Well, this is hard to say, but I must report the news despite how it affects me.

DarkWyrm is leaving our fine community on account of health reasons. It appears his RSI has grown worse, not better, and he has decided to drop out of computing entirely until he overcomes this major difficulty in his life.

Here is a brief excerpt from his website:

"A Final Post

It is now 3:30AM. I have been awake for over an hour now, and even after having been off the computer for a number of hours now, I am still in pain. I feel like I'd be better off ripping out my right index finger. I can't do this anymore. Not only can I not write code, I can't do much of anything without pain -- e-mail, browse the WWW, arrange music, or anything else, it seems. Many times since I first started having major problems with carpal tunnel syndrome have I prayed that this day would not come, but it has and it breaks my heart. I must not only leave the community which I love, but computers in general, for the most part, at least until I have healed to the point where I can start over. I will be able to be reached by e-mail, but I can't guarantee how quickly I'll get back to anyone. Then again, I can't guarantee how long my current e-mail addresses will remain valid. I very well may end up ditching my cable internet after a little while because there won't be any point to it anymore. As inconceivable as it is, I may end up going with some piddly-crap free NetZero account for browsing the WWW only when I need to look something up online. I look at yesterday's post and keep thinking, "Who am I kidding?"

As much as I want to be able to call it a vacation, I can't really call one because I don't really think I'll ever be able to come back. Computers have been a love of mine as long as I can remember. I played Sargon II Chess and Commodore Cruncher on my oldest brothers VIC-20 when I was 5 and I was hooked. Now I can't even browse the WWW without hurting. Count me among the many sufferers of RSI who end up leaving their job. This wasn't just a hobby for me, it was a second job, and I loved it. Yeesh. Why did it have to come to this?

..."

Visit his homepage to read the rest, and you'll agree that taking a timeout is far more important than continuing to suffer. We wish you the best of luck, DarkWrym. Thank you for your dedication and many years of involvement.

You will be missed.

**update**

It seems "Warren Piece" was a misnomer, a play on words, (think Tolstoy.) so I corrected this news piece. On a more serious note however, Michael Phipps from OpenBeOS has posted he will be arranging some ergonomic input devices for DarkWyrm, and asks if anyone in the community is feeling generous enough to donate towards this cause.