Renowned reverse engineer Fravia says goodbye

by ilitirit • 17 years ago

126 52 17 years ago

pistoriusp• 17 years ago

I find it strange how the imminent demise of another makes me reflect upon myself: I found myself wondering what I would write in the same situation, and then realizing that this is a fate that I cannot escape.

I like to watch Steve Jobs' Stanford commencement speech, every now and again, to remind me of that fact:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA

Transcribed: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

ilitirit• 17 years ago

> imminent demise

Just in case some people don't know, Fravia passed away 2 days ago (2009/05/03)

garply• 17 years ago

fravia's writings were a big part of my motivation to learn how computers work when I was just a fledgling programmer.

So long and thanks for all the info!

gommm• 17 years ago

I remember when I was a kid and didn't have a very reliable internet connection I mirrored fravia.org to make sure that I could read it when I wanted to. I was fascinated with all his writings on reverse engineering and learned a lot from him...

So thanks to Fravia and sorry to see him go...

ahizzle• 17 years ago

I discovered his material at a very young age as well and found it absolutely fascinating. I learned an awful lot thanks to his writing...

Is there anywhere we could properly express thanks/condolences to the family? (If not... Is that a YC startup?) :)

ableal6• 17 years ago

I find it regrettable that Wikipedia, which has lengthy pages on cartoon and soap opera characters, feels the need to save bytes by deleting a page about a real person who publicly contributed knowledge to the community.

(Google cache still has it, as of today)

alnayyir3• 17 years ago

What the hell? They deleted his page? The man's papers and his +HCU crowd trained a whole generation!

tptacek8• 17 years ago

Respectfully: says who? I'm a professional reverse engineer and heard about Fravia for the first time yesterday, on Hacker News. I know brl is also a pro, and he obviously holds Fravia in some esteem, so I don't doubt he's important --- but again, says who? You need sourcing to put something on Wikipedia.

pg2• 17 years ago

Why don't you recreate it? Wikipedia is supposed to be edited by everyone.

ableal6• 17 years ago

History page http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fravia&action=...

... Protected Fravia: Repeatedly recreated ...

(wasn't me, by the way - I've only done occasional anonymous minor fixes and original source contribs)

P.S. I also looked for a place to protest the deletion, but couldn't find anything suitable.

P.P.S. Please do not upvote this and my grandparent comment. Thanks.

cninja• 17 years ago

No need to use google cache when wikipedia keeps the history of the page: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fravia&oldid=2...

tptacek8• 17 years ago

The standard for inclusion in Wikipedia isn't "contributions to the community", or else everybody who had ever worked on an open source project would have a Wikipedia article. Wikipedia articles aren't lifetime achievement awards.

The standard for inclusion is notability.

This argument is a tempest in a teacup. Either there are reliable independent sources establishing that Fravia is notable, or there aren't. If there are, you will have no real trouble getting and keeping an article. If there aren't, the article will be repeatedly deleted, by people who don't know anything about reverse engineering and thus won't care at all about your arguments.

When this exact topic came up yesterday, I spent 3-4 minutes looking for a reliable source that established notability for Fravia, and I came up blank. Who has written about him, outside of blogs? Surely, given how important he was to reverse engineering, somebody has mentioned him, or he's been published somewhere.

ableal6• 17 years ago

I half-regret bringing up the issue. I had wanted to know more, and was sad the info had been deleted.

The half I don't regret is that maybe someone here can contribute better to Wikipedia. Reverse engineering guys are mostly tight-lipped, but they're family ...

anigbrowl• 17 years ago

One wonders if the user who deleted the article was sufficiently jealous of Fravia's reputation that s/he would rather delete the article than improve it. Though poorly sourced, the deleted material hardly qualifies as 'fanboyism'.

gojomo• 17 years ago

!#@!@^% deletionists are ruining Wikipedia. They'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.

wallflower• 17 years ago

> Yet my most cherished advice to all friends is the following: learn to enjoy your contingent present, don't be obsessed by the future. Carpe diem, and enjoy the current emotions: a starry sky, a fresh wind, the shells on the seashore, your love at your side in the night, a long talk in the evening twilight with a friend, the smile of your kids. Substituting that with a TV -or a computer screen- is a very poor bargain... that is one of the few things I am now pretty sure of.

Gobsmacked by this. I've been starting to apply Stoicism towards my life and I'm speechless.

Stoicism: This has been posted on News.YC before but this might impact you:

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/04/13/stoicism-101...

andeka• 17 years ago

goodbye fravia. We will miss you. I will catch you in the next life and use what you taught us to not get lost in this one.

EvanK• 17 years ago

as i understand it, the issue with the wikipedia article was that it [the article] was badly put together, and had no citations.

rather than reverting the changes, try creating a better article from scratch. (of course, its locked until the 12th to prevent a flood of people trying to revert it, but just wait until the 13th)

statictype• 17 years ago

Wow, I just got heavy nostalgia after going through the mirrors of his site.

His pages on reverse-engineering were my earliest findings on the internet. When it used to take days to download a 20mb file.

mgua2• 17 years ago

Redirecting Fravia page to reverse engineering is unacceptable.

He had been an expert in software reversing (which is related to software reverse engineering) and in the last 10 years devoted a considerable amount of efforts to the field Internet Information Searching.

I was a personal friend of mr Ravia, and knew him for more than 10 years. He was able to build a considerable community of experts in the field around him. The article will definitely be improved now, after is untimely death.

Revert back the redirect.

Regards, Marco Guardigli Technical Director TomWare Group

noonespecial• 17 years ago

Ahhh fravia.com...

One of the first things I found when joing the brave new world with my 28.8. The first thing i found on that new "www" thing that made me realize its potential, back in the bad old days when searching/finding anything on it was a bit of a black art. We'll miss you.

"So long, and thanks for all the fish."

gcabeza2• 17 years ago

fravia, ORC+, +HCU I guess that was my awakening in critical thinking. forever grateful...

paulgerhardt• 17 years ago

there are a series of videos of him speaking available at the internet archive: http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=fravia

_b8r0• 17 years ago

May $DEITY present Fravia with all the bounties $AFTERLIFE may offer him. You will be missed.

knightrider• 17 years ago

Such sensationalist headlines should not be encouraged on HN.

mgua2• 17 years ago

I managed to find some more information sources about fravia (pictures of him and RMS, and a blog entry by Tommaso Dorigo, a scientist and a friend of him, and updated my own version of WP page (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fravia&oldid=2...) . I also refined language separated facts from opinions and tried to be more objective, but it is not easy. WP Admin Matt_Crypto re-trashed again the page while I was working on it, giving a very poor explanation. I think that a better page will never come out if they dont allow community to work on it. I am available to critics and I am not hiding my identity. I am a middle age respected professional working and consulting internationally. I owe a lot to mr. Fravia, for what I learned from him since 1996. By the way I was hacking and cracking since the eighties.

Given the inadequate page on WP while he was alive, I felt the need and urge of updating it, then this hell begun. I am registered in WP since 2005, and seldom made some little contributes.

Seems that many of you benefited from Fravia's writings.

Yesterday, at Fravia's final burial, i was blowing a dandelion in the wind. Tiny seeds flowing in the sky in the beautiful green valley. Those flying little seeds were like the many teaching he left inside many of us. a suitable picture could be this: http://photos.jibble.org/albums/Dandelions/dandelion_seeds_b...

Please help me in fixing this Fravia Wikipedia Entry. I simply think he deserves it.

--Marco Guardigli

jahan_26• 17 years ago

I am jahan_26. I'm really sad that you're gone. I'm gonna to follow your way and make your name big. R.I.P

Renowned reverse engineer Fravia says goodbye

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