The House Husband

If computing ever feels in need of a patron saint, my money would be on Ada Lovelace. This remarkable woman only lived to the age of 36 but achieved so much. I’ve posted about her before so I won’t bore you with nowt but a picture:

Ada Lovelace

I was alerted by someone on Twitter today that was Ada Lovelace Day, however, searching back through my posts, I find that I last celebrated it on March 25, 2010. According to an entry on Wikipedia, it changed in 2011 to October 7. No reason was given.

The weather has turned decidedly cold. After last Saturday being the hottest October day on record (most of which I spent at Frimley Park hospital) this week things have returned to normal for the time of year. So, at night, it’s cold. I put the heaters on because Mirinda came home tonight.

Today, on my trip into Farnham, two people noticed my arm and asked about it. They were both women. Given the guys didn’t say anything yesterday, I think they’re all reverting to (stereo)type.

I chatted to my friend at Waitrose but she hasn’t yet heard about the job she applied for which, she reckons, is a good thing. You could tell she was excited though because she doesn’t normally smile.

After her initial comforting suffering due to my wrist and my normal glass-half-full way of deflecting it, she almost forgot about my pain with the eager anticipation of her possible new employment prospect. I’m glad because I really hate a fuss being made. It cheered me no end that she was actually happy when she’s usually as miserable as sin.

After a (tiny) bit of digging, I have discovered why Ada Lovelace Day has moved to October. If interested, you can read why here.

Today is/was Ada Lovelace Day. For those that do not know, Ada was Lord Byron’s daughter who married a man called Lovelace and lived in East Horsley, where we lived happily for a time. She is pretty much universally accepted as the first computer programmer. She worked closely with Charles Babbage on his mathematical machine which was the first computer. Interestingly, the machine is featured in a book put out by the Science Museum but the entry, while raving about Babbage, does not mention Ada. This is not so amazing as she wasn’t credited for a long time but, eventually, her name was honoured by having a software programme named after her. It is the one used for air traffic control systems.

She was an amazing woman but died relatively young. I wonder what she could have achieved had she lived to a grand old age.

Anyway, the thing about Ada Day is that people are supposed to blog about a woman scientist who has inspired (or inspires) you. I’m going to choose Mary Beard, Head of Classics at Cambridge.

I saw her speak at the archaeology conference and have read a lot of her work. I admire her greatly. She makes the ancient world seem very real. She is an excellent speaker and writer. I read her blog every time she makes an entry.

So…happy Ada Day and salutations to Professor Beard.

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The poodles finally had their winter coats removed today. When they returned from Kate’s they had been halved in size! They are so cute.

Here’s what they looked like before they went:

A wee bit like sheep

and here they are after:

Now more like lambs