Rebecca Heineman – from homelessness to porting Doom (2022)

(corecursive.com)

243 points | by birdculture 3 days ago ago

55 comments

  • ddasdsasdkjasdj 3 days ago

    Here's a wonderful interview with Rebecca that goes into a lot of detail about her experiences as a trans person in the 80's and 90's. She said she doesn't like to talk about those things too much because she'd rather be admired than pitied, but the context makes her accomplishments more remarkable considering she played life on hard mode for a while.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SyIL6zAmhA

  • LarsDu88 3 days ago

    Did not realize the cofounder of Interplay also ported Doom for the 3DO. Looking at Fabien Sanglard's Doom Blackbook (https://fabiensanglard.net/b/gebbdoom.pdf), I just now noticed that Heineman actually provided some behind-the-scenes promotional photos to that book!

  • ktallett 3 days ago

    I'm extremely upset by her death as she was a real hero of mine. I was homeless in the 00's and could code and it was my way out of being homeless. I used to go to the internet cafe on Tottenham Court Road in London to hone my skills and work on a project I could use to get work. I ended up being lucky that a very kind guy offered me a job after seeing what I was doing and my life changed from that moment. Hearing her story since then made her feel like a kindred spirit.

  • QuantumAtom 3 days ago

    May her memory be a blessing.

  • ChrisMarshallNY 3 days ago

    That’s a great story!

    I never knew of her, before yesterday, but it does seem that she was quite a brilliant and decent person.

  • the_real_cher 3 days ago

    Why doesnt Wikipedia put peoples pre-transition name?

    Its a part of that persons history and alot of search engine data is connected to that last name.

    • igleria 3 days ago

      Might be that person's wish. A lot, if not most of trans people don't want anything to do with their deadname.

      • mangodrunk 2 days ago

        When someone gets a name change and they are well known by their old name it’s misleading and confusing to never mention it. Just like Muhammad Ali‘s wikipedia page mentions his previous name.

        • jrochkind1 2 days ago

          I don't know if Heineman was well-known under her previous name or not, but it's literally in the second paragraph of the wikipedia article on her. And wikipedia generally does mention former names in the cases you are describing.[1]

          y'all are just imagining things to be mad about.

          It would be rude to mention the name in these comments on a post posted in honor of her death though, please don't.

          [1] "As the guideline on birth names and gender identity note, birth and former names of transgender and non-binary people should only be included in the lead section if they were notable prior to coming out… Instead, this information may be woven into an "Early life" section… In cases where the prior name is known only as the result of being outed, editors may feel it would be giving it undue weight to include it in the article, unless it was subsequently widely reported in reliable sources." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_LGBTQ%2B...

          • mangodrunk 2 days ago

            Right, the old name is correctly on the page. I haven’t mentioned the old name, but I don’t think it’s bad to do so to clarify who the person is. I don’t think it’s fair to pretend that someone didn’t have a previous name or that it’s taboo.

            • jrochkind1 2 days ago

              And neither does wikipedia. So what are we talking about?

          • the_real_cher 2 days ago

            Oops thats my bad! I didnt see it. Apologies! It is there! I was tired and missed it and spent a few minutes google searching. Just wanted to see her previous accomplishments!

        • igleria 2 days ago

          I don't understand what is misleading or confusing about Rebecca or Ali. Either you respect someone else's personal preferences or not.

          • mangodrunk 21 hours ago

            They may not be well known by that name. Ali is certainly well known by that name but many of his fights are under his previous name. I think the Wikipedia policy is fair, mention the old name. Even if someone doesn’t want anything to do with it, it should still be part of the biography.

    • pjc50 3 days ago

      It is in general (not just Wikipedia) good policy not to deadname trans people unless they request otherwise.

      I appreciate that this creates problems in talking about people who transitioned mid-life and had substantial pre-transition accomplishments, like Sophie Wilson.

    • tempfile 3 days ago

      It is in the "Early life" section.

    • jrochkind1 2 days ago

      it is literally in the second paragraph of the wikipedia article. I think it would be rude to repost it in these comments however, so please don't. Also it is the same last name.

      • the_real_cher 2 days ago

        Thats my bad I missed it!

        She's had a really impressive life!

    • 3 days ago
      [deleted]
    • indianlolcow 2 days ago

      [flagged]

      • igleria 2 days ago

        @dang since I can't flag this, I'm writing this here in the hope you have a way of seeing this.

        btw, to the parent poster: get mental help.

  • welcome_dragon 3 days ago

    She passed away. There's another story on HN about it

  • 3 days ago
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  • swatson741 3 days ago

    [flagged]

    • onethumb 3 days ago

      She was known as being _extremely talented_ at software development, particularly her knowledge of low level hardware and how to optimize around constraints.

    • mos87 3 days ago

      [flagged]

  • turbonegrofa 3 days ago

    [flagged]

  • mos87 3 days ago

    [flagged]

    • mos87 3 days ago

      [flagged]

  • fud101 3 days ago

    [flagged]

  • cognitive-sci 3 days ago

    Wow

  • jonny_eh 3 days ago

    Rebecca is currently fighting cancer and has a gofundme: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-rebecca-ann-heineman-fight-a...

    She's very close to her goal!

    • cjcole 3 days ago

      Nov 16

      Update:

      Rebecca Heineman - Organizer

      It’s time. According to my doctors. All further treatments are pointless. So, please donate so my kids can create a funeral worthy of my keyboard, Pixelbreaker! So I can make a worthy entrance for reuniting with my one true love, Jennell Jaquays.

      My daughter Cynthia Elizabeth Heineman, will be making the arrangements

      • stevenspasbo 3 days ago

        Horrific. Diagnosed to deceased in a matter of weeks.

    • nsxwolf 3 days ago

      Sadly, Rebecca passed away yesterday.

      • pfdietz 3 days ago

        The report was adenocarcinoma, which can be a variety of cancers, including pancreatic. I assume it was one of the nastier varieties like that.

      • jonny_eh 3 days ago

        Oh damn, I hadn't heard :(

    • TkTech 3 days ago

      I hate every part of this. The pain and suffering and the struggle for money that family had to go through because the richest country on Earth can't be bothered to provide for its citizens. Rebecca should not have had to use a damn gofundme to get health care while struggling with cancer. Her family should not have been forced to publicize her care in the desperate hope that strangers might help her live. Utterly inhuman.

      RIP Rebecca.

      • rayiner 3 days ago

        It’s a very sad situation, but she had an aggressive cancer that killed her in a matter of weeks. In Germany the healthcare option that would have been offered is hospice care. (Source: family friend runs a hospice facility in Germany and it’s much more common than in the U.S.) I doubt any other socialized healthcare system would have responded differently.

        • TkTech 3 days ago

          Germany most certainly covers treatment for aggressive adenocarcinoma, and it's covered at 100%. Germany is literally one of the best places in the world for all levels of oncology.

          This isn't just with the hope of curing someone, even when you're terminal things like palliative chemotherapy are covered which can drastically ease your suffering.

      • 2 days ago
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      • fsckboy 3 days ago

        >because the richest country on Earth can't be bothered to provide for its citizens

        The USA spends more on healthcare per person than any other country

          Locations  2024  2023  2022  2021  2020
        
         USA     14,885 13,818 12,898 12,375 11,926
         Switz.   9,963  9,301  9,089  8,392  7,621
         Norway   9,393  8,909  8,533  7,890  7,221
         Germany  9,365  8,503  8,652  8,103  7,364
         Nederl.  8,436  7,615  7,517  7,317  6,516
         Austria  8,401  7,697  7,700  7,465  6,295
         Luxemb.  8,162  7,247  6,854  6,432  5,859
         Sweden   7,871  7,364  6,977  6,617  6,069
         Ireland  7,813  7,027  6,748  6,221  5,619
         Belgium  7,750  7,178  6,906  6,554  6,097
         Austral  7,469  7,015  6,907  6,546  5,819
         France   7,354  6,848  6,701  6,395  5,874
         Canada   7,301  7,046  6,876  6,906  6,209
         Denmark  7,071  6,555  6,661  6,913  6,147
         Iceland  6,770  6,134  5,956  5,556  5,010
         UK       6,747  6,412  6,188  5,785  5,381
         New Zea  6,700  6,479  6,480  5,213  4,571
         Finland  6,655  6,276  5,765  5,395  4,967
         Japan    5,790  5,619  5,984  5,454  4,855
         Slovenia 5,527  4,556  4,353  3,894  3,756
         Spain    5,346  4,927  4,744  4,405  3,996
         Portugal 5,212  4,713  4,594  4,208  3,555
         Italy    5,164  4,847  4,744  4,409  4,027
         Czechia  5,014  4,570  4,394  4,462  4,098
         Korea    4,797  4,586  4,634  4,106  3,618
         Israel   4,352  3,840  3,682  3,358  3,015
         Poland   4,284  3,560  3,066  2,752  2,510
         Slovakia 4,021  3,280  3,126  2,922  2,449
         Lithuani 3,870  3,306  3,242  3,146  3,092
         Chile    3,749  3,396  3,113  2,848  2,489
        
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_hea...
        • brohee 3 days ago

          That only because that spend is misattributed. Much of the money spent on US "healthcare" ends up wasted on admin in billings, collections and haggling with insurance co... Aka, not healthcare. I'd be very interested to see American numbers without the absolutely insane admin overhead...

          • fsckboy 3 days ago

            unfortunately, many of the people who are in favor of providing more financial resources to patients are also in favor of a more extensive regulatory framework, so the two ideas don't get balanced.

            • user____name 3 days ago

              "Regulatory framework?" What are you talking about? Centralized information processing is faster and carries much less deadweight loss from duplicated admin and roundtrips. Having a system built around profit maximization isn't one that minimizes cost, as you have shown in your previous post.

        • markus_zhang 3 days ago

          The resources spent is more important. Not to prove that you are wrong because I don’t know the answer too, but we should compare actual care per $. Like service and medicine and such, not just the $ amount.

        • TkTech 3 days ago

          Is this supposed to be a rebuttal? It's inability to provide for its citizens while spending the most is proof that its model for health care is an utter, abject failure. That money is going to incredible private profits, not the citizens.

          • 3 days ago
            [deleted]
          • fsckboy 3 days ago

            was what I was responding to supposed to be a constructive suggestion?

            >It's inability to provide for its citizens

            provide some evidence, and also the counter evidence that shows that other countries don't leave people waiting for important procedures.

            I don't claim to have the answers, but I will claim that you and GP for sure don't, I don't even think you are in possession of any facts.

        • bdangubic 3 days ago

          except of course in USA 14,884 out of 14,885 went to … not care :)

    • 3 days ago
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