You might recall that Dennis Ritchie passed away a little under a year ago, in October 2011. The world lost a giant of computing, and many of us lost a hero and role model. Ritchie was born on September 9th, 1941 — 71 years ago today. I thought it would be fitting that we take a moment to celebrate his accomplishments and his gifts to the world, and say thanks.
I also thought we should celebrate his fun side a little bit, so I’m reposting this video I shared back in 2010. In it, Dennis and his colleagues enlist the help of Penn & Teller to prank their boss, Nobel Laureat Arno Penzias.
Thanks, Dennis, and Happy Birthday!
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, or even use Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for MakeCode, CircuitPython, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
