She came to speak at A&T University in NC where I worked a couple years, back in the late '70s. I didn't go to hear it - didn't sound all that interesting to me - but my boss came back from it with one of her nanoseconds and from his description I've regretted it ever since. Oh, well, I had my chance.
--- Bob Bridges, [email protected], cell 336 382-7313 /* The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. */ -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mark S Waterbury Sent: Saturday, June 13, 2020 19:35 That article: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/everyone-wants-to-retire-mainframes-but-74-of-modernization-efforts-fail/ -- has a nice historical photo at the top, but with no explanation whatsoever of the content of that picture. That is none other than (a then young) Grace Hopper, who was instrumental in the development of COBOL, and who worked for the U.S. Navy for most of her career. I had the privilege of meeting her, in person, early in my career, when she was then an "elder statesman" for COBOL and had been given the honorary rank of "Rear Admiral" in the US Navy ... (she was officially retired from the Navy by then); that was in the late 1970s, around 1976 or 1977, if I remember correctly. At that time, she always carried with her a small bundle of "bell wire" all cut to a lengh of just under 12 inches, or the distance an electrical signal would travel over copper wire in one nanosecond. As she met each new person, she would hand you one of these pieces of wire and say, "That's a nanosecond!" with some delight. :-) See also : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper and https://news.yale.edu/2017/02/10/grace-murray-hopper-1906-1992-legacy-innovation-and-service ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
