Subject: Re: The Shelley poem is genuine
From: floom@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Laura E. Floom)
Date: 1991-04-12, 10:53
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

In article <70572@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> riacmt@ubvmsa.cc.buffalo.edu writes:
> >In article <1991Apr9.234542.23271@nntp-server.caltech.edu>, floom@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Laura E. Floom) writes...
>> >> 
>> >>BTW, for the computer programmers out there. Lord Byrons daughter was Ada, the
>> >>women who the language was named after. I know this has nothing to do with TP,
>> >>but what the hell.
> >
> >And, I seem to vaguely remember something about how she was
> >quite the mathematical whiz.  Didn't she also have some kind
> >of relationship with Turing (of Turing test fame)?  Don't some
> >claim she is responsible for the birth of the computer, something
> >about binary, or hex or something?  A women back then just simply
> >wasn't taken seriously.  (Why else would George Sand use a man's
> >name?)
> >
> >Inquiring minds want to know!  -- Carol

Well, I didnt give all the facts in the first posting beacuse i didnt
want to start a net.argument, but this is how it goes. Yes, she was a 
real whiz. And she was a friend of Babbage (and possible lover?) Babbage
designed a computing machine, and its basic design was used for early
modern computers. Now this is the part that some sexist scholars dispute:
Ada "programmed" Babbages machine. So, she is considered the first programmer.

BTW, Turing is a more modern figure. He was the one that came up with a 
method for decoding the enemies codes during WWII. He is British and didnt
get the credit that he deserved because Britian (at least in those days) was
a very homophobic country.

Now back to TP... (oh god! I am gonna miss it!)

Laura Floom