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Programmer Buys Original Ada Lovelace Painting On eBay
Posted by
kdawson
on Tue Mar 25, 2008 12:29 AM
from the mother-of-us-all dept.
from the mother-of-us-all dept.
An anonymous reader sends the story of the rediscovery of an original painting of Ada Byron at about age 4, the girl who was to become Countess Lovelace and the world's first computer programmer. A US Army sergeant in Tajikistan caught wind of an eBay auction of a 180-year-old painting of Ada Byron, with provenance; he notified a programmer buddy in Texas, who won the auction.
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Submission: Original Ada Lovelace painting purchased on eBay by Anonymous Coward
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In Other News... (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:1, Funny)
oh.... ADA Lovelace... (Score:2, Funny)
suspicious? (Score:4, Insightful)
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I'll be damned if I can find the car reference in your analogy. Therefore, its not a proper analogy. Are you sure you didn't mean ""Just like Clinton has some sort of contract in place to protect her if George Bush turns out to be fake, You have to assume that there was some sort of contract between them, s
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
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Re:suspicious? (Score:5, Informative)
Paintings of nobility from the 1800's are not in short supply, they are usually valued by the reputation of the artist not the subject of the painting. It's much more likely that the dealer had no idea why geeks would be more interested than art collectors.
Parent
Re:suspicious? (Score:5, Insightful)
A real provenance needs to make specific reference to the article and have specific and traceable details about the past owners. This looks to be just a quick history of the painter, if it was the correct painter. There is nothing that directly relates to the painting or who the painting is of.
As for the subject I presume they would of done a quick search of the subject, the painter, Frank Stone ARA, is fairly famous for his painting and mainly for being the father of Marcus Stone. Marcus was really famous in his time and was a close friend of Charles Dickens. Any search for Ada Byron links right to a history of her. So you have a painter who has some name recognition and a named subject who is easy to research; tie that in with a tech savy, sells on ebay(tech savy may be a strech) but aleast is capable of doing some searching.
BTW, what was the final selling price for this?
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
I understand 'provenance' but this is slashdot, how the hell would I know what's in TFA?
Re:suspicious? (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:suspicious? (Score:4, Informative)
Who cares what he believes or what he's 'confirmed'. 'Provenance' in the art and antiques world means something - it means an expert has performed the research and certifies the item is real. For an item this important, it's a quasi legal document, signed and notarized - with a full description of the item, a full description of the research, and a full description of why the expert believes the item in question to be real. It's not a handwritten biography of the supposed subject of the provenance on a sheet of letterhead.
Mandatory disclaimer: I have been a used and rare bookseller and have dealt with provenances on a minor basis.
Wrong on all three counts.
Parent
Motive? (Score:3, Interesting)
And such accusations without proof are libelous (being in written form), no doubt based on jealousy, not to mention is basically irrational.
Wrong on all three counts.
Let's see, the OP is saying he is convinced the painting is real, he is doing his best to shut up anyone questioning his claim, and he is claiming anyone who does question his claim is irrational.
You know, if someone was trying to sell a fake they'd do these exact three things. Make a claim, try to silence opposition to the claim, and discredit his detractors.
I'm not saying it is a fake, I'm just saying this guy is obviously paving the way for selling the painting, but doing it exactly like a con art
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Not quite - the OP is a friend of the buyer and is defending him.
Much more likely the friend (Robert) has a great deal of emotional
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Re:suspicious? (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
A.I... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:A.I... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Let's not neglect Percy (Score:5, Informative)
Shelly [wikipedia.org] "is widely considered to be among the finest lyric poets of the English language."
That's a strong endorsement. Lord Byron had an interesting group of characters about him. Between them they make Generation X look like a bunch of prudes.
Since he died before Mickey Mouse was born, you can find all of his works here at project Gutenberg [gutenberg.org].
Oh - support Project Gutenberg. When works in the public domain are forgotten we all lose something precious.
Parent
Re:A.I... (Score:4, Interesting)
http://frankensteinia.blogspot.com/2008/01/frankensteins-volcano.html [blogspot.com]
Parent
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My, that sounds like a bad soap opera plot...
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Colin Clive played Dr. Frankenstein in the 1931 movie, then was in Clive of India (1935) with Don Ameche, who was in Things Change (1988) with Clark Gregg, who was in The Air I Breathe (2007) with Kevin Bacon.
6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon - on Slashdot? (Score:2)
Next up.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Next up.... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
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404 Not Found
The requested URL
Sorry (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Sorry (Score:5, Insightful)
But Jacquard wasn't programming a computer - he was programming a loom. Not that we're not indebted to him, but a loom is not a computer.
Parent
Re:Sorry (Score:5, Informative)
That's the power of the computer - the fact that it is general purpose, not single purpose.
FWIW Jacquard got the idea of using cards to control looms from earlier mechanised looms that used cylinders with raised dots - which in turn came from mechanical music organs.
Parent
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If only we could use some sort of automata to run computer programs...
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Re:Sorry (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
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The Analytical Engine, on the contrary, is not merely adapted for tabulating the results of one particular function and of no other, but for developing and tabulating any function whatever. In fact the engine may be described as being the material expression of any indefinite function of any degree of generality and complexity, such as for instance, F(x, y, z, log x,
I was excited until... (Score:2, Funny)
First Program (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
http://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/cards.html [fourmilab.ch]
http://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/contents.html [fourmilab.ch]
Don't forget the 'P' card ('Print the result of the last arithmetic operation performed by the Mill on the Printing Apparatus').
About Lady Ada (Score:5, Funny)
Cheers!
I give the guy props for the Defcon Shirt (Score:2)
Tell him (Score:1)
The Cogwheel Brain (Score:4, Informative)
As far as major role models for female software developers go I pick Grace Hopper, who is on record as having had considerable involvement in computer development, and may, or may not have coined the term "computer bug".
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Grace_Hopper.jpg [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ada_Lovelace_1838.jpg [wikipedia.org]
Adda boy (Score:1)
Women and programming... (Score:2)
Child Prodigy? Should have been a painter! (Score:2)
Prayer to Lady Ada (Score:4, Interesting)
Look down upon this humble coder,
Guide me with your unerring logic.
Lady Ada,
Inspire me with your genius,
may I code a thing of beauty.
Lady Ada,
You set the path before me,
may I follow it for the rest of my days.
Wrong Lovelace (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
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If you think programming is all about the language and the syntax, then it's obvious how little time you spent exploring the field. Your exit from the field was a great loss to the discipline, I'm sure.