At year 2011 we saw the passing of many of the electronics and computer industry’s greatest engineers and inventors.
Jim Williams, who was considered one of the best analog circuit designers in the world, suffered a stroke and passed away on June 12, 2011. An Analog Life: Remembering Jim Williams article gives you information who he was. In Analog guru Jim Williams dies after stroke EDN’s Paul Rako and industry EEs reflect back on the life and work of Jim Williams, an engineer’s engineer and analog expert. Jim Williams, Circuits as art is a great article about Jim William’s artistry from the February 1987 edition of EDN. Cassidy: Jim Williams’ workbench captures his life and Silicon Valley article shows the Williams’ museum-worthy mess working table. His bench is now on exhibit at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. Newnes has announced the publication of a 960-page book of Jim Williams’ application notes that span decades of Jim’s work.
Bob Pease was icon in the analog design world. Bob Pease was remembered for Pease Porridge and a whole lot more. Pease was the author of eight books, including Troubleshooting Analog Circuits, and held 21 patents. Analog engineering legend Bob Pease killed in car crash article tells that Bob Pease died in a car accident, which occurred as he was leaving a memorial service for his friend and fellow analog expert Jim Williams. Bob has a legacy as one of the greatest analog engineers in history due to his unique experiences.
Computer History Museum honors Jim Williams and Bob Pease.
C and Unix pioneer Dennis Ritchie reported dead on October. With Bell’s Ken Thompson, Ritchie helped develop Unix, running on a DEC PDP-11, and released the first edition of the operating system in 1971. Unix paved the way for many, many operating systems, including Linux. Two years later Ritchie came up with the C language. C is now the world’s second most popular programming language, according to TIOBE. The Unix and Linux (and Mac OS X and I think even Windows) kernels are all C programs. C has paved the way for C++ and Java, and many other programming languages. On 10/30/11 let’s remember the contributions of computing pioneer Dennis Ritchie.
printf(”Rest in peace, Dennis\n”); exit(0);
Father of Lisp and AI John McCarthy has also died. Among developers, McCarthy may be best known as the inventor of Lisp, which he devised in 1958. Lisp was originally developed for AI applications, but was quickly adopted by the industry, gained enormous popularity among developers, and is still in use today as part of Common Lisp and Scheme. McCarthy was also the first person to coin the term AI (Artificial Intelligence), describing it in 1955 as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines.” He was one of the most active academics in the field.
RFID ’s inventor Charles Walton died in early November. The History of RFID Technology article tells that Walton was one of the first RFID patent applicants in 1973. RFID’s history, and Walton’s life’s work, you can read more about other things, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from MIT’s website Inventor of the Week Archive
Jacob Goldman, Founder of Xerox Lab, Dies at 90 on December. He was the one that made sure that Xerox understood there was a revolution coming behind them that might change their business. Established in 1970 in an industrial park next to Stanford, PARC researchers designed a remarkable array of computer technologies, including the Alto personal computer, the Ethernet office network, laser printing and the graphical user interface.
Steve Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc. He has lots to do with the success of Apple. On October 5, 2011, he died in his Palo Alto home, aged 56. Then, in 1984 Steve Jobs surprised the world with the introduction of the Macintosh. Latest big Apple inventions have been iPod, iPhone and iPad. Jobs was an entrepreneur, product manager, visionary and pitchman more than engineer. Steve Jobs: History, Steve Jobs life lessons and Everything we needed to know about Steve Jobs Without reading the biography articles give you a good picture on Steve Jobs. Taiwanese Animators Distill Steve Jobs’ Bio Into 93 Seconds of Video
Steve Jobs has got lots of recognition during lifetime and after it. Sunday, October 16 was declared Steve Jobs Day. Steve Jobs gets bronze after-life. Steve Jobs awarded a posthumously Grammy Special Merit Awards for nonperformance contributions of major significance to the field of recorded music.
Spend some time to remember those great inventors and go on. If we had days and events to recognize each and everyone who helped to make the world work, the world would not work.
Apple’s Jonathan Ive gets knighthood in honours list
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16367022
“What’s made him so outstandingly successful is the relationship he’s had with Steve Jobs and Apple,” said Deyan Sudjic, director of The Design Museum.
Mr Jobs described Mr Ive as his “spiritual partner” in the recent biography of the Apple co-founder written by Walter Isaacson. However, it also said that Mr Ive was “hurt” by Mr Jobs taking credit for innovations that came from the design team.
Mr Ive’s eye for design combined effectively with Mr Jobs’ legendary attention to detail and the products that have emerged from the company since the late 1990s have turned Apple into the biggest and most influential technology company on the planet.
Three Ways Steve Jobs Made Technology Cool, Stylish and Accessible
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2011/10/jobs_made_technology_cool_styl.php
He forced computer companies to recognize that the masses didn’t care about how it worked; they only cared that it did.
3. Form Over Function
2. The Populism of Accessibility
1. The Power of Cool
Spectacular article keep it up.
Report: Young Americans choose Thomas Edison over Steve Jobs as greatest innovator of all time
http://www2.electronicproducts.com/Report_Young_Americans_choose_Thomas_Edison_over_Steve_Jobs_as_greatest_innovator_of_all_time-article-fajb_lemelson_mit_index_feb2012-html.aspx
The fact that Thomas Edison was chosen as the greatest innovator of all time is not THAT unexpected. After all, American students are taught from a very young age that he is responsible for the invention of the light bulb and phonograph.
Steve Jobs placing second is a bit startling for some. There are, however, a couple of contributing factors to his high ranking, including the absolute saturation of Apple products in this demo’s everyday lives (40% stated that they could not imagine what their lives would be like without a smartphone or tablet), the intensity of news coverage surrounding Jobs’s recent passing, and the success of Walter Isaacson’s biography on the former CEO of Apple. Throw in the fact that this survey took place in December 2011, and Jobs’ 24% showing makes sense.
Apple iTunes chief accepts Steve Jobs’ Grammy
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57376261-37/apple-itunes-chief-accepts-steve-jobs-grammy/
Steve Jobs was posthumously awarded a Grammy Award last night for his contribution to the music industry.