"I had a running compiler and nobody would touch it. ... they carefully told me, computers could only do arithmetic; they could not do programs."

Computer scientist Grace Hopper was instrumental in developing the first computer, the Harvard Mark I, and the first computer programming language, COBOL. 

Here a a couple of entirely appropriate, computer generated haiku:

chair plunder to you

you challenged and approved more

I went estrogen

leaving my target

I considered my fingers

into my sugar

Have some fun and generate your own:  Random Haiku OR Poetry CreatOR 2

For more information on Grace Hopper, try: linky, linky, linky, & linky.

Poster by: HYDROGENE

Be Careful of the Things You Say . . .

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Today Is the Birthday of a Man to Whom We Owe an Unfathomable Debt . . .

Alan M. Turing

(June 23, 1912 — June 7, 1954)

British mathematician and logician, who made major contributions to mathematics, cryptanalysis, logic, philosophy, and biology and to the new areas later named computer science, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and artificial life.

- Encyclopedia Britannica.

Alan Turing was a patriot, a hero, and a homosexual. 

 

Because of the latter, his achievements, which were instrumental in saving lives and revolutionizing the world in which we now live, were overlooked; he was prosecuted and convicted, chemically castrated, and died of cyanide poisoning. He was 41 years old.

I think it's accurate to say that this is a birthday without which the world would be a different and eminently poorer place. 

To understand why, please read on:

The Turing Archive for the History of Computing.

The Alan Turing Homepage.

BBC History: Alan Turing.

Computerworld: How Alan Turing set the rules for computing.

Book - Alan Turing: The Enigma.

Book - The Essential Turing: Seminal Writings in Computing, Logic, Philosophy, Artificial Intelligence, and Artificial Life plus The Secrets of Enigma.

Turing by the Numbers. 

Google's Turing Doodle, solution.

Other news on Alan Turing.

Photos:

Alan Turing

Turing memorial statue plaque in Sackville Park, Manchester

The Enigma machine