[clug] Ada Lovelace Day

[Lana Brindley]

I keep trying to imagine Lovelace, in all her finery, being offered pizza,
standing up, in a lecture theatre.

And then  I keep giggling.

L

On 25 March 2010 23:51, Jim Croft <jim.croft at gmail.com> wrote:

> don't care about the woman bit...  she is a geek legend!
>
> we should offer her honorary lifetime CLUG membership, including free
> pizza at every meeting.
>
> jim
>
> On Thu, Mar 25, 2010 at 4:24 PM, Lana Brindley <lanabrindley at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > I'm a little late posting this, but anyway, here goes ...
> >
> > The 24th March (which it still is, in a very few parts of the world ...)
> was
> > last year declared "Ada Lovelace Day". It is described on the official
> > website as "an international day of blogging to celebrate the
> achievements
> > of women in technology and science".[0]
> >
> > Countess Ada Lovelace[1] assisted Charles Babbage[2] on the development
> of
> > his "Analytical Engine"[3] in the mid 1800's. The Analytical Engine was
> more
> > or less a forerunner to the pocket calculator, and is considered among
> the
> > very first mechanical computers. While Charles Babbage was the mastermind
> > behind the engine itself (the hardware engineer, if you will), Ada
> Lovelace
> > was fascinated by the machine, and developed a programming language for
> it.
> > This has become what is now popularly known as the first programming
> > language, and the Countess Lovelace the first computer programmer.
> >
> > Unfortunately for Babbage, the Analytical Engine was never built in his
> > lifetime. This is blamed on a number of things - lack of government
> support
> > (in the form of cold, hard cash) chief amongst them. Unfortunately for
> the
> > Countess Lovelace, her programming language was never tested in her
> > lifetime. This was blamed on one main problem - the lack of a computer to
> > run it on.
> >
> > Interestingly, the Analytical Engine was built eventually. It now lives
> in a
> > museum in London, if you feel really keen to go and see it. Perhaps even
> > more interesting, though, is the fact that Ada Lovelace's legacy lives
> on,
> > 150 years later, in the form of the high-level computer language called
> > Ada[4].
> >
> > So, with history proving that women can program along with the best of
> them
> > - and do so wearing a corset, hat, and gloves - take a moment to reflect
> on
> > the women that you know who work in the engineering, science, computing,
> and
> > IT industries. And maybe send them an email, or give them a call, and
> tell
> > them they're doing a great job.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Lana
> >
> > [0] http://findingada.com/about/
> > [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_lovelace
> > [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Babbage
> > [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytical_engine
> > [4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_(programming_language)<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_%28programming_language%29>
> >
> > --
> > Cheers! Lana
> >
> > I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of
> liking
> > them.
> >  - Jane Austen
> >
> > -----------------------------------------------
> > http://lanabrindley.blogspot.com
> > -----------------------------------------------
> >
> > Please avoid sending me Word, Powerpoint or Windows Media attachments.
> >
> > See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html for more
> > information.
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------
> > --
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> > linux at lists.samba.org
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> >
>
>
>
> --
> _________________
> Jim Croft ~ jim.croft at gmail.com ~ +61-2-62509499 ~
> http://www.google.com/profiles/jim.croft
> 'A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point
> of doubtful sanity.'
>  - Robert Frost, poet (1874-1963)
>



-- 
Cheers! Lana

I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking
them.
 - Jane Austen

-----------------------------------------------
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Please avoid sending me Word, Powerpoint or Windows Media attachments.

See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html for more
information.

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