Dave Farber has died

193 points27 comments11 hours ago
kristopolous

I was trying to get a hold of him for years. People who knew him kept saying they'd get me in touch, never did.

His name pops up a lot during the 60s and 70s as an author on numerous articles about networks, often regarding many competing, now defunct alternative networks to the Internet.

Examples of scans I personally made: https://siliconfolklore.com/internet-history/farber-datamati... and https://siliconfolklore.com/internet-history/farber-datamati...

He's one of those people where you go through archival industry journals and are like "oh look there he is again"

For instance, SNOBOL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNOBOL

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nunobrito

Met him without knowing who this person was when proposing a decentralized anti-virus platform, he cared and helped a lot. Besides teaching, Dave never stopped learning. Quite a good role model for everyone here.

cyanbane

Good to see a lot of these archived: https://seclists.org/interesting-people/

What a life lived.

ricktdotorg

Dave's Interesting People email list was a TRUE highlight of the early Internet.

jordanscales

Was fortunate enough to attend a few guest lectures from him at Stevens when I got my minor degree in science and technology studies. He was so sharp that I was blown away that he was (at the time) 80 years old.

I wonder what his life in Tokyo was like! Did he ever write about it?

reader9274

"at the too-young age of 91"

Ok I chuckled

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gpvos

I think a black bar is in order.

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Insanity

RIP.

Original email mentions “too young age of 91”, but IMO that’s a beautiful age to reach, especially for a life seemingly well lived!

compsciphd

last email from IP was on Feb 1. Though I really haven't looked at it in years. it used to be much more discussion oriented.

Animats

Another one of the greats gone.

31337Logic

RIP :-(

andyjohnson0

Another legend of our field has left the stage. RIP.

I never knew him, but I've been lurking on his IP list since the nineties. It was always informative, even as the web made tech news pervasive. Black bar, I reckon.

throw_m239339

RIP.

deejaaymac

RIP Dave

rvz

RIP. A true computer science legend and Bell Labs alumni.