Editing Mike Muuss

{{Short description|American computer programmer and author}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Mike Muuss
| image       = Mike Muuss.jpg
| alt         = Mike Muuss in 1999.
| caption     = Mike Muuss in 1999.
| birth_name  = Michael John Muuss
| birth_date  = {{Birth date|1958|10|16}}
| birth_place = [[Iowa City, Iowa|Iowa City]], [[Iowa]]
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|2000|11|20|1958|10|16}}
| death_place = [[Havre de Grace, Maryland|Havre de Grace]], [[Maryland]]
| spouse      = Susan Pohl
| nationality = American
| other_names = 
| known_for   = 
| occupation  = 
}}
[[Image:Pdp11,70 640x507.jpg|thumb|Mike Muuss (left) at the Ballistic Research Laboratory, using [[BRL-CAD]] to analyze the [[M1 Abrams|M1]] prototype, with Earl Weaver (right).]]
'''Michael John Muuss''' (October 16, 1958 – November 20, 2000) was the American author of the [[freeware]] network tool [[Ping (networking utility)|ping]], as well as the first interactive ray tracing program.
[[File:BRLCray2.jpg|thumb|Mike Muuss (center) sitting on the newly-installed Cray X-MP/48 at BRL, with Chuck Kennedy (left) and Doug Kingston (right).]]

==Career==
A graduate of [[Johns Hopkins University]], Muuss was a senior scientist specializing in geometric [[solid modeling]], [[Ray tracing (graphics)|ray-tracing]], [[Multiple instruction, multiple data|MIMD]] architectures and digital [[computer networks]] at the United States [[Army Research Laboratory]] at [[Aberdeen Proving Ground]], [[Maryland]] when he died. He wrote a number of software packages (including [[BRL-CAD]]) and network tools (including [[ttcp]] and the concept of the [[default route]] or "default gateway") and contributed to many others (including [[BIND]]).<ref name="isc">
 {{cite web
|author= Internet Systems Consortium
|author-link= Internet Systems Consortium
|title= History of BIND software development
|url=https://www.isc.org/software/bind/history
|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081118071434/https://www.isc.org/software/bind/history |archive-date=2008-11-18 |access-date=23 August 2013
}}</ref>

However, the thousand-line ping, which he wrote in December 1983 while working at the [[Ballistic Research Laboratory]], is the program for which he is most remembered. Due to its usefulness, ping has been implemented on a large number of [[operating systems]], initially [[Berkeley Software Distribution]] (BSD) and [[Unix]], but later others including [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] and [[Mac OS X]].

In 1993, the [[USENIX]] Association gave a Lifetime Achievement Award (''Flame'') to the [[Computer Systems Research Group]] at [[University of California, Berkeley]], honoring 180 individuals, including Muuss, who contributed to the CSRG's [[Berkeley Software Distribution|4.4BSD-Lite]] release.

Muuss is mentioned in two books, ''[[The Cuckoo's Egg]]'' ({{ISBN|0-7434-1146-3}}) and ''Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier'' ({{ISBN|0-684-81862-0}}), for his role in tracking down [[Hacker (computer security)|crackers]]. He is also mentioned in [[Peter Salus]]'s ''A Quarter Century of UNIX'' and a link to his website’s ping page is included in ''How Linux Works'' ({{ISBN|1718500408}}).

Muuss died in an automobile collision on [[Interstate 95 in Maryland|Interstate 95]] on November 20, 2000.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.ping127001.com/pingpage/muuss.htm |newspaper=Baltimore Sun |date=November 25, 2000 |title=Michael John Muuss, 42, computer expert whose software had key role in Internet |access-date=23 August 2013}}</ref> The '''Michael J. Muuss Research Award''', set up by friends and family of Muuss, memorializes him at [[Johns Hopkins University]].<ref>
 {{cite web
|author = Johns Hopkins University
|title = Awards
|url = http://www.jhu.edu/~admis/catalog/misc/scholarships_awards_prizes.pdf
|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031122182831/http://www.jhu.edu/~admis/catalog/misc/scholarships_awards_prizes.pdf |archive-date=2003-11-22 |access-date=23 August 2013}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Heterogeneous Element Processor]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20000816192106/http://ftp.arl.army.mil/~mike/ Mike Muuss's home page]
* [https://ftp.arl.army.mil/~mike/ping.html The Story of the PING Program]
* [https://ftp.arl.army.mil/~mike/ttcp.html The Story of the TTCP Program]
* [https://groups.google.com/d/msg/mod.protocols.tcp-ip/ymOM7LmzEsU/JGur6cVlelMJ ICMP As A Diagnostic Tool?] An Early UseNet Post by Mike Muuss Discussing Ping's history
* [http://brlcad.org/ BRL-CAD]
* [https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=5ae5efcde7b769a0484d00891deb7e68ab55edf7 Towards Real-Time Ray-Tracing of Combinatorial Solid Geometric Models]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muuss, Mike}}
[[Category:1958 births]]
[[Category:2000 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Iowa City, Iowa]]
[[Category:Road incident deaths in Maryland]]
[[Category:Johns Hopkins University alumni]]
[[Category:American computer programmers]]