Why wait?

I've talked to many of my classes about the strange tradition the schools maintain: The idea that you wait until finishing school before you do something amazing, change the world or make a million dollars. Why wait to finish school? Here's 3 dropouts that did quite well:

The Harvard Crimson called him "Harvard's most successful dropout" — the rest of the world just calls him ridiculously rich. For more than a decade, Bill Gates has been one of the wealthiest, if not the wealthiest, men in the world. The son of an attorney and a schoolteacher, Gates entered Harvard in the fall of 1973, only to drop out two years later to found Microsoft with childhood friend Paul Allen. In 2007, more than thirty years after he left Harvard, the co-founder of Microsoft would finally receive his degree (an honorary doctorate) from his alma mater. At the commencement, Gates said, "I'm a bad influence. That's why I was invited to speak at your graduation. If I had spoken at your orientation, fewer of you might be here today." 

The Mac, the iPod, heck, even Buzz Lightyear probably wouldn't have existed had Steve Jobs stayed in school. The future wizard of One Infinite Loop dropped out of Reed College after just six months because of the undue financial strain it placed on his working-class parents' savings. He would go on to eventually found Apple, NeXT Computer and Pixar, becoming an instrumental force in shaping the landscape of modern culture. However, his brief tenure in academia was not for naught. In a 2005 commencement speech he gave at Stanford University, Jobs credited a calligraphy class he took at Reed College with forming the basis for the typography used in the first Macintosh computer.

Most college students use their dorm rooms to sleep, study, or do things their parents probably don't want to know about. Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in his. Originally meant only for Harvard students, the popular social networking site quickly spread to the rest of the Ivies and other colleges across the nation. As Facebook's popularity exploded, Zuckerberg packed up his bags and relocated the fledgling company to Palo Alto, California, forever leaving behind Harvard's hallowed halls. So far, the decision has worked out pretty well for the twenty-something. According to Forbes, Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in the world, with a 2010 net worth of $4 billion.

Girls In Computing - A 21st Century Solution

Girls are (if you believe it or not) an important part of computing, they created platforms in computing which all men seem to claim for their own. Women have been very influential in computing, and the number of women in highly ranked computing jobs is rather significant. Women first made their stand in computing during 1842 where Ada Lovelace was described as the first computer programmer. 

Women had several more successes in computing throughout the end of the 19th century and  into the 20th Century . In 1965 Mary Allen Wilkes – a computer programmer, was not only the first developer of the first minicomputer but also the first person, ever, to use a private laptop in a private home. This seems to be the catalyst for what was a revolutionary stage for women in computing:

§  1965: Sister Mary Kenneth Keller first American female Doctorate of Computer Science.

§  1978: Sophie Wilson, designed the Acorn Microcomputer.

§  1979: Carol Shaw, game designer and programmer for Atari Corp. and Activision

§  1980: Carla Meninsky, game designer and programmer for Atari 2600 games Dodge 'Em and Warlords

§  1984: Susan Kare, created icons and interface for the original Apple Macintosh 

§  1985: Irma Wyman, first Honeywell CIO

§  1997: Anita Borg, the founding director of the Institute for Women and Technology (IWT)

§  2004: Jeri Ellsworth, self-taught computer chip designer & creator of C64 Direct-to-TV

§  2005: Mary Lou Jepsen, Founder and CTO of One Laptop Per Child; founder of Pixel Qi.

§  2006: Frances E. Allen, first female recipient of the ACM's Turing Award

§  2009: Barbara H. Liskov, winner of the ACM’s Turing prize

It was also been proven that girls coming from families of engineers; where one or both parents are involved in a field closely related to Computer Science are more likely to enter the field. This is due to their experience with computing which usually dates back to a very early age and as a result have a closer connection and therefore a better reason to stay in computing; compared to if they were relatively new to computing.  In 2009, there was research issued that had found if you are a female executive,  in IT you are more likely to be paid more than your equal man part than any other industry with an average 2% higher pay than them.

Yet, there is a concern for the young women who show an interest in technology later in their high schooling years. This is because they give it up due to the unpleasant working environment, bad teaching, high pressure and usually negative stereotypes. These factors are ruining every girl’s chance at developing a good base for future generations to work in and around. So, it is a necessity that this group of girls, such as myself, need to be encouraged to stay in Computer Science and develop their potential further in order to allow not only themselves a happy and enjoyable future but those after them. We are the ones who have the opportunity to infiltrate the mainly male dominated area and should take advantage of this.

So guys, the challenge is for you to not mock and laugh at those girls succeeding in computing class but support them and make use of their skills in a way that will encourage them to follow the path into computing. You never know one of us could be your boss one day.

Life before Computers

Lets forget Android, Apple, Microsoft, iOS, Adobe, iPad etc, for just a moment and remember that once life was SO simple but SO much better!

Fun Google Facts

1. The First Google Doodle was an "Out of Office message.
2. The First Google Storage Was Made From LEGO
3. Google’s First Ever Tweet = I’m 01100110 01100101 01100101 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101100 01110101 01100011 01101011 01111001 00001010.”
4. Google Rents Goats
5. The Google Logo Was Not Centered Until 2001
6. Google Has a Company Dinosaur

Evidence of Mr Wells Gaming!

This is photographic evidence that I (on the right) was once a gamer!
Year: 1988
Computer: Atari (ST)
Game: Star Trek-Space Wars
Check out that TV! 
Your iPhone has a higher resolution!
Joystick (Bottom left)
Ice cream tub for storing Floppy Disks!

The machine was generally similar to the earlier 520ST, but moved the power supply and a double-sided floppy drive into the rear of the housing of the computer, as opposed to being external. This added to the size of the machine, but reduced cable clutter in the back. The 1040 shipped with 1 MB of RAM, and the same design was also used for the new 512 KB 520STFM (Mr Wells'), which replaced the earlier models in the market. The early 'STF' machines lacked the 'M' modulator that allowed a TV to be used and would only work with a monitor.
The 1040ST was the first personal computer shipped with a base RAM configuration of 1 MB. When the list price was reduced to $999 in the U.S. it appeared on the cover of BYTE in March 1986 as the first computer to break the $1000/megabyte price barrier. However, the ST remained generally the same internally over the majority of its several-year lifespan. The choice of model numbers was inherited from the model numbers of the XE series of the Atari 8-bit family of computers. A limited number of 1040STFs shipped with a single-sided floppy drive.