[HN Gopher] Bletchley Park codebreaker Margaret Betts has died
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Bletchley Park codebreaker Margaret Betts has died
Author : mindracer
Score : 165 points
Date : 2023-09-06 12:29 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
| neonate wrote:
| https://archive.md/tECwJ
| ttrrooppeerr wrote:
| Nitpick but dead announcements usually don't include other than
| the name: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=has+died
|
| Also, RIP, a true heroine.
|
| Also, also, black top, please, dang.
| [deleted]
| dylan604 wrote:
| The boring has "died titles" are so lame and not helpful.
|
| This immediately told me so much more information. Most of the
| time, I'm not immediately familiar with a person by name even
| if their work is much more familiar to me. Associating a reason
| for their passing being news in the headline is so much more
| useful.
| ydnaclementine wrote:
| Recently watched the Imitation Game as prep for a visit this
| weekend to the Museum of Computing located at Bletchley Park:
| https://www.tnmoc.org/
| jackmott42 wrote:
| For those who have seen the movie and her struggles with sexism
| to get a job there, it is important to note that in real life
| the way she got in at Bletchley, was they called her
| immediately because she was known to be one of the best.
| jgrahamc wrote:
| That film is such a mess.
| chpatrick wrote:
| I think it's pretty terrible that Turing was portrayed as
| Cumberbatch's standard asshole genius when as far as I know
| he was quite likeable. And there was next to zero depiction
| of his sexuality when he was a famous gay martyr.
| auveair wrote:
| > And there was next to zero depiction of his sexuality
| when he was a famous gay martyr.
|
| I'll say it, but the movie was straight up homophobic,
| the whole plot about him being blackmailed about being
| gay and that he yielded to it is just prejudiced,
| implying he cared more about himself than the war effort.
| jackmott42 wrote:
| Turing talking all weird was also not real, but him being
| good at running was, in fact he was maybe olympian
| potential in that era.
| jackmott42 wrote:
| I don't like how much it alters the real history, but if
| the movie was fun for anyone, get some good books about the
| same events and you are in for even more fun! It wasn't
| just "Break the code, done" in real life, there was back
| and forth math and engineering battles, it was great stuff.
| solardev wrote:
| Is there a better documentary (or book)?
| everly wrote:
| The Enigma is probably the best biography I've read,
| though that's specific to Turing
| jacquesm wrote:
| Agreed, it's a very good book.
| Korova wrote:
| There's an article here on the film and it's various
| inaccuracies...which was based on the Enigma book,
| apparently... https://slate.com/culture/2014/12/the-
| imitation-game-fact-vs....
| jacquesm wrote:
| Based on in the loosest sense apparently, from TFA:
|
| " I read the masterful biography that the screenplay is
| based on, Andrew Hodges' Alan Turing: The Enigma, to find
| out. I discovered that The Imitation Game takes major
| liberties with its source material, injecting conflict
| where none existed, inventing entirely fictional
| characters, rearranging the chronology of events, and
| misrepresenting the very nature of Turing's work at
| Bletchley Park. "
| MrJohz wrote:
| I remember The Secret Life of Bletchley Park by Sinclair
| McKay being very interesting, and that was my first real
| introduction to Bletchley Park.
| PaulRobinson wrote:
| Be aware TNMOC is separate - but co-located next to - Bletchley
| Park. You can do both in a day, but they're different tickets
| and different exhibits. Enjoy your visit!
| samstave wrote:
| Its crazy awesome how many revolutions in computing were made of
| women of (notable) obscurity (meaning their
| inventions/contributions were not as widely publisized as they
| should have been.
|
| FFS Madame Curie should have inspired a heck-ton more STEM
| females...
|
| But, there are some foundational corner-stones of computing and
| technology that have been created by females.
| bell-cot wrote:
| Not that your statements are untrue, or I've anything against
| women or Ms. Betts, but...
|
| The article makes it clear that Mary was nothing remotely
| resembling an inventor, discoverer, or Madam Curie. Her job was
| very dull, repetitive clerical work. The men mowing the lawns
| and replacing burned-out light bulbs were of similar skill.
| Mary is newsworthy now because she was one of the last
| survivors of some ~80-years-ago history.
| [deleted]
| bell-cot wrote:
| > "When we said that sounds really exciting, like James Bond spy
| stuff, she said no, it wasn't at all like that, it was very
| humdrum. We were operating machines night and day and it was
| incredibly boring work most of the time.
|
| > "You just had to stand by the machines, you had to concentrate
| when you were programming it and make sure it was set up
| correctly, and the rest of the time you were there watching it,
| waiting for it to come up with something."
|
| Maybe I'm a bit dim...but I've just never gotten over how
| otherwise-intelligent-seeming people keep defaulting to "the real
| world is like Hollywood's fantasy spectacles".
|
| OTOH, we live in a world where "Gell-Mann Amnesia effect" merits
| its own _Wictionary_ page. So I probably am at least a bit dim...
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(page generated 2023-09-06 20:01 UTC)