Secondly, the females there are pretty awful - the average female uses the internet to affirm real life relationships, not to make new relationships. Females who post to online communities are usually rather strange creatures, desperate for some sort of attention.
This is why the e2 females cluster around the sex topics.
oh *fuck you*. i'm an e2 female and resent that very much. (oh. wait. you wouldn't know that, i have a gender neutral nick. i wonder why that is. perhaps to AVOID assholes judging me only on my gender?) and i'm *not* the only one. (only one can be taken as 'e2 female who resents this comment', 'e2 female who DOES none of the above things listed' or 'e2 female with neutral nick to avoid idiots', as all of those are correct statements)
all nodes about sex? if i look back i can find maybe *one* of my entries related to sex. that's because i *don't* want to be known for my breasts, but the work i contribute.
if by 'affirm real life relationships' you mean i was SHOWN the site by my fiancé, (and have since established more of my own identity there than he has), then you'd be right. any other context and you're wrong.
don't form new relationships? then tell me why i flew halfway across the country to meet four noders, and if my exam schedule and other plans allow, intend to attend the *wedding* of two others shortly?
go back to talking about things you actually have a fucking clue about, alright, and leave us in peace? i can't think the gods enough you don't find E2 "useful". then maybe you'll stay away from the bloody thing and let those of us who appreciate it sigh in relief.
its *important* for these old games to be saved. one of hte few things i remeber *distinctly* from my childhood is the video games. I would always get so excited when my family would to to "the black-eyed pea", not because i liked the food, but because i always got a handfull of quarters to play the one game in the restraunt, Mrs Pac Mam [and not the stand-up one, one of the old flat table-top style ones. that was *the* thing that made it so exciting to go out and eat there. what seven-year old girl *really* wants to go somewhere like that just to get a good meal of vegitables? no, it was for the video game! and the same thing, when we went to Ninfas, s good as thier food was i didn't care about that, i jus wanted to go to play Galaga. I've got coppies of both these games, and other old games such as 'asteroids' and 'joust'and the *original* super mario brothers, from *gasp* the NINTENDO--no number, no extension--on my machine now [although not thru running MAME], and i play them a heck of a lot more than any new flashy game i own. so my brother bought a dreamcast a couple weeks ago. i looked it it for about ten minutes, was suitably impressed, being the geek i am, with the three-d effects and such, critiqued the game where the scenery was too polygonal, watched the new sonic game, realized it was just like every other Sonic game ever *made*, and wandered back to my game of asteroids on my trusty computer. no contest. the games may be flashy and technically impressive but the *gameplay*, the *plots* are wothless. there is no creativity. all efforts are going into making a bigger flashier cooler game *visually* than theother guys, and neglecting all other aspects of gameplay. i could care less about the new whatever-the-heck nubmer Sonic exists now for the dreamcast, whatever new flashy game will appear in a restraunt next. i doubt i'll be forming any memories off of *those*. for me, give me my old games, with their fond memories and terribly-unimpressive-by-todays-standards but functional graphics. you can keep your N64's, your dreamcasts, your new fancy PC and Mac games. give me mrs pac man and i'm happy. now if you'll excuse me? tetris calls...
there are a pretty decent number of scholarships for female students out there, in CS in particular and math/science in general. One good place to look is The Society of Women Engineers webpage they are offering numerous scholarships. And they're not theonly ones; i'vebeen looking quite a bit for this specific thing. they're out there, if you konw where to look
as another of the apparently few females in computers, i'd like to second that...
yes there are a lot of females who just dont have the experience and need intro courses and then will be good. i've seen it happen in my C++ class [high school]. there are also a *lot* of females who hae no basis and will never be terribly good. that's fine. there are a lot of guys like that too.
as for women having no previous konwledge of computers... im' a high school senior, have been a "true" geek for like a year anda half; in that time i've done lots of web design, some programming, taught myself how to use about 5 million different programs, am learning Linux currently, etc. I've built two comptuers from teh ground up, repaired/replaced parts in many many more. ANy time there's a computer problem at school, the teachers and some students come to *me* not the guys. just dont forget that there are *some* of us who know what we're doing...
that's a HUGE part of the problem... my high school only offers three semesters total of comptuer courses... Intro to computer applications [learning word and excel adn stuff like that], one semester of C++ and one semester of CS AP. I think i'm the only girl currently in high school to have taken *all three* semesters; most take intro only, and because C++ sounds so big adn scary, because it's not publicized or explained enough, they never go on.
another huge part of the problem is not too few CS classes in high school, but in *middle school*. middle school is *the* time when females either become interested in math/science/computer fields, or become totally turned off by them. to get more girls into the field, we need to start *earlier*.
Anyone else feel like we really need to hold onto our hats now? Ford's initiative, if it catches on (and it alreayd appears to be making an impression, since Delta's picked up a similar plan almost immediately) this could be the step we need to set us squarely in the "information age"
This initiative will do several things: 1)it will provide technology to many people who might otherwise not have access to it. in doing so, it has the potential to increase wide-spread levels of education. there are a lot of bright young children out there who could make a lot of themselves if they had better education. even if they cannot afford a good "traditional" eduucation, having access to the internet provieds them with infinite knowldegde *if they desire to partake of it*. Those that are motivated to learn, are now given the chance. 2)This has the potential to cause a huge boom in the technology field in the next few years. Again, by giving computers to people who otherwise might not have them, it brings more people *into* computer-related areas. The best and brightest students who before never had teh *chance* to become interested in technology have teh opertunity, adn if they are truly interested they will take advantage of what they've got. This could bring a whole new collection of people into computing areas, enriching it greatly. not only will it bring more diversity (perhaps?) into the field, but it will be attracting potentially large quantities of intellegent, interested people. Think of how thish could effect teh tech industry...
i'd be tempted to say that, if initiatives like this catch on, this could completely revolutionize society. think about it... the implications are stunning...
it's *really* nice to see Linux getting recognition as a valid, at least quasi-mainstream operating system... it's about time! and it's great that it's coming from a big-name company like Dell instead of some small, obscure place...
So maybe this version of Altavista isn't "true" open source since it's not the actual version used online but instead a different, downloaded program. Doesn't the fact that they're even taking the initiative to make any version of it open-source say a lot? I could be wrong but i dont see any *other* search engines doing this yet... Besides it's just neat that more and more big names are doing things like this. Sure there's a lot of open source software, and a lot of companies and organizations making more programs that way every day. But this is impressive in that it's an every-day name. I dont know anyone who is tech-oriented enough to turn the computer *on* who hasn't heard of Altavista. So teh fact it's becoming more 'mainstream' is definately something...
Gee... first we've got kids who have seizures from watching the "pokemon" TV show. Now kids throwing up from playing video games. So what happens when they try to play the *pokemon* video games??
Rumor has it, at least in the Star Wars circles i frequent, that the reason Lucas is waiting to release TPM on DVD is because he wants to release the whole new trilogy, as a set, on DVD.
Lucasfilms is going ahead and releasing it on VHS for those of us who *can't* wait what, four, six years for all the movies. This way, he makes everyone sort of happy at least. The impatient people get their movie quickly, and those who want to wait for all the DVD goodies get *good* stuff, not just some slapped-together disk.
sorry! i lied... the correct URL is Hamsterdeath i misspelled it because hampsterdance.com has a 'p' in it but hamsterdeath *doesn't*. oops... well have fun with it anyways:)
excellent point here... one of the biggest problems with electronic communication *is* the lack of emotional qualifiers. there is no *context* for any of the comments--none of the usual clues such as vocal inflection or facial cues to allow the 'flamee'(so i make up words...) to decide whether the comment is truly serious, just a general aggrivation at the situation or conversation, or a personal attack.
For example, I can say to one of my friends, in r/l, "I hate you" but with a wry grin on my face and a jokingly jealous note in my voice and they know I'm just teasing and am just envious of something-or-another. If one of my moral enemies is driving me absolutely insane and i say "i hate you" with a glare and a snarl in my voice, the person can tell i'm seriously aggrivated. a random, out of context "i hate you" as text on a screen in an email has none of that context.
I've seen this sort of communication problem happen many times... One single email miscommunication actually caused an irrepairable rift between three (possibly four?)people who had previously not been friends but co-workers. this was a year and a half ago; two of these people still refuse to *speak* to each other.
It often goes like this... someone will say something rash, in a moment of anger, in an email. being just text, the recipient can inturpret whatever is said in any possible way. if this occours in an already hostile situation, the recipient is actually *more* likely, in the abscence of any contextual clues, to take whatever is said in the *worst* possible way. So some little nothing turns into a huge issue
And sometimes people will take an ambiguous comment the wrong way *because* they know they are wrong. If a person for example posts a comment that they really weren't thinking too well about, and then recieves a return post or an email questining the value of the post, not nessecarily in a 'flaming' way but a 'what did you intend to get across wiht that comment' they'll *see* it as an attack because they are already unsure about the value of their comment.
I *love* electronic communication, i really do. i spend more time talking to more people than i do out in that "real world" sort of thing. There's no comparison. I really prefer email/messaging/posting/etc. (then again, i'm a die-hard geek chick. go figure. only girl i know who'd rather IM than talk on the phone...) But regardless of how convenient (and just *cooler* e-communication is) there *is* more room for misinturpretation of things because you *are* just looking at text on a screen and you don't have any of the physical/vocal clues you get when talking in person.
ah well i'm rambling now... I should probably go do something productive now, like finish my english homework so i can spend my evening playing with linux instead:) Well, just wanted to get my $.02 in...
first of all, i'm a geek chick and linux goddess-in-training, and *proud* of it. im' not saying it's *easy*. its *not*. but... anyways, this is a college essay i just finished writing for my MIT application. thought this might be an appropriate place to dump it... i know it's long, kind of rambling, but if you've got too much free time on your hands like i do, take a look:) (this is my first-ever slashdot post, bear with me please)
the question was: Tell us about an opinion that you have had to defend or an incident in your life which placed you in conflict with the beliefs of a majority of people and explain how this affected your value system.
and here's what i had to say about that: One of my strongest beliefs--and one that is consistently challenged--is my belief (if not my mantra) that girls can be *just* as tech-savvy and computer-competent as guys. I've considered myself a 'computer geek' for a long time. I love computers and spend most of my free time working with them. My affinity for computers has always seemed perfectly natural to me. However, a huge number of people are surprised that a *girl* would be interested in computer science! My average conversation is this: Person: "What do you want to study in college?" Me: "Computer science, specializing in graphics and animation." Person: (Says nothing. Looks at me as if I have suddenly grown a third eye.) My interest in computers puzzles many people. I explain that although CS has *traditionally* been male-dominated, and although females are in the minority (about 20%), girls *can* be very successful in this field. My greatest critics, those who give me the most difficulty, are the CS-type guys. It'd be logical to think they would *encourage* me! However, exactly *two* of my fellow "geeks" think it's *cool* that a girl is into CS. The rest give me looks of disbelief and condescending comments as they say--directly or through actions--that computers are "their" thing and I could not *possibly* be as good as they. I was at school the other day, working with five other students to set up a Linux box. Three of the guys have run Linux at home for years, three of us (a guy; a tech-savvy female friend; and me) had never touched Linux before. Our nominal leader was carrying on a technical conversation with the other two Linux-users. Any time the other girl or I asked him a question, he responded "Never mind, you wouldn't understand". If the freshman *guy* asked a question, our "leader" would take the time to patiently explain the answer. Yet if girls can't "do" computers, why did everyone come running to *me* whenever there was a computer problem or a question about PowerPoint in my history class? (We all had to do presentations as a final project.) they didn't go to the guys. even the *guys* came to *me*, because I was the best. Even though I'm occasionally given credit, I experience bias on a nearly daily basis. I know this is due in part to the way people have been raised--traditionally girls aren't "supposed" to be good at math/science fields. And some of the guys feel threatened that girls are taking over "their" area. Some really just do think they're better. I But I refuse to let their attitudes get to me. I may not be "supposed" to be good or interested... but I am, so I just continue to do what I always have, regardless of what people say. CS is not just a guy's field. It's anyone's field. and now it's *mine*.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, it's Sleazebagganno.
^_^
No... no.... they done FAR worse already in Episode II.
oh *fuck you*. i'm an e2 female and resent that very much. (oh. wait. you wouldn't know that, i have a gender neutral nick. i wonder why that is. perhaps to AVOID assholes judging me only on my gender?) and i'm *not* the only one. (only one can be taken as 'e2 female who resents this comment', 'e2 female who DOES none of the above things listed' or 'e2 female with neutral nick to avoid idiots', as all of those are correct statements)
all nodes about sex? if i look back i can find maybe *one* of my entries related to sex. that's because i *don't* want to be known for my breasts, but the work i contribute.
if by 'affirm real life relationships' you mean i was SHOWN the site by my fiancé, (and have since established more of my own identity there than he has), then you'd be right. any other context and you're wrong.
don't form new relationships? then tell me why i flew halfway across the country to meet four noders, and if my exam schedule and other plans allow, intend to attend the *wedding* of two others shortly?
go back to talking about things you actually have a fucking clue about, alright, and leave us in peace? i can't think the gods enough you don't find E2 "useful". then maybe you'll stay away from the bloody thing and let those of us who appreciate it sigh in relief.
its *important* for these old games to be saved. one of hte few things i remeber *distinctly* from my childhood is the video games. I would always get so excited when my family would to to "the black-eyed pea", not because i liked the food, but because i always got a handfull of quarters to play the one game in the restraunt, Mrs Pac Mam [and not the stand-up one, one of the old flat table-top style ones. that was *the* thing that made it so exciting to go out and eat there. what seven-year old girl *really* wants to go somewhere like that just to get a good meal of vegitables? no, it was for the video game! and the same thing, when we went to Ninfas, s good as thier food was i didn't care about that, i jus wanted to go to play Galaga. I've got coppies of both these games, and other old games such as 'asteroids' and 'joust'and the *original* super mario brothers, from *gasp* the NINTENDO--no number, no extension--on my machine now [although not thru running MAME], and i play them a heck of a lot more than any new flashy game i own. so my brother bought a dreamcast a couple weeks ago. i looked it it for about ten minutes, was suitably impressed, being the geek i am, with the three-d effects and such, critiqued the game where the scenery was too polygonal, watched the new sonic game, realized it was just like every other Sonic game ever *made*, and wandered back to my game of asteroids on my trusty computer. no contest. the games may be flashy and technically impressive but the *gameplay*, the *plots* are wothless. there is no creativity. all efforts are going into making a bigger flashier cooler game *visually* than theother guys, and neglecting all other aspects of gameplay. i could care less about the new whatever-the-heck nubmer Sonic exists now for the dreamcast, whatever new flashy game will appear in a restraunt next. i doubt i'll be forming any memories off of *those*. for me, give me my old games, with their fond memories and terribly-unimpressive-by-todays-standards but functional graphics. you can keep your N64's, your dreamcasts, your new fancy PC and Mac games. give me mrs pac man and i'm happy. now if you'll excuse me? tetris calls...
yes there are a lot of females who just dont have the experience and need intro courses and then will be good. i've seen it happen in my C++ class [high school]. there are also a *lot* of females who hae no basis and will never be terribly good. that's fine. there are a lot of guys like that too.
as for women having no previous konwledge of computers... im' a high school senior, have been a "true" geek for like a year anda half; in that time i've done lots of web design, some programming, taught myself how to use about 5 million different programs, am learning Linux currently, etc. I've built two comptuers from teh ground up, repaired/replaced parts in many many more. ANy time there's a computer problem at school, the teachers and some students come to *me* not the guys. just dont forget that there are *some* of us who know what we're doing...
another huge part of the problem is not too few CS classes in high school, but in *middle school*. middle school is *the* time when females either become interested in math/science/computer fields, or become totally turned off by them. to get more girls into the field, we need to start *earlier*.
This initiative will do several things:
1)it will provide technology to many people who might otherwise not have access to it. in doing so, it has the potential to increase wide-spread levels of education. there are a lot of bright young children out there who could make a lot of themselves if they had better education. even if they cannot afford a good "traditional" eduucation, having access to the internet provieds them with infinite knowldegde *if they desire to partake of it*. Those that are motivated to learn, are now given the chance.
2)This has the potential to cause a huge boom in the technology field in the next few years. Again, by giving computers to people who otherwise might not have them, it brings more people *into* computer-related areas. The best and brightest students who before never had teh *chance* to become interested in technology have teh opertunity, adn if they are truly interested they will take advantage of what they've got. This could bring a whole new collection of people into computing areas, enriching it greatly. not only will it bring more diversity (perhaps?) into the field, but it will be attracting potentially large quantities of intellegent, interested people. Think of how thish could effect teh tech industry...
i'd be tempted to say that, if initiatives like this catch on, this could completely revolutionize society. think about it... the implications are stunning...
it's *really* nice to see Linux getting recognition as a valid, at least quasi-mainstream operating system... it's about time! and it's great that it's coming from a big-name company like Dell instead of some small, obscure place...
So maybe this version of Altavista isn't "true" open source since it's not the actual version used online but instead a different, downloaded program. Doesn't the fact that they're even taking the initiative to make any version of it open-source say a lot? I could be wrong but i dont see any *other* search engines doing this yet...
Besides it's just neat that more and more big names are doing things like this. Sure there's a lot of open source software, and a lot of companies and organizations making more programs that way every day. But this is impressive in that it's an every-day name. I dont know anyone who is tech-oriented enough to turn the computer *on* who hasn't heard of Altavista. So teh fact it's becoming more 'mainstream' is definately something...
Gee... first we've got kids who have seizures from watching the "pokemon" TV show. Now kids throwing up from playing video games. So what happens when they try to play the *pokemon* video games??
Lucasfilms is going ahead and releasing it on VHS for those of us who *can't* wait what, four, six years for all the movies. This way, he makes everyone sort of happy at least. The impatient people get their movie quickly, and those who want to wait for all the DVD goodies get *good* stuff, not just some slapped-together disk.
i misspelled it because hampsterdance.com has a 'p' in it but hamsterdeath *doesn't*. oops... well have fun with it anyways
Yes but one of the pages is also Hampsterdeath :)
Tired of watching them dance, blow them up instead!
excellent point here... one of the biggest problems with electronic communication *is* the lack of emotional qualifiers. there is no *context* for any of the comments--none of the usual clues such as vocal inflection or facial cues to allow the 'flamee'(so i make up words...) to decide whether the comment is truly serious, just a general aggrivation at the situation or conversation, or a personal attack.
For example, I can say to one of my friends, in r/l, "I hate you" but with a wry grin on my face and a jokingly jealous note in my voice and they know I'm just teasing and am just envious of something-or-another. If one of my moral enemies is driving me absolutely insane and i say "i hate you" with a glare and a snarl in my voice, the person can tell i'm seriously aggrivated. a random, out of context "i hate you" as text on a screen in an email has none of that context.
I've seen this sort of communication problem happen many times... One single email miscommunication actually caused an irrepairable rift between three (possibly four?)people who had previously not been friends but co-workers. this was a year and a half ago; two of these people still refuse to *speak* to each other.
It often goes like this... someone will say something rash, in a moment of anger, in an email. being just text, the recipient can inturpret whatever is said in any possible way. if this occours in an already hostile situation, the recipient is actually *more* likely, in the abscence of any contextual clues, to take whatever is said in the *worst* possible way. So some little nothing turns into a huge issue
And sometimes people will take an ambiguous comment the wrong way *because* they know they are wrong. If a person for example posts a comment that they really weren't thinking too well about, and then recieves a return post or an email questining the value of the post, not nessecarily in a 'flaming' way but a 'what did you intend to get across wiht that comment' they'll *see* it as an attack because they are already unsure about the value of their comment.
I *love* electronic communication, i really do. i spend more time talking to more people than i do out in that "real world" sort of thing. There's no comparison. I really prefer email/messaging/posting/etc. (then again, i'm a die-hard geek chick. go figure. only girl i know who'd rather IM than talk on the phone...) But regardless of how convenient (and just *cooler* e-communication is) there *is* more room for misinturpretation of things because you *are* just looking at text on a screen and you don't have any of the physical/vocal clues you get when talking in person.
ah well i'm rambling now... I should probably go do something productive now, like finish my english homework so i can spend my evening playing with linux instead :) Well, just wanted to get my $.02 in...
first of all, i'm a geek chick and linux goddess-in-training, and *proud* of it. im' not saying it's *easy*. its *not*. but... anyways, this is a college essay i just finished writing for my MIT application. thought this might be an appropriate place to dump it... :)
i know it's long, kind of rambling, but if you've got too much free time on your hands like i do, take a look
(this is my first-ever slashdot post, bear with me please)
the question was:
Tell us about an opinion that you have had to defend or an incident in your life which placed you in conflict with the beliefs of a majority of people and explain how this affected your value system.
and here's what i had to say about that:
One of my strongest beliefs--and one that is consistently challenged--is my belief (if not my mantra) that girls can be *just* as tech-savvy and computer-competent as guys.
I've considered myself a 'computer geek' for a long time. I love computers and spend most of my free time working with them. My affinity for computers has always seemed perfectly natural to me.
However, a huge number of people are surprised that a *girl* would be interested in computer science! My average conversation is this:
Person: "What do you want to study in college?"
Me: "Computer science, specializing in graphics and animation."
Person: (Says nothing. Looks at me as if I have suddenly grown a third eye.)
My interest in computers puzzles many people. I explain that although CS has *traditionally* been male-dominated, and although females are in the minority (about 20%), girls *can* be very successful in this field.
My greatest critics, those who give me the most difficulty, are the CS-type guys. It'd be logical to think they would *encourage* me! However, exactly *two* of my fellow "geeks" think it's *cool* that a girl is into CS. The rest give me looks of disbelief and condescending comments as they say--directly or through actions--that computers are "their" thing and I could not *possibly* be as good as they.
I was at school the other day, working with five other students to set up a Linux box. Three of the guys have run Linux at home for years, three of us (a guy; a tech-savvy female friend; and me) had never touched Linux before. Our nominal leader was carrying on a technical conversation with the other two Linux-users. Any time the other girl or I asked him a question, he responded "Never mind, you wouldn't understand". If the freshman *guy* asked a question, our "leader" would take the time to patiently explain the answer.
Yet if girls can't "do" computers, why did everyone come running to *me* whenever there was a computer problem or a question about PowerPoint in my history class? (We all had to do presentations as a final project.) they didn't go to the guys. even the *guys* came to *me*, because I was the best.
Even though I'm occasionally given credit, I experience bias on a nearly daily basis. I know this is due in part to the way people have been raised--traditionally girls aren't "supposed" to be good at math/science fields. And some of the guys feel threatened that girls are taking over "their" area. Some really just do think they're better. I But I refuse to let their attitudes get to me. I may not be "supposed" to be good or interested... but I am, so I just continue to do what I always have, regardless of what people say. CS is not just a guy's field. It's anyone's field. and now it's *mine*.