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Robert Cailliau

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Computer Tech

The Resume

    (January 26, 1947- )
    Born in Tongeren, Belgium
    Designer of the famous green World Wide Web ident
    Founder of the Web for Schools Project (1994)
    Association for Computing Machinery Software System Award co-winner (1995)
    Honorary degrees at Southern Cross University (1999), University of Ghent (2000) and University of Liege (2009)
    Co-author of ‘How the Web Was Born: The Story of the World Wide Web’ (2009)
    Last name pronounced Kai-YO

Why he might be annoying:

    Because of his name, people who meet him up close for the first time – particularly those whose native tongues are English or Dutch – are usually inclined to speak to him in French.
    He has at least three honorary degrees!
    He was not the inventor of the Web itself, just its logo.
    He had a different name in mind for the Web (‘I would have preferred something shorter, but to find a catching name is not easy’ — ‘find a better name later’).
    He has a neurological condition in which he associates written characters with colors — synaesthesia (in his case, he views the ‘w’ as green).

Why he might not be annoying:

    He achieved a Master of Science in Computer, Information and Control Engineering from the University of Michigan (1971).
    While in the Belgian Army, he used Fortran (mathematical formula translating system) programs to simulate troop movements.
    He called the first international WWW congregation (December 1993, held May 1994), a milestone in Web development — one day ahead of the National Center for Supercomputer Applications.
    He saw three ways to put information on the Web: for free (‘but who pays my time?’); by subscription with a temporary name and password (‘puts off people because of the high level of the subscription’); and soliciting advertisers (‘even if that is not pleasant for the user’).
    Particularly in the case of the U.S. geeks ‘who behaved like cowboys’ (‘shoot first, think later’), he believed the Internet advanced far too fast with far too many without much thinking.

Credit: Cool It All Right?


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 11 Votes: 36.36% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 14 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 10 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 13 Votes: 46.15% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 7 Votes: 42.86% Annoying