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Ethernet Creator Makes the Inventors Hall of Fame
An anonymous reader wrote in with a Network World story that opens, "Ethernet is right up there with magnetic resonance imaging, the LP record, air bags, and soft contact lenses. So says the National Inventors Hall of Fame, which included Bob Metcalfe, inventor of the ubiquitous LAN technology, in its latest round of inductees."
The paper was written by two people, not one. Whatever happened to poor David Boggs, who seems never to be mentioned. Punditry has its place, I guess, if you want to be famous.
I remember hearing about the inventor/designer of those unbelievably annoying ethernet AUI connector slider clasps apologizing on a forum/list. Anyone remember that?
"We are all geniuses when we dream"
- E.M. Cioran
> he uses his columns as a bully pulpit to promote that ideology
Which is quite right of center politically, to say the least. Which would be fine if he kept it out of his TECHNOLOGY column, but of course he can't. I remember reading one of his columns back in the late 90s when InfoWorld was still somewhat worth reading, and it was a lunatic rant against Bill Clinton and how he'd met him in person at some junket and had to fight the urge to jump at his jugular--or something to that effect, anyway. That's the problem with a lot of these one-hit-wonders that clamber onto the public stage via some specific talent and then feel qualified to have a publicly worthwhile opinion on everything else. Metcalfe is a particular stinker in that respect, especially considering that he didn't single-handedly invent Ethernet anyway.
- High speed (300bps) communications
- Interactive computing (i.e. more than an input (punch cards) output (printer) system)
- The mouse
- Hypertext
- Menu based UI
- White boards (collaborative computing)
We take all of those for granted these days, but try to imagine being at the demo and not only seeing these items for the first time, but seeing them all together in one demo!