I’ve posted about her before, but I think she’s so damn cool it’s worth another post:
“The 100th anniversary of the birth of programming language pioneer Grace Hopper was celebrated on 9 December. Widely credited as being the “mother” of the Cobol computer language her work was hugely influential.
…
Her inspiration was to create a computer language that read more like real English rather than the tortuous machine code used by many other programming languages of the time.” BBC
Monthly Archives: December 2006
Kid on the bus: “Where are we going?”
Morrissey: “We’re all going mad”.
Another Kid: “I thought we were going to Kew Gardens”.
In an article titled “What value our passport?” I came across this:
“Instead of a guarantee of support, [the passports] value lies in the strength and good sense of the government of the day, he said. Australia was the only Western country not to have enshrined the rights and obligations of its people in a legal charter, he said.
…
“But when that system breaks down, particularly in a climate of fear, goodwill and good sense tends to go out the window and opportunism and other issues come to the fore.”
Law Council of Australia president Tim Bugg said a bill of rights had not seemed necessary until the war on terror, which saw the commitment to due process discarded. “We ought not need to have a bill of rights, but I think we now have to look at having one,” Mr Bugg said.
“The Australian passport means nothing if political considerations are involved.””
I had the first of five work Christmas parties on Friday night, and survived.
At some stage I put my hand in my jeans pocket and found the scrap of paper I thought I’d lost with the name of my Secret Santa person written on it. Secret Santa presents are given out at one of the other work parties and is taken very seriously – I would have been in trouble if I hadn’t been able to remember who my present was for.
In other news, I’ve decided that I hate the rain.
This pointless personal post was brought to you by the ATT100 and Ironmonger Row baths.
Free Office software: the equivalent of Word, Excel and more for free is written from a money saving perspective but it’s a good source of information on non-Microsoft office and productivity software.
I love number 11 on Greenpeace’s 12 steps to a greener holiday guide:
Hang lots of mistletoe. This won’t really help the environment. But more kissing has got to be good for world peace 😉
Number 12 is worth a read: 12 tips for individual action on global warming.
Ha!
“Left-handed people can think quicker when carrying out tasks such as playing computer games or playing sport, say Australian researchers.
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The fast transfer of information in the brain makes left-handers more efficient when dealing with multiple stimuli.
Experts said left-handers tended to use both sides of the brain more easily.” BBC
For no particular reason except the idea amuses me: Who is the Black Country Banksy?
Continuing the ‘local news’ theme, “Organisers of a village Christmas party have been told they must carry out a risk assessment of their mince pies – or their festivities will be cancelled.” BBC
I came across thedailywtf.com during a search for ‘spaghetti code’. Geeks being mean to other geeks is always tragically amusing. This particularly amused me, probably because I’m working through someone else’s (spaghetti) code at the moment.
A kid I could like. I never thought the day would come, but who could resist this?
“I didn’t have an imaginary friend. I had an imaginary nodding acquaintance instead. We didn’t really talk much, just nodded or raised a hat if we passed each other on the pavement.” From the Museum of Childhood site.