I only came across his name on various forums, and his pseudonym certainly sounded very familiar. I was not aware of his various and deeply significant contributions across diverse domains until now. Thanks for sharing this information which is certainly very inspiring. I just can't imagine how he was able to contribute the way he did while transcending his health limitations.
On Sat, Mar 5, 2016 at 4:11 PM, Dahlia Trimble <[email protected]> wrote: > I met Latif in SL thru the Advanced Scripters group. We were both > experimenting with libSecondlife bots at the time and began our long streak > of collaborating. He eventually joined the libopenmetaverse team as a > contributor and I joined the OpenSimulator core team. We both participated > in the OGP and VWRAP efforts by LL and our friendship continued to develop. > He consulted with me on several of my OpenSimulator contributions, notably > mesh asset decoding (for collision shapes for mesh), the protocol for > advanced materials, and, along with several TPV developers, enhanced > particle systems. He had many other contributions besides these, too > numerous to mention. He also was quite principled and would seldom hesitate > to challenge me when we disagreed. This was often difficult to initially > deal with but there often was much validity in his perspective which I > hadn't considered, and our friendship grew stronger. I miss him dearly :( > > My condolences and best wishes for those he cherished. > > On Sat, Mar 5, 2016 at 7:00 AM, Diva Canto <[email protected]> wrote: > >> It is with great sadness that I inform you that one of the oldest and >> most respected members of this community, Latif Kalifa, has passed away, >> after a long battle with a serious health condition that landed him in the >> hospital many times over the past few years. >> >> Latif's contributions to the open source SL ecosystem were vast and >> varied. He was one of the original contributors, and the main maintainer, >> of libOMV, a library that embodies the LL protocol and data structures. >> LibOMV lies at the heart of OpenSimulator, as well as many SL/OpenSim bots >> developed by lots of people. Latif also developed Radegast, an alternative >> viewer used by many, especially people with disabilities. He also >> contributed to the Singularity viewer and its offshoot, Replex. He >> participated in the SL Architecture Working Group, and in many technical >> discussions in the OpenSim-dev IRC chat channel. He was a vocal advocate of >> free open source software. >> >> We don't necessarily know who Latif was in real life, what he did for a >> living, or who is family and loved ones are. That's one of the consequences >> of being part of world-wide online communities, where we interact only with >> virtual representations of real people, often using pseudonyms. But it was >> clear to everyone who interacted with him that his spirit was strong and >> that his heart, wherever in the world he lived, was in the right place. >> Open source software exists because of people like him. >> >> His code will outlive him. >> He will be missed. >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Opensim-users mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://opensimulator.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/opensim-users >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Opensim-users mailing list > [email protected] > http://opensimulator.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/opensim-users > > -- 'Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin.' *Rameshsharma Ramloll* PhD, CEO CTO DeepSemaphore LLC, Affiliate *Research Associate Professor*, Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID 83209 Tel: 208-240-0040 LinkedIn <http://www.linkedin.com/in/rameshramloll>, DeepSemaphore LLC <http://www.deepsemaphore.com>, RezMela <http://www.rezmela.com>, Google+ profile <https://plus.google.com/103652369558830540272/about>
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