Diary: 2024-03-14

 

If you didn’t know, today is called Pi Day. This is because the date is 3/14 and the first three digits of the value of Pi is 3.14. On this day, I want to tell you about one of the most amazing women I have ever heard of (and you probably have never heard of). Her name was Rear Admiral Grace Hopper. Grace was born in 1906. As she entered college, she wanted to be an Engineer, but she realized that there were not that many jobs for women in that profession. As such, she decided to go into mathematics. She graduated from Yale with two Ph.Ds, one in Mathematics and one in Mathematical Physics. After graduating, she took a position as a teacher at Vasser College. Here she started reviewing and working on papers about theoretical computing (this was before computers were invented). In 1941, she joined the Navel Reserve (she was too old for the Navy at 35). She was “shipped off” to Harvard where she and a team of mathematicians worked in a basement on the very first computer, the Mark 1. After the war, she went on to work on other computers including UNIVAC 1 computer. In the 1950s, the Navy found they had a problem and called upon Grace to help figure out a solution. The problem was that computers were costing a fortune. There was no standardized way to program computers. Her solution was to create an “English” programming language and make the vendors create a compiler that would take the code and convert it into their machine language. Code could now be used across all computers, saving a lot of time and money. From this, were born the standard, modern computer programming languages.

Now, you might think that it is wrong that no one knows about this woman, but I have two statements on that. First, is that no one knows the names of any computer pioneers. And two, the US Navy has not forgotten her. In the history of the US Navy, very few warship have been named after women. The second warship is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer called the USS. Hopper (1996). And every March 14 (Pi Day), they celebrate the life of Rear Admiral Grace Hopper.

When I grow up, I want to be just like her.
 
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Diary: 2024-04-27

Image
  Today I met up with Maria for some pickle ball. Neither of us is very good at it but we had a lot of fun. We started by just playing the two of us, but after a while, an older couple asked if we wanted to play against them. I think they didn't have a court reserved and wanted to play. Neither Maria nor myself had an issue so we said yes. They were pretty good and gave us some great tips and pointers.  After our match, Maria and I headed to a little cafe where we had lunch and talked. After that, I went home and worked on housework.  Cheers for now.
Read more

Diary: 2024-02-15

Image
      Today was my last round of dealing with the auditors. Today it was the procurement team. Again, they went over every penny and every day off that was taken. I don't know what they are looking for but if they don't find it, it won't because they didn't look hard enough for it. I am glad I am done with the audit. I spent the rest of the day getting as much done and getting ready for me being on vacation next week.   I talked with my sister tonight. We are both excited for my visit to New York City on Saturday. We plan on doing all the tourist thing and eating way too much good food.    Cheers for now.
Read more

Diary: 2024-03-21

Image
  I was glad I had no meeting today as it allowed me to get a lot of work done. I managed to get all the proposal reviews done and presentations scheduled, I also got a lot of work done on my end-of-month reports. I did read in an email that our division HR Manager is leaving. I am sad to see her go. I called her and she told me that she got an offer for an HR Manager with another company in town and she said the pay was really good. It will be sad to see her go but I wished her the best and told her we needed to stay in touch.   After work, I got a call from my mom and dad. They had heard about Lee and wanted to make sure I was okay. Apparently, when it comes to my love life, there are no secrets.  My dad offered for him and Uncle Bob to come to town and "re-arrange the guy's face." I smiled and said that would not be necessary, that I had it handled and would be fine. My mom gave me some advice on how to deal with a bad break-up. I asked her if s...
Read more