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In The News Tech (General)

Grace Hopper For #TheNew10 Dollar Bill

Grace Hopper
Since the Treasury Department announced they will be redesigning the $10 bill and featuring a woman on the front, it got me thinking. While more obscure, Grace Hopper is the ideal candidate.

Lets go through her qualifications:

  • Attained the rank of United States Navy rear admiral. A rare feat for a woman (the first was Alene Duerk).
  • Active in the service between 1943–1966, 1967–1971, 1972–1986 for a total of approx. 41 years of service. Including during WWII.
  • Notable achievements in her field had a large influence on shaping the her industry as well as the nation as high level programming languages accelerated computer proliferation through business and eventually personal use:
    • Wrote the first compiler.
    • Invented COBOL, which is still in use over 50 years later and it’s predecessor .
  • She’s the one responsible for the term “bug” being used to describe a defect in software.
  • Responsible for some badass quotes like “It’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission.”
  • And lastly… diseased (technically relevant).

Per the Treasury Dept. website:

…The person should be iconic and have made a significant contribution to — or impact on — protecting the freedoms on which our nation was founded.

I think a Navy veteran buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors meets the qualifications as much as anyone who walked the face of this earth.

So to summarize, she’s a female veteran who climbed the ranks of the Navy who quite literally invented her field and launched and industry that’s reshaping her country and the world even years after she passed away. I’d say that’s worth $10.

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Around The Web Tech (General)

Evil And Competitiveness

Joe Hewitt on Competitiveness:

People say that money is the root of all evil, but I think that evil is rooted in competitiveness, and money is just the yardstick.

The whole thing is worth a read, but that sentence just stuck me.

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Around The Web

What Is Money?

What is money?

Here’s an amusing video from 1947 titled “What is Money?” Considering the economy right now, not a bad one to watch.

[Hat tip: The Consumerist]

Categories
In The News Politics

There’s No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

Many think that tax rebates they will soon receive thanks to the economic stimulus package recently passed is “free money”. Reality is that unless you made less than $3,000 or suddenly have a change in income between now and next year, that’s likely not the case. As this MSN Money article puts it:

Remember, this is your money you’re getting back, and the rebate checks are basically an advance on your 2009 refund.

I wonder if this misconception of free cash causes more reckless spending.

That said it is possible to make a few dollars if it’s invested well as you’ll collect a nearly a full year’s interest on money the government would have otherwise been collecting interest on. So in reality, the free money is only the interest you “make” on it if you invested it well.