Today is a special day to celebrate pattern making and pattern discovery, and it even looms large in the history of computers. It's the birthday of Joseph Marie Jacquard (1752-1834), a French weaver and merchant. He is credited with developing the programmable loom, and the Jacquard name has long been associated with repeating patterns woven into fabric. My bright plaid tie is one of several in my closet with woven patterns. Jacquard's programming for the loom was based on a sequence of punched cards, directing the operation of hooks to guide the yarn. This idea eventually became the basis for all sorts of calculating machines, down to the 20th-century "modern" computers receiving their instructions from decks of punched cards.
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