Ada Lovelace - What a Woman!

[RadDave]

Well, might be the first thread that I've added here - but I just started a new book The Innovators (2014) by Walter Isaacson (same guy who wrote the bio on Steve Jobs); DL to my iPad (my preference now for reading now) - the book is about the history of computers and the internet - the first chapter starts in the early 1800s concentrating on Charles Babbage & Ada Bryon (below a brief quote), legal daughter of Lord Bryon, so Ada Bryon or after her marriage Countess Ada Lovelace (husband acquired the title of 'Earl of Lovelace' - her great uncle was the Prime Minister @ the time).

She was an aristocrat and female, so nothing 'scientific' was expected from her, but her mother had Ada trained in mathematics and she along w/ Babbage developed some of the early concepts that evolved into computer programming - this is explained in the first chapter of the book (and I've read other accounts of her prescient ideas elsewhere) - a programming language, i.e. Ada was even named after her - claimed to be the first 'computer programmer'!

An amazing woman who unfortunately died young at the age of 36 y/o (1815-1852) from uterine cancer; she was the same age at death as her father, Lord Bryron - she is buried next to him in England. I'll continue on to the second chapter and expect to enjoy this new book - Dave

In his masterly saga, Isaacson begins with Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron’s daughter, who pioneered computer programming in the 1840s. He explores the fascinating personalities that created our current digital revolution, such as Vannevar Bush, Alan Turing, John von Neumann, J.C.R. Licklider, Doug Engelbart, Robert Noyce, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Tim Berners-Lee, and Larry Page.

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[vansmith]

What's most amazing about this was that she was a woman at a time when the career expectations of women were limited or non-existent at all.

 

[banesto]

I enjoyed this post extremely, please keep these post active!

 

[RadDave]

What's most amazing about this was that she was a woman at a time when the career expectations of women were limited or non-existent at all.

Hi Van - yep, the ladies were really at a disadvantage in those days - I'm a BIG classical musical fan and in the 19th century there were so many talented women writing music who never received much credit - just a few examples (and I have CDs of all of these gals): 1) Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847), sister of Felix; 2) Louise Farrenc (1804–1875); and 3) Amy Beach (1867-1944) - an American and later but another wonderful neglected composer - just a meager few of many (for those interested in lady composers - check HERE) - Dave

 

[ankhseeker]

I too found it interesting. There is "The computer History Museum" in San Jose, California that is well worth a look if you are in the area. Been there many times.

 

[RadDave]

Really enjoying the book and now into the 1940s & early 50s w/ a lot of discussion on computer development during the stimulus of WWII - plus, after Ada Lovelace a century previously, women re-emerge as important in the development of the 'modern' computer, mainly as the innovators in programming - the book at this point concentrates on Jennings and her co-workers in programming the ENIAC & Grace Hopper @ Harvard. Dave

Quote below from a Wiki article Women in Computing.

1946: Jean Jennings, Betty Snyder, Frances Spence, Kay McNulty, Marlyn Wescoff, and Ruth Lichterman were the original programmers of the ENIAC. Adele Goldstine, also involved in the programming, wrote the program manual for the ENIAC.

1948: Kathleen Booth writes the assembly language for the ARC2 computer.

1949: Grace Hopper (1906–1992), was a United States Navy officer and the first programmer of the Harvard Mark I, known as the "Mother of COBOL". She developed the first-ever compiler for an electronic computer, known as A-0. She also popularized the term "debugging" – a reference to a moth extracted from a relay in the Harvard Mark II computer.

 

[Beatles4Life]

I've heard of Ada Lovelace and think she was brilliant, but I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't heard of any of the others.

Ada has a Blue Plaque in London (photo here), which I stumbled upon on a recent trip there.

 

[RadDave]

I've heard of Ada Lovelace and think she was brilliant, but I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't heard of any of the others.

Ada has a Blue Plaque in London (photo here), which I stumbled upon on a recent trip there.

Thanks for the link to Ada's home! No reason to be ashamed - I had read this history before and only remembered a few - these gals were so important in the early development of computer programming and are just being better acknowledged. Dave

 

[Lightcraftsman]

I just downloaded this book to my iPhone 6 yesterday. This post put it to the top of my Next Read list. Ada sounds like she was a fascinating person.

 

[RadDave]

I just downloaded this book to my iPhone 6 yesterday. This post put it to the top of my Next Read list. Ada sounds like she was a fascinating person.

Like me, I hope that you enjoy the book - chapter 4 is an important one about the development of the transistor to replace vacuum tubes (quote below from Wiki) - arguably the most important invention of the 20th century?

I remember in the early '60s as a mid-high school student (must have been 1962), getting my first transistor radio - believe that it was $30 - WOW! Just did an inflation index calculation, $236 now (hard to believe that my parents bought it for me) - BUT, so many kids back then had these pocket size radios - remember sitting in study hall w/ ear plugs in listening to music - my first 'portable' device and exciting - kind of the iPad of the day - Dave

The transistor is the fundamental building block of modern electronic devices, and is ubiquitous in modern electronic systems. Following its development in 1947 by American physicists John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley, the transistor revolutionized the field of electronics, and paved the way for smaller and cheaper radios, calculators, and computers, among other things. The transistor is on the list of IEEE milestones in electronics, and the inventors were jointly awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for their achievement.

 

[Lightcraftsman]

Finished Chapter 1 last night. Ada Lovelace was indeed fascinating; a troubled genius. She had a very high opinion of herself, but it seems that opinion was justified. I'm looking forward to the rest of the book.

 

[RadDave]

Finished Chapter 1 last night. Ada Lovelace was indeed fascinating; a troubled genius. She had a very high opinion of herself, but it seems that opinion was justified. I'm looking forward to the rest of the book.

Hi again - just finished the chapters 'The Microchip' (a lot on Intel) & 'Video Games' ending w/ the emergence of Atari - this book has received a LOT of 1* & 2* ratings on Amazon HERE w/ some from one of the co-founders of Atari (has really downrated this excellent book) - all of these quite negative comments seem to center on this one chapter on video games - don't know if there is a 'bone of contention', 'rotten apples', or some other agenda? Dave

 

[lclev]

Coming late to this thread but have downloaded the book! This is memory lane for me. I use to teach computers (back before the internet was available for the masses!) I had a whole lesson on the history and development of the personal computer.

I will enjoy checking out this author's views.

Lisa

 

[RadDave]

Coming late to this thread but have downloaded the book! This is memory lane for me. I use to teach computers (back before the internet was available for the masses!) I had a whole lesson on the history and development of the personal computer.

Hi Lisa - I'll be interested in your comments about the book - in the late '70s, I had the original commercial Pong game - son & I loved playing (I kept beating a friend, a philosophy professor @ Wake Forest University - he kept coming back for more - ) - soon after in 1980 we acquired our first computer, an Apple II+ (year before IBM released its first PC w/ Bill Gates DOS - can't remember the number?) - BOY, I loved that computer, but when our medical center decided to go PC vs. the new (first) Mac, I had to do a switch - $$ was the issue.

Our son was 7 y/o when I bought that Apple computer and likely as I added PCs and he was growing up directed him into his college major, Telecommunications w/ a Computer Science minor - we went through the first Internet days w/ text based dialup modems (use to order CDs from CDNow before the WWW) - just amazed @ the development in the latter half of my life.

BTW - for those following this thread, I just finished Chapter 7 entitled 'The Internet', which is quite a story from the prescient inspirations of JCR Licklider to the development of the first ARPANET in 1969 to the early roll-over into the Internet in the mid-70s - now continuing on to the next chapter 'The Personal Computer' which led the way for the internet to enter our homes which occurred for me in the early 1980s! Dave

 

[RadDave]

Sorry to post right after my last one, but I assume that anyone reading this thread is very interested in the history of computers & the internet (I hope - ) - but Issacson referenced a book published back in 1984 called Hackers by Steven Levy - apparently the 25th anniversary edition has added updated material - just a $10 Kindle purchase on Amazon - SO, my question for those who might have read this recent release - thoughts? Thanks - Dave

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