A few years after her death, in 1994 the Reader's Digest printed a pithy quotation attributed to Grace Hopper, revealing that she'd always been more interested in the future than the past. It's a neat little phrase that probably most computer pioneers of the 20th century will have uttered at some point. But it's unlikely that any other than Hopper will have reminded themselves of the notion by having a clock on the wall running anti-clockwise.