David J. Farber

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David J. Farber is a professor of Computer Science, noted for his major contributions to programming languages and computer networking. He is currently Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science and Public Policy at the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University.

1 Career
2 Honors and community service
3 "Farberisms"
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Career

Dr. Farber graduated from the Stevens Institute of Technology in 1956 and began an 11-year career at Bell Laboratories, where he helped design the first electronic switching system (ESS-1) and the programming language SNOBOL. He subsequently held industry positions at the Rand Corporation and Scientific Data Systems, followed by academic positions at the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Delaware.

At Irvine his research work was focused on creating the world's first operational Distributed Computer System. While a member of the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of Delaware, he helped conceive and organize the major American research networks CSNET, NSFNet, and the National Research and Education Network (NREN).

Dr. Farber subsequently was appointed Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Telecommunication Systems at the University of Pennsylvania where he also held appointments as Professor of Business and Public Policy at the Wharton School of Business and as a Faculty Associate of the Annenberg School for Communication. He served as Chief Technologist at the US Federal Communications Commission (2000–2001) while on leave from the university.

[edit] Honors and community service

Dr. Farber is an IEEE Fellow, ACM Fellow, and recipient of the 1995 SIGCOMM Award for life-long contributions to computer communications. He has served on the board of directors of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Electronic Privacy Information Center advisory board, the Board of Trustees of the Internet Society, and as a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on High Performance Computing and Communications, Information Technology and Next Generation Internet. He runs a huge (25,000+ member) mail list called Interesting-People.

[edit] "Farberisms"

Prof. Farber is famous for humorous and often either nonsensical or ironic turns of phrase, known as Farberisms.

Examples:

"It's about 15 feet as the eye flies."

"You have to take the bitter with the sour."

"I enjoy his smiling continence."

"I could tell you stories that would curdle your hair."

There is a growing archive of Farberisms, many created by other people in his style, at this link: [1]

Farberisms should not be confused with "Yogiisms" (popularized by baseball player Yogi Berra). The former are most often non-sequiturial mondegreens, while the latter are typically either pleonasms or oxymoronic redundancies, though both usually share the goal of making a point through surreally humorous, absurdist mis-use of language, especially the alteration of clichés through malapropism and mixed metaphor.