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Ed Roberts, Personal Computer Pioneer, 1941-2010
jcr writes "CNET and the Huffington Post both report the death of Henry Edward Roberts, best known to all of us as the inventor of the Altair computer, at the age of 68 from pneumonia. As it happens, I never got to use an Altair, but I did meet Ed once, back in the mid-1980s. Since that time, I've never referred to the Altair bus as the 'S100' bus, since I agree with him that an inventor is entitled to name his invention." Updated 7:40 GMT by timothy: Roberts was 68, not 88 as originally stated; thanks to the readers who pointed out the typo.
His age was computed using a Pentium, not an Altair.
He invented also a device that moved him back 19 years. And his bio dont tell about the years he was hidden fearing facing his younger self. So we must thank him for personal computers and that the universe didnt got destroyed by a paradox.
You can't even use an apostrophe correctly. Don't talk to us about other people's bad math.
I just heard some sad news on talk radio - Computer engineer Ed Roberts was found dead in his Maine 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 work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon.
Give it a rest, will you?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Yeah. I know what you mean.
My father was going to take me on a fishing trip to Canada once but we didn't go.
People needs to stop dying on April 1st. Nobody takes the news seriously (at first).
(I'd rewrite that to correct for a missing "and" in the first sentence, and a missing "losers" in the second, but my vodka martini with a couple of lovely marinated olives says I don't want to. Arguably, this makes me a loser, but then: "Adolf" passes spellcheck just fine. Please moderate accordingly, whatever that means.)
Kid-proof tablet..
could it be because apple is simply a dictionary word?
When did Fred Phelps' little family of douchebags start trolling /.?
If you're going to heaven, and Ed Roberts is in Hell, then I think I'd rather go where he is.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
LOL
Why did you feed the auto-troll? I am more demanding of my trolls. They have to work for their treats.
I think nearly every time a submission is made on Slashdot about somebody passing on a lazy troll takes out this troll form and replaces the name. I have seen it quite often and in several places.
yay for a renaissance man who touched many
That’s what the pope said! :D
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
At the time Sperry/Burroughs merged to form Unisys it was rumoured that Sperry's word processing software rejected "unisys" and suggested "anuses" as a likely fix.
there was no OS. if you wanted an OS, you wrote it in basic as you needed it.
Real mean wrote their own bootstrap, OS and higher level language in assembler.. "Basic".. damned kids these days.
---- Booth was a patriot ----