Kitz Forum
Announcements => Site Announcements => Topic started by: kitz on June 15, 2023, 07:28:36 AM
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It is with great sorrow that I announce the recent death of our global moderator Alan, aka Burakkucat.
Alan had a vast amount of technical knowledge and over the years has helped countless users in the broadband community. During the twelve years he's been a member here he has made hundreds of informative posts that have been read by thousands of people.
Alan was an immense asset to the Kitz forum. Without a doubt, we couldn't have wished for a better moderator, he was always firm but fair, forever the peacemaker and nothing got past his watchful eye. He made many friendships and was respected by all.
His death is a sad loss for the community and he will be sorely missed by our forum members where he was fondly known as b*cat our resident black cat. It's sad to think there will be no more posts where he took on his cat persona who got "tingles in his whiskers" at the sign of what could be a troublesome member or who curled up after a bowl of cream when things were good. There really won't be another Burakkucat, nor anyone who could make such a fabulous moderator with such a huge amount of technical knowledge. He enjoyed helping people, he relished learning new tech info and he loved tinkering with network & telephony hardware.
RIP B*cat
His funeral is scheduled for 3pm Thurs 29th June 2023. The service will be webcast. Please contact me for log on details.
I've set up a GFM account pot should anyone wish to contribute towards some flowers. Details in post below.
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I've created a gofundme account if anyone would like to contribute towards some flowers for Alan's funeral.
https://gofund.me/d97f4c56
Any surplus funds remaining after the cost of the flowers will be forwarded to the Cats Protection League.
Note re gofundme service fee.
In line with most online money funds and financial transfer services GoFundMe makes a transaction fee of 2.9% + 25p to cover card processing fees which is automatically deducted from each donation. For more information see here (https://support.gofundme.com/hc/en-gb/articles/203604424-Fees). Their fees are are slightly cheaper than Paypal. A couple of examples
Donation Fees Deduction Rec'd
£10.00 29p + 25p 0.54p £ 9.46
£25.00 73p + 25p 0.98 £24.02
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Oh that is a shock, very sad news indeed. He will be greatly missed.
RIP.
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Extremely sad news, he will be sorely missed on the forum.
RIP
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Very sad, nice guy
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How very sad. He will be missed badly.
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That's a shock, as has been said already he was a great asset to the forum community and a lovely guy to interact with.
RIP
Stuart
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Oh wow :( gutted to read this. Such a wealth of knowledge, he will be missed on the forum.
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Sad news today...
RIP Alan
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I'm lost for words. :'(
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Such sad news.
RIP B*cat
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I would like to offer my sincere condolences to all who knew him personally. He will be sorely missed here. A true gentleman.
RIP B’Cat
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He will be missed. :(
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RIP B*cat :angel:
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Alan’s sister contacted me a while back with the terrible shock news. He was a great personal friend and an enormous help to me over many years. His sister came to stay with my wife last year. I’m completely lost for words just to say I was devastated.
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Extremely sad news, he will be sorely missed. Always very knowledgeable.
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A gentleman
RIP Alan
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This is awful news, such a kind and clever person.
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Extremely sad news. He was very nice and always helped me. He will be missed. Rest in peace.
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RIP B*Cat. :(
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RIP B*Cat - you will be greatly missed. :(
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OMG - I'm truly devastated at this news, kitz !!
He was a massive asset to your site and I learnt so much from him, (after reading his posts over umpteen times, as they would be littered with technical terminology :-) ).
There's been a few long-standing members passed over the years, but this one has literally knocked me for six !! I will miss Alan .... greatly. :'(
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Alan (Burrakucat), Kitz, johnson, Carl, Black Sheep and others who I need to mention have all helped me so much over the years, with special thanks to Mr johnson, but I don’t know what I will do without Burakkucat. A great friend to me outside the forum too. We would email each other every so often for a chat about nonsense in my case.
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RIP B*Cat :(
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Really shocked and so sorry to learn of the passing of Alan (Burakkucat)
From my BB journey through ADSL/VDSL and finally to full fibre over quite a few years via the medium of this forum, Alan has been a constant source of help and knowledge, always freely given, never claimed to have all the answers but invariably could manage to point in the right direction through his encyclopedic recall of forum posts and other reference documentation.
The forum will never be quite the same with Alan's absence, a true gentleman.
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So sorry to hear this :(
RIP
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Sad news indeed. I am another that he had helped and very thankful for it.
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Shocked and saddened to hear of the passing of a kitz legend.
Go well Mr Cat.
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I could always wind him up gently by mentioning Firebricks, especially manuals, or RevK of Andrews and Arnold. Alan owned a Firebrick FB105 and somehow no love relationship every developed with the old or new manuals and their author. It’s such a shame that Alan lost his black puss, for whom he merely was keyboard operator. I wanted to try to gently persuade him to get a kitten or two to assuage the heartbreak, but best left alone, I decided, as he would know if the time was right.
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RIP Alan. Super helpful chap
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RIP Alan, a great loss, he will be missed.
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I'm struck by how many forum members really appreciated Alan's contributions. I worked alongside him for several years, and every day I was grateful for this knowledgeable, helpful man. His approach was always one of resolving conflicts, not heating them up. He made an immense contribution to the wellbeing of the forum, and I miss him every day.
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I had noticed he had posted less and less (or it seemed so), he always had something interesting or amusing to say, I looked forward to his posts probably above all others.
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I miss our chats, B*cat was everywhere:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Burakkucat
for example, there's also the centos wiki, almalinux, rockylinux, redhat bugzilla, linux kernel, there's quite a few mailing lists missing a B*cat at present.
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I haven't posted here until now, however I read an old email from Alan today and it seemed time. He helped me hugely when I was doing some Openreach ONU research. We kept in touch from that point on and it was always a pleasure to hear from him.
He'll be missed.
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Thank you everyone who has donated so far. The current GFM fund balance received stands at £161.
Acknowledgement goes to Alans's friends at ELRepo who have joined and made contributions to the fund. ELRepo (http://elrepo.org/tiki/HomePage) and kitz are where B*cat spent the vast majority of his time so I will be adding ELRepo to the tribute.
The final instructions for a funeral spray was placed on Sat 24th with local florist, Suzettes Flowers, BSE. I've been in communication with Alan's sister over the past couple of weeks and I asked if there was any type of flower or colour that Alan liked or disliked. So as not to replicate the family's casket spray I'll be avoiding red and white roses and going with an agreed orange/peach/yellow tones. On a side note, due to the death of a close family member of mine and my mum not being up to it, Ive had to do quite a bit of shopping for funeral flowers over the past few weeks... during which time I saw some cracking cat wreath creations. However they were expensive, and more importantly I feel that if not done correctly they could turn out tacky. In addition I don't want to overshadow or encroach on what Alan's family are doing.
Bearing everything in mind I've split funds off at what was about the anticipated half way mark. Amount spent so far is £90.05. This will leave a respectable balance to forward on to the Cats Protection where Theo (who came to stay after William (https://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,18004.0.html) his beloved burakku cat died) +2 subsequent kittehs were adopted from.
I've got a rather cute wooden black cat placard to write the sender on instead of the traditional florist card. Alan always used to send me a burakkucat birthday or xmas card that he signed on behalf of all the kitizens. As soon as I saw it I just had to get it, it felt so purrfect. His sister may be able to place it on William's grave afterwards.
If you wish to contribute its not too late, any further funds received between now and the day I close the fund will be added to the amount sent to the CPL. Obviously I had to get the flowers ordered in time for the funeral. I'll post receipts and a balance sheet up when I have a final balance and distributed funds.
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Thanks for the updates, kitz. Appreciated.
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Thanks for the updates, kitz. Appreciated.
I'll second that.
:)
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I don't get to the computer as much as I used to do. I've just seen this thread now.
It is very sad news. He was always very helpful and polite to everyone. He really took an interest in any problems people had, and was always happy to help out.
A very sad loss.
RIP
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Thanks everyone.
A reminder if anyone would like details of the funeral livestream please PM me for the login info.
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(https://i.postimg.cc/Y9kdSgdR/Forum-friends-flowers-a.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/f32c23nS)
I tried to make a more complete update on the GFM page, but it didnt seem to like that I'd included urls and cut off the final part of my post. The following is what I attempted to post on the donation page
Thank you so much to everyone who contributed.
I really am rather delighted with the funeral spray and how the florists have made it look like a black cat sat in a bed of flowers. Alan's sister seemed happy with what we'd done and she said will place the black cat on Williams grave when the weather is a little better. <3
I can't quite close the fund yet as there are still some funds processing. When all funds have been processed, I will round up to £200 and send to Cats Protection so they will be able to get gift aid giving them a respectable £250 which I'm certain Alan would have been pleased with. I'll add a copy of the receipt to CPL as soon as I can finalise all funds.
Photos & expenditure.
Flowers
https://postimg.cc/f32c23nS
Tribute card
https://postimg.cc/9rbjnV0H
Black cat wooden placard
https://postimg.cc/Mnb2QwkF
GoFundMe Breakdown
https://postimg.cc/yWRgMHfk
Balance Sheet
https://postimg.cc/F1mqkjYp
Receipt Susettes Flowers
https://postimg.cc/SYf5vKjw
Black cat wooden Placard
https://postimg.cc/k200GLrY
Postage to florist
https://postimg.cc/t1YmdjPN
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Alan will be looking down and smiling, I'm sure :)
Thanks, kitz.
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Indeed.
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Omg this is very very sad news, Alan helped me a lot.
RIP Alan
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I rarely contribute to the forum these days, but feel I ought to echo others’ comments. Sad and shocked, Alan was a lovely person, with a wealth of technical knowledge - and always accurate and correct in the advice that he offered.
The Kitz and ELRepo tribute was nicely done, thanks for sharing.
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I apologise I didnt know was a funding page, else I would have sent something, thank you for providing the photo.
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I somehow missed it too, only noticed after they said they had enough and the rest would go to Cats Protection which I already subscribe to their lottery so figured it wouldn't make much sense to go donate indirectly when I can just do so directly.
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Thank you so very much everyone who has donated. You guys did Alan proud, a grand total of £302.42 has been received to the fund.
I sent a donation of £200 (plus 25% tax relief) to Cat Protection, Cambridge branch on the 4th of July in memory of Dr Alan Bartlett from his friends at Kitz and ELRepo. This brings the balance to zero and the fund is now closed.
Copies of the full balance sheet and receipts are available in this folder https://postimg.cc/gallery/4dHfRCt
Summary
Credits
£271.00 GFM Donations
£ 31.42 Offline donations
£302.42 Total Credits
Debits
£ 12.37 GFM Fees
£ 90.05 Funeral Flowers & cat
£200.00 CPL Cambridge
£302.42 Total Debits
(https://i.postimg.cc/13XsT3mg/CPL-small.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/7GzWMfp9/CPL-email.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/7GzWMfp9) (https://i.postimg.cc/rKgq7wpg/Balance-sheet.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/rKgq7wpg) (https://i.postimg.cc/PPB9NGNY/GFM-final.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/PPB9NGNY)
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Good stuff, kitz - thanks again for the info.
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For anyone who wasnt able to attend Alans funeral last week but would liked to have viewed the service, this is now available as a watch again webcast. Alans sister did a lovely tribute it was interesting to learn a few facts about Alan that I didnt preciously know. She is aware of this thread and appreciates the kind words of condolence.
The watch again service has been ordered for his friends to view and will be available for viewing for the next few weeks. Please PM me for login details.
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I am sorry to learn of his death. He helped me a few times in the past. He will be sorely missed.
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I cannot believe I missed this post. :(
I can only echo what others have said. RIP Burakkucat! :'(
I like to think he's up there playing with his cats.
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The flowers in the funeral spray lasted well and its only the last week when they got past their best. Alan's sister has removed the placard that we sent and placed it next to the headstone marker for William, the kuroneko.
Anyone who knew Alan will have known how much he idolised William and just how devastated Alan was when William crossed over the rainbow bridge. In a strange way I find it gives some comfort that the black cat placard is there and that Alan is re-united with his beloved burakkucat. I can just imagine him sat in a cosy chair by the fire with William purring on your knee. RIP Alan.
(https://i.postimg.cc/c4dYjWzB/William-RIP.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
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That is so lovely. Our feline families mean so much.
I miss him.
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What sad news!
Condolences to all of Alan's family.
We had a number of good chats over the years, he will be sorely missed.
Regards.
David.
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May rest in peace. Amen!
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It's been a while since I've used this forum. I just read about this and I'm saddened to hear it. He was a resourceful man and a great asset to Kitz, I remember the few conversations we had. He'll be missed a lot.
May he rest in peace.