Talk:Howard H. Aiken

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There seems to be conflicting information as to who coined the term "debug", was it Howard Aiken, or Grace Hopper? Each of the respective wikipedia articals claim that they were the one who coined the term. A google search for Howard Aiken and debug turns up 602 results for Aiken, while a search of Grace Hopper and debug turn up 590. A number of web articals give credit to one or the other, if the artical is about Aiken, they give him credit, likewise for Hopper. I did read in a few articals that Hopper was not present when the bug was found, but that she was the one who made the term popular. --Pchov 02:52, August 21, 2005 (UTC)

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Actually, neither of them coined it. The technician who found the moth pasted it into the log book with the phrase (I am quoting from memory, and the emphasis is added) "First instance of *actual* bug found" - implying that *theoretical* bugs were already being discussed, and also very funny.

In fact, even Edison referred to vexing problems as "bugs." The whole story that the moth was the origin of the term "bug" is plain wrong, though it may have helped popularize it. Let me see if I can grab the quote I'm thinking of for you. Aha, it's in the wikipedia article on the term "computer bug": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_bug

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I'm a little confused as to why March 9, 1900 is listed as Aiken's birthday. The article doesn't cite a source for that and this AmercianHeritage.com biography lists his birthday as March 8, 1990. Unless anyone has seen an opposing source, I'll go ahead and make the change.

--AtDuskGreg

Bernard Cohen's biography "Howard Aiken, Portrait of a Computer Pioneer", says (on page 9) Aiken was born on 1900-03-08. Roger Hui 08:13, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

Well, that's interesting then, what do we do? Anyone got a third source? --Atduskgreg 07:25, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks Wikipedia It helped me alot in my homework/project :) ScarOnline (talk) 19:33, 4 October 2016 (UTC)

Quote about originality/ new and good ideas

Can anyone find the exact wording and/or the source for the Aiken quote along the lines of "Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to shove them down people's throats."? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Prodicus (talk • contribs) 17:20, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

If you do a Google search for "aiken quote ideas steal", Google will find that and another wording - "Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you'll have to ram it down their throats." Both quotes are about ideas, but say two different things. At a workplace like IBM's TJW labs, I can imagine the topic is rather intensely discussed - patent royalties, intellectual property protection, credit and creditability, etc. etc. etc. The likeliest explanation I can think of is that Aiken was notable for cutting such discussions short, but that's original research, so it can't go into the article. ;) Nerdjob (talk) 04:24, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

I don't think Aiken was inspired by the Different Engine. I think he was inspired by the Analytical Engine. "It is only a question of cards and time," wrote Henry Babbage in 1888, and there is no reason why twenty thousand cards should not be used if necessary, in an Analytical Engine for the purposes of the mathematician.

Closely related to Babbage's work on the analytical engine was the work of George Stibitz of Bell Laboratories in New Jersey just prior to World War II, as well as Howard Hathaway Aiken at Harvard University during and just after WWII.

Thats from the Wiki page on the Analytical Engine. From my understanding the difference engine would have never worked if it had I do not think Babbage would have started building the Analytical Engine. It's all a matter of Punch Cards. Frankly I think this Aiken guy's ego could be turned down considering Herman Hollerith was one of the founders of IBM and Aiken was financed by IBM and then Aiken is credited as the original creator. Evoluation is not creativity. Sorry Harvard. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 149.152.135.64...

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