Let me see if I've got this right... A group of friends gather at a dinner party. One of them ventures a topic of conversation: an opinion, a piece of news, or perhaps even some controversy. There are replies immediately. A healthy discussion forms and through the group's exploration of the topic, other related ideas are surfaced. Some members of the group turn away to do other things (it is a rather large party), returning sometimes immediately and sometimes after a great amount of time has elapsed. The conversation continues. Upon their return, our flighty friends naturally desire to re-engage in the fascinating discussion. But not just on the topic currently at the fore! No, they want to engage on each of the topics which have been discussed in their absence as well. They want, in fact, to be able to participate in each of the discussions at the same time, like little Garry Kasparovs deftly carrying on multiple matches in simultaneous exhibition. Their appetites for debate and exploration are insatiable, and a speech of even moderate length is quickly picked apart into multiple sub-debates. The conversation fragments. It's no longer recognizable as a single discussion, and only by reviewing the record could you identify the topic that seeded it all. It could go anywhere and everywhere, at the same time. That's tricky.

I would try to talk you out of the way you are feeling, because it is hard to see other people's sadness, and it would help me avoid confronting my own mortality. But that would be the wrong thing to do. It's just tragic.

Great tips for users and developers alike. I'm very interested to see how this field changes when quantum computers start to play a role. With the D-Wave One now sporting a 128-qubit processor chipset, it's going to get interesting soon. This isn't my field (by a very long shot), but it seems like hardware like that could supplant GPUs in calculating hashes and potentially force some big changes in how we secure... jeez, maybe everything.

The internet wouldn't be as good as it is now without you. I hope you enjoy the same powerful clarity of vision and care in all of your future endeavors (inside your home and outside it). Thank you, Jeff.