This brief biographical sketch was done for Ada Lovelace Day 2009. I think I in was a pub at the time.
From a humble beginning as a joke in a pub, The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage is now an Eisner-nominated graphic novel! New York Times Bestseller and winner of the British Society for the History of Mathematics Neumann Prize!
MORE ABOUT THE BOOK
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For more on Ada Lovelace not in the form of a comic book, an excellent in-depth summation of Lovelace and Babbage’s work can be found at Steven Wolfram’s blog.
Read More About Charles Babbage. Charles Babbage would totally have become a street-music destroying Masked Avenger if he could have. Actually he kind of did.
For more on the Analytical Engine, I have some animations and visualisations of it here. If that whets your appetite for gigantic steam powered Babbagey calculating machines be sure to check out Plan 28 where an intrepid crew is attempting to build one.
For the hardcore:
Ada Lovelace’s Paper on the Analytical Engine (are you HARD ENOUGH?)
Charles Babbage’s Autobiography (awesome, hilarious, fascinating, with VOLCANOES and MATH, why is this not in print?!?)
Behold the awesome might of the Difference Engine! Two working Difference Engines have been built in modern times- there’s one in the Science Museum in London, and that’s the one currently in the Computer History Museum in Mountain View California.
There’s also the whole rest of this website, with several amusing episodes and assorted oddities.
Comments
150 responses to “Lovelace– The Origin”
Brilliant. Keep it up!
Is there a chance to pre-order the (hopefully) yet unpublished hardcopy. Should we all sign up for a subscription service?
Or is the author waiting for a government grant?
I want more…
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What, flimsy attempts to connect Lady Ada with Miguelito Loveless, and not a single one to her more obvious namesake? I am sooooo disappointed.
Jolly fun. Especially Twitter.
But to give credit where due, the second one wasn’t done for us at the Computer History Museum.
Nathan Myhrvold, ex Microsoft CTO, commissioned it, but we talked him into lending it to us for a while, which was very kind of him.
We have it through the end of this year, and it gets fired up most days @ 2pm. I
I.e. Trained docents turn the crank.
Think f this as the first known computing startup that spent a lot of someone else’s money, had a workable design, but never shipped product, at least in part because the designer wasn’t easy to work with.
Wow, I TOTALLY thought Myhrvold was kidding when he said he was going to put it in his living room! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1sEowi1Txc I can hardly find room for my laptop in my living room. — I’ll correct the copy.
Ada is also a movie star! Played by the geekilicious Tilda Swinton!
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They are sooo going to want to make this into a film. (Hey, if they can do it for car-morphing robots…) Any takers on who would play the leads…? :)
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Awesome style, love the writing. Spot on with the Twitter reference.
You, madam, are made of pure win. You pricked your finger and bled win all over this comic. Brilliant!
omg this is fsking BRILLIANT.
Just read through all the strips you’ve posted so far — love ’em. Keep them coming, please.
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This is awesome! I love the addition of Babbage (whom I’ve never heard of, obviously my loss… that you’re totally correcting! Yay you! \o/). That final panel is so, so awesome. Of *course* they fought crime together… it’s the only logical outcome! :D
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This is excellent. Thank you!
Tell me there will be more!
I was pointed here by my daughter, who is a computer geek…and so is her sister…and so am I (for the last 50 years)…aren’t you aware of the rumor that Admiral Grace Murray Hopper was their grand-daughter?
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This is fantastic.
Hmmmm… is it possible that Ada had an illegitimate son with Babbage… a midget… who grew up to be the insane genius DR. LOVELESS?
You rock.
You must go on!
May the muse visit you with story ideas and suffifient caffienated substances of your choice to bring them into the shared light of day!
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This is completely awesome.
Okay, this is awesome to the power of awesome.
AWESOME! Brilliant execution. May you achieve fame beyond your wildest dreams… and… write more comics.
OMG, I was explainging to someone how Ada Lovelace was totally awesome, and probably fought crime, and it is like you have taken what was in my brain and made into an AWESOME COMIC.
I was pointed here by a poet, of all people. (I am myself a poet.) Hilarious!
‘scuse me, miss, but has anyone ever told you you are FOURTEEN different flavours of awesome? Two for every day of the week!
You — you amazing, astonishing person. May I adore you from afar and write you passionate letters of love in my head? Please?
This was great.
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More! More! Please?
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And from this moment on, she should be remembered as “Ada Loveless”.
Kick their asses!
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This is ridiculously cool, please please keep it up.
I was pointed here by a tweet…and now i must needs find a new fan! Brilliant!
I was pointed here by a mathematician. I’m a poet. I’m also now hysterically laughing and cannot stop long enough to pen prose. Help!
I have been pointed here by a mysterious Victorian villain called Cavalorn.
This is a reprehensible traduction of the founding heroes of our logical art and science of programming…
When and where will you be publishing it? And which body parts will you accept in payment for a signed copy?