The passing of Ben Dorsey on Saturday 24 March 2018

Was in the Easter Newsletter.
Includes a link to this Thread Underneath.

Ah i missed it, so i'm glad they gave him some credit however , given the space allotted in the latest newsletter to publicizing current route makers ( and don't get me wrong i do not resent the attention they are getting )its not really the obit that he deserves. at least someone from NV3 could have signed the guest book for his family to see they valued his contributions.
 
Not been on the forums for ages and sad to see the bad news. Thoughts go out to his Family at this sad time.
Ben, you will be missed.
 
Here are some screenshots of some of Bendorsey's contributions towards my Illinois Railway Museum Route.

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I will surely miss working with him on this, may he rest in peace.
 
Just a message to MG Sapper here because I can't send him a personal message.
, Ben was working on a mine loader for the Uintah route and had got to the stage of testing before he became ill. In your initial post, you mentioned that you were negotiating about trying to get access to his archive , i wonder if there has been any progress on that front, as there is this and a few other items on the route that need changes that can only be made if one has the original gmax files . if the mine loader is not going to be able to be accessed than i'll make other arrangements to get it constructed.
 
Just a message to MG Sapper here because I can't send him a personal message.
, Ben was working on a mine loader for the Uintah route and had got to the stage of testing before he became ill. In your initial post, you mentioned that you were negotiating about trying to get access to his archive , i wonder if there has been any progress on that front, as there is this and a few other items on the route that need changes that can only be made if one has the original gmax files . if the mine loader is not going to be able to be accessed than i'll make other arrangements to get it constructed.

As of today things do not look hopeful in preserving all Ben's content. I have talked with his wife and his son in law by phone and both seemed to want to preserve all his work but I have heard nothing further from them since those initial contacts. They also indicated to me at the time that they planned to sell all his expensive computer equipment for whatever they could get out of it.

I do plan to make contact one more time soon via email. You can understand that I do not want to bother them in their time of grief and it is their choice if they want to do this or not.

That's about all I can tell you at this point.

Bob
 
Perhaps ask in your next contact what they would like for the equipment? Depending on what it is and how much they would want, perhaps the community could be convinced to put up the necessary funds. A go fund me or kick starter or something similar?
 
Perhaps ask in your next contact what they would like for the equipment? Depending on what it is and how much they would want, perhaps the community could be convinced to put up the necessary funds. A go fund me or kick starter or something similar?
i certainly would chip in several hundred dollars towards that . Really though , we only need his hard drives, oftter a brand new replacement drive and swop them out, if I was in th states I'd buy the equipment if I could use it myself but being in oz it would be prohibitive to post it over here.
 
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:wave: Evening Folks, I'm willing to put some money in on this project..........And it would sure be of help to the family.........

Funerals are quite expensive these days...........And I would think other Bills not related to the funeral.............
 
Ben told me his PC cost him about $US11,000. It was an Alienware top of the range with twin GTX1080 GPUs. He also had an old PC that held much of his work. I don't know if he ever copied that across.
Given the expense of the Alienware PC, I can understand his family trying to recover some of the cost.

Perhaps they may be willing to part with his older machine.
 
Ben told me his PC cost him about $US11,000. It was an Alienware top of the range with twin GTX1080 GPUs. He also had an old PC that held much of his work. I don't know if he ever copied that across.
Given the expense of the Alienware PC, I can understand his family trying to recover some of the cost.

Perhaps they may be willing to part with his older machine.

In dec last year he wrote me this, but he never told me if he got it fixed or not. i dbout ti , as he fell ill soon after , as it is , the old computer would not have all of his latest work on it, but even if it didn't, it would be better then nothing . .
"Been thinking about getting my old computer repaired and probably upgraded a bit. Depends on what's wrong with it of course. According to the built in diagnostics it has something to do with the video card. GPU isn't a separate item like my GTX 1080's. Its either built into the MB (unlikely) or plugs into it but nothing like newer models. If bad I'd just replace it with the same type.



The computer originally came with 500Gb drives for drives C and D in the two drive RAID system. I'd replace them with a single 500 Gb SSD and leave the other dives as is assuming they are ok. Install windows 10 professional (ugh) since XP is definitely no longer available (unless I do it myself since I have the disks from when I originally bought it). Probably better of with W10. Is a place about 20 miles away that repairs computers (where I buy ink cartridges) so next time I'm up that way might stop in as see what's involved. I have all the disks for the other software I'd need to re-install. Computer was $5200 when new. Still available but more expensive of course. I don't like having only one computer since if it goes belly up I'm dead in the water."

he also had two large 4k screens, which would have made up a lot of the cost of the unit. it would be a shame if all his modelling files were junked , i know gmax is a dead end but i am sure that many could be imported across to other programs .

its makes you realize that anyone who works in high quality modelling and route making needs to make plans for their work in the case of death or serious injury. if NV3 had their act together they would have a section for people to store their 3d models and routes on their servers if they wished, then this scenario would be less likely to happen. it would really be in their own interests.
if this will help , offer them $500 for them to get a technician to transfer the work onto a drive and I'll pay. pm me about it if you think it will help .
 
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F.

rip, you beautiful bastard.
Is that some sort of an odd compliment ? It doesn't sound very nice at all !

That's why I hate these obituary threads ... months, or years later, someone eventually digs it back up ... and decides to poke it with a stick

ie: bas·tard
ˈbastərd/
noun
noun: bastard; plural noun: bastards

  • 1.
    archaicderogatory
    a person born of parents not married to each other.
    synonyms:
    illegitimate child, child born out of wedlock; Moredatedlove child, by-blow;
    natural child/son/daughter
    "he had fathered a bastard"



  • 2.
    informal
    an unpleasant or despicable person.
    "he lied to me, the bastard!"
    synonyms:
    scoundrel, villain, rogue, rascal, weasel, snake, snake in the grass, miscreant, good-for-nothing, reprobate; Moreinformallowlife, creep, nogoodnik, scamp, scalawag, jerk, beast, rat, ratfink, louse, swine, dog, skunk, heel;
    slimeball, son of a bitch, SOB, scumbag, scumbucket, scuzzball, scuzzbag, dirtbag, sleazeball, sleazebag;
    datedhound, cad;
    archaicblackguard, knave, varlet, whoreson
    "he's a real bastard"



Not a nice compliment in my dictionary ... maybe in Ebonics, street slang, or prison terminology ?
 
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I think it was intended in a good context. In Australia, use of that word could mean both a derogatory sense and a best friend.

While riding the train between Ottawa and Montreal today, we crossed a number of bridges. Each time I wondered if Ben has made such a bridge or would consider making one. Don't I will ever look at a bridge the same way again.
 
As of today things do not look hopeful in preserving all Ben's content. I have talked with his wife and his son in law by phone and both seemed to want to preserve all his work but I have heard nothing further from them since those initial contacts. They also indicated to me at the time that they planned to sell all his expensive computer equipment for whatever they could get out of it.

I do plan to make contact one more time soon via email. You can understand that I do not want to bother them in their time of grief and it is their choice if they want to do this or not.

That's about all I can tell you at this point.

Bob

Could they back up the hard drive to an external drive? I'm sure we can find enough cash to cover a 4 T external drive. Microsoft synctoy is free software that would get a back up done. Once that was done it frees up the hardware side to be sold off. The biggest danger is the hardware gets sold off before the backup is done.

I have room to host the sources on jatws.org if need be.

Cheerio John
 
Could they back up the hard drive to an external drive? I'm sure we can find enough cash to cover a 4 T external drive. Microsoft synctoy is free software that would get a back up done. Once that was done it frees up the hardware side to be sold off. The biggest danger is the hardware gets sold off before the backup is done.

I have room to host the sources on jatws.org if need be.

Cheerio John
I haven't had any response to my offer to buy the drive and given that now some months have passed I think we can assume that this isn't going to happen, let it be a lesson to us all, make arrangements to ensure that any significant work is preserved for others to use . I was considering asking Ben about what his arrangements were but it didn't seem appropriate as it makes the assumptions that the person involved won't make it .
i suppose I could approach the family myself if they are still monitoring Ben's email account , but a phone call would be the best way , being in Australia that's not an easy thing for me to do, I'll try his email .
 
I haven't had any response to my offer to buy the drive and given that now some months have passed I think we can assume that this isn't going to happen, let it be a lesson to us all, make arrangements to ensure that any significant work is preserved for others to use . I was considering asking Ben about what his arrangements were but it didn't seem appropriate as it makes the assumptions that the person involved won't make it .
i suppose I could approach the family myself if they are still monitoring Ben's email account , but a phone call would be the best way , being in Australia that's not an easy thing for me to do, I'll try his email .

Since Bob has already spoken to them he might be better placed to make the phone call. We have the models in TANE and Ben worked in GMAX so I'm not certain just how useful the sources would be since most of us work in Blender these days.

Cheerio John
 
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