Earlier this week, it was time for the Association for Computing Machinery, ACM, to announce the winner of the 2009 Turing Award, one of the more prestigious prices in the computing industry. The award was awarded to Charles P. Thacker; a name you might not recognise, but certainly one that has influenced the world of computing a great deal.
Post a Comment
Member since:
2005-10-19
Member since:2008-02-26
Member since:
2005-07-06
Now, before I begin, his work was clearly good and forward thinking and I am sure he had a great influence on modern computing... but...
this award is for
"an individual selected for contributions of a technical nature made to the computing community. The contributions should be of lasting and major technical importance to the computer field"
How many more winners are going to be from the PARC/MIT/Berkley era of computing?
I am sure we have had some technical innovation since that 'golden age' why not celebrate that?
Member since:2005-09-14
"an individual selected for contributions of a technical nature made to the computing community. The contributions should be of lasting and major technical importance to the computer field"
I am sure we have had some technical innovation since that 'golden age' why not celebrate that?
Because for more recent innovations it's not as obvious whether or not they're going to have a lasting impact or be something that's gone in a few years. This is much the same reason why Nobel prizes are more often than not awarded decades after the discovery they're being awarded for.
Member since:2005-07-06
What about Linus Torvold? Has he not had a lasting effect?
Robert M. McCool (created apache web server) Has he not had a lasting effect?
How about the chaps that worked on and designed USB? This effectively unified the peripheral industry.
These are 'modern era' creations/creators all created in the 90s which have clearly had a long term effect on the industry as a whole.
Why are these people not honoured?
Member since:2005-06-29
Member since:2009-05-20
Robert M. McCool (created apache web server) Has he not had a lasting effect?
How about Bill Gates? Has he not had a lasting effect?
Jokes aside, I think the merits of Torvalds are more in organizing and management of the kernel community, not in technological breakthroughs, algorithms or math, and so forth. If you look at the past recipients, most of them are academics. Which I think is a good thing.
Edited 2010-03-12 03:50 UTC
Member since:2005-08-27
Read "Dealers of Lightening" [1] and tell me he didn't deserve this award.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Dealers-Lightning-Xerox-PARC-Computer/dp/0887...
It's an excellent book by the way.
