I just found out that Fjalar Ravia (a man fondly known as Fravia and fravia+ to many on the net) recently died. How I came to know this, and what this means to me, I’ll go into.
Recently I have been a busy beaver. Jumped into a new gym routine; an intense Dead lift + Bench + Barbell Squat routine (borrowing some ideas of pavel tsatsoline, and adding some deep abdominal breathing and tension routines). Add a new employment position, I took a nice contract as my other business has been all but dead the last few months. Entrepreneurs need to eat..
The last week I’ve been sharing time and emotional intimacy with a good friend from out of town, so add to this my daily walks, my regular cafe hopping schedule, pipes cigars and billiards with the Distinguished Gentlemen About Town, and finally somewhere between all of this a bit of time to read…
Intellectually, lately my reading has been dominated by a few of things – one, researching Citrix (for a new job) – two, international finance, derivative contracts and UCP 600 Documentary Credits (I completed did a correspondence course in L/C finance and Export procedures 2 years ago, and wanted to brush up a bit) – three, re-reading Henry Miller’s works (I read Miller years ago, after finishing some of Anias Nin’s diaries. His views on life and sexuality fascinated me) and – four, the history of Eugenics, Social Biology, Evolutionary Psychology, and the present day politics of population control.
So, per my previous post, I am also catching up on a lot, oh say a decade’s worth, of computer security information.
So where do I find the time? I have to snipe at minutes, strategically.
So, the security scene today … I check Phrack’s site, and holy mackerel they actually have a new issue out (the thing was being published almost once every 2 years for a while), seems to be interesting reading, a good catching up to speed.
I dig around a bit.. new books, visiting old sites and new ones, and whilst catching up on matters of information security I visited a site I once knew well, fravia+.
An expert software reverse engineer and cracker, and in his later years a general cultural and social reverse engineer. I used to share many email exchanges with fravia over a decade ago, and even wrote an article for his site. Fravia was important to me, in my early intellectual development.
I was shocked, and saddened, to read that he has recently passed away after a season of illness with cancer.
A cynic might reflect, why the angst over someone I’ve never met in person? And furthermore haven’t even kept up with in years?
Well fravia was important to me, someone who shared knowledge with me, and from whom I learned. The fact that he engaged me and responded to me when he was clearly a busy man marked him in my eyes. The fact that we only “met” online, and never in person, is irrelevant.
His was a persona I admired, a great intellect, and I am sorry to hear he has passed.
Someone, even a non techie, could learn a lot, a lot, of really interesting things about the world by reading his site closely.. most of the later articles were of general interest to someone with a curious mind:
“Critical thinking (Fallacies and the “fallite fallentes” seekers’ approach) “
” How to search the web in languages you don’t know”
“How to research, evaluate and collate web material”
I like this one..
“THE BASIC LAWS OF HUMAN STUPIDITY”
Don’t let anything be off putting, there is a wealth of knowledge on his site, hours of reading for non technical people and techies alike. Much of it about how to critically see the world in a new light and how to evade attempts to manipulate or control you emotionally and intellectually.
Check it out. It is a dead man’s legacy to the world. Ideas can matter more, in many ways, than tangible objects.
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