Troglodytes wrote:Dear TLFers,
Firstly I would like to thank everyone for their kind words and memories of Gengulphus. We (the family) are deeply moved by all the heartfelt messages. Thank-you.
We've also have had a bit on a confab about outing Gengulphus; overall we feel that David wouldn't mind and would even smile at the idea. He quite liked a mystery and I can almost see his broad grin when a mystery gets solved. Also, of course, it's quite clear that many of you already know or have guessed. UncleEbenezer is quite right to make the connection to phutball; see John Conway's books on 'Winning Ways' (where incidently David is credited for some of the original work on solving Rubik's Magic Cube).
Anyway - Gengulphus in real-life was David Seal. I set up a condolence page a few weeks back if you would like to read more about him and other people's memories or if you would like to make a donation in his memory to Cancer Research. It's at davidseal.muchloved.com.
Once again thank-you to all of you and your lovely messages. Regards Trog and the rest of David's family.
Thanks for sharing Trog. I lost my father today. When I was a kid he bought me a Rubik's cube. I never solved it on my own but perhaps the photostated solution I "cheated" with was the one David helped create?
Not long after that my dad bought me my first computer, a Acorn/BBC Micro with CP/M extension, one of my very early creations was a simple graphical game written entirely in 6502 assembler. It's what set me on my engineering and IT career. I don't know if David had a direct role with that machine. He certainly did have a role with the foundation of ARM, an amazing British company onto whose microprocessors I ported perhaps the first working earliest-deadline-first preemptive kernel (designed and implemented originally on a TI DSP processor by one of my colleagues). It was a joy working with the ARM core, a truly wonderful piece of engineering which drives practically every mobile device today.
RIP Dad. RIP David Seal. And thanks to both for setting me on my journey.
GS