Tuesday, March 24, 2009

The Ada Lovelace pledge "Ms. Mayer"

Some time ago I pledged to this one: "I will publish a blog post on Tuesday 24th March about a woman in technology whom I admire but only if 1,000 other people will do the same." I do to honor Ada Lovelace.

So here I go: since the first moment I set my eyes on it, I thought there was something that set it apart from the crowd. It must have been sometimes in 2000 or so. The name was catchy too, but what I most admired was the plain, simplistic look, almost too little, and yet, everything was there. Ever since I've admired the almost iconic look of it.

A couple of weeks back when visiting D&D in San Fransisco, we were drinking coffee and reading the Sunday edition of New York Times, I got across an article about Google's design. I learned that "Ms. Mayer controls the look, feel and functionality of the Internet’s most heavily trafficked search engine."

Of course, I thought, that is why the interface looks so DAM GOOD, it's a she!

The article got a few "Hyvä Suomi!" when I learned that since a kid she had admired the design of Marimekko, something that every Finnish kid from the seventies has imprinted in their brain. So, she's got Finnish ancestors too! "Hyvä Suomi!"

Apart from being the employee no: 20 and Google's first female engineer, she seems to like a good party and is comfortable on skis. Petty darn impressive! Thanks for being there!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace
an interesting interview on Marissa Mayer (where she wears an awful shirt, oups...)
http://www.charlierose.com/view/clip/10136

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