4 ms·

For those who don't know, the Robert T. Morris quoted in the text turned out to be the author of the worm, and the R. H. Morris also quoted was his father (who

For those who don't know, the Robert T. Morris quoted in the text turned out to be the author of the worm, and the R. H. Morris also quoted was his father (who also did a lot of work with the NSA). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Morris_(cryptographer) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Morris_(cryptographer... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Tappan_Morris https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Tappan_Morris

pm90 9y ago
Robert T Morris also started Viaweb and YC with P Graham. He has chosen to (understandably) maintain a low profile.
- maxerickson 9y ago
  Y Combinator winks at the worm on their people page: http://www.ycombinator.com/people/ http://www.ycombinator.com/people/
  - danesparza 9y ago
    "In 1988 his discovery of buffer overflow first brought the Internet to the attention of the general public." has to be the understatement of the year.
- aidenn0 9y ago
  I also seem to remember pg saying something somewhat tongue-in-cheek to the effect of other PhD students being jealous of rtm because, by being arrested, he managed to find a way out of the PhD program without the shame of quitting or flunking out...
  - scott_s 9y ago
    "The danger with grad school is that you don't see the scary part upfront. PhD programs start out as college part 2, with several years of classes. So by the time you face the horror of writing a dissertation, you're already several years in. If you quit now, you'll be a grad-school dropout, and you probably won't like that idea. When Robert got kicked out of grad school for writing the Internet worm of 1988, I envied him enormously for finding a way out without the stigma of failure." http://www.paulgraham.com/college.html http://www.paulgraham.com/college.html
NelsonMinar 9y ago
He's a professor at MIT now. https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/~rtm/ https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/~rtm/

pm90 9y ago

Robert T Morris also started Viaweb and YC with P Graham. He has chosen to (understandably) maintain a low profile.

maxerickson 9y ago
Y Combinator winks at the worm on their people page: http://www.ycombinator.com/people/ http://www.ycombinator.com/people/
- danesparza 9y ago
  "In 1988 his discovery of buffer overflow first brought the Internet to the attention of the general public." has to be the understatement of the year.
aidenn0 9y ago
I also seem to remember pg saying something somewhat tongue-in-cheek to the effect of other PhD students being jealous of rtm because, by being arrested, he managed to find a way out of the PhD program without the shame of quitting or flunking out...
- scott_s 9y ago
  "The danger with grad school is that you don't see the scary part upfront. PhD programs start out as college part 2, with several years of classes. So by the time you face the horror of writing a dissertation, you're already several years in. If you quit now, you'll be a grad-school dropout, and you probably won't like that idea. When Robert got kicked out of grad school for writing the Internet worm of 1988, I envied him enormously for finding a way out without the stigma of failure." http://www.paulgraham.com/college.html http://www.paulgraham.com/college.html

NelsonMinar 9y ago

He's a professor at MIT now. https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/~rtm/ https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/~rtm/