LWN: Comments on "Linus Torvalds is a finalist for the Millennium Technology Prize"

For the poor souls

Tobu — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 09:00:51 +0000

It's just three questions + silent “B-roll” footage, they were in separate files initially. Not enormously interesting, but since I had it I was happy to save people a bit of bandwidth.

For the poor souls

man_ls — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:08:42 +0000

This one has sound, but it is lost at about the same point that the youtube version started. Weird. Thanks to both of you!

And the "European" (Finnish) accent is not washed out yet, perhaps not the pronunciation but the intonation is still there.

For the poor souls

man_ls — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:02:47 +0000

Thanks, but for some reason I can't hear the sound (apparently the sound track is there but empty).

Linus Torvalds is a finalist for the Millennium Technology Prize

eru — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 20:28:18 +0000

Ouch. Missed a bit from the text. You are right, there will be a single "grand prize" winner: "...Wednesday 13 June 2012, when the winner of the Grand Prize will be announced." One of the times I wish I could delete own comments at LWN...

Linus Torvalds is a finalist for the Millennium Technology Prize

eru — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 20:23:24 +0000

Nevertheless, this year it definitely is split. See http://www.technologyacademy.fi/blog/2012/04/19/laureates/.

I checked also its Finnish version at http://www.technologyacademy.fi/fi/2012/04/19/laureates/, which leaves no doubt, saying "... jotka molemmat palkitaan ..." ("... who both will be awarded...").

Linus Torvalds is a finalist for the Millennium Technology Prize

jake — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 13:18:40 +0000

> they both get awarded, but the way the prize is split will be announced
> in June..

From: http://www.technologyacademy.fi/millennium-technology-prize/

The 2008 Millennium Technology Prize Winner was Professor Robert Langer for his invention and development of innovative biomaterials for controlled drug release and tissue regeneration. Other Laureates for the 2008 Prize were Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, Dr. Andrew J. Viterbi and Professor Emmanuel Desurvire, Dr. Randy Giles and Professor David N. Payne.

The 2010 Millennium Technology Prize Winner was Professor Michael Grätzel for his invention and development of dye-sensitized solar cells, known as 'Grätzel cells'. Other Laureates for the 2010 Prize were Professor Sir Richard Friend and Professor Stephen Furber.

Which seems to indicate one winner (at least in other years), with other runners-up ...

jake

For the poor souls

grobian — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:48:54 +0000

Here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAZBrJRLh9k

For the poor souls

grobian — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:48:38 +0000

Na, that's old footage from his former house...

For the poor souls

nelljerram — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 09:59:02 +0000

There is also a youtube link on the academy's web page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1MCvuDvCaQ. (It doesn't stand out because it's not marked up as a link.)

I'm guessing this is the same as the 730Mb download, because it's about 8 minutes long and shows Linus's home office towards the end.

Linus Torvalds is a finalist for the Millennium Technology Prize

tjaalton — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 07:33:15 +0000

they both get awarded, but the way the prize is split will be announced in June..

Linus Torvalds is a finalist for the Millennium Technology Prize

jake — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 03:39:22 +0000

> More than a finalist, he's one of the two being honored.

Maybe that's true, but it didn't look that way to me from the announcement. It sounded like one of the two would be chosen in June in the part I quoted, at least that's how I read it. And all the other winners mentioned were singular, though there is mention of other laureates (runners-up I guess?) in other years.

It's fairly confusing, at least to me.

jake

Linus Torvalds is a finalist for the Millennium Technology Prize

scientes — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 02:01:30 +0000

gosh, he should really put that monitor a little higher, so he can sit higher. (otherwise his setup is pretty ergonomic, although I expected him to have [far] more monitors)

For the poor souls

Tobu — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 01:13:34 +0000

Here is a smaller file (joined and shrunk to 17M with handbrake).

Linus Torvalds is a finalist for the Millennium Technology Prize

xanni — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:04:27 +0000

Poor translation from the Finnish? I agree, the headline is misleading and should be updated.

Linus Torvalds is a finalist for the Millennium Technology Prize

bluss — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 23:19:47 +0000

More than a finalist, he's one of the two being honored. If you're reading this far you already understood this, but the 'finalist' thing is confusing.. it doesn't say settled and prize delivered to me.

For the poor souls

man_ls — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 22:27:39 +0000

Could anyone just post it to youtube or a similar service and post the link? Thanks!

Warning: large videos (for both meanings of 'large')

Tobu — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:25:51 +0000

That plays well with mplayer on the first model of Athlon64 (although 1080p with higher compression would require -lavdopts lowres=1:fast=true:skiploopfilter=all); this footage is just 8 minutes and barely compressed.

Warning: large videos (for both meanings of 'large')

pr1268 — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:51:26 +0000

Be advised, 730 MB download (but thanks for the link!).

Also, not that this matters to most, but 1920×1080 videos bring my dinosaur of a computer to its knees! :-(

One last general comment - Linus' European accent has almost totally disappeared. Sounds as if he's totally been assimilated. ;-)

Linus Torvalds is a finalist for the Millennium Technology Prize

grobian — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:30:42 +0000

If you have ever wondered how his workplace looks like
just watch the home movie posted by the academy...

http://footagebank.imagemaker.fi/MTP2012/Torvalds_H264_19...