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C H A P T E R   3

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While it seemed to be uphill work convincing anyone at CERN that global hypertext was exciting, one person was an immediate convert: Robert Cailliau.

Though now the Electronics and Computing for Physics division, by coincidence Robert had in 1980 been in the same Proton Synchrotron division as I, and had in fact written the text-formatting program I had used to print the Enquire manual. A Flemish-speaking Belgian, Robert had had the lifelong frustration of people insisting on addressing him in French. After taking an engineering degree at the University of Ghent he picked up a master's at the University of Michigan, an experience that left him with an accent in English that is impossible to identify. Indeed, it became a parlor game for newcomers at CERN to try to guess exactly where he was from.

A dapper dresser who methodically schedules haircuts according to the solstice and equinox, Robert is fastidious in all

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