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Ethernet Creator Makes the Inventors Hall of Fame

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the making-the-grade dept.

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."

16 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Ah, Xerox PARC ... by Gopal.V · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The technology center that gave birth to so many of the corner stones of modern computing ... the mouse GUI, the laser printer (yeah, xerox ...), ethernet and if I may say so - object oriented programming.

    I'm not sure what it proves, but it does prove that when you're not thinking about immediate profit, there's so much you can do - but if you don't somebody'll pull the funding on you (and kick themselves years later).

    What were they working in the nineties ? IPV6 ?

    --
    Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
    1. Re:Ah, Xerox PARC ... by MECC · · Score: 5, Informative

      Douglas Engelbart gets credit for the mouse, the gui, and a whole host of related technology, if not the modern PC as we know it. Not Xerox Parc.

      One could argue that he didn't popularize them, but that's not necessarily what invention is about. Besides, neither did Xerox parc.

      --
      "We are all geniuses when we dream"
      - E.M. Cioran
    2. Re:Ah, Xerox PARC ... by Raideen · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Any geek who does not know Douglas Engelbart should also check out The Mother of All Demos. Just some of the items featured:
      • 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!
  2. Some of Bob Metcalfe's latest work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/99/06/21/ 990621opmetcalfe.html

    enjoy...

  3. Kinda spoilt... by Bogtha · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...by the fact that in recent years he's reduced to trolling the Internet by making up terms like "Open Sores Movement". From Wikipedia:

    The Open Source Movement's ideology is utopian balderdash [... that] reminds me of communism. [...] Linux [is like] organic software grown in utopia by spiritualists [...] When they bring organic fruit to market, you pay extra for small apples with open sores -- the Open Sores Movement. When [Windows 2000] gets here, goodbye Linux.

    He might have got it right decades ago, but these days, he's just another clueless pundit troll.

    --
    Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
    1. Re:Kinda spoilt... by WS+Tu · · Score: 4, Funny

      Anyway, it is an article in 1999. IMHO, I like this story more... Metcalf ate his column http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/1997-04/m sg00192.html

    2. Re:Kinda spoilt... by MECC · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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
    3. Re:Kinda spoilt... by tverbeek · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Part of Metcalfe's problem is that - despite his technical qualifications, and the good fortune of having the right idea at the right time (ethernet) - he's an ideologue. Everything he looks at is filtered through his philosophical dogma, and he uses his columns as a bully pulpit to promote that ideology, rather than as an opportunity to explore and consider new ideas. He's got an agenda that gives him the same sort of tunnel vision and myopia that the worst fawning Apple fanboy, snotty Microsoft apologist, or strident BSD partisan has.

      --
      http://alternatives.rzero.com/
    4. Re:Kinda spoilt... by autophile · · Score: 3, Funny

      He's got an agenda that gives him the same sort of tunnel vision and myopia that the worst fawning Apple fanboy, snotty Microsoft apologist, or strident BSD partisan has.

      This is slashdot. You left out "...or Linux highly reasonable and well-shaven proponent."

      --Rob

      --
      Towards the Singularity.
    5. Re:Kinda spoilt... by uradu · · Score: 2, Interesting

      > 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.

    6. Re:Kinda spoilt... by LihTox · · Score: 2, Insightful

      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.

      Everyone's allowed to have a public opinion about anything (cf Slashdot). Point your finger instead at the people who give Metcalfe a platform to express said political opinions, based solely on his technological background.

  4. Re:A well deserved honor -- For one of the two by phage434 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

  5. The original Hall of Fame, and hubris... by dpbsmith · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...the Hall of Fame for Great Americans... is a huge colonnade (630 feet long) with actual bronze busts, located at Bronx Community College (formerly NYU).

    I found this out on the umpteenth watching of "The Wizard of Oz" when I suddenly wondered what the Munchkins were singing about when they sang "You will have a bust, have a bust, have a bust/In the Hall of Fame." I had to look it up because nobody I knew had any idea what the heck the "Hall of Fame" was, apart from the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, of course.

    By the way, it has a number of open slots. #19, #47, #49. I think someone should propose putting Metcalfe's bust in one of them. So he will be as well remembered as Rufus Choate, Charlotte Saunders Cushman, and John Lothrop Motley.

    It really says something when an entire Hall of Fame can be forgotten, doesn't it? If a brick-and-mortar Hall of Fame is forgotten in less than one short century, I don't think the National Inventor's Hall of Fame, which apparently has no physical existence, will be much more durable.

    Ozymandias, anyone?

    --

    "How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!

    1. Re:The original Hall of Fame, and hubris... by I+Like+Pudding · · Score: 2, Funny

      Ozymandias, anyone?

      Look upon my works, ye mighty, and...hey, hey COME BACK!
  6. Umm, it is a real place ... by Tranvisor · · Score: 4, Informative

    "I don't think the National Inventor's Hall of Fame, which apparently has no physical existence, will be much more durable."

    Umm, the Inventor's Hall of Fame is a real museum in Akron, OH. I've been there, it's a fairly interesting place (beats the Football Hall of Fame (Canton, OH) hands down). The museum has no busts, it trys to present inventions and the science behind them in a very understandable way with many hands-on exhibits.

    Their website is http://www.invent.org/

  7. Re:They forgot one by mqduck · · Score: 2, Informative

    I can't wait until they induct Professor Farnsworth. Dude's been inventing stuff for centuries.

    Dude hasn't been born yet. What the heck are you talking about?
    --
    Property is theft.