Bill

Today is Ada Lovelace Day. Don't tell me you don't know who she is! She was the very first computer programmer. Not just the first female programmer but the first of any kind. She was hacking before a computer even existed! In fact, most of her work remained purely theoretical because the first computer engineer, Charles Babbage, didn't finish making his machine. But that doesn't change the fact that Ada Lovelace is badass.

As part of Ada Lovelace day a challenge was sent out to get people to blog about your "tech heroin" so that's what I'm building up towards here. Now this may seem strange since most people who come across this blog won't know her but Bonnie Fewtrell is my tech heroine. Oh, she isn't some super woman of technology; she isn't a heralded physicist, mathematician, or even logicistician. She's my mom.

Bonnie helps people for a living and is a pretty average computer user so you may be wondering how she is my computing heroine. Well, to start, she used to work for the Forest Service and programmed computers with Punch Cards and I can't help but be impressed with anyone who survived that kind of craziness. Then, when I was in my senior year of High School she encouraged me to take a Robotics Class (and helped me get a waiver to get into it because I didn't meet the prerequisites). Without her involvement at that point of my life I may not have eventually taken up software development as a career.

If I had to pick women in the field it would be much harder. I guess I'd fall back to Ada Lovelace. It was the language named after her that, thanks to my knowing it, helped land me my first post-collegiate job. But, I imagine, picking her is kind of a cop out on the day devoted to her.

#Geekiness #AdaLovelaceDay09