John Backus R.I.P.

An early pioneer in my profession died recently. His name was John Backus and he lead the team that invented the FORTRAN programming language back in 1957. A great man who made a great contribution to the I.T. profession, which directly has helped out all of society. You can read more about him here.

Isn't it strange how the passing of people like Backus get very little mention whereas Anna Nicole's Smith's death consumes headlines for weeks. I don't know if that's more an indictment of the media or just a sad reflection of society as a whole.