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Alan Kotok Quotes

Alan Kotok was an American computer scientist known for his work at Digital Equipment Corporation and at the World Wide Web Consortium . Steven Levy, in his book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, describes Kotok and his classmates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the first true hackers.

Kotok was a precocious child who skipped two grades before college. At MIT he became a member of the Tech Model Railroad Club, and after enrolling in MIT's first freshman programming class, he helped develop some of the earliest computer software including a digital audio program and what is sometimes called the first video game . Together with his teacher John McCarthy and other classmates, he was part of the team that wrote the Kotok-McCarthy program which took part in the first chess match between computers.

After leaving MIT, Kotok joined the computer manufacturer Digital Equipment Corporation , where he worked for over 30 years. He was the chief architect of the PDP-10 family of computers, and created the company's Internet Business Group, responsible for several forms of Web-based technology including the first popular search engine. Kotok is known for his contributions to the Internet and to the World Wide Web through his work at the World Wide Web Consortium, which he and Digital had helped to found, and where he served as associate chairman. Wikipedia

✵ 9. November 1941 – 26. May 2006

Alan Kotok: 4 quotes 0 likes

Famous Alan Kotok Quotes

“It's hard to lose weight when you're dining on the company's money.”

Alan Kotok

on business travel; quoted in [John E. McNamara, Remembering Alan's Humor, 2006, http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-memoria/2006Jun/0009.html, 2006-12-26]

“I'm opposed to any sport that reduces the coefficient of friction between me and the ground.”

Alan Kotok

On skiing; quoted in [John E. McNamara, Remembering Alan's Humor, 2006, http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-memoria/2006Jun/0009.html, 2006-12-26]

“I'm suspicious of any mode of transportation that requires a running start.”

Alan Kotok

on flying; quoted in [John E. McNamara, Remembering Alan's Humor, 2006, http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-memoria/2006Jun/0009.html, 2006-12-26]

“We hadn't invented 'Not Invented Here', yet.”

Alan Kotok

quoted in [Peter Hurley or Jack H. Stevens, A History of TOPS in alt.sys.pdp10 <1995Jan13.151041.8661@eisner>, 13 January, 1995, http://groups.google.com/group/alt.sys.pdp10/msg/17a1d08377234f79, 2006-12-26]