Mastodawn

A few people who are out there following my posts may have known Georgie Gobel (the Purdue George, not the comedian from the last century).

George apparently died last month. He was a passionate early Unix user, inventor, and experimenter. Besides early work with multiprocessor Unix, he is perhaps best known for his 3-second lighting of a charcoal BBQ, a feat that earned him the 1996 Ig Nobel in Chemistry.

RIP.

https://www.jconline.com/obituaries/psbn1445636
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._Goble
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sab2Ltm1WcM

Richard Welty 1d ago

@spaf I remember the experiments with refrigerants.

Paul_IPv6 1d ago

i have used his bbq ignition as an example of why good requirements docs are vital many times. :)

Advanced Persistent Teapot 1d ago

"This act attracted the attention of the West Lafayette, Indiana fire department, which warned him to never let them catch him in the possession of LOX near a barbecue fire ever again."

Having watched the video, I can see why they said that 😬

https://youtu.be/TBLr_XrooLs

How to light a grill in 2 seconds

YouTube

Adam Sjøgren 1d ago

Thread on The Unix Heritage Society mailing list: George Goble (Purdue University).

[TUHS] George Goble (Purdue University)

Steve Hayman 🇨🇦🇬🇱🪊1d ago

@spaf thank you for sharing that sad news. I remember loving the barbecue story when Dave Barry wrote about it. Legendary.

https://www.davebarry.com/misccol/charcoal.htm

Dave Barry Official Website

Paul Turnbull 🇨🇦1d ago

@shayman @spaf I wish the pictures from the liquid O2 bbq experiment were still up. Maybe they are somewhere but of course the 1995 link is dead. :(

Steve Hayman 🇨🇦🇬🇱🪊1d ago

@Chigaze check the YouTube link on @spaf 's original post. There's still video.

Paul Turnbull 🇨🇦1d ago

@shayman Doh! :)

Lauren Weinstein 1d ago

@spaf So not Lonesome George.

Bryn Dole 1d ago

@spaf I was working in the CS department IT group as part of my RA when Gobel, with some help from Dave Barry, got the world to DDOS the Purdue internet connection with hits to George’s webpage. #legendary

@spaf RIP. I met George at a Usenix workshop and was struck by his curiosity. It is probably because I was young and naive, but I miss attending workshops where everyone was just interested in exploring the things that computers could do. Those don't seem to happen much anymore.

lemgandi 1d ago

The Giants are leaving us.

Bill Ricker 1d ago

As a longtime fan of both Igs and yourself, indeed I remember the ACM chapter picnic BBQ stunt. 💔

Weekend Editor 1d ago

Pretty sure I met him in the 70s, or at least the people in his circle.

Sorry to hear that. I remember watching the charcoal-lighting videos many years ago.

Mike Muegel 1d ago

@spaf RIP ghg. I was BSCEE ‘89 and ran into George occasionally late at night in various computer labs or at the EE building lounge (laser printer!). Nice gregarious guy.