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He wasn't just a programmer. He was also a Counter-Strike: Source pro and a legend of the New Zealand CS scene. He was a goalkeeper for the country's national f

He wasn't just a programmer. He was also a Counter-Strike: Source pro and a legend of the New Zealand CS scene. He was a goalkeeper for the country's national futsal team (indoor-soccer) and won two national titles and a player of the year award. He was a car enthusiast who custom-built a beautiful BMW and won the "Best V8 Engine" award at a show and shine competition. On top of all of that, he was a programmer who founded LazyWorm Apps and developed apps like MetroTube and Tweetro+. According to one of the lead software guys at Microsoft, MetroTube was once the most popular app on the Windows store. Most importantly, he was a father of a 2-year-old girl. His loss is tragic and I had to write about it. I shared this elsewhere and I was referred to this amazing place and asked to share it here as well, so I did. Thank you to anyone who reads his story.

XMasterrrr 8y ago
Thanks for reminding us, all of us, that the people affected by hate crimes are people with stories, just like us, not numbers. Same ambitious, similar hobbies, beloved, and gone too soon.
vtange 8y ago
It's insane how many really, really, good people we lose to tragedies like this... 9/11 took away one of the founders of Akamai(the CDN company). Even the recent 737 crash took away some really accomplished people from humanity. It's a constant reminder of the fragility of life and how easily one can lose a loved one or oneself these days.
- pjc50 8y ago
  This kind of thing is why the "NPC" meme and other dehumanizing language is so dangerous. Everyone is a person with a story, achievements, fears, and family. Often really surprising.
  - spamizbad 8y ago
    That meme never registered as problematic to me (at least by meme standards) but you’re correct. I always felt it outed its creators as lacking theory of mind; why does a large group of people have different shared beliefs than me? They must lack the ability to think independently like everyone else in my cliquey subculture!
    - epicureanideal 8y ago
      But let's acknowledge the truth that there are plenty of people who really don't think critically. Certainly some people will label others as "not thinking critically" when they really just think differently, but let's agree the former category does exist, and it's not a small population.
      - spamizbad 8y ago
        But most people do think critically. Have you considered this phenomenon to simply be shared or group cognition (also something nearly everyone experiences), rather than a lack of critical thinking skills?
        epicureanideal 8y ago
        I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree about most people thinking critically. I don't have anything other than personal experience to justify my position and a quick Google search wasn't able to turn up any convincing studies. Group cognition (from a quick skim of a Wikipedia article about it) doesn't seem to justify lack of individual critical thinking though. It seems to be more like a term to describe a process, like "memes" and "idea viruses". It doesn't substitute for individual critical thinking.
  - epicureanideal 8y ago
    I don't think of the NPC meme as especially harmful. Although I don't propagate this meme, I think it's an interesting way of poking fun at people who truly don't think critically about their opinions and sort of absorb opinions by osmosis from the media. I think a strategy of poking fun at people who don't think critically might be one of several possibly useful ways to change that trend. The NPC meme also seems like a possibly useful way to psychologically deal with the fact that there are many people whose minds simply cannot be changed no matter how rationally you try to explain your perspective. As with any idea, the danger is in misapplication. For example, if someone simply stops trying to change others' minds when it's really still possible but the NPC meme causes them to ignore that possibility, then it doesn't help improve the world. Or if a misguided individual who doesn't distinguish meme from reality uses it to dehumanize people in their mind, then that's a problem.
  - hpe8fq 8y ago
    The NPC meme is not about dehumanisation. It's about mocking people with no critical thinking which just parrot what they hear. Nothing more.
  - ltmnnggr 8y ago
    Dehumanization like being labeled a racist or white supremacist for supporting a certain president?
  - 0x8BADF00D 8y ago
    Everyone is a person with a story, but living life with that awareness is unnecessarily burdensome. Self-awareness is more important than the awareness of others’ stories. Obsession with other people’s life stories leads to hero worship and constant comparison with them, making you unhappy because you couldn’t check off as many checkboxes as them. This is another form of unhealthy thinking, the inverse of narcissism.
    - ngcc_hk 8y ago
      What is unnecsssry? What is obsession? Any contradiction between self aware and be empathy with your human life live sane time as you. You can live a life that concern only yourselves. Yes! Life is impermanent, obsessive with oneself and pain is everywhere. As a branch of Buddhism would said. You can also note if that is so all religion and all givernment can disappear as love thy Neigbour, be empathy and still with the world instead of going to nirvana himself, many governments are bad but anarchy may not be good either. No one sure what is the best approach for one life. But what you said seems odd. May those died live in peace now. Let the living continue. We will continue do evil and good thing. Choose. Every seconds of it. That is life. RIP ultimately we all know.
- eridius 8y ago
  It's insane how many people we lose to tragedies like this. Every person is valuable. We shouldn't just lament the loss of people with notable accomplishments. We should mourn every single person, and do what we can to prevent this from happening again.
  - alexandre_m 8y ago
    "Every person is valuable" That's a truism, no one would deny that. But stories make a larger impact and are most valuable when you hear these tragic events. Otherwise all you're left with is number of death counts, which brings far less consideration for distant people, sadly.
    - benj111 8y ago
      I think a good point is raised about why this guy. There were 50 people that all had lives, but we picked on the tech guy. It ends up feeling mildly disrespectful. Like we aren't remembering this guy because of his achievements, we're remembering him because of how he died, and now he's been reduced to his achievements. I don't know. You could make a case that people in the community knew him, so it makes sense to remember him. Maybe its 'good' that he had any positive achievements worthy of note at all. Most deaths don't warrant even a footnote.
      - krapp 8y ago
        >There were 50 people that all had lives, but we picked on the tech guy. It ends up feeling mildly disrespectful. Let's be realistic - there being a "tech guy" is the only reason this story is on topic. Hacker News is not supposed to be a place to discuss mainstream events, however tragic they may be, or the deaths of people not relevant to the tech community.
        eridius 8y ago
        My comment wasn't complaining about HN focusing on the tech guy. It was specifically a response to the sentiment > It's insane how many really, really, good people we lose to tragedies like this A story about the tech guy is a reason to be on HN. But statements like the above just serve to trivialize the deaths of those not deemed "really good people".
- coldtea 8y ago
  >Even the recent 737 crash took away some really accomplished people from humanity And some less accomplished, if those matter at all...
dbt00 8y ago
Thanks for writing and posting this.
mingabunga 8y ago
Thanks for writing this - it's an awesome read about a fantastic guy. Atta worked for me for 7 years in Christchurch (the last 3-4 years he was doing these apps on the side, then setting up his business). He was a lovely positive guy and I had total respect for him. Our two companies would catchup occasionally and we all enjoyed his company. He was a real role model to anyone who wanted to be the best they can. It's such a great shame this has happened and I feel so sad for his family (his father was also shot but is in Hospital). Unbelievable that this has happened.
- twistedlogicx 8y ago
  Thank you so much for your words and I'm so sorry for the loss of your friend. I hope those that are suffering most from his absence (and the absence of all of the other Christchurch victims) can some day reach a point of healing.
huckyaus 8y ago
I played countless games of casual CS with Atta while running GotGames, which hosted the majority of Aus/NZ pro CS:S tournaments back in the day. He was a kind and warm influence in a scene which harbored its fair share of immaturity and vitriol. He'll be sorely missed.
Upvoter33 8y ago
Thank you for this beautiful story. Each person is a universe and clearly his loss will be felt by many. This mad world we live in saddens me greatly.
spronkey 8y ago
Good words. I attended university with Atta many years ago and we remained (distant) friends since. He was a legend back then as a CS:S player and a BMW enthusiast, and pretty good at our regular "Quake Breaks" as well. His company LWA Solutions, that was born out of LazyWorm Apps, did some work for the company I work for. Atta in particular was a driving force behind some of their really cool innovations - in VR. He was one of the first people I knew of who was using a tablet as a mock UI sketchbook, and producing some really cool work despite the awful capacitive touch pens of the time. It's so difficult to reconcile his murder. He was such a genuine guy with so much ahead of him, and I'm so sorry for his family.
- twistedlogicx 8y ago
  I appreciate these comments from the people who knew him more than anything else. Thank you for your words and I'm so sorry for your loss.
- Pristina 8y ago
  >It's so difficult to reconcile his murder. Why would you want to reconcile his murder?
  - bracobama 8y ago
    Reconcile, despite its economic association, can also mean to 'come to terms with' something, i.e. to accept that this man has passed away.
Pristina 8y ago
Is the implication that if he wasn't a counter strike pro, or a goalkeeper for the nation futsal team, or that he built a BMW, or a programmer, that his life would have been worth less? At the end of the day, his life is precious to him as much as anybody's life is to themself. And to the shooter he's just another 'invader'. I didn't know of him before and I honestly will forget in a week, maybe a faint memory as "that programmer guy who got killed in christchurch". Why is he more important to write about than the other 49 who got snuffed out by the nationalist in his ideological war?
- all_factz 8y ago
  WTH. We’re appreciating the life of this one guy, whom many of us happen to relate to because we’re also programmers. That doesn’t diminish the lives of anyone else who was slain at Christchurch.
indemnity 8y ago
Thank you for sharing his story. It’s saddening how many people are robbed of the kind of friendship they could have with people who are different yet the same in so many ways, because of this learned hatred.
mysterydip 8y ago
Sounds like someone I would've been friends with. Thanks for bringing humanity to the headline.
erklik 8y ago
Holy crap. How many things can a guy do? That's a bunch of different and varied interests. Thank you so much for writing the story.
Ozzie_osman 8y ago
This is a great writeup. Thanks for sharing. I do wish you had mentioned that he is originally Palestinian.

XMasterrrr 8y ago

Thanks for reminding us, all of us, that the people affected by hate crimes are people with stories, just like us, not numbers. Same ambitious, similar hobbies, beloved, and gone too soon.

vtange 8y ago

It's insane how many really, really, good people we lose to tragedies like this... 9/11 took away one of the founders of Akamai(the CDN company). Even the recent 737 crash took away some really accomplished people from humanity. It's a constant reminder of the fragility of life and how easily one can lose a loved one or oneself these days.

pjc50 8y ago
This kind of thing is why the "NPC" meme and other dehumanizing language is so dangerous. Everyone is a person with a story, achievements, fears, and family. Often really surprising.
- spamizbad 8y ago
  That meme never registered as problematic to me (at least by meme standards) but you’re correct. I always felt it outed its creators as lacking theory of mind; why does a large group of people have different shared beliefs than me? They must lack the ability to think independently like everyone else in my cliquey subculture!
  - epicureanideal 8y ago
    But let's acknowledge the truth that there are plenty of people who really don't think critically. Certainly some people will label others as "not thinking critically" when they really just think differently, but let's agree the former category does exist, and it's not a small population.
    - spamizbad 8y ago
      But most people do think critically. Have you considered this phenomenon to simply be shared or group cognition (also something nearly everyone experiences), rather than a lack of critical thinking skills?
      - epicureanideal 8y ago
        I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree about most people thinking critically. I don't have anything other than personal experience to justify my position and a quick Google search wasn't able to turn up any convincing studies. Group cognition (from a quick skim of a Wikipedia article about it) doesn't seem to justify lack of individual critical thinking though. It seems to be more like a term to describe a process, like "memes" and "idea viruses". It doesn't substitute for individual critical thinking.
- epicureanideal 8y ago
  I don't think of the NPC meme as especially harmful. Although I don't propagate this meme, I think it's an interesting way of poking fun at people who truly don't think critically about their opinions and sort of absorb opinions by osmosis from the media. I think a strategy of poking fun at people who don't think critically might be one of several possibly useful ways to change that trend. The NPC meme also seems like a possibly useful way to psychologically deal with the fact that there are many people whose minds simply cannot be changed no matter how rationally you try to explain your perspective. As with any idea, the danger is in misapplication. For example, if someone simply stops trying to change others' minds when it's really still possible but the NPC meme causes them to ignore that possibility, then it doesn't help improve the world. Or if a misguided individual who doesn't distinguish meme from reality uses it to dehumanize people in their mind, then that's a problem.
- hpe8fq 8y ago
  The NPC meme is not about dehumanisation. It's about mocking people with no critical thinking which just parrot what they hear. Nothing more.
- ltmnnggr 8y ago
  Dehumanization like being labeled a racist or white supremacist for supporting a certain president?
- 0x8BADF00D 8y ago
  Everyone is a person with a story, but living life with that awareness is unnecessarily burdensome. Self-awareness is more important than the awareness of others’ stories. Obsession with other people’s life stories leads to hero worship and constant comparison with them, making you unhappy because you couldn’t check off as many checkboxes as them. This is another form of unhealthy thinking, the inverse of narcissism.
  - ngcc_hk 8y ago
    What is unnecsssry? What is obsession? Any contradiction between self aware and be empathy with your human life live sane time as you. You can live a life that concern only yourselves. Yes! Life is impermanent, obsessive with oneself and pain is everywhere. As a branch of Buddhism would said. You can also note if that is so all religion and all givernment can disappear as love thy Neigbour, be empathy and still with the world instead of going to nirvana himself, many governments are bad but anarchy may not be good either. No one sure what is the best approach for one life. But what you said seems odd. May those died live in peace now. Let the living continue. We will continue do evil and good thing. Choose. Every seconds of it. That is life. RIP ultimately we all know.
eridius 8y ago
It's insane how many people we lose to tragedies like this. Every person is valuable. We shouldn't just lament the loss of people with notable accomplishments. We should mourn every single person, and do what we can to prevent this from happening again.
- alexandre_m 8y ago
  "Every person is valuable" That's a truism, no one would deny that. But stories make a larger impact and are most valuable when you hear these tragic events. Otherwise all you're left with is number of death counts, which brings far less consideration for distant people, sadly.
  - benj111 8y ago
    I think a good point is raised about why this guy. There were 50 people that all had lives, but we picked on the tech guy. It ends up feeling mildly disrespectful. Like we aren't remembering this guy because of his achievements, we're remembering him because of how he died, and now he's been reduced to his achievements. I don't know. You could make a case that people in the community knew him, so it makes sense to remember him. Maybe its 'good' that he had any positive achievements worthy of note at all. Most deaths don't warrant even a footnote.
    - krapp 8y ago
      >There were 50 people that all had lives, but we picked on the tech guy. It ends up feeling mildly disrespectful. Let's be realistic - there being a "tech guy" is the only reason this story is on topic. Hacker News is not supposed to be a place to discuss mainstream events, however tragic they may be, or the deaths of people not relevant to the tech community.
      - eridius 8y ago
        My comment wasn't complaining about HN focusing on the tech guy. It was specifically a response to the sentiment > It's insane how many really, really, good people we lose to tragedies like this A story about the tech guy is a reason to be on HN. But statements like the above just serve to trivialize the deaths of those not deemed "really good people".
coldtea 8y ago
>Even the recent 737 crash took away some really accomplished people from humanity And some less accomplished, if those matter at all...

dbt00 8y ago

Thanks for writing and posting this.

mingabunga 8y ago

Thanks for writing this - it's an awesome read about a fantastic guy. Atta worked for me for 7 years in Christchurch (the last 3-4 years he was doing these apps on the side, then setting up his business). He was a lovely positive guy and I had total respect for him. Our two companies would catchup occasionally and we all enjoyed his company. He was a real role model to anyone who wanted to be the best they can. It's such a great shame this has happened and I feel so sad for his family (his father was also shot but is in Hospital). Unbelievable that this has happened.

twistedlogicx 8y ago
Thank you so much for your words and I'm so sorry for the loss of your friend. I hope those that are suffering most from his absence (and the absence of all of the other Christchurch victims) can some day reach a point of healing.

huckyaus 8y ago

I played countless games of casual CS with Atta while running GotGames, which hosted the majority of Aus/NZ pro CS:S tournaments back in the day. He was a kind and warm influence in a scene which harbored its fair share of immaturity and vitriol. He'll be sorely missed.

Upvoter33 8y ago

Thank you for this beautiful story. Each person is a universe and clearly his loss will be felt by many. This mad world we live in saddens me greatly.

spronkey 8y ago

Good words. I attended university with Atta many years ago and we remained (distant) friends since. He was a legend back then as a CS:S player and a BMW enthusiast, and pretty good at our regular "Quake Breaks" as well. His company LWA Solutions, that was born out of LazyWorm Apps, did some work for the company I work for. Atta in particular was a driving force behind some of their really cool innovations - in VR. He was one of the first people I knew of who was using a tablet as a mock UI sketchbook, and producing some really cool work despite the awful capacitive touch pens of the time. It's so difficult to reconcile his murder. He was such a genuine guy with so much ahead of him, and I'm so sorry for his family.

twistedlogicx 8y ago
I appreciate these comments from the people who knew him more than anything else. Thank you for your words and I'm so sorry for your loss.
Pristina 8y ago
>It's so difficult to reconcile his murder. Why would you want to reconcile his murder?
- bracobama 8y ago
  Reconcile, despite its economic association, can also mean to 'come to terms with' something, i.e. to accept that this man has passed away.

Pristina 8y ago

Is the implication that if he wasn't a counter strike pro, or a goalkeeper for the nation futsal team, or that he built a BMW, or a programmer, that his life would have been worth less? At the end of the day, his life is precious to him as much as anybody's life is to themself. And to the shooter he's just another 'invader'. I didn't know of him before and I honestly will forget in a week, maybe a faint memory as "that programmer guy who got killed in christchurch". Why is he more important to write about than the other 49 who got snuffed out by the nationalist in his ideological war?

all_factz 8y ago
WTH. We’re appreciating the life of this one guy, whom many of us happen to relate to because we’re also programmers. That doesn’t diminish the lives of anyone else who was slain at Christchurch.

indemnity 8y ago

Thank you for sharing his story. It’s saddening how many people are robbed of the kind of friendship they could have with people who are different yet the same in so many ways, because of this learned hatred.

mysterydip 8y ago

Sounds like someone I would've been friends with. Thanks for bringing humanity to the headline.

erklik 8y ago

Holy crap. How many things can a guy do? That's a bunch of different and varied interests. Thank you so much for writing the story.

Ozzie_osman 8y ago

This is a great writeup. Thanks for sharing. I do wish you had mentioned that he is originally Palestinian.