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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!"
Yeah, he did a great job of perdicting something that turned out to be a hoax.
Are t4ere? Let's woUld be a bad
I think its safe to say all/most programmers using 2-digit years back in 1971 also predicted Y2K.
It comes down to not giving a shit about things years in the future in order to satisfy immediate needs or desires.
We can see how running corporations or countries with this mentality might create massive problems (budge/trade deficits, waste, misprioritizing funding).
About 10-20 years from, someone will be attributed as having predicted the retirement of baby boomers combined with the current federal budget will totally screw those of us in younger generations.
All politicians appear to be more interested in saving their ass or winning the next election than DOING THE RIGHT THING, AT THE RIGHT TIME, TO MAKE OUR COUNTRY BETTER.
They're not "bad people"--they are simply not provided with the proper incentives (much like the programmers back in 1971) to do things properly right now.
Fix the incentives first and watch how many other problems are either avoided or fixed quickly.
- Bi-partisan campaign reform anyone?
- Removing ridiculous roadblocks for 3rd-party presidential candidates anyone?
- Why not raise the standard deduction for income tax to exactly match the prior year's poverty line and then set the only income tax rate to be fixed at 30% for EVERYONE? (I guess some people would prefer the FALSE PERCEPTION that the wealthy pay a higher percentage rate despite the thousands of pages of loopholes that allow actual rates to be lower than the middle class average)
WITHOUT CHANGING THE INCENTIVES, NOTHING WILL CHANGE SUBSTANTIALLY UNTIL THE SHIT HITS THE FAN.
I mean, comeon, really - who gives a flying fuck!
If only we had, we wouldn't be living in this post apocalyptic world now, I'd be able to get on a plane and visit family, and my computer would still work.
Yes I know that in the few cases that it mattered it was fixed, but Y2K was blown way out of proportion by everyone, including some very smart people, it just wasn't that big of a deal.
He could be remembered for many things that directly contribute to systems we have now, but but this point, I would think that most people would like to distance themselves from those Y2K shenanigans.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
bri7Liant plan
or the value of higher level languages
Surely you gest to pretend language can be higher than the level of five United States Supreme Court justices (such as Scalia, p1) or a White House lawyer who writes an opinion saying U.S. Military policies of torturing "detainees" under orders of someone given executive power (by the same supreme u.s. court fife[dom]) might run afoul of human law (or the rules of truthful and consistency in light of otherness and sameness). Surely u r not against the extermination of all people who oppose the will of GWB and the USian Xian Churks? Remember that at 80 one of us jumped from a plane (w/ an escort) to proof the blessings of God. Dare u blaspheme [ogg~angst USS d'Amerique du Nord/Norte)?
I am a Chinese dissent who hopes to overthrow the......... Crown????
What I'd like to know is who the a__hole was that decided to use the \ as a directory separator in MS-DOS, which was passed along to Winblows.
*It's not what you can do for the Dark Side but what the Dark Side can do for you!*
this guy invented the BACKSLASH which allows people to store CHILD PORNOGRAPHY in directories on their COMPUTERS. This guy deserves to DIE and rot in fucking HELL. I hope the bugs feast on his testicles first. ROT IN HELL YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT -- Someone should have inserted a large fish-hook into his rectum with a rope on the end of it, attached the other end of the rope to a bridge and thrown him off. FUCK YOU
He was an Olympic champion and held the world long-jump record for something like 25 years too.
erroneous: look me up in a dictionary
oh, now COBOL spellchecking...
His point is clear. He says RIP in COBOL way...
Geez...