C.B. Falconer, RIP 1931-2012

[Bill Davy]

Chuck responded to one of my early posts with

<snipped 400 lines of garbage>

And he was right!

I wonder if "1987-1989 D.S. Davidson Co., North Haven, CT " ever paid
royalties on their use of LZW algorithm (patent now lapsed)?

But funnily many of us who started back then had to do many of the same
things (assemblers, compilers, simulators, running on mainframes, floating
point packages, FFT, etc). And the processor changed every few years too.
Those were the days.

 

[Rod Pemberton]

I am sorry to report that C.B. "Chuck" Falconer has passed away. He used
to be a regular in alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.cpm, and comp.lang.c.
He had a long and involved history with computers and programming. He
was born in Switzerland on September 13, 1931 and passed away in
Damariscotta, Maine on June 4, 2012. I'm sure most everyone here
remembers him and his posts to Usenet. One of his many accomplishments
was writing an article for an early Dr. Dobbs magazine on implementing
floating point on the Intel 8080 microprocessor.

His resent resume and the downloadable files from a recent web page of
his... can be found at You can a recent resume of his at the ClassicCmp
website:

[link]

His obituary is at:

[link]

I know I'm *not* the only person he has helped in his time on Usenet. I'm
sure many here will mourn his passing.

Every truly great man needs a quote on his tombstone which truly captures
the essence of the man, what he stood for, his achievements in life, and
most importantly, what, if anything, humanity will remember him for:

*PLONK*

As you treated others in life, so too shall you be treated in death.


Rod Pemberton

 

[Bruce Morgen]

I am sorry to report that C.B. "Chuck" Falconer has passed away. He used
to be a regular in alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.cpm, and comp.lang.c.
He had a long and involved history with computers and programming. He
was born in Switzerland on September 13, 1931 and passed away in
Damariscotta, Maine on June 4, 2012. I'm sure most everyone here
remembers him and his posts to Usenet. One of his many accomplishments
was writing an article for an early Dr. Dobbs magazine on implementing
floating point on the Intel 8080 microprocessor.

His resent resume and the downloadable files from a recent web page of
his... can be found at You can a recent resume of his at the ClassicCmp
website:

[link]

His obituary is at:

[link]

I know I'm *not* the only person he has helped in his time on Usenet. I'm
sure many here will mourn his passing.

Every truly great man needs a quote on his tombstone which truly captures
the essence of the man, what he stood for, his achievements in life, and
most importantly, what, if anything, humanity will remember him for:

*PLONK*

As you treated others in life, so too shall you be treated in death.

Yeah, but in death you won't
give a flyin' fahootch.

 

[hormelfree]

Every truly great man needs a quote on his tombstone which truly
captures the essence of the man, what he stood for, his achievements
in life, and most importantly, what, if anything, humanity will remember
him for

For most of the regulars here, we can paraphrase the tombstone of "Buffy
The Vampire Slayer" the second time (third?) she died:

"He Knew The Return Value Of main()
A Lot"

 

[Rod Speed]

I am sorry to report that C.B. "Chuck" Falconer has passed away. He
used
to be a regular in alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.cpm, and comp.lang.c.
He had a long and involved history with computers and programming. He
was born in Switzerland on September 13, 1931 and passed away in
Damariscotta, Maine on June 4, 2012. I'm sure most everyone here
remembers him and his posts to Usenet. One of his many accomplishments
was writing an article for an early Dr. Dobbs magazine on implementing
floating point on the Intel 8080 microprocessor.

His resent resume and the downloadable files from a recent web page of
his... can be found at You can a recent resume of his at the ClassicCmp
website:

[link]

His obituary is at:

[link]

I know I'm *not* the only person he has helped in his time on Usenet.
I'm
sure many here will mourn his passing.

Every truly great man needs a quote on his tombstone which truly captures
the essence of the man, what he stood for, his achievements in life, and
most importantly, what, if anything, humanity will remember him for:

*PLONK*

As you treated others in life, so too shall you be treated in death.

Yeah, but in death you won't
give a flyin' fahootch.

Depends on whether there is a hell or not and whether you end up there.

 

[Les Cargill]

I am sorry to report that C.B. "Chuck" Falconer has passed away. He
used
to be a regular in alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.cpm, and
comp.lang.c.
He had a long and involved history with computers and programming. He
was born in Switzerland on September 13, 1931 and passed away in
Damariscotta, Maine on June 4, 2012. I'm sure most everyone here
remembers him and his posts to Usenet. One of his many accomplishments
was writing an article for an early Dr. Dobbs magazine on implementing
floating point on the Intel 8080 microprocessor.

His resent resume and the downloadable files from a recent web page of
his... can be found at You can a recent resume of his at the ClassicCmp
website:

[link]

His obituary is at:

[link]

I know I'm *not* the only person he has helped in his time on
Usenet. I'm
sure many here will mourn his passing.


Every truly great man needs a quote on his tombstone which truly
captures
the essence of the man, what he stood for, his achievements in life, and
most importantly, what, if anything, humanity will remember him for:

*PLONK*

As you treated others in life, so too shall you be treated in death.

Yeah, but in death you won't
give a flyin' fahootch.

Depends on whether there is a hell or not and whether you end up there.

The good news is: when you end up in Hell, you can then rent our
Texas.

 

[Rod Speed]

I am sorry to report that C.B. "Chuck" Falconer has passed away. He
used
to be a regular in alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.cpm, and
comp.lang.c.
He had a long and involved history with computers and programming. He
was born in Switzerland on September 13, 1931 and passed away in
Damariscotta, Maine on June 4, 2012. I'm sure most everyone here
remembers him and his posts to Usenet. One of his many accomplishments
was writing an article for an early Dr. Dobbs magazine on implementing
floating point on the Intel 8080 microprocessor.

His resent resume and the downloadable files from a recent web page of
his... can be found at You can a recent resume of his at the
ClassicCmp
website:

[link]

His obituary is at:

[link]

I know I'm *not* the only person he has helped in his time on
Usenet. I'm
sure many here will mourn his passing.


Every truly great man needs a quote on his tombstone which truly
captures
the essence of the man, what he stood for, his achievements in life,
and
most importantly, what, if anything, humanity will remember him for:

*PLONK*

As you treated others in life, so too shall you be treated in death.

Yeah, but in death you won't
give a flyin' fahootch.

Depends on whether there is a hell or not and whether you end up there.

The good news is: when you end up in Hell, you can then rent our Texas.

I have my own much better than texas that I don't
even need to rent back here before I end up in hell.

 

[Charles Richmond]

I am sorry to report that C.B. "Chuck" Falconer has passed away.

[snip...] [snip...] [snip...]

Every truly great man needs a quote on his tombstone which truly captures
the essence of the man, what he stood for, his achievements in life, and
most importantly, what, if anything, humanity will remember him for:

*PLONK*

As you treated others in life, so too shall you be treated in death.

Mr. C.B. Falconer treated people *justly* in his life, so I believe that he
will be treated fairly in death. If Chuck *plonked* you in his life... you
must have *richly* deserved it, Mr. Pemberton.

 

[hormelfree]

Mr. C.B. Falconer treated people *justly* in his life, so I believe that he
will be treated fairly in death. If Chuck *plonked* you in his life... you
must have *richly* deserved it, Mr. Pemberton.

A life spent "kill-filing" people on Usenet is a not a life lived wisely.
(You could make a case that is also true just for reading Usenet at all.)

If you've kill-filed more than a couple people, for any other reason
than introducing viruses into newsreaders or completely insane bombing
of the group with hundreds of incoherent messages a day, you have a
pathological relationship with the rest of the entire human race that
is evidenced by your behavior on Usenet.

Did the decedant exhibit the behavior of kill-filing many posters?
If so, he's probably in a better place, and so is the human race...

 

[James Kuyper]

I am sorry to report that C.B. "Chuck" Falconer has passed away.

[snip...] [snip...] [snip...]

Every truly great man needs a quote on his tombstone which truly captures
the essence of the man, what he stood for, his achievements in life, and
most importantly, what, if anything, humanity will remember him for:

*PLONK*

As you treated others in life, so too shall you be treated in death.

Mr. C.B. Falconer treated people *justly* in his life, so I believe that he
will be treated fairly in death. If Chuck *plonked* you in his life... you
must have *richly* deserved it, Mr. Pemberton.

The relevant message seems to be
<https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.lang.c/HkbRqDl1Qvs/mwXe1awtQv0J>.
The plonk seems fairly well deserved to me. I get the same impression
from the other articles I've found written by Pemberton while looking
for that one.

Chuck had his faults - I must have missed the good times that many
people fondly remember - my strongest memory of him is that almost every
message he posted contained at least one error. However, plonking RP
doesn't seem to have been one of those errors.

 

[Eric Sosman]

Did the decedant exhibit the behavior of kill-filing many posters?
If so, he's probably in a better place, and so is the human race...

My kill file just got better.

 

[James Kuyper]

My kill file just got better.

Note: (e-mail address removed) normally posts as "Bill Reid".

 

[James Kuyper]

My kill file just got better.

Note: (e-mail address removed) normally posts as "Bill Reid".

 

[Malcolm McLean]

If you've kill-filed more than a couple people, for any other reason
than introducing viruses into newsreaders or completely insane bombing
of the group with hundreds of incoherent messages a day, you have a
pathological relationship with the rest of the entire human race that
is evidenced by your behavior on Usenet.

I think that issuing a public "plonk" tends to create a sense of excitement
and does more harm than good. Best not to give annoying people the drama,
and just quietly ignore them. Whether you do that with a kill file or just by
not reading their posts is no-one else's business.

 

[hormelfree]

I think that issuing a public "plonk" tends to create a sense of excitement
and does more harm than good. Best not to give annoying people the drama, and > just quietly ignore them. Whether you do that with a kill file or just by not > reading their posts is no-one else's business.

Well, yeah, although I wasn't explicit about these idiotic "plonk!!!"
announcements, that is part and parcel of the defective behavior of many
Usenet posters. I have kill-filed just a very few people (actually, I
think only one, which was probably actually a case of identity theft where
somebody used somebody else's handle to post malicious scripts to mess up
newsreaders) for the reasons stated above, and never had even the slightest
urge to announce it.

The most pathological thing about people who feel an overwhelming urge
to announce a "poLnk!!!" as a response to an opinion they don't like is
that in over 90% cases they don't even actually kill-file the poster.
This adds dishonesty to the collection of defective behaviors rooted
in deep-seated insecurities about their self-worth that destroys any
possibility of working productively with others.

 

[Jorgen Grahn]

I disagree. It's (often) good to say in public that you don't tolerate a
certain behavior.

Well, yeah, although I wasn't explicit about these idiotic "plonk!!!"
announcements, that is part and parcel of the defective behavior of many
Usenet posters. [...]

The most pathological thing about people who feel an overwhelming urge
to announce a "poLnk!!!" as a response to an opinion they don't like is

....

For me -- and for most people as I understand it -- plonking rarely
has to do with opinions but with the poster's lack of respect and
reasonable behavior. I have killfiled people whose opinions I share,
because they keep starting flamewars and personal attacks.

Or because they criticize someone as a followup to the anouncement of
that person's death.

/Jorgen

 

[James Kuyper]

On 11/13/2012 03:46 PM, Jorgen Grahn wrote:
....

I disagree. It's (often) good to say in public that you don't tolerate a
certain behavior.

The problem is that we have no choice about tolerating the behavior -
there's nothing we can do to stop it. The most we can do is ignore it;
and we do a better job of ignoring it if we don't even bother announcing
the fact that we're doing so. The announcement serves only to highlight
the fact that we can't do anything to stop the behavior.

 

[Ben Bacarisse]

On 11/13/2012 03:46 PM, Jorgen Grahn wrote:
...

The problem is that we have no choice about tolerating the behavior -
there's nothing we can do to stop it. The most we can do is ignore it;
and we do a better job of ignoring it if we don't even bother announcing
the fact that we're doing so. The announcement serves only to highlight
the fact that we can't do anything to stop the behavior.

I think that's too simplistic and too defeatist. When people speak out
about an unacceptable remark it can have all sorts of positive effects
quite apart from any it may or may not have on the person who made it.

By the way, there are two meanings of tolerate here that may, in part,
be the cause of some of this disagreement. I imagine that Jorgen is
using it the sense of "to bear without repugnance" rather than in the
neutral "to allow or to permit" sense.

 

[Nick Keighley]

It's a form of public censor. If you start accumulating more than a
few you're probably doing something wrong. But then most people who
get plonked a lot don't care, in fact may enjoy it. Ignoring them
works much better, after a while they tired of shouting at a brick
wall and just fade away.

Well, yeah, although I wasn't explicit about these idiotic "plonk!!!"
announcements, that is part and parcel of the defective behavior of many
Usenet posters.

yawn. Just because somebody doesn't agree with you doesn't mean
they're "defective".

 I have kill-filed just a very few people (actually, I
think only one, which was probably actually a case of identity theft where
somebody used somebody else's handle to post malicious scripts to mess up
newsreaders) for the reasons stated above, and never had even the slightest
urge to announce it.

The most pathological thing about people who feel an overwhelming urge
to announce a "poLnk!!!" as a response to an opinion they don't like is
that in over 90% cases they don't even actually kill-file the poster.

I use a posting system that doesn't provide a killfile. Usually a
vplonk (virtual plonk) people I read what they say but don't reply.
With some I only reply if they say something that is technically
wrong. This is for the benefit of the lurkers as such people have been
plonked/killfiled by so many people their posts are no longer
receiving proper technical review.

One person I killfiled in the sense that I didn't read his posts, but
he was merely rude.

This adds dishonesty to the collection of defective behaviors rooted
in deep-seated insecurities about their self-worth that destroys any
possibility of working productively with others.

dip-stick. I'm part of a programming team so I suspect I have some
ability to work productively with others.

 

[Bill Cunningham]

Nick Keighley wrote:
[...]

dip-stick. I'm part of a programming team so I suspect I have some
ability to work productively with others.

That's others in the "programming team" world. Your peers. For example I
am a hobbyist and cannot compare with comp. science students or professional
programmers. It would test many "professionals" patience to come down to my
level to help me and that's their descision. I have read threads that
rattled on about things in C and programming and I'm completely lost and out
of the "group". So I don't expect anything from them. Some can kindly
simplify things and I can do something. Or nothing a "professional" would
say. I am thankful for those with patience.

Bill