Unseen images of Colossus code breaking computer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-67997406

by rwmj • 3 years ago

83 36 3 years ago

bbc.co.uk

janwillemb2• 3 years ago

The (changed) title made me think that there is some nasty hack that breaks computers by showing a hidden image of something called "Colossus code" to the user: Unseen images of Colossus code / breaking computer

belter• 3 years ago

Yeah...still trying to understand when is ok to change the tittle...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39048960

janwillemb2• 3 years ago

Please note that images of computers from this era nearly always have women at the "terminal". Women are the ones who invented programming. Spread the word. We need more women in our field.

See for example https://www.jstor.org/stable/25147356 and https://doi.org/10.7275/yen8-qn18

codetrotter• 3 years ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace

Ada Lovelace, the very first programmer in the world ever, was a woman as well.

She was the first to recognise that the machine had applications beyond pure calculation.

And she was one of the first to make a program for it.

nickloewen• 3 years ago

Good links, thank you!

verisimi• 3 years ago

Maybe the data entry bit was seen as more of a secretarial role, rather than an engineering one?

KineticLensman• 3 years ago

There is a long history of involvement of women in these sort of roles, for various reasons. [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_computing

NoZebra120vClip• 3 years ago

The voice of the Star Trek onboard computers, Majel Barrett, was romantically involved with the executive producer, Gene Roddenberry, and she was also able to land roles as supporting characters throughout her lifetime.

globular-toast5• 3 years ago

We need more women in our field.

Why?

robin_reala• 3 years ago

OK, I’ll take the question at face value: programmers build systems on computers that interface with the real world and hence real users. If you want to build systems that work well for users then you need to understand the problems those users have. Having a wide spread of life experience in the industry will lead to a greater chance that a greater spread of users will have their problems solved by digital systems.

jl6• 3 years ago

Two non-egalitarian reasons might be:

* The kind of teams that are hostile to female programmers are usually hostile about lots of other things too, and hence are less pleasant places to work.

* Female programmers tend to be better communicators than male programmers. While all the “true wizards” I have known have been male, you need wizardry about 1% of the time, but you need to communicate about 100% of the time.

analog31• 3 years ago

My own take is if something is that valuable, it should be owned by everybody.

askvictor2• 3 years ago

To flip the question around: why is it OK to have industries (any industry, really) dominated by men?

cjs_ac• 3 years ago

In this case, they were the 'Wrens' of the Women's Royal Naval Service[0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Royal_Naval_Service

holoduke• 3 years ago

We need more people in the field. Nothing more Nothing less.

eh_why_not3• 3 years ago

Women are the ones who invented programming.

Hmm?

dartos2• 3 years ago

Specifically Ada Lovelace described what we’d now call computer programs in her own language while assisting in the creation of adding machines.

She’s widely regarded as the first programmer.

keepamovin• 3 years ago

Imagine the code breaking computers the NSA and MSS has today wow

tgot• 3 years ago

My mother was in the 2nd (? early...) class of AT&T programmers hired. Nobody knew any programming, so the identified pre-requisites to getting hired were:

1) College degree 2) Typing 60 WPM

She and basically everyone else had been pushed to learn to type in high-school, so they'd have something better than waitressing to fall back on.

niccl• 3 years ago

My cousin designed the paper tape reader. Just before he died in 2004 he said that as far as he knew it was still the fastest optical reader in the world.

He was one of the main reasons I got into electronics and then programming

icosian• 3 years ago

The photo of the Wrens has been published before. I was once sheltering from the rain in the doorway at Bletchley Park, along with an elderly lady. She turned out to be Dorothy du Boisson, the woman on the left in the photo. I happened to have a book with that photo on me, and she pointed herself out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Du_Boisson

Unseen images of Colossus code breaking computer

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