Regarding 999; I probably have different thoughts on that than most anyone else. Personally, we were good friends. He was the first to contact me over Pocket Quake, and he was always a very strong supporter / contributor to everything I have done since that time. It was our brainstorming during a chat that produced the name "DEXplor". The DEXplor logo was his creation, as was the image you see at the top-left of this page. He was the first person to know about DEXplor and was the first person to ever use it in an extremely early alpha version. Many of his ideas were incorporated into Pocket Quake and DEXplor.
When he "disappeared", to me it was literally mid-sentence. We were discussing something over email, and he left mid-stream. I have heard that he had major financial problems (because of his girl friend), she broke up with him, and his computer failed all within a couple days' time. He really did sell his iPaq and all accessories on eBay, and took off for Europe. Now, from my vantage, that was all very extreme. I don't see how all those occurrences could disillusion someone against Pocket PCs, for example. He stated something along the lines that his priorities were wrong, and he wasn't going to spend so much on technology (he had around $2000 in his iPaq / Microdrive / modem / keyboard, etc). I know that people in the Pocket PC scene were constantly asking him to design stuff for their projects, websites, etc. Perhaps that helped push him away from the community and Pocket PC in general.
So to sum up all that babbling, he was a good friend, and a talented contributor to the Pocket PC community. I think his "disappearance" was a bit extreme, unjustified and irresponsible from my vantage point. However, since I don't know the entire situation, I am in no position to pass judgment or condemn him for his action. I suppose there is a certain sequence of major events that could happen in any of our lives to make us stop frequenting a website and sell our Pocket PC.
Dan East
