Unfortunately computer programmers are pretty much invisible to the general public, regardless of the magnitude of their achievements.
A specific case -- Ted Codd passed away this year, and did not make the list of people mentioned by the Boston Globe in their year end obituary review yesterday, not even in the science and technology section. (Of course there is no section for math or computer science specifically.) Adam Osbourne did get mentioned. Ted Codd single handedly invented the relational theory of databases, thus creating the foundation for pretty much all of today's commercial use of computers. The direct sales of database technology is $12 Billion U.S. and the indirect value is incalculable. See http://www.research.ibm.com/resources/news/20030423_edgarpassaway.shtml for an extended obituary. P.S. I am sending the above to Joseph P Kahn [EMAIL PROTECTED] who wrote the article, asking for an addition, or acknowledgement of an omission in the original article. Hopefully helpfully yours, Steve -- Steve Tolkin Steve . Tolkin at FMR dot COM 617-563-0516 Fidelity Investments 82 Devonshire St. V4D Boston MA 02109 There is nothing so practical as a good theory. Comments are by me, not Fidelity Investments, its subsidiaries or affiliates. > -----Original Message----- > From: Chris Devers [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, January 02, 2004 4:57 PM > To: Ranga Nathan > Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [Boston.pm] At last some real achiever being > recognized by the monarch > > > On Fri, 2 Jan 2004, Ranga Nathan wrote: > > > W3C Head Berners-Lee To Be Knighted > > > > He will be named a knight commander, Order of the British Empire, by > > Queen Elizabeth II for inventing the World Wide Web. > > > > http://www.computerworld.com/newsletter/0,4902,88727,00.html?nlid=PM > > > > > > Perhaps Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds next? Let us > hope that some > > real achievers are knighted! > > > Don't you have to be English to be awarded with a CBE? I > thought that we > foreigners were only eligible for a knighthood consolation > prize, the KBE > (knighthood of the british empire), as was bestowed on people > like Ronald > Reagan & Rudolph Guiliani, as well as lumnaries like Steven Spielberg. > <http://www.britain-info.org/faq/xq/asp/SID.333/qx/showfaq.htm> I could maybe picture Torvalds being offered a KBE, if only because Linux has grown so famous noww, but the relative obscurity of GNU and the FSF leads me to guess that RMS is a less likely candidate. Then again, he won a MacArthur prize, which is arguably more prestigious anyway... -- Chris Devers _______________________________________________ Boston-pm mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/boston-pm _______________________________________________ Boston-pm mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/boston-pm
