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Margaret Hamilton, aged 90, indispensable for putting an American on the moon, died on September 30, 2026 RIP
In the Spring of 1967 Entropychaser was taking a course in college named Computer Science. In class, the professor would fill two blackboards (just like in the movies) with math equations and procedures for a computer language named ALGOL. It might as well been in Chinese.
Homework consisted of writing computer programs. These would then be "typed" onto computer punch cards, collated, and then submitted to a clerk to run on an IBM 360 main frame computer that occupied an entire floor of a building. At two o'clock the next morning some bored clerk would call to tell you that that the computer couldn't execute your stupid program and to come pick it up and debug it.
At this time, all we had was big desk calculators that a bank clerk would use- or a prehistoric abacus. Anything more would require a slide rule. It would be another year or two before Texas Instruments would introduce their first edition electronic desk calculator.
We live in a complex world and the United States is lucky to have folks like Margaret Hamilton to help us and make us great!
I, for one, am in complete awe!
People are amused to know that that Apollo spacecraft had less computer power than the smartphone in your hand.
en.wikipedia.org
In the Spring of 1967 Entropychaser was taking a course in college named Computer Science. In class, the professor would fill two blackboards (just like in the movies) with math equations and procedures for a computer language named ALGOL. It might as well been in Chinese.
Homework consisted of writing computer programs. These would then be "typed" onto computer punch cards, collated, and then submitted to a clerk to run on an IBM 360 main frame computer that occupied an entire floor of a building. At two o'clock the next morning some bored clerk would call to tell you that that the computer couldn't execute your stupid program and to come pick it up and debug it.
At this time, all we had was big desk calculators that a bank clerk would use- or a prehistoric abacus. Anything more would require a slide rule. It would be another year or two before Texas Instruments would introduce their first edition electronic desk calculator.
We live in a complex world and the United States is lucky to have folks like Margaret Hamilton to help us and make us great!
I, for one, am in complete awe!
People are amused to know that that Apollo spacecraft had less computer power than the smartphone in your hand.