Printable View
Drat - I missed it, it was 14th October. A celebration of the world's first computer programmer. This is someone who needs way more attention in the real world.
I keep forgetting she was Lord Byron's daughter, and I'm glad her predilection was for mathematics and not poetry. Then again, she made poetry out of numbers anyway.
This woman needs more statues dedicated to her.
And to celebrate, time to go and read more Lovelace and Babbage Fight Crime
Huzzah for Ada!
I'm also fond of this female computer wiz, who even got a destroyer named after her: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper
Yeah she was a pretty good one.
Sadie Plant's *Zeroes and Ones* has some amusing anecdotes about her.
No shit, I didn't know about the seaman connection with her.
Maybe repeating her praises will put to rest the idea that computer scientists really care about making machines and typing code in cubicles all day. She was no kin of Byron, but her father was Leibniz, I man I admire.
She is one of my heroes.Quote:
Originally posted by Elendil's Heir
How many kids did Lord Byron have anyway? No joke. He was prolific. I'd forgotten Ada L was his daughter -- I thought she was his niece or something.\
TNP knows IRL an expert on Byron and talks regularly with him or her.
Fortunately, her talents were in the poetry of mathematics and not the poetry at the bottom of the next absinthe bottle.
It would be interesting to ponder whether a longer life would have enhanced or ruined Lord Byron's reputation. Probably enhanced.
Unlikely. I'm also unlikely to ask my pal with a doctorate on Byron's work. It's more fun for me to insult him and vice versa. Besides, his guess is as good as yours.