Joan Clarke June 24, 1917 – September 4, 1996

Ada Lovelace (December 10, 1815-November 27, 1852)

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace was a writer and mathematician who worked on Charles Babbage's early mechanical computer.  Her work in what she called "poetical science" led her to a legacy as the first computer programmer, and continues to inspire generations of hackers today.

Acrylic on canvas, 5x7″.  From my September 2015 set Luminaries of the Hacker World.

As my follower count on Twitter approached 400, I mentioned that it might be cool to do a drawing based on the Twitter icon of my 400th follower.  Number 400 turned out to be an affable fellow known as @cjp, whose icon was a small photo of himself.

It was then that I realized randomly receiving an unsolicited portrait from some dude off the Internet he'd just begun reading might be perceived as a bit creepy, so of course I went ahead as planned.  He seemed to take it well, and I've received no restraining orders.

Felt pen on paper, 9x6".

I took some video of part of my rail commute and set it to the English-language cover of Yatta! I made recently; the result turned out surprisingly mellow.  More info and an MP3 download in the track's original post.

Captioned lyrics are included if you click through to YouTube.  Here's the direct YouTube link for embedophobes.

This goofy track has gotten a far kinder response here and elsewhere than I thought it would; thanks, Internet!  I shall have to do more musical things.

Joybubbles (May 25, 1949-August 8, 2007)

Joybubbles (born Josef Engressia) was an early phone phreak.

With perfect pitch he was able to control the phone system by simply whistling the tones normally generated by Bell's systems, an ability he accidentally discovered at age seven.

Acrylic on canvas, 5x7″.  From my September 2015 set Luminaries of the Hacker World.

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, run through Google Translate from English, to Chinese, to Russian, to Punjabi, to Welsh, back to English and performed by myself.

Music: "Hail Columbia" by the US Marine Corps Band (public domain).

Original mistranslation:

5.87 years , and our fathers that all men are created equal , dedicated to freedom of the uterus and forth on this continent a new nation came .

Now we are engaged in a great civil war , that nation or any nation has been conceived, and so dedicated , can long continue . Battle of the big war . For us to survive here in this country and gave their lives as a final place of rest in this area has come to set aside part . This we should do , which is natural .

However , in a broader sense , we can not worship the earth , we can not dedicate , devote unable . Who struggle brave men , living and dead , surrender, or to add it to roam far above our power is poor . Note Small World , nor long remember telling us , but they can never forget. Dedicated to the work on the cross , our life , , , , , and fought heroically . None of the rest of them here so that we can complete their last full measure of devotion to die to become more committed to the work we have great honor to devote themselves to this is that we will not die in vain , because they are the very definition of it - the dead by God , freedom and government of the people, people , freshmen will , and will not destroy the earth .

This also exists on Soundcloud.

A fascinating fact about the latest Doctor Who trailer.

Support the WHOFAX Kickstarter!

Texted one friend asking for a profession, and another asking for animals.  I got back secretary, chipmunk, and ball python.  This is the result, done in ten minutes on my lunch break.

Alan Turing (June 23, 1912-June 7, 1954)

Turing was a pioneering scientist in the fields of mathematics, logic, cryptography, and more. His work was fundamental in the development of computer science and artificial intelligence.

Prosecuted and ostracized for his homosexuality, then a criminal act, he has been posthumously pardoned.

Acrylic on canvas, 5x7″.  From my September 2015 set Luminaries of the Hacker World.

In the rootin'-tootin' Old Days of the World-Wide Web, it wasn't uncommon to see websites with notes that they were intended for viewing with one particular web browser or another.  "This site is best viewed on Blah."  "This site is enhanced for Blah Blah."  Say "Netscape Now!" to any Internet veteran; the longer and more pained their responding groan, the more old-school and worthy of your respect they are.

When I started building my first terrible late-1990s website, I took a different approach.  Visitors to my site were greeted with the message "This site is best viewed with a Browser."  Below that appeared the buttons shown here.

First commenter below to correctly name all the browser buttons I spoofed gets a free emoticon! Edit: Tottenkoph got it!  I was wondering if anyone would get Lynx.  I've also wondered exactly why Lynx even had its own graphical button.  Even ancient Internets make no damned sense.

My standup set from last night’s “Say Everything,” the talk-show-esque pub comedy show where I’m a regular performer.  We talked about my hometown, Hurricane Joaquin, funerals, and more.

More info about the show on its Facebook.