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'Most Beautiful Woman' By Day, Inventor By Night
- srean 15y agoThe article comes close but does not mention one interesting piece of trivia. The frequency hopping device was made using (and inspired by) a pianoroll for an autopiano. An instrument that Lamarr and her collaborator, composer Antheil would have been familiar with. In their scheme of things, the torpedo and the sub would play the same "song" and jump frequencies in sync. Their patent lay ignored till fairly recently EDIT: here is an Atlantic article that has more detail: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/09/celebrity-invention-hedy-lamarrs-secret-communications-system/62377/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/09/celebr...
- EvilTrout 15y agoFun tidbit for gamers: in Half Life 2, the headcrab that causes the portal mixup is named Lamarr, after Hedy. Get it?
- topa 15y agoand it hops around randomly..
- surlyadopter 15y agoThat's Hedley.
- Ryanmf 15y agoOh, come on. I sort of get the "quips that don't add materially to the discussion get all the downvotes" sentiment, but a well executed, topically relevant Mel Brooks joke in the gray? On a Sunday? We're very puzzled.
- enneff 15y agoIt's just noise. If you want pop culture references and one liners go to Reddit.
- dextorious 15y agoExactly. Let's keep HN purely filled with startup advice, middle age crisis geek questions, functional programming trivialities and Mongo.
- iso8859-1 15y agoThis whole thread is nothing but trivia. It seems there is double standard.
- yummies 15y agoi can think of a few trolls who would love to snatch up that patent and sue everyone who ever had anything to do with a smartphone.
- lunchbox 15y agoThe patent is expired.
- Jun8 15y agoPrevious coverage on HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1368176 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1368176.
- Nate75Sanders 15y agoAnother piece of trivia about her that I remember and am surprised nobody else pointed out: She was the woman on the cover of CorelDraw who sued Corel and won because they used her likeness: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-fsDWp0rXAo8/TWyXPD4a_YI/AAAAAAAACVU/Sh709RqZw3E/Corel+Draw+8+Hedy+Lamarr.jpg https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-fsDWp0rXAo8/TWyXPD4a_YI/A...
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- vilda 15y agoI'm quite surprised that they ignored her past - she was married to Friedrich Mandl, an arms manufacturer. She learned about military technology from his friends. So obvious option - that historians considers - is that she basically patented ideas she obtained/discussed during her marriage. Missing details are also behind the reason why she could not reproduce some of them.
- yread 15y agoShe also starred in the first erotic movie ever: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecstasy_(film) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecstasy_(film)