Ada Lovelace Day

March 24th 2010 is Ada Lovelace Day. Augusta Ada Byron-King, Countess of Lovelace is one of my heroines (next to Jane Austen). She was one of the first programmers and was able to see potential in one of the geekiest people of the 18th century, Charles Babbage. She was also a strong willed lady who pushed way beyond the limited boundaries women had then. Sadly cancer took her life at the age of 36 or we would have probably had a finished Analytical machine (pooie to anyone who thinks it wasn't physically possible.. nothing can stop Steam).

For some historical truth (and a golly fun steam punk fantasy) please read about Charles Babbage and Ada Byron at 2D goggles. Here is a 'history' of Countess Lovelace

Ada was also a pretty cool language that I learned after Pascal (the progress being Heathkit assembly, Apple Basic, Apple Assembly, Apple Pascal, then Ada).

[edited: 2010-03-24 15:14:22 UTC] corrected spelling of names. sorry about that