It's arguable whether technology has truly made our lives better. Nevertheless our society craves these advances almost as much as it craves money, maybe even more (when people stand in line for hours just to get their hands on the latest gadget...yeah that says something). We are so used to periodic breakthroughs that it's easy to forget who's behind these advances. So let's not forget them by checking out these 25 greatest tech masterminds ever.
25. Evan Williams, Christopher Isaac Stone and Jack Dorsey
http://abcnews.go.com/ Whether you use it or not, you have probably heard of Twitter. The popular social media service that connects you to the world via a 140 character sentence was the creation of Evan Williams, Christopher Isaac Stone and Jack Dorsey.
24. Mark Zuckerberg
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www.telegraph.co.uk Facebook has been a huge social networking breakthrough. Zuckerberg and his roomies conceived the idea in their Harvard Campus and now the entire world is seemingly glued to this form of social media interaction. Yes, we are too, you can check out our page atwww.facebook.com/list25. Go ahead, check it out.
23. Larry Page and Sergey Brin
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http://www.la-lights.com/ Google has taken just about everything by storm. From search engines to mobile apps, it seems there's not much Google is not into. It's crazy to think that this company was incorporate in 1998. But the fact is, we are all aware (and probably use) Google products thanks to its founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
22. Fujio Masuoka
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http://diit.cz/ After the rage of floppy disks and compact discs, flash memory became a household name in the form of USB flash drives, memory cards and the like. For one, it's smaller than it's storage predecessors and two, it can hold a larger amount of information than the former. Fujio Masuoka has apparently made our lives a lot easier and lighter.
21. Ray Tomlinson
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http://blogpassword.wordpress.com/ Ray Tomlison created the first system able to send mail between users on different hosts connected to the ARPAnet (Previously, mail could be sent only to others who used the same computer). To achieve this, he used the all too familiar @ sign to separate the user from their machine.
20. Vic Hayes
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http://indisch4ever.nu/ Known as the father of "Wi-Fi", Vic Hayes was instrumental in the establishment of wireless local area networks.
19. Tim Berners-Lee
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www.thedrum.com If you use the internet in any form way or fashion (which if you are reading this post...you do), then you can thank Mr. Tim Berners-Lee. A British computers scientist, he is known for inventing the World Wide Web.
18. Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn
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www.techbu.com Vinton Gray "Vint" Cerf and Bob Kahn are American computer scientists, who are lauded as being the "the fathers of the Internet". Their contributions have been acknowledged repeatedly with awards such as the National Medal of Technology, the Turing Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and membership in the National Academy of Engineering.
17. Steve Jobs
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www.inc.com Heralded as "Father of the Digital Revolution", a "master of innovation", "the master evangelist of the digital age" and a "design perfectionist", Steve Jobs accomplished a host of technological advances. He was also responsible for what's been described as the "greatest turnaround in business history" with the reinvigoration of Apple Inc.
16. Bill Gates
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www.telegraph.co.uk The former chief executive and current chairman of Mircrosoft, William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, programmer, inventor and philanthropist. He is the co-founder of the world's largest personal-computer software company and is heralded as one of the richest persons in the world.
15. George Devol
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http://articles.washingtonpost.com/ George Charles Devol, Jr. was an American inventor who was awarded the patent for Unimate, the first industrial robot.
14. Douglas Engelbart
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www.flickriver.com Humans and computers interact with each other on a daily basis. Originally, computers were complex machines that few could operate. However, Englebart found ways to make computers more usable. His research led to the invention of the computer mouse and earlier versions of graphical user interfaces.
13. Martin Cooper
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www.commsmea.com Telephones have evolved from spiral-wired, heavy-receivers, cumbersome machines to sleek, small, touchscreen marvels and the man responsible for such advancement is Martin Cooper. Known as the "father of Cellphones" Martin is recognized as an innovator in radio spectrum management.
12. Robert Metcalfe
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www.ericlauritsheadshots.com Robert Melancton "Bob" Metcalfe is an electrical engineer from the United States who co-invented Ethernet. He is currently the professor of Electrical Engineering and Director of Innovation at the University of Texas at Austin.
11. Arthur C. Clarke
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http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/ Sir Arthur Charles Clarke was a brilliant British science fiction writer, inventor, and futurist who is currently famous for his short stories and novels, including 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). He contributed to the popularity of the idea that geostationary satellites would be ideal telecommunications relays.
10. William Gibson
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http://nymag.com/ He wasn't a computer scientist but his imagination changed the world and prophesied another world called cyberspace. Today, this novelist's, a.k.a "noir prophet" imagination has come to life with the virtual environments in movies, video games and the World Wide Web.
9. Dennis Ritchie
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www.telegraph.co.uk Many tech masterminds helped shaped the digital era and this American Computer scientist was one of them. The C Programming language and the Unix operating system were two of the most important advancements in computing technology which are still being used.
8. Konrad Zuse
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http://wissen.dradio.de/ Z3, the world's first functional program controlled Turing-complete computer was the brainchild of Zuse earning him the recognition of being the "inventor of the computer". He also designed, PlankalkĂƒÂźl, the first high level programming language.
7. Gordon Moore
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http://kimongshaw.blogspot.com/ Moore's law was named after the co-founder and chairman Emeritus of Intel Corporation. This law stated Moore's prediction that the number of transistors in integrated circuits would double every two years during the course of the history of computing. Evidently, the law became reality owing to the technological and social changes from the late 20th century until today.
6. Jack St. Clair Kilby and Robert Noyce
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http://kimongshaw.blogspot.com/ These two employees of a renowned American semiconductor company conceived the first integrated circuit, or the microchip. Although they did not initially work on the project together, their own models were the progenitors of the modern chip. Separately, Kilby invented the handheld calculator and the thermal printer.
5. Grace Murray Hopper
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http://manifestlabs.com/ COBOL or Common Business-Oriented Language is one of the oldest programming languages and was initially designed by US Navy Rear Admiral Grace Hopper. This advancement is now being used in business, finance and administrative systems for companies and governments worldwide. She was also noted as one of the first programmers of the Mark I computer.
4. Joseph Nicephore Niepce
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http://www.jon-erikmunro.com/ Because of Niepce's development in heliography which produced the world's first known photograph, he is considered one of the inventors of photography. Although unrelated to his other invention, together with his brother, he also created the world's first internal combustion engine, another promising technological invention that has benefited mankind.
3. Paul Gottlieb Nipkow
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http://lahistoriadelosmedios.wordpress.com/ 23 year old German university student Paul Nipkow patented the first electromechanical television system which used a scanning disk or popularly known as the Nipkow disk.
2. Ada Lovelace
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http://www.makers.com/ The Countess of Lovelace is considered the world's first Computer Programmer. Ada is the estranged daughter of one the greatest British poets in history, Lord Byron. Her exemplary work on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine included what is considered the first algorithm that was intended to be analyzed by a machine. Although there has been dispute over her computing contributions, nevertheless, the modern world has given her posthumous prestige.
1. Alan Turing
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http://www.gayexplained.com/ The Father of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence was a mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst and computer scientist who made the Turing machine, the ancestor of the computers we use today. Sadly, this brilliant scientist was prosecuted for his homosexuality at the time when it was still illegal in the United Kingdom and died of cyanide poisoning which was believed by his family to be accidental rather than suicide. In 2009, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued an official public apology for "the appalling way he was treated."
Read more: http://list25.com/25-greatest-tech-masterminds-ever/ 25 Greatest Tech Masterminds Ever
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