Top Ten Geek Girls

TurboPatrol writes "CNET have published a list of the Top Ten Girl Geeks throughout history. The winners include the elegant Ada Byron (the world's first computer programmer), Grace Hopper (invented the compiler) and Lisa Simpson (invented the perpetual motion machine — well, in the world of cartoons). Some of the entries are fascinating, for example Marie Curie apparently used to carry plutonium in her jacket pockets. Have they missed anyone out?" At least two entries on the list are stupid. I guess someone thought they were funny.

Comments

Real geeks only please

[Gothmolly]

I'm glad to RTFA and see people like Eugenia or Steph the Geek not on the list, HOWEVER, wtf is Paris Hilton, LISA FSCKING SIMPSON, or Aleks Krotoski on the list? Did they run out at 6 or 7 geeks, and needed filler? Paris Hilton is described as "She might look trendy on the outside, but inside this girl is all binary." WTF?

Re:Real geeks only please

[elrous0]

Paris Hilton is described as "She might look trendy on the outside, but inside this girl is all binary." WTF?

It must be very empowering to women to know that it's apparently impossible to compile a list of even ten prominent geek women without padding it with fictional characters and vacuous celebrities.

-Eric

Re:Real geeks only please

[clacke]

Yes. Where the hell is Anousheh?

Ok, you go to space, you blog about it, the blog gets slashdotted. And you don't even beat Paris Hilton in geekiness? Nothing to see here, move along.

Re:Real geeks only please

[brunes69]

If you think "geek" is a slanderous term, then you have either come here via a time-warp from 1970, are not a geek yourself, have never been to this site before, or various combinations of all three.

Geek is very chic nowadays, lots of people who are not geeks *wish they were*. Geek is in.

Lisa Simpson?

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't it a little bit sad when one of the Top 10 geek "girls" throughout history has to be a cartoon character. Are there really that few women geeks to choose from?

Re:Lisa Simpson?

[qwijibo]

I doubt this article will end up in any history textbooks. However, I think Lisa Simpson is a much better candidate in every way than Paris Hilton. As a cartoon, she has all the fakeness of Paris Hilton, but the benefit of script writers to give her a personality. =)

where the hell

[wud]

is morgan webb?

Re:where the hell

[Don_dumb]

Or another obvious choice Florence Nightingale - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_nightingale after all she did invent the pie chart while nursing.

It annoys me that these were the 10 women (Paris Hilton, et al) they chose. It must be really insulting, when they leave out so many serious 'girl geeks' that actually did have a positive impact on the world.

Cynthia Breazeal!

[PHAEDRU5]

It's a shame they missed her: http://web.media.mit.edu/~cynthiab/

Yuck.

[Rob T Firefly]

Ah, CNet. Just when one thought you couldn't get any less useful, you squander a potentially really neat article idea on tired Simpsons and Paris Hilton jokes. I hate to say this to anyone.. but you are really not funny.

A girl geek friend of mine works for CNet. I wonder how well her and her fellows are taking this.

Paris Hilton or Madame Curie... hmmm

[maynard]

Did I just see Madame Curie and Rosalind Franklin compared with Paris Hilton and Lisa Simpson? One two time Nobel Prize winner and another near Nobel Prize winner compared to a coke snorting self promoting gamer and a cartoon character.

I give up.

Re:Leah?

[somegeekynick]

I'd include Sophie Germaine[wikipedia.org] Germain was particularly interested in Joseph-Louis Lagrange's teachings and submitted papers and assignments under the pseudonym "Monsieur Le Blanc", a former student of Lagrange's. Lagrange was so impressed by the paper that he asked to meet Le Blanc, and Germain was forced to reveal her identity to him. Lagrange apparently considered her a talented mathematician and became her mentor. On a lighter note, how about Britney spears[britneyspears.ac]? ;) P.S. I don't post much at /.. Could someone tell me how to post a comment without replying to an earlier comment?(i.e. Reply to This).

Where the hell is Kari?

[chibbie]

Kari Byron from MythBusters.

WTF?! Some of the entries are total bullsh*t.

[WidescreenFreak]

I want to know what the hell the author was smoking when this was written, beause that's some really potent stuff!

Why the f**k is Darryl Hannah on this list? She not a f**king geek! She's a left-wing, activist actress! Oh, wow, she made two board games. So what? That does not qualify her to bear the category of "geek" in any way, shape, or form.

Lisa Simpson? Paris Hilton? Others have discussed the stupidity of these entries, so I'm not going to bother reiterating them.

Why the hell are two of the most prominent girl geeks around not on this list -- Aluria Petrucci (aka Cali Lewis) and Amber McArthur? Cali Lewis is one of the most famous tech geeks out there with her GeekBrief.TV video podcast that gets tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of downloads every day. Even if she's just a nice-on-the-eyes presenter, she still has far more qualifications than Hanna, Simpson, or Hilton. And Amber McArthur is just about every geek's wet dream - intelligent (holds several college degrees), co-host and producer of several tech podcasts and TVs shows, host of commandN video podcast, clearly has a love for tech, and is incredibly easy on the eyes.

I certainly can agree with Marie Curie, Ada Byron, and the others. I'll even give the nod to Mary Shelley. But some of the entires in this list completely destroy the credibility of whoever the person is who made this list.

If they were looking for a "gamer"

[figa]

They should have chosen grandmaster Judit Polgar. You don't get much geekier than chess, and you don't get much better than Judit Polgar.