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Searching For Mark Pilgrim
First time accepted submitter microphage writes "Mark Pilgrim, author of many 'Dive into ...' books and guides, has — as the saying now goes — 'committed infosuicide,' which happily isn't like the real sort. Except it affects the info that you've created. Let's hope Dive Into HTML5 has some sort of permanence."
for first post...
Maybe this is commentary on Archive Team?
I do recall he was great at mixing in humor and entertainment into an otherwise dry and toilsome subject matter so may I say that I sincerely hope he hasn't given up on technical aspirations. At the time that book was one of the best general resources out there for HTML5. I'm sad that his github repo for the book may only exist at mirrors now.
From a comment on the article:
His GitHub projects have been mirrored:
https://github.com/diveintomark
Dive Into Python 3
Online: http://diveintopython3.ep.io/
GitHub: https://github.com/diveintomark/diveintopython3
Dive Into HTML5
Online: http://diveintohtml5.ep.io/
GitHub: https://github.com/diveintomark/diveintohtml5
My work here is dung.
So what. It's his life, and he can live it as he chooses.
Nobody can blame him for wanting to escape the incipient idiocracy of facebook/twitter/etc.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
I had just started on "Dive Into Python 3" about a week ago, and yesterday I was going to re-download the zip file with the PDF of the book and the example programs on a virtual machine, when I discovered his site was down. Fortunately, I had the file elsewhere. I figured the site was down because of a temporary glitch.
Incidentally, I had planned to order a physical copy of the book, but from the reviews on Amazon, the printing of "Dive Into Python 3" is of extraordinarily poor quality, with incorrect rendering of much of the source code, so that one is better off sticking to the free PDF. I hope it remains available for a while.
It doesn't sound like there's an explanation yet for why he did this.
I blame a bad encounter with one of his cousin Scott's evil exes.
Download: http://www.jesusda.com/docs/ebooks/ebook_manual_en_dive-into-html5.pdf
I know you are out there. I know you will "never" read this. That's ok with me.
I understand your move, Mark. You don't know me from Adam, but that's ok to - I completely understand. I've been at that edge, but haven't had the courage to step off and see if I will leap to the next building, or merely hit the ground.
I applaud you for taking that step. For you, it's a brave new world, and one that many here won't get. Still, it's all good.
Some of use are still "stuck" here, with commitments, but we're working diligently on it. It takes time for those who don't understand to come around and understand what you are doing. Sometimes, insight is a bigger bitch than karma.
I appreciate the inspiration you have given to me and many others, especially when you were Juggling Oranges. The insight you gave wrapped years of concepts that I had in head into succinct words that laid bare assumptions made, and the folly of it. Yesterday, the person who spearheaded some that folly passed; but so many don't mourn the husband/father/man that was lost, rather just his work. Yet you see this clearly.
I have taken a liberty that would most likely annoy you - to capture a cached copy of those Oranges and save it off-line, but only because I keep it to remind myself of how vapid things can be, and what real meaning should be. It's hard to achieve what you have done, and some of us need to have gentle reminders of what is real, and what is realpolitik. No, I don't read it online. Yes, I print it. And most likely, will frame it. It will join the others I have - The Last Viridian Essay, Rails is a Ghetto, and several others, all meant as reminders of the folly of being human. Thank you for that gift.
We are proud of you. Go forth, overcome and absorb the real enemy (within), and be at peace.
This is all a marketing ploy for his forthcoming book "dive into HTTP 410", a self-help guide for anyone with a social networking account or those who host email with Google.
This baffling story is raw inspiration. The suicide of one's online self is a serious event. Do you suppose, if Mark began again, he would create another space of vision and beauty? Of course. A new vision.
He was (?) singularly poised at a wrinkle-in-time to become Our Voice. Yet, our wins are our losses. We lose the ability to hear the muse. Sometimes one cannot even see the new task, when there is clamor (hands vibrate and wave) loud eddies that distract from the quiet voice of curiosity.
Mark will find the muse again, find his new task, and may each of us ( me least of all ) seek a location where we can hear the muse most clearly.
Love, attention, bliss.
Quiet.
At least someone has the good sense to stop putting up with harassment.
What the fuck are you talking about?
I was a personal acquaintance of his and coworker for about a year and kept in touch for years. I miss our monthly Chinese buffet lunches. Last I heard he was working at IBM as a consultant but that was years ago. I also know that he has two kids in the mid to high single digits. He's working, making plenty of money for his family, and taking care of his responsibilities. It's sad not to see more on his blog lately. However his primary money maker was not his blog or his books.
I too have a blog but it was neither as popular or as entertaining, but the same thing happened to me. I've gotten married, assumed more family responsibilities, and I just don't have time to update it. Right now I'm sure his priorities are elsewhere. It's not infosuicide so much as we all want more and he's simply not giving it to us. I'm sorry to say you'll just have to move on. That's the beauty of the internet.
Mark if you are out there, drop me a line sometime.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
I'm pretty sure whatever it is, it involves a bong.
First, Why the Lucky Stiff. Then this. Coincidence?
Perhaps he had a long talk with Francisco d'Anconia or something.
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
Please, let us forget the Seventies.
He's trying to remove himself from Wikipedia too and has been since 2008ish.
For someone who appears to be savvy about computers and online culture it's funny he's unaware of the Streisand effect which is emphasized by the number of mirrors popping up across the internet despite his best efforts for infocide.
Dive into HTML5 has this at the beginning: "The Work shall remain online under the CC-BY-3.0 License." Anyone know a way to get complete archives of his books that's easier/better than scraping http://web.archive.org/web/20110726000452/http://www.diveintohtml5.org/ ?
He was a fun guy. I'll miss his writings. I've been reading his stuff for about six years, starting with http://howto.diveintomark.org/ipod-dvd-ripping-guide/ , which got me into using Handbrake shortly after I got a video iPod. No more google cache, but at least he couldn't/didn't remove himself from archive.org
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
It's not often I genuinely laugh out loud at a comment, so I congratulate you heartily on making me do so!
Did he talk to John Galt whoever that is?
Who gives a shit?
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/25/nyregion/police-link-computer-virus-to-2-at-cornell.html
Ignore these posts. Someone has been deploying what appears to be a Markov chain text generator all over Slashdot, which has previously been used on usenet (see Mark V Shaney) and I suspect The Daily Show with John Stewart, and with greater range, the Colbert Report.
Yesterday I read Steve Jobs was dead. Today, as I read that Dive into Python was gone offline, I thought: "No! Not Mark Pilgrim!"
Thank God he's alive. Hope he ressurects Dive into Python soon. You can only make so much impact on people this once, like Jobs did.
The man wrote a lot of great stuff. I learned Python using his guide to that language, and I used his HTML5 guide to keep current on that. I don't think I'll be alone in missing him.
That said, he obviously intends for this to be permanent. He was a stickler for proper HTTP status codes, and wouldn't have his sites throw a 410 if he ever intended on bringing them back. Given the open nature of the things he wrote, it would have been nice of him to transfer maintenance of the guides before doing this. Archives and mirrors are springing up, so the work won't be lost. But if he wanted to go quietly, he could have made things much quieter by saying something.
At the very least, he could have avoided this chaos and the police visit.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Well, way to help a brother out.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
everyone seems to be focused on the "he should be able to" and "we dont want to lose you" but nobody is asking, "why? why are you doing this?"
if someone knows, just say it.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
http://services.wakegov.com/realestate/Account.asp?id=0271345&stype=owner&owner=pilgrim%25%2Cmark%25&spg=1
Here's hoping the reason isn't "Diving into the timezone database"...
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
"Dive out of the internet"?
I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
... indoors posting too much: http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/about-vitamin-d/how-to-get-your-vitamin-d/vitamin-d-supplementation/
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
he got lost in between 2 timezones ;)
I understand your move, Mark. You don't know me from Adam, but that's ok to - I completely understand. I've been at that edge, but haven't had the courage to step off and see if I will leap to the next building, or merely hit the ground.
What a bunch of wank.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Deep, like a tank full of slurry.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
He probably just got fed up with the waste of time on the Net. You know, it's perfectly feasible to live without any connection to the Internet. Depending on what you work on going offline might also make you more productive (e.g. if you work in mathematics or some other domain that requires extensive *real* thinking). I'm pretty sure that Grigori Perelman doesn't surf the Net very often either. Then again, I wouldn't necessarily pick him as a role model.
Reading comprehension fail.
I was really sad to hear about Mark pulling down all these amazing resources. I've mirrored a bunch of them, and put them up at the .net versions of his domains. They are DiveIntoPython.net, DiveIntoPython3.net, and DiveIntoHTML5.net. Hopefully we can keep these super important resources up!
http://diveintopython3.ep.io/
This is the Python 3 version, last updated 2011. It is more current than the mirror in the main article.
Finding God in a Dog
Am I the only one who imagined this comment in Shatner's voice?
I'm pretty sure whatever it is, it involves a bong.
Holy shit, mod this 5-funny!