

The 15 Most Important Women in Tech History - imkevingao
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/15_most_important_women_tech_history

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speleding
I'm glad Sophie Wilson gets due credit for designing the Acorn and ARM
instruction set. That instruction set is incredibly wide spread when you think
about where ARM devices are used nowadays. The article does not mention that
most of that work was done as "Roger Wilson" before his/her sex change
operation.

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mediacrisis
Roberta Williams designed my childhood. Now I need to go find a way to play
Quest for Glory on OSX...

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bitwize
Roberta Williams doesn't get enough credit. Shigeru Miyamoto is often credited
with being the first non-programmer video game designer; while his influence
should not be diminished, Roberta probably has a better claim to that title.

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btilly
Why the video game focus?

There are some giant omissions. Barbara Liskov comes to mind.

I would also argue with the definition of "tech". Hedy Lamarr certainly was
doing tech when she invented spread spectrum communications. Not to mention
that if you wander slightly farther afield, you'll find the first person to
win two Nobel awards, Marie Curie.

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cpher
Betty Jennings Bartik is my great aunt and she's a fount of knowledge. I love
hearing stories from her about her days as a "computer." I'm glad to see that
someone took the time to research the contributions of these fine women.

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syncsynchalt
No Liskov?

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chalst
Or Adele Goldberg. Why is Frances Allen in place 13?

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imkevingao
alright this is probably the most unscientific statement, but from my personal
perspective, Ada Lovelace is a really cool name, just putting it out there

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mwill
Lists like this invariably end with Ada Lovelace.

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jat850
Lists like this should begin and end with Ada Lovelace.

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stcredzero
The fact that Ada did computer programming _before she had a machine to
program on_ should be promoted as an important piece of information for
programmers and leaders to consider when they think about security.

Any computer program that can run is basically just an expression in a kind of
very fussy and boggy discrete math. It might be a pain in the butt, but
eventually someone would be able to figure it out, even if all the only
resources they had were the code, a pen, some paper, and a lot of time.

If you want to do something like DRM, then you have to take Ada's feat and its
implications into account. The key is that many forms of computer security are
best considered as _manpower issues_ involving two opposing and competing
forces. The way computer software gets online patches nowadays halfway
acknowledges this, but this fact is still poorly misunderstood by many people,
resulting in recurring reddit posts like this:

[http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/e8xw2/why_does_ad...](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/e8xw2/why_does_adobe_acrobat_need_so_many_freaking/)

In particular, there is a lot of commonsense knowledge that has been applied
to opposing pools of manpower which has been around for centuries which
security people have seemingly forgotten about, yet which is highly applicable
to the current state of software security. If you haven't guesssed, I'm
talking about basic military tactics. What increases the effectiveness of your
own manpower while diminishing the effectiveness of your opponent's manpower?
Can you make large portions of your opponent's manpower irrelevant in certain
contexts and exploit those opportunities? There are a lot of dirty tricks of
the kind ancient generals played on their enemies which are applicable to the
modern conflict of computer security.

Also, thinking about a larger, strategic context is also highly applicable to
computer security. If an ancient general decided to conquer a region, he not
only thought about how he could outmaneuver his enemies' forces, or how his
soldiers could out-fight the enemy, the best of the ancient generals would
give some thought to why his enemies would fight to begin with. Can you deny
your enemy a pretext to recruit his forces in the first place? Is it possible
to further your own aims and never give your enemy a reason to organize and
fight? Is it possible to deny your enemy the resources to support their
efforts?

It's time for a more sophisticated view of the security ratrace.

EDIT: Companies that implement DRM or security are usually involved in what
amounts to _asymmetric warfare_ \-- and as they are unaccustomed to thinking
about, _they are the underdogs_. What history teaches us, is that there are
ways for the underdog to win.

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shadowhillway
Susan Kare. Enough said.

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jhamburger
Should be a calendar.

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fractallyte
To the disapproving downvoter:

And why not?? These people deserve to be celebrated; the print form of a
calendar is perfect for display throughout the year, in a classroom, for
instance.

I'd hope the list could be expanded to cover more than 15 women. How about
Jeri Ellsworth (mentioned just under an hour ago:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2280297>). And Wendy Carlos, with her
pioneering work on synthesizers and electronic music.

Calendars aren't ALL about himbos and bimbos...

