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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."

26 of 304 comments (clear)

  1. William Gibson? by tsunamifirestorm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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)"

    1. Re:William Gibson? by rsborg · · Score: 5, Insightful
      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.

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    2. Re:William Gibson? by tanguyr · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

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  2. Ummm by platypussrex · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  3. Why aren't these people already in? by cynicalmoose · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

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    1. Re:Why aren't these people already in? by Junks+Jerzey · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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).

  4. What??? by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 4, Funny

    No Darl McBride?

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  5. Missing Poll Option by Alan+Hicks · · Score: 4, Interesting

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

    --
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  6. Flamebait by Jonboy+X · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can I mod this article as flamebait?

    --

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  7. No Fred Brooks? by beavis88 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "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".

    1. Re:No Fred Brooks? by southpolesammy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

      --
      Rule #1 -- Politics always trumps technology.
  8. Is electronic voting allowed? by avoisin · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    Could they vote for themselves?

    Ack! *Vanishes into a paradox*

  9. My Votes: by burgburgburg · · Score: 4, Interesting
    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

  10. Linus Himself? by dknight · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Linus Himself? by baudilus · · Score: 5, Funny
      Does he deserve his own religion? Probably not.

      I just love the word "probably" in that statement.
  11. Re:Where's the "WOZ" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Uhm. Check the current list.
    "Stephen Wozniak"

  12. What the Hell? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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

  13. Re:Missing Options by TheFlyingGoat · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

    --
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  14. Missing / Embarrassing / Stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  15. Re:Missing Options by martinjd · · Score: 4, Informative

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

  16. Huh? by mabu · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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?

  17. Re:Post the list? by virtualone · · Score: 4, Informative

    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

    --
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  18. Farnsworth invented the TV by AtariAmarok · · Score: 5, Informative
    "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.

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  19. Voting twice?? No way! by greppling · · Score: 5, Funny

    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!!!

  20. List of already inducted for the lazy. by Retired+Replicant · · Score: 5, Informative
    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
  21. Missing nominees by mabu · · Score: 4, Insightful
    • 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.