Rich Rosen (born May 13, 1956) is a
software developer
Software development is the process of designing and Implementation, implementing a software solution to Computer user satisfaction, satisfy a User (computing), user. The process is more encompassing than Computer programming, programming, wri ...
and an author on the subject of
web development
Web development is the work involved in developing a website for the Internet (World Wide Web) or an intranet (a private network). Web development can range from developing a simple single static page of plain text to complex web applications, ...
, who gained notoriety as an early high-volume contributor to
Usenet
Usenet (), a portmanteau of User's Network, is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose UUCP, Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Elli ...
newsgroups
A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system for messages posted from users in different locations using the Internet. They are not only discussion groups or conversations, but also a repository to publish articles, start ...
.
Early life and education
Rosen grew up in
Forest Hills, Queens
Forest Hills is a neighborhood in the central portion of the borough of Queens in New York City. It is adjacent to Corona to the north, Rego Park and Glendale to the west, Forest Park to the south, Kew Gardens to the southeast and Flushing ...
,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
. He attended
Cornell University
Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
and later
Queens College
Queens College (QC) is a public college in the New York City borough of Queens. Part of the City University of New York system, Queens College occupies an campus primarily located in Flushing.
Queens College was established in 1937 and offe ...
, where he received a bachelor's degree in
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
. He later received his master's degree in the same subject from
Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology is a Private university, private research university in Hoboken, New Jersey. Founded in 1870, it is one of the oldest technological universities in the United States and was the first college in America solely de ...
in
Hoboken
Hoboken ( ; ) is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Hoboken is part of the New York metropolitan area and is the site of Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's popula ...
,
New Jersey
New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
, while working at
Bell Labs
Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey, the compa ...
and later at
Bellcore
iconectiv supplies communications providers with network planning and management services. The company’s cloud-based information as a service network and operations management and numbering solutions span trusted communications, digital identi ...
.
1980s - Bell Labs and Usenet
While at Bell Labs and Bellcore (now known as
Telcordia Technologies
iconectiv supplies communications providers with network planning and management services. The company’s cloud-based information as a service network and operations management and numbering solutions span trusted communications, digital identi ...
) during the 1980s, Rosen was a lead engineer on the team that
beta-tested IBM
International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
's then brand-new
DB2 relational database management system
A relational database (RDB) is a database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970.
A Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is a type of database management system that stores data in a structured for ...
, which would become one of the first commercially available relational database systems on the market. He also developed one of the earliest online
bulletin board systems
A bulletin board system (BBS), also called a computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user performs functions such as ...
used to keep telephone operating companies informed about
Bell System
The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the AT&T Corporation, American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America fo ...
software standards.
He also acquired a reputation there as a high-volume poster to
Usenet
Usenet (), a portmanteau of User's Network, is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose UUCP, Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Elli ...
newsgroups
A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system for messages posted from users in different locations using the Internet. They are not only discussion groups or conversations, but also a repository to publish articles, start ...
. The volume of Usenet postings he produced led to rumors that many people were actually using his account, or that he was an
AI program produced by Bell Labs to increase the amount of Usenet traffic and thus augment
AT&T
AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...
's long distance telephone revenues.
[Reference t]
quoted article
about Rich Rosen by Tom Richardson Weekly statistics collected during his heyday often showed that he, by himself, was responsible fo
more than 2%of the entire volume of Usenet postings. The phrase ''"We are all Rich Rosen"'' was coined during this period and persisted as a Usenet
catchphrase
A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...
for a number of years.
Rosen posted in a number of newsgroups on a variety of topics, most particularly music and religion. Among his contributions:
*
Rich Rosen's Rules of Netnews Debating', a satirical post intended not so much as a set of guidelines to follow when posting, but rather as a statement (like
Godwin's Law) about the irrational and often obnoxious behavior often observed in Usenet discussions (which Rosen himself admittedly engaged in).
* The Book of
Ubizmo and the religion of
Ubizmatism, a parody of the extremes associated with mainstream organized religions.
* The story of Toejam Jawallaby, a fictitious musician who was the winner of several bogus "greatest
guitarist
A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...
of all time" polls, whose exploits were later expanded upon in the
newsgroup
A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system for messages posted from users in different locations using the Internet. They are not only discussion groups or conversations, but also a repository to publish articles, start ...
rec.music.
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
.
* Several musical compositions that appeared on the first Usenet compilation tape, ''a little net.music'' (1985), including
A Fair Exchange' and
Vegetableland' (which was ostensibly performed by the aforementioned Toejam Jawallaby).
* Several Usenet
April Fool's jokes, including the (now doubly ironic) "Microsoft Windows for the Macintosh" and th
"Olfactory Transfer Protocol" (WebOdor)
He was known for participating in (some would say "inciting") numerous
flame war
Flaming, also known as roasting, is the act of posting insults, often including profanity or other offensive language, on the internet. Flaming is distinct from trolling, which is the act of someone causing discord online or in person. Flaming eme ...
s with other Usenet contributors, including the notorious Brahms Gang, a pair of equally loquacious
mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
graduate students from
Berkeley
Berkeley most often refers to:
*Berkeley, California, a city in the United States
**University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California
*George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher
Berkeley may also refer to ...
(Gene Ward Smith and Matthew P. Wiener) who posted from a server named
brahms.berkeley.edu
. His verbal battles with the Brahms Gang in particular were sometimes referred to as "The War of the Rosens". He was also known for his variety of frequently-changing
.signature files, including:
* Anything's possible, but only a few things actually happen.
* Life is complex. It has real and imaginary parts.
* Look for significance where there's none intended, and you'll surely find it.
* Now I've lost my train of thought, I'll have to catch the bus of thought.
* echo "This is not a pipe." , cat - >/dev/tty
[A ]pun
A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...
on Magritte's famous painting as applied to pipes
Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to:
Objects
* Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules
** Piping, the use of pipes in industry
* Smoking pipe
** Tobacco pipe
* Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circu ...
in the Unix shell
A Unix shell is a Command-line_interface#Command-line_interpreter, command-line interpreter or shell (computing), shell that provides a command line user interface for Unix-like operating systems. The shell is both an interactive command languag ...
.
Usenet Citations and Acknowledgements
The volume and content of Rosen's postings evoked strong reactions in both advocates and detractors. People either praised him for his postings or denounced him as a threat to the future of Usenet.
* His voluminous output and frequently abrasive postings led many to seek his removal from the net. He was never actually banned, censored or otherwise prevented from posting, but his
e-mail address An email address identifies an email box to which messages are delivered. While early messaging systems used a variety of formats for addressing, today, email addresses follow a set of specific rules originally standardized by the Internet Engineeri ...
was used on the
man page
A man page (short for manual page) is a form of software documentation found on Unix and Unix-like operating systems. Topics covered include programs, system libraries, system calls, and sometimes local system details. The local host administr ...
for the
netnews
Usenet (), a portmanteau of User's Network, is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose UUCP, Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Elli ...
"expire" command as an example of how this command could be used t
delete all postings from a particular user The use of his address in this manner wa
viewed by someas an endorsement of
censorship
Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...
and it was eventually removed.
* His notoriety also led
Howard Rheingold
Howard Rheingold (born 1947) is an American critic, writer, and teacher, known for his specialties on the cultural, social and political implications of modern communication media such as the Internet, mobile telephony and virtual communities.
B ...
to use his name in
A Slice of Life in My Virtual Community' (an article propagated through its inclusion in the ''Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet'') as an example of how people use
kill file
A kill file (also killfile, bozo bin or twit list) is a file that stores text matching patterns that are used in some Usenet reading programs to filter out (ignore) articles by subject, author, or other header information. Adding a pattern to a ...
s:
*:
... putting the name of a person or topic header in a ``kill file'' (aka ``bozo filter'') means you will never see future contributions from that person or about that topic. You can simply choose to not see any postings from Rich Rosen, or that feature the word ``abortion'' in the title.
* A column by ''Mr. Protocol'' (Michael O'Brien) in ''Sun Expert'' magazine (now called ''Server/Workstation Expert'') used the word ''"Rosenesque"'' to describe a person who produces a substantial volume of
e-mail
Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...
messages large enough to overwhelm a local network.
* The
Net.Legends FAQ
A frequently asked questions (FAQ) list is often used in articles, websites, email lists, and online forums where common questions tend to recur, for example through posts or queries by new users related to common knowledge gaps. The purpose of a ...
says:
*: How can a Net.Legends list omit Rich Rosen? I think he still holds the record for amount of spontaneous, germane text in a single newsgroup (net.
philosophy
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
).
* In contrast, one system administrator wrote an article entitle
"Proposed deletion of Rich Rosen"
*: ''If net.bizarre and net.flame were threats to the network's continued existence, then Rich Rosen is doubly so. ... Rich Rosen's volume is enormous. His postings comprise two percent of the network's volume. ... Expressed as a raw number of bytes per week, the number is horrendous. It is impossible for one man to produce this much cogent thought in a week. Speaking only for myself (perhaps a poor comparison) I don't think I could even type that fast. ... Due to his high volume and near-total lack of redeeming value, I propose that Rich Rosen be removed from USENET. In order to preserve the usual facade of democracy, I'm doing this as a poll. ...''
* On the other hand, an article by Thomas Richardson from 1995
said:
*: ''Rosen was particularly noteworthy, because he posted pages
nd/nowiki> pages of coherent material in just about every group I read. ... This was back when you could read the entire Usenet feed in a single afternoon. That doesn't explain how Rosen managed to post on every subject, though. I think he must have been a speed typist or he must have had some kind of augmented metabolism or something. ... He also managed to stay coherent and to largely avoid repeating himself. Maybe there really was no Rich Rosen. Maybe Dennis Ritchie
Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie (September 9, 1941 – October 12, 2011) was an American computer scientist. He created the C programming language and the Unix operating system and B language with long-time colleague Ken Thompson. Ritchie and Thomp ...
was just playing a weird joke on everybody.''
Post-Bellcore (1990s)
Rosen left Bellcore
iconectiv supplies communications providers with network planning and management services. The company’s cloud-based information as a service network and operations management and numbering solutions span trusted communications, digital identi ...
in 1989, but continued to post occasionally to Usenet from various outside accounts. He was one of the early members of the Panix user community in New York through the mid-1990s. He hosted his own popular "Monty Python
Monty Python, also known as the Pythons, were a British comedy troupe formed in 1969 consisting of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. The group came to prominence for the sketch comedy ser ...
home page" that was cited by both Lycos and the Global Network Navigator.
During the latter part of the 1990s, Rosen worked at Pencom Web Works with Leon Shklar, with whom he would later collaborate on
Web Application Architecture: Principles, Protocols, and Practices
', a widely used textbook for senior and graduate level college courses in Web application development.
Later life
Rosen lives once again in New Jersey
New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
with his wife, Celia. He "retired" from posting to Usenet but maintained his ow
blog
writing on the subject of web application development, including articles for various online and print journals, while also working with Leon Shklar on a second edition of ''Web Application Architecture''. In addition, he contributed material to the fourth edition of ''Mac OS X for Unix Geeks'' which was published in 2008. He continues to record his own music, some of which was accessible on his website.
Publications
* ''Web Application Architecture: Principles, Protocols and Practices, 2nd edition'', Leon Shklar, Rich Rosen, 2009, Wiley, .
* ''Mac OS X Leopard for Unix Geeks, 4th edition'', Ernest E. Rothman, Brian Jepson, Rich Rosen, 2008, O'Reilly, .
Notes
External links
Rich Rosen's web site
Rich Rosen's blog
Rich Rosen recalls his days on Usenet
Web site for ''Web Application Architecture: Principles, Protocols and Practices'' book
Net.Legends.FAQ (Noticeable Phenomena Of UseNet) Part 4/4
Usenet accusation that Rosen's output was autogenerated
- archive from 1985.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosen, Rich
1956 births
Cornell University alumni
Living people
Usenet people
Panix (ISP)
Queens College, City University of New York alumni
Stevens Institute of Technology alumni