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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."
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)"
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.
Exercise your right not to vote. thinkoutside.org
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
"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".
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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...
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
It's all good.
Where is Richard Stallman???
I gave up with the idea of an useful sig...
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!
Regardless of category. And we don't even run Linux here. But there is no better candidate, and that's pretty obvious.
I'd have a personalized plate on my car, but "toxic bachelor" won't fit into 7 letters.
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.
... ; Advanced Unix Programming...) are works of ART. So well done.
His books (TCP/IP Illustrated Vols. 1, 2,
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]
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.
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)...
I find it hard to believe Jonathan didn't make the list.
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.