Another celebrity dead!

[tushantin]

What, no remorse for Dennis Ritchie? You guys tried to tear worlds apart, trying to prove how Apple was wrong, but when it's time for a great man of our time, then... nobody? Not a single word?

Also, there's another man that we apparently missed: Michael Stern Hart

This man made everyone's life easier. Hope he had a blessed life himself. R.I.P., dear old chap.

[ZeaLitY]

No one was trying to prove how Apple was "wrong". We did demonstrate that Steve Jobs was a tyrannical asshole who cursed out employees on a regular basis, and that Apple has a pervasive, stupid ad campaign, however.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

...I'd never heard of Dennis Ritchie until just now.

[tushantin]

No one was trying to prove how Apple was "wrong". We did demonstrate that Steve Jobs was a tyrannical asshole who cursed out employees on a regular basis, and that Apple has a pervasive, stupid ad campaign, however.

Yes, but my question still stands. It's easy to remember a man who has wronged much. But what about great men (such as, Dennis Ritchie in this case) who actually deserve to be remembered? What about their contribution to the development of their society? Why isn't no one paying a single word of respect or praise for his passing?

Or is it that people will only remember those that "directly influenced society" instead of people like Ritchie and Hart? Is this why they would choose to remember a delegate rather than brilliant minds striving and working behind the scenes? Is this why people would remember an Actor, but not the Stuntman? Is a face more to humanity than strife?

...I'd never heard of Dennis Ritchie until just now.

Neither have I, but upon reading more I've realized that we've lost an influential person.

[Radical_Dreamer]

It's hard to overstate Richie's influence. For those of you awed by the scope of Job's influence in the world, keep in mind that OSX and iOS are derivatives of UNIX, an operating system Richie helped create, and Objective-C, the programming language favored on those platforms, is a derivative of the C programming language, which Richie also helped create. And Apple is not the only company to use UNIX and its derivatives, or C and its derivatives. Not by a long shot.

[tushantin]

I really hope someone changes the title of this thread, because "celebrities" aren't the only one worthy of remembrance and mourning. Every human being is important, for their ideals, their thoughts and their actions. There are so many amazing people we still don't know about, so many unsung heroes that are lost in oblivion. For all those, the least we could do is shed a tear for them and thank them for inspiring us.

Ubuntu Translator André Gondim Passes Away

I realized he wasn’t someone who translated applications he personally used or liked: he translated everything he could find, just out of a desire to help. Because of this, me and many others from the Ubuntu community greatly admired him despite not knowing him personally.

[ZeaLitY]

There goes Andy Rooney.

[tushantin]

Ah, I've never known Andy that much, but I once did hear about his remarks on Obama. And it was awesome! R.I.P. big guy.

Although, I do not agree with that caption there. Almost every child is born believing there's some kind of a supernatural force watching him/her and they strive to find their life's purpose (even if they aren't indoctrinated). A person becomes an Atheist based on experience, influence and careful thinking. One of the ruthless, though practical, influences are from the so called "grown ups" who tend to disregard anything imaginary because it's childish, and the child tries to re-program himself in order to blend in and survive. So yeah, while infants aren't "religious" they aren't "atheists" either.

[Lord J Esq]

I loved his rant about the amount of cotton in pill and vitamin bottles. At the time, it was so true! Sometimes there'd be a bigger volume of uncompressed cotton than the interior volume of the whole bottle.

[tushantin]

Hah! I got this link on my Google Reader about Andy Rooney, and while some of his comments were tasteless (although, he did apologize) one interesting statement caught my eye:

I’ve done a lot of complaining here, but of all the things I’ve complained about, I can’t complain about my life.

[Katie Skyye]

Nooo, Andy Rooney! Even if all I knew of you was your little soundbites on 60 minutes...you were cool.

[Lord J Esq]

Darrell Sweet has died. You probably don't know the name, but if you're an avid fantasy reader you have almost certainly seen his work. He was one of the preeminent illustrators of cover art for fantasy books.

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/12/darrell-k-sweet-1934-2011

His drawings have a distinct style to them. Today though his style is an anachronism amid an ocean of gritty and dark book covers, Sweet brought some maturity to the genre back in the days when the covers were often grisly or smutty. They also have some appeal in the way they depict such fantastical scenes.

He was 77, or very close to it.

[tushantin]

A book is always judged by its cover. DKS made sure the covers told more wonders than the book itself.

R.I.P.

[alfadorredux]

If I may venture a dissenting note here, I am genuinely sorry that Darrell K. Sweet is dead, but I will not miss his artwork, which was never more than second-rate even in its own era--and believe me, given how prolific he was and how many F&SF novels I've bought over the years, I've seen a lot of it.

[tushantin]

If I may venture a dissenting note here, I am genuinely sorry that Darrell K. Sweet is dead, but I will not miss his artwork, which was never more than second-rate even in its own era--and believe me, given how prolific he was and how many F&SF novels I've bought over the years, I've seen a lot of it.

Hold on. Did you just say his art were actually Kitsch? XD

I never realized that until you just pointed out and I looked at em again. I guess sometimes I get too absorbed into an artist's skill and brush-work rather than his innovative and rebellious approach (or lack of said approach).

That said, quite a lot of book covers are considered to be Kitsch. Sometimes it makes me smile, knowing that the best self-expression usually comes in the form of fan-arts. Haha!