[9fans] Sad News

[Tharaneedharan Vilwanathan]

Hi,

Here is a sad news:

RIP Dennis Ritchie, 70, Author Of “C,” Co-Author Of UNIX Computer
Language (2’19″)
http://moviecitynews.com/2011/10/rip-dennis-ritchie-70-author-of-c-co-author-of-unix-computer-language-219/

Regards
dharani

[Tharaneedharan Vilwanathan]

https://plus.google.com/u/0/101960720994009339267/posts/ENuEDDYfvKP?hl=en

On Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 10:29 PM, Tharaneedharan Vilwanathan

Post by Tharaneedharan Vilwanathan
Hi,
RIP Dennis Ritchie, 70, Author Of “C,” Co-Author Of UNIX Computer
Language (2’19″)
http://moviecitynews.com/2011/10/rip-dennis-ritchie-70-author-of-c-co-author-of-unix-computer-language-219/
Regards
dharani

[Peter A. Cejchan]

Rest in peace, dear Sir, ad thank you for C...
++pac

[c***@gmail.com]

C and UNIX were each very significant turning points in my life for various reasons. Two thoughts:

printf("Thank you DMR!\n");

return EXIT_SUCCESS;

[dexen deVries]

C and linux got me into the great adventure of computing.

big thanks to dmr (Unix uid 7) who made it all possible.

[Digby Tarvin]

It is so sad that the people most responsible for the key software
technologies are almost unheard of by the general public, and most
credit seems to be given to people that jump on the bandwagon much
later..

If there was a Nobel prize for software, dmr would have been one of
the top on my list.

DigbyT

Post by c***@gmail.com
printf("Thank you DMR!\n");
return EXIT_SUCCESS;

[pera]

Turing Award is something like a Nobel prize for computers.

RIP dmr :'(

Post by Digby Tarvin
It is so sad that the people most responsible for the key software
technologies are almost unheard of by the general public, and most
credit seems to be given to people that jump on the bandwagon much
later..
If there was a Nobel prize for software, dmr would have been one of
the top on my list.
DigbyT

Post by c***@gmail.com
printf("Thank you DMR!\n");
return EXIT_SUCCESS;

--
Digby R. S. Tarvin                                          digbyt(at)digbyt.comhttp://www.digbyt.com

[Digby Tarvin]

Thats true. I hope the Turing award is more widely know in other
parts of the world than it is here (a bit sad as I can walk to
Bletchley Park from here). At least the general public know that
winning a Nobel prize is something significant, although even that
gets woefully little media attention here.

DigbyT

Post by pera
Turing Award is something like a Nobel prize for computers.
RIP dmr :'(

Post by Digby Tarvin
It is so sad that the people most responsible for the key software
technologies are almost unheard of by the general public, and most
credit seems to be given to people that jump on the bandwagon much
later..
If there was a Nobel prize for software, dmr would have been one of
the top on my list.
DigbyT

Post by c***@gmail.com
printf("Thank you DMR!\n");
return EXIT_SUCCESS;

--
Digby R. S. Tarvin � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �digbyt(at)digbyt.comhttp://www.digbyt.com

[Wes Kussmaul]

Post by Digby Tarvin
I hope the Turing award is more widely know in other
parts of the world than it is here (a bit sad as I can walk to
Bletchley Park from here).

Even Bletchley Park doesn't recognize its own. The real heavy lifting in
Bletchley's WWII cryptanalysis was not the Enigma stuff but the cracking
of the much more complex Lorenz cipher by Tommy Flowers & crew. I was
disappointed in my visit last year to see their building and exhibit as
an "oh yeah, you can see that too if you want" outside the main tour.
Just a working recreation of Colossus, as if that might interest
anyone :( And that group has to pass the hat to visitors because they
don't share in Bletchley's funding!

Wes Kussmaul

[simon softnet]

I loved Dennis Ritchie, along with all the folks from "The labs", even
though I wasn't even born
at the time of their greatest breakthroughs.
Greatest inspiration I ever had comes from the mentality of those
people in Bell Labs.
Rest in Peace, and all my respect.

Simon.

Post by Wes Kussmaul

Post by Digby Tarvin
I hope the Turing award is more widely know in other
parts of the world than it is here (a bit sad as I can walk to
Bletchley Park from here).

Even Bletchley Park doesn't recognize its own. The real heavy lifting in
Bletchley's WWII cryptanalysis was not the Enigma stuff but the cracking
of the much more complex Lorenz cipher by Tommy Flowers & crew. I was
disappointed in my visit last year to see their building and exhibit as
an "oh yeah, you can see that too if you want" outside the main tour.
Just a working recreation of Colossus, as if that might interest
anyone :(  And that group has to pass the hat to visitors because they
don't share in Bletchley's funding!
Wes Kussmaul

[t***@polynum.com]

Post by Digby Tarvin
If there was a Nobel prize for software, dmr would have been one of
the top on my list.

Culture is what is left when everything is forgotten.
Eminent men are the ones remembered when fashionable ones vanished in
the silence following the buzz.

Denis M. Ritchie will be remembered.

And it's a chance that there is no Nobel for mathematics or computer
science: no need to be deshonored by this mondaine crap.

[Lluís Batlle i Rossell]

Post by t***@polynum.com
And it's a chance that there is no Nobel for mathematics or computer
science: no need to be deshonored by this mondaine crap.

Or there are shameful "Nobel" prizes, like the economics, started by the Bank of
Sweden taking profit of Nobel's name, and with very strong political biases,
denounced even by those receiving the award. And presented by the press usually
neglecting these details.

[erik quanstrom]

Post by Lluís Batlle i Rossell

Post by t***@polynum.com
And it's a chance that there is no Nobel for mathematics or computer
science: no need to be deshonored by this mondaine crap.

Or there are shameful "Nobel" prizes, like the economics, started by the Bank of
Sweden taking profit of Nobel's name, and with very strong political biases,
denounced even by those receiving the award. And presented by the press usually
neglecting these details.

i'd be a little hacked off if my wife ran off with a mathematician, too.
alfred just had the money to do something about it.

- erik

[Wes Kussmaul]

Post by erik quanstrom

Post by Lluís Batlle i Rossell

Post by t***@polynum.com
And it's a chance that there is no Nobel for mathematics or computer
science: no need to be deshonored by this mondaine crap.

Or there are shameful "Nobel" prizes, like the economics, started by the Bank of
Sweden taking profit of Nobel's name, and with very strong political biases,
denounced even by those receiving the award. And presented by the press usually
neglecting these details.

i'd be a little hacked off if my wife ran off with a mathematician, too.
alfred just had the money to do something about it.

Supposedly that's an urban legend, as he - again supposedly - was never
married. Come to think of it that would explain why the prizes exist!

Wes

[Nick LaForge]

Post by Digby Tarvin
It is so sad that the people most responsible for the key software
technologies are almost unheard of by the general public, and most
credit seems to be given to people that jump on the bandwagon much
later..
If there was a Nobel prize for software, dmr would have been one of
the top on my list.

The public's traditional fascination with physics makes an interesting
comparison, considering the relative obscurity computer science
enjoys.

Physics' gifts include nuclear fission, medical imaging, aerospace,
semiconducting... the list is enumerable. Yet the greatest celebrity
among physicists undoubtedly is Albert Einstein, who's contributions
are most significant theoretically (aerospace aside). So it seems
fitting that a similarly theoretical and precise discipline like
computer science should enjoy comparable status (in opposition to the
actual situation where Gates and Jobs get the glory). Ironically, the
real reason for mathematics omission by Nobel likely was that Alfred
Nobel thought it TOO theoretical a discipline (see
http://mathforum.org/social/articles/ross.html). Regardless, it took
people like dmr (and Turing, Church, Shannon, Neumann, Dijkstra,
Backus, Forsythe, Floyd, Hoare, Knuth, ...) to map abstract
mathematical science onto workable machines.

Maybe such a collaborative science doesn't permit hero worship? Dmr's
own publicly visible accomplishments alone make him worthy of it, yet
his humility was so apparent ("I'm not a person who particularly had
heros when growing up"). Perhaps his behind-the-scenes impact among
his colleagues at Bell Labs eclipse even what everyone else can see.

But it's still sad that among those acquainted with Einstein and his
contributions, less than 1% seem to even know who Turing was.

Nick

[Thomas]

I remember his giving a talk about 5 years ago at the time of his

retirement from Bell Labs. He was delighted that he was now a

contract employee and no longer had to fill out a

certain form annually and answer a question something like:

"What have you done for Bell Labs this year?"

Free at last.

-Tom West

Post by Nick LaForge

Post by Digby Tarvin
It is so sad that the people most responsible for the key software
technologies are almost unheard of by the general public, and most
credit seems to be given to people that jump on the bandwagon much
later..
If there was a Nobel prize for software, dmr would have been one of
the top on my list.

The public's traditional fascination with physics makes an interesting
comparison, considering the relative obscurity computer science
enjoys.
Physics' gifts include nuclear fission, medical imaging, aerospace,
semiconducting... the list is enumerable. Yet the greatest celebrity
among physicists undoubtedly is Albert Einstein, who's contributions
are most significant theoretically (aerospace aside). So it seems
fitting that a similarly theoretical and precise discipline like
computer science should enjoy comparable status (in opposition to the
actual situation where Gates and Jobs get the glory). Ironically, the
real reason for mathematics omission by Nobel likely was that Alfred
Nobel thought it TOO theoretical a discipline (see
http://mathforum.org/social/articles/ross.html). Regardless, it took
people like dmr (and Turing, Church, Shannon, Neumann, Dijkstra,
Backus, Forsythe, Floyd, Hoare, Knuth, ...) to map abstract
mathematical science onto workable machines.
Maybe such a collaborative science doesn't permit hero worship? Dmr's
own publicly visible accomplishments alone make him worthy of it, yet
his humility was so apparent ("I'm not a person who particularly had
heros when growing up"). Perhaps his behind-the-scenes impact among
his colleagues at Bell Labs eclipse even what everyone else can see.
But it's still sad that among those acquainted with Einstein and his
contributions, less than 1% seem to even know who Turing was.
Nick

[Bruce Ellis]

The form was colloquially known as the "I Am Great" report.

brucee

Post by Thomas
I remember his giving a talk about 5 years ago at the time of his
retirement from Bell Labs. He was delighted that he was now  a
contract employee and no longer had to fill out a
"What have you done for Bell Labs this year?"
Free at last.
-Tom West

Post by Nick LaForge

Post by Digby Tarvin
It is so sad that the people most responsible for the key software
technologies are almost unheard of by the general public, and most
credit seems to be given to people that jump on the bandwagon much
later..
If there was a Nobel prize for software, dmr would have been one of
the top on my list.

The public's traditional fascination with physics makes an interesting
comparison, considering the relative obscurity computer science
enjoys.
Physics' gifts include nuclear fission, medical imaging, aerospace,
semiconducting... the list is enumerable. Yet the greatest celebrity
among physicists undoubtedly is Albert Einstein, who's contributions
are most significant theoretically (aerospace aside).  So it seems
fitting that a similarly theoretical and precise discipline like
computer science should enjoy comparable status (in opposition to the
actual situation where Gates and Jobs get the glory).  Ironically, the
real reason for mathematics omission by Nobel likely was that Alfred
Nobel thought it TOO theoretical a discipline (see
http://mathforum.org/social/articles/ross.html).  Regardless, it took
people like dmr (and Turing, Church, Shannon, Neumann, Dijkstra,
Backus, Forsythe, Floyd, Hoare, Knuth, ...) to map abstract
mathematical science onto workable machines.
Maybe such a collaborative science doesn't permit hero worship?  Dmr's
own publicly visible accomplishments alone make him worthy of it, yet
his humility was so apparent ("I'm not a person who particularly had
heros when growing up").  Perhaps his behind-the-scenes impact among
his colleagues at Bell Labs eclipse even what everyone else can see.
But it's still sad that among those acquainted with Einstein and his
contributions, less than 1% seem to even know who Turing was.
Nick

[clinton]

I emailed dmr from my comp sci uni email account once and thanked him
for C and UNIX. He replied thanking me for my cheery email. I wish I'd
kept this email or printed it out :( but the sentiment remains: he was
a modest man who even though immensely important had the time to
respond to a second year comp sci student's fan email.

[c***@gmail.com]

Post by pera
Turing Award is something like a Nobel prize for computers.

Indeed and I'm certain recalling various IEEE etc awards. On that same note, I'm certain he knew his impact, and for many that's sufficient, and perhaps as it should be. RIP.

[Digby Tarvin]

Post by Wes Kussmaul

Post by Digby Tarvin
I hope the Turing award is more widely know in other
parts of the world than it is here (a bit sad as I can walk to
Bletchley Park from here).

Even Bletchley Park doesn't recognize its own. The real heavy lifting in
Bletchley's WWII cryptanalysis was not the Enigma stuff but the cracking
of the much more complex Lorenz cipher by Tommy Flowers & crew. I was
disappointed in my visit last year to see their building and exhibit as
an "oh yeah, you can see that too if you want" outside the main tour.
Just a working recreation of Colossus, as if that might interest
anyone :( And that group has to pass the hat to visitors because they
don't share in Bletchley's funding!
Wes Kussmaul

True. Even the Enigma stuff seems under funded.

And as I was reading this the BBC in the background was busy
discussing something about Kylie Minogue's honorary doctorate in
health science... :-/

I think I must be autistic because I just dont understand the
priorities of most humans...

Perhaps that is why it is such a loss when someone I actually
could relate to is gone.

DMR did give a talk at my university in Sydney when I was there
many years ago. I remember he wore a cap with a propellor on it.

He certainly will be missed.

DigbyT

[Charles Forsyth]

It just got some Lottery money.

Post by Digby Tarvin
Even the Enigma stuff seems under funded.