Hall of Fame Voting For Computer Museum of America

An anonymous reader writes "Public voting has opened for the Computer Museum of America Hall of Fame, which is looking to add 5 more members to the roster via a public vote. Previous inductees include Sid Meier (of Civilization fame), and among this years list of nominees is Linus himself. The full list, along with the voting area itself is over at HomeLAN."

Comments

Great.

[Anonymous Coward]

Imagine trying to bring your family to a museum and the thing's closed down due to reboots. Nice...Wonder what Bruce Perens thinks about this??

Post the list?

[baudilus]

Can someone please post the list or an alternate link? For some reason, my company's 'WebSense' filter denies me access because it's in the 'games' category.

Re:Post the list?

[virtualone]

Howard Aiken # Designer of the Harvard Mark 1, also known as the IBM ASCC - Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator
Paul Allen# Co-founder of Microsoft
Marc Andreesson # Co-developed first graphical Web browser (NCSA Mosaic)# Co-founder of Netscape
John Perry Barlow # Co-founder of Electronic Frontier Foundation
Andy Bechtolsheim# Co-founder of Sun Microsystems
John Blankenbaker# Developed the KenBak-I computer in 1973, one of the earliest PCs
Len Bosack# Co-founder of Cisco Systems, a leading manufacturer of Internet switching equipment
# Developed IGSP, Inter-Gateway Switching Protocol for the Internet
Stewart Brand# Co-founder (with Larry Brilliant) of The WELL online service (1985)
Dan Bricklin# Co-developer of VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program
Larry Brilliant# Co-founder (with Stewart Brand) of The WELL online service (1985)
Steve Case# Founder of America Online
Vint Cerf# Co-developer (with Bob Kahn) of TCP/IP standard (1974)
James Clark# Founder of Silicon Graphics Inc.
# Co-founder (with Marc Andreesson) of Netscape Communications
Larry Ellison# Founder of Oracle, a database company
John Presper Eckert# Co-designer and builder (with Mauchley, et.al.) of ENIAC, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer
Philo T. Farnsworth# Inventor of modern television
Jay W. Forrester# Refined magnetic core memory; creator of systems dynamics
Bob Frankston# Co-developer of VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program
William Gibson# Coined the phrase "cyberspace" in the novel "Neuromancer" (1984)
Mike Godwin# Early theorist about online legal issues
# Longtime counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Andy Grove# Co-founder and former president of Intel

Johan Helsingius# Started first anonymous e-mail service
William Hewlett# Co-founder of Hewlett-Packard
Reynold B. Johnson# IBM engineer; invented RAMAC disk drives, VCR tape storage and the microphonograph
Bill Joy# Co-founder of Sun Microsystems
Alan Kay# PARC scientist, created Smalltalk software, early contributor to GUI and Object Oriented Programming concepts, laptop computers
Bob Kahn# Co-developer (with Vint Cerf) of TCP/IP standard (1974)
Mitch Kapor# Founder of Lotus Software
# Co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Charles F. Kettering# Developed the first electro-mechanical cash register (1906)
Vinod Khosla# Co-founder of Sun Microsystems
John Kilcullen# Founder, publisher of IDG Books
Len Kleinrock# Developed early theory of packet networking in 1961 at MIT, which later led to the Internet
Sandy Lerner# Co-founder of Cisco Systems
Joseph Licklider# First head of computer research at the Defense Department's ARPA research program, which later developed the Internet
# Wrote the influential "Man-Computer Symbiosis" in 1960
John Mauchley # Co-Designer of ENIAC, the first fully operational modern electronic computer (ran from 1945-1955)
Scott McNealy# Co-founder of Sun Microsystems
Bob Metcalfe# Co-inventor of Ethernet
# Founder of 3Com, leading manufacturer of networking equipment
Halsey Minor# Founder of C|NET, online news resource about technology
Gordon Moore# Postulated Moore's Rule (1964), which holds that computing power will double every 18 months with no increase in price
# Co-founder of Intel
Ted Nelson# Coined the word "hypertext" (1965)
Robert Noyce# Co-inventor of the integrated circuit, or computer chip
# Co-founder of Intel
Kenneth Olson # Founder of Digital Electronics Corp. (DEC)
Adam Osborne # Founder of Osborne Computers, maker of the first portable computer
# Prolific and influential writer about computers
William Oughtred # Inventor of the slide rule
David Packard # Co-founder of Hewlett-Packard
John H. Patterson # Founder of National Cash Register, early innovator and manufacturer of adding devices
Alexai Pazhitnov # Wrote "Tetris" in the Soviet Union during Cold War, smuggled it to the outside world where it became a best-seller
George Philbrick # Invento

Re:Post the list?

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's a google cache of it

Re:Post the list?

[irokitt]

It's quite a list, here are the names and some of my annotations:

Howard Aiken
Paul Allen (Evil Candidate #1)
Marc Andreesson
John Perry Barlow (EFF co-founder)
Andy Bechtolsheim
John Blankenbaker
Len Bosack
Stewart Brand
Dan Bricklin (of VisiCalc fame)
Larry Brilliant
Steve Case (Evil Candidate #2)
Vint Cerf (who should have already been inducted)
James Clark
Larry Ellison
John Presper Eckert
Philo T. Farnsworth
Jay W. Forrester
Bob Frankston (also of VisiCalc)
William Gibson (what?)
Mike Godwin (also of EFF)
Andy Grove (Intel)
Johan Helsingius
William Hewlett (again, should have already been inducted years ago)
Reynold B. Johnson
Bill Joy
Alan Kay (Smalltalk, PARC)
Bob Kahn (TCP-IP pioneer)
Mitch Kapor (Lotus, EFF)
Charles F. Kettering (!)
Vinod Khosla
John Kilcullen
Len Kleinrock
Sandy Lerner
Joseph Licklider
John Mauchley (ENIAC)
Scott McNealy
Bob Metcalfe (3COM)
Halsey Minor
Gordon Moore (Intel, Moore's rule)
Ted Nelson
Robert Noyce (Intel)
Kenneth Olson
Adam Osborne
William Oughtred (Invented the slide rule!)
David Packard (see Hewlett)
John H. Patterson
Alexai Pazhitnov (Tetris)
George Philbrick
Larry Roberts
Alan Shugart
George Stibitz
Bjarne Stroustrup (C++)
Ken Thompson (UNIX, C)
Jonathan Titus
Ray Tomlinson
Linus Torvalds
Truong Trong Thi
John Von Neumann
Ted Waitt
John Warnock
Thomas J. Watson
Philip R. Zimmerman (PGP)
Konrad Zuse
You can vote for up to 5. There are just too many to really choose well. If Paul Allen or Steve Case get in I'll have to throw a temper tantrum. But there you go...

Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 19.5). Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 19.5). Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 19.5). Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 19.5). Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 19.5). Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 19.5). Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 19.5). Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 19.5).
As if I were trolling...

Re:Post the list?

[strictnein]

Vote Alexai Pazhitnov
Tetris owns you!

Re:Post the list?

[KingOfBLASH]

Can someone please post the list or an alternate link? For some reason, my company's 'WebSense' filter denies me access because it's in the 'games' category.

If you want you can use Google as a PMP (Poor Man's Proxy). Just search for the web page and view the cached result. I'd do it for you but I don't have the time.

Re:Post the list?

[lazn]

Re: Evil Candidates... Does that disqualify them for some reason?

Is a Hall of Fame people that are famous, or should be?

Because if it is are famous.. then said Evil Candidates certainly deserve to be on the list. I recognise their names, but some of the others, I doubt 90% of the population would recognise.

(and evil in who's eyes? I would not call them evil, other names yes, but not evil)

==>Lazn

Re:Post the list?

[Anonymous Coward]

I still don't see Joe Desch on the list, famed engineer at NCR, and co-holder of the first patent for a digital computer. Also recipient of the Medal of Merit for his work during WWII during which time his machines were used in the Manhattan project and the decrypting of German Enigma code traffic.

CowboyNeal?

[Hatta]

I don't get it, where's the CowboyNeal option?

Re:CowboyNeal?

[coupland]

Question:

Is CowboyNeal a name or a statement?

Re:CowboyNeal?

[Anonymous Coward]

CowboyNeal is neither. He's a big, fat, greasy fuck.

Re:CowboyNeal?

[TheBoostedBrain]

CowboyNeal doesn't work here.

Re:slashdot ads

[Anonymous Coward]

Rather than bitching may I suggest you

subscribe

use a filtering program or proxy

both.

Life's too short to get your gitch in a knot over ads. Have a nice day.

William Gibson?

[tsunamifirestorm]

Sorry if this sounds like flamebait, but the other people invented acutal products while all he did was "Coined the phrase "cyberspace" in the novel "Neuromancer" (1984)"

Re:William Gibson?

[dupper]

Agreed. If they're going to go for authors, I think Neal Stephenson would make a much better nomination. He's the most successful true geek author. Gibson didn't really understand what he was writing about.

Re:William Gibson?

[metlin]

Well, sure. But that's probably not the *only* reason he's there.

He's considered by many to be one of the pioneers of cyberpunk, and Neuromancer certainly did help popularise the genre. And that definitely is something. Cyberpunk ties in very closely with the hacker culture, and adding Gibson is a nice way of saying Thank You.

What's given there is merely an excerpt of the achievements, and is definitely not all of the reasons why those people are in the list.

That said, I should say that the list is pretty damned cool. They've added a whole lot of really cool people whom most people would not know/care about (Nelson, Noyce, Mauchley,Zuse, Philbrick, Tomlinson and the like).

And interestingly enough, RMS is missing from the list :) (am not complaining, though).

Re:William Gibson?

[strictnein]

And interestingly enough, RMS is missing from the list :) (am not complaining, though).

I'm sure there are a lot of people who read RMS as Root-Mean-Squared, right? I know RMS is a person, and I've seen his name probably about 100 times, and he's all ubergood and everything, but I still can not remember any part of his damn name.

Re:William Gibson?

[Anonymous Coward]

Richard M. Stallman

Dunno what the "M" is for, though.

Re:William Gibson?

[Anonymous Coward]

Dunno what the "M" is for, though.

Malodorous

Re:William Gibson?

[rsborg]

He's considered by many to be one of the pioneers of cyberpunk, and Neuromancer certainly did help popularise the genre. And that definitely is something.

Well, Gibson may have popularized it, but Philip K Dick "wrote the book(s)", as it were... and he's nowhere on the list.

Honestly, I don't see either of them, as belonging on this list, as they're just meme-creators. People like Vint Cerf, Ken Thompson, and Dan Briklin actually created the infrastructure or killer apps that make what we're doing today possible. Kudos to the real mccoys, I say.

Re:William Gibson?

[theLOUDroom]

Sorry if this sounds like flamebait, but the other people invented acutal products while all he did was "Coined the phrase "cyberspace" in the novel "Neuromancer" (1984)"

Did you actually READ any of his books? Gibson could have defined "cyberspace" in one page, but there's more to it than that.

Advancing technology takes not just know-how, but inspiration as well. Gibson's work describes a vision of how humans might one day intereact with technology, one that many would say is quite ahead of his time.

Although he is not in any way directly responsible for the march or Moore's Law, a great number of techies respect him for his vision of what could be achieved with forthcoming technology. His writing speaks more to the "why" than the "how".
Without inspiration and new ideas, all our computers would be doing is computing PI to the bazillionth decimal place. Many inventions that changed the face computing, like the spreadsheet for example, aren't remarkable for their technology as much as their vision.

Re:William Gibson?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Well, Gibson may have popularized it, but Philip K Dick "wrote the book(s)", as it were... and he's nowhere on the list."

My understanding is they didn't want any dicks on the list.

Re:William Gibson?

[Anonymous Coward]

And in addition to that he was one (not the only) of the founders of what could be called the cyberpunk genre in sci-fi. Which isn't your average star trek happy ending fare, it actually critically examines the notion of how machine and the human interact. In this sense the ideas of cyberpunk and cyberspace are more important than any one program because they enable us to begin to talk.

The man who builds a robot is an engineer.

The man who asks moral questions of our and robotic conduct is far more important (think asimov).

Hence Gibson theorises what the future might be like, and he doesn't do it in some dry textbook - he lets us have fun doing it too.

read up on it and you won't be so dismissive;

http://project.cyberpunk.ru/

Computers didn't spring out of nowhere, they had to be *imagined* first - so it is quite valid for non-engineers to influence these things. Asimov, Gibson et al. Will be remembered long after the authors of random software. And I would suggest RMS will be remembered by history better than linus, as it is the *idea* of free software (not that RMS is the only source, but he codifies the idea) that is more important than it's implimentation.

Re:William Gibson?

[Anonymous Coward]

I am the parent and I voted for;

Gibson; for all his cyberpunk work

Barlow; for the foresight invovled in seeing the need for the EFF

Kahn + Melcafe (arguably I should have ticked Licklider for ARPANET aswell) For seeing the need for a p2p (keyword: peers, as in equals) network based on standards (keyword: standard)

Linus - because he was the only free software representative

Re:William Gibson?

[tanguyr]

heathen, prepare for flamewar!

ok, actually, no flamewar - but i can't agree with you. Don't get me wrong, i love Stephenson's work, i've read everything he's ever written - even the stuff that really wasn't that good like "Interface" and "The Big U". William Gibson invented a whole genre - or, if he didn't invent it, then he dragged it kicking and screaming into the light of day. After growing up on Asimov, Bradbury, Dick, Herbert, Heinlein, Simmons, and many more to numerous to mention, reading Gibson's "Neuromancer" woke me up to a whole new world of science-fiction - edgy, hip, cool. Personally i think his later work went from worse to worse (Idoru, All tomorrow's parties, Pattern recognition) but Snow Crash could not exist in a world without "Neuromancer". And, in my own very humble opinion: "Virtual Light" is a stroke of near genius: a book with almost no plot whatsoever that keeps you rivited through the descriptions of the author.

In fact, enough of this, i'm off to find my copy of Neuromancer and reread it right now.

Re:William Gibson?

[jejones]

Advancing technology takes not just know-how, but inspiration as well. Gibson's work describes a vision of how humans might one day intereact with technology, one that many would say is quite ahead of his time.

Then many would be unaware of Vernor Vinge's "True Names," which, if memory serves, Robert Barton, head of the team at Burroughs which designed the B5000 (a computer with an OS programmed in a high-level language the better part of a decade before Unix), cited as the future of user interfaces.

Re:William Gibson?

[Requiem]

Malignant?

Re:William Gibson?

[Anonymous Coward]

I am a huge William Gibson fan, and I have to agree that he doesn't really belong on this list. His contribution to society is in the world of fiction, which, while I believe to be quite valuable and noteworthy, doesn't qualify him for the Hall of Fame in the Computer Museum of America, IMO. Right idea (recognising him for his work), but wrong forum, I think.

Re:William Gibson?

[Anonymous Coward]

You're all wrong.

The M stands for "Microsoft"

er.. no..

Re:William Gibson?

[cygnus]

He's considered by many to be one of the pioneers of cyberpunk, and Neuromancer certainly did help popularise the genre. And that definitely is something. Cyberpunk ties in very closely with the hacker culture, and adding Gibson is a nice way of saying Thank You.

shouldn't he be winning literary or SF prizes then? i mean, even Azimov invented satellite communication... that's something. "Cyberspace" is just a lame word used in advertisements.

Re:William Gibson?

[metlin]

First off, it's spelt Asimov.

And it was Clarke who put forward the idea that Geostationary orbits would be ideal for satellite communication.

Asimov and Clarke wrote science fiction as a broad genre - space operas, speculative fiction and the like, and was not tied to any science per-se.

And Gibson sure as hell has won quite a lot of accolades, and some of his books have been made into movies, too (Matrix is based on some of his ideas, Johnny Mnemonic is also a book by him).

It's just that in this context, Gibson fits in as one of the very few authors who would deserve to have their names up there.

The only other author I can think of (and no, Stephenson does not count) who could be up there is Ray Kurzweil.

Re:William Gibson?

[john82]

Kurzweil should definitely be considered ahead of Gibson. Yes he's an author, but more importantly he's an inventor. In the 1980s, Kurzweil synthesizers were at the forefront of combining computing and music. He was pushing the boundaries of both.

I grabbed the following from Kurzweill Technologies: Ray Kurzweil was the principal developer of ...

• the first omni-font optical character recognition system
• the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind
• the first CCD flat-bed scanner
• the first text-to-speech synthesizer
• the first music synthesizer capable of recreating the grand piano and other orchestral instruments
• and the first commercially marketed large-vocabulary speech recognition

Re:William Gibson?

[ichimunki]

Gibson invented edgy, hip, and cool science fiction? And you can say this even though you have read Philip K. Dick? *shakes head*

Anyway, I don't think, given the number of brilliant computer minds on the list that any science fiction author should get votes until after people like Vint Cerf or Bill Joy or Ken Thompson get in. Even the guy who wrote the original Tetris ranks higher, in my mind, that Gibson. Or Stephenson. Or even Asimov or Dick, for that matter.

Re:William Gibson?

[allanc]

Go read some Vernor Vinge. He didn't come up with the term, but he was doing SciFi in Cyberspace before Gibson and his typewriter got there. Also, Vinge is a better writer.

The characters in Neuromancer are script kiddies. Stephenson's Hiro Protagonist is a hacker.

--AC

Re:William Gibson?

[Omestes]

What about Babbage?
WHERE IS BABBAGE?!
Not to mention Boole...

Re:William Gibson?

[Anonymous Coward]

Something tells me you normally rank Dick pretty high.

Re:William Gibson?

[tanguyr]

Stephenson's Hiro Protagonist = Stephenson's Sangamon Taylor, in much the same way that Han Solo is Indiana Jones (yes yes, it's all true). Don't get me wrong - i loved Snow Crash. I still smile whenever somebody says "everybody listens to reason". I loved the whole sumerian neural hacking thing. And the guys with MAFIA written on their jackets. I can do a pretty good bit about the Deliverator's car from memory ("Starts like a bad day. Stops on a peseta.")

But by the time i read Snow Crash, a space had been made in my mind for it to fit into, and that space was made by Neuromancer and Count Zero. The short story collection Burning Chrome was very good as well - esp. The Winter Market and New Rose Hotel.

At the end of the day, this is just a discussion of personal preference, so what the hey: live and let live, right? I've got to say i must agree with one other poster in this thread: no matter how much i like both these authors, i think i'd run out of votes loooooong before their names came up.

Re:William Gibson?

[tanguyr]

Gibson invented edgy, hip, and cool science fiction? And you can say this even though you have read Philip K. Dick? *shakes head*
Absolutely - but i'm talking from the other side. I was the kid reading "the game players of titan" and "the man in the high castle" and "Lies, Inc" during recess. Tell people you're reading "Do androids dream of electric sheep?" and they'll look at you funny - tell them it's "Blade Runner" and all of a sudden they get it. In a way, Philip K. Dick's science-fiction was about the day after tomorrow of yesterday. Gibson showed us the tomorrow of today.

Re:William Gibson?

[Captain Segfault]

WHERE IS BABBAGE?!

Already inducted, although Boole has not been.

tough competition

[Random Web Developer]

that's some pretty tough competition out there, but these are the 5 I pick Bjarne Stroustrup Linus Torvalds Larry Ellison Philip R. Zimmerman James Clark

Re:tough competition

[Random Web Developer]

damn, i need to get used to typing
instead of enter.....

Re:tough competition

[patanish]

No one from Apple either? Steve Jobs or Wozniak? They definitely deserve to be nominees atleast. How about Sabeer Bhatia - inventor of Hotmail, first free web based email?

Re:tough competition

[Graff]

damn, i need to get used to typing <br> instead of enter.....

Just use "Plain Old Text" instead of the other text options in the pop-up menu at the bottom of the comment entry area.

You can still do some html formatting with "Plain Old Text", the major difference between it and "HTML Formatted" is that white space mostly matters with the "Plain Old Text" setting. So hitting enter at the end of a line will cause a line ending when the comment is displayed.

Re:tough competition

[caramelcarrot]

Barlow, Pazhitnov, Stroustrup, Torvalds, and Zimmerman

Everyone else?

Re:tough competition

[irokitt]

Bhatia was strangely missing. And if they could put Steve Case down they obviously could have put Wozniak and Jobs down (and Wozniak would have had a vote from me at least).

Re:tough competition

[croddy]

andreesson, ellison, kahn, joy, torvalds.

i was going for 'internet movers and shakers'.

Re:tough competition

[caramelcarrot]

Jobs is already in (http://www.computerhalloffame.org/) as is Wozniak (http://www.computerhalloffame.org/2000.html), so I guess that's why they aren't being included again.

Re:tough competition

[Anonymous Coward]

andreesson, ellison, kahn, joy, torvalds.

KAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!

Re:tough competition

[Link310]

While Wozniak and Jobs might have been worthy candidates, the fact that they're already in the Computer Hall of Fame (inducted in 2000) probably disqualified them from being nominated again.

See the

Re:tough competition

[Link310]

Preview, not submit!
continuing...

See http://www.computerhalloffame.org/

Re:tough competition

[Anonymous Coward]

The former German football captain?

Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhnnnnnnnn!

Re:tough competition

[Mr. Bad Example]

> Bjarne Stroustrup Linus Torvalds Larry Ellison Philip R. Zimmerman James Clark ...Jingleheimer Schmidt!

(Sorry, sorry...carry on.)

Re:tough competition

[Dun Malg]

No one from Apple either? Steve Jobs or Wozniak

I vote twice for Woz, and 0 for Jobs. Woz created the Apple computer. Jobs pretty much just provided skillful marketing. Plus Woz is one of the coolest cats alive, and Jobs is a smug prick who cheats his friends(third paragraph).

Re:slashdot ads

[toupsie]

What Slashdot ads? They don't show up in Mac OS X Safari with Pith Helmet.

What? No Darl?

[lukewarmfusion]

I started clicking the ones I considered to be "sure bets" - and found there were way too many.

And Steve Case wasn't on my list.

Re:What? No Darl?

[Anonymous Coward]

Darl is infamous not famous!

Re:What? No Darl?

[cavebear42]

I'm with you there. There are alot of people on that list whom deserve to be credited for making this God forsaken machine I make my living with. I hope some of the more worthy win.

Ummm

[platypussrex]

Is this something like being put in "Fred's Museum of Wonder"? I mean the vote is about as professional looking as those poles on CNN where anyone can vote as often as they like. The Museum site at least looks OK but the vote site is some kind of game fan site.

Re:Ummm

[kmankmankman2001]

That's a terrible generalization, especially in this day and age. Just because someone is a Pole does not mean that they are unprofessional.

Re:Ummm

[rsmith-mac]

The site is actually just our gaming news site for the larger HomeLAN organization. The Comp. Museum wanted someone to host it that would be better able to stand up to a Slashdotting, so we offered. [shameless plug]The entire HomeLAN organization doesn't do just news, but server rentals/hosting, beta testing, and several other services for gaming companies, so we're not just a game fan site.[/shameless plug]

Re:Ummm

[GoPlayGo]

Agreed. Furthermore, since the Museum's site says that only registered members can vote, what legitimacy is there in the gamer site the article directs us to?

Why aren't these people already in?

[cynicalmoose]

The really shocking thing is the people who aren't already there!

John von Neumann - considering he started off the base design for the logic interaction systems we use today, he is often known as the father of computing - so why are we voting for him now?

Linus Torvalds - I don't need to say who he is - but why isn't he there either.

Those are two particularly egregious omissions, but I reckon more than 5 need to get added.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[FubarPA]

Uhm, look again.. Linus is there. I just voted for him.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[Lovedumplingx]

Linus Torvalds was there...and the tag line to the article mentions him...not really sure how you could have missed him.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[Neil Blender]

Linus Torvalds was there...and the tag line to the article mentions him...not really sure how you could have missed him.

He means why aren't they already inducted. Either way, it's just like every other hall of fame. There are many greats who are not yet inducted.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[josquin00]

I believe the grandparent was trying to say that Torvalds and von Neumann should already be in the Hall of Fame, not merely candidates now.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[Junks Jerzey]

Linus Torvalds - I don't need to say who he is - but why isn't he there either.

Now I can guarantee that I'll be modded down for this, but it's hard to put Linux in the same category as some of the people already on the list.

Clive Sinclair, for example, was a real innovator. He followed his own path and went off in bold directions. Ditto for Jay Miner. And Dennis Ritchie. But Linus, while an absolutely brilliant hacker, essentially started cloning Minix, then later decided to turn it into a full-blown UNIX kernel. Thompson, Kernighan, Ritchie, and others get credit for UNIX. And Tannenbaum gets credit for Minix. Linus's claim to fame is that Linux merged with the free software movement started by Stallman, and the result is that such software (under the monicker "open source"), became more commonplace. But again, Linus didn't come up with this. The gnu project was started eight years before Linux did.

The bottom line is that Linus is an excellent programmer and architect and he wrote a great piece code. But if he gets in the museum, then so should the Microsoft Excel team (which essentially copied earlier spreadsheets).

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[happyfrogcow]

The really shocking thing is the people who aren't already there!

John von Neumann - considering he started off the base design for the logic interaction systems we use today, he is often known as the father of computing - so why are we voting for him now?

von Neumann!? Bah! all he did was create a big f'ing bottleneck in hardware!! Ever hear of the von Neumann Bottleneck?! sheeesh.

Steve Case all the way!

(omg, i'm kidding)

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[Bender_]

Well spoken..

The list is quite arbitrary, they should categorize their hall of fame.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay, I'll bite.

I can understand Neumann being there, but comparing Neumann to Linus is not fair.

In fact, the people who ought to be there are people like Alan Kay, Robert Noyce, Ray Tomlinson and the like.

Mind you, am not saying that Linus has not made significant contributions - he sure has. But the contributions of others are at a grassroots level and have becomes so pervasive to the point of not knowing it.

(inventing OOPs, ICs and e-mail is definitely more pervasive and far reaching than writing an OS from scratch).

But I do agree with you that more than 5 need to get added.

~m

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[Geoff-with-a-G]

Linus Torvalds - I don't need to say who he is - but why isn't he there either.

Was he that other kid with Charlie Brown, in Peanuts?

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[Lars T.]

Given fucking Michael Dull is in...

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[cynicalmoose]

Sorry - a slight clarification - I know both von Neumann and Torvalds are on the list of nominees, what I'm asking is why they have been left out for so long, and questioning whether the hall of fame has the right people in it if we are only adding these people now.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[Troy]

Check again, because I believe both von Neumann and Linus are in the running. They are both near the bottom of the list.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[cynicalmoose]

Erm. Sir Clive Sinclair might not be on the list because he was already inducted

About Linus, though, it depends on what criteria you think are necessary. Gates in in there and he, after all, bought MSDOS, rather than building it himself. Linus's achievement isn't purely technical, but that doesn't stop it being an acheivement worthy of recognition.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[Cygnus78]

Now I can guarantee that I'll be modded down for this,

I think I will mod down anyone who mentions something about modding in their posts; which by the way makes my own post a juicy target, but I felt like mentioning it once anyway.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[kscguru]

Let me add one thing to Linus' list of accomplishments that the Excel team hasn't matched: he has successfully guided the continuing evolution and improvement of a software project for over ten years. I honestly can't think of a single (modern) piece of software that hasn't been stagnant, at least in terms of core features, for a good chunk of that time (well, maybe apache?), nor any project that has evolved so fast without major forking issues.

Really, Linux is the poster child for a successful open source project, and Linus runs the personality cult behind it. I don't think Linus' programming and architecting exploits are enough for this sort of recognition, but his overall vision should be more than enough.

Someone else might point out RMS or ESR as visionaries... but here's the difference: Linus has an extremely successful, widely adopted, and still evolving project to back up his vision. The others... well, what was the last non-cosmetic change to Emacs, or fetchmail? Those projects are done, dead, and in maintainence. Sorry guys, but while you are talking the talk and reminiscing about the glory days, Linus is busy walking the walk - and for that, he deserves credit.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[rcamera]

what about alan turing? he's one of the founding fathers of computers. i bet he's not there because he was gay.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[cynicalmoose]

He's already in the Hall of Fame.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[dan dan the dna man]

Pray tell why Andreesen is in there for making a browser based on existing standards then whilst Linus wrote a far more impressive piece of software...

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[0racle]

He bought DOS, but he wrote BASIC. On top of that it was through MS that home computers became what they are, accessible and inexpensive to a lot of people.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[Anonymous Coward]

I once posted an entirely gratuitious "I expect I'll be modded down for this" at the beginning of an entirely inoffensive message (rare of me.)

Instant +5.

So I responded to myself, quoted the modded-down line, and replied "Suckers!"

Instant +5 Funny. Back when Funny actually helped your karma.

So yeah it works...

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[RogueProtoKol]

Computers might be inexepnsive, but the software sure as hell isn't.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[smc13]

Andreesen made the internet popular (along with the others who created mosaic). Mosaic might be the single most important application ever as far as dollars are concerned.

Without the graphical web browser would we have ebusiness? Would Ebay or Amazon exist? Would we be able to buy anything online? Heck, most computer manufacturers wouldn't be in business if it wasn't for that browser. Neither would ISPs, DSL, and cable modem providers. Heck, slashdot probably wouldn't exist if wasn't for mosaic!

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[revividus]

Bill Gates did not "write" BASIC. It was invented in 1964 at Dartmouth College.

Gates co-wrote, with three others, a version of BASIC for the Altair 8800 in 1977.

This is just from wikipedia, here

Not trying to slam Gates -- he did help write that version of it. But he didn't invent it.

As for MS "making" computers accessible and inexpensive, IMHO it was IBM, choosing to make the x86 an open architecture, who did that. The OS, back at that time, could have been anything; it would have become the de facto standard until something better/different/more popular had come along.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[Aim Here]

Linus' innovation isn't in some technical doohickery in Linux itself, but in the way he used the internet and the open source methodology to perform the gargantuan effort of actually producing a mainstream working operating system, for a whole bunch of different architectures.
This was a student, ffs, finding a means of securing and managing resources that would normally only be under the control of a government or a multinational corporation.

He hasn't changed the way that software is made and sold (yet), but if it wasn't for him, there wouldn't be an alternative to proprietary software at all. Surely that has to be worth something?

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[RGreene]

That's interesting. Linus is "in" because he's our poster-child. Why not someone like Ken Thompson? If he and Dennis Ritchie hadn't done their thing, Linus wouldn't have been inspired to do his.

Linus is at the beginning of his career - he's warming up, in essence. Give him a chance to really get going before voting him in!

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[Anonymous Coward]

While fetchmail is dying, ESR's Aunt Tillie is alive and kicking, participating in dozens of usability testings each and every day - and for that, he deserves the credit.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[Jameth]

However much I love Linux and respect Linux, I just don't see how he can outstrip people like RMS and Vint Cerf for influence on the world of computing. I mean, Open Source and TCP/IP are rather more important than Linux.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[Alan Hicks]

The really shocking thing is the people who aren't already there!

George Boole anyone?

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[Patrick]

The others... well, what was the last non-cosmetic change to Emacs, or fetchmail?

You've got to give RMS and ESR more credit than that. Stallman also wrote GCC, which is alive and well and still evolving. ESR's software offerings are all a little small, but his "Cathedral and the Bazaar" helped bring open source software to the commercial world. Mozilla would quite probably have never been written, if not for ESR's writings and evalgelism.

My vote is for Stallman over the other two, but they're all three entirely worthy.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[Anonymous Coward]

Glad someone pointed it out. I've heard so many things about Gates that are JUST PLAIN WRONG(such as calling him a genius, his skill lies only in the criminal realm).

MS never even really had to bother with really producing something new, after trying to make money off of something in the public domain(BASIC), MS was handed the monopoly by foolish IBM(who throught the x86 wouldn't take off and didn't want to wait to sign a contract with Digital Research) and MS never let it go since. Even MS-DOS is supposedly stolen(while it was purchased by MS from Seattle Computing, supposedly copyrights could still be found in the files indicating code stolen from Digital Research).

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nowdays, "Cathedral and the Bazaar" is widely considered to be load of poop even among most OSS Advocates. And he essentially bullshitted Netscape, promising them to double their development time, when its more likely the opposite happened.

If you want to put ESR in a museum, there's a whole lot of other Blowhard Usenet Kooks you're gonna have to let in as well.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[rozz]

I honestly can't think of a single (modern) piece of software that hasn't been stagnant, at least in terms of core features, for a good chunk of that time

you wanna say that MS Windows pretty much stagnated between Windows1.0 and Windows2003 ?!?!? ... btw, that's also (a bit) longer that your 10 years... same about MAC OS in the last 10 years ... and probably tens of other products

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[squiggleslash]

Bill Gates did not "write" BASIC. It was invented in 1964 at Dartmouth College.

Gates co-wrote, with three others, a version of BASIC for the Altair 8800 in 1977.

So he did write BASIC. He just didn't invent BASIC.

I thought it was 1975 incidentally?

As for MS "making" computers accessible and inexpensive, IMHO it was IBM, choosing to make the x86 an open architecture, who did that. The OS, back at that time, could have been anything; it would have become the de facto standard until something better/different/more popular had come along.

Not even IBM deserves that credit. There was a commodity architecture before IBM came alone (S100), complete with a standardized operating system (CP/M.) To add to which, it's always been cheaper to make single board computers, and Apple, Sinclair, Commodore, and others made computers accessable and inexpensive by producing exactly those kinds of machines.

They not only did it before IBM, and IBM added little to the table (they replaced one standard with another), but it wasn't until the late eighties that IBM architecture computers started to really become affordable enough to compete with the single board machines.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[Junks Jerzey]

I honestly can't think of a single (modern) piece of software that hasn't been stagnant, at least in terms of core features, for a good chunk of that time (well, maybe apache?), nor any project that has evolved so fast without major forking issues.

Nonsense! There are tons of examples: Windows, Word, Excel, Photoshop, 3D Studio / 3D Studio MAX, Mac OS. And then you can throw in lots of open source examples, like Python, Perl, the first decade of Emacs, etc. Also consider the huge embedded systems you don't know about, like those running in telephone exchanges, those at JPL, and so on. Or for a more graspable example, look at Google.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[kscguru]

I think a lot of our difference of opinion could be marketing: most of the things you mention are commercial or committee-based development efforts, that focus on major releases and simply don't introduce incremental improvements at the rate Linux does. The philosophy is, "we need to sell XXX units two years from now, let's write some extra stuff so our customers can justify spending the money". (Yes, this is even the open-source examples - where the user's time is the currency involved, the time to upgrade a perl distro is non-trivial unless you are a serious perl developer!).

Linux is completely different - releases come out as soon as they are ready, and the big Linux vendors are not shy about pushing kernel updates out. My personal opinion is that this generates more enthusiasm, and is a good thing overall, though I am even more impressed that Linux has not had any major forks. Too many other projects (*cough* BSD *cough*) split into several competing camps - but Linux still has the one mainline, stock kernel - and every major fork of that kernel more or less tracks the mainline!

Other software that follows this Linux model? Mozilla seems to, but my opinion is that it's too young still. I said before I think Apache does. Maybe Java, with significant functionality (that is immediately used IN PLACE of old functionality) in each new release.

Too many of the examples you cited seemed to burn really fast, coming out with a fancy version of the project... then everything's done, the developer support goes home to work on something else, and the project enters maintenence mode (or, equivalently, release-every-two-years-with-small-improvements as -a-revenue-model mode). Yes the software moves forward, but - to me at least - it feels like more of an evolutionary sequence than the revolutionary sequence the Linux kernel has been. Linux has probably evolved through 30 years of OS evolution in only ten, and while there may be only another 10 years of OS evolution left for it to catch up on, Linux doesn't seem to be slowing down at all. I fully expect it to push onward into experimental OS design still running full speed - which is something no other OS can claim.

Where's the "WOZ"

[Emperor Shaddam IV]

the "Woz" belongs on there much more then many of the other members of the hall of fame. He "engineered" most of the early apple stuff including the floppy drive and most people don't even know about him today.

www.woz.org

Re:Where's the "WOZ"

[Anonymous Coward]

Uhm. Check the current list.
"Stephen Wozniak"

Re:Where's the "WOZ"

[Emperor Shaddam IV]

Sorry, my bad...

Emperors make mistakes too.

What???

[Archangel Michael]

No Darl McBride?

Re:What???

[irokitt]

Steve Case is evil enough. And Gibson rounds out the "not really a nerd" category.

Missing Poll Option

[Alan Hicks]

Where's RMS on this list? I would think he would deserve as much credit as Linus Torvalds.

Re:Missing Poll Option

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean GNU/Linus Torvalds?

Re:Missing Poll Option

[Lanzah]

Agreed! Let's all write them an email and demant that RMS gets in. Without him there would be no GNU/Linux.

Re:Missing Poll Option

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's all write them an email and demant that RMS gets in. Without him there would be no GNU/Linux.

I'm sure someone else would have written a C compiler, a C library, and cloned the UNIX toolset. You don't really think RMS was the only person capable of starting such an obvious project, do you?

We would not have Emacs (or Emacspeak) in its current form (RMS's greatest contribution, IMHO), but we wouldn't have rants about prefixing everything with 'GNU/', or any GPL/BSD license wars (likely the BSD license or MIT license would have taken the place of the GPL and caused fewer problems overall).

Re:Missing Poll Option

[Lanzah]

I firmly belive that the GPL is superior to the BSD license... Anyway, if it were not for RMS at least I would still be a MS-zealot.. and that would have been horrible. Those essays over at fsf.org truly raise some exellent points.

Flamebait

[Jonboy X]

Can I mod this article as flamebait?

Re:Flamebait

[Anonymous Coward]

Only if you're voting for Steve Case.

Dear Baudilus,

[Anonymous Coward]

Your fired. Pack your shit and get out. Now.

Sincerely,
Your Boss

No Fred Brooks?

[beavis88]

"Mythical Man-Month" anyone? Father of modern software project management (although admittedly, this may be a dubious honor)? I mean I guess it's great that Larry Ellison is up there and all, but I'd prefer to see actual computer scientists on the list as opposed to "business people".

Re:No Fred Brooks?

[southpolesammy]

Actually, Brooks ought to be recognized for his No Silver Bullet article from the 80's as it provided a very large foundation for what we know as software engineering, but the mythical man-month is notable as well.

Either way, you're right -- he should be listed here, and especially instead of business folks. Brooks was a true Computer Scientist, whereas Ellison and others simply commercialized computing.

Re:No Fred Brooks?

[doktor-hladnjak]

Either way, you're right -- he should be listed here, and especially instead of business folks. Brooks was a true Computer Scientist,

Hey, Fred Brooks Jr. is still live and well!

Re:No Fred Brooks?

[Patrick]

Brooks won the Turing Award. Given the choice between that and induction into a hall of fame that inducted the inventor of the KAYPRO (it was built in San Diego!) before they inducted Alan Turing himself... I'd totally choose the Turing Award.

Is electronic voting allowed?

[avoisin]

If electronic voting is allowed, can we use Dibold machines?

Could they vote for themselves?

Ack! *Vanishes into a paradox*

My Votes:

[burgburgburg]

Dan Bricklin
# Co-developer of VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program

John Presper Eckert
# Co-designer and builder (with Mauchley, et.al.) of ENIAC, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer

Bob Frankston
# Co-developer of VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program

John Mauchley
# Co-Designer of ENIAC, the first fully operational modern electronic computer (ran from 1945-1955)

Philip R. Zimmerman
# Author of Pretty Good Privacy, one of the first encryption programs available to the general public

Re:My Votes:

[robslimo]

I'm with you on VisiCalc and PGP. Your others are good choices too. These are people whose efforts have made a significant and lasting contribution to computer technology.

I'm not so sure Torvalds should be in there, yet. Sun's founder maybe, mostly for Java which is more ubiquitous now than Linux. AOL's founder? No. He may have brought the internet to the masses, but it's dubious that that was a postive for computer tech.

In general, I think the true pioneers should be inducted first.

Re:My Votes:

[irokitt]

No, Torvalds shouldn't be there-yet. And how about Von Neumann, Vint Cerf, Anfy Grove or Gordon Moore (pick one), and Ken Thompson? I'm not saying Torvalds doesn't deserve it, but some of these guys obviously deserve it more. As for bringing computing to the masses, I'd rather see Hewlett and Packard getting nods, but only because Wozniak and Jobs are conspicuously absent.

Re:My Votes:

[john82]

Gary Kildall anyone? First, on his own merits (see PL/M, CP/M, BIOS and Digital Research). Then because he wasn't available when IBM came calling to use CP/M. In the end, the world got MS-DOS because Bill Gates licensed a CP/M clone and re-licensed it to IBM.

Re:My Votes:

[Anonymous Coward]

Woz and Jobs have allready been inducted.

Re:My Votes:

[GPLDAN]

Zimmerman gets bonus points for the way the U.S. government strung him up by his thumbs, tried to drive him into bankruptcy.

Linus Himself?

[dknight]

Let me start out saying that I love Linux. I use it only nearly all of my boxes at home, and reccomend it whenever it is reasonable to do so.

Having said that, is it just me, or are we coming frighteningly close to deifying Linus? I mean, he did a great, amazing, generally wonderful thing... but come on people. Does he deserve to get in to the hall of fame? Absolutely. Does he deserve his own religion? Probably not.

Re:Linus Himself?

[baudilus]

Does he deserve his own religion? Probably not.

I just love the word "probably" in that statement.

Re:Linus Himself?

[dknight]

I thought it was important.. I dont know, maybe he's done something really really impressive (besides Linux) that I'm not aware of. ;)

I learned a long time ago not to make definitive statements if I can avoid it.

Re:Linus Himself?

[Lanzah]

I agree. I rather deify RMS if someone since he is the man behind the entire movement. Without him Linux might never have left Linus's bedroom.

Re:Linus Himself?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, you really must be new here.

Re:Linus Himself?

[kbradl1]

Hell yeah. Lets elect Linus. Just vote, delete your cookies then vote again. Repeat for as long as you like.

Re:Linus Himself?

[Doesn't_Comment_Code]

Does he deserve to get in to the hall of fame? Absolutely. Does he deserve his own religion? Probably not.

I agree completely. He is a good programmer and has orchestrated a wonderful OS. But he is a man with human flaws and when he is old enough, he will die.

More importantly, some of the competing nominees pioneered computing. They did something that no one else had ever done, or had ever thought of doing. Separate those people out from the people who just did a really good job, and the list shortens considerably (though not less than 5). I consider Linus Torvalds to be one of the people who took what was available and improved on it immensely. But there were lots of OS's around already, including Minix. He helped kick start Free and Open Software, but did not originate that either. Von Neuman or Zues on the other hand, started with nothing and built the foundations for computing. That's what I think of when deciding who to vote for.

Re:Linus Himself?

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

I'd say he's worthy of the hall of fame.

while there have been projects to bring free UNIX like environments to the x86 world, his project really brought this idea to reality, and his motivation has to be admired too. he doesn't hate microsoft, he just didn't like DOS and Windows(IIRC).

Missing Options

[sosume]

Amongst quite a few, here are some names who should have been considered for this list:

- Edsger W. Dijkstra, the man who considered GoTo statements harmful....
- Bill Gates, the man who truly commercialized software
- Dennis Kernigan, the man who invented C (tho' not alone)
- CmdrTaco, the dude that started Slashdot

Re:Missing Options

[TheFlyingGoat]

Gates is already in:
Current Inductees. There's a few others that should be on that list though. There's still plenty to choose from for this year, though. Hopefully not everyone will get in on name recognition alone.

Re:Missing Options

[Junta]

Bill Gates is already in, so he is not a missing option...

Re:Missing Options

[martinjd]

I'm not sure whether you meant Dennis Ritchie or Brian Kernighan, but Ritchie is already in there.
Bill's in there too.

Re:Missing Options

[dollargonzo]

bill gates is already in the HoF

Re:Missing Options

[stefpe]

Because Bill Gates and Dennis Ritchie are already inductees.

Re:Missing Options

[ism]

Bill Gates is a current inductee -- as William H. Gates III. Dennis Ritchie is as well. Not sure who you're thinking of, since it's _Brian_ Kernighan (who is not an inductee).

Current inductees

Re:Missing Options

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice troll.

Its Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie.

And Gates is in.

Re:Missing Options

[roalt]

I miss Wil Wheaton - First Former Star Trek actor wo has some linux knowledge and runs a Celeb (?) weblog.

Re:Missing Options

[chrism238]

And Dennis's brother, Brian, who stole all of Dennis's ideas.

missing names?

[thedude is in]

Where's Bill Gates name at!?! hA!

Re:missing names?

[Short Circuit]

I he made it in already.

Re:missing names?

[DRUNK_BEAR]

Bill Gates is already in the hall of fame. Look at this link at the bottom of the page.

Steve Jobs is there as well as many more. sorry to be a joy buster but they didn't forget about Gates ;)

Re:missing names?

[Junta]

Here.

kernighan and ritchie?

[dollargonzo]

not there but stroustrup is? i don't get it

Re:kernighan and ritchie?

[squiggleslash]

Richie's already there, he's a current inductee, he doesn't have to be renominated.

Kernighan's role in C was to make The C Programming Language one of the best (and most underrated) programming language books in history. However, he didn't really invent C or play much of a role in its development. There are good arguements for saying he should be there, but not because Stroustrup is.

FWIW, I voted for: Bricklin, Cerf, Helsingius, Kay, and Thompson. Not that there aren't equally good alternatives, in some cases I voted for them because I knew the others would get a lot of votes anyway.

What happened to the Dell dude?

[GarbanzoBean]

Nominate the Dell dude guy.

He did such a great service to the world by convincing everyone about the truth of the new internet economy. How else would you explain a multibillion dollar company is using a drug addicted (speach challenged) hippy to promote products to university/goverment/fortune 500 executives?

Re:What happened to the Dell dude?

[Mr. Bad Example]

> Nominate the Dell dude guy.
>
> He did such a great service to the world by convincing everyone about the truth of the new internet economy.

"Dude, your stock's goin' to Hell!"

Missing poll option

[Anonymous Coward]

Boston Rob

When the museum closes

[Anonymous Coward]

Loudspeaker: /sbin/shutdown -t 15 15 "The museum is closing in 15 minutes"

We need Diebold to overlook the voting

[foidulus]

I promise to help Ohio deliver it's electoral votes to Linus!

What the Hell?

[Anonymous Coward]

There are some people on this list who should be in way before anyone like Sid Meier should ever have been considered. Konrad Zuse, John von Neumann, Ken Thompson, Bjarne Stroustroup and Linus Torvalds were my picks. Without Neumann, who knows when we would have had general purpose computers. Just about everything I have ever learned about computer architecture is traced back to Neumann. This is sort of like inducting Duran Duran into the Rock and Roll hall of fame before Buddy Holly. Zuse had one of the earliest functional electromechanical computers running. Meier, or some of this years nominees, the guy that founded C|Net, Paul Allen, John Warnack, etc. indeed! lol

Re:What the Hell?

[Golgafrinchan]

Look, this vote is just like what's done at IMDB. Some people believe the "best" movies are those that were the most revolutionary, landmark movies that in some cases really pushed the art of moviemaking. This is why you see The Seven Samurai and Citizen Kane ranked so highly. In terms of the Computer Hall of Fame vote, this would include guys like Gates, von Neumann, and the like.

On the other hand, there are a lot of people who believe the "best" movies are those that merely entertained them the most, or they found the most enjoyable. Examples ranked highly on IMDB: all 3 LOTR flicks, and Shawshank Redemption (#2!). Sid Meier would fall into this category for the computer vote.

There's nothing that says that either of these methods of value is wrong. While I agree with the first more than the second (as you would), as far as I can tell at the site there's no "voting rules."

So, to sum up: your way isn't the only way. :)

Re:What the Hell?

[larry_h]

Please don't be so quick to dismiss Warnock!

He did create the PostScript language and PDF format. Quite an accomplishment, if you ask me. /Largo

here it is (was Re:Post the list?)

[happyfrogcow]

Man, i tried, but stupid /. rules say "Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 30.6)." and i'm not about to munge the text to get around the filter...

f'ing slashdot.

Claude Shannon not even nominated?

[Nakito]

Claude Shannon's theories underlie almost every aspect of the digital computer and digital communications. His master's thesis (1938) established that logic circuits can be simplified mathematically rather than by trial and error. His mathematical theory of communication (1948) established the entire field of information theory, making possible digital communications (modems, networks). In terms of his importance to the field, he is miles beyond most of the people on the list and most of the people already inducted.

Re:Claude Shannon not even nominated?

[3l1za]

Not to mention his accomplishments in cryptography/info_theory...
...was the first to define perfect secrecy -- and show that the OTP provided it...

Re:Claude Shannon not even nominated?

[Requiem]

This is Slashdot, land of people who think that John Carmack should be enshrined. Your logic falls on deaf ears.

You also forgot that Shannon, along with Ed Thorp, built the first wearable computer meant to help beat roulette odds. ;)

i lied..

[happyfrogcow]

oops, sorry for the misleading subject on that previous post. i give up. no more /. for me today...

Dear AC Boss,

[Anonymous Coward]

Your fired. Pack your shit and get out. Now.

You're fired because you don't understand proper English grammar and punctuation.

Pack your shit and get out. Now.

Sincerely,
The Boss's Boss

Don't vote for anyone under the age of 45

[Anonymous Coward]

as you will be withholding votes from those who actually contributed to the long term success of computers/ing and society at large....besides many of the "yoots" will get it in on a later ballot

Missing / Embarrassing / Stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

I need to rant on this.

Perhaps I misunderstand the point of the site - is it to promote major manufacturers? Then what is Turing doing up there?

Is it to promote scientists? Then what the hell is Gates doing up there?

People missing from the list:

Donald Knuth, Richard Stevens, Dennis Ritchie, Ken Thompson, Claude Shannon, Von Neumann

And if you look at the dates, Gates got inducted in 1998, Turing in 2000. Doesn't this strike anyone as mildly....no...scratch that blatantly stupid and obsequious? If a museum of computer use of human civilization honors "innovators" like Michael Dell before Turing and Babbage, then it is run by a bunch of industry sycophants, and, in actually, represents rather well the sad state of affairs in the computer world.

Re:Missing / Embarrassing / Stupid

[squiggleslash]

Donald Knuth, Richard Stevens, Dennis Ritchie, Ken Thompson, Claude Shannon, Von Neumann

I voted for Thomspon, Richie's already won, and Von Neumann's there if you want to vote for him.

Honest question, and I'll probably die with embarassment when you tell me the answer, but who's Stevens?

Re:Missing / Embarrassing / Stupid

[brxndxn]

I completely agree..

Bill Gates demonstrated business genius by screwing real programmers out of their own code and then playing the arrogant IBM execs. He didn't exactly do much for computers other than establish a monopoly. He should get a business award.

Michael Dell basically built a computer. Then, he put his name on it. Then, he figured out how to build them really fast and cheap. (He doesn't make fast computers.. just makes them fast and cheap.) Other companies did this too. Dell could get a marketing award - but for computing, he's probably holding us back just like Gates. What kind of computing company ignores the fastest processor and only sells one brand? So, again, marketing award.

Perhaps this "Hall of Fame" should be discredited and smart nerds can come up with a better one. It seems like just another industry award where the people controlling it get to honor themselves.

Re:Missing / Embarrassing / Stupid

[Sanat]

Dr. An Wang... of Wang Laboratories

Inventor of magnetic core memory.

Invented first logarithm digitally.

Created first digital machine that multiplied/divided without repetitive adding/subtracting

Created first desktop calculator/computer.

Created first true word processor... and the list goes on and on

Re:Missing / Embarrassing / Stupid

[Mr. Bad Example]

> [...]is it to promote major manufacturers? Then what is Turing doing up there?

Probably not shilling for Apple.

(I am so going to hell...)

Huh?

[mabu]

Stewart Brand?? (Co-founder (with Larry Brilliant) of The WELL online service (1985))

Where's Ward Christensen, creator of the first BBS? (CBBS, 1978)

Where's Tom Jennings, creator of Fidonet?

My vote

[Darthmalt]

Steve Case # Founder of America Online
best isp EVER

/me runs for cover

Re:My Vote

[squiggleslash]

One of the most impressing entrpreneurs of this time.

Impressive or depressing? ;-)

Doubt that too, there were many at the same time. For example the V2 flight control computer..

I'm pretty sure the V2 postdates 1938 by a half decade or so. WW-II didn't start until 1939, and V1s dropped on London some years after that.

Re:My Vote

[Bender_]

I'm pretty sure the V2 postdates 1938 by a half decade or so. WW-II didn't start until 1939, and V1s dropped on London some years after that.

The first successfull suborbital flight of an A-4 was in 1942 and you can be pretty sure that the flight control computer was already being developed for years before that. Well, it was just an example. I am pretty sure there are many similar developments in the 30ies.. "Analog computer" is a very broad definition.

Re:My Vote

[Bender_]

btw:

Impressing

Re:Idiots!

[Sv-Manowar]

I guess that makes 2 places that dont want him, that christmas island's dns servers. But Linuse.cx is still available

Re: Not missing!

[ChibiOne]

Amongst quite a few, here are some names who should have been considered for this list:
- Bill Gates, the man who truly commercialized software

Err, Gates is already an Inductee. His name, in case you didn't know, is William H. Gates III.

Is Al Gore on the list?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is Al Gore on this list? He invented the Internet. Sure he belongs on it!

Re:Is Al Gore on the list?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, but Vint Cerf is, he's the guy who co-invented TCP/IP and said Al Gore was right to claim credit for pushing the initiative that created the Internet through the Senate.

BTW, did you hear about that woman who poured hot coffee all over her lap and sued MacDonalds? Absolute disgrace! And I hear she then went on to design the batteries used in iPods. Did you know Apple forces people whose iPod batteries have died to buy new iPods? Outrageous!

Re:Is Al Gore on the list?

[Anonymous Coward]

Claim: Vice-President Al Gore claimed that he "invented" the Internet.

Status: False.

Origins: No,
Al Gore did not claim he "invented" the Internet, nor did he say anything that could reasonably be interpreted that way. The derisive "Al Gore said he 'invented' the Internet" put-downs are misleading distortions of something he said (taken out of context) during an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN's "Late Edition" program on 9 March 1999. When asked to describe what distinguished him from his challenger for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey, Gore replied (in part):

During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.

Clearly, although Gore's phrasing was clumsy (and self-serving), he was not claiming that he "invented" the Internet (in the sense of having designed or implemented it), but that he was responsible for helping to create I also invented the microphone the environment (in an economic and legislative sense) that fostered the development of the Internet. Al Gore might not know nearly as much about the Internet and other technologies as his image would have us believe, and he certainly has been guilty of stretching (if not outright breaking) the truth before, but to believe that Gore seriously thought he could take credit for the "invention" of the Internet -- in the sense offered by the media -- is just silly. (To those who say the words "create" and "invent" mean the same thing: If they mean the same thing, then why have the media overwhelmingly and consistently cited Gore as having claimed he "invented" the Internet when he never used that word? The answer is that the words don't mean the same thing, but by substituting one word for the other, commentators can make Gore's claim sound [more] ridiculous.)

However, validating even the lesser claim Gore intended to make is problematic. Any statement about the "creation" or "beginning" of the Internet is difficult to evaluate, because the Internet is not a homogenous entity (it's a collection of computers, networks, protocols, standards, and application programs), nor did it all spring into being at once (the components that comprise the Internet were developed in various places at different times and are continuously being modified, improved, and expanded). Despite a spirited defense of Gore's claim by Vint Cerf (often referred to as the "father of the Internet") in which he stated "that as a Senator and now as Vice President, Gore has made it a point to be as well-informed as possible on technology and issues that surround it," many of the components of today's Internet came into being well before Gore's first term in Congress began in 1977, and it's hard to find any specific action of Gore's (such as his sponsoring a Congressional bill or championing a particular piece of legislation) that one could claim helped bring the Internet into being, much less validate Gore's statement of having taken the "initiative in creating the Internet."

It's true that Gore was popularizing the term "information superhighway" in the early 1990s (when few people outside academia or the computer/defense industries had heard of the Internet) and has introduced a few bills dealing with education and the Internet, but even though Congressman, Senator, and Vice-President Gore may always have been interested in and well-informed about information technology issues, that's a far cry from having taken an active, vital leadership role in bringing about those technologies. Even if Al Gore had never entered the political arena, we'd probably still be reading web pages via the Internet today.

Last updated: 27 September 2000

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.htm

Re:What happened to the Dell dude? - in like Flynn

[Anonymous Coward]

He's already in the hall of fame....read the site... oh wait, this is slashdot

The list looks a little revisionist...

[haute_sauce]

If you consider that Larry Ellison is listed as 'founder' and not 'co-founder' of Oracle. And when an author (despite being both talented and popular) is listed, but people like Donald Knuth are left off, I wonder if you need a good PR person is a requirement...

Five?

[blair1q]

I stopped counting names that should already be in the CHOF at 10.

These guys are way behind the curve.

My Vote

[Bender_]

Andy Bechtolsheim
# Co-founder of Sun Microsystems

- One of the most impressing entrpreneurs of this time. Probably the only billionaire who still gets down and dirty..

Andy Grove
# Co-founder and former president of Intel

- Not only the founder of the most successfull IC company, but he also did real research (He has some very interesting papers on crucial topics related IC stability)

Konrad Zuse
# Inventor of the Z-1 through 3 machines, early program-controlled (using relays) computers

- Hands down, he build the first programmable computer. And does thus deserve credit.

John Von Neumann
# Designer of EDVAC and IAS computers

- I'd rather credit him for inventing the concept of modern computers.

Ken Thompson
# Co-developer (with Dennis Ritchie) of UNIX operating system for Bell Labs
# Co-led (with Dennis Ritchie) team that developed the C programming language

- Naturally.. sorry Linus, they were first!

Antivote:

Philo T. Farnsworth
# Inventor of modern television

-Statement is not true, this is an urban legend. I also do not see how this is related to computers?

George Philbrick
# Inventor of the first fully electronic analog computer in 1938

-Doubt that too, there were many at the same time. For example the V2 flight control computer..

Infinium Labs - Kevin Bachus

[Fubar411]

Seeint as they are now about to launch the Phantom http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=56 9&ncid=738&e=2&u=/nm/20040510/tc_nm/tech_infiniuml abs_dc (if you count November 18th as "about to launch"), I'd like to see Kevin Bachus on the list. Not only for creating fodder for Penny Arcade, but also giving us someone else to hate besides SCO and Microsoft.

Where's the Hall of Shame?

[paiute]

Gates? C'mon. He's the equivalent of the 1919 Chicago White Sox.

A Message from the AC CFO:

[Anonymous Coward]

Speaking in behalf of all PHB's, I must say that the lack of grammar check on Slashdot will expose us for what we are. Ignoramuses. The fact that you, AC Boss' Boss, caught this grammatical error merely exposes you for the fraud that you are.

Security, escort the man out. Now. We will send you your personal effects with your final paycheck.

glaring omission!

[jlangr]

I see Vint Cerf but no Al Gore?!?

Vote for Mauchley and Eckert

[wcrowe]

I'm surprised that Al Gore isn't on the list.

He invented the Internet, you know.

Jon Von Neumann

[Zabu]

He isn't in the hall of fame yet? WTF?

didn't he invent address modifications?
For those who don't know this lead to function calls.
IAS theoretical computer

Re:Jon Von Neumann

[ashot]

function calls? are you serious?

this guy is the father of automata theory..

you are right though, he should be on the list.

Mod Parent Up

[paiute]

AC or not, he is right on.

missing names

[belmolis]

Two people who aren't yet in the Hall of Fame and aren't up for election who certainly deserve it are: John McCarthy, creator of LISP and a founder of AI, and Richard Stallman, creator of EMACS and founder of the Free Software movement.

Missing poll option

[Anonymous Coward]

Pets.com sock puppet.

the game of life

[ncurses]

John Conway, for writing the most amusing game ever, Life.

RMS

[Nikademus]

Where is Richard Stallman???

Re:RMS

[Mr. Bad Example]

> Where is Richard Stallman???

Demanding that Torvalds change his name to "GNU/Linus" before he's inducted.

Farnsworth invented the TV

[AtariAmarok]

"Philo T. Farnsworth# Inventor of modern television Statement is not true, this is an urban legend. I also do not see how this is related to computers?

According to Wikipedia, Farnsworth did invent the TV. It is also in Time magazine. Philo's the TV man, indeed. Perhaps you have him confused with Thomas Crapper, "inventer of the toilet" who really did not invent it. Lookup Farnsworth on snopes: his role in history is so secure that there is not even an urban legend about him.

Re:Farnsworth invented the TV

[Carewolf]

No TV, was just one of those invention that was ripe, and therefor "invented" several different places and with several different people holding different patents different places.

Philo Farnsworth have come to fame because he was among the first, but without a patent, therefore "the little beaten inventor".
Here is story about at least two of the inventors even if it skips the american patent holders:

Yes!

[beavis88]

Thanks for pointing that out. Not sure how I missed it given that I have a copy of the Mythical Man Month with the "Silver Bullet" essay sitting right on my desk :)

They included Vint Cerf, but not Jon Postel?!

[MattT]

Postel did more to create the underpinnings of the internet than Cerf, let alone the wankers who started "the WELL" and AOL(gack!)

Re:They included Vint Cerf, but not Jon Postel?!

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, no kidding, but Cerf particularly surprises me for his later work "handling" new top level domain rollouts. I just remember all his statements implying he didn't particularly care how screwed up everybody thought that was.

RTFA

[Darthmalt]

LINUS IS on the list look towards the bottom.

TV invention = not important?

[AtariAmarok]

Philo T. Farnsworth # Inventor of modern television -Statement is not true, this is an urban legend. I also do not see how this is related to computers?

Perhaps you have never used an Apple ][? an Atari 400, 800, or ST? an Amiga? A Commodore PET, Vic-20, or C-64? a Sinclair/Spectrum? If you remember these, you will remember the television as a very important and ubiqitous peripheral for the computer. The CRT computer monitor is a close-enough relative of the TV to count as "yes, that's Farnsworth too".

Re:TV invention = not important?

[Bender_]

The CRT computer monitor is a close-enough relative of the TV to count as "yes, that's Farnsworth too".

The CRT was invented by Ferdinand Braun in 1897.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blc at hoderaytube.htm

Re:TV invention = not important?

[fishybell]

Philo T. Farnsworth didn't invent the Cathode Ray Tube, he invented a way to view pictures on it. Philo just made the electronics to have the CRT scan in horizontal lines to fill the entire screen, and to dynamically change the brightness so that a picture or moving picture could be shown.

Some people don't believe that Philo invented the TV since the patent was ownded by RCA, and RCA claimed that they invented it. Philo spent years fighting RCA over the rights. I think he enventually lost. Check out the Wikipedia for more info.

Re:TV invention = not important?

[AtariAmarok]

The "CRT Monitor" is essentially descended from a TV set, altered for optimal color RBG/etc display and for a higher resolution and sharpness than a regular TV picture. It still uses Farnsworth's basic line-by-line scanning system which he defined for television. It is descended from that rather than directly from Braun's original CRT. Many computer CRT monitors were in fact just TV's with the RF parts removed (the high-end Commodore models, for example).

Re:TV invention = not important?

[cosmo7]

Farnsworth also invented the Time Machine, thus allowing his 1935 invention to predate John Yogi Bear's 1927 patent.

Re:TV invention = not important?

[Dun Malg]

Perhaps you have never used an Apple ][? an Atari 400, 800, or ST? an Amiga? A Commodore PET, Vic-20, or C-64? a Sinclair/Spectrum? If you remember these, you will remember the television as a very important and ubiqitous peripheral for the computer. The CRT computer monitor is a close-enough relative of the TV to count as "yes, that's Farnsworth too".

My first computer experience was on a 15" print terminal with a 300 baud acoustic coupler via telephone. Should I be lobbying to have A.G. Bell and Johannes Gutenberg added too? Early computers often used incadescent lights as indicators. Should we add Thomas Edison? Most computers use the QWERTY keyboard. Should we be pushing to add Christopher Sholes?

Philo was a smart guy, but he was no computer pioneer.

Re:TV invention = not important?

[AtariAmarok]

You have a very good point, I concede. If we nominate Farnsworth, then we might as well nominate the guy who first made beige plastic!

Re:TV invention = not important?

[Dun Malg]

You have a very good point, I concede. If we nominate Farnsworth, then we might as well nominate the guy who first made beige plastic!

Indeed. I think the formulator of the first batch if beige plastic is truly the father of modern computing. After all, they nearly all look like that still...

Voting twice?? No way!

[greppling]

Please check your basic facts before posting. They use cookies to ensure that NOBODY can vote twice. This is STATE-OF-THE-ART hardened hacker-proof COMPUTER SECURITY TECHNOLOGY!!!

Re:Voting twice?? No way!

[Nursie]

What if I delete the cookies from IE? then I can vote again perhaps. State of the art huh?

Re:Voting twice?? No way!

[spitzak]

How about you re-install your sense of humor?

Re:Voting twice?? No way!

[rolocroz]

Way to completely not get the joke! Good job!

Re:Voting twice?? No way!

[Anonymous Coward]

Humour: That which is intended to induce laughter or amusement

Satire: Irony, sarcasm, or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity.

Sarcasm: A cutting, often ironic remark intended to wound.

Assuming your reply was intended to convey any of the above, "State of the art huh?" somewhat dillutes the intention. On the other hand, if your reply was not intended to convey any of the above, I would suggest you investigate the terms, their definitions and use within language.

Re:Voting twice?? No way!

[Anonymous Coward]

You missed:

Stupidity: As exhibited by the grand-parent poster.

Re:Voting twice?? No way!

[HFShadow]

Yeah, it's only using cookies, but I'll be checking the votes after to filter out cheaters, so don't bother :)

Re:Voting twice?? No way!

[Nursie]

I'll give that a go, be kind, I only had three hours sleep the night before posting that!

Origin Systems

[CaptScarlet22]

If Sid Meier was a nominee then why hasn't LORD BRITISH himself been nominated??

Richard Garriott's Ultima series were defently the building blocks of countless games over the years...

I vote for him!!

CS...out

Re:My Votes

[ncurses]

You want Phil Zimmerman, but I see no Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman.

Thou shall not

[Anonymous Coward]

discredit the name of Linus.

current ranking?

[Janek Kozicki]

I've been searching for a while but didn't found it.
Anybody else knows where is the current ranking of votes?

Re:current ranking?

[rsmith-mac]

The current rankings aren't being listed. You'll have to wait until the Museum announces the winners.

orkut

[Anonymous Coward]

is orkut down again ?

Linus all the way

[rixstep]

Regardless of category. And we don't even run Linux here. But there is no better candidate, and that's pretty obvious.

I would nominate...

[buckeyeguy]

Phil Katz, creator of the ZIP compressed file format. Widely used, and in some ways fundamental to personal computing. Sadly, it'd be a posthumous nom, since, according to a Wall St. Journal article (whose text was copied in the following link), he died in a cheap hotel with a bottle of peppermint schnapps in his arms.

Re:I would nominate...

[mrlsd]

The ARC file format came before ZIP. Read http://www.esva.net/~thom/philkatz.html

Re:I would nominate...

[buckeyeguy]

Quite true.... but then have you seen many ARC files lately? ZIP is still alive and kicking.

Re:What happened to the Dell dude? - in like Flynn

[Anonymous Coward]

Read the post... er um "this is slashdot."

My grandparent your parent was referring to the Dell dude in the commercials... a little light humor for the non-reading-comprehension-impaired.

My submissions

[Anonymous Coward]

Allen Turing
http://www.turing.org.uk/turing/

Richard Feynman
http://www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/196 5/feynman -bio.html

Marvin Minsky

Daniel Hillis

Seymore Cray

Jef Raskin

JCR Licklidder

David J. Farber

Ray Tomlinson

(all very noteworthy, listed in no specific order)

W. Richard Stevens

[3l1za]

Only one of the BEST authors of computer books around. I am sure he has other technical claims to fame but the man is probably responsible for more computer folks knowing What The Hell Is Going On than anybody.

His books (TCP/IP Illustrated Vols. 1, 2, ... ; Advanced Unix Programming...) are works of ART. So well done.

Re:W. Richard Stevens

[squiggleslash]

Oh wow. Well I'll have to look out for them. I hadn't heard of him before but good computer literature is so rare that it's definitely worth taking a look.

There's an exact opposite example from the early eighties. I wonder how many Slashdot old timers remember Tim Hartnell?

Re:W. Richard Stevens

[don.g]

Is that The GIANT book of Spectrum Games in your pocket, or, er, a Spectrum itself?

At least Sinclair himself is a HoF member.

Re:W. Richard Stevens

[squiggleslash]

Wow, someone else remembers!

Hartnell wrote a series of "teach yourself programming" books for each of the different home computers that were out at the time, almost all of which consisted of the same "Guess my number" games written in ten different ways, usually refering to language features not present in that particular home computer's BASIC.

Still, I guess at that time, there was a whole "In the kingdom of the blind, the one eyed man is king" thing going on in computing.

Sid Meier of Civ fame?

[tomstdenis]

Being a gamer of the 80's/90's and having NEVER played Civ [though I have played warcraft etc] solely because the game didn't appeal doesn't really make him sound like a computing god to revere.

I dunno how about the inventors of the Burrow-Wheeler-Transform [BWT] which is used by thousands of people daily [bzip2 for instance].

How about Lenstra, Pollard et al. for inventing the Quadratic Sieve and other factoring algorithms that put public key crypto into perspective?

What about Donald Knuth [if he's not already in there] for putting Computer Science in a accurate and concise series of texts? And inventing TeX a system quite a few people use to submit academic papers, write books and score music.

etc...

Stupid game developers while cool and all are not that influential. I'm sure the world would go on as normal if Doom3 didn't hit the shelves this year... etc...

Tom

List of already inducted for the lazy.

[Retired Replicant]

These folks have already been inducted in past years:

• John Vincent Atanasoff
• Charles Babbage
• Tim Berners-Lee
• Clifford Berry
• Nolan Bushnell
• Seymour Cray
• Michael Dell
• Douglas Engelbart
• Lee Felsenstein
• Dr. Coleman Furr
• William H. Gates III
• Marcian Edward Hoff
• Herman Hollerith
• Grace Murray Hopper
• Steve Jobs
• Andrew Kay
• Gary Kildall
• Jack St. Clair Kilby
• Lady Ada Augusta Lovelace
• James Martin
• Sid Meier
• William D. Mensch, Jr.
• Jay Miner
• Dennis Ritchie
• Henry (Ed) Roberts
• Sir Clive Sinclair
• Alan Mathison Turing
• Ed Yourdon
• Gerald M. Weinberg
• Stephen Wozniak

Re:List of already inducted for the lazy.

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice to see Steve Wozniak got in. The rest of the list doesn't matter now. I can rest easy. If you don't know much about Steve Wozniak, read up on him. Just knowing a little about the guy will probably be enough to convince you that he is more deserving than anyone else on the list - just for being a good person if nothing else.

Ada

[UserChrisCanter4]

Where is Lady Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer?

She wrote a functional program for a later, base-10 analog version of Babbage's differential engine. The catch was that the device had plans, but was never actually constructed. Years later, when they actually got around to building (or emulating, I'm not sure) the beast, Ada's software ran correctly.

Anyone else care to claim that they could step up to that challenge. Write a program in what would essentially be assembly, for a computer that's never been built, and you're the first one to ever write a program.

Incidentally, she has been honored by having a lesser-used language named after her (Ada, obviously).

Re:Ada

[mabu]

Where is Lady Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer?

She was already inducted

Re:Ada

[UserChrisCanter4]

Holy crap.

I even stared straight at that page and didn't see it. And it's not as though her name's short enough to be hiding.

Wow, don't I feel stupid.

Re:Ada

[mabu]

not at all.. I did the same thing... the darn girl has more distinct ways to be referenced than a variable in C.

Incorrect

[Anonymous Coward]

"No, but Vint Cerf is, he's the guy who co-invented TCP/IP and said Al Gore was right to claim credit for pushing the initiative that created the Internet through the Senate."

No matter what Cerf thinks, Gore was wrong to claim credit for this. The Internet had already been created by the time Al Gore got to the Senate.

Re:Incorrect

[Anonymous Coward]

ARPANet and its academic off-shoots existed when Al Gore entered the senate. The Internet as we know it today, a public, open, network, was merely a dream held by some far sighted academics and, dare I say it, politicians. It was Gore, amongst others, who pushed this vision out into the open.

I also invented the microphone

[Anonymous Coward]

How many hundreds of times have you posted this troll without anyone pointing out the brilliant inclusion of "I also invented the microphone" in the middle of the text?

Moore's Law?

[Humorously_Inept]

As long as you're going to assign value to Moore's Law, which really isn't a law at all, you might as well get it correct. "Moore's Law" is a phrase coined by the press, and it's transistor count that should double every 18 months, not computing power. The two are not necessarily proportional.

A few names off the list:

[Mateito]

Larry Ellison: Founder of Oracle, a database company

Calling Oracle "a" database company is like calling Rupert Murdoch "a" guy in the TV industry.

Adam Osborne: Founder of Osborne Computers, maker of the first portable computer

Osborne is deserving IMHO, tho "portable" is relative :)

Ken Thompson: Co-developer (with Dennis Ritchie) of UNIX operating system for Bell Labs, Co-led (with Dennis Ritchie) team that developed the C programming language

Um. You mean Thompson isn't already inducted? What drugs are these people smoking?

Linus Torvalds- Author of Linux, popular open-source operating system.

And all round unassuming beer-drinking type.

William Gibson: Coined the phrase "cyberspace" in the novel "Neuromancer" (1984)

As much as I am a fan of Gibson's work, I don't believe coining the word "cyberspace" (a phrase is more that one word by definition), is enough to warrant immortalisation. At least they didn't propose whatever schmuck came up with "Information SuperHighway".

Scott McNealy: Co-founder of Sun Microsystems

Bad timing. Should have put his name forward 4 years ago.

William Oughtred: Inventor of the slide rule

Now _that_ deserves a prize. Rock on Willy.

Gordon Moore: Postulated Moore's Rule (1964), which holds that computing power will double every 18 months with no increase in price

So it is a "rule", a "law", or just a bit of a guide line.

So, we gonna propose Taco?

Al Gore

[PitaBred]

I think it's a travesty that they don't have Al Gore on the list... I mean, the man invented the internet and space shuttles. We need to give credit where credit is due :)

Missing nominees

[mabu]

• Monte Davidoff - co-author (along with Gates and Allen) of Microsoft/Altair BASIC
  
  
• Richard Stallman - Pioneer of open software movement/GNU
  
  
• Niklaus Wirth - PARC researcher responsible for Algol, Pascal, Modula-2, Laser Printers, and more
  
  
• Marvin Minsky - Built the first neural net AI in 1951
  
  
• Seymour Papert - Developer of LOGO and another AI pioneer
  
  
• Tommy Flowers - Built one of the earliest electronic computers, with the practical application of codebreaking during WWII
  
  
• Donald Knuth - Regarded by many as the "Father of Computer Science".
  
  
• Edsger Wybe Dijkstra - The guy leading the way to abolish the GOTO statement is surely a hall-of-famer!
  
  
• Konrad Zuse - Another early computer pioneer that due to politics and circumstances beyond his control was never able to be fully-recognized.
  
  
• Jeff Raskin - Creator of the Macintosh and pioneer in computer-human interfaces.
  

Marty Goodman is my hall-of-famer..

[Destoo]

For anyone who's ever hacked on a TRS-80, Marty Goodman is Da Man.

Of course, a close second would be Tom Mix, but just for the games.

At MIT...

[Anonymous Coward]

...for the moment.

Re:At MIT...

[Anonymous Coward]

ROTFL!!!! That was too funny.

Leave Dijkstra off of it.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Edsger Wybe Dijkstra [utexas.edu] - The guy leading the way to abolish the GOTO statement is surely a hall-of-famer!"

Leave Dijkstra out. He's a sort of "programmer zealot" who wanted everyone to adopt his personal preferences in programming whether or not they made sense. The GOTO thing shows his "fundamentalism": all the command is is just a tool. One of limited usage, but still something that might on rare occasion be the best thing to solve a task. If you don't like it, don't use it, but don't launch a jihad to cripple languages by removing commands that you have a personal dislike for. Replace his name with someone who crusaded to increase the power of languages, not diminish them.

Re:Leave Dijkstra off of it.

[3l1za]

Hmmm except for that pesky little shortest path first algorithm (developed by Dijkstra) that oh-by-the-way underlies the two most widely used interior routing protocols, IS-IS & OSPF.

Re:Leave Dijkstra off of it.

[Alomex]

except for that pesky little shortest path first algorithm (developed by Dijkstra)

Except that he didn't. People in the field already knew the algorithm. Dijkstra was the one who decided that for the sake of completeness it was worth joting it down. He use to protest against the usage of the term "Dijkstra's algorithm".

No Andressen!

[GPLDAN]

Please, take him off the list. It's like inducting Britney Spears into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

What would his bust say? "Walked out of the University of Illinois NCSA, with the Mosaic code under his coat. Started a private company with the code. His company pushed some inventions, like Javascript and getting SSL in broswers to fuel E-Commerce on the net, but by all accounts - he's failed at everything else he's ever done. Took his money and went to live on a farm."

Not real impressive.

Re:No Andressen!

[ggwood]

Actually, Andressen is the only one I was considering voting for. The web browser made the internet something everyone wanted to have and the interface to it seemed to come out of nowhere far after it was techincally achievable.

However, I didn't vote for anyone because I am not knowledgable enough to know how much of the credit Andressen really deserves - and GPLDAN may well be right that he deserves very little - I don't know, but statements like "he's failed at everything else he's ever done" don't lead me to believe GPLDAN is an unbiased observer.

Most all of the achievements on the list were worked on by many people and competing groups simultainously. This leads to complexity in awarding personal credit. First person to get it to work? First to make it work in a user friendly fashion? First to popularize it? Lifetime of good work? I assume this Hall of Fame has some criteria for selection which probably we should all read before voting, but I guess by leaving it unspecified, they are allowing us to determine what the rules should be for such a Hall.

My thought on Mosaic was that since it was technically achievable far earlier, but not implemented so it was revolutionary.

Whereas something like the C programming language is similar to other languages. Perhaps there is an even "better" langauge then C, but C became popular. It was an incremental change which was just big enough of an increment that people jumped onto it.

Certainly C is more widely used then Mosaic, but if C were not invented, people would have used a similar language, whereas if Mosaic were not invented we'd be using Gopher?

Re:No Andressen!

[GPLDAN]

I know people at NCSA who feel he ripped off the work of many when he built Netscape. But, forget that, or whatever percieved bias you think I have. Just do a Google search on Loudcloud. Read the stories in chronological order.

Now ask people what they think of Opsware as a company and a business model. Draw your own conclusions.

Re:No Andressen!

[deanj]

Well, perhaps GPLDAN is an *actual* observer of the events at NCSA. There were certainly plenty around.

How many interviews have you seen with those folks? I know of one, and every time it's brought up in /., people cry "sour grapes". The spin behind what happened has always been out of Andressen and Netscape.

If Tim Berners-Lee hadn't invented the web browser, then we might still be using Gopher. If there hadn't been a Mosaic, someone else would have completed a browser... there were plenty of other folks that were working on them at the time.

Re:No Andressen!

[ggwood]

So I checked at Tim Berners-Lee is already in the Hall, thus it seems invention of the web browser, which was my only goal here, is covered. I guess more extensive backgrounds on all the individuals and the exact acomplishments they are to be enshrined for would be really helpful for the voting populace - although by a quick look at the posts above it doesn't look like lack of this kind of extensive background has limited the voting population.
_____________________________________ ____

Where the hell is Bruce Perens?

[Anonymous Coward]

Bwahahahaha!

Re:FOURTH POST

[Anonymous Coward]

Yumm! Can I get a pussy, too?

Sif Meier is in...

[Jott42]

But not Zuse... But I shouldn't be surprised, one is American, the other German.

Hall of XXX is always interesting read when they are made in the US, one finds out much one didn't know... Things are sometimes invented a couple of years later than they were used in europe. :-)

It's like when one visits Houston Space Center: everything is "Worlds first" (if it was american), otherwise it is "Americas first". Soviet achievments does not exsist. I almost began to laugh at it when I ws there...

(Yes, I know I will get a "flamebait" for this...)

My votes

[DrQu xum]

Vint Cerf, Bill Joy (for vi, not Sun), Bob Metcalfe, Ken Thompson, Linus.

Re:My Votes

[metlin]

I don't see the NSA, either :-p

Re:My Votes

[Sri Lumpa]

"I don't see the NSA, either :-p"

Don't worry, THEY see YOU ;)

Re:My Votes

[metlin]

You have a weird nick, a relatively low UID, Groklaw for your home page and a crypto-geekish signature making fun of Gates.

And then you come up with something like that.

Dude, who *are* you? And stop scaring me ;-)

Re:My Votes

[Sri Lumpa]

And if you go to my profile you will notice that I had another account before that one with an even lower UID (24646) before I found a nick I really liked but that doesn't mean anything meaningful anyway (just that I have been wasting my time here longer than most people ;)).

Anyway, as you guess it was just a joke, and an obvious one at that, I just couldn't resist it.

correction

[mabu]

I see Zuse is a current nominee, so I was in error thinking he was omitted.

Still incorrect

[Anonymous Coward]

"The Internet as we know it today, a public, open, network, was merely a dream held by some far sighted academics and, dare I say it, politicians. It was Gore, amongst others, who pushed this vision out into the open."

The Internet actually existed in name and network a few years before Gore first got to Congress. Saying "The Internet as we know it today" did not exist is weasel-words: the Internet exactly as it is today, did not even exist 5 years ago.

Since the Internet existed before Gore got involved, Gore is not correct when he says that he took the initiative in creating it. He helped expand it, he helped change it. But he had nothing to do with its creation: that water was already under the bridge.

Re:Still incorrect

[Anonymous Coward]

The Internet actually existed in name and network a few years before Gore first got to Congress. Saying "The Internet as we know it today" did not exist is weasel-words: the Internet exactly as it is today, did not even exist 5 years ago.

Yeah, right, whatever.

The "Internet" was not a public, open, network when Al Gore entered the Senate. That's a fact. It is a bald-faced lie to suggest either that it was open at that time, or that it could be opened without legislation. It was a strictly academic and military network. As an amusing anecdote to get a flavour of just how closed it was, do a search on Jerry Pournelle and Arpanet. Pournelle gets the dubious distinction of being the first person to be kicked off the Arpanet, or as you call it, The Internet, back in 1984.

And, BTW, Vint Cerf agrees with me. And I personally think both he, and Al Gore, know a little more than you do on the subject. Unless you're now going to claim that, on top of being able to access the Internet in the early eighties via your privately owned ISP, you are also the ghost of Jon Postel?

My votes

[eniac79]

Marc Andreesson - NCSA Mosaic, Netscape Len Bosack - Cisco Systems Alan Kay - PARC scientist, Smalltalk, laptop computers Linus Torvalds - Linux John Warnock - PARC scientist, Adobe

Re:slashdot ads

[Anonymous Coward]

Subscribe? What, pay money for something that should be free?

Sounds like someone's been talking to Micrsoft lately.

Knuth?

[Shant3030]

How is Donald Knuth not on the ballot or in the HOF itself?

He is one of the most important computer scientist of all time.

Successful text-only business web sites? Yes

[AtariAmarok]

"Without the graphical web browser would we have ebusiness? Would Ebay or Amazon exist?

Considering that you gain something when you lose graphics (confusing often poorly-defined icons, slower loads just to have a prettier company logo, etc) as well as lose something, I think it is fair to say that Amazon and eBay would have been roaring successes if we were still using the text-based Lynx browser. I don't know about you, but the look of the graphic of a book's cover is not the most important thing in considering an Amazon purchase, and a picture of a software package's box is even less important.

eBay? Sure, a lot would be lost (especially for those who buy photos and artwork), but there is still a lot that can be sold without images. Even for these, you would still be able to download images and view them through Lynx.

Looking beyond that, you mentioned Slashdot. Maybe it is just me, but having the Billy Borg icon as an icon is not the most important thing; Slashdot would still work without it. Computer manufacturers? If I were buying a Dell from www.dell.com, I don't think that I'd be less likely to buy one just because I could not see that tiny photo they have of it... yes, slashdot and computer manufacturer sale sites would work on a text-only web.

There are, however, certainly some parts of the web that would be wiped out by being text-only (adult entertainment and online gaming, for two)

Re:Successful text-only business web sites? Yes

[smc13]

" I think it is fair to say that Amazon and eBay would have been roaring successes if we were still using the text-based Lynx browser."

No way. Yes, you are correct if you mean that it would be possible to make a text only website. But, you are missing the key ingrediant in any business. Customers! I remember the internet before Mosaic. It was university students and the science community. Joe and Jane consumer were no where in sight. Try to make money with a text only site. It isn't possible. Sure, it would attract a few geeks but it wouldn't come close to earning a profit.

Surprised to find who is NOT on the list...

[Kazoo the Clown]

Such as Donald Knuth, Kenneth Iverson or Charles Moore...

transparency in the voting process...

[3l1za]

Doesn't it strike you as a little strange that *anyone* can vote on these?

And don't you wonder whether some selecting committee also votes and their votes are weighted?

I love having a voice in all of this and all but it strikes me that such decisions should be primarily made by those in a position to know; surely many slashdotters are same but the general public??

Check this out, too: If you would like to vote for the next [induction] class, this privilege is included with your active Membership in the Computer Museum of America.

So do you have to be a CMA member to vote or not?

There's very little information about the selection process here (read: none): http://www.computerhalloffame.org/

And this just leads you back to that: http://www.computer-museum.org/home.shtml

Anyway, this just makes me think they don't take it all that seriously (i.e. as a vehicle to reward the truly deserving)...

Robert Donner (minesweeper)

[sayap]

He deserves a place in the Hall more than any other game creators, as the game he wrote in 1989 is still widely popular and going strong.

How about Vernor Vinge?

[Anonymous Coward]

If authors are eligible, then I think that Vernor Vinge deserves some credit for 'True Names'.

BTW I agree with the original poster about Gibson's work. I re-read Neuromancer a few months ago and it just very dense and very, very beautiful. In comparison, Idoru was just a lame rehash.

Turing

[apankrat]

Alan Turing is mysteriously missing from the list as well.

Re:Turing

[Juanvaldes]

As is Douglas Engelbart. Pitiful.

Re:Turing

[corrosive_nf]

Doug Engelbart
b. January 25,1925, Portland, Ore.

Elected, September, 2000

I guess it would have been too hard for you fucktards to actually go to the site and take a look at it.

Sorry....

[darth_silliarse]

...but that vote is gheyer than the people who vote for it. I mean, what next fuckin' Oscars???

Hmmmm, then again...

"Mr Gates we would like to honour you on daytime tv with this award for making a truly secure and open operating system. LOOK OUT A CUSTARD PIE!"

Well I can dream can't I?

Obligatory Simpsons tie-in

[Anonymous Coward]

>He's a big, fat, greasy fuck.

"My god, you're greasy." -- Homer Simpson

Um.......Where's RMS?

[Crudely_Indecent]

Founder of the GNU Project!!!!
Wrote the first extensible Emacs text editor!
Principal author of the GNU Compiler Collection!
Also wrote the GNU symbolic debugger (gdb)!

Re:Um.......Where's RMS?

[Anonymous Coward]

More importantly, who cares?

Re:Um.......Where's RMS?

[Crudely_Indecent]

leave it to an anonymous coward.....

FYI: Richard Stallman has done a great deal for modern computing.

Jonathan Postel not listed?

[liquid-groove]

I find it hard to believe Jonathan didn't make the list.

K&R

[Anonymous Coward]

Where would we be without the contributions of Kernighan and Ritchie?

hall of fame or grammy award ??

[bzImage8]

Where is Knuth ? Where is Tanenbaum ? Where is Stevens ?

Many missing

[majid]

This "hall of fame" has zero credibility

Babbage is there, but not George Boole or Blaise Pascal...

Alan Kay, Norbert Wiener, Edsger Dijkstra, Donald Knuth or Ken Thompson are not there, but frankly minor contributors like Coleman Furr (who?) are.

This looks like the Nobel Literature prixe, where those deliberately passed over (usually because they were too controversial like Joyce or Borges) constitute a much more eminent group than many of those who did get it.

Larry Roberts???

[Anonymous Coward]

Larry Roberts
# Led development of ARPANET (later the Internet)

They seem to have misspelled Al Gore's name on the ballot!

Turing

[AbstracTus]

I'm surprised the noone has mentioned Alan Turing.

Facts don't matter?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Yeah, right, whatever."

Nice response when it is pointed out that Gore's claim and the historic facts don't add up.

"The "Internet" was not a public, open, network when Al Gore entered the Senate"

Yet, it did exist, and under the Internet name. Others had created it before Gore was on the scene.

"It is a bald-faced lie to suggest either that it was open at that time, or that it could be opened without legislation."

That is a straw-man attack. Gore is not being taken to task for saying "he opened the Internet". He was saying he created it. So drop the irrelevant open/closed argument: it is not part of the quote.

"And, BTW, Vint Cerf agrees with me"

No, he does not. Vint is full of glowing praise for what Gore did to help the Internet after it was created. However, Vint (like anyone know knows tech history) knows that Gore did not take the initiative in creating the Internet.

"And I personally think both he, and Al Gore, know a little more than you do on the subject"

Al Gore knows more than you. He later admitted that his worst campaign mistake was in claiming he "invented the Internet". His exact words.

If you still insist on lying about this, I refer you to a couple of documents. The Internet FAQ, and Gore's biography. You will see a gap of a few years between the Internet first being called the Internet, and when Gore first got into Congress. The former took place BEFORE the latter.

Re:Robert Donner (minesweeper)? Tom Anderson!

[Anonymous Coward]

Donner's program was a variant of a program I first saw in 1987. Tom Anderson posted "mines - minefield game for Suns" to the comp.sources.games usenet group 1987 November 19. I found a copy at ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.games/volume2 /mines.shr.Z

Shortly after that, a similar freeware game was available on the Atari ST.