I used to hang out with him a bit in the mid-'70s. I'd read about him in the famous Esquire article, and it was pretty cool when I finally got to meet him. He wanted to learn how to program, and we had both recently discovered FORTH. Most importantly, he had some really good pot (for those days).
So I would drop by and we would stay up late at night hacking and smoking. Then he asked me if I wanted to work out.
I thought that sounded like a good idea. Goodness knows, everyone can use more exercise!
Then I found out what he meant, and it wasn't exactly what I had in mind. So we went back to hacking and kept it at that level. It was really no problem, just a simple misunderstanding, and we continued to have fun hacking together.
I didn't see John for many years, and then ran into him at the 2013 Homebrew reunion. I introduced myself and he didn't quite remember me at first. Then his eyes lit up and he asked me, "Did we work out?"
https://www.flickr.com/photos/geary/10861963196/in/dateposte...
Next time I saw John was at the 2015 CES, and he was in a wheelchair recovering from back surgery.
You know, whatever feelings any of us may have about the guy, at this point he's not in the best of health. My personal feeling is that perhaps we could wish him well and let bygones be bygones?