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Washington State LUG to Hold "Nerd Auction"
elrous0 writes "As part of a PR stunt, a Washington Linux user group is holding a "Nerd Auction" and appealing to local sororities to exchange dates and makeover advice for their computer skills and homework assistance. 'The problem is that we're all still nerds. Let's face it, guys. If anyone's going to bid on us, we'll need some spicing up,' writes Washington State Linux Users Group president Ben Ford on the group's website. 'And who better to help with that than sorority girls who like nothing better than a makeover?' So far there has been no comment on how a Linux user group is going to help sorority girls with their Windows machines."
Isn't it obvious, by installing linux.
This is not the Washington State LUG, it's the Washington State University LUG
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
The sorority girls probably aren't going to bite. They know they can get nerds like us to work on their computer and homework assignments and have to give nothing in return. They just have to be... girls. This is sort of like people boycotting gasoline... it just won't work. They can hold out indefinitely since they have other sources of income (read: non-nerds sexing them up) where as we will sit there demanding cheaper gas (read: any sexing up).
I can see a number of problems with this.
OK, I'll admit that most men have the ulterior motive of trying to get laid. Still, the tone of every report I have read is, "Look what the nerds will go through in an attempt to get laid." They are propagating a stereotype and no one seems to care.
Insert Generic Sig Here:
Maybe the female college students are already smart enough to fix their own computers, and don't need a big strong man-brain to show them how. For that matter, aren't there any female nerds who'd like also to be appreciated for the technical skills? Can they auction themselves off to the highest bidder too? This story is demeaning to women and to geeks.
Administrator: How can we get these nerds to socialize better so that more girls will take CS?
Nerd: Well, you could maybe stop calling us nerds?
Administrator: Dweeb, wonk, spaz -- it's all good.
Free the Quark 3 from asymptotic confinement! Bring your charm! Don't get down! All colours and flavours welcome!
"So far there has been no comment on how a Linux user group is going to help sorority girls with their Windows machines"
Meh, if you've seen one box you've seen them all.
When you're really break it down they're all nothing but I/O devices. Sure, some might have a few more bugs then others. And sure, some are more easy to get into then others. But at the end of the day a box is a box.
Oh, and beer never hurts.
To clarify on some details: We are the Linux Users Group at Washington State University, in Pullman, Washington. Enrollment in general in Computer Science has been down for the past few years. This has more greatly affected female enrollment, than anything else, where the number of females in WSU's Computer Science department is somewhere below 10%. What I'd like to make clear is that this event is not being put on to get geeks laid. Rather, it is to make the rest of campus aware that we exist, and are human. Our president, Ben Ford, and a female member came up with the idea to run this event. We hadn't planned for it to be much more than a fund raiser. But when the Associated Press ran a story on this yesterday, things started to blow up. Since then, our president has been shipped off to news studios. I've been on TV twice, and can hardly keep my phone from going off long enough for me to be interviewed. At the time of this writing, three sororities are in full participation for the event. The support has been so huge, that instead of a small fund-raiser like we were intending, the goal now is to raise enough money for a female scholarship in Computer Science.
Oh yeah? Well I worked as a software architect for 30 years while being a full-time professor in math and African history. I know 37 programming languages and 12 natural languages. When I'm not busy being intellectually awesome I like to go rock climbing, practice ninjitsu, wrestle bears, make 100 ft tall bronze sculptures, and play oustide linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs. So I don't think I'm a nerd either -- I'm entirely too awesome. I don't need to offer to fix a woman's computer in order to spend time with her. I usually just walk around and they are attracted to my awesomeness as if it had its own gravity.
I also think people who join LUGs are pathetic losers who probably couldn't attract a desperate woman *or* successfully wrestle even a small bear. I'm way better than them, and I'm glad to see that there are other folks out there who are just like me (only slightly less awesome).
As I've been saying before, the situation is pretty skewed for both genders.
- About half the guys in a high school or university want the top 10 super-models. Move a bit lower and about 90% of the guys want the top 10% girls. Some might eventually get realistic enough to settle for a bit less, but only grudgingly.
- About the same applies to the girls. Half the girls want the top 10 jocks. Some 90% of the girls want the top 10% most desirable guys.
Interestingly enough, according to a recent study, girls seem to be a bit more realistic as to who they can actually get. Guys will tend to aim above what they can get.
Basically anyone who says that someone can get laid anytime she wishes and by anyone she wishes because she's a girl, probably is doing the same daydreaming: thinking about those top 10 most popular girls in the whole damn college. Noone thinks of the shy, flat, nerdy girl in the back row when they make such generalization. That's her problem in a nutshell: to 90% of the guys she's just short of invisible, or little more than a piece of decor.
To put it even more bluntly, half the western culture (of both genders) is generally more about getting a status symbol than someone they actually plan to get along with. It's the same as getting, say, the sportiest BMW you can afford: it's typically not as much because you actually need something that expensive and that much of a gas guzzler, but just to show everyone that you can afford what most others can't. Same here: girlfriends and boyfriends get chosen as status symbols more than anything else.
And same as almost noone wants the lower half of the guys, if they have a choice, noone wants the lower half of the girls either. Note that I'm not talking about the butt-ugly gang of either sex. Just being _average_, already isn't much of a status symbol.
So my take of what's going to happen is basically:
1. They _will_ find a bunch of girls noone else wants, willing to give it a try. Then they'll get to go, "eeew" as they discover that they didn't get some smooth and highly desirable jock. (Who just happened to be single and limited in nerdiness to knowing how to install Windows.)
2. The guys, conversely, will drool at the thought, right until they find out who they got to meet. And that it's not the horny super-model with huge tits, that they thought they _deserve_ for being so smart and for knowing all that command line stuff. Cue the mandatory "eew" from the guys too.
Nice try, but probably no banana.
Both groups will eventually settle on something more realistic, but if we're talking university LUGs and sororities, not yet. Well, not for most of them.
(And before anyone accuses me of being sexist, note that I've talked about both genders.)
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
# echo "10 17 * * 5 root (ifconfig eth0 down ; ifconfig eth1 down ; wall "Your computer is broken, please call $NERD at $PHONE immediately")" > /etc/crontab
(I swear, it's like the mere mention of meeting a chick turns off the whole BOFH part of the brain with you people...)
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
These sorority girls really know their makeovers. Once LUG members have been given advice on mascara, making their boobs look bigger, and looking good in a belly shirt no man will be able to resist them!
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
I've been to PLENTY of WSU LUG meetings and I choose to remain anonymous for now. It's sick. Ben Ford comes up with this idea "in the shower." Does anyone want to know what he *does* in the shower? I'll just say it has to do with sorority girls and barn yard animals. The sad part here is, girls and computers always come first in his life. I hardly see why this is making the news. He is over $6,500 in past child support, continues NOT to pay it, yet has time for dating sorority girls but not time for his own kids. There's a reason why there aren't many females in the wsu LUG. Any girl who sees these guys should run away, and FAST.