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Computer Engineer Wes Clark Dies at 88

Posted by timothy on from the let-us-now-praise-famous-men dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Wesley Allison Clark, a revered computer engineer whose work from the 1950s through 1970s underpinned the revolutions in personal computing, computer graphics, and the internet, died Monday. He was 88. Among other things, Clark was one of the two people (Charles Molnar being the other) who created LINC, the first mini-computer.

6 of 16 comments (clear)

  1. Internet by 110010001000 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    One thing that people don't know about Wes is that during his service at Washington University he was one of the many who took the initiative to create the Internet. So you can thank him for that.

    1. Re:Internet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      https://www.computer.org/web/awards/eckert-wesley-clark
      "Clark had a small but key role in the planning for the ARPANET (the predecessor to the Internet). In 1967, he suggested to Larry Roberts the idea of using separate small computers (later named Interface Message Processors) as a way of standardizing the network interface and reducing load on the local computers."

      A Brief History of the Internet
      "1967 - A man named Wesley Clark designed and presented what today is commonly known as the router."

    2. Re:Internet by jonwil · · Score: 2

      If you are interested in all that stuff, the excellent book "The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal" is a really good read, it talks all about the men behind the network and how it happened.

      Men like Wes Clark are the reason computers are interactive boxes connected to the largest repository of information in the known universe instead of being batch processing beasts that eat punch cards and spit out fan fold paper (or more punch cards) a few hours later.

  2. If nothing else ... by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Informative

    in a 1981 lecture, he mentioned that he had the distinction of being, "the only person to have been fired three times from MIT for insubordination."

    If for no other reason than this, this man deserves to be remembered. :-P

    one of the fathers of the personal computer... he was the architect of both the TX-0 and TX-2 at Lincoln Labs. He believed that "a computer should be just another piece of lab equipment." At a time when most computers were huge remote machines operated in batch mode, he advocated far more interactive access.

    I guess being one of the fathers of the personal computer is pretty cool too.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  3. Re:I was almost ready to cheer by Progman3K · · Score: 3, Funny

    I first read that as Wesley Clark

    I first read that as Dick Clark and I thought "What, again?!?"

    --
    I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
  4. Another site suggestion by sootman · · Score: 2

    This thing where some stories show up collapsed on the front page? Kill that. If it's worth posting, it's worth showing.

    Example: pixelcity.com/collapsed.png

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    Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.