The Lemon Fool

StepOne wrote:A great loss to the boards - one of the top TMF posters. Seems really strange to be mourning someone I never met.

In terms of his anonimity, he once responded to a post of mine via email, from his work email address, which I guess wasn't that unusual so there must be a fair number of people out there who know who he was. He often said that his most successful investment was the sheer luck of being in an employee share scheme which sky rocketed and I think a lot of people must have assumed that was ARM, but I would leave it up to his brother to decide if he wanted to reveal his actual identity and possibly link to some of his work.

StepOne.

Yes, I wondered whether Gengulphus would give a toss about anonymity after death. God bless.

Sorcery wrote:Yes, I wondered whether Gengulphus would give a toss about anonymity after death. God bless.

I think he would have managed somehow to communicate this if it had been the case. As it is, all we have to go on is his desire to remain largely anonymous here whilst he was alive, and his brother's thanks for keeping it that way.

Chris

I think the subject of anonymity should be left where it is and that there should be no speculation on this matter. Respect the wishes of his brother.

Dod

That's tragic news about Gengulphus dying. He was a fantastic contributor to the shares community, and I learned a lot from him, and greatly respected him. I hope his family see these messages, and hopefully gain a little comfort from knowing how widely liked, and respected he was.

HaiderAli wrote:Haven’t seen you for ages H, hope all is well. Missed you.

Likewise. Yep, surviving, you may see a bit more of me in these parts for a bit, but not sure how long it will last.

Troglodytes wrote:

AsleepInYorkshire wrote:Au revoir, chin chin, adios, goodbye,
An empty chair at the table, a time to cry,
...
For one long minute all quiet we stand.

AiY(D)

Dear AsleepInYorkshire. As yet, I can't reply via PM - I assume that because I'm a newbie on here. So my only option is a public post. We would like to include your poem at Gengulphus' funeral service. So I would like to ask your permission please? If you would like it properly attributed to your real name please PM me. Thanks, Trog.

Troglodytes wrote:

Troglodytes wrote:

AsleepInYorkshire wrote:Au revoir, chin chin, adios, goodbye,
An empty chair at the table, a time to cry,
...
For one long minute all quiet we stand.

AiY(D)

Dear AsleepInYorkshire. As yet, I can't reply via PM - I assume that because I'm a newbie on here. So my only option is a public post. We would like to include your poem at Gengulphus' funeral service. So I would like to ask your permission please? If you would like it properly attributed to your real name please PM me. Thanks, Trog.

Hi Trog,

I've replied via PM. Of course you can use it. It belongs to Gengulphus.

I'm genuinely humbled. Thank you

Take care

AiY(D)

A great loss to these boards. I’m glad that his family will hear of the high esteem in which he was held by this community. His alter ego as ‘Gengulphus’ will probably be a side of him they hadn’t seen before.

I wonder what Gengulphus himself would make of these tributes? Almost none of us even knew his identity, and yet there is genuine grief evident in many of these posts. My impression of him was that he was a highly rational person rather than an emotional one, so it’s poignant to muse on what one final post from him would say about these tributes.

Gengulphus was knowledgeable, polite, and always willing to spend time helping others on these boards. It’s up to the rest of us now to try to live up to his standards.

MyNameIsUrl wrote:A great loss to these boards. I’m glad that his family will hear of the high esteem in which he was held by this community. His alter ego as ‘Gengulphus’ will probably be a side of him they hadn’t seen before.

I wonder what Gengulphus himself would make of these tributes? Almost none of us even knew his identity, and yet there is genuine grief evident in many of these posts. My impression of him was that he was a highly rational person rather than an emotional one, so it’s poignant to muse on what one final post from him would say about these tributes.

Gengulphus was knowledgeable, polite, and always willing to spend time helping others on these boards. It’s up to the rest of us now to try to live up to his standards.

Excellent post, thank you. C.

I've only just found this posting with great sadness. He was very valued indeed. A prayer shall be said for him with a thank you for all his help over the years. I hope it can be of some comfort to his family to know how many of us actually really do care. Bless you all.

Sorry to hear this.
His was one of the names I was most aware of and the information he provided was useful.
I hope his posts will remain as a research source.

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.

Troglodytes wrote: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.

Anyway - Gengulphus in real-life was David Seal.

Yes, when this topic started and I got over the initial shock, I saw it as a puzzle. Fitting really.

I had guessed it was David Seal (not that I had ever heard of him prior to this). Partly from information in this topic. Partly that I recalled from his TMF profile that his first name was David and that he lived in Cambridge. And partly because of something I was told in an off-board conversation about where he worked. Then some googling.

Regards to your family.

Thanks for sharing this, Troglodytes. The descriptions of "Seal-o-Grams" on that site has certainly raised a smile as I think many of us would recognize that hundreds of those have been posted here on LF over the years.

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

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.

Hi Trog,

I'm sorry I never knowingly met your brother. I say "never knowingly" because having worked in the technology industry in Cambridge for so long (although never at Acorn or ARM) and enjoying a few beers myself, it would not surprise me if I had not stood next to him at a bar at some point. I think it's almost certain we would have had mutual acquaintances too. Last week I walked past the original ARM barn in Swaffham Bulbeck and thought of him. It must've been so great to have had the experience of being one of the 12 founders of ARM and working with other incredibly bright people like Steve Furber and Sophie Wilson.

Hope you're all doing OK.
All the very best, Si

Sorry I forgot... they say everyone has a great novel in them. Well, David had a great Reference Manual:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Architecture-R ... 0201737191

I loved that his old TMF profile said he was a "hardware/software engineer". Typically understated, I would imagine. If only all hardware/software engineers were as bright as he was...

All the best, Si

One suggestion that I haven't seen posted on this thread is some sort of compilation of Genguphus' "greatest hits". I have a number of mathematical/ statistical/ financial interests of my own, and for years have routinely saved any relevant "Seal-o-grams" as PDFs.

Quite possibly, many others here have done the same.

Obviously, posts here on TLF are readily accessible, without recourse to PDFs. But I have PDFs from the TMF days, and potentially more are available via The Wayback Machine.

Now, TMF posts are (AFAIR) TMF-copyright. But as Fool analyst Malcolm Wheatley (as some of you know), I'm happy to approach TMF top brass to ask for permission.

Thoughts?

MDW1954

MDW1954 wrote:Now, TMF posts are (AFAIR) TMF-copyright.

I think you'll find that copyright of a post was retained by the author, and presumably now passes to the estate. TMF were granted an irrevocable non-exclusive licence to publish it, that's all.

TMF terms & conditions wrote:Your content
You hold the copyright in the expression that you post on our sites. Please note, however, that when you post content (such as a discussion board post) in our internet areas, you expressly grant The Motley Fool a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use, edit, alter, adapt, translate, copy, publish, continue to publish or republish the submission (and/or an edited, adapted or translated version of it or part of it) (‘the Work’) and/or to sell or otherwise communicate or distribute the Work, as part of an edited compilation or in any other way howsoever.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160203033 ... ourcontent

There is a similar non-exclusive licence in the TLF terms and conditions.