Ada is the start of all things

I almost wish I'd named our daughter Ada...but Artemis suits her perfectly.

I always do what my friend Suheir says, because when she says something that sticks in my mind, she's always right. She's the queen of the ear-worm.

I was at the Different Games Conference this weekend, and though I loved and laughed at Leigh Alexander's keynote, and was totally curious and engaged by the panel on Sex Games, I still feel like there's something missing from the conversation of games.

Because everything is a game! And where is the discussion of how our systems and incentives are set up to make choices for us? Or force choices that don't let us move outside of those systems? Or question those incentives?

Suheir suggested that I look up Ada Lovelace - whom I of course heard of, but don't know much about - and it turns out that it's really hard to find anything out about her. I guess that shouldn't be too much of a surprise, since she's a woman and she lived before the 21st century...

I'll have to extend the search into primary sources and whatnot, but here's what a quick google search came up with:

Ada and the Babbage Engine, from the Computer History Museum

Ada's Bio, from Yale's Computer Science Dept home page

Analyst, Metaphysician and Founder of Scientific Computing (this one has some helpful sources that I'll be looking into)

Hilariously short profile from the site for Ada Lovelace Day (?)

Of course, Wikipedia, which has the most comprehensive collection of information

More digging to be done...