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Weekend


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November 9, 2001

Strange But True!

  • A weekly column of incidental information, off-the-wall observations and other random facts about the world.
    • By BILL SONES and RICH SONES, Ph.D.
    Special to the Journal

    Q. Which came first, the computer or the computer program? What was the first computer "bug"? How many wings did it have?

    A. First program was by British mathematician Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852), while working with Cambridge's Charles Babbage on his visionary "Analytical Engine," says Louis A. Bloomfield in "How Things Work: The Physics of Everyday Life." This was long before any computers had been built.


     
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