With the rapid advancement of modern technology, it's increasingly humbling to look back at the computer industry's beginnings. Bill Gates, Linus Torvalds, Tim Berners-Lee and the late Steve Jobs are all famous for their contributions, but there are hundreds of scarcely-recognized individuals who fundamentally changed the course of history and laid the foundation for later generations.
Bob Kahn along with the better-known Vint Cerf co-invented two crucial protocols, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP), both of which are at the heart of the Internet. Meanwhile, Bell Labs researcher Dennis Ritchie is regarded as the father of C, the forerunner for nearly every modern programming language. Sadly, he passed away shortly after Jobs last October.
These are just two people who greatly influenced the world but never became household names. What other technology innovators deserve more attention and why?