Programmer Buys Original Ada Lovelace Painting On eBay

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.

In Other News...

[poopdeville]

Painting is Closest Texas Man Will Get to a Woman

oh.... ADA Lovelace...

[bennomatic]

I was thinking of a different Lovelace...

Re:A.I...

[headkase]

Shelley! Shelley! I'll take foot in mouth for $1000 Alex.

Next up....

[grilled-cheese]

Next up on the auction block, the moth Grace Hopper pulled from a Mark II on September 9th, 1947.

I was excited until...

[Anonymous Coward]

...I read that the painting was done before she got all hot. Go recover paintings of her from her twenties!

Re:Next up....

[Anonymous Coward]

That stupid moth keeps showing up in all my computer programs. You can have it!

Dude... She's four.

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude... She's four. How do you buy a portrait like this without being a filthy pedophile?

Pedobear approves.

First Program

[kemushi88]

What do you suppose a "Hello, World" program looks like for an analytical engine?

About Lady Ada

[vigmeister]

In spite of inpiring generations of programmers, Lady Ada Lovelace remains the last known female programmer. According to lore, Countess Lovelace developed a protocol for what is now known as instant messaging. When she armed the regular patrons of 'Ye Olde Slash of the Dot' with this technique, she found herself endlessly harassed by messages inexplicably containing the letters A, S and L separated by slashes. She purportedly proceeded to found a secret organization that trains female programmers but also strictly forbids them from identifying their professions to the male species. Patrons of the similarly community gathering location named Slashdot are still eagerly awaiting the first woman who is caught unawares so that they can ask her if she would like to cyber.

Cheers!

Re:In Other News...

[Antique Geekmeister]

> Painting is Closest /. Reader Will Get to a Woman Programmer Here, I fixed that for you.

Re:Sorry

[Magada]

Well, you have your answer right there in your question. Didn't debug or test before releasing, code maintenance is left to whoever inherits it, there's almost no documentation and there are no comments in code. A Real Programmer through and through, if you ask me.

Re:suspicious?

[UnanimousCoward]

And, I have a grilled cheese sandwich with the likeness of Ada that I'm about to sell the dude...

Re:suspicious?

[j_166]

"Perhaps you should've said "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""

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, sort of like the contract you have with your neighbors not to steal your car when you leave it unlocked and running at the post office""?

Re:Pictures of 4 year old girls???

[j_166]

"I wonder what FBI list this guy is now on for buying pictures of a 4 year old girl off of eBay??"

Particularly a 4-year-old with a pearl necklace. Oh man. I'm going straight to hell for that one, aren't I?

Re:A.I...

[batquux]

Ok, so just following your lead here....
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.