* Posts by John Hosen

2 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Oct 2011

Suffering satellites! Goonhilly's ARTHUR REBORN for SPAAAACE

John Hosen

One of my favourite places

As a kid growing up in Falmouth I always wanted to work there. It always looked an exciting place when we went past whilst out for a drive or sneaking into the then semi derelict Predannack airfield to go blackberry picking.

I remember writing a letter asking if I could visit (pre BT and visitor centre days) and received a polite "sorry but no" but also a really cool (for a seven or eight year old) poster and booklet all about telecoms.

When my cousin got a job as an engineer at Goonhilly (he still works there) I was quite jealous, although that jealousy soon disappeared when he arranged to get me in for a visit. We went all over the site, in the control room and even went up into the focal point of Aerial 2 as it was known then, none of the Arthurian nonsense.

Such a shame Aerial 2 is no more.

C and Unix pioneer Dennis Ritchie reported dead

John Hosen
Pint

Very sad news

And unfortunately hardly any media coverage unlike the hype over a certain turtle-necked jumper wearer who died last week. (I'm looking at you BBC News).

Yeah, yeah, Apple made nice shiny things but without Dennis' work none of it would have existed.

So let's raise a glass to Dennis, thank you for giving us UNIX and C.