A graduate of
Johns Hopkins University, Muuss was a senior scientist specializing in geometric
solid modeling,
ray-tracing,
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). 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
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
4.4BSD-Lite release. Muuss is mentioned in two books, ''
The Cuckoo's Egg () and Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier'' (), for his role in tracking down
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 (). Muuss died in an automobile collision on
Interstate 95 on November 20, 2000. The
Michael J. Muuss Research Award, set up by friends and family of Muuss, memorializes him at
Johns Hopkins University. {{cite web ==See also==