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So, is Cynbe ru Taren a "pen name" (or programming equivalent) of Jeffrey Prothero? If so, the article should say something like "Cynbe ru Taren is a name adopted by Jeffrey Prothero ..." - if, however, he has taken it on as his legal name, it should start something like "Cynbe ru Taren (born Jeffrey Prothero) is a..."
I agree. I came to this article mainly to understand why his name is "Cynbe ru Taren" but the page doesn't even mention anything about this. 69.125.134.86 (talk) 23:51, 13 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
There should be a separate page for the Cynbe ru Taren character in Poul Anderson's 1965 science fiction novel "The Star Fox". Clearly that is where Prothero's pen name came from. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Brucestapleton (talk • contribs) 11:02, 12 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Jeff used "Cynbe" as his handle in all virtual communities, ones he wrote and ones in which he merely participated, from the first generation onwards except CaveMuck, in which his handle was Firefly (If Jeff was in a particular room, the "Look" command would return "There is a tiny firefly on the ceiling.") His handle is significant because he used it as his primary online identity during his forty (or so) year programming career. I introduced Jeff to Poul Anderson in 1995, whereupon they discussed the Star Fox character. Poul knew Jeff had taken it as his handle, and was interested in why. The discussion would have ranged more widely had Poul's hearing aid not been on the fritz that day. I'm not sure who started this Wikipedia entry, but I will attempt to locate sources and citations if they do not; Jeff was a true pioneer in the Wikipedia spirit and I think it's a worthy project, though I admit to some bias. ~~Allucquere Rosanne Stone~~
I can confirm that Jeff Prothero passed away on November 16, 2016 from colorectal cancer. I'm the maintainer of the Nios II support in GNU Binutils and the GNU Compiler Collection, and Jeff was my main technical contact at Altera. The news was conveyed to me by his management there, and I also received e-mail from his wife. As far as I know, there hasn't been a formal obituary published, although I'm told a memorial is planned on his birthday, March 15, 2017.
Jeff originally announced his diagnosis himself on the Mythryl mailing list (http://mythryl.org/pipermail/mythryl/2015-January/000900.html). As a colorectal cancer survivor myself, I was in fairly regular contact with him throughout his illness. Jeff's mails were always cheerful and full of hope about new therapies, but I could tell from his descriptions of his treatments and complications that things weren't going well, and I think he knew by late summer or early fall that he wasn't going to make it.
I know that this is information from a primary source that isn't an acceptable reference for the article, but I thought I should put it out there anyway, since many people probably heard about his illness but not how it turned out. Dr.frog (talk) 09:20, 1 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]
