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"Tech Heroes" From Ada Lovelace to Jamie Z

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the all-know-kung-fu dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Web 2.0 Journal has launched a search for what it calls "the all-time heroes of i-Technology" (its own shorthand for 'Internet technologies'), reaching as far back as to The Countess of Lovelace, though whether or not Ada Lovelace is truly the first programmer is not discussed. As an exercise in reminding ourselves whose shoulders we are standing on when hurtlng towards the 21st-century, richer Web it's not a bad start. Naturally there are sins of omission..."

3 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Misplaced credit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    My question is: Who has been given credit for things that other people invented? Who are the unsung heros and who are the rip-off artists?

    For instance, I always gave credit for the invention of spread spectrum to Hedy Lamarr (a movie star). Then I found this little gem:
    "Frequency hopping spread spectrum was a public domain idea by 1917. The Germans used it in WWII. Hitler wanted to win by bluff and before the war started, invited public figures from England and the US to see how invincible his military was. Hedy Lamarr, who has similar scientific-mathematical skills to Cher and Edith Bunker, was among one of these groups who was shown the "invincible" communication system the German's had. When the group got back to the US, they applied for a patent and possibly as a joke put only Hedy's name on it. The patent office examiners then, as they are now, are not practicing engineers and are spread over a wide range of technology, they are jacks of all trades and masters of none. They are also short of time to keep up with what is going on in the engineering world or to study engineering history. They only see if a similar patent was issued in the past. Finding none, they issued the patent. This is why so many patents are being issued these days on public domain prior art." The guy who wrote it has several other examples of people who came up with something first not getting credit for it.
    http://www.analog-rf.com/mixer.shtml

  2. Ada and Ruby by krischik · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Ada, the most overhyped language until Ruby. Ada was not overhyped - Ada delivered everything it promised. Ada was rather underestimaded by those who never learned Ada.

    Of course that was the problem: When Ada came out only very powerfull system where able to run an Ada compiler so not many programmers could actualy try the language.

    But that's not a problem any more, grap yourself an open source Ada compiler [1] and see for yourself.

    As for Ruby: That seems a nice enough language as well. Never given me any problems. So where actually is your problem?

    Martin

    [1] http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ada_Programming/Insta lling
  3. It's a philosophical question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon%E2%80%93Hartl ey_theorem

    The above linked wiki article is excellent and shows the relation between Nyquist, Hartley and Shannon. AFACT, you could make the argument either way.

    A similar question might be: Who is the father of radio? Marconi? Maxwell?

    Who discovered the electron? ancient Greeks? Stoney? Thompson?

    In attributing credit for something, the guy favors the first one to posit an idea even if the practical implementation came much much later. He points out that the math behind DSP is over a hundred years old. True as far as it goes. Of course, I usually credit Oppenheim. So, the guy may or may not have an axe to grind but at least he seems to be consistent and makes an argument that can be reasonably defended.