Bill Zeller

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William Bill Zeller died Jan. 5, 2011, at a local hospital as a result of injuries sustained in a suicide attempt at his home near campus. He was 27.

A University service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 15, in the Garden Room of Prospect House with a reception immediately afterward. The service is open to members of the Princeton University campus community and Zeller’s family and friends.

A native of Middletown, Conn., Zeller was pursuing a doctoral degree in computer science, having earned his master’s degree from Princeton in 2008. He received his bachelor’s degree from Trinity College in 2006. He was active in the Graduate Student Government and participated in an influential technology blog, among other activities.

Zeller is survived by his parents, George Zeller and Anna Zeller, his elder brother, John, and his grandfather William Zeller, in addition to numerous aunts and uncles.

“The University has lost a very promising computer science student and an individual with many close friends within his research group and across campus,” said William Russel, dean of the graduate school. “We in the Graduate School and others from University offices offer sincere condolences and continuing support to Bill’s family and his friends on campus and across the country. We are planning a memorial service to provide students and members of the Princeton family an opportunity to honor his memory.”

Bill Zeller was an American computer programmer who was best known for creating the MyTunes application until his suicide in 2011. After his death, his suicide note[1] began circulating widely, bringing the long-term ill effects of child abuse into public discussion.

His best-known software project was MyTunes, an enhancement for Apple's iTunes software that enables users to copy music between computers on a local network. During his undergraduate years he also created Zempt, an enhancement for the popular Moveable Type blogging platform. Zeller continued creating innovative software in graduate school. His most recent hit was Graph Your Inbox, an extension to the Chrome browser that allows GMail users to analyze patterns in their own email traffic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Zeller

http://dailypostal.com/2011/01/06/bill-zeller-memorial-service/

 

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Bill Zeller
Bill Zeller left an impact on many people around the Web after he committed suicide last Sunday. Before taking his life, he wrote about why he made the decision to do so.

As a child, Bill was physically and sexually abused, which left marks on him that he was unable to get rid of in his adult life. Even programming wasn’t enough to set him free from all the suffering he experienced.

Here are some of Bill Zeller’s final words:

“My first memories as a child are of being raped, repeatedly. This has affected every aspect of my life. This darkness, which is the only way I can describe it, has followed me like a fog, but at times intensified and overwhelmed me, usually triggered by a distinct situation.

“This darkness followed me as I grew up. I remember spending hours playing with legos, having my world consist of me and a box of cold, plastic blocks. Just waiting for everything to end. It’s the same thing I do now, but instead of legos it’s surfing the web or reading or listening to a baseball game. Most of my life has been spent feeling dead inside, waiting for my body to catch up.

“The darkness is with me nearly every time I wake up. I feel like a grime is covering me. I feel like I’m trapped in a contimated body that no amount of washing will clean. Whenever I think about what happened I feel manic and itchy and can’t concentrate on anything else.

“I’ve spent my life hurting people. Today will be the last time.”

http://diariosdominicanos.blogspot.com/2011/01/bill-zeller.html

http://www.centraljersey.com/articles/2011/01/14/topstory/doc4d2babf87af89657012960.txt

 

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Longest suicide note I've ever seen.

 

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http://abcnewsradioonline.com/national-news/tag/suicide

 

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Longest suicide note I've ever seen.

His last words

'Feel free to republish this letter, but only if it is reproduced in its entirety.'

I guess he wanted to make a final impact before departing.