Why Are They All Dying?
I think I must have an affinity for old people. Ok, that's not the case. Maybe I'm just more in touch with the (recent) past than those of my generation. And my mom.
On April 11th Kurt Vonnegut passed away at age 84. You know him from books such as Slaughterhouse Five and Cat's Cradle. Well, I do, at any rate.
I can't believe I missed hearing about this. Holy cow! It's Kurt Vonnegut, for Pete's sake! But, as both Mumsy and Sissy said, "Who?" I guess I really am more in touch than your average bear. Apparently not that much, though, because (as one of my coworkers said when I shared the news with him), "It was all over the news." Must have been slashdot.
Add that to my grief over Backus passing last month, and I really do seem to have an affinity for old people.
Speaking of which, I seemed to have forgotten to write about that last month.
Backus, the Granddaddy of programming languages, died 17 March. The man quite figuratively gave birth to modern programming languages as we know it. He headed up the team that developed FORTRAN. The thing that amazed me was how silent it was. I think the only place I heard about it was (a) at work on the mailing lists and (2) on slashdot. You'd think, a guy with that much influence on modern computing would garner more than a passing side note.
I think I need younger, or more dead, heroes.
On April 11th Kurt Vonnegut passed away at age 84. You know him from books such as Slaughterhouse Five and Cat's Cradle. Well, I do, at any rate.
I can't believe I missed hearing about this. Holy cow! It's Kurt Vonnegut, for Pete's sake! But, as both Mumsy and Sissy said, "Who?" I guess I really am more in touch than your average bear. Apparently not that much, though, because (as one of my coworkers said when I shared the news with him), "It was all over the news." Must have been slashdot.
Add that to my grief over Backus passing last month, and I really do seem to have an affinity for old people.
Speaking of which, I seemed to have forgotten to write about that last month.
Backus, the Granddaddy of programming languages, died 17 March. The man quite figuratively gave birth to modern programming languages as we know it. He headed up the team that developed FORTRAN. The thing that amazed me was how silent it was. I think the only place I heard about it was (a) at work on the mailing lists and (2) on slashdot. You'd think, a guy with that much influence on modern computing would garner more than a passing side note.
I think I need younger, or more dead, heroes.
posted by granola girl at 10:43 pm
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