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Phoenix666 writes:

One of the founding fathers of the internet, Robert Taylor, has died.

While working at the Pentagon in the 1960s, he instigated the creation of Arpanet - a computer network that initially linked together four US research centres, and later evolved into the internet.

At Xerox, he later oversaw the first computer with desktop-inspired icons and a word processor that formed the basis of Microsoft Word.

Mr Taylor died at home aged 85.

His family told the Los Angeles Times that he had suffered from Parkinson's disease among other ailments.

Mr Taylor studied psychology at university, but worked as an engineer at several aircraft companies and Nasa before joining the US Department of Defense's Advanced Research Project Agency (Arpa) in 1965.

So long, Robert, and thanks for all the fish.

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