RIP Rob "lilo" Levin

Rob Levin (aka "lilo" or "somegeek"), the head of PDPC and the leader of the Freenode IRC network, passed away today after being hit by a car while riding his bike. The news came to me through a global notice on freenode at 14:18 pacific time today.

Though I never met him in person, or talked to him on the phone, I definitely counted him as a friend. Though he rankled many people with his unorthodox fundraising methods and lifestyle, he always was kind to me and seem genuinely interested in what I was doing. He genuinely believed in the mission of freenode and (from my point of view) had a large hand in the revival of IRC in the last few years. I owe a lot, both professionally and personally, to the interactions I've had on IRC -- without Rob's effort in making IRC a relatively sane place again, I would have far fewer friends in this world.

We'll miss you, lilo...

UPDATE: The people at Wikipedia appear to think that Rob is not worthy of a wikipedia page. Go here and now and vote against deleting the Rob Levin wikipedia page!