How to invent software engineering

Margaret Hamilton at Apollo 11 mission control room, 1969: Okay, I think it’s time I start calling this “software” engineering — Margaret Hamilton at Apollo 11 mission control room, 1969: *Okay, I think it’s time I start calling this “software” engineering*

Margaret Hamilton did not simply help put the man to the Moon. She had also invented the concept that would go along to create a major paradigm shift in ideas that people have about computers. She was the first person to make a difference between hardware and software. How do you come up with an idea of such scale and influence? - I was asking myself while watching through the video clip shared on Google’s blog a year ago. In the video, set in Mojave desert, California, we see a giant portrait of Hamilton. It is made out of mirrors that catch the moon light when darkness falls over the desert, illuminating all at once. The graphic qualities of the portrait aside, you can look at it and marvel at the tribute that earthlings pay to the legendary Apollo flight software designer, a team lead who made it possible to set human feet onto the Moon surface.

Until tomorrow, old man!

There was an Old Man, on whose nose, Most birds of the air could repose; But they all flew away, At the closing of day, Which relieved that Old Man and his nose.

E.Lear, 1846

Moon examination

There was an Old Man of the Hague, Whose ideas were excessively vague; He built a balloon, To examine the moon, That deluded Old Man of the Hague.

E.Lear, 1846

Worshiping the moon

There was an Old Person of Tring, Who embellished his nose with a ring; He gazed at the moon, Every evening in June, That ecstatic Old Person of Tring.

E.Lear, 1846

To Priam's Treasure!

There was an Old Person of Troy, Whose drink was warm brandy and soy; Which he took with a spoon, By the light of the moon, In sight of the city of Troy.

E.Lear, 1846