3/12/2016 His modesty was sorely tested...by Billy Salter, BBN Colleague
Like many at BBN I knew and greatly admired Ray and had many small and enjoyable interactions with him over the years. We eventually worked on a big DARPA project together, with several BBN teams and multiple contractors. His modesty was sorely tested one day when the overall technical lead (a pretentious fellow whom nobody liked and few respected) was going on and on about TCP and what it did and didn't do, getting some stuff wrong that even I spotted. Ray said something to gently correct a point and the guy -- not a BBNer, of course -- got really nasty and condescending, as the BBNers in the room looked at each other with little smiles. Finally the guy pitched Ray the perfect set-up line -- what made him think he knew so much about TCP? -- and Ray, still gently but quite clearly explained why he thought he did, in fact, know a lot about it. Everybody was delighted, the non-BBNers perhaps even more than we were, since we already knew. The tech lead was suitably humbled, and was much quieter from them on. (By the way, Doug Engelbart, then well into his 70's, worked on that project also, another guy who will forever live in computer history). Comments are closed.
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