back to article UK's 'Nobel prize for engineering' given to 'inventors of the interwebs'

The would-be British based "Nobel Prize of engineering" - aka the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, whose recipients can be of any nationality - has been awarded for the first time. The winners are described as the "five engineers who created the internet and the World Wide Web". According to the official announcement: …

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  1. Code Monkey
    Joke

    Bang up to date, then. Next year I'm backing James Hargreaves for the Spinning Jenny

    1. Roger Greenwood

      Nominations?

      If we can all have a go, how about Thomas Crapper?

      (You can add your own punchline)

      1. LinkOfHyrule
        Joke

        Re: Nominations?

        I'd nominate whoever invented the shop doorway and the late-night kebab shop! Both essential public infrastructure if you ask me!

        If only someone would create a vomit repellent road surface we'd almost be civilised! Still some work to be done here, so very important we start cranking out more boffins in this country so that such essential inventions can be created before we lose all relevance on the global engineering stage!

        1. Euripides Pants

          Re: Nominations?

          "If only someone would create a vomit repellent road surface"

          Be careful what you wish for - a vomit repellent road surface would bounce the stuff right back at your face. Of course, if one wasn't inclined to go puking in the street, one could have fun watching others do this...

          1. Richard 12 Silver badge

            I can see it now...

            Competitive vomit races, and even target vomitry!

            Imagine it, vomit bouncing down the street, straight into the face of a passer by.

            A perfect ten, by anyone's standards.

            1. LinkOfHyrule
              Coffee/keyboard

              lol

              totally off topic this but funny!

          2. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge
            Coat

            Re: Nominations?

            > a vomit repellent road surface would bounce the stuff right back at your face

            Or it might just float there, a few mm above the surface, being blown around at the whim of any passing breeze (and no doubt being chased by a dog).

            Would there be a market for artificial vomit, which could be attached under a vehicle, to get a "maglev" effect? The possibilities are endlessly revolting...

          3. C 18
            Coat

            Re: Nominations?

            >...wasn't inclined to go puking in the street...

            Isn't that the recommended position for gastric bile expulsionists?

  2. maccy
    Unhappy

    The more prestigious the prize tries to be, the fewer risks it takes. I predict this prize will fizzle in a few years as the organizers run out of obvious choices, and they haven't the guts to give it to someone interesting.

    1. Lars Silver badge
      Coat

      @maccy

      Watering down the Nobel prize, not, perhaps, a bad decision. Will get interesting when there is a new "peace prize" in every country.

  3. koolholio
    Joke

    200,000 each... Just enough to buy a very basic house in the UK... or half of one these days...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      200k

      ....ain't gonna make a lot of odds to Mr Andreeson in particular. If only they had announced it in time for Red Nose day.

  4. Pen-y-gors

    Blood money?

    Anyone want to discuss the achievements of Mr Nobel?

    1. Richard 12 Silver badge

      Yes indeed, he made mining much safer.

      Must have saved many thousands of lives.

      1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
        Boffin

        Re: Yes indeed, he made mining much safer.

        Also head of Bofors, which he turned from a general iron and steel processor into one of the leading armaments companies of the time. His mother must have been very proud.

        GJC

  5. rictay

    Standing on the shoulders of giants

    These "revolutionary" developments in fact sat upon existing networking technologies. We already had global networks of computers, global networks of message switching systems, and global airline booking networks, for example. I was already giving network programming courses in the mid-70s for front office terminal systems connected by PSTN and leased lines to corporate mainframes. It wasn't so clever to write a comms protocol, others have done the same before and after without all the fuss.

    What about a prize for the real revolutionaries, those engineers who made primitive 60s telephone lines carry our networks in the first place and laid the groundwork for the Internet and the Web? Now that was the real achievement.

    1. jake Silver badge

      Re: Standing on the shoulders of giants

      Indeed. As a linesman, CCITT5 was magic. Who knew they could do that? In comparison, SS7 is fun :-)

      As a civilian, I was using "Community Memory" in late 1973 ... ARPAnet's NCP (Cerf & a bunch of un-named Grad students, self included) was in the labs, not general use, in the same time frame.

      The WWW & Mosaic? Complete newbies. And still acting like it.

    2. Barry Mahon

      Re: Standing on the shoulders of giants

      Don't altogether disagree, there were plenty of networks around. However, the PTTs as they were collectively known, dragged their collecitve feet, and defended, in Europe anyway, their monopolies. They tried to impose the CCITT solution, the infamous X-series of standards and the ISDN concept.

      OTOH whom would you suggest as the recipients from the telecommunications professionala??

      Not to be too unchivalerous. Berners-Lee fits strangely with Cerf et al, true telecomm people. Of course, he is British, had to be at least one.

      1. jake Silver badge

        @Barry Mahon (was: Re: Standing on the shoulders of giants)

        "OTOH whom would you suggest as the recipients from the telecommunications professionala?"

        Honestly? I was there, in the trenches, in the late '60s & all of the '70s & the early '80s. The only answer I can come up with is "First, tell me who invented fire, learned to move water, domesticated animals, and figured out how to save seeds for the coming planting season".

        In other words, there is no answer. The award is a gimmick. An attempt at "look at us, we have clues!". Hopefully the recipients will make a show of giving it away to charity, whilst blasting The Crown for wasting time, money & energy with their cluelessness.

    3. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

      Re: Standing on the shoulders of giants

      Well, to be fair, the work done by Pouzin et al. on the invention of packet-based networks was a lot more than just inventing "a comms protocol". It was the invention of a whole new type of network.

  6. Magani
    Happy

    "who created the internet and the World Wide Web"

    No mention of Al Gore then?

    1. jake Silver badge

      Re: "who created the internet and the World Wide Web"

      That old ignorant saw again?

      Al Gore actually did push the Bill through Congress that liberated NSFnet to commercial use, thus allowing our ignorant commentardary here on ElReg. Please, look it up before regurgitating crap. And I don't even like Al Gore!

      HTH, HAND.

      1. Magani
        Happy

        Re: "who created the internet and the World Wide Web"

        @jake:

        Did you hear the Whooosh as that piece of humour went passed? I suspect not.

        There's a word in English (not US) called subtlety. I suggest you check it out.

        I hope you and your HAND have a nice day.

        1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

          Re: "who created the internet and the World Wide Web"

          There's a word in English (not US) called subtlety. I suggest you check it out.

          Why, do you intend to employ it in a future post? I'm sure we're all looking forward to that.

    2. T. F. M. Reader

      Re: "who created the internet and the World Wide Web"

      > No mention of Al Gore then?

      He is already shortlisted for the next year's prize - for inventing algorithms.

  7. Yes Me Silver badge
    Unhappy

    Robert Who?

    I wonder why TBL's co-inventor, Robert Cailliau, is never mentioned. Seems pretty unfair to me.

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