Comment by ACow_Adonis
2 years ago
I can accept that he invented it in the same sense that I invented recursion. I called it the "ouroboros" function and was really quite pleased with myself for thinking of the pattern.
Now, the fact that I called it by an ancient reference should probably have been the first clue that I didn't get there first, and sure enough later I found out that actually no, it's a very old idea in computer programming.
For the record, I can place back reliably to about 2001 the first time I was introduced to someone showing me an actual free application of searching/displaying ip lookups and laying it out on a visual map because it was about the only thing of value I took away from my first year information systems course, and although I can't remember the name of the application or program used, i've never heard of the blog writers company or his competitor: free software that did it must have already been available and mature for doing it and was being passed around during that time because it was already freely available by the time lowly old me turned up.
And given that the theory of doing so probably worked out long before that I think "invented" might be a liiiiiiiitle bit of a stretch...
All I can say is when I first met Vint Cerf, he was pretty enthusiastic about the invention. But maybe he didn't really understand the Internet either. You can see the fireside chat I had with him here (to be clear, we weren't sitting next to a fire either): https://vimeo.com/124048978
It takes some self confidence to share a video where Vint Cerf calls you a nincompoop -- even if jokingly. Thanks for sharing it anyway. I enjoyed watching.
I took one for the team so that no one else had to ask that question. And I'll take Vint calling me a nincompoop any day. Especially when you know how nice of a guy he really is. :-)