I have fond memories of Chuck at MSR-SVC. I was a lowly post-doc who sat close to him for a time. He was very generous with his time and I can only recall his door being open. I was struck by the breadth of his expertise (e.g. he knew about HCI matters even though I considered him a low-level systems guy). I've heard him being called the engineer's engineer and that is an apt title. He inspired me and will be missed. RIP.
he was so humble for someone so intelligent. even though it was 15yrs ago at this point, I still am struck by how happy he was to come to redmond for 3 days to sit through design discussions for work that became the basis of roles / minimal windows. was a great role model that you didn't need to show you were the smartest person in the room. RIP
Sadly I didn't know who he was: "...Known for his pioneering design of the Xerox Alto, the first modern PC. He also is credited as a co-inventor of the Ethernet family of computer networking technologies."
> After returning to the U.S., Thacker designed the hardware for Microsoft's Tablet PC
Tablet PCs were way ahead of their time and suffered as a result imho. It was hard to find one that wasn't under-powered, and I suspect that it was a way to make them affordable, but hot-damn those things were cool.
Frankly I'd argue we've still to perfect that idea. We've got those "transformer" laptops now-a-days, but finding something with a decent digitizer has still been elusive; or at least it is to me.
Regardless, thanks for the fish Mr. Thacker, hope you enjoy your seat at the pantheon of computer gods.
Windows Journal, the handwriting note-taking software that shipped with Windows Tablet Edition back in 2005 is still unsurpassed by any software you can get on Android/Chrome today. Which is unfortunate, because Samsung does make decent note taking hardware.
> Frankly I'd argue we've still to perfect that idea. We've got those "transformer" laptops now-a-days, but finding something with a decent digitizer has still been elusive
Have you tried the surface pro (4+)? In my mind the main issue with the sp4 is battery - but that may be a bit better in the latest device (due to change in cpu generation).
I hate to say it but I really hope Apple will perfect the tablet/laptop hybrid idea. I would love it if I could detach the screen of my macbook and use it as an iPad...or something along those lines.
I talked with Chuck when he visited China in 2010 just months after he was awarded Turing. He was a really nice guy. It is funny to talk with him.
He joked that he was an unfortunate guy because he always invented something decades of years ahead of mainstream era.
And the secret of so many original inventions? Read the original papers, the very old ones in various fields and learn how people initially thought, and why they failed.
If anyone is looking for advice, follow this diligently.
> "Choose your colleagues carefully to the extent that they help you and you will be more successful and the extent that you can help them and they will be more successful. …Value simplicity and elegance. …Pick your problems carefully."
Very cool, from 1986 - Chuck Thacker on "Personal Distributed Computing—The Alto and Ethernet Hardware"
"Presentation given by Chuck Thacker (introduced by Ed McCreight) at the ACM Conference on the History of Personal Workstations, held at Rickey’s Hyatt House in Palo Alto, California, on January 9 and 10, 1986. The conference was sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and hosted by the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)."
Readit News
Tablet PCs were way ahead of their time and suffered as a result imho. It was hard to find one that wasn't under-powered, and I suspect that it was a way to make them affordable, but hot-damn those things were cool.
Frankly I'd argue we've still to perfect that idea. We've got those "transformer" laptops now-a-days, but finding something with a decent digitizer has still been elusive; or at least it is to me.
Regardless, thanks for the fish Mr. Thacker, hope you enjoy your seat at the pantheon of computer gods.
Have you tried the surface pro (4+)? In my mind the main issue with the sp4 is battery - but that may be a bit better in the latest device (due to change in cpu generation).
Then there's also wacom's tablet pcs: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/10/10/13225680/...
Another issue from 3 weeks ago on HN:
>One import thing with all Surface laptops that most people don't know:
>>Support is limited to the country you purchased the device in.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14400873
Dead Comment
He joked that he was an unfortunate guy because he always invented something decades of years ahead of mainstream era.
And the secret of so many original inventions? Read the original papers, the very old ones in various fields and learn how people initially thought, and why they failed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id1WShzzMCQ
Also:
http://www.webcitation.org/5o8M3kT28?url=http://blogs.wsj.co...
> "Choose your colleagues carefully to the extent that they help you and you will be more successful and the extent that you can help them and they will be more successful. …Value simplicity and elegance. …Pick your problems carefully."
"Presentation given by Chuck Thacker (introduced by Ed McCreight) at the ACM Conference on the History of Personal Workstations, held at Rickey’s Hyatt House in Palo Alto, California, on January 9 and 10, 1986. The conference was sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and hosted by the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9n2J24Jg2Y