Friend who is not a software person sent me this tweet, which amused me as it did them. They asked if “runk” was real, which I assume not.
But what are some good examples of real ones like this? xz became famous for the hack of course, so i then read a bit about how important this compression algorithm is/was.
Ronald is
Linus Torvaldzloirock, and his contribution is immeasurable.Edit: you can see in the replies to this comment that Linus was a poor example. There are people with an almost equivalent contribution to the digital world who have seen almost no recognition at all.
I think Linus sits at the intersection of both groups. Linus is not some Ronald. The Ronalds of this world are for example the creator of core-js.
Oh hey! I’ve used that package for years.
And so did most of the world
I just read his usage statistics on the GitHub page. Holy crap! I thought it was just some small project that a cool dude shared back when I originally found it. Perhaps it was, back then.
Still mad about what happened to that guy.
What happened to him?
It’s linked on that page. https://github.com/zloirock/core-js/blob/master/docs/2023-02-14-so-whats-next.md
I just finished reading his story and wtf! Man, I sent him $25. It’s not a lot, but hopefully it covers my tiny bit of usage of that polyfill, back when I used it.
I had no idea that package was used so extensively. Good lord! I actually just recently removed it from most of my projects because the features I needed it for now have broad browser support.
Isn’t Linus pretty famous for his tech tips YouTube channel?
Wrong Linus, That’s Linus Sebastian.
Woosh?
You’d be surprised how many programmers don’t know who Torvalds is if you ask them. They might be aware of his impact or some of the things he did, but the name Linus will not ring a bell for them. So yeah, might be a whoosh, might not be, but there is enough plausible naiveness imo.
Actually I think he has already had an adequate amount of recognition:
“In 1999, Red Hat and VA Linux, both leading developers of Linux-based software, presented Torvalds with stock options in gratitude for his creation.[29] That year both companies went public and Torvalds’s share value briefly shot up to about US$20 million”
his autobiography is in several hundred library collections worldwide
Awards he’s received:
2 honorary doctorates
2 celestial objects named after him
Lovelace Medal
IEEE Computer Pioneer Award
EFF Pioneer Award
Vollum Award
Hall of Fellows of the Computer History Museum
C&C prize
Millenium Technology Prize
Internet Hall of Fame
IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award
Great Immigrants Award
Wow! A company gave away money without being contractually obligated to do so? The world sure has changed since then. I’m glad that Torvalds is doing well, he completely changed the world.
I wonder how Brahm Cohen is doing. He also had a huge impact on the world. I know he got a write-up in Wired Magazine after inventing Bit Torrent (that’s how I learned about it way back then), but I haven’t heard much about him since.