
Ben “bushing” Byer has passed away - axoltl
http://fail0verflow.com/ben
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jhurliman
Ben was the first person I met in the flesh in the Bay Area (we knew each
other beforehand via efnet and a mutual open source project). He was the most
brilliant reverse engineer / security researcher I've ever met, on a
completely different level. He was also the connecting fabric between a
diaspora of friends spread across the Bay Area and the web.

Ben, you will be missed.

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firloop
Wow. I've been following bushing's work for a while and this is very saddening
to hear. If you haven't seen bushing & marcan's "Wii Fail" presentation, I
recommend it. My thoughts are with his family and loved ones.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z81BCko-
UY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z81BCko-UY)

~~~
aidenn0
Wow! After seeing the video and that his real name is Ben Byer, I think I went
to high school with him. He looks somewhat different, but the voice sounds
right.

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daeken
Wow, this hits me like a punch to the stomach. I worked with bushing on a
number of projects over the years, and I've rarely met a nicer, smarter
hacker. He'll be missed greatly.

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SunShiranui
I didn't know him before reading this, but I have followed and enjoyed
fail0verflow's work. It is a very sad loss.

Edit: I actually realized who he is now, as I only knew of him by the name
"bushing". A shame to see a great hacker go.

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Hydraulix989
Sorry to hear that. Bushing was awesome. Many of my IRC friends in the
Nintendo DS hacking scene knew him well.

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agumonkey
These were the guys who found a crack in the PS3 encryption tower right ?

~~~
jhurliman
Ben was also instrumental in the Wii hacks, played a role in several iOS
jailbreaks, and helped me reverse engineer the Second Life protocol.

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afreak
I met him when he was visiting Vancouver a few years ago and had exchanged
e-mails with him a few times. It's really sad to see him pass away.

~~~
jtl999
Very sad. Wish I could have met him IRL then.

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th0ma5
So young, does anyone know why? Maybe that's a morbid question, and I am sorry
for everyone's loss.

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angilly
I didn't think someone so young could die of "natural causes", but apparently
even dying from the flu or sudden heart failure qualifies as a natural cause:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_by_natural_causes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_by_natural_causes)

Ooof. Terrifying.

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toomuchtodo
DVT is also considered a natural cause, and if you sit all day, you're at a
higher propensity to die from it:
[https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/deepveinthrombosis.html](https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/deepveinthrombosis.html)

~~~
melling
Developers really need to look after their health. Our sedentary lives are
impacting our health:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11040932](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11040932)

Hopefully, we'll soon figure out ways to monitor and measure our health. Then
dying from natural causes will never happen.

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Relys
Never knew the guy personally, but he was certainly one of my inspirations.
RIP. :(

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fzzzy
Wow. I only met him a few times, but I always hoped we would work together
someday. He blew my mind talking about reversing.

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conundrum1947
RIP Ben, you will be missed by one and all.

