Bob Metcalfe, the inventor of Ethernet: The speech I’m going to give on Thursday is called “Ethernet vs. Godzilla.” The idea is that Ethernet has encountered a series of competitors out trying to kill it. The number is huge. The most famous is the IBM token ring. It was among the many Godzillas and the most formidable because it was backed by the dominant monopoly in computing at the time. I really enjoyed his column in InfoWorld. It hasn’t been the same magazine since he left. His wry humor was always great, from his very specific prediction of the Internet stock bubble bursting to his constant references to the “Open Sores” movement.