David Mills, the internet's Father Time, dies at 85 Professor David L Mills, one of the original wizards who built the internet, has died at the age of 85, leaving a remarkable technological legacy. He is perhaps best known for his work on NTP, the Network Time Protocol, which he both invented and first implemented. This technology, which addresses an exceptionally thorny …
But generally it is taken out of context
"The poem was not published until 1938, but its first iteration was actually composed in 1936. The poem started as a song in the play The Ascent of F6 (1936), which Auden and Isherwood wrote together. The play was created as a satire of British imperialism. In the play, this poem was performed by a character grieving the death of a politician. The language was purposefully melodramatic to highlight the absurdity of the situation."
It has been refactored and repurposed .....
We are at the end of times span when we are losing *all* the giants who created/influenced the 'Internet' as we know it !!!
I guess it comes down to most of the seminal figures having been of a similar era and age - hence there will be an inevitable bunching of their demises. While it does seem sad, it does seem that most of them have had a good innings.
But reading these obituaries I can't help the feeling that I've achieved so little of any note - not compared to some of these people who could truly be said to have changed the world.
In 11th grade, a teacher told him, "You're never going to get to college"
There ought to be some sort of dishonourable discharge ceremony for teachers that say that to their pupils. Preferably involving a ritual snapping of their stick of chalk and a board rubber being thrown at their head.
Well you can teach a person how to draw a line, you can't teach people Art.
Well at least not directly.
The difference between a collection of shapes and colors or contrast and curvature and art is the hype that the artist comes up with on the fly to justify their work.
You can create artifacts all day but to make it art in the eyes of others, you or someone else needs to broadcast a b******* spiel to others to make it seem like more than it is and thus you have created art.
That's a creative inventive on the fly process that's more about social engineering than it is to tangible product creation.
What's the difference between art and non-art? The twisting of the viewers perception.
A lot of those people wouldn't have gone to college regardless of easy to get loans if they weren't told from grade school on (and probably by their parents too) that going to college is required for getting a good job. And companies hadn't all started requiring degrees, even for jobs that had nothing to do with having a degree (and worse they didn't even care what degree, there are a lot of programmers working jobs that required a "4 year college degree" who have a degree in something not science/tech/business related. Why? Because the people who set those standards had college degrees, and the ease of applying for jobs since email existed meant they'd get plenty of applications even with that minor hurdle. It became a self re-inforcing cycle.
Over here left of the pond, government-created league tables mean every school is now trying to get their students into university, whether they are suited to it or ready for it (two different things) or not. This has led to universities massively expanding their campuses and income (and vice-chancellor remuneration) and a glut of graduates in the milk round. Inevitably this leads to an explosion in student finance, which moved from non-repayable grants to loans, most of which are unlikely ever to be paid off.
The old system wasn't broken, but now, the banks and the politicians have broken it.
I wasn't saying the pendulum had swung too far in encouraging those with handicaps or are black or women to attend college, they should have the same opportunities as anyone else. I meant it has swung too far in the direction of encouraging EVERYONE who graduates high school to go to college.
I have a friend who is a general contractor, and has been in construction since he was out of high school. His advisor was telling him he should go to college, and he said "what for, I'm going to work for my dad's construction business" and his advisor actually told him he should still go to college because he'd "need it" to be able to run his own business someday! He runs two businesses today without even a semester of college.
[Author here]
> There ought to be some sort of dishonourable discharge ceremony for teachers that say that to their pupils
You know what? I _really_ disagree.
As my Czech teacher said to me a few years ago, when I was grappling with becoming a dad at 51 years old, any teacher also has to be a bit of a psychiatrist as well.
I think this could have been reverse psychology and entirely intentional and deliberate.
When I was approaching choosing my 'O' level courses, my French teacher at school, the late Mr Kerr, asked me to drop French and do Religious Studies in its place. I was bottom of the class in French, and he told me that there was no way I'd pass or ever be any good. (Meanwhile, as an ardent atheist at 14, I was top in RS... partly because of my extreme-sceptic outlook, and partly because the teacher, Rev Battersby, was the school chaplain and his son Howard, a good friend of mine, was the #2 student. Howard was already a born-again, utterly uncritical of the bible, and I suspect his extreme religiosity worried his dad. Rev B knew if I quit his own son would be top of the class and he didn't want that.
Well, I thought RS was no use to me, but French would be, so I decided not to quit and to pass. And I did. My French is horrible but it works, I can read a newspaper or hold a conversation, and it's all due to Mr Kerr and his advice to quit.
I will never know but I think it was his intent. If he had exhorted me to try harder, it would not have worked. But telling me I couldn't and shouldn't was superb motivation.
If, in Prof Mills' case, a genius-level but partially-sighted school pupil needed a kick up the backside to fulfil his potential and excel, this could be a great way to do it, and a good teacher would know that.
His uni site has an excellent job description, which he recommended for use in hiring engineers.
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