I once thought I'd test the hypothesis that the frequency of HN front page stories reporting a death was increasing over time. Started figuring out how to get the data, got distracted by life, and never got back to it.
edit: that was not a criticism of such stories, but I was alluding to the fact that the generation that pioneered early computing in the 70's and 80's are getting older.
Yayoi was 97 and I don't think she'd be described as such.
Given the formatting here, it wouldn't be difficult to create the tool you're speaking of. separating "computing pioneers" from non-technical deaths is the more involved part.
Yeah, I suppose it wasn't specifically relevant to Yayoi, but I was only giving an example of why my hypothesis might be true, not to restrict it to computer-related persons.
edit: that was not a criticism of such stories, but I was alluding to the fact that the generation that pioneered early computing in the 70's and 80's are getting older.