An honorary degree for Alan Cox
Alan started working on Version 0. There were bugs and problems he could correct. He put Linux on a machine in the Swansea University computer network, which revealed many problems in networking which he sorted out; later he rewrote the networking software. Alan brought to Linux software engineering discipline: Linux software releases that were tested, corrected and above all stable. On graduating, Alan worked at Swansea University, set up the UK Linux server and distributed thousands of systems."
Posted Jul 20, 2016 18:56 UTC (Wed)
by welinder (guest, #4699)
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Posted Jul 20, 2016 20:25 UTC (Wed)
by adirat (subscriber, #86623)
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Posted Jul 20, 2016 22:07 UTC (Wed)
by flewellyn (subscriber, #5047)
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Posted Jul 21, 2016 13:46 UTC (Thu)
by ortalo (guest, #4654)
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PS: Sincere congratulations to the recipient. Shouldn't we send postcards again?
Posted Jul 20, 2016 20:34 UTC (Wed)
by oever (guest, #987)
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I hope his mortarboard will look like his own chip.
Posted Jul 20, 2016 21:50 UTC (Wed)
by atai (subscriber, #10977)
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Posted Jul 21, 2016 4:48 UTC (Thu)
by soundbbg (guest, #109043)
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Posted Jul 21, 2016 4:51 UTC (Thu)
by csamuel (✭ supporter ✭, #2624)
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Posted Jul 21, 2016 6:07 UTC (Thu)
by valberg (guest, #83862)
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Posted Jul 21, 2016 8:39 UTC (Thu)
by seyman (subscriber, #1172)
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Posted Jul 21, 2016 8:44 UTC (Thu)
by cdamian (subscriber, #1271)
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If I remember correctly Alan was my big hero besides Linus when I started using Linux in the 0.x days on my Amiga.
It was a long time ago.
Posted Jul 21, 2016 8:59 UTC (Thu)
by cdamian (subscriber, #1271)
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Posted Jul 21, 2016 11:00 UTC (Thu)
by gnu (guest, #65)
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Posted Jul 21, 2016 16:05 UTC (Thu)
by Renault (subscriber, #98408)
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Posted Jul 22, 2016 17:45 UTC (Fri)
by sachingarg (guest, #38869)
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Posted Jul 23, 2016 23:07 UTC (Sat)
by Wol (subscriber, #4433)
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(Oh - and the criteria for a PhD is "adding to the sum of human knowledge", so most recipients of an honorary degree probably fulfil that criteria :-)
Cheers,
Posted Jul 24, 2016 4:35 UTC (Sun)
by spaetz (guest, #32870)
[Link] (1 responses)
Please be more careful with sweeping statements like these. The criteria can well be different in different places, eg a coirt denied Edward Snowden a honoraty PhD in the city of Rostock, Germany as the "Bundesland" has stricter criteria for these then most/all other Bundesländer in Germany.
Posted Jul 24, 2016 8:49 UTC (Sun)
by Wol (subscriber, #4433)
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All I said was that the recipient has to have increased the sum of human knowledge. That's a MINIMUM requirement. Then they have to get proposed for the degree, accepted, blah blah blah.
Oh - and what has Edward Snowden done to increase the sum of human knowledge? Yes, he's dumped a load of private knowledge into the Public Domain, but that to my mind does not fulfil the necessary criteria.
Cheers,
Posted Jul 24, 2016 15:57 UTC (Sun)
by mpr22 (subscriber, #60784)
[Link] (3 responses)
Posted Jul 24, 2016 19:23 UTC (Sun)
by Wol (subscriber, #4433)
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Bear in mind, I don't know if it's changed, but relative to other universities, a Cambridge Masters degree was pretty worthless. (Okay, the BA was probably higher value to start with, but...) As I understand it (from a Cambridge Graduate, iirc), after a certain number of years experience in the field, you just applied for a masters and your BA/BSc was upgraded.
I don't think Cambridge had the oddity that my Uni had, in that they (as I believe Oxford did also) only awarded BAs. So I've got a BA "majored in Chemistry" as I put it. I could get it swapped for a BSc now, but I can't be bothered.
Cheers,
Posted Jul 26, 2016 17:48 UTC (Tue)
by smcv (subscriber, #53363)
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That's the theory, and was the case in practice in the past (we're talking decades or even centuries here). It's the same progression as the apprentice/journeyman/master thing in medieval guilds. Now, the rule is that if you have been awarded a BA, and a certain number of terms have passed since you joined Cambridge (what you actually did after your degree is irrelevant), then you can exchange your BA for an MA.
Oxford and Cambridge are weird, but since they have longer traditions than most other universities, it's traditional to retort that we're doing it correctly and the other universities are weird :-)
> I don't think Cambridge had the oddity that my Uni had, in that they (as I believe Oxford did also) only awarded BAs.
It does have that oddity. All 3-year first degrees from Cambridge are BAs, including the ones you might expect to be a BSc like Mathematics and Natural Sciences. Longer first degrees (law, engineering, medicine) award a BA and an appropriate specialized degree like MEng, of which the BA is later replaced with an MA.
> relative to other universities, a Cambridge Masters degree was pretty worthless
It's only the MA that's weird like this; it implies exactly the same amount of education as a Cambridge BA, and it's formally written like "Fred Bloggs, MA (Cantab)" to indicate to those who know these things that it isn't a "real" Masters. Subject-specific Masters degrees mean what you'd expect from other universities, either a 4-year first degree or a 1-year postgraduate degree.
Posted Jul 29, 2016 10:53 UTC (Fri)
by mpr22 (subscriber, #60784)
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Posted Jul 24, 2016 12:38 UTC (Sun)
by paulj (subscriber, #341)
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Posted Jul 24, 2016 16:14 UTC (Sun)
by jem (subscriber, #24231)
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Richard Stallman signs his emails "Dr Richard Stallman".
Posted Jul 25, 2016 20:11 UTC (Mon)
by deater (subscriber, #11746)
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Sinecerley,
Dr. Deater
Posted Jul 26, 2016 8:22 UTC (Tue)
by paulj (subscriber, #341)
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Posted Aug 3, 2016 8:53 UTC (Wed)
by ghane (guest, #1805)
[Link] (6 responses)
(These are based on the Commonwealth)
Another example is that you may be awarded a knighthood by the Queen, but that does not entitle you to prefix "Sir".
In some countries, (Spain? Germany?), the term is used as a title, so their you do things like Ing Juan Smith, among others.
--
Posted Aug 3, 2016 10:45 UTC (Wed)
by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523)
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> Much as I wouldn't call myself "Bachelor Sanjeev Gupta".
Posted Aug 3, 2016 12:46 UTC (Wed)
by anselm (subscriber, #2796)
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AFAIK it's either “Dr John Smith” or “John Smith, PhD”. What you don't do is “Dr John Smith, PhD”.
That would depend on the flavour of knighthood. For example, in the “Order of the British Empire” (which is the one normal people are most likely to end up in), there are five different tiers, and only the top two (“Knight Grand Cross” or “Knight Commander”) entitle you to the “Sir”. For example, the Beatles were made MBEs (the bottom tier) in 1965 but that didn't mean they were “Sir John” etc. Paul McCartney has since been dubbed a “Knight Bachelor” – the lowest type of knighthood, outside one of the well-known knightly orders – and that did make him “Sir Paul”; the other three weren't so lucky.
Posted Aug 3, 2016 13:56 UTC (Wed)
by paulj (subscriber, #341)
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Posted Aug 3, 2016 14:03 UTC (Wed)
by paulj (subscriber, #341)
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On a knighthood (noting the sub-thread rooted with anselm's reply), it _does_ entitle the holder to call themselves "sir". :) There are many people in the UK going around calling themselves "Sir" precisely cause of that.
Posted Aug 3, 2016 16:58 UTC (Wed)
by micka (subscriber, #38720)
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Posted Aug 3, 2016 20:35 UTC (Wed)
by anselm (subscriber, #2796)
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You call people “sir” (or “madam”) to be polite or if they're your superiors in the armed forces, but “Sir X” (or “Dame Y”) if they're members of the knighthood of sufficiently exalted standing.
Posted Jul 23, 2016 18:52 UTC (Sat)
by tjc (guest, #137)
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An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
Congratulations!
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
Wol
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
Wol
I've never heard of a PhD/DPhil being awarded as an honorary degree. They're generally what Cambridge terms "higher doctorates" - things like DSc, DLitt, etc.
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
Wol
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An ordinary doctorate is awarded for a programme of graduate study and supervised research resulting in a significant contribution to knowledge in the field. A higher doctorate is awarded for exceptionally impressive contributions to knowledge in the field, well beyond the scope of what would be enough to get you an ordinary doctorate.
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
My understanding is that the PhD (any PhD) is an award, not a title, so you would be "Mr John Smith, PhD", not "Dr John Smith". Much as I wouldn't call myself "Bachelor Sanjeev Gupta".
Ghane
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
You can. "Sanjeev Gupta, BSc" is perfectly normal.
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
My understanding is that the PhD (any PhD) is an award, not a title, so you would be "Mr John Smith, PhD", not "Dr John Smith".
Another example is that you may be awarded a knighthood by the Queen, but that does not entitle you to prefix "Sir".
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox
An honorary degree for Alan Cox