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Terry Craig (T.C.) Shannon (August 16, 1952 – May 26, 2005) was an information technology consultant. For over 30 years, he was involved in implementing PDP, VAX, and Alpha computers with their respective operating systems RSX, VAX/VMS, and OpenVMS. He was a respected journalist and analyst, paying particular attention to HP/Compaq and the High Performance computing space.
He has been credited with assigning Intel Corporation the nickname "Chipzilla".[1]
Terry participated and spoke at meetings of DECUS (the Digital Equipment Corporation Users Society), the international users group of DEC, currently known as Encompass. He also spoke as an authority at other IT and HPC conferences, and was widely quoted by other authors as an authority on the subject.[citation needed]
Early life
Terry C. Shannon was born in Syracuse, New York, USA, the first son of Glenn and Muriel ("Mike") Shannon. He attended Christian Brothers Academy (CBA)] in Syracuse for three years, but dropped out of high school at the age of 17 to enlist in the US Army in 1969. After going through basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, he received advanced training at the Army's Intelligence School, which at the time was located at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. He served as a spook in Vietnam at a Radio Reconnaissance Field Station (i.e., the 330th RRFS) with the 509th Radio Research Group of the Army Security Agency (ASA), a branch of the National Security Agency (see NSA and/or SIGINT for explanation). During his Vietnam War service, Shannon was a computer communications and traffic analysis specialist. He monitored movements of enemy troops and ordnance down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, calling in airstrikes.
He was separated from the Army with an honorable discharge in 1972. After earning his GED, Shannon received his Bachelors degree from SUNY Empire State College. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, about thirty years after separation, for his service in the Vietnam War.
Writing career
In May of 1983, Shannon became self-employed as a writer. He published his first brief article in the May 1983 issue of DEC Professional. About two years later, in September of 1985, Shannon began working as a contributor for Digital Review. It was during his 3-year stint with Digital Review that Shannon began to publish under the pseudonym "Charlie Matco".
Over the next two decades, Shannon wrote about trends in the IT industry. An advocate of the VMS operating system, he wrote the first version of the VMS user guide, Introduction to VAX/VMS through Professional Press in May 1985 (ISBN:096147291X). The 2nd edition was published by CBM Books in October 1987 (ISBN 0961472944) According to those associated with its original publisher, Professional Press, the book sold more than 100,000 copies, a number that exceeds the sales of most non-technical best sellers.[citation needed] The 3rd edition was published by CBM Books in 1991 (ISBN 1878956051). The latest (5th) edition was called Introduction to OpenVMS (ISBN 1878956612).
While Shannon also frequently wrote under the pseudonyms Digital Dog and "the notorious Belgian hacker" Cedric Zool, Charlie Matco was by far his best known nom de plume.[citation needed] Under this byline, Shannon wrote the "Rumor Roundup" feature at the end of each issue of Digital Review. His contributions in "Rumor Roundup" established his notoriety for combining humor with rumored (but very often, correct) details of as-yet-unannounced products. Shannon was known to reward people who had provided "mission critical intel" by sending them a Charlie Matco coffee mug. Very often, the recipient of one of those mugs would be unaware of the reason for receiving it. Many other mug recipients, while they knew that it was Shannon's way of thanking someone who had contributed information he could use in his column, had no idea which of their information had been deemed important enough to merit the reward. In fact, more than a few such recipients hadn't even known that Terry Shannon and Charlie Matco were one and the same. Fewer still knew that the signature of "Charlie" was actually the handwriting of Debra Macdonald, the then managing editor of Digital Review.
Shannon began to publish a newsletter in 1994, "Shannon Knows DEC", which eventually became Shannon Knows HPC (for "high performance computing"). He was knowledgeable about work in progress in the computer industry, especially for Hewlett-Packard, despite HP's active attempts to thwart his brutally honest analysis. Shannon Knows HPC was eventually made available online at his website, where Terry presented valuable articles about technology related to HP.
Shannon was also widely quoted in the independent trade press, such as in The Register [1], Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).
[2]
References
- ^ a b "Chipzilla becomes Gorgonzilla". The Register. 1999-03-15. Retrieved 2007-02-22.
- ^ "Processors: Silicon roadmaps to cheaper chips". Computerworld. 2003-07-14. Retrieved 2007-02-22.
External links
- Terry Shannon
- ShannonKnowsHPC.org - Terry Shannon Memorial Site
- networkworld.com - Living on virtually
- Photos of Terry Shannon at CANACU Ottawa, Canada (2003)
- Photos and obituary of Terry in Encompass Canada 2005 Final Farewells Page
- Obituary: Terry Shannon is dead in The Inquirer (U.K.)
- Citations of Shannon