... really, at some level I'm still in touch with my ancestral roots. I still get the urge to hurl my spore through the galaxy to colonize other planets. I practice every day.
I've struggled with gender politics in geek circles for years and it's one of the reasons why I am no longer involved in my local geek groups such as lug, or hold an IT job.
I think one perspective that is always overlooked is that sexism is not an isolated problem in IT culture. Other issues such as classism and racism are just as rampant. These problems, sexism, racism, and classism need to exist in order for IT to exist. The oppression is very much locked to the technology itself.
The book "Feminism Confronts Technology" put a lot of things in perspective for me. It has very strong analysis stemming from the historic development of technology leading up to present day IT culture.
The IT culture has been shaped by very obvious military, political, economic, and corporate pressures. Like other power professions, it has necessitated that it's people come from privileged backgrounds so that they can afford to be ignorant of diversity and arrogant towards other people. They need to have a certain level of insensitivity to avoid the harm of their own profession against others.
Equally important is the author's warning against progress. She cites many examples where apparent progress has been made to include women, people of color, economically under-privileged populations, etc. into technology professions. However, the progress made is motivated by power struggles in and surrounding the technology sector, which simply leads to new hierarchies being formed and the same old oppression reappearing under the guise of progress.
Through her criticism, the author suggests various ways of tackling change, and to work towards radically redesigning and shifting technology to benefit, rather than harm people.
I see that your previous post has been modded flamebait and judging by your posting history,
--rant snipped--
Judging someone by how they are perceived by the masses does not give your argument any weight. It just shows your level of conformity and that you're engaging in a personal attack rather than engaging in a useful debate.
The original poster has a valid point, and it is one that is being hotly debated amongst non-profit organizations and activists around the world. From India to Europe, from the US to South America, and especially Africa, it is now widely recognized that prescribing solutions and throwing wads of money hasn't helped, isn't helping, and won't help.
This way of working is attributed to the first world and the wealthy and has emerged as a significant difference along racial lines and is motivated by private economic interests rather than social public interests. Amongst the non-profit sector these days, there is widespread recognition that the hierarchy, prescription, and funding model needs to make way for more diverse methods, and there is a major push to have solutions lead by the affected communities.
I would urge you to not make jabs at others and instead research the topic a bit more.
Newsflash: racism is OK as long as you have a decent intellectual argument to back it up. And besides, your post was also racist. The difference was that your argument made little sense.
Right, and I see a great explanation in the line above about my racism. Let me guess, my pointing out white folk coming over to murder and plunder is racism against white folk? Uhhh... hello! hello! Can we try to string together 4 brain cells here on slashdot?!
Remarks like these are seldom made by any other than privileged white people who have never spent a day in their lives self-examining their racist crap, yet feel like authorities on the subject. No wonder slashdot is full of so many S. W. M.
Oh yeah, mods, mark this down as flamebait. I'd consider anything else on this site an insult.
Time to start thinking of ways to better themselves is what they should be doing, rather than looking for more tactics to rip off the honest, hard working taxpayers of Canada. Message to the politicians in Ottawa: you don't do anyone a service by spoonfeeding them when they don't need it. This country is going to be in a lot of trouble in another 20 or 30 years. Shrinking middle-class, anyone?
Maybe it is us who need to better ourselves. Look at what we are doing to the land we stole from them, or actually what we are doing to the entire world! We have gone recked all of the natural elements as we have known them, murdered off almost their entire population, and now we keep them in a state of artificially constructed abject poverty.
We don't need to wait 20 or 30 years, we are already in deep trouble, and it is of our own doing. It's time to start thinking how we can better our ourselves and heal at least some of the damage we have done.
Oh, did we mention that costs for OUR electricity, gasoline, wood, metal, use of our roads, telephone lines, groceries, banking services, medical services, fire services, and police services for natives on band land have doubled in price?
No, your idea of ownership is preposterous. All of those resources, products, and services do not belong to you. You are living on land that is stolen and consuming products that are the end result of theft, slavery, and systemic oppression. First Nations would do well if the White Man got up and left to go back home where it came from.
We don't need any men. I know at least 3 other Dyke Nerds, and if we all make 10 clones each before menopause, we'll have 40 Dyke Nerds. Since they'll be exactly like us, we can expect at least 400 Dyke Nerds by generation 2. 4000 by gen 3, 40000 by gen 4, 400000 by 5, 4000000 by 6... soon we will outpace the rest of the population. That means one day there will be massive Dyke Nerd Orgies and slashdotters will never get laid.
Imagine some unscrupulous person coding something that updates your keyboard to bombard you with direct marketing, using the keys like a limited dot matrix.. or indeed, if the keys mapped fast enough, you could create cool music pulse effects etc. I must admit, I'd like on of these.
wow! That's a very cool idea! I just happen to be doing this adult webmaster job, and I'm sure it'll be great for marketing pr0n. And the fact that anyone who's buying this keybaord is on the wealthier side will really help in targetting for higher value clientelle. Really, you should charge for advice. Become a marketing consultant:-)
I'll be able to enjoy spam 24hrs/day and 7days/week, targetted specifically towards my taste in women, tool sizes, drugs, and vista preferences... all through my car keys, my nail cutter, my shaving appliance, my dishes, my glasses, my boots, and my underwear. I can hardly wait.
Your post was funny up until that last line.
"Those who can't do, teach."
Ok, so my post was 295 words and it was funny up until the last 5 words.
That's about 98.3% funny and 1.7% not funny. Pretty good marks. You hear that mods? Mod me up!!
The teacher said so.
Seriously though, from my perspective the educational system is the core of the indoctrination system of oppression in the modern world. I think that the current systems of domination and control cannot be broken without undermining or eliminating educational institutions. I see _professional_ teachers as complicit in perpetuating this indoctrination system for the purposes of perpetuating modern oppression. I have my reasons for believing that based on life experiences and the world view that I've managed to put together in my head, but I don't feel like writing an essay inside a slashdot comment. Try not to take offense.
School principals and many teachers have an overbloated ego and sense of authority. It is interesting to see how they react when this sense of superiority is undermined, usually through criticism.
I know this is a little out of context, but it brought up memories about this retired school principal I used to know. We were both board members of a nudist group.
At one meeting I criticized his ability to... oh, I forget what it was, but something to do with retention of diversity, age barrier, and adopting to new ideas. Anyhow, he took it really personally that a 26-year-old (youngest board member) was criticizing him. He went on a rant about how in all of his years as a teacher/principal none of his students ever dared disrespect and criticize him.
Well then, I didn't particularly think that discouraging criticism was a good thing for a teacher to do, so I continued to challenge him. Pretty soon he was raving mad. Let me tell you, I don't think he understood how funny it is to see a balding old raving mad nudist school principal make a fool of himself at a naked board meeting.
How do I ever get involved with these things!! By the way, can you believe that this guy had a lot of difficulty using computers? I mean, it was a huge success for him to learn how to use his email! I guess they're shelling out the school principal job to just about anyone these days.
I'm not implying that this other school principal here is also a nudist. I'm just thinking about how his students perceive him. There's obviously a reason why they don't respect him.
Look, I'm not even a geek. I'm just some luser, and even I in my eternal stooooopidity could tell you:
a) Duh, duh, duh. This ain't no news, FPGAs have been around for quite a while, and being able to soft-repair hardware is an old idea that is being used where practical. Sheesh, slashdot is really headed for slushdot these days.
b) Great, so now we can get more defective products quicker, be on hold with tech support longer, and spend our own time/money fixing the products under warranty that we've already paid for. Someone, please shoot me!
I would pay $2-$3 per movie, especially if it is rare content. I don't care so much for popular movies or new releases, but there are a lot of fringe films that I would love to have the opportunity to purchase. Since I watch 1 or 2 films a day, the industry could make $90-$135 from me alone, which is way more than the $0 they're getting now, because the only convenient distribution channel for most of these films is bittorrent right now. Because of the nature of bittorrent, pr0n slides in a lot easier than fringe films, so there is a need... someone fill it?
That, friends, is why it's a bad idea to get worked up before you know both sides of an issue. It's too stressful to work up a righteous indignation only to find out that the other side had a valid point you didn't know about.
Yeah, you know. You're totally right. I was wondering why people were getting all worked up by this guy getting arrested. I mean, everybody know that he musta gone done sumpthin' wrong, why would da FBI come around a knockin' on a nerd con?
What everybody gots to hide that they all be cryin' and screamin' about wanting privacy this and accountability that on this website? I mean, obviously y'all must be up to some crooked shit if you don't want no one to see what you's all been doin' !!
If you look at most of the goals we have right now, they're pretty mundane and shortlived. Curing disease, stop killing eachother, end to hunger, creating objects that we find beautiful and pleasing, creating more living beings like ourselves.
Speak for yourself dude. My goal is to get laid.
I am utterly unable to imagine a goal of a relevance higher than getting laid.
Slashdot Mirror
This is just so stupid, and these guys get paid?! Don't they have some sort of IQ test before you can hold a gun or what?!
Forget it. Democracy here is dead. Move out as fast as you can lest you find yourself stuck inside a totalitarian regime.
... really, at some level I'm still in touch with my ancestral roots. I still get the urge to hurl my spore through the galaxy to colonize other planets. I practice every day.
I've struggled with gender politics in geek circles for years and it's one of the reasons why I am no longer involved in my local geek groups such as lug, or hold an IT job.
8 02-4.html
I think one perspective that is always overlooked is that sexism is not an isolated problem in IT culture. Other issues such as classism and racism are just as rampant. These problems, sexism, racism, and classism need to exist in order for IT to exist. The oppression is very much locked to the technology itself.
The book "Feminism Confronts Technology" put a lot of things in perspective for me. It has very strong analysis stemming from the historic development of technology leading up to present day IT culture.
The IT culture has been shaped by very obvious military, political, economic, and corporate pressures. Like other power professions, it has necessitated that it's people come from privileged backgrounds so that they can afford to be ignorant of diversity and arrogant towards other people. They need to have a certain level of insensitivity to avoid the harm of their own profession against others.
Equally important is the author's warning against progress. She cites many examples where apparent progress has been made to include women, people of color, economically under-privileged populations, etc. into technology professions. However, the progress made is motivated by power struggles in and surrounding the technology sector, which simply leads to new hierarchies being formed and the same old oppression reappearing under the guise of progress.
Through her criticism, the author suggests various ways of tackling change, and to work towards radically redesigning and shifting technology to benefit, rather than harm people.
Feminism Confronts Technology
by Judy Wajcman
http://www.psupress.psu.edu/books/titles/0-271-00
--rant snipped--
Judging someone by how they are perceived by the masses does not give your argument any weight. It just shows your level of conformity and that you're engaging in a personal attack rather than engaging in a useful debate.
The original poster has a valid point, and it is one that is being hotly debated amongst non-profit organizations and activists around the world. From India to Europe, from the US to South America, and especially Africa, it is now widely recognized that prescribing solutions and throwing wads of money hasn't helped, isn't helping, and won't help.
This way of working is attributed to the first world and the wealthy and has emerged as a significant difference along racial lines and is motivated by private economic interests rather than social public interests. Amongst the non-profit sector these days, there is widespread recognition that the hierarchy, prescription, and funding model needs to make way for more diverse methods, and there is a major push to have solutions lead by the affected communities.
I would urge you to not make jabs at others and instead research the topic a bit more.
Dude, criminals are kewl, we wouldn't have civilization without them :)
Remarks like these are seldom made by any other than privileged white people who have never spent a day in their lives self-examining their racist crap, yet feel like authorities on the subject. No wonder slashdot is full of so many S. W. M.
Oh yeah, mods, mark this down as flamebait. I'd consider anything else on this site an insult.
Sheesh. Ofcourse I'm going to be marked down as flamebait for that post! What do you expect for calling people on their racism?
The flamebait rating I got above is shamefully motivated by the moderator's prejudice.
Maybe it is us who need to better ourselves. Look at what we are doing to the land we stole from them, or actually what we are doing to the entire world! We have gone recked all of the natural elements as we have known them, murdered off almost their entire population, and now we keep them in a state of artificially constructed abject poverty.
We don't need to wait 20 or 30 years, we are already in deep trouble, and it is of our own doing. It's time to start thinking how we can better our ourselves and heal at least some of the damage we have done.
Purrrrrrfect.
... soon we will outpace the rest of the population.
:)
We don't need any men. I know at least 3 other Dyke Nerds, and if we all make 10 clones each before menopause, we'll have 40 Dyke Nerds.
Since they'll be exactly like us, we can expect at least 400 Dyke Nerds by generation 2.
4000 by gen 3, 40000 by gen 4, 400000 by 5, 4000000 by 6
That means one day there will be massive Dyke Nerd Orgies and slashdotters will never get laid.
Purrrrrrfect
I'll be able to enjoy spam 24hrs/day and 7days/week, targetted specifically towards my taste in women, tool sizes, drugs, and vista preferences... all through my car keys, my nail cutter, my shaving appliance, my dishes, my glasses, my boots, and my underwear. I can hardly wait.
google earth has this flashing Dot on my house. with a arrow, "your keys are here".
No dude, by then they'll have x-ray photos of all our houses.
But don't worry, the arrow will point to the pocket of your wife's pants as they lay on the floor beside your best friend Big Google's bed.
Ok, so my post was 295 words and it was funny up until the last 5 words.
That's about 98.3% funny and 1.7% not funny. Pretty good marks. You hear that mods? Mod me up!!
The teacher said so.
Seriously though, from my perspective the educational system is the core of the indoctrination system of oppression in the modern world. I think that the current systems of domination and control cannot be broken without undermining or eliminating educational institutions. I see _professional_ teachers as complicit in perpetuating this indoctrination system for the purposes of perpetuating modern oppression. I have my reasons for believing that based on life experiences and the world view that I've managed to put together in my head, but I don't feel like writing an essay inside a slashdot comment. Try not to take offense.
yup
School principals and many teachers have an overbloated ego and sense of authority. It is interesting to see how they react when this sense of superiority is undermined, usually through criticism.
... oh, I forget what it was, but something to do with retention of diversity, age barrier, and adopting to new ideas. Anyhow, he took it really personally that a 26-year-old (youngest board member) was criticizing him. He went on a rant about how in all of his years as a teacher/principal none of his students ever dared disrespect and criticize him.
I know this is a little out of context, but it brought up memories about this retired school principal I used to know. We were both board members of a nudist group.
At one meeting I criticized his ability to
Well then, I didn't particularly think that discouraging criticism was a good thing for a teacher to do, so I continued to challenge him. Pretty soon he was raving mad. Let me tell you, I don't think he understood how funny it is to see a balding old raving mad nudist school principal make a fool of himself at a naked board meeting.
How do I ever get involved with these things!! By the way, can you believe that this guy had a lot of difficulty using computers? I mean, it was a huge success for him to learn how to use his email! I guess they're shelling out the school principal job to just about anyone these days.
I'm not implying that this other school principal here is also a nudist. I'm just thinking about how his students perceive him. There's obviously a reason why they don't respect him.
Those who can't do, teach.
Look, I'm not even a geek. I'm just some luser, and even I in my eternal stooooopidity could tell you:
a) Duh, duh, duh. This ain't no news, FPGAs have been around for quite a while, and being able to soft-repair hardware is an old idea that is being used where practical. Sheesh, slashdot is really headed for slushdot these days.
b) Great, so now we can get more defective products quicker, be on hold with tech support longer, and spend our own time/money fixing the products under warranty that we've already paid for. Someone, please shoot me!
I would pay $2-$3 per movie, especially if it is rare content. I don't care so much for popular movies or new releases, but there are a lot of fringe films that I would love to have the opportunity to purchase. Since I watch 1 or 2 films a day, the industry could make $90-$135 from me alone, which is way more than the $0 they're getting now, because the only convenient distribution channel for most of these films is bittorrent right now. Because of the nature of bittorrent, pr0n slides in a lot easier than fringe films, so there is a need... someone fill it?
Did you guys get a bulls-eye, or was it a bit off to the side?
Hope the man on the moon is doin' alright. How does he feel about it?
What everybody gots to hide that they all be cryin' and screamin' about wanting privacy this and accountability that on this website? I mean, obviously y'all must be up to some crooked shit if you don't want no one to see what you's all been doin' !!
Whoa!! wait a minute...
Do you mean to imply that some of us (possibly including you) might not actually be robots?!
A very interesting conjecture indeed.
Speak for yourself dude. My goal is to get laid.
I am utterly unable to imagine a goal of a relevance higher than getting laid.
Ah hah! I see.
:)
So in other words, you too are one of the soon to be extinct!
Join the club