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I have read two excellent books by Benjamin Woolley this year : one was "The Bride of Science: Romance, Reason, and Byron's Daughter," the story of Byron's daughter, Ada, Countess of Lovelace, the mathematical prodigy, known as the "Princess of Parallelograms," who along with Charles Babbage came up with the design for the world's first (mechanical) general purpose computer: [^].
The other was the story of Dr. John Dee, physician, alchemist, magician to Queen Eliabeth the First : "The Queen's Conjurer: The Science and Magic of Dr. John Dee, Adviser to Queen Elizabeth:" [^].
Both were excellent, however, the book on Ada did not cover the fascinating and tragic collaboration she engaged in with Babbage on a scheme to bet on horses based on mathematical theories.
Said scheme leading to the loss of Babbage's funds, and the skilled workmen building the "Analytic Engine" walking off the job with their custom-made dies and jigs. If they had finished the "Engine" (a working model is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum), it has been hypothesized that giant, perhaps steam-powered, computers could have been employed around the start of the 20th. century !
As you may know, novelists William Gibson and Bruce Sterling used this premise (the Difference Engine completed and in widespread use) in their entertaining 1992 novel "The Difference Engine:" [^].
"Many : not conversant with mathematical studies, imagine that because it [the Analytical Engine] is to give results in numerical notation, its processes must consequently be arithmetical, numerical, rather than algebraical and analytical. This is an error. The engine can arrange and combine numerical quantities as if they were letters or any other general symbols; and it fact it might bring out its results in algebraical notation, were provisions made accordingly." Ada, Countess Lovelace, 1844
«I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center» Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
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The second book sounds really interesting.
Will look at it tonight.
Thanks.
I'd rather be phishing!
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I've always wanted to know more about Dee, as an aspirant magician myself, and this looks like a perfect start.
No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly. - Oscar Wilde
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I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Difference Engine.
I'm going to use that a lot in upcoming code reviews: "That might actually have worked, were provisions made accordingly!". 
Cheer!
"I had the right to remain silent, but I didn't have the ability!"
Ron White, Comedian
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Thanks for the tip, the Ada book interests me. I've been reading quite a lot of popular science books on maths recently.
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Are jokes about German sausage the Wurst?
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Only after the first nein.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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When told by brats, yes.
«I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center» Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
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Hot dog! You're right!
/ravi
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Not sure I understand... gotta link?
Contrary to popular belief, nobody owes you anything.
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What the Helzel[^] are you talking about?
Contrary to popular belief, nobody owes you anything.
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Jokes about German sausages sind mir völlig wurscht! Lernt's erstmal Brot backen, dann können wir uns über Wurst unterhalten!
Google translation[^]
If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't. — Lyall Watson
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I see google-translator fuu is strong in this text 
if(this.signature != "")
{
MessageBox.Show("This is my signature: " + Environment.NewLine + signature);
}
else
{
MessageBox.Show("404-Signature not found");
}
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Das ist mir völlig Wurst (I couldn't care less).
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Conchita definitely has one.
There is only one Vera Farmiga and Salma Hayek is her prophet!
Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
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No, but they're a load of baloney.
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.
--Winston Churchill
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I've seen wors[^] puns here today.
No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly. - Oscar Wilde
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Hans Wurst is very famous around here.
By the way, the pun only works if you learned to speak German in Birmingham. 
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.
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As long as you keep your wiener in your pants, otherwise i merguez you will get wurstsalat[^].
if(this.signature != "")
{
MessageBox.Show("This is my signature: " + Environment.NewLine + signature);
}
else
{
MessageBox.Show("404-Signature not found");
}
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I'm quite curious about the bug tracking software that teams are using.
Does your QA team use any bug tracking software at all?
How do they report bugs to devs?
Do they just send email or write the bug on a scrap of paper?
If you do use anything, is it custom -- something written in-house?
Or if it is a commercial or open-source package or other that is available, what is it called?
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We are using a home made system - made 15 years ago and extended with web portal 10 years ago...
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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That's quite a mature system.
Is it non-intrusive ie - not annoying to use?
Just curious.
Thanks for the feedback.
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As it was originally tailored for our support team and matured with that team (with additions and fixes per request) it is very easy to use - for the team at least. I can't promise that everyone will find it easy-to-use, after all it has a rather old UI...
But for us it is the best...Now that there is a plan to move to JIRA we all scared a bit...
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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