MonoMonday: Woman

Jensphotos would like us to use today's MM challenge to celebrate a woman. I want to celebrate Ada Lovelace (10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852). The only legitimate child of Lord and Lady Byron, she was a mathematician who  is known chiefly for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the "Analytical Engine". She was the first to recognise that the machine had applications beyond pure calculation, and to publish the first algorithm intended to be carried out by such a machine. As a result, she is often regarded as the first computer programmer.

So to celebrate her I've chosen to blip my first computer, a BBC Micro Model B which I bought in 1983 - ie 40 years ago. I keep it in my little study on this stand along with its old monitor (and another tech relic - a VHS video recorder). I'd not turned them on for at least 5 years but they leapt to life as soon as I flicked their switches. So they were well made back in the 1980s (although I confess that I did have to replace some components in the power supply of the computer about 10 years ago when acrid white smoke started pouring out of it due to a failing capacitor).

On the screen is the first page of the first (and only!) computer program I've ever written. It was a bit of a joke - a simulation of a form of laser treatment performed on the retina in a case of diabetic retinal disease. It was in the form of a game whereby one scored points for accurate placing of the laser spots (and penalties for inaccurate placing) - so a form of simulated training for eye surgeons. Compared with these days of bloated software one had to be very concise to write it in a form which fitted into the computer's memory - of only 32 Kilobytes, not all of which was available for the program! (My current PC has 16 Gigabytes - ie 8 million times as much memory!).

We owe a lot to Ada!