Re:Plexiglass and padded plastic
on
Lap Desks
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· Score: 1
I admit, i did wonder if someone was going to pick up on that.
But yeah, I'm a female laptop user and occasional/. reader. Will wonders never cease?
I sort of thought someone might pick up on the fact that there are other potential problems when short skirts and laptops are combined... but, well, perhaps the average/. reader does not consider accidentally flashing your companions a problem.
Plexiglass and padded plastic
on
Lap Desks
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· Score: 3, Interesting
I used to have a small hinged piece of plexiglass that I used because it was easy to tuck into my laptop bag and have with me all the time. It was enough to keep both me and the laptop from getting too hot. Best paired with jeans, though -- it wasn't *quite* enough for the hot days of summer when I wanted to have the laptop on bare legs.
I've seen ones with fans that plug in to USB, but to be honest, the extra fan noise kinda drives me crazy when it's that close to my ears.
What I'm using right now is a little padded lap desk like they occasionally sell packaged with crossword puzzle books and such. Plastic on top, pillow underneath, works well enough *and* it's fine even if I'm wearing a short skirt or shorts and need to keep the hot laptop off my legs. I've noticed they sell these specifically for laptops nowadays, but so far I haven't seen one that's small enough for me. I'm not that big, and neither is my laptop!
You might want to take a look at CBC radio's programs available as podcasts. CBC is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and one of the shows they podcast is their science show, Quirks and Quarks, which I've enjoyed for years. Good science from an organization that's been doing radio broadcasts for long enough that they don't have any trouble getting it right.:)
I gather the podcast doesn't contain all of the music contained in the radio version, due to copyright issues, but the science will still be good!
Unfortunately a lot of the "generic viagra" is actually diluted Viagra(tm)
It's an interesting side effect of generic drugs that I gather they're only required to be a percentage the same as the drug they're imitating, so "generic" anything may be partially diluted from the name-brand. It could, of course, also be stronger than the name-brand stuff, but really, sand is cheap and so are generic drugs, so I'm guessing they tend to be dilute.
However, I imagine what you meant is that they're grinding up the brand name stuff and packaging it with some sawdust/sand to make "new" pills.
Again, this isn't machine learning, but it'd be handy if there were a way to search through sites with various security settings (I'm thinking about allow/deny cookies, but I'll bet it'd be handy for popups too if I had enough set in there).
I'd like to see maching learning applied to the security/privacy aspects of firefox, though. Having it learn to make reasonable guesses about sites you will trust or not-trust to, set cookies, load images, etc. Maybe not useful for the most paranoid, but having this would be nice for users who want to be more careful with their data, but don't have the time to waste hitting buttons as they get asked about every single new site that wants to set a cookie.
Well, as others have said, do make sure she's into this idea. But of course, she may be more interested if you've got some suggestions handy, so...
I find cooperative games are usually the best for couples gaming. Among my friends, RPGs are probably the most popular among the couples (including me and my boyfriend). Neverwinter nights, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Dungeon Siege and plenty of others fit the bill nicely. They're especially good if the two are you aren't evenly matched, since any disparity is less noticeable and less frustrating.
I imagine warcraft would be fun, but it's a steep learning curve. I had a blast playing tower defense and stuff with friends, but I know as a casual player, i can't keep up with them in games that involve more and differing units 'cause I simply don't remember what they all do. Again, co-op is probably best -- certainly fosters more talking than trash talking.:)
I'll admit it, I've even played a good old text-based MUD with my current boyfriend, and I know a few people who've played those with their significant others. Maybe it's because it's all text, but it seems to foster more conversation than I had playing warcraft. Mind you, it's slow, text-based conversation, but it's still conversation!
Games that pause so you can chat are good. Turn-based games like civ are also good, so you've got time to think, play and talk.
Puzzle games go over well with my female friends, so it might be fun to explore that end of the spectrum. I don't know if you can have networked frozen bubble, but there's got to be some things along those lines.
DDR is a great idea, and as a bonus, works as an aerobic exercise program.:)
But finally, don't think of this as a way to avoid phone calls, more as a supplement so you can spend more time together. It'll probably just work out better that way.
Finding awards you're qualified for is hard... so is it any wonder that some people have made good websites for the purpose?
The only one I've still got bookmarked is Studentawards.comwhich was pretty good for me as a Canadian student. I don't know how good the US portion is. It doesn't have all the little scholarships that I know are available at my school, but it did help with finding out about external ones I might not know about otherwise. I liked that one because it emailed me as new things were available, so I didn't have to remember to check it regularly.
There are probably many other good sites for your area if you look and ask around. Have you asked people at your potential university? Phone up a secretary, an undergrad advisor, the people in the scholarships & awards dept, etc. Often times people will have useful tips that simply never make it to a school's website.
And as others have said -- "little" scholarships of several hundred dollars aren't something you should ignore. It's still money you didn't have! Think of it as a free textbook or hard drive upgrade or something if it helps you make it seem worth the effort.
Funding is much nicer at the graduate level (I make a full-time salary as a graduate student) but undergraduate funding is available if you've got marks, need, or willingness to go around writing those essays, filling out forms and asking.
Actually, it's now on the verge of being defunct. They're trying to replace it with this system called "connect" which rejects mozilla as a valid browser when I visit connect.carleton.ca. (It's silly, since it works fine if I go to the login page directly...) It's sad that future students won't all have nice unix accounts to play with, although I suppose for the vast majority of students there's no need for such a thing.
Mind you, this is all pretty off-topic to girls in CS unless you consider anything posted by a girl in CS to be somehow on topic, so here's a link that isn't:
Imagine walking on the street with this, we would be able to see where we're going in the real world just like in Quake! Right now, I just can't stand walking around without knowing the frame rate and polygon rate.
Nono, the important application is for public speakers. Who needs to *imagine* people in their underwear when you could just re-skin them all?
Skins for your co-workers (cow-workers takes on a new meaning?), boss (PHB, anyone?), random cute people you'd like to see "more" of... Who needs to imagine having sex with a supermodel when you can just put on your sunglasses and...
The idea that they should be swimming in a sea of information is idiotic.
Quick, ban children from libraries!
*sigh* They have some good points about sorting and internalizing information, but once again, the article's plagued with some sensationalist stuff.
If kids can't handle loads of information at that age, fine, but shouldn't the emphasis here be on teaching so that they will be able to use the information in the future?
I've also had an "open laptop" exam
on
Laptop Exams?
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· Score: 1
However, mine was rather different.
It was supposed to be an "open book" exam. (ie Paper books) In the past, my teachers have been very sceptical of my use of a laptop, and I figured university wasn't going to be that much different in that respect. I was fully expecting to be asked to print out my notes and use only paper for the exam.
I was quite pleasantly surprised to hear back from the prof saying that I was welcome to use my machine as long as I wasn't using it to communicate with anyone. (Easy: disable the IR port and leave my modem/network card at home.)
I'm not a big fan of asking everyone to buy a laptop -- I chose to get mine for reasons that simply don't apply to most people -- but it's nice to know that not all profs are threatened by the presence of such a machine, and that some are willing to see it as a natural extension of regular school tools. And, conversely, it's nice to know that some profs see it only as a different tool and not the only way to do things.
Fair enough, non-technically adept users are not necessarily idiots and we should remember that. It's when we consider some individuals as "sub-people" that bad things happen.
On the other hand, it's nice to be able to vent and complain about your moronic users. Or the uneducated public that doesn't understand the scientific advances you've made. Or your incompetant students who can't remember to puntuate properly in their essays.
It's a bit of an ego boost to realise that, sometimes, others just don't match up to your competance level. When you're working in a stressful environment, sometimes putting someone else down is just enough to perk yourself up so you can get the job done.
It's not nice, but it's effective, and after a long frustrating battle, sometimes the thought that it's not your fault that everyone else is a moron... well, it helps.
So if you're down about how (l)users are treated, remember that sometimes, technical staff, like any other people, just need to vent. It'd be nice if the world were perfect and all of us could frolic in the fields together, but sometimes we need to whine.
And for those who are taking this as justification for considering users to be slime, remember that often you need to stop whining and time to start treating people like people.
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I admit, i did wonder if someone was going to pick up on that.
/. reader. Will wonders never cease?
/. reader does not consider accidentally flashing your companions a problem.
But yeah, I'm a female laptop user and occasional
I sort of thought someone might pick up on the fact that there are other potential problems when short skirts and laptops are combined... but, well, perhaps the average
I used to have a small hinged piece of plexiglass that I used because it was easy to tuck into my laptop bag and have with me all the time. It was enough to keep both me and the laptop from getting too hot. Best paired with jeans, though -- it wasn't *quite* enough for the hot days of summer when I wanted to have the laptop on bare legs.
I've seen ones with fans that plug in to USB, but to be honest, the extra fan noise kinda drives me crazy when it's that close to my ears.
What I'm using right now is a little padded lap desk like they occasionally sell packaged with crossword puzzle books and such. Plastic on top, pillow underneath, works well enough *and* it's fine even if I'm wearing a short skirt or shorts and need to keep the hot laptop off my legs. I've noticed they sell these specifically for laptops nowadays, but so far I haven't seen one that's small enough for me. I'm not that big, and neither is my laptop!
You might want to take a look at CBC radio's programs available as podcasts. CBC is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and one of the shows they podcast is their science show, Quirks and Quarks, which I've enjoyed for years. Good science from an organization that's been doing radio broadcasts for long enough that they don't have any trouble getting it right. :)
I gather the podcast doesn't contain all of the music contained in the radio version, due to copyright issues, but the science will still be good!
Unfortunately a lot of the "generic viagra" is actually diluted Viagra(tm)
It's an interesting side effect of generic drugs that I gather they're only required to be a percentage the same as the drug they're imitating, so "generic" anything may be partially diluted from the name-brand. It could, of course, also be stronger than the name-brand stuff, but really, sand is cheap and so are generic drugs, so I'm guessing they tend to be dilute.
However, I imagine what you meant is that they're grinding up the brand name stuff and packaging it with some sawdust/sand to make "new" pills.
Again, this isn't machine learning, but it'd be handy if there were a way to search through sites with various security settings (I'm thinking about allow/deny cookies, but I'll bet it'd be handy for popups too if I had enough set in there).
I'd like to see maching learning applied to the security/privacy aspects of firefox, though. Having it learn to make reasonable guesses about sites you will trust or not-trust to, set cookies, load images, etc. Maybe not useful for the most paranoid, but having this would be nice for users who want to be more careful with their data, but don't have the time to waste hitting buttons as they get asked about every single new site that wants to set a cookie.
Well, as others have said, do make sure she's into this idea. But of course, she may be more interested if you've got some suggestions handy, so...
:)
:)
I find cooperative games are usually the best for couples gaming. Among my friends, RPGs are probably the most popular among the couples (including me and my boyfriend). Neverwinter nights, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Dungeon Siege and plenty of others fit the bill nicely. They're especially good if the two are you aren't evenly matched, since any disparity is less noticeable and less frustrating.
I imagine warcraft would be fun, but it's a steep learning curve. I had a blast playing tower defense and stuff with friends, but I know as a casual player, i can't keep up with them in games that involve more and differing units 'cause I simply don't remember what they all do. Again, co-op is probably best -- certainly fosters more talking than trash talking.
I'll admit it, I've even played a good old text-based MUD with my current boyfriend, and I know a few people who've played those with their significant others. Maybe it's because it's all text, but it seems to foster more conversation than I had playing warcraft. Mind you, it's slow, text-based conversation, but it's still conversation!
Games that pause so you can chat are good. Turn-based games like civ are also good, so you've got time to think, play and talk.
Puzzle games go over well with my female friends, so it might be fun to explore that end of the spectrum. I don't know if you can have networked frozen bubble, but there's got to be some things along those lines.
DDR is a great idea, and as a bonus, works as an aerobic exercise program.
But finally, don't think of this as a way to avoid phone calls, more as a supplement so you can spend more time together. It'll probably just work out better that way.
Finding awards you're qualified for is hard... so is it any wonder that some people have made good websites for the purpose?
The only one I've still got bookmarked is Studentawards.comwhich was pretty good for me as a Canadian student. I don't know how good the US portion is. It doesn't have all the little scholarships that I know are available at my school, but it did help with finding out about external ones I might not know about otherwise. I liked that one because it emailed me as new things were available, so I didn't have to remember to check it regularly.
There are probably many other good sites for your area if you look and ask around. Have you asked people at your potential university? Phone up a secretary, an undergrad advisor, the people in the scholarships & awards dept, etc. Often times people will have useful tips that simply never make it to a school's website.
And as others have said -- "little" scholarships of several hundred dollars aren't something you should ignore. It's still money you didn't have! Think of it as a free textbook or hard drive upgrade or something if it helps you make it seem worth the effort.
Funding is much nicer at the graduate level (I make a full-time salary as a graduate student) but undergraduate funding is available if you've got marks, need, or willingness to go around writing those essays, filling out forms and asking.
>wabakimi box (now it's chat.carleton.ca)
Actually, it's now on the verge of being defunct. They're trying to replace it with this system called "connect" which rejects mozilla as a valid browser when I visit connect.carleton.ca. (It's silly, since it works fine if I go to the login page directly...) It's sad that future students won't all have nice unix accounts to play with, although I suppose for the vast majority of students there's no need for such a thing.
Mind you, this is all pretty off-topic to girls in CS unless you consider anything posted by a girl in CS to be somehow on topic, so here's a link that isn't:
Encourage Women in Linux HOWTO
The Barenaked Ladies website is at http://bnlmusic.com.
For more of their humour, go to their videos section and watch their infomercial. ("Make your non-rock star lifestyle vanish!")
I admit, I got the napster ad when I went for one of their new songs. And yes, I bought the album Maroon right after work on Sept 12th.
Imagine walking on the street with this, we would be able to see where we're going in the real world just like in Quake! Right now, I just can't stand walking around without knowing the frame rate and polygon rate.
Nono, the important application is for public speakers. Who needs to *imagine* people in their underwear when you could just re-skin them all?
Skins for your co-workers (cow-workers takes on a new meaning?), boss (PHB, anyone?), random cute people you'd like to see "more" of... Who needs to imagine having sex with a supermodel when you can just put on your sunglasses and...
erm... :) Nevermind. :)
The idea that they should be swimming in a sea of information is idiotic.
Quick, ban children from libraries!
*sigh* They have some good points about sorting and internalizing information, but once again, the article's plagued with some sensationalist stuff.
If kids can't handle loads of information at that age, fine, but shouldn't the emphasis here be on teaching so that they will be able to use the information in the future?
That's great! Maybe it means that all those "women" in the assorted chat rooms may actually be female now?!!!
Female, perhaps, but human? They could be chimps!
However, mine was rather different.
It was supposed to be an "open book" exam. (ie Paper books) In the past, my teachers have been very sceptical of my use of a laptop, and I figured university wasn't going to be that much different in that respect. I was fully expecting to be asked to print out my notes and use only paper for the exam.
I was quite pleasantly surprised to hear back from the prof saying that I was welcome to use my machine as long as I wasn't using it to communicate with anyone. (Easy: disable the IR port and leave my modem/network card at home.)
I'm not a big fan of asking everyone to buy a laptop -- I chose to get mine for reasons that simply don't apply to most people -- but it's nice to know that not all profs are threatened by the presence of such a machine, and that some are willing to see it as a natural extension of regular school tools. And, conversely, it's nice to know that some profs see it only as a different tool and not the only way to do things.
LinuxChix would be a good first stop for finding female hackers. *I* was pretty happy to find others of my kind there. :) -> Terri
Fair enough, non-technically adept users are not necessarily idiots and we should remember that. It's when we consider some individuals as "sub-people" that bad things happen.
On the other hand, it's nice to be able to vent and complain about your moronic users. Or the uneducated public that doesn't understand the scientific advances you've made. Or your incompetant students who can't remember to puntuate properly in their essays.
It's a bit of an ego boost to realise that, sometimes, others just don't match up to your competance level. When you're working in a stressful environment, sometimes putting someone else down is just enough to perk yourself up so you can get the job done.
It's not nice, but it's effective, and after a long frustrating battle, sometimes the thought that it's not your fault that everyone else is a moron... well, it helps.
So if you're down about how (l)users are treated, remember that sometimes, technical staff, like any other people, just need to vent. It'd be nice if the world were perfect and all of us could frolic in the fields together, but sometimes we need to whine.
And for those who are taking this as justification for considering users to be slime, remember that often you need to stop whining and time to start treating people like people.