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Dr. Andrew Stuart "Andy" Tanenbaum (born 1944) is a professor of Computer Science at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He is best known as the author of Minix, a free Unix-like operating system for teaching purposes, and for his computer science textbooks. He regards his teaching job as his most important work.
Biography Tanenbaum was born in New York City and raised in White Plains, New York. He received his bachelor's degree in Physics from MIT in 1965. He received his doctorate in physics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1971. He moved to the Netherlands to live with his (Dutch) wife, but he retains his United States citizenship. As of 2004 he teaches courses about Computer Organization and Operating Systems, and supervises the work of Ph.D. candidates. He is well recognized for his textbooks on computer science, which are famous as standard texts in the field, particularly: He also wrote: Operating Systems: Design and Implementation and Minix * were Linus Torvalds' inspiration for the Linux kernel. In his autobiography Just For Fun, Torvalds describes it as "the book that launched me to new heights". Tanenbaum went on to write the Amoeba distributed operating system, making full use of the microkernel idea. electoral-vote.com In 2004 Tanenbaum created electoral-vote.com, a popular web site analyzing opinion polls for the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election, using them to project the outcome in the Electoral College. The site also provided an electoral map. Surprising results on this map (such as, for example, a short period when Hawaii, traditionally Democratic, was listed as "Barely Bush") would often surface in popular discussion. Through most of the campaign period he kept his identity secret, referring to himself as "the Votemaster" and acknowledging only that he personally preferred Kerry. Tanenbaum, a Democrat, revealed his identity on November 1, 2004, the day prior to the election, also stating his reasons and qualifications for running the website *. The site is currently providing analysis of polls for the 2006 Congressional elections, with its main map graphic showing projected results for the Senate. Awards Bibliography See also | ||||||||
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