3 ms·

The Rise and Fall of John Donovan

• sn41 4y ago
  just recently, I was reminiscing with some students that John Donovan's "Systems Programming" was the best and most readable "whole picture" text I have read on computing - and despite being 50 years old, is still insightful. I did not know that the person behind it had a dark past.
  • api 4y ago
    I've had a run-in with this individual quite a while ago. Let me just say this. I'd virtually guarantee that he didn't write a word of that book. He had other people do it and took credit.
    • no_wizard 4y ago
      I'm curious if you can expand why you say that?
• jobs_throwaway 4y ago
  paywall bypass link: https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.townandcountrymag.com%2Fsociety%2Fmoney-and-power%2Fa41625115%2Fjohn-donovan-mit-professor-crimes%2F https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.townandcountrymag....
• irsagent 4y ago
  It's wondrous to know that MIT professors conduct extracurricular activities outside their profession. *Joke TLDR; John Donovan a MIT professor who is successful in the technology consulting sector, later in life after having 5 kids, begins to stage that such kids are trying to kill him for their inheritance. Charged for filling a false police report, after staging an assassination, and even to this day attempts to claim that his family is trying to steal his fortune. https://archive.ph/kqOTs https://archive.ph/kqOTs
• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
• baking 4y ago
  I had a girlfriend who worked for Donovan while she was a sophomore at MIT in 1979/80 at Advanced Information Systems & Services (AISS) 219 Vassar St. They brought in business types and showed them what a computer was, how to insert an 8-inch floppy disc, etc. Probably DEC LSI-11's or something similar. They made quite a bit of money at the time.