This is a lecture Grace Hopper gave in August of 1982, when she was only a Captain in the Naval Reserve. NSA releases copy of internal lecture delivered by computing giant Rear Adm. Grace Hopper > National Security Agency/Central Security Service > Press Release View
It was looking like the NSA (Never Say Anything) was not going to release this lecture. I can't remember when I first heard about it, but they did get around to clearing and releasing it on YouTube. (It apparently to a FOIA request, but they did get it released tot he public.) Who could have guessed the NSA has a YouTube channel?
Grace Hopper was an amazing woman. I have published a couple of posts about her life and her work. You can find one at this link.
The lecture, which is broken into 2 videos of 40 or 45 minutes each, is an interesting look at the state of computer technology in 1982. If you have the time to listen to it, there are only a couple of places where you need to see what she is putting on the chalk board (remember those?) to understand the lecture.
One of the more interesting bits is at the start of the 2nd video, Grace Hopper talks about the state of computer security in 1982. It isn't very much better today.
In the last 5 or 10 minutes of the 2nd video, Grace Hopper talks about the difference between leadership and management.
While I would love to give credit to who alerted me to this press release, I can only guess that it was on some version of social media.
Very few, very, very, very few women should ever wear the uniform of an officer in any branch of the military services.
ReplyDeleteThat this one holds knowledge of computers is hardly deserving. In that aspect, I suggest Hedy Lamar.
That she is lauded for revealing such knowledge is beyond comprehension.
The photo of an old biddy adorned in the uniform is not compelling. America has fallen. As usual, from the inside.
You obviously have no idea who Grace Hopper was. Or her contribution to WWII. Ignorance is no excuse but it usually trumpets itself as righteousness
DeleteTwo things: One. Do a little research on Adm Hooper. Two. When you get a destroyer named after you, get back to us.
DeleteA number of years ago then R. Adm. Hopper gave a lecture on computer science at tOSU, which I attended. She is one of the developers of COBOL, and she then pointed out that some 80% of all new computer code was written in COBOL. Since most (nearly all?) new code concerns business, that seems to be a reasonable statement, at least for then.
ReplyDeleteFORTRAN has made a comeback, too. And there is a lively business in BASIC. Old languages don't die, probably because there is little reason to replace them, other than developer vanity.