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The Author of Ping is Reported Dead
Wedman writes: "This is in the Nanog Archive, dated 2000-11-21:
'Mike Muuss, the author of the PING program used on networks everywhere, died last night in a traffic accident on US route 95 in Maryland. He was an alumnus of Johns Hopkins." Seems appropriate on Thanksgiving to thank a man who created something that we all rely on every day.
This is sad news to read, regardless of whether or not its thanksgiving. May we all remember his name each time we use ping.
As for all of you who are cracking jokes about his death, I don't think they are funny at all.
Kindest regards,
Nathaniel G H
I don't feel like a Pioneer, I feel fine. :-)
Mike Muuss was also the author of BRL CAD, one of the most useful 3D modeling programs out there. It has one of the most intense CSG systems out there. I don't know what its licensing is, but I hope someone (with a strong graphics and geometry background) picks this up.
IIRC, he was working on real-time raytracing systems.
Could you ping my hostname,
if I routed to heaven?
Will it be the same,
if I routed to heaven?
I must hack long, and echo on,
cause I know that there are no
Pings in Heaven.
Would you know my addr,
if I routed to heaven?
Would you scan my ports,
if I routed to heaven?
I know I'll code my way, through night and day
Cause I know that there are no
Pings in Heaven.
ECHO can show you around,
ECHO can help you see,
ECHO can clog your pipe,
And have you screaming at script kiddies,
Script kiddies...
(flashing routing lights...)
K, it's early, and I have no coffee in me yet, I'll probably look back on this later and shoot myself.. :)
His spirit will live on in the form of ping. There can be no greater legacy then to leave behind a tool that is used by millions every day.
I knew Mike professionally for about twenty years. I visited him at BRL several times, and chatted with him at some of the early UNIX meetings. He and Doug Kingston (now at Morgan Stanley Peat Marwick or whatever they're named this week) made a teriffic team in the days when keeping a national TCP/IP net running took the cooperation of everyone involved. When the main routers were LSI-11s, you needed to know the tricks, and Mike knew them all.
He went the extra mile to help people all over, though it was no part of his job to do so. BRL didn't treat him as a sinecure and let him have his head. He put in a full day doing BRL stuff and then helped other folks around the country on his own time.
He was just an all-around great guy. One of the First has died.
I'm sure that if Muuss was reading /. right now, he'd be laughing at these jokes as much as any of us.
Let me tell you why humor exists... we have humor so that we can cope with the tragic events that populate our lives. It's a way of coping with loss... and a pretty damn good one too. Besides, I can barely think of any better ways to respect the dead than by calling attention to their accomplishments through humor.
Although, I must apologize for contributing to the excessive "destination unreachable" jokes. *sob* I didn't read everyone's posts before I cracked that one.
To see all the bad taste of some the post that are put up here. I wish his family well may he find peace.
Like most people here I use Ping daily. Like most people here I had never heard of Mike Muuss.
But from what Ive read of his writing on his homepage (linked from above) and his letter to the InterNet Historical Society (linked from above) it seems Mike would have had a wry sense of humour.
Mike seems to have been a massive influence on great area's of computing (Internet, TCPIP, UNIX) and that should be celebrated and tech people should be Thankful for his efforts, and due honour paid now that he has passed.
But when a person dies, absolute reverence does not exclude comments of some brevity.
I am SURE, as I would have, foreseen the 100% Packet Loss jokes coming when I was dead - and I would have found the idea very amusing and quite complementary... Ill assume Mike Muss dosnt mind*...
*I know this sounds presumptuous but I think I you would see my point... Apologies to those who find it so nonetheless.
His work site will remain up because it has so much information that is off interest to the world. There is no need for it to ever go off line.
His personal server is still up and will remain up for as long as I can keep it running.
Please all have one minute of ping in his honor:
ping -c 60 ftp.arl.mil
That's so strange to look at http://ftp.arl.mil/~mike/ and thinks this guy talking to you, and giving you a mailto: link is dead. It's like if there was a ghost speaking to you.
What happens to dead's homepage ? Do someone close them ? Or do they stand, like a simulacrum of eternity ?
Internet is something too young to be accustomed to death
It's a sad news.
sigmentation fault