Talk:John Walker (programmer)

Untitled
Walker's Hacker's Diet contains an excellent essay on the relationship between engineering and management which I'd like to incorporate somewhere in Wikipedia. It relates to W. Edwards Deming's ideas about quality. Uncle Ed 11:29, 20 October 2005 (UTC)

Presumably "Fourmilab" is a pun on "Fermilab" Gbeauregard (talk) 07:12, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

The current version of the page states 'It could also be pronounced "for me lab", i.e. a personal laboratory.' Indeed, it could, but it never occurred to me when I named the site, which is totally a reference to "The Hacker and the Ants" and a pun on "Fermilab". It was later pointed out to me that it could also be taken as a pun on "mi-four" or (generously interpreted) "half-baked" in French; that also eluded me when I named the site. John Walker (fourmilab.ch) (talk) 23:57, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

Damnit John, where's your contact info
Scouring the internet, I can't for the life of me figure out how to email the guy. His chapelle-like ghostliness means that I can't let him know about mistakes he's made in his writing - specifically at http://www.fourmilab.ch/random/. Fresheneesz (talk) 09:00, 25 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Each page at Fourmilab now has a button that opens a contact form; you need JavaScript enabled for the button to work. However, John Walker's long-standing advice is to just guess; see the 8th question on the FAQ:  http://www.fourmilab.ch/nav/topics/faq.html Clark42 (talk) 12:00, 13 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks Clark! Fresheneesz (talk) 21:08, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Hackers' Diet
His authorship of the Hacker's Diet could be included in his bio if there are secondary sources about it. -Reagle (talk) 16:59, 29 August 2017 (UTC)

Death
John Walker apparently died today, 2024-02-02.

Expect better sources shortly. John Nagle (talk) 01:14, 3 February 2024 (UTC)


 * https://ricochet.com/1539727/john-walker-rip/ is a possible source. RussNelson (talk) 01:44, 4 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Family has an announcement at Scanalyst: https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/t/john-walker-1949-2024/4305 Jdougan (talk) 02:56, 8 February 2024 (UTC)


 * Better source in The Register: John Nagle (talk) 07:26, 15 February 2024 (UTC)