back to article Internet daddies win Blighty's 'Nobel for engineering'

The men who helped give birth to the internet have been awarded the first Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering at Buckingham Palace. Brit pioneer Sir Tim Berners-Lee, along with US computer scientists Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf and Frenchman Louis Pouzin will share the £1m spoils that come with the prize. A fifth prize winner, …

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  1. J.G.Harston Silver badge
    FAIL

    Tim Berners-Lee didn't give birth to the Internet, it had already been around for 30 years, he gave birth to the *web*, just one protocol that happens to be transported over the Internet.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      This is the thing I love about the Reg. There is actually nothing that can be disputed about this statement, yet still down votes?

      1. Ole Juul

        I think some people vote without regard to the content of the post. It's just a differnet way of looking at the world.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Why people get down voted?

        Cause you contradicted someone the last time ...

  2. Anomalous Cowshed

    Is this necessary?

    It is well known that these great people were pioneers of the Internet. They are recognised and adulated by their peers and far further afield.

    But is it necessary to give them a new prize now, at this stage? What purpose does it serve, to recognise them just a little bit more, to give them a bit of cash, when most of them are quite well off already? I smell a whiff of prestige and schmoozing.

    Would it not be better to put this [and more] money into actual engineering and computer education instead? For instance to endow an institute dedicated to identifying and training very promising budding young telecoms, computer and electronics engineers, so that a new generation of pioneers might arise in this country and be appropriately channelled, motivated and remunerated?

    Admittedly this would not give Lords and other luminaries the opportunity to schmooze with leading visionaries, not for a while at least. And it would go against the principle of government, which is, as Dickens once very aptly put it: How not to do [anything]. By giving out prizes to existing, already extensively recognised and rewarded pioneers, they are not technically doing anything, so they are not breaching the rule.

  3. Thecowking

    Number 4

    Which are you counting as the fourth major party?

    Do UKIP count as major now?

    1. spider from mars
      Devil

      Re: Number 4

      As a lefty, I'm totally fine with UKIP being a "major political party". Split that right-wing vote, I dare you!

    2. John 62

      Re: Number 4

      The DUP, obviously.

  4. K
    Megaphone

    Tim Berners-Lee invented "WWW"..

    so bloody what, get over it already.. he's been celebrated enough, if we honestly can't find anybody else worthy of this money and recognition, then we have a serious f*cking problem!

  5. ratfox

    If anybody, it has to be them first

    Of course there are other people, and these ones have been celebrated already; but it would make no sense not to give the prize to people who deserve it the most, just because they are already famous. It would be like giving the gold medal to the one who finished fourth, because the others are already standing on the podium.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: If anybody, it has to be them first

      It shows a bit of a lack of imagination on the part of the awards committee. It is like they didn't really believe that anyone else has ever contributed anything of significant magnitude to the internet... or maybe they were just too lazy to do any research and just found a couple of famous names and decided to bung them the award.

      1. JonP
        Flame

        Re: If anybody, it has to be them first

        "...significant magnitude to the internet..." or any other field of engineering!

        let's face it this award is just so UK politicians can pretend the UK is some kind of technology leader and grunt "look look we invented the web" etc for the millionth time.

        They came up with some protocols 25 odd years ago - is that really the best we can showcase?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    'Lord Browne of Madingley, chairman of the prize trustees, said that young people should remember that engineering pays the big bucks and not enough kids are getting involved.'

    They're not getting involved because Big Business is outsourcing their jobs to the third world and so there is no job security. Also 'big bucks?' Since when? Engineers make their companies millions yet get treated like shit.

    'Prime Minister David Cameron said: "It makes me proud that the UK is host to this international prize. Engineering is about growth and progress for both the economy and society - bringing vast improvements in people's lives.'

    The only people getting 'vast improvements' to their lives are the aforementioned Big Business arseholes who get to buy another Ferrari from all the savings they made sacking their UK workforce.

    Yet again more total fucking guff from the Government about the tech industry in this country. If they keep saying it enough, surely it will become true, right?

  7. OzBob
    Unhappy

    Yeah OK, maybe the number of plaudits are being a bit overdone

    but be honest, wouldn't you have liked Dennis Ritchie to have been in the press and public consciousness a bit more before his demise? Maybe putting some context on the shameless self-promoters (*cough* jobs *cough*).

    1. JLH
      FAIL

      Re: Yeah OK, maybe the number of plaudits are being a bit overdone

      Engineering pays the big bucks? News to me.

      I have a PhD in physics and I work for a well known engineering company.

      I get nowhere near big bucks. I'm laughing hollowly.

    2. Charles Manning

      Dennis Ritchie

      I hope you don't mean to give him too much kudos for C.

      K&R C was a POS. I know. I bloody used it for some years but immediately switched to ANSI-C as soon as that came along.

      C only became usable as a serious development tool once ANSI-C emerged and neither Kerninghan nor Ritchie were involved in that exercise. It seems odd that they did not get involved. Maybe they thought their baby more beautiful than the industry did and resisted progress.

  8. batfastad
    Stop

    thing

    UK.gov... "Thanks for creating this internet thing so we can spy on it, have £1m!"

    "Lord Browne of Madingley, chairman of the prize trustees". What? Sounds like a made up person or a made up job. Probably does get paid big bucks though and I'm sure he works really hard and deserves it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Lord Browne

      Not made up at all, though he certainly gets paid big bucks.

      Some readers may know him better as Des Browne, former top man at BP (joined BP as student apprentice in 1966 while at Cambridge Uni doing physics, resigned as CEO in 2007).

      Some readers may know of him as the man who was terrified (also in 2007) that his homosexuality would become public knowledge after he and his partner seemingly had a bit of a disagreement (also involving the British press, and lying in court).

      Some readers may know of him via Deepwater Horizon (and other incidents preceding).

      Some readers may know him as CEO of Cuadrilla, the UK fracking company.

      Not made up at all. Go read more if you're interested.

      Leading member of the engineering profession?

  9. DominicSayers

    Scantlebury is furious

    Someone who deserves equal credit, and probably needs the money more than these guys, is Roger Scantlebury. He is a bit miffed about missing out: http://m.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jun/25/internet-pioneers-airbrushed-from-history

  10. i like crisps
    Happy

    Now Wait a minute..

    ...you're telling me that a member of 'Steps' invented the World Wide Web!!

    Well bugger me. That more than makes up for all those shit songs.

  11. Frumious Bandersnatch

    Marc Andreessen couldn't make it ...

    ... and will be handed his prize by Britain's ambassador in the US.

    Excellent, once he's inside the embassy, we can nab him, bag him and ship him off to a secret detention centre. Oh wait... Britain's ambassador. Sorry, never mind (I think).

    1. Frumious Bandersnatch

      Re: Marc Andreessen couldn't make it ...

      Wait. Why the downvote? We are talking about hackers, right?

  12. SkippyBing

    The RAE objected to the belief that sponsorship from BAE Systems amounts to accepting blood money.

    Fair enough, what about the belief that it represents accepting money from mediocre engineers?

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    £1m spoils

    Just like winning on a premium bond.

    Not that I'd know... fifty-five years and not even a fiver.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: £1m spoils

      Thad, Nigeria doesn't run a premium bonds program.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Unhappy

        Re: Nigeria

        So all the mails I get from a nice guy called Ernie are worthless?

  14. Champ

    Exactly what I was wondering! I read "Leaders of three of the UK's four major political parties... " and stopped right there.

    I suspect El Reg is providing cover for a Scottish Nationalist or a Little Englander somewhere...

    1. John 62

      SNP: 6 MPs

      DUP: 8 MPs

      Northern Ireland FTW!

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