Sunday/ Ada’s Technical Books

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Google dedicated a homepage doodle to Ada Lovelace some time ago. In 1843, Ada published extensive notes on the Analytic Engine which included the first published sequence of operations for a computer, which she would have input to the Analytic Engine using punch cards. It is this program for calculating Bernoulli numbers which leads some to consider Ada Lovelace the world’s first computer programmer, as well as a visionary of the computing age.programming language is named for.

Ada’s Technical Books and Cafe has opened right here on 15th Avenue, so I went to check it out this afternoon.  The place has a nice geeky vibe, with electronic gadgets and puzzles on display, and for sale, as well.  I wanted to buy one of the puzzles on display but alas, it was sold out.  They will get more of the handmade puzzles in by next Saturday, they said.

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The Shipper’s Dilemma is a puzzle invented by British mathematician John Horton Conway from Cambridge, England some 40 years ago. It is almost impossible to solve just by randomly packing the 17 pieces into the box, says the descriptions of it.  Sounds like a Rubik’s cube type of puzzle!
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The Ada Technical Books store has some really interesting geeky toys on display. Need a Geiger counter to measure radioactivity in your backyard? Want to build a very cool ‘I built it myself’ (OK, from a kit) electronic wrist watch?

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