Mark Hoekstra Has Passed Away

UPDATE: His personal site has been updated.

It was with great sadness that we learned of [Mark Hoekstra]’s death this morning. Earlier this week, the 34 year old hacker suffered a heart attack while riding his bicycle and was admitted to the hospital in a coma. [Markie] has been a Hack a Day commenter for much of our existence and a project contributor for nearly as long. It started simply with things like his bright green Hack a Day iPod sock and a hand crank iPod charger. He did an excellent job documenting his projects; many people had built IR cameras, but none were nearly as thorough as him. He also enjoyed sharing his love for obsolete hardware with the community. He built a wireless eMate, turned two Mac SE/30’s into audio viualizers, and wired shutter glasses to an old SGI.

It was always a treat to hear about [Mark]’s latest project and he’ll be missed greatly.

[photo: Bram Belloni]

63 thoughts on “Mark Hoekstra Has Passed Away

  1. As a long time reader of Hack-a-day, I extend my condolences to Mark’s friends and family. I hope that people will find solace in his many accomplishments, and honor him by carrying the torch of developing technology and clever solutions to problems.

  2. I’ve once met Mark in person a few years ago (during a Firefox release party actually, being true geeks! :D).

    That was also the first time I heard about him and he directly struck me as a very kind and also very knowledgeable person. He gave me his business card but for some reason or another we never met in person again.

    Coincidentally I noticed this card again a few week ago.. and thought: ‘I would be really nice to
    have a meeting with him once again’.

    Sadly this never came to be…

    During the years I followed his work at a distance; Those who have followed this projects/work can only conclude that he had a very rare combination of creativity, knowledge and skills. This combined with his humor made him someone for which I had and have a lot of respect.

    It’s very sad that the world has just lost a great person like him.

    Mark, we will miss you. Thank you for all the inspirational projects and for just being you: Mr. Geek Technique! :)

    May you rest in peace, tinkering with all kinds of heavenly gadgets.

    I also would like to extend my condolences to his family and friends. I wish you a lot of strength and as Tom stated so eloquently before me: the torch with his ‘Maker spirit’ will be carried on by enthusiasts all over the world.

    Conclusion to self:

    – Try to enjoy every day and every moment. You never know how much time you really have available on this world.

    – Do not postpone things you’d like to do; perhaps you’ll never have the chance to do them if you wait too long.

  3. Thats really sad. Although I wasn’t a regular reader, I love geek technique!

    RIP Mark.

    I’ll be thinking of you when I’ll finally be able to do your “How to turn your iPod-mini into a flash based iPod” project this week :)

  4. Shit.

    Mark was a really huge inspiration to me, I absolutely loved the guy and his work. I really related to his love of SGI gear and various obsolete chunks of hardware. I read geek technique with almost religous, cheerful glee.

    I can’t believe he’s gone, I truely am sad now. This is a really sad day.

  5. Its really troubling to hear of marks passing.

    the tinkerers and creative folks ive seen from afar have shaped who i am, and its sad to see any of them go.

    I am glad to see so many folks comment back.

    anyone going to make a backup of his site ?
    -Dane

  6. Wow.
    I remember a few of these projects from over the years.
    Indeed, consistent, creative, and the write ups are just great.

    What a bummer. :(

    I really hope his work can live on in an online archive somewhere.
    I’m sure a part of him lives on as long as someone sees and learns and is perhaps inspired by what obviously brought him a lot of joy.

    Whatever your next hack is, give a moment of thought to the man, then fire up that soldering iron, drill, welder, computer, torch, or whatever you’re using for tools.
    He’d do the same, I’m sure. :)

    Hack on, brothers and sisters, hack on.

  7. just to say i’ve been coming on this site for a while but never commented or looked in depth at many of the hacks. although i’ve never heard of this guy it’s never nice when someone dies, especially since mark was only 34 and by the sound of it he was in pretty good physical shape. all i can say is i hope he has fun playing around with whatever they have in heaven.
    R

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