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Programmer Buys Original Ada Lovelace Painting On eBay
An anonymous reader sends the story of the rediscovery of an original painting of Ada Byron at about age 4, the girl who was to become Countess Lovelace and the world's first computer programmer. A US Army sergeant in Tajikistan caught wind of an eBay auction of a 180-year-old painting of Ada Byron, with provenance; he notified a programmer buddy in Texas, who won the auction.
Painting is Closest Texas Man Will Get to a Woman
After all, I am strangely colored.
I was thinking of a different Lovelace...
The CB App. What's your 20?
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
Ada Lovelace was the daughter of Lord Byron who was strongly associated and interacted greatly with Percy Shelly who was married to Mary Shelly. Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein which - wrapped in the language of the times - was a stab at Artificial Intelligence - but without intelligence separated from the physical representation (i.e. no concept of an artifact such as a computer) so artificial life was the metaphor instead. Blah blah blah I should go on Jeopardy.
Shh.
Next up on the auction block, the moth Grace Hopper pulled from a Mark II on September 9th, 1947.
Yeah but when you install Vista Service Pack One it overwrites that code.
I can't give "world's first computer programmer" to Ada Lovelace - I have to give it to Joseph Marie Jacquard, inventor of the Jacquard Loom. Babbage's Analytical Engine was to use cards - based on Jacquard's idea.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
...I read that the painting was done before she got all hot. Go recover paintings of her from her twenties!
Shelly "is widely considered to be among the finest lyric poets of the English language."
That's a strong endorsement. Lord Byron had an interesting group of characters about him. Between them they make Generation X look like a bunch of prudes.
Since he died before Mickey Mouse was born, you can find all of his works here at project Gutenberg.
Oh - support Project Gutenberg. When works in the public domain are forgotten we all lose something precious.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Dude... She's four. How do you buy a portrait like this without being a filthy pedophile?
Pedobear approves.
What do you suppose a "Hello, World" program looks like for an analytical engine?
Vista can overwrite DNA? Whoa, it's more scary than I thought.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
In spite of inpiring generations of programmers, Lady Ada Lovelace remains the last known female programmer. According to lore, Countess Lovelace developed a protocol for what is now known as instant messaging. When she armed the regular patrons of 'Ye Olde Slash of the Dot' with this technique, she found herself endlessly harassed by messages inexplicably containing the letters A, S and L separated by slashes. She purportedly proceeded to found a secret organization that trains female programmers but also strictly forbids them from identifying their professions to the male species. Patrons of the similarly community gathering location named Slashdot are still eagerly awaiting the first woman who is caught unawares so that they can ask her if she would like to cyber.
Cheers!
Atheist: Buddhist in a Prius
Black Hat?
Ada boy!
In Doran Swade's book - The Cogwheel Brain - it's suggested that Ada Lovelace's influence on computer software was somewhat exaggerated. Letters from her certainly suggest she had a severely inflated ego.
As far as major role models for female software developers go I pick Grace Hopper, who is on record as having had considerable involvement in computer development, and may, or may not have coined the term "computer bug".
> I was thinking of a different Lovelace...
What, Nigel? He must be about 40 by now. I wonder what he is up to.
Well done laddie
Makes me wonder why there aren't more female programmers tbh... women *did* start the field...
I wonder what FBI list this guy is now on for buying pictures of a 4 year old girl off of eBay??
You link to an article containing his name in the URL and you still manage to spell it wrong.
1/3 of jokes get modded OT. If you get the joke, mod 1 in 3 insightful/interesting/underrated to restore karma balance.
That's one awesome painting for a 4-year-old! It's cool that she was the first programmer, but she really missed her calling if she didn't paint more!
-- Boycott Shell
it's the language that was the first one I studied in college. I came to it after being fairly good in Cobol in high school. I think it was mainly the 1994-1995 bugs, worms, and stupid advanced programmers that kept screwing with the mainframe, but most of my programs ended up outputting a bunch of weird stuff like hearts, and other icons instead of what they were suppossed to output.
Making ADA the first language you have to learn for college kids, on mainframes that anyone in the university has access to is plainly stupid. Luckily, I eventually dropped the class, and thus ended my computer programming college career. I eventually took up some fine art classes, and went in to studio painting, thank God. I almost went in to illustration, but luckily avoided that by being very bad at calligraphy, which was what the prereq class for graphic design required you take for about half a semester... I ended up dropping that class, and got heavy duty in to art history and painting, sculpting, and a bunch of other skills that won't be obsolete in 3 years when new versions of programming languages and new versions of photoshop hit the market. Painting has advanced some with airbrushing, computer aided design, 3d design, but for the most part is pretty much the same now as it was back in the 1500s. Most folks taking computer classes can't say that since they'll have to relearn everything in less than 5 years just to keep up.
Lady Ada,
Look down upon this humble coder,
Guide me with your unerring logic.
Lady Ada,
Inspire me with your genius,
may I code a thing of beauty.
Lady Ada,
You set the path before me,
may I follow it for the rest of my days.
There are two kinds of fool. One says, This is old, and therefore good. And one says, This is new, and therefore better.
Tajikistan??? Okay, are we making up countries now?
If you think programming is all about the language and the syntax, then it's obvious how little time you spent exploring the field. Your exit from the field was a great loss to the discipline, I'm sure.
My stupid web site
OMG! It's true! Ada Lovelance > Lord Byron > Percy Shelly > Mary Shelly > Colin Clive > Don Ameche > Clark Gregg > Kevin Bacon... so they're separated by 6 - is that right?
Wrong on all three counts.
Let's see, the OP is saying he is convinced the painting is real, he is doing his best to shut up anyone questioning his claim, and he is claiming anyone who does question his claim is irrational.
You know, if someone was trying to sell a fake they'd do these exact three things. Make a claim, try to silence opposition to the claim, and discredit his detractors.
I'm not saying it is a fake, I'm just saying this guy is obviously paving the way for selling the painting, but doing it exactly like a con artist would. Don't believe me? Check out antiques auctions on eBay. The guys who are full of bologna do the exact same song and dance. Especially people selling old armour. Bury it in their backyard for a few months, dig it up, then make those kind of statements.
"This is a real Roman Cavalry helmet."
"Stop nitpicking about the details or I'll report you to eBay abuse. You're screwing up my auction."
"If you not a real historian then shut up, you don't know what you're talking about."
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Here is an image of an 1832 William Henry Mote engraving that was "probably" based on a work by Frank Stone, the artist who is supposed to have painted the original portrait. The image is rather small, but there is a striking resemblance to the painting depicted in the article.
Knowing that she was bled to death at the age of 36 she ought to be the patron saint of programmers everywhere...
He was expecting Linda.
Have gnu, will travel.
Insensitive clot.
You are condemned to co-exist for all eternity with Adm. Grace Hopper, and discuss nothing but COBOL:
05 PICTURE IS X"2**122" VALUE IS "BLEAK"
BJs optional, at her discretion.
And no sneaky sips of Pinoqachole.