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Comment by tjansen | Hacker News Reader

Damn. I've loved Bob and his writings ever since I read Accidental Empires as a kid. He went through some crazy shit over the last few years (lost his house, almost blind). And when he started blogging again this year (https://www.cringely.com/2026/05/27/where-the-heck-have-i-be...), the stories got even worse (lost his son, heart attack, stroke). RIP.

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He went through some crazy shit over the last few years (lost his house, almost blind)

https://www.jeremyreimer.com/rockets-item.lsp?f=true&p=272 makes it sound like the "crazy shit over the last few years" wasn't rue.

The post makes a strong case that the cataracts story and the losing his house story were false, among others.

If you're wondering why someone would make things like this up, it appears that they were cover stories for his Mineserver Kickstarter never shipping despite him saying "[i]n terms of development, this project was almost finished before the Kickstarter campaign began", "[a]ll these Mineservers will ship this week. Software is complete and SD cards are being duplicated. T-shirts are being printed every night", etc.

If it sounds unbelievable that someone would make these things up to have something to blame for a failed kickstarter, I recommend reading the post. The evidence against the house burning down is hard to argue with (later Google Maps/Street View imaging shows no apparent damage, in a later post he accidentally revealed that he used the exact laptop that he said he replaced because it was lost in the fire) and there's even stronger evidence that a number of his other claims are fabricated.

That kind of lying is what I sometimes expect from children under 10, it's shocking to me that an adult with some manner of family and career would behave in such a way, in so public a manner.

Thanks for that link. Completely changed my feelings about the guy, unfortunately for the worse, but in the end it's better to know.

Actually Mark Stephens did die from his previous med conditions.

It sounds like you have some kind of other confirmation for this? Anything I can find online points to this HN post, which is "heard from a friend of the family". You couldn't rely on the guy to be telling you the truth so confirmation of the death using one of his pseudonyms isn't even close to official.

Looks like wikipedia won't allow a death date on his page yet anyway.

At the time of posting, there was no other confirmation. But a very brief obituary was posted today: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/mark-stephens-obit...

The cataract story and the house story are absolutely true. It is also true that the kids' kickstarter project failed, as most do. Mark Stephens did have a heart attack and stroke, his 21 year old son Cole did die unexpectedly in his sleep in April and sadly, on Saturday, so did Mark.

I don't know who Jeremy Reimer is, but he needs another hobby.

"his 21 year old son Cole did die unexpectedly in his sleep in April"

I never said that I thought otherwise, nor did I reference Cole in my linked article, and the comment you replied to didn't mention Cole either.

Yes I also found that odd. Particularly because it's a common rhetorical tactic to mislead by redirecting focus away from uncomfortable questions to more defensible claims (which also evokes sympathy in this case).

Also, a new account with only one comment

> I was the chief architect, in over my head despite starting at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab back in 1978.

I used to read his articles back a decade ago. I really enjoyed them. This quote from the article resonated with me. It’s a sobering feeling having dedicated a career to the field to struggle keeping up.

RIP. He seemed to face a lot of struggles both physically and emotionally towards the end of his life.

"The Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL) has been a center of excellence for Artificial Intelligence research, teaching, theory, and practice since its founding in 1963."

https://ai.stanford.edu/

I misread his quote as him starting the lab as opposed to starting AT the lab.

Reminded me of John C Dvorak, same generation, had a heart attack in April then died in July...

I didn't know about Dvorak's passing. I have read so many things he wrote, same for Robert X Cringely. Back in the heyday of the pc and the early internet, I loved reading their latest stuff. Cringely in PC Week or something similar. Those were happy days, I was just a programmer at one of the big companies of the day.

I loved his kind of cringe worthy references to his paramour, Pam or Pammy I think. That was a simpler time, a more optimistic time.

I read InfoWorld for its entire run, from when it was on newsprint in the 80s. Is there anyplace to read a true and complete history of the Cringely column? As I recall, I thought of this guy as 'not Cringely'. I'm happy to be corrected, but there was more than one Cringely. As I recall, there was even a lawsuit over rights to the name.

I just found at the bottom of this Cringely website info page, he says there were indeed more than one person calling themselves Cringely. And he was writing for InfoWorld, not PC Week.

https://www.cringely.com/bout-bob/

"Through a cruel twist of fate having to do with federal judges and unscrupulous lawyers there is, for the moment, more than one Robert X. Cringely. You are right now reading the one true Cringely, author, raconteur, TV personality, and pizza delivery specialist."

I hope they're both sitting and reading and learning together now, wherever they may be. I never caught this update but remember thinking about what he was up to some year ago, really sad all around. Rest in peace and I hope they're both remembered for a long time, I sure will.

This is heart breaking. I can't imagine going through all of this. I wish the best for his family now <3

Mark was an incredibly smart educated and talented guy. His passing will be missed by his followers most certainly.

Jesus. That is gut wrenching.

It would be, if they were true. The guy was a pathological liar.

Whoa, really?

Yes, really. But he had a lot of people that took it as gospel and he did motivate a lot of people to go into tech. Mixed bag.

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