sindylee.com » 2007

In the bag full of stuff at GHC, from Northwestern University Female Researchers in EECS– “At the Bleeding Edge.” We jokingly said it was a tampon holder, then we thought it was a pencil holder and then… we realized it’s right there on the box. It really is a tampon holder.

Wow.

At first I thought, a) “what corporate gift catalog do you find that in?” and b) “isn’t there collective agreement that we shouldn’t be referring to menstruation as ‘the rag’? Or is this some kind of female empowerment thing where we’re trying to claim that word back?”

Anyway, check it out: ragtotes.com.

Posted in Education, Flickr/Photos, Race, Gender & Ethnicity, Technology & Computing | No Comments » | Read more..

October 17th, 2007

links for 2007-10-18

Southern Cal Hops on YouTube - Chronicle.com

(tags: education video)
Get your FBI file — and your NSA and CIA files too, while you’re at it - Boing Boing

(tags: privacy)
iPhone hacker sues Apple for right to unlock his phone - Boing Boing

(tags: apple law)
Transitions: Microsoft’s sex change

(tags: gender microsoft)
PC World - Student Who Uncovers Breach Escapes Expulsion

(tags: education privacy security)
Stanford Students Sue Spammers - Chronicle.com

(tags: stanford security privacy)

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October 17th, 2007

If it’s not one thing, it’s another

This is from last week, but it’s an a propos post, considering I’m at GHC this week:

Transitions: Microsoft’s Sex Change

It’s great that Wallent’s colleagues are being so supportive, but I find it hard to believe that he won’t have to experience plain old sexism once he’s completely transitioned. I find that, more often than not, men– being, you know, men– think that it’s never as bad as women say and that we all live in more of a meritocracy than we really do.

Except, of course, when it comes to affirmative action. How convenient.

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October 14th, 2007

Grace Hopper and Women in Computing

Grace Hopper Conference 2007 I normally try to avoid events like this because I feel like issues around women in computing, much less women of color, are usually handled in an awkward way, no matter how good someone’s intentions are.

And yes, even if that someone is a woman.

But I’m giving it another go, so I’ll be attending the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference in Orlando this week. For those who don’t know, Grace Hopper was a pioneering computer scientist who, among other things, developed the first compiler for a computer programming language. She’s also often credited incorrectly for coining the software term “bug.” The term was already in use when the it happened, but the story goes that, in 1947, when Hopper was working on the Harvard Mark II calculator, an error was traced back to a moth trapped in a relay. The moth was carefully removed and Hopper taped it into the log book, noting that it was the “first actual case of bug being found.”

In any case, I’ve written here about the gender imbalance in computer science and engineering before. Read about Geek Girls: parts one and two. I’ll be posting more thoughts as the week progresses.

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