Is that you, Cringely?
Not unless he's using TCP/IP over Ouija board...
There has apparently been no confirmation of his death - Wikipedia still lists him as alive and editors there say there's insufficient evidence. If the linked article is true, maybe he faked his death.
It would be an amusing troll. I wonder what minimum efforts are to publish here: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/mark-stephens-obit...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49949438
There's also this. Well, RIP.