Hall of Fame Voting For Computer Museum of America

An anonymous reader writes "Public voting has opened for the Computer Museum of America Hall of Fame, which is looking to add 5 more members to the roster via a public vote. Previous inductees include Sid Meier (of Civilization fame), and among this years list of nominees is Linus himself. The full list, along with the voting area itself is over at HomeLAN."

William Gibson?

[tsunamifirestorm]

Sorry if this sounds like flamebait, but the other people invented acutal products while all he did was "Coined the phrase "cyberspace" in the novel "Neuromancer" (1984)"

Why aren't these people already in?

[cynicalmoose]

The really shocking thing is the people who aren't already there!

John von Neumann - considering he started off the base design for the logic interaction systems we use today, he is often known as the father of computing - so why are we voting for him now?

Linus Torvalds - I don't need to say who he is - but why isn't he there either.

Those are two particularly egregious omissions, but I reckon more than 5 need to get added.

Where's the "WOZ"

[Emperor Shaddam IV]

the "Woz" belongs on there much more then many of the other members of the hall of fame. He "engineered" most of the early apple stuff including the floppy drive and most people don't even know about him today.

www.woz.org

No Fred Brooks?

[beavis88]

"Mythical Man-Month" anyone? Father of modern software project management (although admittedly, this may be a dubious honor)? I mean I guess it's great that Larry Ellison is up there and all, but I'd prefer to see actual computer scientists on the list as opposed to "business people".

Linus Himself?

[dknight]

Let me start out saying that I love Linux. I use it only nearly all of my boxes at home, and reccomend it whenever it is reasonable to do so.

Having said that, is it just me, or are we coming frighteningly close to deifying Linus? I mean, he did a great, amazing, generally wonderful thing... but come on people. Does he deserve to get in to the hall of fame? Absolutely. Does he deserve his own religion? Probably not.

Missing Options

[sosume]

Amongst quite a few, here are some names who should have been considered for this list:

- Edsger W. Dijkstra, the man who considered GoTo statements harmful....
- Bill Gates, the man who truly commercialized software
- Dennis Kernigan, the man who invented C (tho' not alone)
- CmdrTaco, the dude that started Slashdot

What the Hell?

[Anonymous Coward]

There are some people on this list who should be in way before anyone like Sid Meier should ever have been considered. Konrad Zuse, John von Neumann, Ken Thompson, Bjarne Stroustroup and Linus Torvalds were my picks. Without Neumann, who knows when we would have had general purpose computers. Just about everything I have ever learned about computer architecture is traced back to Neumann. This is sort of like inducting Duran Duran into the Rock and Roll hall of fame before Buddy Holly. Zuse had one of the earliest functional electromechanical computers running. Meier, or some of this years nominees, the guy that founded C|Net, Paul Allen, John Warnack, etc. indeed! lol

Claude Shannon not even nominated?

[Nakito]

Claude Shannon's theories underlie almost every aspect of the digital computer and digital communications. His master's thesis (1938) established that logic circuits can be simplified mathematically rather than by trial and error. His mathematical theory of communication (1948) established the entire field of information theory, making possible digital communications (modems, networks). In terms of his importance to the field, he is miles beyond most of the people on the list and most of the people already inducted.

Missing / Embarrassing / Stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

I need to rant on this.

Perhaps I misunderstand the point of the site - is it to promote major manufacturers? Then what is Turing doing up there?

Is it to promote scientists? Then what the hell is Gates doing up there?

People missing from the list:

Donald Knuth, Richard Stevens, Dennis Ritchie, Ken Thompson, Claude Shannon, Von Neumann

And if you look at the dates, Gates got inducted in 1998, Turing in 2000. Doesn't this strike anyone as mildly....no...scratch that blatantly stupid and obsequious? If a museum of computer use of human civilization honors "innovators" like Michael Dell before Turing and Babbage, then it is run by a bunch of industry sycophants, and, in actually, represents rather well the sad state of affairs in the computer world.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[josquin00]

I believe the grandparent was trying to say that Torvalds and von Neumann should already be in the Hall of Fame, not merely candidates now.

Re:No Fred Brooks?

[southpolesammy]

Actually, Brooks ought to be recognized for his No Silver Bullet [berkeley.edu] article from the 80's as it provided a very large foundation for what we know as software engineering, but the mythical man-month is notable as well.

Either way, you're right -- he should be listed here, and especially instead of business folks. Brooks was a true Computer Scientist, whereas Ellison and others simply commercialized computing.

The list looks a little revisionist...

[haute_sauce]

If you consider that Larry Ellison is listed as 'founder' and not 'co-founder' of Oracle. And when an author (despite being both talented and popular) is listed, but people like Donald Knuth are left off, I wonder if you need a good PR person is a requirement...

Jon Von Neumann

[Zabu]

He isn't in the hall of fame yet? WTF?

didn't he invent address modifications?
For those who don't know this lead to function calls.
IAS theoretical computer [si.edu]

RMS

[Nikademus]

Where is Richard Stallman???

Re:William Gibson?

[rsborg]

He's considered by many to be one of the pioneers of cyberpunk, and Neuromancer certainly did help popularise the genre. And that definitely is something.

Well, Gibson may have popularized it, but Philip K Dick "wrote the book(s)", as it were... and he's nowhere on the list.

Honestly, I don't see either of them, as belonging on this list, as they're just meme-creators. People like Vint Cerf, Ken Thompson, and Dan Briklin actually created the infrastructure or killer apps that make what we're doing today possible. Kudos to the real mccoys, I say.

Re:Missing / Embarrassing / Stupid

[brxndxn]

I completely agree..

Bill Gates demonstrated business genius by screwing real programmers out of their own code and then playing the arrogant IBM execs. He didn't exactly do much for computers other than establish a monopoly. He should get a business award.

Michael Dell basically built a computer. Then, he put his name on it. Then, he figured out how to build them really fast and cheap. (He doesn't make fast computers.. just makes them fast and cheap.) Other companies did this too. Dell could get a marketing award - but for computing, he's probably holding us back just like Gates. What kind of computing company ignores the fastest processor and only sells one brand? So, again, marketing award.

Perhaps this "Hall of Fame" should be discredited and smart nerds can come up with a better one. It seems like just another industry award where the people controlling it get to honor themselves.

Re:Is Al Gore on the list?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, but Vint Cerf is, he's the guy who co-invented TCP/IP and said Al Gore was right to claim credit for pushing the initiative that created the Internet through the Senate.

BTW, did you hear about that woman who poured hot coffee all over her lap and sued MacDonalds? Absolute disgrace! And I hear she then went on to design the batteries used in iPods. Did you know Apple forces people whose iPod batteries have died to buy new iPods? Outrageous!

Re:William Gibson?

[theLOUDroom]

Sorry if this sounds like flamebait, but the other people invented acutal products while all he did was "Coined the phrase "cyberspace" in the novel "Neuromancer" (1984)"

Did you actually READ any of his books? Gibson could have defined "cyberspace" in one page, but there's more to it than that.

Advancing technology takes not just know-how, but inspiration as well. Gibson's work describes a vision of how humans might one day intereact with technology, one that many would say is quite ahead of his time.

Although he is not in any way directly responsible for the march or Moore's Law, a great number of techies respect him for his vision of what could be achieved with forthcoming technology. His writing speaks more to the "why" than the "how".
Without inspiration and new ideas, all our computers would be doing is computing PI to the bazillionth decimal place. Many inventions that changed the face computing, like the spreadsheet for example, aren't remarkable for their technology as much as their vision.

Linus all the way

[rixstep]

Regardless of category. And we don't even run Linux here. But there is no better candidate, and that's pretty obvious.

I would nominate...

[buckeyeguy]

Phil Katz, creator of the ZIP compressed file format. Widely used, and in some ways fundamental to personal computing. Sadly, it'd be a posthumous nom, since, according to a Wall St. Journal article (whose text was copied in the following link), he died in a cheap hotel with a bottle of peppermint schnapps in his arms. [bbsdocumentary.com]

W. Richard Stevens

[3l1za]

Only one of the BEST authors of computer books around. I am sure he has other technical claims to fame but the man is probably responsible for more computer folks knowing What The Hell Is Going On than anybody.

His books (TCP/IP Illustrated Vols. 1, 2, ... ; Advanced Unix Programming...) are works of ART. So well done.

Re:Why aren't these people already in?

[kscguru]

Let me add one thing to Linus' list of accomplishments that the Excel team hasn't matched: he has successfully guided the continuing evolution and improvement of a software project for over ten years. I honestly can't think of a single (modern) piece of software that hasn't been stagnant, at least in terms of core features, for a good chunk of that time (well, maybe apache?), nor any project that has evolved so fast without major forking issues.

Really, Linux is the poster child for a successful open source project, and Linus runs the personality cult behind it. I don't think Linus' programming and architecting exploits are enough for this sort of recognition, but his overall vision should be more than enough.

Someone else might point out RMS or ESR as visionaries... but here's the difference: Linus has an extremely successful, widely adopted, and still evolving project to back up his vision. The others... well, what was the last non-cosmetic change to Emacs, or fetchmail? Those projects are done, dead, and in maintainence. Sorry guys, but while you are talking the talk and reminiscing about the glory days, Linus is busy walking the walk - and for that, he deserves credit.

Re:Ummm

[rsmith-mac]

The site is actually just our gaming news site for the larger HomeLAN organization. The Comp. Museum wanted someone to host it that would be better able to stand up to a Slashdotting, so we offered. [shameless plug]The entire HomeLAN organization doesn't do just news, but server rentals/hosting, beta testing, and several other services for gaming companies, so we're not just a game fan site.[/shameless plug]

Missing nominees

[mabu]

• Monte Davidoff [theregister.co.uk] - co-author (along with Gates and Allen) of Microsoft/Altair BASIC
  
  
• Richard Stallman [wired.com] - Pioneer of open software movement/GNU
  
  
• Niklaus Wirth [inf.ethz.ch] - PARC researcher responsible for Algol, Pascal, Modula-2, Laser Printers, and more
  
  
• Marvin Minsky [mit.edu] - Built the first neural net AI in 1951
  
  
• Seymour Papert [mit.edu] - Developer of LOGO and another AI pioneer
  
  
• Tommy Flowers [connected-earth.com] - Built one of the earliest electronic computers, with the practical application of codebreaking during WWII
  
  
• Donald Knuth [stanford.edu] - Regarded by many as the "Father of Computer Science".
  
  
• Edsger Wybe Dijkstra [utexas.edu] - The guy leading the way to abolish the GOTO statement is surely a hall-of-famer!
  
  
• Konrad Zuse [vt.edu] - Another early computer pioneer that due to politics and circumstances beyond his control was never able to be fully-recognized.
  
  
• Jeff Raskin [sourceforge.net] - Creator of the Macintosh and pioneer in computer-human interfaces.
  

No Andressen!

[GPLDAN]

Please, take him off the list. It's like inducting Britney Spears into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

What would his bust say? "Walked out of the University of Illinois NCSA, with the Mosaic code under his coat. Started a private company with the code. His company pushed some inventions, like Javascript and getting SSL in broswers to fuel E-Commerce on the net, but by all accounts - he's failed at everything else he's ever done. Took his money and went to live on a farm."

Not real impressive.

Re:William Gibson?

[cygnus]

He's considered by many to be one of the pioneers of cyberpunk, and Neuromancer certainly did help popularise the genre. And that definitely is something. Cyberpunk ties in very closely with the hacker culture, and adding Gibson is a nice way of saying Thank You.

shouldn't he be winning literary or SF prizes then? i mean, even Azimov invented satellite communication... that's something. "Cyberspace" is just a lame word used in advertisements.

transparency in the voting process...

[3l1za]

Doesn't it strike you as a little strange that *anyone* can vote on these?

And don't you wonder whether some selecting committee also votes and their votes are weighted?

I love having a voice in all of this and all but it strikes me that such decisions should be primarily made by those in a position to know; surely many slashdotters are same but the general public??

Check this out, too: If you would like to vote for the next [induction] class, this privilege is included with your active Membership in the Computer Museum of America.

So do you have to be a CMA member to vote or not?

There's very little information about the selection process here (read: none): http://www.computerhalloffame.org/

And this just leads you back to that: http://www.computer-museum.org/home.shtml

Anyway, this just makes me think they don't take it all that seriously (i.e. as a vehicle to reward the truly deserving)...

Jonathan Postel not listed?

[liquid-groove]

I find it hard to believe Jonathan didn't make the list. [myri.com]

Many missing

[majid]

This "hall of fame" has zero credibility

Babbage is there, but not George Boole or Blaise Pascal...

Alan Kay, Norbert Wiener, Edsger Dijkstra, Donald Knuth or Ken Thompson are not there, but frankly minor contributors like Coleman Furr (who?) are.

This looks like the Nobel Literature prixe, where those deliberately passed over (usually because they were too controversial like Joyce or Borges) constitute a much more eminent group than many of those who did get it.