Augusta Byron: 1815-1852
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Lady Lovelace, also called Lady
Ada, (and some other things) was one of the most picturesque characters in
computer history. Augusta Ada Byron was born December 10, 1815 the daughter of
the poet, Lord Byron. In November 1834, Ada heard of Babbage's ideas for a
new calculating engine, the Analytical Engine. He conjectured: what if a
calculating engine could not only foresee but could act on that foresight. Ada was touched by the "universality of his ideas". Hardly anyone else was.Ada suggested to Babbage that she plan for how the engine might calculate Bernoulli numbers. This plan is now regarded as the first "computer program." A software language developed by the U.S. Department of Defense was named "Ada" in her honor in 1979. |