago when he was still living at his parents' home.

nv-vn 8y ago
Both of these are symptoms of schizophrenia. I imagine what we saw is him on meds vs. him off meds.
chei0iaV 8y ago
https://archive.org/details/TerryADavisTempleOSYouTubeChannelArchive/ https://archive.org/details/TerryADavisTempleOSYouTubeChanne...
wolfgke 8y ago
TempleOS Hardest Question in Programming > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uLzaKlZSQQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uLzaKlZSQQ

6nf 8y ago

I will miss you Terry

undershirt 8y ago

I overheard a guy gushing about TempleOS at a data jam last weekend. It was great. He really liked the fresh takes on the old-school freedoms of the commodore 64. I pried him for more and he graciously gave me a short walkthrough of his favorite features since he had it running on his laptop. I hope someone writes a book about it. I love learning about long term solo artworks like this that are difficult to appreciate. Pouring one out for this passionate artist tonight. rest in peace

mlevental 8y ago
>pried plied
cbHXBY1D 8y ago
Does anyone here have any contacts with the MOMA? I think TempleOS should be submitted.
- jedimastert 8y ago
  I actually like that idea a lot. I definitely think it's a work of art.

DanielBMarkham 8y ago

I don't know if this is the correct post for this or not, but I've been thinking about it for some time. We hackers and founders obviously suffer from mental illness and poverty, yet some of us do really well -- rich beyond most folks' understanding. I don't want to get into a discussion of "what's wrong with society". I just want to know: why aren't we taking care of our own? We obviously have the resources. If we can do a basic income experiment, we can take care of the Terry Davis's in the world. Why aren't we?

Fireflite 8y ago
Money alone can't guarantee good outcomes in cases of severe mental illness sadly. Our medications are not good enough, nor are they well-tolerated enough, and sometimes even with medication and money and strong supports and a willingness to try to improve patients still don't get better.
- DanielBMarkham 8y ago
  >>Money alone can't guarantee good outcomes in cases of severe mental illness sadly. An important point. I am not talking about giving people money. I'm asking if we care enough to try to figure out how to help them. I make no assumptions on what kinds of help would be useful or not.
  - saalweachter 8y ago
    There's going to be four things you have to confront when it comes to helping people. 1. Resources. Money and people are the two hardest resources, although space can also be a problem, especially when you start taking eg homeless shelters. It's not enough to have a big pile of money to spend on the problem, it's hard to find people who want to take on a front-line position in solving it. 2. Morality. It's odd to say, but one of the harder questions when trying to help people is how to do so morally. What if someone doesn't want help? What if they don't want the sort of help you want to give them? The low-hanging fruit of helping people is giving help to people who want it. What to do when someone refuses to leave a dangerous situation or refuses medical treatment is a hard question if you still want to help them. 3. Information. Having resources available to provide help to people who want it is all well and good, but if you don't know who needs help and people who need help don't know about you trying to give it, it doesn't do much good. Knowing who needs help is a really hard problem. Even if you have a vague notion that your neighbor is having a rough time of things, you don't always know how rough of a time, and they don't always tell you. 4. Risk. When you put yourself out there to help, you make yourself vulnerable. That scares a lot of people. Most people are nice people and most people aren't dangerous but some people aren't and are. If you do anything in the world that involves people, including helping them, problems will crop up. The challenge here is mitigating the risk of them without losing your humanity in the process. If the four points above don't daunt you, then the next thing is to avoid the classic hacker mistake: reinventing the wheel unnecessarily. There are countless organizations already trying to help people out there. Can you join one and help it help more hackers?

c3534l 8y ago

I'm not sure if Terry Davis should be considered like the outsider art of programming or more of a sad side show that captivated the internet's attention.

rjbwork 8y ago
Porque no los dos?
jacquesm 8y ago
Definitely the former.

Lapsa 8y ago

this dude taught me to really value simplicity. thank you

oh-kumudo 8y ago

Any introduction about this guy, his accomplishments and TempleOS in general?

kevinmchugh 8y ago
This is the only article I can remember reading about him: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/wnj43x/gods-lonely-programmer https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/wnj43x/gods-lonel...
- wolfgke 8y ago
  Another article that centers not around the person, but TempleOS: http://www.codersnotes.com/notes/a-constructive-look-at-templeos/ http://www.codersnotes.com/notes/a-constructive-look-at-temp...

jbaudanza 8y ago

I always thought of Terry as somewhat of an anti-hero of the hacker community. Most of us know what it feels like to go down a rabbit hole building something technically impressive, yet ultimately useless, because the voices in our heads told us to. In this way, Terry seemed vaguely relatable. This is a tragic outcome and I hope his family can find some peace.

yellowapple 8y ago
I think there's a lot in TempleOS that could/should be useful, though. It's basically a Lisp machine but with HolyC instead of Lisp. Plenty of valuable lessons to be learned in OS and compiler design.

tombert 8y ago

I'm not entirely sure why this is upsetting me so much, but I think it has to largely to do with empathy. While I'm nowhere as severe as Terry, I do suffer from manic depression (bipolar II), and if it weren't for the support of friends and family I'm certain I would have offed myself years ago. Terry suffered from an illness, but he was undoubtedly a smart guy. TempleOS and HolyC, even if they were niche, are certainly interesting projects, and aren't something that any lay-person could make. While I'm relatively certain that his racist profanity-filled posts are how he's going to be remembered, I'll try and think of him as a misguided and misunderstood person who needed more help than society was really able to provide.

malux85 8y ago
Thank you, I feel exactly the same way. It would be nice to see the black bar on HN. He needed a lot of help, but a great hacker has passed, and we should remember him for his work
- leibwiht 8y ago
  >It would be nice to see the black bar on HN. Seconding this. He was a great programmer, and deserves to be remembered.
  - zmix 8y ago
    Thirding this.
    - jacquesm 8y ago
      Terry definitely was an old-school hacker that didn't care about whether or not his products saw mass adoption, he did it because it was what he wanted to do most. There is a lot of humor in TempleOS and Terry in his more reasonable moments was actually a very nice and caring person. I spent some time trying to convince HN to look past his troubles but alas it did not come to pass.
      - 8y ago

nearmuse 8y ago

I have first heard of Terry Davis on HN. I am not American, so I couldn't probably do much. A lot of comments blame mental illness etc, whereas IMO, his condition being well known, an otherwise talented person like him should have been more taken care of by his relatives and anyone who was in capacity to recognize his good parts. So much people knew about him and him being so unique I thought someone would support him somehow.

SwellJoe 8y ago
As I understand it, some people did. He was living with his parents at one point, and had family support to at least some degree. Mental illness is tough sometimes...it's not always possible to protect an adult with mental illness from themselves (and it's not always safe to welcome an adult with mental illness into one's home or allow them to remain if their mental illness proves dangerous). There's a lot of discussion we, as citizens in the US, should have about safety nets for people with mental illness, and I think it's clear Terry wasn't getting the help he needed. There are homeless folks in every major city in America who are similarly dealing with mental illness, we just don't hear about them because they aren't brilliant programmers working on such an odd project that it almost demands attention from fellow nerds. We have no idea what hardships Terry's family dealt with. He was certainly brilliant, but not always kind or calm. I've found him fascinating for years (in a sort of "there but for the grace of god go I" sort of way, as severe mental illness runs in my family), but he could be incredibly hostile and unpredictable (in addition to the overt racism that ran throughout his work and words). He was banned from HN numerous times (someone linked an HN profile of his but he's had several) for his hostility and racism. I'm not saying this to speak ill of the dead here...it just seems awful to blame his surviving family when we know so little about what went on that led to him being homeless. I don't know that they'd ever see it, but it's still kinda shitty to blame someone's family for not doing enough, especially when we don't know anything about them or what they did for Terry.
- cbHXBY1D 8y ago
  In some of his videos his parents yell at him for racism and anti-semitism. IIRC they kicked him out at some point.

radium3d 8y ago

Was looking for info about TempleOS and found this video of him installing it on a VM and going over some of its features. NSFW, prepare for an abundance of profanity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBgIBF9Y6PE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBgIBF9Y6PE

hippiefahrzeug 8y ago
this is absolutely amazing!

malkia 8y ago

This was just posted on the IRC channel (https://kiwiirc.com/client/irc.rizon.net/#templeos https://kiwiirc.com/client/irc.rizon.net/#templeos) http://ia600600.us.archive.org/31/items/TerryADavis_TempleOS_Archive/ http://ia600600.us.archive.org/31/items/TerryADavis_TempleOS... from what I can quickly see - lots of videos, articles, ISOs, etc. R.I.P. Terry!

malkia 8y ago
Actually full msg: https://thepasteb.in/p/O7h5jQ47DAQFq https://thepasteb.in/p/O7h5jQ47DAQFq In Memoriam Terrance "Terry Muthafuckin" Andrew Davis Rest in Peace, 1969 - August 11th, 2018 Terry was hit by a train on August 11th around 9pm in The Dalles, Oregon, where he had been living on the streets, shortly after uploading the last video to his youtube channel [citation: https://media.8ch.net/file_store/8f7768746a7f506321a02470643aa737e0955efe715941cbc34c1325a4b03888.jpg https://media.8ch.net/file_store/8f7768746a7f506321a02470643...] Furthermore, BipolarBear, var-g, and some others claim similar emails/ phone calls to the police, as well as to The Chronicle (the paper that first published the train story) In addition, Therese Davis (Terry's sister) released a FaceBook post about his death, as well as some other poorly timed deaths. Furthermore, it seems TheTemple, who opperated a fake Terry Davis FaceBook account, released rumors of a fake Terry's death shortly after the real death but before anyone had knowledge of it. Archives of Terry media:https://archive.org/services/xsl.php?xsl=/includes/locations.xsl&xml=https://archive.org/services/find_file.php%3Floconly%3D1%26file%3DTerryADavis_TempleOS_Archive https://archive.org/services/xsl.php?xsl=/includes/locations...
- forapurpose 8y ago
  Who wrote that? > Therese Davis (Terry's sister) released a FaceBook post about his death, as well as some other poorly timed deaths. What does that mean?
esaym 8y ago
Looking at the archive and knowing that it will never have new content added is really hitting me hard right now :(

andrelaszlo 8y ago

Here's a few of the previous HN posts about Terry or TempleOS, unfortunately a lot of the links are broken: Terry's HN account https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=TerryADavis https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=TerryADavis TempleOS creator Terry Davis is homeless and living in a van https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16105043 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16105043 TempleOS is applying to Y Combinator. Partners desired, send an email https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9246855 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9246855 A Constructive Look at TempleOS https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9681501 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9681501 TempleOS: 5 minute random code walkthrough https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8349910 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8349910 Porting third-party programs to TempleOS https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9843065 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9843065 TempleOS: FlightSim and FirstPersonShooter https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9673554 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9673554 Mal Lisp for TempleOS https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15840054 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15840054 Mega Man for TempleOS https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13971627 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13971627

daxorid 8y ago
I believe that https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=TempleOS https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=TempleOS is also one of his HN accounts, with some more recent posts.
- adamrezich 8y ago
  I wouldn't necessarily believe it, I've seen many posts on multiple boards on 4chan wherein people claim to make Terry impersonation accounts on HN specifically to troll
  - ayy_lmao 8y ago
    Yeah. His Facebook account was hijacked by someone pretending to be him / created a fake account and added Terry's family members. Lots of fake screenshots are circulating around, so "proofs" by screenshots of emails are doubtful at most. The guy who admittedly impressioned Terry on social networks is also known for taking money from Terry's PayPal. (Along with at least another guy who manipulated Terry into giving him $200). He said he did all of this "out of concern for Terry" It's the same guy who first claimed Terry's death on twitter. He's now in damage control and wiping his internet presence after the infinity Chan crowd is trying to link him to the events. Lot of disinformation around. Some people refuse to believe Terry's death until confirmed by a third party. Some other are spreading FUD and flood with stuff like "he's dead lads. Let's all forget and move on, shall we?" Some are just trolling around falsifying screenshots and "proofs". And some are just derailing threads to pull down any constructive discussion. And in this shitfest, kiwifarm is avoiding the blame and accuse others and whenever someone point a finger at them.

arionhardison 8y ago

Sometimes... racism is just racism, not mental illness. There seems this huge rush for people to "white wash" away all of the characteristics they don't like in someone; this is intellectually cowardly. The man was a great programmer...and a racist. The two things are not mutually exclusive but when people like you choose to just gloss over this and other acts of racism it helps to continue the cycle of racist patting each other on the back and telling each other its OK, wink wink

tokai 8y ago
Your indifference to the hardships of having a mental illness is nauseating. You think bigotry is a good tool to fight racism?
- arionhardison 8y ago
  Your indifference to the troubles and hardship of people that have to deal with racist is nauseating. You think ignoring it and calling it by a different name is a good tool to fight racism?
  - tokai 8y ago
    You have no idea what psychosis does to you do you? Also you know nothing of my stance on racism. But I can clearly read how much of a bigot you are.
    - arionhardison 8y ago
      Its a bit ironic to be called a bigot by someone who is upset that I refuse to praise a racist.
      - tokai 8y ago
        Again you are putting words in my mouth. I'm upset of your lack of understanding for the mentally ill.

VikingCoder 8y ago

Pretty sure this would be seen as defiling TempleOS... but as a way to preserve it, can someone get it to run inside WebAssembly? Maybe inside a VM?

freedomben 8y ago
Terry himself does it, so I think it can be run on a VM while maintaining the purity of the OS (there's a lot of profanity): https://youtu.be/mBgIBF9Y6PE https://youtu.be/mBgIBF9Y6PE

andreygrehov 8y ago

Terry was such an interesting dude. Just check out his response to all the haters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBgIBF9Y6PE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBgIBF9Y6PE

meddlepal 8y ago

Great programmer; unfortunate illness. RIP.

ryan-allen 8y ago
F

acali 8y ago

Terry Davis' legacy will be remembered by a lot of different communities. I found him through a YT video that focused on his controversial side but was pretty inspired by his projects. All I can say is he touched a lot of different people and his legacy/infamy is vast.

danso 8y ago

HN’s interactions involving Mr. Davis — at the user and admin level — was always interesting and enlightening to see, in terms of how an online community should accommodate someone with mental illness while not tolerating the rants he was prone to make. Thank you to everyone who have and continue to openly and honestly discuss mental health issues.

danmg 8y ago
Ultimately, it was very disappointing, since the resolution was to hellban him---The electronic version of trying not to make eye contact and treating him like an animal.

canhascodez 8y ago

I have absolutely no interest in TempleOS as a codebase, and I can't imagine that many people would ever want to use it as their main OS. However, Terry Davis and TempleOS expanded my conception of the possibilities of computing. Alan Perlis said, "A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing," and by that standard, I think that Terry and TempleOS have secured an eternal legacy.

peteforde 8y ago

Terry came to an event I helped host many years ago and showed off his baffling inventions. We felt a bit bad because it was really intended to be just a party, but he'd made a huge effort to come and so we set up and area and let him demo. It was the kind of crazy that I'm sure resembled Tesla's less-good ideas, but everyone there was in agreement that while we didn't plan to switch, what he showed was truly original. Like many of you, this story makes me really sad. I struggle with mental illness, but not like Terry did. It had to have been hard - not a strong enough word - and I never feel like we're doing enough to help. All I can do, at this point, is stand and be counted.

_zskd 8y ago

I am loving the empathy people are feeling for Terry Davis in this thread. His final video is heart breaking. Terry was the proverbial homeless person: Schizophrenic and paranoid. Too sick to be helped or supported. It's easy to get frustrated with the homeless people you see day to day, but I think it's extremely important we acknowledge these people's humanity and keep them from becoming wallpaper.

jacquesm 8y ago
> Too sick to be helped or supported. I disagree with that. He definitely was not too sick to be helped or supported.

noarchy 8y ago

Terry Davis was a bright individual who was, even with his handicaps, able to produce something noteworthy. Many people viewed his pursuits with some disdain, but I doubt most of them have produced anything on that level. It is worth noting that he would not have been able to truly participate in this very discussion, due to the shadowbans he received on multiple accounts.

EliRivers 8y ago

For those thinking about hacking on TempleOS, here's Jack Whitham getting started: https://www.jwhitham.org/2015/07/porting-third-party-programs-to-templeos.html https://www.jwhitham.org/2015/07/porting-third-party-program...

volkisch 8y ago

King Terry has risen.

leibwiht 8y ago

Why is this on the second page when it has >400 points + 135 comments in 2 hours? It was at the top position on the front page at first. Did someone manually alter it?

eletious 8y ago
Perhaps I am seeing patterns where there are none, but I've seen that articles with the wrong kind of controversial potential sometimes get bumped back. I'm having difficulty putting it to words, though, and can't produce any evidence to back it up. It's a real shame, sometimes. I feel there is a lot that can be learned from Terry Davis and TempleOS.
- jey 8y ago
  Yes, there are definitely different weights for threads based on multiple factors such as flags, certain domains/topics, and manual intervention by the mods.

asveikau 8y ago

I saw from this image: https://ia600600.us.archive.org/31/items/TerryADavis_TempleOS_Archive/fan%20media/images/Terry%20Davis%20Death%20Evidence.png https://ia600600.us.archive.org/31/items/TerryADavis_TempleO... That somebody [his family?] was encouraging people to donate to the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation. I know from my own research into nonprofits that this is seemingly a good and legit charity for mental health research. I would encourage HN readers to check it out.

jason_slack 8y ago

Dear Terry, I didn’t know you...but I respected you. You had mad coding chops and a sense of humor one can appreciate when they view your YouTube videos. Reviewing the code of TempleOS made me a better programmer. Long live Holy C and 640x480... RIP and thank you. A virtual friend.

thedragonline 8y ago
Watching him drop undecorated assembly code into his Holy C editor and then wrap it in a for loop was an eye-opener for me. Even more interesting was the one-line function call with a sprite object argument that is 'printed' in the console. Thought-provoking to say the least. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBgIBF9Y6PE&t=451s&has_verified=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBgIBF9Y6PE&t=451s&has_verif... 9:20 mark. It's Terry so the language is NSFW. RIP
- jason_slack 8y ago
  Thanks! Watching him over the years made me start writing my own tools for a lot of things instead of just accepting what functionality an app provide and how they choose to provide it.

HyperTalk2 8y ago

He would have been furious about the request to donate to mental health organizations being on his website.

tscherno 8y ago

Thanks for the inspiration, RIP

Apaec 8y ago

I was always fascinated by Terry Davis work, but for some strange reason I also watched a lot of his more casual videos, like "Picnic Monet" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBtkHMdh_V8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBtkHMdh_V8. I'll make sure to tell the legend of "el solitario programador de dios" to my fellow countrymen. Descansa en paz Terry.

johnalamosisi 8y ago

So sad

654wak654 8y ago

I think the reason he's so popular within the tech community is because he's _very_ relatable to some of us in a dark way. Most tech people see themselves as artistic geniuses who can hack things like TempleOS, but almost all are also suffering from mental illness in some way. Sure, being socially awkward in conversation isn't exactly comparable to Terry's schizophrenia; still it's very easy to reflect our physiological fears on him these days where depression (or detection of depression) rates have skyrocketed. I don't know, maybe I'm more crazy than average, but this feels like a good explanation of why people are so obsessed with him. Not every homeless person in the US gets enough donation money from 4chan to run their own website and video show.

sunseb 8y ago

This guy definitely belongs to the hacker community. He was a weirdo, a misfit, a nerd, like many of us. There is always a thin line between being a genius and being insane.

kyle-rb 8y ago

RIP Terry. I hope he finally gets his space alien.

Zelmor 8y ago

He was mentally ill, didn't take his medicine and harrassed female youtubers like Physics Girl via email on livestreams. Circlejerking degenerates took turns on praising him and baiting him while building a cult on 4chan's tech board, ultimately enabling his dementia induced behaviours. It was a downward cycle that only had one outcome: suicide. I'm not glad he is dead, but I'm glad he is gone.

danmg 8y ago
> "Version of SorryNotSorry You're dead" Fuck you.

newnewpdro 8y ago

For those wanting further confirmation that Terry was the man killed by a train in The Dalles, OR: http://www.thedalleschronicle.com/news/2018/sep/07/man-killed-train-had-tech-following/ http://www.thedalleschronicle.com/news/2018/sep/07/man-kille...

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]