ALS Sufferer Used Legs To Contribute Last Patch 222
krkhan writes "This is a little old, but seeing as it didn't make it onto Slashdot at the time, I think it deserves a headline now. Adrian Hands was suffering from ALS and had lost motor skills when he used his legs to type in Morse code and fix a 9-year-old bug in Gnome. The patch was submitted three days before he passed away."
Dedication (Score:5, Insightful)
You know what's important to someone when they continue to do it from their deathbed.
I don't know what to think (Score:4, Insightful)
On one hand, I find it awesome that even in that state he managed to do something that productive and leave one (more) lasting trace of himself. On the other hand... I would hope that everyone would find something even more important to do during their last weeks than fix gnome bugs.
The human spirit (Score:5, Insightful)
All of us like to think that the latest ten-core Xeon or whatever is the neatest thing since sliced bread, but stories like this remind us of what we often forget: the human spirit is the greatest hack of all time.
The family is in grief right now, and my sympathies are with them: but I hope they also understand the beyond-epic level of respect we have for Adrian Hands, and how he demonstrated right until the very end what the hacker ethos is all about. May we all live up to that standard.
What is ALS!? (Score:1, Insightful)
Sheesh, would it have been too hard to spell out the acronym once?
Typical for you nerds. :(
A gift to the world (Score:5, Insightful)
There are so many who benefit from the community, and so relatively few who give back. So many people claim some excuse to not contribute anything to anybody without getting paid.
Then there's this guy.
I am honored to have shared a planet with him.
Re:I don't know what to think (Score:5, Insightful)
"I would hope that everyone would find something even more important to do during their last weeks than fix gnome bugs."
So you have a kind of objective standard about what's important and what it isn't that you want to share with us?
Re:I don't know what to think (Score:0, Insightful)
There is no "objective standard," only what most of us can agree on. Most of us can agree that everyone should find something even more important to do during their last weeks than fix gnome bugs.
Important (Score:5, Insightful)
Important is a relative term. It's different for everybody. If you're doing something you honestly love, that's not a bad way to spend your last few days.
Re:I don't know what to think (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Dedication (Score:3, Insightful)
Just as your children will (surprise) die one day.
Does it make the life worthless?
Comment removed (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Stephen Hawking Ruined it for Everybody (Score:5, Insightful)
What bar? This ain't a contest, there's always going to be someone who's better than you.
Personally, I think the only person you are in competition with is you yourself. Are you better than you were a year ago? Then you win.
Re:I don't know what to think (Score:5, Insightful)