#ada byron

[blondebrainpowered]

Watercolour portrait of Ada King, Countess of Lovelace also known as Ada Lovelace, ca. 1840, possibly by Alfred Edward Chalon.

Ada Lovelace, is celebrated as the first computer programmer. In the early 19th century, she wrote detailed notes on Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, a pioneering mechanical computer.

Among these notes was an algorithm designed to compute Bernoulli numbers, which is recognized as the first published computer program. At a time when computing was an uncharted territory, Lovelace envisioned the potential of machines to perform complex tasks beyond basic arithmetic.

Her foresight and contributions laid the groundwork for modern computer science.

She was also the daughter of the poet Lord Byron.

[qberryshortcake]

Notably, she also invented one of the most used programming languages for decades, COBOL. For a while there, COBOL skills were highly sought after because a lot of businesses and banks used it.

and as long as we're talking about women in programming

The first programmer was, in fact, a woman.

Ada Byron (Yes *that* Byron), Duchess of Lovelace, wrote small programs for Charles Babbage's theoretical computer the Difference Engine. One of my favorite facts from her is that she wrote a frustrated letter to him about not being able to solve for some particular problem and went horse-riding to feel better. Nothing more relatable to a programmer than that.

She was also fashionable af, and wrote patterns for the Jacquard loom, a sort of programmable loom from the late 1800s.

Sadly her contributions to programming are hotly debated, and people bend over backwards to make the claim that she did nothing, or that her work should be attributed to Babbage, or that there were others who wrote stuff before her (she conceptualized loops and was the first to recognize that you could do more than just reproduce existing equations from the Difference Engine).

This woman is Dr. Grace Murray Hopper. She created the first computer language compiler tools to program the Harvard Mark I computer. This computer was used in WWII after 1944. John von Neumann initiated the computer's first program, but Hopper invented the codes

[iscahmckrae]

Reading two brilliant books right now—one, imaginative and irreverent historical fiction, and the other, time travel romance. Just wanted to pop in here and share the first paragraph of each... because they're fun:

"So, the thing is, I come from the world we were supposed to have. That means nothing to you, obviously, because you live here, in the crappy world we do have. But it never should've turned out like this. And it's all my fault—well, me and to a lesser extent my father and, yeah, I guess a little bit Penelope." —paragraph one, ALL OUR WRONG TODAYS

"'Force... equals... mass... times... acceleration,' muttered Ada as she wrote in her notebook. Ada pondered that if you drop a hammer on your foot, it hurts more than dropping, say, a sock on your foot. The acceleration, or speeding up, is the same, but the mass, the solid oomph of a thing, is different. Oomph times zoom equals kaboom!" —paragraph one, The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency, No. 1: The CASE of the MISSING MOONSTONE

Okay, okay... I need to share another two bits (not 25¢) from the time travel romance, because, as a writer, they are so delicious...

"Today, in the year 2016, humanity lives in a techno-utopian paradise of abundance, purpose, and wonder.

Except we don't. Of course we don't. We live in a world where, sure, there are iPhones and 3D printers and, I don't know, drone strikes or whatever. But it hardly looks like The Jetsons. Except it should. And it did. Until it didn't. But it would have, if I hadn't done what I did. Or, no, hold on, what I will have done.

I'm sorry, despite receiving the best education available to a citizen Tomorrow, the grammar of this situation is a bit com-plicated.

Maybe the first person is the wrong way to tell this story. Maybe if I take refuge in the third person I'll find some sort of distance or insight or at least peace of mind. It's worth a try."

—then, the next chapter spends the first two paragraphs written in the third person, but then...

"I'm sorry—I can't write like this. It's fake. It's safe.

The third person is comforting because it's in control, which feels really nice when relating events that were often so out of control. It's like a scientist describing a biological sample seen through a micro-scope. But I'm not the microscope. I'm the thing on the slide. And I'm not writing this to make myself comfortable. If I wanted comfort, I'd write fiction.

In fiction, you cohere all these evocative, telling details into a portrait of the world. But in everyday life, you hardly notice any of the little things. You can't. Your brain swoops past it all, especially when it's your own home, a place that feels barely separate from the inside of your mind or the outside of your body."

—I'm sorry..... I can't get over a book stopping and explaining why it is written how it us written! Authors that break the fourth wall! I just...

(reminds me of my favorite autobiography, The Making of an American by Jacob Riis)

And then having the chutzpah to declare itself nonfiction while being soft sci-fi. It just....

And the other..... the historical fiction... It is the adventures of Ada Byron (the world's first computer programmer) and Mary Shelley, nee Godwin (the world's first science fiction author) as teenage girls who form their own detective agency and go adventuring together!

Reading both of these at once is rapturous!

So, yeah........ #book recs !!!

[shadowkira]

Doctor Who Text Posts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

[batknot]

I think Lord Byron is my favorite historical figure ever. He wrote Don Juan, his daughter invented computers, he was a raging bisexual, he had a twink sugar baby he spent 70k modern usd on in 6 months, he wore haircurlers to bed, he kept sleeping with his cousins, he was an antivaxxer, he's a vegetarian with an eating disorder, he had a pet bear in college as a protest, he hated historical artifact looters, he made his dog's tombston bigger than his own, he had to sleep in his gondala after fights with one of his mistresses, he helped write Frankenstein and the Vampyre, he's the inspiration for all OP male leads, he had a crazy fanbase, he wouldnt stop adopting stray animals.

anywayz I can't slutshame him because frankly he earned all his bitches fair and square

[enlitment]

Which Underrated Woman from History are You?

Finally got around to making a uquiz featuring six of my favourite women from history! You can either get someone from the French Revolution, Roman Republic (I know, how unexpected!) or from 1700s/early 1800s.

Featuring scientists, writers, politically active icons and a few poets whose lives were intertwined with theirs, as a treat!

Enjoy and thanks everyone for sharing! ✨

[evviejo]

requested by @shadowkira >> thirteen interacting with ada lovelace vs. interacting with lord byron

[burningvelvet]

part 1 of PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE ROMANTICS, A TUMBLR HISTORY EXHIBIT: photos i've collected of people related to the english writers of the romantic period and/or who were part of the byron-shelley circle.

Sir Percy Florence Shelley, 3rd Baronet, the only mutual child of Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, née Godwin, to live into adulthood. Compare him as an older gentleman to the portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Shelley below.

Anne "Annabella" Isabella Noel Byron, 11th Baroness Wentworth and Baroness Byron, née Milbanke (Lord Byron's wife)

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, née Byron (Lord and Lady Byron's only child)

[welcomefortune]

shoutout to lord byron for accidentally indirectly causing computer programming to be invented because of his debauchery

[petruchio]

why was i cursed with the strange and obsessive need to think about everything so hard. life would be so much easier if i just was like, okay

[annbourbon]

This is Lord Byron. And it's all his fault.

He is the reason we have sparkling vampires now:

But also and partially (about 50% lolol) the reason behind Ada Lovelace.

Please feel free to add, correct or reblog if you want♡

Credits to its owners.

[octaviasdread]

It’s always ‘Lord Byron this’ or ‘Lord Byron that’ and never Byron’s oldest grandson who:

- got shipped off to Australia & the Navy by his parents at age 13 to control his behaviour

- sailed with the imprisoned William Smith O’Brien, an Irish rebel leader born into the aristocracy, and three other independence fighters

- had letters to his siblings intercepted to prevent his wild tales being a bad influence

- age 14 plotted to divert water from gardens at the Admiralty’s House to the less privileged under the cover of a masquerade ball

- returned home at 16 with tattooed hands and a preference for working-class friends

- took other kids sailing on the lake in a ship he rigged from a washtub

- ran away to avoid being promoted to a gentleman’s position in the Navy

- disinherited as the Lovelace/Byron/Wentworth heir and signed up to be a shipyard worker in London’s East End

- moved to the infamous Isle of Dogs with a friend and tried saving money for both a boat and pet BEAR CUB

- wanted to marry the divorced daughter of his landlord (she rejected him)

- accepted the Wentworth barony after his grandmother’s death but never used his title

- he and his siblings threatened they would not go to their beloved grandmother’s funeral if their father attended against her wishes

- died age 26 after collapsing while sailing

[boydsjosten]

what do you think lord byron would say if he knew that the daughter he did not care about from the woman he hated being married to is part of the reason the stories of his life are spread even further than they assumably have been during his time

[oysters-aint-for-me]

if i were a better playwright id write a one-acter in which lord byron and ada lovelace, having been buried next to each other, confront each other as father and daughter in the afterlife

[little-desi-historian]

‘I could fix him’ no you cannot, he cannot even ‘fix’ himself.