“He was never satisfied. He liked to get the best out of every situation,” said friend Finn Taylor.

Mr. Brickman, who was among the first tech-industry journalists to fully integrate streaming audio and video with text in a Web-based report, died in his sleep June 26. He was 38.

At the time of his death, he was managing editor of broadband services for NBCi.

Though autopsy results are still pending, Mr. Brickman suffered from a rare disease that made his bones brittle, caused dwarfism and left him with a fragile constitution, said his mother, Linder Allen.

But Mr. Brickman’s handicap didn’t stop him. It never even slowed him down.

“Because he was not physically intimidating, he was able to come across very strong without putting people off, and people would actually listen to him,” said Taylor.

Mr. Brickman, a graduate of University of California-Berkeley, left college after a year to work in Washington, D.C. He became the national student coordinator for Walter Mondale’s presidential campaign.

“His particular passion was politics,” Allen said. “He grew up being a child of the ‘60s and had some strong ideas about what was right, what was wrong. He just thought that being a good journalist was the best way to tell the truth.”

After the Mondale campaign, Mr. Brickman returned to Berkeley, where he earned a degree in journalism.

He launched his journalism career with CBS in New York, where he worked for Dan Rather on the show “48 Hours,” said Allen. He later became an associate producer for CBS’s morning news show.

A San Mateo native who grew up in Palo Alto, he returned to California because he found it too difficult to negotiate New York winters in his wheelchair, Allen said.

He had several jobs as a news producer in Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

In the mid-1990s, he launched the Hyperwocky column for the CyberTimes, part of the New York Times Web site.

He also worked for CMP Media’s Interactive Age, where he launched Interactive Age Digital, a Web site with daily news updates.

He later helped launch CMPnet's TechWeb Today, with daily multimedia broadcasts.

“He was a true pioneer in online journalism and Internet media. We will all miss Gary's passion and intellect,” said Rob Glaser, chairman and CEO of RealNetworks, whose technology was used by TechWeb Today.

Mr. Brickman brought his creativity and tenacity to all aspects of his life, much to the bemusement of his friends.

Taylor remembers one incident when he and Mr. Brickman had mediocre tickets to a 49ers game. Using an old press pass, Mr. Brickman got the two past security to the local press area.

“Gary said, ‘We can do better,’ so we went past security and he got us into the national press area,” Taylor said.

Unsatisfied, Mr. Brickman pressed on until he and Taylor made their way to a spot behind the broadcasting booth. At that point, they were nabbed by security. “That was a sort of typical Gary experience,” Taylor laughed. “But he had gotten to the mountaintop nonetheless.”

Mr. Brickman loved classical music and jazz, and had a cameo role in the independent film “Dream With the Fishes,” written and directed by Taylor.

His friends and colleagues have created a Web site in Mr. Brickman's honor (www.garybrickman.com).

Said Jeff Pundyk, a founder of Zwirl.com who worked with Mr. Brickman at CMP: “Gary had tremendous energy and passion, and he never let the physical disability stand in the way of his enthusiasm, interest and energy.”

Gary Paul Brickman