Women play a big role in computer programming

The stereotype is that is that all computer programmers are men. This is false. The first programmer was Ada Lovelace, who worked with Charles Babbage. Rear Admiral Grace Hopper is credited with developing COBOL, a programming language still used every day. I work with women all the time who are good programmers. Similar to playing the piano well, some people have a knack for programming but many do not. However, the people who have the talent can be female as well as male.

Walter Isaacson has written a book about the women who were involved with programming ENIAC during World War II. Click here for an excerpt from "The Innovators" that is in the current issue of Fortune magazine.

Steve Ballmer: Dragging MSFT down by $20 billion

We knew that Steve Ballmer was dragging down Microsoft, but now we have a value on it. He announced his retirement today and MSFT went up $2.37 per share today. With 8.33 billion shares outstanding, he's been dragging the stock down by almost $20 billion.

Sorry, Steve, about the dissing by Wall Street but at least your stock and options will have appreciated too.

When someone posts a chart showing the performance of Microsoft's stock under Ballmer's tenure, I'll link to it. I'm not expecting much gain, if any. Bloomberg has given us some numbers: "An investment of $1,000 when Ballmer took over is now worth 13 percent less, including dividend returns, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Since Microsoft’s 1986 initial public offering through the end of the Gates era, $1,000 turned into $554,464."

Here's a Fortune article on this, written before the market closed: Steve Ballmer: The $16 billion drag on Microsoft.

Updated Aug. 24: Added quote from Bloomberg.