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Computer Pioneer Bob Bemer Dies
tpconcannon writes "Bob Bemer, the man who helped introduce the backslash as well as the escape key to computing, has passed away at his home at the age of 78. He also helped develop ASCII during the 60's at IBM. More interesting is that he predicted the Y2K bug all the way back in 1971!"
that he's been ALT-F4'ed?
82 73 80
I want the fire back.
Let's give credit where credit is due. Al gore clearly took the initiative in creating the backslash, the ESC key, and ASCII.
"Bob Bemer... passed away at his home at the age of 78.
The AP reported he was 84, and Wikipedia confirms that he was born in 1920.
In any case, I'd like to commemorate Mr. Bemer with the traditional Slashdot version of a Viking funeral:
I just heard some sad news on talk radio - COBOL standardizer/Father of ASCII Bob Bemer was found dead in his Texas home this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his character set, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
I keep pressing it and yet I'm still stuck at my crappy job....sigh
actually I am happy to see you, however that is in fact a banana in my pocket.
err 2000...
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. -Aldous Huxley
Among the more interesting tidbits is that he coined the word COBOL
Hey well nobody's perfect...
Well, the article got it a lot closer than me. My calculations came up with an age of -16 years.
Now I know who is to blame for letting microsoft use backslashes in path names.
he forgot to include the "any" key on the keyboard though, and i've been looking for it for years
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Just for the record, I would like to predict that on Jan 1, 10000 much of the software currently in existence will malfunction unless it is modified to handle 5 digit years. Bemer made his prediction 29 years in advance. I'm making mine 7996 years in advance. So there! :-)
It figures that his age across the year 2000 would end up being miscalculated by someone ... or something.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
You forgot the backslash! Anyone else find it earie that the \ is an "escape" character, and he came up with the Esc key as well? ;)
You know why it was rejected? So they could post that shity RedVSBlue crap.
IMTO/.
Yeah, but at least it'll only revert back to 1970. We can just work with vacuum tubes for a while until things move along a bit.
Information wants to be free.
Entertainment wants to be paid.
You just want to be cheap.
I wonder if his tombstone will read Here lies Bob Bemer 1920-19104
>dies at 78
The article was written in base 10 and 6/7ths.
We thought you meant Steven King!
It's not me for sure. [grin]
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
And speaking of COBOL....
;)
o g.html
what better time for a Real Programmers list?
http://www.cs.williams.edu/~terescoj/humor/realpr
I mean, if he can't escape death who can?
||| I still can't believe Parkay's not butter.
Wasn't MS Bob named after this guy?
One of the most reviled men in computers, the creator of the EBCDIC characterset continues living.
In keeping with his computer science background, they initially gave his age in base 10.85.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
"O.K. We're going to use 2 digits to store the date, because the first 2 digits are always going to be 19"
"But, that will break in 2000!"
Correct response is:
a) "Oh my god!!! You're a genius! I never would have thought of that if I didn't have you here to think of these things!"
b) "Yeah, I know, but who gives a shit? No one's going to be using this software in 29 years anyway."
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
Funny, the article that claimed he was 78 mentions that he was born in Febuary, 1920. Now I may not have the best grade in my advanced Calc class, but even I know 2004-1920 != 78.
It's a Y2K bug..
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
Ungrounded Lightning later finished his story:
"Now where was I. oh yeah!
The important thing was that I had an onion tied to my belt, which was the style at the time..."
You may disagree, but to be blunt, you're wrong. -tgd