On Grace Murray Hopper

When Karen was in high school, in a special school for the sciences, Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper came to speak with them:

Her messages to us:

If you want to get something done, do it first. Apologize (if apologies are necessary) later.

Don't let anyone tell you you can't succeed, especially if you are a woman.

She gave us lengths of wire cut to the distance light travels in a nanosecond, and handed out pepper grain sized wires that she called picoseconds for the same reason.

Her talk was less about doing computer science and more about having the will to succeed against all odds. Very inspirational.