[HLUG] Grace Hopper.

[geoff bagley]

Grace Hopper was a lady who served as an officer in the US Navy.
She eventually reached the rank of Admiral!
She was a notable computer scientist, and was given the job of writing
the first COBOL  compiler.  This was so that no one individual 
commercial firm should own COBOL.

She also gave lectures on compurer science. I had the privilege of
attending some of these.

In the case I quoted, she was making the point that the ultimate
speed of a computer was limited by propagation time along the
connecting wires.  In order to illustrate this fact,she handed out to
each attendee, a piece of wire eleven and three quarters inches long 
with the quip " A nano-second for you,  etc"  (coutesy of Ma Bell).


I am sorry if I made a mess of this anecdote first time !

Geoff