falls church va
fri 4-jul-03

Commander Hopper Rock - Pentagon City - 04.jul.03

Today, I went hunting for a place to live at Pentagon City.

While checking our the green space - discovered the Grace Hopper Rock. Grace Hopper was a legend in the computer business. She lived in an apartment in Pentagon City for decades. When I was a brash young computer programmer I had a clash with her via memos that I wrote for "my" general while she wrote the opposing memos for "her" admiral. Years later she was at the Navy Yard when I was working there - I sort of sheepishly introduced myself to her. She graciously conceded that I was correct and she was wrong.

Those of you who are not of the geek religion will still recognize Commander Hopper - she found the first computer bug. A genuine real life moth. She removed it from the relay that it had impaled itself on and pasted it in her log book.

Those of you who practice the geek faith, may have heard of one of our ancient programming language COBOL. Cobol was Commander Hopper's invention.