mdwatts - Mike Watts has passed away - Page 8


Page 8 of 14 FirstFirst ... 456789101112 ... LastLast
Results 106 to 120 of 210

Thread: mdwatts - Mike Watts has passed away

  1. #106
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Posts
    151
    I'm trying to find out how many posts he had before LNO became JL, this is what I'm looking at right now: http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://linuxnewbie.org
    Please help if you'd like, or if you have any other ideas, post a reply!

    Edit: at a rate of 20 posts per day, he would have made the remaining ~600 posts in about 30 days. I think he must have made over 40,000 posts. I bow to thee, Grand Master Watts.
    Last edited by ZAmodeo; 08-31-2004 at 11:39 PM.

  2. #107
    Join Date
    Nov 2000
    Location
    /dev/3.14Pie/HowRandom
    Posts
    6,697
    Originally posted by ZAmodeo
    I'm trying to find out how many posts he had before LNO became JL...
    His post count back in the LNO days was already pretty high, and even then he was clocking an average of 30+ posts per day. It would be hard to accurately figure out how many posts he really had though, because that was the time of The Ghost:

    When this site was LNO, it was powered by a different Bulletin Board software package called UBB. UBB did some very strange things when it went haywire, especially if it crashed hard, and crash hard it did here- a few times. I don't know if it was simply the extreme amount of growth and new traffic we were experiencing at the time or what, but we managed to bring this site to its knees but good more than once.

    If you were really in tune with the board back then, you could sense it starting to happen- threads/posts/forums would become intermittently unreachable, posts would be made but then not show up in the forum list, and other erratic stuff like that. Many of us who felt it coming were lucky enough to "duck for cover" in time- you had to log off the board entirely to get away unscathed.

    Others weren't so lucky- many members who were still logged in when the board actually did finally go *POOF!* had their user accounts entirely eaten, post count included. If that happened to you, you had to create a new account under a different username in order to access the site, and many started appending the word Ghost to their original name just so the rest of us would know who they were. If my account had gotten eaten, for example, I would have re-registered as "DMR's Ghost".

    Mike had some really bad luck in that area, probably because he was always logged on in those days. His accounts got munched about 5 times IIRC (we used to poke at him a bit about it just for fun). There was the original "mdwatts" account, "mdwatts the first", mdwatts the second", and- well, you get the idea. Each time he had to start a new account, it would, of course, have a postcount of 0 and a title of "junior grasshopper".

    I don't know how he managed it (Brian does though, I think), but at some point once things got stable again, Mike managed to get his original username back, along with credit for the cumulative total of all of the posts from his many different accounts. In other words, the count of posts for him (as mdwatts) that you might find from back then won't even come close to his real total, because he was posting under a few other different usernames as well at the time.

    <edit>

    Oh bummer- another sad day in our history:

    I clicked on ZAmodeo's link and then clicked on a random date which I thought might have some history of The Ghost. I got this instead, and I remember it well:

    http://web.archive.org/web/200106161...nuxnewbie.org/

    </edit>

  3. #108
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Mauritius
    Posts
    1,151
    I first read this post on Monday, and I became too upset to write anything then.

    Mike, I never had the chance to get to know you personally, but you helped me on many occasions, and you helped me help others on this forum.

    You had the biggest heart of everyone here, I pray that you are at peace with God. The whole world, not just our little one here on JL has lost a fantastic person.

    Mike had a great sense of humour and one hell of a mind.

    If there is anyone co-ordinating a memorial to mike, could you please add me to the mailing list, I am not sure what I could o to help but I will gladly do all that I can.

    See you in the big network when I get there Mike.

    Leon
    Feel free to PM me for help

    Using PCLinuxos 2007 on my laptop and 2009 on my Desktop and proud of it!

    Desktop:
    AMD Phenom II x2 545 3GB DDR2 RAM 500GB SATA,250GB SATA, 250GB IDE, ATI Radeon HD 4870 512 DDR3
    Laptop:
    Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2) 2GB RAM, 160GB Sata HDD, nVidia 8600GM 512MB

    Please come back and tell us if your problem is solved, it may help others, and stop us from wondering what happened.

  4. #109
    Join Date
    Nov 2000
    Location
    /dev/3.14Pie/HowRandom
    Posts
    6,697
    Originally posted by leonpmu
    If there is anyone co-ordinating a memorial to mike, could you please add me to the mailing list, I am not sure what I could o to help but I will gladly do all that I can.
    We're floating a couple of ideas around about that already Leon, but I think we're all still just a bit too dazed to put it all out there yet. Don't worry- Brian will post an announcement when the time is right.

    (BTW- thanks for the sentiment and the offer to help)

  5. #110
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    Pontypridd, South Wales (UK)
    Posts
    771
    Not frequenting these forums much anymore, i only just learnt about Mike passing away. I would just like to pay my respects to a great guy. I never knew him very well but we did chat a few times and he seemed like a really nice person.

    Of course, his contribution to this forum and a lot of linux newbies is infinite. I only wonder how many people would have given up without his help?

    Mike C.

  6. #111
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Dublin, Ireland
    Posts
    31

    Unhappy

    I want to add my condolences to mdwatts' family and friends. I never had the pleasure of talking to him one on one, though he did help me out whenever he could.

    It's clear the amount of respect everyone has for him after looking though this thread, I never really realised the amount of time and work he spend helping others until now.

    I'm sure right now Mike is helping out the big guy upstairs with his linux distro...

    K.


  7. #112
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    to the MOON, Alice!
    Posts
    31
    Just wanted to had my condolences to his family & friends, heard the sad news on Monday night and couldn't believe it.

    I browse rather than contribute to the forums. But when I've asked for help, Mikes been the first on the scene, to answer/help/guide. A real star.

    I've never really felt this upset about anything I've considered 'internet related', which goes to show how close this comunity is.

    Thanks for all the help MD, see you on the other side.
    moo moo moo

  8. #113
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    43400
    Posts
    824
    I just learned of the sad news very recently after being away from JL for almost 2 months. I never knew that Mike was suffering from such a woe...

    Mike was there in more than half of my posts and he was the first to reply to my fisrt thread back in 2002...

    He will be greatly missed....
    Isn't it strange the onset of overheating will result in freezing?

  9. #114
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    Cincinnati
    Posts
    550
    I think I speak for everyone who has ever come to have a post replied to by MD.

    I probably would have completely given up on Linux several times if it weren't for the direction that MDWatts provided, you could have a completely obscure question and nobody would have the answer, soon after MD would have a reply and would send you in the right direction. I believe that somebody with such knowledge and willingness to help others is a person that must have been very blessed, it requires somebody that is larger than life to have that sort of character, someone who will never find a match to fill his shoes, and has found a medium to touch more lives than most people could ever imagine. I hope that he knew how respected and beloved he was.

    MDWatts, you will be missed, personally I will think of you everytime I do a linux google search!

    My condolences,
    Jason Self
    OS: Suse 9.1 Pro
    CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1700 (overclocked)
    GPU: Geforce 2 ti
    Soundcard: Soundblaster Audigy Gamer
    Ram: 512mb ram
    Mobo: LanParty NFIIULTRAB
    Storage: 2x 40mb IDE 1x80mb SATA
    Drives: HP dvd100i (dvd+RW/cdr/cdrw-writer)
    Case: Heavily modded Kingwin Aluminum
    CPU Cooling: Zalman Flower (fanless)

  10. #115
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Location
    Just for kicks
    Posts
    1,831
    I didn't know Mike personally, I know he was a great guy from how he helped everybody. I'll miss him, and I'm sure many other will to.

    I offer my heartfelt condolences to his friends and family.
    "You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass." --Admiral Yamamoto, 1941

  11. #116
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    probably somewhere
    Posts
    72
    I'm not sure that there is anything to say that someone hasn't already.

    I just wanted to add my name to the list of those saying what a great and selfless person he was helping so many people he didn't know, including my myself.

    snuck.
    Do you wish you got insulted more? Well here's your chance...

  12. #117
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    McMinnville, Oregon, USA
    Posts
    502
    Well, if his goal was to help literally thousands of people through frustrations with computers, he left this plane a happy man! It's just a shame he never got to see xorg 6.8, KDE 4.0, GNOME 3.0... I don't think he was even around for the recent mentions of Longhorn features ending up as XP downloads, was he?

    His absence will leave us with nothing but distaste for our computers, which we will have a harder time understanding. Maybe now, more of us geeks will get excercise. Maybe that's his gift to us.

    Mike, you're one in a million. Yeah, you'll be missed, which is sad, but you'll also be remembered, which is happy.

  13. #118
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Cape Town, South Africa
    Posts
    94
    I'm not sure that there is anything to say that someone hasn't already!

    I just wanted to add my name to the list of those saying what a great and selfless person he was helping so many people he didn't know, including my myself.

    ______________________________________________
    I think I speak for everyone who has ever come to have a post replied to by MD.
    ____________________________________________
    I probably would have completely given up on Linux several times if it weren't for the direction that MDWatts provided, you could have a completely obscure question and nobody would have the answer, soon after MD would have a reply and would send you in the right direction. I believe that somebody with such knowledge and willingness to help others is a person that must have been very blessed, it requires somebody that is larger than life to have that sort of character, someone who will never find a match to fill his shoes, and has found a medium to touch more lives than most people could ever imagine. I hope that he knew how respected and beloved he was.

    ______________________________________________

    Please covey my condolences to his family.

    Charles Bendix

  14. #119
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Posts
    108
    Through his sickness he endeavored to help others the best he could. I know, I try myself, when you can talk(type) with others at times you forget about what is going on inside. It is pretty ironic that with such help for others He helped himself trying not to dwell on what was ravaging his body. That shows his strong spirit.

    My condolences do his family and friends.......

    Walt N.
    Last edited by ghostwalker; 09-01-2004 at 11:46 PM.
    ArchLinux / Debian (sid)
    Linux user #314187

  15. #120
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Oulu, Finland
    Posts
    492

    Forgotten about PM's. Just found a year-old one. Modest fellah. "Limited Knowledge" m

    ********************************
    Re: Just hi.

    quote:
    andycrofts wrote on 07-20-2003 07:01 AM:
    Hi, Mike.
    just a quickie from Finland (Guess you're having to burn moose-meat for fuel, dunno why when I could send you all the street polar bears that I just kicked to death!)
    Seriously, just wanted to say "well done" or whatever on your deserved promotion.
    You've helped me a lot. Thanks, mate!



    How you doing Andy?

    Always nice to hear from someone from the other side/north part of the world.

    Glad that I've been of some help. I do try my best with whatever limited knowledge I may have.

    Take care

    Mike
    **************************
    Last edited by andycrofts; 09-02-2004 at 06:10 AM.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •