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Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Lost stories, hidden figures.

A few weeks ago I wrote about how computing was at one point an occupation, primarily for women who sat at a desk and carried out endless manual calculations. I also pointed out a new movie coming out, Hidden Figures, a fictionalized account of many black female computers and mathematicians who worked at NASA during the space race and were given important responsibilities, such as shock wave research and orbital calculations related to the moon landings.

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Who is a computer?

Cameron has written about some of the problems with defining a computer today, but as some people remember computers used to be people. In fact, that is is the earliest definition: "A person who makes calculations or computations", from the earliest 17th century (thank you OED). It was only in the mid 20th century that the word included electronic devices.