Dennis Ritchie, C & Unix

Dennis Ritchie - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Creator of C programming language and co-creator of Unix Operating System
died 2011-10-8, at age of 70.

C is still one of most popular languages, after 40 years, and if we count its derivatives (C++, Java, C# etc), majority of programming today is C-based.

Sage goes for Unix: Mac and iPhone is directly based on Unix, Android is based on Linux that is based on Unix, even Windows is "POSIX compliant", that means compatible with basic Unix APIs: most computers today, from smallest to largest, are based on Unix.

Bottom line, most of programs and computers today are based on "ideas DNA" of this one person, and his countless followers.

In today's technology world, that could be more influential that creators of major religions...

@ New York Times

@ PC Mag

@ars technica

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void) {
    printf("RIP, dmr.\n");
    return 0;
}

Solar Energy "perpetuum mobile" alchemy

A Green Energy Dream Grows in the Sahara - IEEE Spectrum

Koinuma, a professor at the University of Tokyo, is the dreamer behind the Sahara Solar Breeder Project, a proposal that he says could supply a major portion of the world’s energy.

The idea: Perfect a process that turns the Sahara’s sand into high-purity silicon suitable
for making solar panels, build factories in Algeria to churn out those photovoltaic panels, and establish solar power stations throughout empty desert land. Then send the abundant clean electricity produced across vast distances—around Africa, Europe, and the Middle East—via high-temperature superconducting transmission lines.