User:Billzeller

William Zeller (born October 26, 1983, deceased January 5 2011) was a computer programmer who lived in Middletown, Connecticut. He was the developer of the popular myTunes software, a program which allows Windows users to download music from an iTunes music share over a network, circumventing restrictions in iTunes that only allow streaming music. He has also done work in the open source community, namely as the founding developer of the weblog publishing tool, Zempt. He was a student at Trinity College.

History

 * On October 16, 2003 Apple Computer released a version of its iTunes software for Windows.
 * On October 26, 2003 William Zeller released the first version of his software, myTunes.
 * On April 28, 2004 Apple Computer released version 4.5 of iTunes, which disabled myTunes and other similar programs.
 * On September 5, 2004 William Zeller released myTunes Redux which overcame Apple Computer's restrictions and added various other features.
 * On January 2, 2011 William Zeller released his suicide note and proceeded to hang himself. He was alive when found, but died later in hospital.

From what I can piece together, it seems he went online early Sunday morning, checked MeFi until about 4am EST, went to facebook an hour later and wiped out his entire profile, just leaving his suicide note (warning, it's intense and describes abuse but it is really well written). He then emailed a copy of the note to a large number of friends and acquaintances at 6:57am EST (that's when I got it and first found out what happened), then he began to hang himself.

From what I can gather, ten minutes later someone found him and he was rushed to the hospital but ten minutes is a long time to go without oxygen to the brain. He suffered damage and his brain was showing very little involuntary activity and no voluntary activity. He was induced into a coma to prevent swelling but eventually it was declared he'd be in a permanent vegetative state and tonight at 8pm his respirator was removed and he passed on. —Matthew Haughey (aka mathowie), RIP Bill Zeller | MetaTalk