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]
:-(
Will be much missed.
R.I.P brother and may you hack a day every day.
I’m shocked, I LOVED GT. A heart attack at 34? That’s so awful. Especially since he was just recently talking about a girl he’d met and he seemed really happy..
anyone else suspecting he was assasinated by super-top secret ninjas?
okay, just me then…
He will be missed.
that’s really lame. i hit his site almost every day. the scary part is he’s only a year older than me. he will definitely be missed.
R.I.P.
Too bad they couldn’t hack you back together. You will be missed.
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.
oh, wow. this is really shocking. i loved going to mark’s site, he always had something new going on, so many projects, great ambitions.
we’ll miss you markie!
Bad news for us all. He will be greatly missed.
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.
NOOOO! i loved geek technique.
moment of silence…
he will be missed
Mark, we zullen je missen.
T_T
from beginning to the end youre the best :)
RIP bro :-(
:( sucks to hear what happened to him, from what i heard he lived a full, and happy life.
if god really does exist, i hope he winds up in a better place. RIP Mark Hoekstra.
Been viewing this site ever since the first few posts too, linked from Slashdot.
Rest in piece, Mark. He’s adding LED’s to Heaven, now.
This sucks. Mark has poured so much personality into GEEKtechnique that I feel like I’ve lost a close friend.
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 :)
this is so sad. he will be greatly missed.
the community has suffered a great loss.
we will never forget.
rest in peace.
Shocked
I’m so sad..he was a great “artist”
RIP
I had only read about one of his hacks and thought it was excellent. And was looking forward to reading more. But that’s not possible anymore. It’s terrible. Rest in Peace
RIP. This is my fist post after visiting this site for 4 years.
God bless him, & family /friends.
one of the best, loved the dialog, the projects, the web site. Mark will be greatly missed.
always sad to lose a member of the community, especially so young
Can’t believe he had a heart attack at 34 and wasn’t 300lbs or anything.
I thought his mac Se hack was soo cool too.
just flash the bios he will be fine
but seriously that is sad and he will be greatly missed
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.
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
you will be missed fellow hacker.
R.I.P
rip mark. you will be missed.
r.i.p.
very much missed.
Hopefully hes in a better place with all the hardware he can chew on.
I loved geek technique, and I painted my ibook red after I saw his green ibook.
Ill miss him,
Fahre wohl, mit etwas Gerechtigkeit wartet schon die neue Lötstation auf dich.
He’s hacking angels now. RIP
r.i.p markie, you will be sadly missed.
So young :(
rest in peace.
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.
r.i.p. Mark :(
I’ve never commented here before, but it’s too sad not to.
RIP
To live in hearts we leave behind, is not to die. Rest in peace.
Rest In Peace.
r.i.p. man, wherever you are.
Holy fucking shit. I almost don’t believe it.
I follow his site on each and every update.
He’s as much of a hero as I’ve got, honestly.
May he be happy as whatever part of the ethereal construct he may now be.
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
very sad to hear, RIP Mark.
mark… i didnt know you personally but he was an awesome man.
he has recieved his last DoS attack…
Thats so sad, he was like an hero to me too!!!
hope you are in a better place right now dude!
RIP
Very sorry to hear the bad news. RIP Mark.
Is it odd that the last song that he listened to that was scrobbled to his last.fm was “Instant Death” By The Beastie Boys? Sure it might have not been the last track he ever listened to but I find it odd.
http://www.last.fm/user/markhoekstra