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

CowboyNeal?

[Hatta]

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

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?

[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?

[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.

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

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.

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?

[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?

[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?

[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.

What???

[Archangel Michael]

No Darl McBride?

Missing Poll Option

[Alan Hicks]

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

Flamebait

[Jonboy X]

Can I mod this article as flamebait?

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.

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

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:Where's the "WOZ"

[Anonymous Coward]

Uhm. Check the current list.
"Stephen Wozniak"

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

[martinjd]

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

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

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.

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

[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

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

[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..

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?

[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...

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

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.

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: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.

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.

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

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.
  

Re:Ada

[mabu]

Where is Lady Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer?

She was already inducted

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?