Science

dickthegrouch

(4,664 posts) Wed May 20, 2026, 04:29 PM 2 hrs ago

Sadly Peter Neumann has passed away

One of the Computer Science greats. His recent focus on cybersecurity will have effects for a long time.

https://cacm.acm.org/news/in-memoriam-peter-g-neumann-1932-2026/

2 replies

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Sadly Peter Neumann has passed away (Original Post) dickthegrouch 2 hrs ago OP

A giant. I never met him but worked with Multics in the late 1960s/70s. erronis 1 hr ago #1

"Simplicity gets complex quickly. As soon as you believe you have a simple solution to something... ultralite001 41 min ago #2

erronis

(24,541 posts)

1. A giant. I never met him but worked with Multics in the late 1960s/70s.

Reply to dickthegrouch (Original post)

Wed May 20, 2026, 04:56 PM

1 hr ago

That OS (Multics) was really the progenitor of most of today's multi-user systems. Multics was far ahead of the field in terms of security and general design principles. Unfortunately it had very stringent hardware requirements (multiple security rings, advanced memory management techniques) that made it hard to implement in the available hardware of those days. Our General Electric commercial operating systems (GECOS) were all designed and documented using Multics - sadly not using most of the advanced features.

ultralite001

(2,684 posts)

2. "Simplicity gets complex quickly. As soon as you believe you have a simple solution to something...

Reply to dickthegrouch (Original post)

Wed May 20, 2026, 06:01 PM

41 min ago

you’re probably oversimplifying.”

Neumann's warnings about the risks of computers in elections continue to be relevant today.

Requiescant in pace...

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