Happy Ada Lovelace Day!

[Evan Leibovitch]

Dave Mason wrote:
> I am not without a sense of humour.
>
> However, I find this thread to be sexist and misogynistic.
>   
While I understand the sentiment and apologize for any perceived
offence, going from one extreme to the other  is not helpful either.

Calling the thread "misogynistic" is more than a bit much. Such an
allegation is serious and should not be tossed around as a result of
something as lightweight as a joke based on an unfortunate sharing of
last names. To suggest that such comments "demean the memory" is to
ascribe motives and intent that may not (and in my case certainly did
not) exist. Such projection should be no more welcome than the hurt it
pretends to address.

> Ada Lovelace deserves a place beside Boole and Babbage as the original pioneers of what would eventually become computer science (there are those who believe she understood Babbage's work better than he did).  To demean that memory by a cheap rif on a name shared with a porn star is, well, let's just go with disappointing.
>   
Disappointing? Fine.
Irreverant? Most certainly.
Outrageously irreverant? Maybe.
Offensive? Perhaps.
Misogynistic and sexist? Well, let's just say that I was disappointed
with the disproportionate nature of the response.

> It's no wonder that people at large still look on computer geeks as frat boys, or that young women mostly see no respectful place for themselves in computer science.
>   

Talk about cheap shots....

Were the reasons for the lack of women in CS attributable to excuses so
simple as fratboy humour, there would also be no female doctors.

The idea of naming a day after a CS hero is also, arguably, an example
of the mindset that might keep people of certain temperment away from
this field. Or maybe it's the observation that vendor-trained sysadmins
have the gall to call themselves "engineers" with the industry's
blessing. Or the lack of ethical accountability that is demanded in
"real" professions. Or the outrageous misuse of patent protection
masquerading as innovation. Well, those other assertions are no less
plausible than the fratboy one.

These days CS folks (even you used the term "geek", which is rarely a
term of affection when used by non-geeks) are the brunt of more jokes
than the source of them. There's even a prime-time US network sitcom
that focuses on geek culture as a source of ridicule, especially gender
issues about which the culture is portrayed as more pathetic than
hostile. Is that worth getting lathered up over as well?

Lighten up. Please.

- Evan


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