On 01/24/2016 06:53 PM, Lizette Koehler wrote: > > > Yes – ESPN website – Video is for Women in Computing in 1940’s and > specifically > the Queen of Coding – Adm. Grace Hoper. > > http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=12205119 > > > > 16 ½ minutes. Very interesting history of computers. > > > > Lizette Koehler > > statistics: A precise and logical method for stating a half-truth inaccurately > > While a grad student at Purdue in 1971, I saw Admiral Hopper speak at ACM'71 (in Chicago, I think). I believe ACM'71 was the occasion of the first annual ACM Grace Hopper Award (to Donald E. Knuth). I can't remember whether she was a keynote speaker or just spoke at the presentation of the award, but neither of the two things about her talk that made the most lasting impression made it into the recent video:
One was that she was noted in those days for carrying with her "nanoseconds" and at least one "microsecond" to illustrate the length of wire an electrical impulse could traverse in that amount of time. She had several nanoseconds with her (just under 1 ft in length) and handed out a few to the audience, to illustrate that although the common perception was that electrical signals were instantaneous that physical size became a significant impediment as processor clock speeds approached nanosecond values. I can't remember the exact way she worded it, but the other memorable bit of wisdom was that she had successfully managed to accomplish so much, despite government and military proclivity for red tape and inertia, by learning that when something new needed to be done it was much more effective (especially as a women in a male environment) to just do it and apologize later for her "oversight" of not getting prior permission, rather than make a vain attempt to ask for permission in advance. -- Joel C. Ewing, Bentonville, AR jcew...@acm.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
