8 ms·

Yandex CTO and co-founder has died

236 points by cinskiy 13y ago

CReber 13y ago
Sad news :/ Here is the press release btw (link was broken for me) http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/yandex-announces-death-of-co-founder-and-cto-ilya-segalovich-20130725-00043 http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/yandex-announces-death-o...
dmak 13y ago
I misinterpreted the title and thought 2 people died.
- beaker52 13y ago
  me too.
- consta 13y ago
  same here
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- cinskiy 13y ago
  Sorry, fixed the mistake.
xijuan 13y ago
Rest In Peace... Really sad to hear this news...
adamnemecek 13y ago
'May he find peace' seems appropriate considering his profession.
remcobron 13y ago
How sad to hear. For those not fammiliar with Yandex check out the interview we did with the other founder, Arkady Voloz, who tells the story of Yandex: http://blip.tv/vincent-everts/ceo-arkady-voloz-tells-the-story-of-yandex-2272959 http://blip.tv/vincent-everts/ceo-arkady-voloz-tells-the-sto...
xenator 13y ago
Cancer killed another great IT person. Very sad news.
f902370 13y ago
What's wrong with 2013?
- jschuur 13y ago
  Without death, would we be as motivated to live life?
  - brilee 13y ago
    In a land of immortality, would you willingly give yourself an 80-year death contract in order to motivate yourself to live your life?
  - microb 13y ago
    Please. Give Einstein, John Von Neumann or Francis Crick another 50 years on this planet and tell me the world would be worse off because of it.
    - jacquesm 13y ago
      Didn't Crick advocate Eugenics?
    - egor83 13y ago
      ...Stalin, Franco, Pinochet?
    - nikster 13y ago
      Maybe none of these guys would have done what they've done. Maybe they'd never even have been born, their parents being to lazy. Maybe we'd never have evolved from being pretty comfortable monkeys sitting around - why would we have evolved to breed, to love sex, and to make babies at all? Babies are just competition to an immortal being. Bottom line is, none of us would be around to mourn the passing of an apparently very nice person. RIP Ilya.
      - TeMPOraL 13y ago
        > Maybe we'd never have evolved from being pretty comfortable monkeys sitting around - why would we have evolved to breed, to love sex, and to make babies at all? But we are here now, and we don't want to die. Death might have been useful in the past, but now it's the high time for it to go away.
forlorn 13y ago
Sad irony. Today I got an invitation to Yandex.Islands and at once recalled his presentation (video: http://events.yandex.ru/events/yac/m/talks/816/ http://events.yandex.ru/events/yac/m/talks/816/ ). In an hour I read the news...
numair 13y ago
Truly sad; what a brilliant guy. And a real class act... None of the money-throwing antics[1] of some of his peers. Just a brilliant, modest dude. Quite fittingly, the Yandex translation is superior to the Google translate version: http://translate.yandex.net/tr-url/en+ru.en/clubs.ya.ru/company/69367?nocookiesupport=yes http://translate.yandex.net/tr-url/en+ru.en/clubs.ya.ru/comp... 1: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57442907-71/russias-zuckerberg-throws-money-out-the-window/ http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57442907-71/russias-zucker...
- kombine 13y ago
  I wouldn't be so sure it's superior: Google: "But he left behind a whole new generation of programmers, an entire school. And it sets the level of ethical standards for all of us." vs Yandex: "But he left behind a whole new generation of programmers, a whole school. And its ethical standards specified the level of all of us." Google: "Tonight, he was gone." vs Yandex "Tonight he was not." And RIP Ilya. Many people who knew him said he was a very good person. He didn't spoke in public often, did his work, supported charity and also had an active political stance. What a loss.
  - Zikes 13y ago
    With zero knowledge of the source language, those two translations make me think that they were going for "Tonight, he is no more."
rorrr2 13y ago
Stomach cancer, unexpected exacerbation. Fuck cancer.
- ekianjo 13y ago
  Stomach cancer is extremely deadly. That's one of the worst ones to get... It's quite rare to get it very young, though.
  - VladRussian2 13y ago
    While i don't know about this guy specifically, Russia has high rate of smoking. Coincidentally, several prominent Russian people i've checked out about recently happened to had died from stomach cancer relatively young.
    - znowi 13y ago
      Apparently, Russia is the 4th most smoking country in the world, behind Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece [1]. "According to a survey reported in 2010 by Russia’s Health and Social Development Ministry, 43.9 million adults in Russia are smokers. Among Russians aged 19 to 44 years, 7 in 10 men smoke and 4 in 10 women smoke." [2] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_cigarette_consumption_per_capita http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_cigarette_... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Russia#Smoking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Russia#Smoking
    - raverbashing 13y ago
      The absurd amount of alcoholic beverages also help I'm not in any way against the moderate consumption of alcohol but the russians are in another level, really Just to be clear: I'm not implying this is the case
      - mjolk 13y ago
        And Russians also eat a lot of salty food. Just to be clear: I'm not implying that smoking, drinking, or eating salty food was the cause of his stomach cancer, I'm just generalizing based on stereotypes that I know.
nine_k 13y ago
Very sad news :( Besides being a great CTO, he kept helping orphaned children [1] and taught juggling (right at Yandex office). [1] These children: http://mariaschildren.ru/content/view/141/96/ http://mariaschildren.ru/content/view/141/96/
- OldSchool 13y ago
  He obviously had a huge heart for these innocents. The average outlook for orphans in Russia who are not adopted is bleak, with many ending up in prison or dead within a few years after being released into society at age 16 or so. Due to entirely unrelated political forces, the US is banned from adopting them for now, with no change in sight. There are many children throughout the world dreaming of having parents some day. I suggest to all, when you make your hacker fortune, buy one fewer of your favorite cars and adopt an orphan if you have a heart for children.
meadhikari 13y ago
missing the black bar on top
- cinskiy 13y ago
  Yandex made its whole logo black.
dakrisht 13y ago
RIP to a young and brilliant man. Go out there and live the day, hug your loved ones, enjoy the sun, work hard, don't think about taking over the world and being the next Steve Jobs, stay humble, you're given one life - go out there and make life proud that you are a part of it. Memento mori
- mjolk 13y ago
  While platitudes generally go over well on hacker news, I'm curious how one can "make life proud that you are a part of it." Should one also try to "make time notice that you exist" or "make gravity work for it?"
  - jentulman 13y ago
    I intend to give all these a go by buying a self winding watch and hopping to work everyday and remembering to take a moment to wish everyone I pass a good day and good health.
    - mjolk 13y ago
      10:50 status: left home 3 hours ago, almost at the train station to go to work. number of times maced: 1. number of children hurriedly pulled away from me: 7.
kayoone 13y ago
Very sad if someone passes at such a (relativly) young age. Even more so when he made the world a better place for so many people.
pmoehring 13y ago
Such an incredible person. I've met him a couple of times, and he was always smiling, inquisitive and much nicer than you would ever expect. The good go early.
girvo 13y ago
Very very sad. A good reminder to do what you love. In the wise words of the modern day poet, Nas: "'cause you never know when ya gonna go" RIP mate.
danabramov 13y ago
UPD: Ilya is in coma with no brain activity, but not dead yet. (http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fru.reuters.com%2Farticle%2FoddlyEnoughNews%2FidRUMSE96O03O20130725&act=url http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&pre...) -- Ilya was very vocal about his contempt for falsifications in Russian elections. He went to protests and helped develop an app for election observers. This app helped volunteers submit proofs of violations during the elections. http://webnabludatel.org http://webnabludatel.org He adopted several children and hated the recent law forbidding child adoption by USA citizens. He will be missed by many. --- Edit 1: Rephrased the first sentence per suggestion in reply Edit 2: Added recent info about coma
- guard-of-terra 13y ago
  This sounds defamatory to his colleagues. Most of whom also watched those elections and participate in political activities. It's just that Ilya was the most brightly burning among them all.
  - danabramov 13y ago
    Thanks, I didn't mean to imply this. I edited the post.
- CanSpice 13y ago
  The press release on Yandex's website says he's dead. http://company.yandex.com/press_center/press_releases/2013/2013-07-25.xml http://company.yandex.com/press_center/press_releases/2013/2...
josephpmay 13y ago
Until today, I had never heard of Yandex. I do have to say that their search quality appears to be very high, and I may use them as a Google alternate in the future. Is there any specific reason why they don't have much traction in the US?
- omgtehlion 13y ago
  Yandex specializes mostly on Russian-speaking countries and neighbours like Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan. Recently Turkey. AFAIK, they never tried to market the service in the US.
- elementai 13y ago
  Yandex was created a bit earlier than Google actually.
photorized 13y ago
There are some conflicting articles suggesting he is in a coma: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/25/yandex-founder-idUSL6N0FV33U20130725 http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/25/yandex-founder-idU... http://finance.yahoo.com/news/yandex-co-founder-chief-technology-084834059.html http://finance.yahoo.com/news/yandex-co-founder-chief-techno...
cinskiy 13y ago
[UPD]: Apparently Ilya is in coma on life support with no brain activity signs. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/25/yandex-founder-idUSL6N0FV33U20130725 http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/25/yandex-founder-idU...
- CanSpice 13y ago
  The press release on Yandex's website says he's dead. http://company.yandex.com/press_center/press_releases/2013/2013-07-25.xml http://company.yandex.com/press_center/press_releases/2013/2...
asterx 13y ago
Updated: He is in coma. http://www.google.com/translate?hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Flenta.ru%2Fnews%2F2013%2F07%2F25%2Fsegalovich1%2F http://www.google.com/translate?hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=auto&tl=en&...
turingbook 13y ago
Is there any life story about Ilya? I want to write an article in Chinese about his life and contribution to technology community.
- guard-of-terra 13y ago
  a bit here http://ria.ru/spravka/20130725/951995567.html http://ria.ru/spravka/20130725/951995567.html more here http://iseg.yandex.ru/ http://iseg.yandex.ru/ (use google translate or http://translate.yandex.ru/ http://translate.yandex.ru/ ) It's not too late because "time of death" was just yesterday after several days coma.

236 points by cinskiy 13y ago

Sad news :/ Here is the press release btw (link was broken for me) http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/yandex-announces-death-of-co-founder-and-cto-ilya-segalovich-20130725-00043 http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/yandex-announces-death-o...

dmak 13y ago

I misinterpreted the title and thought 2 people died.

beaker52 13y ago
me too.
consta 13y ago
same here
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
cinskiy 13y ago
Sorry, fixed the mistake.

xijuan 13y ago

Rest In Peace... Really sad to hear this news...

adamnemecek 13y ago

'May he find peace' seems appropriate considering his profession.

remcobron 13y ago

How sad to hear. For those not fammiliar with Yandex check out the interview we did with the other founder, Arkady Voloz, who tells the story of Yandex: http://blip.tv/vincent-everts/ceo-arkady-voloz-tells-the-story-of-yandex-2272959 http://blip.tv/vincent-everts/ceo-arkady-voloz-tells-the-sto...

xenator 13y ago

Cancer killed another great IT person. Very sad news.

f902370 13y ago

What's wrong with 2013?

jschuur 13y ago
Without death, would we be as motivated to live life?
- brilee 13y ago
  In a land of immortality, would you willingly give yourself an 80-year death contract in order to motivate yourself to live your life?
- microb 13y ago
  Please. Give Einstein, John Von Neumann or Francis Crick another 50 years on this planet and tell me the world would be worse off because of it.
  - jacquesm 13y ago
    Didn't Crick advocate Eugenics?
  - egor83 13y ago
    ...Stalin, Franco, Pinochet?
  - nikster 13y ago
    Maybe none of these guys would have done what they've done. Maybe they'd never even have been born, their parents being to lazy. Maybe we'd never have evolved from being pretty comfortable monkeys sitting around - why would we have evolved to breed, to love sex, and to make babies at all? Babies are just competition to an immortal being. Bottom line is, none of us would be around to mourn the passing of an apparently very nice person. RIP Ilya.
    - TeMPOraL 13y ago
      > Maybe we'd never have evolved from being pretty comfortable monkeys sitting around - why would we have evolved to breed, to love sex, and to make babies at all? But we are here now, and we don't want to die. Death might have been useful in the past, but now it's the high time for it to go away.

forlorn 13y ago

Sad irony. Today I got an invitation to Yandex.Islands and at once recalled his presentation (video: http://events.yandex.ru/events/yac/m/talks/816/ http://events.yandex.ru/events/yac/m/talks/816/ ). In an hour I read the news...

numair 13y ago

Truly sad; what a brilliant guy. And a real class act... None of the money-throwing antics[1] of some of his peers. Just a brilliant, modest dude. Quite fittingly, the Yandex translation is superior to the Google translate version: http://translate.yandex.net/tr-url/en+ru.en/clubs.ya.ru/company/69367?nocookiesupport=yes http://translate.yandex.net/tr-url/en+ru.en/clubs.ya.ru/comp... 1: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57442907-71/russias-zuckerberg-throws-money-out-the-window/ http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57442907-71/russias-zucker...

kombine 13y ago
I wouldn't be so sure it's superior: Google: "But he left behind a whole new generation of programmers, an entire school. And it sets the level of ethical standards for all of us." vs Yandex: "But he left behind a whole new generation of programmers, a whole school. And its ethical standards specified the level of all of us." Google: "Tonight, he was gone." vs Yandex "Tonight he was not." And RIP Ilya. Many people who knew him said he was a very good person. He didn't spoke in public often, did his work, supported charity and also had an active political stance. What a loss.
- Zikes 13y ago
  With zero knowledge of the source language, those two translations make me think that they were going for "Tonight, he is no more."

rorrr2 13y ago

Stomach cancer, unexpected exacerbation. Fuck cancer.

ekianjo 13y ago
Stomach cancer is extremely deadly. That's one of the worst ones to get... It's quite rare to get it very young, though.
- VladRussian2 13y ago
  While i don't know about this guy specifically, Russia has high rate of smoking. Coincidentally, several prominent Russian people i've checked out about recently happened to had died from stomach cancer relatively young.
  - znowi 13y ago
    Apparently, Russia is the 4th most smoking country in the world, behind Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece [1]. "According to a survey reported in 2010 by Russia’s Health and Social Development Ministry, 43.9 million adults in Russia are smokers. Among Russians aged 19 to 44 years, 7 in 10 men smoke and 4 in 10 women smoke." [2] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_cigarette_consumption_per_capita http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_cigarette_... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Russia#Smoking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Russia#Smoking
  - raverbashing 13y ago
    The absurd amount of alcoholic beverages also help I'm not in any way against the moderate consumption of alcohol but the russians are in another level, really Just to be clear: I'm not implying this is the case
    - mjolk 13y ago
      And Russians also eat a lot of salty food. Just to be clear: I'm not implying that smoking, drinking, or eating salty food was the cause of his stomach cancer, I'm just generalizing based on stereotypes that I know.

nine_k 13y ago

Very sad news :( Besides being a great CTO, he kept helping orphaned children [1] and taught juggling (right at Yandex office). [1] These children: http://mariaschildren.ru/content/view/141/96/ http://mariaschildren.ru/content/view/141/96/

OldSchool 13y ago
He obviously had a huge heart for these innocents. The average outlook for orphans in Russia who are not adopted is bleak, with many ending up in prison or dead within a few years after being released into society at age 16 or so. Due to entirely unrelated political forces, the US is banned from adopting them for now, with no change in sight. There are many children throughout the world dreaming of having parents some day. I suggest to all, when you make your hacker fortune, buy one fewer of your favorite cars and adopt an orphan if you have a heart for children.

meadhikari 13y ago

missing the black bar on top

cinskiy 13y ago
Yandex made its whole logo black.

dakrisht 13y ago

RIP to a young and brilliant man. Go out there and live the day, hug your loved ones, enjoy the sun, work hard, don't think about taking over the world and being the next Steve Jobs, stay humble, you're given one life - go out there and make life proud that you are a part of it. Memento mori

mjolk 13y ago
While platitudes generally go over well on hacker news, I'm curious how one can "make life proud that you are a part of it." Should one also try to "make time notice that you exist" or "make gravity work for it?"
- jentulman 13y ago
  I intend to give all these a go by buying a self winding watch and hopping to work everyday and remembering to take a moment to wish everyone I pass a good day and good health.
  - mjolk 13y ago
    10:50 status: left home 3 hours ago, almost at the train station to go to work. number of times maced: 1. number of children hurriedly pulled away from me: 7.

kayoone 13y ago

Very sad if someone passes at such a (relativly) young age. Even more so when he made the world a better place for so many people.

pmoehring 13y ago

Such an incredible person. I've met him a couple of times, and he was always smiling, inquisitive and much nicer than you would ever expect. The good go early.

girvo 13y ago

Very very sad. A good reminder to do what you love. In the wise words of the modern day poet, Nas: "'cause you never know when ya gonna go" RIP mate.

danabramov 13y ago

UPD: Ilya is in coma with no brain activity, but not dead yet. (http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fru.reuters.com%2Farticle%2FoddlyEnoughNews%2FidRUMSE96O03O20130725&act=url http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&pre...) -- Ilya was very vocal about his contempt for falsifications in Russian elections. He went to protests and helped develop an app for election observers. This app helped volunteers submit proofs of violations during the elections. http://webnabludatel.org http://webnabludatel.org He adopted several children and hated the recent law forbidding child adoption by USA citizens. He will be missed by many. --- Edit 1: Rephrased the first sentence per suggestion in reply Edit 2: Added recent info about coma

guard-of-terra 13y ago
This sounds defamatory to his colleagues. Most of whom also watched those elections and participate in political activities. It's just that Ilya was the most brightly burning among them all.
- danabramov 13y ago
  Thanks, I didn't mean to imply this. I edited the post.
CanSpice 13y ago
The press release on Yandex's website says he's dead. http://company.yandex.com/press_center/press_releases/2013/2013-07-25.xml http://company.yandex.com/press_center/press_releases/2013/2...

josephpmay 13y ago

Until today, I had never heard of Yandex. I do have to say that their search quality appears to be very high, and I may use them as a Google alternate in the future. Is there any specific reason why they don't have much traction in the US?

omgtehlion 13y ago
Yandex specializes mostly on Russian-speaking countries and neighbours like Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan. Recently Turkey. AFAIK, they never tried to market the service in the US.
elementai 13y ago
Yandex was created a bit earlier than Google actually.

photorized 13y ago

There are some conflicting articles suggesting he is in a coma: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/25/yandex-founder-idUSL6N0FV33U20130725 http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/25/yandex-founder-idU... http://finance.yahoo.com/news/yandex-co-founder-chief-technology-084834059.html http://finance.yahoo.com/news/yandex-co-founder-chief-techno...

cinskiy 13y ago

[UPD]: Apparently Ilya is in coma on life support with no brain activity signs. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/25/yandex-founder-idUSL6N0FV33U20130725 http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/25/yandex-founder-idU...

CanSpice 13y ago
The press release on Yandex's website says he's dead. http://company.yandex.com/press_center/press_releases/2013/2013-07-25.xml http://company.yandex.com/press_center/press_releases/2013/2...

asterx 13y ago

Updated: He is in coma. http://www.google.com/translate?hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Flenta.ru%2Fnews%2F2013%2F07%2F25%2Fsegalovich1%2F http://www.google.com/translate?hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=auto&tl=en&...

turingbook 13y ago

Is there any life story about Ilya? I want to write an article in Chinese about his life and contribution to technology community.

guard-of-terra 13y ago
a bit here http://ria.ru/spravka/20130725/951995567.html http://ria.ru/spravka/20130725/951995567.html more here http://iseg.yandex.ru/ http://iseg.yandex.ru/ (use google translate or http://translate.yandex.ru/ http://translate.yandex.ru/ ) It's not too late because "time of death" was just yesterday after several days coma.