
Tell HN: Danny Cohen Has Died - drallison
Danny Cohen died yesterday morning, August 12th,
peacefully at home. Danny was major figure in the development of Internet protocols, particularly those related to packet audio and video. He was a member of the Internet Hall of Fame (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.internethalloffame.org&#x2F;inductees&#x2F;danny-cohen" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.internethalloffame.org&#x2F;inductees&#x2F;danny-cohen</a>).
======
davidw
Wow... "In 1967, Danny Cohen developed the first real-time visual flight
simulator on a general purpose computer. " \- I'm always amazed at some of the
things people managed to do "way back when", when my mental image is of people
with punch cards.

Here's an article I found about his flight simulator work, among other things.

[https://www.wired.com/2012/11/he-engineered-the-internet-
to-...](https://www.wired.com/2012/11/he-engineered-the-internet-to-take-
flight/)

~~~
mhandley
Video from that flight simulator is here:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a88Ixuv084](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a88Ixuv084)

This video seems to be from 1973 (not 1970, as the title says), when the
flight simulator was actually running as a distributed application over the
ARPAnet!

~~~
greesil
It's fun to note that apparently Pong was invented in 1972.

------
DagSpicer
Hi, I'm seeking a movie, called "Digital Voice Conferencing" Danny did when he
was at ISI, demonstrating packet voice technology in the '70s at Marina Del
Rey. It used to be linked to by a WIRED article on Danny --
[https://www.wired.com/2012/11/he-engineered-the-internet-
to-...](https://www.wired.com/2012/11/he-engineered-the-internet-to-take-
flight/) but the the embeded movie has vanished. We (Computer History Museum)
would be super grateful if anyone had a copy or knew of one lurking on the
internet somewhere. Can you help?

~~~
chnx
Could this be it?

[https://youtu.be/MGat1jRQ_SM](https://youtu.be/MGat1jRQ_SM)

~~~
DagSpicer
YES! Thank you so much. Gosh, it seems obvious?? But nothing related to any of
the title keywords or danny cohen or ISI or packet voice came up. Whatever you
did, THANK YOU!!!

~~~
phonon
[https://www.youtube.com/user/dannycohen90272](https://www.youtube.com/user/dannycohen90272)
!

~~~
justinclift
Wow. CAD designing a vase in 1968:

[https://youtu.be/-QWqCYPlGPA?t=18](https://youtu.be/-QWqCYPlGPA?t=18)

vs CAD designing a vase in 2011:

[https://youtu.be/66FoxykeT0w?t=10](https://youtu.be/66FoxykeT0w?t=10)

------
fizwhiz
One of his most familiar contributions is the coining of Big/Little endian.
RIP.

~~~
schoen
Wow, I didn't remember that he was the origin of that.

[https://www.ietf.org/rfc/ien/ien137.txt](https://www.ietf.org/rfc/ien/ien137.txt)

"On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace", IEN 137, 1980

~~~
dvt
Thank you for sharing this, great read!

------
mhandley
To understand Danny's influence on early packet audio and video, I can really
recommend the Google tech talk he did with Steve Casner:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av4KF1j-wp4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av4KF1j-wp4)

Don't miss the video clip around minute 55 from 1978!

RIP

------
AstroJetson
Danny was a rock star in the early days of general computing and things people
could do on the ARPANET. We all owe him a thanks for all the ideas that he
pioneered.

We all stand on the shoulders of giants like Danny.

------
techwonk
May his memory be a blessing

------
canacrypto
My personal favorite Internet Hall of Fame member:
[https://www.internethalloffame.org/inductees/test1-test2](https://www.internethalloffame.org/inductees/test1-test2)

~~~
ddcohen
I’m Danny’s son, and I can tell you he would have got a great kick out of
being in the august company of TEST1 TEST2.

------
pcunite
I've found it written of him, " _Danny is a bona fide member of the Flat Earth
Society_ ". Is that a joke?

~~~
ddcohen
Oh it was a joke but it was certainly true (I’m his son). He joined in the
days of Charles K. Johnson, who liked to tell the press that “my wife is from
Australia and she says they don’t all walk around upside down over there.” He
assumed the society was a joke until they rejected him for being a scientist,
but he applied again without listing profession and they let him in. Here’s
photos of his membership certificate, the rejection letter, and his “Flat
Earth Map of the World.”

[https://imgur.com/gallery/sqpAng8](https://imgur.com/gallery/sqpAng8)

------
justnisar
RIP Danny.

------
ComputerGuru
I’m sorry for your loss.

------
federicosan
RIP

------
thrax
RIP

------
onemoresoop
RIP

------
fastball
Wait, in what timezone was 4 hours ago the 13th?

~~~
dang
We re-upped the post as described at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11662380](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11662380).

~~~
fastball
Gotcha, thanks!

------
henryrh
RIP

------
dustfinger
RIP ... so say we all.

