Top Briton of 2004
 

Tim Berners-Lee. Apologies if it has been mentioned before. Thanks again Tim for the www. Try asking Brits who Tim Berners-Lee was (sorry is) and see what reaction you get. Would he have outearned Bill Gates if he hadn't given away his idea for free?

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/20...850079241.html

OzTennis :)

Re: Top Briton of 2004
 

The arrogance of the typically ill-informed Aussie.

Try asking Aussies to name one world-famous, born-and-bred Aussie scientist. The silence will be deafening.

The difference, chummy, is that Britain has produced many inventive minds. Oz has to recycle the few it has. Or was Ned Kelly a closet geneticist?

After all, where would we be without Oz's Hill's Hoist or the collapsible wine cask? Civilisation would be so much poorer without them...

Re: Top Briton of 2004
 

Yes by approx 1000 times. Two harvard graduates did a paper on this. If he had of charged 1 cent per time you used the web he would make Gates look like a pauper(and that was in 1999)

Re: Top Briton of 2004
 

In fairness he is the first to admit that if it wasnt for all the other people (many nationalities) who had already worked on the web it would never have come about.
BTW one of the biggest stumbling blocks was getting mac's and windows(I think it was windows) servers to "talk" to each other- the solution was developed in the uni in Wollongong(sp?)

Re: Top Briton of 2004
 

Although I am the first to recognise TBL's contribution, HTML was based on IBM's own mark-up language, GML. Without the work funded by the US' Department of Defense, we wouldn't have TCP/IP which underpins internet communications.

And to give Oz its due (must I? :)..), I remember that a little outfit in Tasmania developed the software to enable early Windows' machines communicate across the Net. For a while, that bit of software written by Peter Tattam of Trumpet Software in Tasmania, was one of the most used bits of software in the Internet world.

Re: Top Briton of 2004
 

And Mike wins a whole new legion of fans :D

Re: Top Briton of 2004
 

As usual Stanton you have turned an innocent comment to suit your usual agenda. My point was that he has been chosen by one panel as Briton of the Year for 2004 but how many Brits have heard of him? Nothing more, nothing less. You could ask the same question of other nationalities and you would get a similar response - not many people have heard of the 'father' of the world wide web. That's my point, pure and simple

The rest of your post is just the usual vitriolic c**p and I won't dignify it by taking the bait. Why don't you read this instead of looking for opportunities to run down Australia?

http://inventors.about.com/od/australianinvent/

Don't bother coming back with a comparable list for the UK, or who really invented the tank, or how much more significant the UK inventions are or blah, blah, blah - everyone on here knows the point you are trying to make. That's why you are 'most predictable poster'.

Have a nice weekend mate!

OzTennis :)

Re: Top Briton of 2004
 

Your point is simple, but not pure. How many people in Oz had previously heard of the Australian of the Year? Very few, I imagine.

To quote from your link:

"The true greatness of Britons ... lies in the extraordinary qualities of our people," he told guests at a gala dinner, citing fairness, civic duty, openness, wisdom and integrity.

If you had but one of those five qualities. Still, you can always dream.

PS Calm down, your hysteria is showing. Make yourself a nice cup - the one with the chip - of camomile tea.

Re: Top Briton of 2004
 

So, what is your true nationality Mike? It appears to say that Britons are fair and open(minded)? As someone else said (a Brit too), your mind, like their front door was closed a long time ago. :D

As I said, have a nice weekend!

OzTennis :)

Re: Top Briton of 2004
 

I agree that TBL has created something that has changed the world more radically that anything else in my lifetime but why Man of 2004 when the internet was invented years ago? (Genuine question)

Re: Top Briton of 2004
 

Quite a lot, she was always on the TV just after the Bali bomb.

Anyway Mike you will be delighted to know she was originally from Yorkshire and came to Australia 18 years ago.

Re: Top Briton of 2004
 

Mike Stanton


You could only be English

Re: Top Briton of 2004
 

As a succinct way of insulting the vast majority of this forum's members, that really can't be beaten.

Mike isn't English, in fact he isn't human, he's just a diabolically clever piece of software. Written by an Englishman of course, because after all we do make the world's best programmers, don't we? Ahem.

Re: Top Briton of 2004
 

And the world's FIRST programmer was a woman (Ada Lovelace) - even better! OK, so she was a Brit, but you can't have it all....

Mike, inhuman? Well, remember he *has* confessed to being a product of 'The Other Place'.... :scared:

Anya.

Re: Top Briton of 2004
 

Tell that to Stephen lawrence the black kid stabbed to death by 5 white British racists because of the colour of his skin or the Pakistanis and asylum
seekers who are bashed by BNP members or the thousands of homeless freezing on the streets of london because of unaffordable housing.
What about the great civic duty shown by your drunken soccer hooligans that
riot in Europe stabbing people to death.
Mike when will you realise Britain is not the great Empire it was 100 years ago, but a small, overcrowded, polluted, race and class divided island that is now part of Europe