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Pieter Hintjens (zeromq) diagnosed with incurable cancer

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Re: Pieter Hintjens (zeromq) diagnosed with incurable cancer

#21

Post by nkurz »

PieterH wrote: post #19
nkurz wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking back, is there anything that stands out as something you should have done differently? Or not done? Or just done? (intended to be as open-ended as you care to interpret it)

Working on closed source and building up a business was an utter waste of time. I spent a lot of time with my kids the last years and should have done that before. Other than that, and about a thousand fuck ups that seem inevitable on the road of life, I regret nothing, and admit nothing.

Thanks. Does anything come to mind that you should have done more of (or instead)?

Re: Pieter Hintjens (zeromq) diagnosed with incurable cancer

#22

Post by PieterH »

nkurz wrote: post #21
PieterH wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working on closed source and building up a business was an utter waste of time. I spent a lot of time with my kids the last years and should have done that before. Other than that, and about a thousand fuck ups that seem inevitable on the road of life, I regret nothing, and admit nothing.

Thanks. Does anything come to mind that you should have done more of (or instead)?

Probably more frequent checkups, to be honest. Though it's probably moot.

Re: Pieter Hintjens (zeromq) diagnosed with incurable cancer

#23

Post by noname123 »

Don't really know Pieter.

But zmq really played a important role in my life. I was burned out with programming two years ago and took a long extended break. Then in the depth of my lull, I took a look at zmq and really took to its minimalism and the do-it-yourself philosophy.

I really liked reading the documentation too. Actually it is the most memorable experience, my interpretation was that the zmq User Guide ("Zen of Zero") has a particular attitude: that everything has a singular focused purpose, yet it is also unpretentious, knowing full well the limitations of its circumstances and limited scope; and once a particular role has been decided for a particular situation, one should try do one job simply and well and get out of the way of others.

Perhaps this attitude is already expressed well in philosophy books. But for me, it was applied and ingrained in grokking zmq and coding with it. I could go on and talk about building a zmq demo helped me in getting my next job or created a Github repo on an zmq adaptor for protobuf. But just technical details behind the "Zen of Zero".

Re: Pieter Hintjens (zeromq) diagnosed with incurable cancer

#24

Post by PieterH »

noname123 wrote: post #23

Don't really know Pieter. But zmq really played a important role in my life. I was burned out with programming two years ago and took a long extended break. Then in the depth of my lull, I took a look at zmq and really took to its minimalism and the do-it-yourself philosophy. I really liked reading the documentation too. Actually it is the most memorable experience, my interpretation was that the zmq User Guide ("Zen…

If you know my work, like the Guide, you know me. I've never been so pampered with an abundance of talent and will as in the zeromq community.

I'm really happy to hear that this project brought you out of a bad place. I think it did that for me too (after AMQP).

Re: Pieter Hintjens (zeromq) diagnosed with incurable cancer

#25

Post by noname123 »

PieterH wrote: post #24
noname123 wrote: post #23

Don't really know Pieter. But zmq really played a important role in my life. I was burned out with programming two years ago and took a long extended break. Then in the depth of my lull, I took a look at zmq and really took to its minimalism and the do-it-yourself philosophy. I really liked reading the documentation too. Actually it is the most memorable experience, my interpretation was that the zmq User Guide ("Zen…

If you know my work, like the Guide, you know me. I've never been so pampered with an abundance of talent and will as in the zeromq community. I'm really happy to hear that this project brought you out of a bad place. I think it did that for me too (after AMQP).

Thanks Pieter for following up. I'm humbled by your words. Your reply made my day.

Although I've never got the pleasure of meeting you in person, your open-source work (and yes, the zeromq User Guide too!) has made an big impact on me and I want to say thank you for what you've done.

Re: Pieter Hintjens (zeromq) diagnosed with incurable cancer

#26

Post by PieterH »

noname123 wrote: post #25
PieterH wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you know my work, like the Guide, you know me. I've never been so pampered with an abundance of talent and will as in the zeromq community. I'm really happy to hear that this project brought you out of a bad place. I think it did that for me too (after AMQP).

Thanks Pieter for following up. I'm humbled by your words. Your reply made my day. Although I've never got the pleasure of meeting you in person, your open-source work (and yes, the zeromq User Guide too!) has made an big impact on me and I want to say thank you for what you've done.

Internet hugs...

Re: Pieter Hintjens (zeromq) diagnosed with incurable cancer

#28

Post by mikefoss »

About 6 months after working as the sole developer on a large, multi-threaded project I came across ZeroMQ. In my work, I ended up using message passing as the primary communication between threads and unknowingly (and poorly in many cases) re-invented various message-passing mechanisms. After going through The Guide, I wished that I had known about ZeroMQ earlier! It would have provided a much better infrastructure for my work. I was reassigned to some other projects, but whenever I am given a chance (i.e. when I'm working on a full-Linux environment instead of in a microcontroller) I try to use ZeroMQ for multi-threaded communication. It is truly a pleasure, and I thank you for that.

There are several people whom I have been following and consider to be my "embedded systems heroes", and you are one of them. I am so sorry for your diagnosis.

It may not give much consolation, but perhaps there is a blessing in being given a chance to say good bye.

I'm not sure how much it will mean, but I will be keeping you in my prayers.

Re: Pieter Hintjens (zeromq) diagnosed with incurable cancer

#30

Post by PieterH »

mikefoss wrote: post #28

About 6 months after working as the sole developer on a large, multi-threaded project I came across ZeroMQ. In my work, I ended up using message passing as the primary communication between threads and unknowingly (and poorly in many cases) re-invented various message-passing mechanisms. After going through The Guide, I wished that I had known about ZeroMQ earlier! It would have provided a much better infrastructure…

I believe that being aware and in control of one's impending death is a great gift.
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