"Computer activist Aaron H. Swartz committed suicide in New York City yesterday, Jan. 11, according to his uncle, Michael Wolf, in a comment to The Tech. Swartz was 26." Swartz was one of three co-creators of Reddit, worked on the RSS 1.0 specification at age 14, and so many other things. Swartz faced decades in prison for downloading a collection of JSTOR scientific articles. JSTOR dropped charges, but the US government pursued the case anyway, demanding fifty years in jail. Lawrence Lessig, one of his close friends: "Aaron had literally done nothing in his life 'to make money'. He was fortunate Reddit turned out as it did, but from his work building the RSS standard, to his work architecting Creative Commons, to his work liberating public records, to his work building a free public library, to his work supporting Change Congress/FixCongressFirst/Rootstrikers, and then Demand Progress, Aaron was always and only working for (at least his conception of) the public good. He was brilliant, and funny. A kid genius. A soul, a conscience, the source of a question I have asked myself a million times: What would Aaron think? That person is gone today, driven to the edge by what a decent society would only call bullying. I get wrong. But I also get proportionality. And if you don't get both, you don't deserve to have the power of the United States government behind you." Our sincere condolences to his family and friends. We've just lost one of the good guys.
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Member since:2009-05-19
Member since:2005-06-29
Except when it's not. My little brother took his own life in a very violent and definite way just over seven years ago. We had no idea he was depressed, and while he was a very outgoing person, he certainly didn't do it seeking attention. After all, how would he be able to enjoy that attention (negative as it would have been) unless he survived? We think perhaps it was that he was in over his head with something deadly serious and saw no other way out, but we'll never really know.
I think you are confusing people who attempt to hurt themselves using less dangerous measures such as cutting or overdosing with truly suicidal people. Those former are the attention seekers. The ones who succeed, often violently, are running away from something much bigger than themselves. It may be a real or imagined monster, but either way they have lost all hope for going on with life.
Member since:2006-12-05
Exactly... the part you quoted was a clear indication to me that the person you quoted was just making assumptions on the matter, without really knowing what depression is like. I know first-hand... I have been ripped apart by it. Mostly stabilized and more able to control/suppress it, but it can still strike back hard.
A person who talks about suicide and threatens to commit suicide may just be calling out for attention/help in their own way... but people who are silent about it are the ones most likely to do it. You'll just never know... because other than the way they act (which as you said can be virtually unnoticeable), people outside of them would probably never consider or notice a link. Until it's done, when it becomes a shock.
Someone who is serious about ending it all will not say a word. They know the only "help" they will get is psychiatrists trying to convince them to not do it, and if they have made up their mind, why would they want that? It will only slow them down or prevent them from doing what they are convinced that they want deep inside. No amount of sweet talking by anyone will change someone's mind it if that person is determined. And it can be incredibly difficult to change feelings that have become ingrained over time.
I think there are a lot of people who don't "get" depression... but when you've gone through it, there is no mistaking the extremely strong, negative feelings from waking to bedtime; an intense "sadness" that is so extreme that no explanation or word can really do it justice; "emptiness" in my opinion is a more fitting word, but even it can't explain it. To anyone who does not know what it's like... consider yourself lucky.
And deathshadow... don't fool yourself. A dead person does not want attention, and I seriously doubt anyone who is depressed to the point of suicide gives a damn about anything more in life, let alone attention. If you honestly think so, then you really don't know what you're talking about. Get back with us after you've gone through it and actually know what you're going on about... I bet your thought process will have made a near 180° turn by then.
Member since:2007-02-18
Even that's wrong. Self harmers don't do it for attention and most try to hide it and do it really well. They do it because it's a release.
So, the Xbox One disaster continues. Microsoft's policy for dealing with the used games market has reportedly leaked - and it's a clear and direct attack to destroy the used games market. Prices for used games will be set at the retail value of a new game, and retailers have to hook into Microsoft's computer systems and comply with Microsoft's terms and conditions.At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
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OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.
Member since:
2005-07-12
Agreed -- those of us who followed freedom's progress and his blog know he was on the edge long before the whole JSTOR idiocy... and like many people with depression he thrived under adversity and challenge; most people with clinical depression only run for the razors when ignored...
... which is why suicide is most always a cry for attention.