shrug-l: Bugs and Debugging

[Bill VanSickle]

Dear fellow GIS colleagues,

It's my understanding that, while Adm. Hopper is a truly great person in
our nation's (and computing's) history, and while she is credited with
co-inventing COBOL and inventing the term "debugging", and that the bug
that inspired that term is itself indeed at the Smithsonian, the term
"bug" was used in reference to mechanical problems long before her time.

There's a good article about it in Urban Legends:

http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=3Dhttp://www.ta=
f
kac.org/faq2k/compute%5F86.html

Here are some good quotes from Adm Hopper, starting with my favorite:

"It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission."

"It really came about because I couldn't balance my checkbook."

"Our young people are the future. We must provide for them. We must give
them the positive leadership they're looking for...You manage things;
you lead people."

"The most damaging phrase in the language is: We've always done it this
way."

"I always promise during my talks that if anyone in the audience says
during the next 12 months, 'But we've always done it that way,' I will
immediately materialize beside him and haunt him for the next 24 hours
and see if I could get him to take a second look."

"Working with the youth is the most important job I've done. It's also
the most rewarding."=20

"See? We told you the computer could do all that!"=20

Quote sources:
http://inventors.about.com/od/hstartinventors/a/Hopper_Quotes.htm

Cheers!

   - beel