Nickb | Hacker News Reader

Nickb

markenomics.com

92 pointssutro33 comments

Judging from the extremely low number of deaths per year from hang gliding (for example, 2 reported in 2003), my money is on this just being a troll. I hope that's the case anyway.

Source : http://www.ushpa.aero/safety/HG2003AccidentSummary.pdf

Right... but then you have stories like this:

http://www.newschief.com/article/20091116/NEWS/911169996?Tit...

To be clear, I'm not making any insinuations and I really hope this is a troll

Here's a 113 day old Where's nickb thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=775507

Actually, there's several post like the above one. Here's all (recent) posts with nickb in title: http://searchyc.com/submissions/nickb

Nickb tells his background history here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=99966

The final link is also notable because it's immediately followed by a discussion about the HN "signal to noise ratio".

They seem to be the two most common topics here - are we becoming Reddit? and why isn't nickb around to help prevent it?

Perhaps the answer lies in some erlang source code?

Well, obviously some people do die, but I bet that it's a lot more likely that a troll would say someone died in a hang gliding accident than it would be for someone to actually do so. The perceived risk is probably much higher and it makes the story more interesting. If you want to believably report someone's death, say they were in a traffic fatality.

or nickb having a giggle with an alias account - harveyl

Some info is listed under the NewMogul.com domain records, not sure how accurate it is though:

      New Mogul Inc
      2041 Arrowsmith Dr.
      Ottawa, Ontario K1J7V7
      Canada
      6133221451      Fax --

Should we try contacting him? This is getting a little stalkerish, however it'd be nice to confirm he's OK.

It's so easy to disappear on the internet. _why and nickb being the two most relevant to this community. It seems like someone out there would know these guys in real life and would tell us if something was up. Or is it that easy to disappear in the offline world as well?

Whatever the case may be, I hope he's doing well. I'm very curious as to what he's up to these days (and _why for that matter), but only because they're such interesting souls to share the journey with, and it's a comfort to have such people in the world.

The newmogul.com registration was renewed on the 14th of October, I don't know if nickb used a corporate account or not (the registration suggests he did, listing an 'inc' as the registrant), but either way it is a sign there is at least some stuff active:

   Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
   Domain Name: NEWMOGUL.COM
      Created on: 13-Oct-04
      Expires on: 13-Oct-10
      Last Updated on: 14-Oct-09      <-----

I will pass along but not comment on the following:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=152428

It was an April Fool's joke. Nickb is definitely not Paul Graham.

Hmm...

http://us.st12.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/bugbear_2037_155503...

His last activity was 158 days ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=nickb

Wow. My goodness. Is his death confirmed? It wasn't clear from the thread. I'm unsure of who else (from HN) knew him. Can anyone clarify?

158 days ago was July 7, 2009. Google news doesn't show a news story about a hang gliding death of anyone named "nicholas" this year, though that's far from conclusive.

his last name is barnes

No. nickb's last name is Bobic.

I don't doubt you, but why do you think that Nickb has an email address with Barnes in it? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14482

I see a few Nick Bobics around. http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/et2002/view/e_spkr/1162 and http://www.gamasutra.com/view/authors/148/Nick_Bobic.php seem to refer to the same person. The Ottawa reference makes me suspect that this might be NickB.

No search hits for accidents and Nick Bobic though.

No. nickb's last name is Paulson.

No Fight Club fans I guess.

nothing I could find, seems either bogus or unreported to me.

I hope this is just a troll. I'll believe it when someone more reputable than a brand new anonymous account can confirm it. nickb has disappeared for long periods in the past.

If I remember correctly pg has contacted him in past. Hopefully he can debunk this.

Could this be him? http://twitter.com/n_a_b

Is there some reason other than the name? There's probably tens of thousands of people who are named Nick B.

Not him.

I've known Nick for a decade. He's gone silent before, but not like this. I can't get a hold of him at all. Neither can anyone else I know who knows him.

Do you know him well enough to knock on his door? Or do you know any of his other friends or family who may better be able to get in touch with him?

The name and his description. I knew it was unlikely.

Edit: I was also searching using the string "Nick Barnes" however there's some dispute about whether this is his name.

Trust me, I've known him for 10 years. His last name is Bobic. We had a few long chats this past summer, but then he went radio silent. I just thought it another of his long rests wherein he sits back and thinks. I know he was at his cottage. But the snow is falling and he's always been back in Ottawa before the snow falls as I don't believe the cottage has been wintered.

This Nick Bobic from Ottawa?

Nick Bobic is a researcher at University of Ottawa focusing primarily in experimental algorithms, neuroscience, evolutionary algorithms, cryptography, bio systems, wireless computing, and P2P technology. Bobic is the primary developer of Cryptobox which is a secure decentralized application platform. Cryptobox was the first P2P system to use bio principles. More recently, Bobic is working on a new self-sustaining bio system application for the financial sector along with three researchers from Japan.

http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/et2002/view/e_spkr/1162

According to this article http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn881-private-life.html Nick Bobic also goes as Nikola Bobic. That could help if it is him.

Seems likely as he also shows up as the co-founder of Excino Technologies and WiPlay Networks.

Makes sense, especially since he seems quite in with the financial sector.

Has anyone checked the cottage?

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