David Braben has been appointed OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27836293

by RobAley • 12 years ago

77 47 12 years ago

m.bbc.co.uk

unwind• 12 years ago

I assume OBE here means Order of the British Empire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_British_Empire).

chrisseaton• 12 years ago

Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, which is one rank within the Order of the British Empire.

jpt1• 12 years ago

Yes that's correct

mariusz7910• 12 years ago

Good for him, but I don't get why in our day and age anyone would care about meaningless titles like this. Why do intelligent, educated people accept still play this whole sir/knight/duke/price/king charade?

migstopheles3• 12 years ago

Reductio ad absurdum: everything is meaningless, so why do intelligent, educated people do anything?

I find views like this pointlessly cynical. The man has been done something good for society, why on earth shouldn't he accept the acknowledgement?

mariusz7910• 12 years ago

He did something to help promote computer science to people who could not afford a computer. Accepting OBE, on the other hand, is equal to becoming a member of a caste system. You either believe that all people deserve equal rights, or you don't.

Luc• 12 years ago

I suppose one could argue that a club that has 'For God and The Empire' as its motto, and awards military-sounding titles, is about more than just getting recognition from society. Though perhaps it's not to be taken too seriously...

mariusz7910• 12 years ago

Many reasons, but let me quote few people who actually declined the "honor": "I get angry when I hear the word 'empire'; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds me of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised."

"An OBE is what you get if you clean the toilets well at King's Cross station."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_have_declin...

jrockway• 12 years ago

People like recognition for their work. This is one way to receive such recognition.

mariusz7910• 12 years ago

It's not about the recognition or awards. It's about a modern society that is still using caste system in the 21st century.

peterwwillis• 12 years ago

Richard Feynman didn't like honors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f61KMw5zVhg

Joeboy• 12 years ago

The benefit of accepting an OBE is that you get to return it in protest next time the government does something suitably horrifying.

Angostura2• 12 years ago

It's simply formal recognition from the state that you have done something of value. The exact name of the reward is a historical hang-over which make it a little more quaint.

Gusfoo_2• 12 years ago

I don't get why in our day and age anyone would care about meaningless titles like this.

Because they are not meaningless. They may be to you, and that's fine.But they mean a lot to a lot of people. Your views are not common.

joezydeco2• 12 years ago

So reading the headline I thought this honor was going to Mr Upton, but instead it's someone else from the RPi foundation? The article seems to infer his fame comes more from Elite than from his educational work on Raspberry Pi.

For that matter, where are all the success stories about RPI in the educational arena? For every ten 'here's a cat food dispenser/FM Transmitter/drone tracking system' made from an RPi" stories, there should be at least one decent educational story. I've seen very little.

UweSchmidt• 12 years ago

It seems that this https://twitter.com/chrisdymond/status/477458249122586624/ph... would be the success they were shooting for, and it seems the idea of getting the Raspberries in the hands of kids was a main goal for the RPi team.

If we're a little more generous with our definition, a Raspberry-powered cat food dispenser, or even just the idea of having a general-purpose personal computer is educational in itself, no?

buster2• 12 years ago

Of course, his fame comes from Elite, where else? David Braben was a well-known name long before the RPi. Nevertheless, i own a RPi and i'm eagerly waiting for the next Elite.

joezydeco2• 12 years ago

Then it's a bit disingenuous to headline this honorary award as being from the success of the Raspberry Pi in the educational arena.

If the Brits want to give an award to Braben for his work in video games that's cool. It's a step forward in the acknowledgement that video games are a part of modern culture. But by that token, I'm nominating Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar for the Presidental Medal of Freedom for their work on Defender, Stargate, and Robotron:2084.

shutupalready• 12 years ago

where are all the success stories about RPI in the educational arena

You're right; I don't see success stories in education.

But so what? The RPi is a huge success as a prototyping tool, as a platform for one-off devices or small productions runs, and as a hacker appliance (in the good sense of "hacker").

So what if the Raspberry Pi Foundation's original intention was to advance computer education? They achieved success in a different and highly positive way. There's nothing to regret.

David Braben has been appointed OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list

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