Celebrating Pride Month 2024

As this month comes to a close, I want to make a quick post to remind everyone that LGBTQ+ people have always been here and will always be here, often working tirelessly to improve the world around them for everyone.

I want to highlight some of the brilliant people throughout history who have made computers and this modern internet work. These individuals changed computing forever.

Mary Ann Horton - Connected Usenet to the World, and the reason companies (starting with Lucent Technologies) have transgender-inclusive language in their Equal Opporunity policy. A pioneer of the Internet and Usenet, Mary Ann Horton was the graduate student and UC Berkeley who set up the connection between Usenet and ARPANET (these are pre-internet days.) She contributed heavily to Berkeley UNIX, including the vi text editor. Mary Ann was also an influential leader of Usenet, recruiting users and promoting rapid growth until 1988, by which time Usenet grew to over 5000 sites. Visit Mary Ann Horton's website

Jon "Maddog" Hall - Board Chair for The Linux Professional Institute (and Godfather of Linus Torvald's Children) Jon has had a long career at some of the most recognizable names in telecom - including Bell Labs and Western Electric. While working at Digital Equipment Corproation, he became interested in Linux and began obtaining resources and equipment for Linus Torvalds to create his first port of the kernel. Read more about Jon Hall.

Sophie Wilson - Inventor of the ARM processor If you've used a phone, tablet, game console, or even some laptops, you've probably used an ARM microprocessor. ARM microprocessors are low-cost, low-power, and low-heat, making them ideal for battery-powered devices or embedded in other larger systems. As of 2022, over 230 billion ARM chips have been produced. Read more about Sophie