It is what I would consider a second generation framework. It has a mature level of feature and plug-in support, and a naturally extensible model, two things which are either rare in most frameworks, or too difficult to be practical. Audio and video plug-in support is amazingly clean in the Kamaelia examples. The Kamaelia kernel, named Axon, is the core component for module execution. Module intercommunication happens via pipes, so the issue of the context switch slowness for threaded apps is not an issue here.

Kamaelia also supports OS level threading, but this support seems to be nested down into the TCP protocol module. Nevertheless, the snap-together pipe model is tempting for any app, since it’s quite easy to grok. The code examples are exactly what Python enthusiasts have come to expect: clean, short, and almost intuitive.

Like many great tools, it comfortably straddles the line between tool and toy, with clean integration of pygame, as well as the support of many common protcols (HTTP, Torrent, etc.) and audio and video codecs (Vorbis, Wav, etc.) supplemented by a solid engine.

The component list for Kamaelia is called the Component Toybox, setting the tone for this project. We are encouraged to play, and novice contributors are encouraged to join and contribute. This is what I love the most about this project. It is unpretentious, approachable by anyone who wants to learn and contribute, and it is well organized and well designed. The documentation flows smoothly, although I’d love to see more detail on helping newbies find, install and configure all of the dependencies for the dependencies for each architecture. Pygame, for example, needs SDL development libs to run the provided examples. But newbies are stuck calling friends like me to explain this to them and help them past the installation hump. This is a difficult problem to resolve in any toolset dependent on many external toolsets, having their own development paths and practices. Maybe the Python buildout tool, plus some additional scripting could resolve this issue?

This framework is exciting. It opens the possibilities of faster web and app based integration of tools and tricks. It makes you ponder the infinite possibilities of nested protocol support, not just encapsulation of protocols within HTTP. Python development just keeps getting better and more fun, and this is most certainly a project to watch for ideas and possibilities of things to come.

Gloria

Though they are traditionally a rails shop they setup Wordpress for us and configured it with PHP. We plan to do more with the site than just have a Wordpress blog and now we have the space and resources to do it :)

So far, its been great. They have a handy ticket system that lets us keep track of issues and I was able to hop onto IRC and get some quick questions answered.

If you notice any weirdness please send an email to devchix *at* gmail and let us know!

Thanks

The encoding requirements took some digging through obscure docs, but the rest wasn’t so bad. If you want to know how to do unicode language support to file in Python, this is for you.

import urllib2
import codecs
import BeautifulSoup
import re
import pdb
import os

class GetBBC:
	def __init__(self):
		print "In constructor"
		self.language_links = []
		self.dir = ‘BBC_Language_pages’
		try:
			os.makedirs(self.dir)
		except OSError:
			pass

	def getLanguageChoices(self):
		lang_page = urllib2.urlopen(”http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/languages/”).read()
		self.soup = BeautifulSoup.BeautifulSoup(lang_page)
		# match langtexttop too
		links = self.soup.findAll(attrs={’class’:re.compile(’^langtext*’)})
		for x in links:
			self.language_links.append(x)
			print “Appending %s with link %s ” % (x.a.string,x.a['href'])

		print “There are %d language choices for the BBC news page!” % len(self.language_links)

	def archiveLanguagePages(self):
		os.chdir(self.dir)
		for x in self.language_links:
			lang_page = urllib2.urlopen(’http://www.bbc.co.uk’ + x.a['href']).read()
			clean_page = BeautifulSoup.BeautifulSoup(lang_page).prettify()
			rawfile = codecs.open(x.a.string,’wb+’,'ISO8859-1′)
			rawfile.write(unicode(clean_page,’ISO8859-1′))
			rawfile.close()
			print “Saved the %s page.” % x.a.string
		os.chdir(’..’)

	def readLanguagePage(self,language):
		os.chdir(self.dir)
		rawfile = codecs.open(language,’rb’,'ISO8859-1′)
		file = rawfile.read()
		rawfile.close()
		os.chdir(’..’)
		return rawfile

if __name__ == “__main__”:
	x=GetBBC()
	x.getLanguageChoices()
	x.archiveLanguagePages()
	y = x.readLanguagePage(’Portuguese’)

There are languages for which ISO8859-1 encoding may not work, so you may need to experiment with encoding codecs for languages not supported by the BBC.

I wrote this in May 2007, as a language support test for GrrlCamp, which is an online Open Source development group for women. We will be recruiting again in late June. If you are female, interested in volunteering development effort in exchange for learning, and have at least 6 hours free each week to do cutting edge fun Python design and development in a supportive and great online community, please post your email address and we will get back to you.

Gloria

If you only need to check what region and state a particular zip code belongs, this is for you. If anyone can point me to a free longitude/latitude/full zip code site, please post that info to a reply, and I’ll rewrite this module.

import urllib2
import codecs
import re
import pdb
import os
import BeautifulSoup
import sqlalchemy

class GetZips:
	def __init__(self):
		self.zip_info = []

	def getZipPrefixes(self):
		zip_page = urllib2.urlopen(”http://pe.usps.gov/text/dmm300/L002.htm”).read()
		self.soup = BeautifulSoup.BeautifulSoup(zip_page)
		# match zip columns
		zips = self.soup.findAll(attrs={’class’:re.compile(’^trBodyRow*’)})
		for i in zips:
			y = i.find(attrs={’class’:re.compile(’^pTblBodyLL pAlignLeft*’)})
			”’
			X is the symbol for an unused 3 digit zip prefix.
			”’
			if y.span and y.span.string == ‘X’:
				continue

			# last 3 digits
			zip_prefix_3 = y.a.next.next
			zip_prefix_3 = re.sub(’[\n\r]+’,”,zip_prefix_3)

			# finding the first column will suffice.
			y = i.find(attrs={’class’:re.compile(’^pTblBodyLL pAlignRight*’)}) 

			region_state = y.a.next.next.split()

			region = region_state[-3]
			state_abbrev = region_state[-2]

			if region_state[-1] != zip_prefix_3:
				print “There is a problem here: %s” % i

			self.zip_info.append((region,state_abbrev,zip_prefix_3))
			print “Found %s %s %s” % (region,state_abbrev,zip_prefix_3)

	def injectIntoDB(self):
		engine = sqlalchemy.create_engine(’postgres://%s:%s@%s/%s’ % (’postgresql’,’something’,'127.0.0.1:5432′,’zip_db’),strategy=’threadlocal’)
		”’
		The sqlalchemy explicit scope is done for clarity. Of course
		you can “from sqlalchemy import *” instead, and change the scope
		of these calls.
		”’
		metadata = sqlalchemy.MetaData()
		metadata.bind = engine
		zip_table = sqlalchemy.Table(’zip_abbrevs’, metadata,
			sqlalchemy.Column(’zip_abbrevs_id’, sqlalchemy.Integer, primary_key=True),
			sqlalchemy.Column(’three_digit_abbrev’, sqlalchemy.String(4)),
			sqlalchemy.Column(’region’, sqlalchemy.VARCHAR(50)),
			sqlalchemy.Column(’state_abbrev’, sqlalchemy.String(3)))

		metadata.create_all(engine)

		for (region, state, zip) in self.zip_info:
			print “Injecting %s %s %s\n” % (region, state,zip)
			zip_table.insert(values={’region’:region,’state_abbrev’:state,’three_digit_abbrev’:zip}).execute()

if __name__ == “__main__”:
	x=GetZips()
	x.getZipPrefixes()
	x.injectIntoDB()

# vim:ts=4: noet:

I am writing this code for the nonprofit called The Freelancer’s Union in NYC, which currently has a nationwide member drive: http://www.freelancersunion.org/advocacy/index.html.
I will shamelessly plug them in exchange for sharing this code with the world.

The more members they get in each US state, the better nationwide insurance plans they can offer. They offer E&O insurance for IT freelancers as well, so even if you freelance part-time, this could be for you. This organization rocks. I’ve been a member for three years, and now I proudly write code for them.

Gloria

Dave Hoover of Obtiva Corporation: http://obtiva.com/

Alain Dietrich (**ALAIN, SEE NOTE BELOW)

Total amount raised for DevChix = $780

Yaay!

**Alain, we cannot reach you via normal email methods, after several attempts on different accounts. Please send your address as a comment to this post, which will not be exposed to the public (comments are monitored before publishing). Your shipping costs to France, including insurance, are approx. $50, so please deposit $430 in the DevChix account and give us your address as a comment.

We’ll contact the winners soon afterwards, and calculate the cost of shipping and insurance. Then we’ll kindly ask you to drop that amount in the DevChix account, and your posters will go out immediately.

Good luck, and thank you for participating.

Gloria

Years ago when I was in PHP Land (now I travel quite a bit more! haha), I strugged for months with how to write a good ORM . It was tough, because I wanted to abstract the “boring logic” of retrieving records from a database without writing SQL but still remain flexible enough. I never really came up with a good model. I used the DAO from “extreme php” library which I think was a knock off from java. It was ok, but I still didn’t feel like I had “arrived”.

When I discovered Ruby on Rails, I found ActiveRecord. Ahh HA! Finally, this is what I was looking for. At first I thought it was part of Rails, but its not. Its a standalone library and you can use it with straight up ruby scripts.

I got a review copy of “Pro Active Record” some time ago and read it some when I got it, then some later, and now I am going to officially write up a review!

If you do anything with Active Record, get this book. The things that are briefly mentioned in most Rails books are described in detail in this book.

Chapter 1 - Introducing Active Record

Most of the time, the first chapters of a book are boring to me. I don’t need another “History of the Internet” or how “HTML was developed” … blah blah. But this one, the story is only 1 page. And it actually has some introductory scripts on using Active Record, so you can see right away how it works. It also explains the benefits of MVC and why ORMs are good. Some people still don’t get it!

Chapter 2 - Active Record and SQL

This chapter helps you translate the “sql in your head” to how to write it with Active Record. I’ve used Active Record so much that now I have forgotten most of my SQL, which is kind of embarrassing. :) I now find writing sql tedious and boring! I would have actually called this chapter “Demystifying Active Record” since it explains why all the dynamic finders work. You’ll also find transactions and locking explained here.

Chapter 3 - Setting up Your Database

Migrations! The Awesome Thing that can turn into a nightmare for large rails projects with multiple developers…. definitely have to decide on some best practices with your team on this one. The chapter has only one thing to say about this — assume any checked in migration has already been run by your team and the migration should not be edited and checked back in! You’ll have to make another migration file with your changes.

[tip]
Nola’s Note: When you make a migration, test it both UP and DOWN!! Here’s what I do —
write a migratiion
rake db:migrate (go up to the version with new code)
rake db:migrate VERSION=n-1, (go to version before the latest)
rake db:migrate (back to lastest)
rake db:migrate VERSION=0 (back to blank db)
rake db:migrate (back to latest)
[/tip]

Just to be sure its all good — even on a new database!

Chapter 4 - Core Features of Active Record

Now is the fun stuff - Callbacks. This is magic. This makes Active Record so flexible, and is one thing I could never figure out how to do with my PHP ORMs. I use call backs to set defaults for fields. If its just a straight default, then I set it in the database but if I need to make a decision, (if this field then this field..) then I can use it in a callback.

Associations - at first this is very confusing! I don’t know how many times I got “has_many” and “belongs_to” mixed around in the beginning.

Validations - Awesome. I had to do some ruby code without a database and I really really really missed the validations. It took me like 5x longer than it should! Understanding all of these validation methods will make your life so much more enjoyable. I really really hate doing boring, repetitive stuff…it seems so wasteful to me.

Chapter 5 - Bonus Features

Everybody likes a bonus and this isn’t even the last chapter of the book.

Java people will like the Active Record Observers — seems a little AOP to me (aspect orienteted programming) and something I probably have neglected to use to their fullest extent.

Acting up — Learn how to “save time” with the “acts_as” magic: List, Tree, Nested Sets. If your data needs these structures, you got it made. I can imaging how much longer it would take to write this stuff in perl or php.

Composed of - I haven’t used this, but this looks like a good way to make sensible objects out of database tables. There is quite a bit of explanation and examples of this, it will come in handy.

There are a few other in depth explanations of things, such as method_missing which is how alot of the magic happens. Rock on.

Chapter 6 - Active Record Testing and Debugging

Ahh yes, Testing. My favorite subject. My friends who know how much I love testing say I am sick. I must have an inner need to PROVE I am right or something, haha.

The chapter goes into depth about using test_unit with Active Record, sadly no RSpec. But, it does go into all the error messages that Active Record throws so you can write good try/catch blocks and make very exact error messages (probably best logged for the admin rather then displayed to the user!)

Chapter 7 - Working with Legacy Schema

Here’s how you work with that old database that just won’t die… or that management won’t let you totally redo. Active Record follows some of the principles of Rails “convention over configuration” … relying on table and column naming conventions to figure out how to build your object….but still giving you a way out if you want your tables singular and your primary id field called “myawesomeid” instead of “id”

I’ve used some of these things on an older database and it was possible! Not too bad if thats what you have to work with.

[soapbox]
Some people find this annoying “oh gosh! my library can’t make decisions for me! OMG! That sucks” .. to that I say, “Umm ok. But if you follow these conventions then I can come into your project and know exactly what is going on” … like with web standards, we all harp on how IE and FF do things differently, yet people want to bellyache about Active Record preferring to have plural names and id field called “id”. Right.

Follow the dang convention and find something worth complaining about to complain about. :)
[/soapbox]

Chapter 8 - Active Record and The Real World

This chapter goes into depth about the library and encourages you to go read the Active Record code. Always a good idea to know what it is you are using :) I’ve actually learned ruby better by reading source code. The chapter walks you through basic structure of the files. Very cool.

[soapbox]
I used to work at a place that didn’t like any “outside code” because they were afraid “OMG … it will send our passwords to Russia!” … ok, well I am not an idiot. I read over any code that I use that I didn’t write. I look at the tests to see if I am using it right. I even RUN the tests so I can be sure its working as advertised.
[/soapbox]

Alternatives to Active Record - with EXAMPLES! If something about Active Record doesn’t set too well with you, take a look at the alternatives. Sometimes I look at the alternatives and decide that the first wasn’t so bad after all. You’ll find examples of DBI, Og, ActiveRelation.

Finally a section on Q and A finishes up this book. The Appendix has a complete reference of ActiveRecord methods to make this book a well rounded reference, tips, documentation and very handy to have at your desk!

Ada’s short life took place during the beginning of both the Industrial Revolution and the Romantic Era. There were two popular and distinct mindsets during this time; Objectivism and Subjectivism. Objectivsts strictly studied scientific truth, unwavering reason and self-discipline. Subjectivists were concerned about the value of creativity, emotions, and the imagination, considering intuitive insight to be a “higher truth”. They were also concerned about the destruction of these values by the creation of machines. Subjectivists saw technology as dehumanizing.

Ada’s father, Lord Byron, a world renown Romantic poet, argued in front of Parliament against against technology. Ada’s mother, Anabella Milbanke, was a well respected, accomplished mathematician and rich businesswoman. Ada is the product of the short and stormy union of these two powerful, opposing forces.

The poet Lord Byron’s real name was George Gordon. He was the descendant of a long line of powerful and crazy men. His father, Captain John Byron, was known as Mad Jack. He was a gambling womanizing alcoholic, who married rich women and used their money. At the end of his life, he hid in Paris to avoid creditors, and died when George was three years old. George’s mother was Cathrine Gordon of Gight, who could trace her bloodline back to King James I.

George was born with a club foot, and had a horrible school life until the age of 10, when his uncle died, making George the next Lord Byron. Byron attended Cambridge, and loved shocking people, with antics such as keeping a bear as a pet, and parading around with it. After Cambridge, he traveled around and wrote poetry, doing pretty much whatever he pleased. His poetry seemed to come about at the right moments in time, and was well received.

His work called Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage made him world famous overnight. He led a crazy reckless life of controversy, booze, and impregnating women, one of whom was his half-sister. He received similar media attention to today’s drug addicted stars, and people revered and reviled him in similar ways.

Lord Byron tried to court Anabella, but with little success. They wrote back and forth, mostly chastising letters from Anabella, and poetic retorts from Lord Byron. Gossip started to threaten his career, and he was advised to marry, to avoid the accusations of fathering a child with his half-sister. Byron proposed to Anabella, who saw this as a challenge to reform him, and help him change his ways. She accepted.

Lady Ada was born in December of 1815. Her father wrote: “The child of Love - though born in bitterness and nurtured in convulsion”. Byron drank and partied away his own money, living in an apartment in London filled with birds and dogs. He did not receive the money promised him upon marriage to Anabella, was unsuccessful at selling his estate, and started to have money issues. Anabella filed for separation weeks after Ada’s birth.

The law was such back then that Byron’s infidelity and drinking were not strong enough reasons for a woman to file for divorce. Anabella needed something scandalous to have a divorce filing approved (since Lord Byron protested). She eventually received a letter documenting Lord Byron’s incest, and won the divorce rights. They struck a deal, where Anabella would never reveal the evidence to the public, and Byron would divorce amicably. Ada remained in her mother’s custody. Byron fought to keep Ada in England, and won.

Byron spent the summer of 1816 with Mary Shelly and her husband. He fathered a child with her step sister, while writing a Famous work called Darkness, and while Shelly wrote Frankenstein. He kept custody of the child and moved to Italy, where he wrote Don Juan. The entire time, he thought about Ada, wrote about her, and theorized about her being a prodigy, although he never saw her again.

Anabella started Ada in strict training in math and science when she was five, determined not to have her follow in her father’s legacy. One of her instructors, Pestalozei, was one of the first instructors of this era to gear his teaching toward children by encouraging them to use their imagination. Ada enjoyed this immensely, and this training set the tone for her learning and teaching experiences throughout her life.

At the age of seven, she complained of severe headaches. At eight, she heard about her father’s death, and it seemed to affect her deeply, although she had never met him. Lord Byron died in 1824, helping liberate Greece from the Ottoman Empire. A massive funeral procession was held for him in London. it was proposed that he be buried in Westminster Abbey, but because of his crazy lifestyle, this proposal was denied.

At the age of twelve she drew up scientifically sound designs for a flying machine. This is also about the time that she started to rebel against her mother, who controlled her with strict math studies. Ada’s mother wrote that Ada mastered the art of “conversational litigation”, as many bright girls do at this age. Ada’s mother continued to monitor and control Ada’s imaginative tendencies throughout most of Ada’s life, afraid of her becoming anything like Lord Byron. Ada found creative and socially acceptable ways to rebel against this control.

At thirteen, she caught measles and was bedridden for three years. Her intense instruction did not stop during this time. By seventeen she was well educated in math, science, machinery, factories, and the inventions of the Industrial Revolution. She had a fling with one of her instructors, which pressed her mother to start finding potential husbands for Ada. In 1835 she happily married William, who became Earl of Lovelace, making her Countess of Lovelace.

In 1833, at age seventeen she met Charles Babbage who had just finished working on the Difference Engine, and began working on the Analytical Engine. She discussed his inventions with him at length, and immediately understood the significance of the Analytical Engine, unlike most people who had heard of it. She was invited to Babbage’s parties, as a respected mathematician. This gave her the opportunity to meet Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday, Augustus DeMorgan, and many other brilliant thinkers and scientists of her time.

At around this same time, Ada met and was mentored by Mary Somerville, a prominent self-taught scientist whose work was recently published. Mary Somerville was so well respected that her bust was placed on display in the Royal Academy Library, despite the fact that women were not allowed to go inside of this library. Female scientists had to enlist male help when they needed information from this library. Somerville was an enthusiastic teacher and mentor, and Ada spent a lot of fun times with the Somerville family throughout her life.

As a teacher and mentor, Ada used both logic and imagination to evoke a passion for math in her female students. She was a tough teacher, insisting that direct proofs be used where indirect proofs would suffice. But she was able to convey her passion for math, and inspire her students to love their studies. One of her instructional letters reads: “I get so eager when I write Mathematics to you, that I forget all about handwriting and everything else. - Your progress is the only thing that I desire. Believe me, your affectionate & untenable Instructress, A. Ada Byron”

Ada saw a tight tie between imagination and science, as complementary forces, yet balancing each other: “Mathematical Science shows what is. It is the language of unseen relations between things. But to use & apply that language we must be able to fully appreciate, to feel, to seize, the unseen, the unconscious. Imagination too shows what is, the is that is beyond the senses. Hence she is or should be especially cultivated by the truly Scientific, - those who wish to enter into the world around us!”

Ada continued to intensely study math by correspondence with famous mathematicians. She also tutored, and intensely studied the functional workings of the Analytical engine, while giving birth to and raising three children, and managing several households. She had certain social obligations as a prominent well-to-do female, and she resented these obligations for taking time away from her studies. She also often felt overwhelmed by her children, and had others help her raise them.

Ada wrote extensively in letters to her mother, and others, about self observations. She spent a lot of time and energy analyzing her thoughts, theories, and actions in healthy ways. In addition to her genius, her letters exhibit an emotionally balanced and very grounded attitude, even when analyzing her own illness and possible death. She was most definitely a very brilliant, poetic, emotionally strong and stable female figure of this era. It is obvious that people who met her held the same opinion of her, and had great respect for her ingenuity, imagination and strength of will.

She became very good friends with Charles Babbage. Their families visited each other, and they spent a lot of time and energy theorizing about the workings and the possibilities for the Analytical engine. Babbage had difficulty getting support from the British government for this new machine, but was invited to Turin Italy in 1842, to present his invention. The Analytical Engine becomes documented in a Swiss technical journal, in French. Lovelace translates it for Babbage, adding her own notes, and does a spectacularly better job at explaining the invention than the original publication. From this moment forward, Babbage asks her to write articles about the Engine, and she accepts.

Her description of the Analytical Engine was so profound because of her thorough understanding of the mechanism as well as it’s potential. She also used metaphors and visual examples, which still apply today to the modern computer. Her insight gave a vision to the importance of the Engine that even Babbage could not have foreseen.

Over time it becomes clear that Babbage is the inventor of the mechanism, and Lovelace is the inventor of the “programming language” for the device. She devises what is equivalent to the punch cards of the 1950’s and 60’s computers, where holes in a card instruct the analytical engine on what to execute next, thus writing the very first computer instruction set. While doing this, she was studying Functional Equations with Dr. Augustus DeMorgan, and devising ways in which the Analytical Engine could calculate these equations. She wrote reams of notes to DeMorgan, working out proofs and theorems, and awaiting his answers by correspondence.

At around the same time, she theorized about computer generated music, geometry in greater than four dimensions, and game theory, all of which have since proven to be accurate and extremely insightful. She wrote extensive machine heuristics for chess and backgammon, and theorized about how the Analytical Engine could play these games. Her chess algorithms predate any used today, and are extremely accurate.

Lovelace and Babbage had a close intellectual friendship, and spent a lot of time together theorizing about everything, dabbling in metaphysics (Babbage believed, Lovelace was skeptical), testing logic flows for games, and pondering together the way many intellectual friends do.

In 1841, Ada became ill for a year, but this does not slow her down. She continues to find other creative outlets, such as music and poetry, but this frightens her mother, and her mother discourages this behavior. In 1842, Ada hears of her father’s incestuous relationship. Medora, the child, is promiscuous, and Ada tries to calm her down.

In this same year, Babbage requests that Lovelace summarize his Analytical Engine notes for the scientific community (thirty volumes). She does so, correcting his few errors, adding her own facts, and using Bernoulli numbers as a computational example for the something the Engine could calculate entirely alone. Babbage was incredibly impressed with her work, and simply accepted her changes and additions in confidence, repeatedly expressing how impressed he is with her ingenuity. She was one of the few people who genuinely understood how his invention worked, and it’s potential.

She took the liberty of removing his text which discussed the lack of support from the British Government, stating to him that she thought it would be “political suicide”. The publisher agreed, but she and Babbage had a falling out, despite the fact that he abided by her wishes and accepted her changes. From that moment forward, they became closer friends, but no longer worked together.

Today she is called the Pioneer of Computing, not just because she wrote the first machine instruction set, but also because of her theories regarding Artificial Intelligence: “It is desirable to guard against the possibility of exaggerated ideas that might arise as to the powers of the Analytical Engine. In considering any new subject, there is frequently a tendency to overrate what we find to be already interesting or remarkable; and, secondly, by a sort of natural reaction, to undervalue the true state of the case, when we do discover that our notions have surpassed those that were not tenable. The Analytical Engine has no pretensions whatever to originate anything. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform. It can follow analysis; but it has no power of anticipating any analytical relations or truths.”

In 1844, she became ill again, and in 1845, she was prescribed opiates for her pain. Like many people in pain, she consumed great quantities of opiates for pain, but did not exhibit addition when not in pain. This research dispels the myth that she was a drug addict, which is inaccurately stated by other authors. During this bout of illness, Ada saw this as an opportunity to experiment on herself for a cure. She called upon Michael Faraday to help, but he was also ill at this time. She enlisted others to help her with scientific experiments on her health.

Ada was the subject of rumors, since she was the daughter of Lord Byron, and also because she was seen traveling alone with men other than her husband. For the most part she simply enjoyed and mocked the rumors, maybe sometimes encouraged them, but generally did not let rumors affect her. She gambled socially, the way all of her friends in that social circle did in those days. The only bit of gossip which seems to be accurate is one extramarital affair with Frederick Knight, to which she admitted to William before she died.

This research also reveals that during her entire marriage, she was only given a small periodic allowance by her husband and her mother. She spent this money on her childrens tuition and clothing, her own books, and dresses for formal social events. She had no money of her own, did not get paid for any of her work, and her husband would inherit half of her mother’s fortune when her mother died. At the end of her life, she borrowed money from friends, to help her children find better tutors and nannies, and repaid it all before she died. her mother found out she was in dire straights, and agreed her grandchildren’s tuition fees, but this only slightly eased the burden.

In around 1850, near the end of her life, she visited Newstead Abbey, where her father was buried, and it was an emotional experience for her. She also finally decided to disrupt the emotional control her mother held over her, which caused a falling out between she and her mother. She and William traveled, met Queen Victoria, and attended and held social events until she became too ill to move. She died in 1852 at age thirty six.

It is remarkable that Lady Ada could remain as enthusiastic as she did. She was never paid for her hard work or contributions to other’s work. Until recently, her ingenuity and visionary nature were only recognized and appreciated by those close to her. She never had money of her own, despite being raised by and married to rich families. Her ill health and all of the other burdens placed on her were constant challenges. The false rumors about her supposed gambling addiction, affairs and drug addiction are still circulated today. During her time, and even today, some say that she is given too much credit regarding the Analytical Engine, despite the facts which are turned up by this research.

Despite all of this, Ada pursued what she loved, excelled at it, and never let even her own barriers stop her. She is more than a Pioneer of the Computer Era. She is a damn near perfect role model for many women, who today, face barriers and restrictions on what they can study and how they can excel. Today being International Women’s Appreciation Day, I can’t help but express my appreciation for this great woman.

Cheers
The DevChix