Am I the only one who was reminded of the "Rollercoaster of Death" from "The Curse of Monkey Island"? LeChuck would use it to create his undead pirates by having regular pirates ride it and have the last part end with a dip through molten lava.
http://www.miwiki.net/The_Carnival_of_the_Damned
As a female, I experienced a similar chip-on-the-shoulder of always having to "prove" I could program with the rest of the guys in undergrad. Not a very good experience at all. Still, I liked programming enough to pursue a Masters in a related subject at MIT, where pleasantly, the stereotype did not follow me. I wonder if perhaps this was because I was no longer on the pure CS track? Or perhaps when you're at a university focused on math and science, the general assumption is that everyone is on the same level?
It's funny because the whole reason I pursued CS to begin with was because of the positive experience I had in high school. Again, it was a math and science high school so perhaps when schools specialize, the gender bias is neutralized when it comes to CS.
Fast forward seven years out of school and I'm happy to say I'm still programming and have bright colleagues who are women. I experience none of the stereotypes like those from my undergrad days. I love programming, but the painfulness of my undergrad experience make me loathe to recommend the major to any of my younger female relatives.
It makes me sad when I look back on how discouraging my undergrad experience was, and how easy it would have been to simply switch out, even though deep down I really enjoyed programming. I think a lot of the guys then didn't realize when they were being patronizing or demoralizing to female classmates around them. They were just geeks being geeks and it's easier to not be afraid of a girl when you assume she's dumber than you.
That's not to say I didn't ever run into gals who did fit the stereotype. In fact, I always inwardly winced when I came across another gal who did because I felt it perpetrated the stereotype to my detriment. And part of me always wondered if perhaps they had caved to the pressures of the stereotype? These were smart gals, but their lack of self confidence when programming and second-guessing themselves might've killed otherwise good instincts.
At SIGGRAPH (a computer graphics conference) this year, they played the raw footage of Hanks performing his lines hooked up to the motion capture system, side by side with the animated characters he was portraying. The effect was way more *chilling* than impressive.
Hanks looked great and you could see the emotion he was conveying (a mixture of sadness, wistfulness and bitterness), but when you looked over at the animated character mimicking him, (the hobo), it looked downright evil and sinister.
If you check out eBay there is a page worth of auctions for people to buy Linden Dollars in order to buy real estate, etc. in Second Life. So currency goes both way.:)
The bongos come with a copy of the game. (The game is bundled with the bongos). This is a little awkward in that if you are doing 4-players with the bongos, you've got 3 extra copies of the game.
Clearly, having a Slashdot account is the quintessential indicator of non-geekiness. I mean, all the cheerleaders and jocks I know have Slashdot accounts and run Linux at home! It's just soooooo in!;)
Being a female tech geek myself, I was with you all when I thought the the mini was an idiotic concept priced for failure.
But then they started putting these ads in the InStyle magazine (girly fashion mag touting the latest styles out there). The ad was two facing pages with postcard pop-ups of paper iPod Minis to actual size, one of each color. Damn it if it didn't look as nice as some of those cute little handbags in the same price range a few pages away.
I still didn't get it, but I swear, if they slap a little Hello Kitty on it, I may have to cave in to the cuteness factor.;p
"How many companies these days are willing to drop money into some technology that may not turn a profit for many years?"
Check out the MIT Media Lab's list of sponsors:
http://www.media.mit.edu/sponsors/sponsors.html
Many of these companies have been giving money for years. All so crazy grad students (and profs) can go out and try the "what-ifs" without the companies worrying about reputations being on the line.;)
Missionary Man,
If you're looking for something specifically for the classroom, there is this great device sold by JDR that appears to come with a set of integrated labs for students to do. It is NSF (Nat'l Sci. Foundation) sponsored, and you may get a discount if you become a beta college/university partner.
Slashdot Mirror
Am I the only one who was reminded of the "Rollercoaster of Death" from "The Curse of Monkey Island"? LeChuck would use it to create his undead pirates by having regular pirates ride it and have the last part end with a dip through molten lava. http://www.miwiki.net/The_Carnival_of_the_Damned
CmdrTaco, I'm in R&D at Dreamworks Animation (Redwood City campus) and we'd love to show you around! :)
As a female, I experienced a similar chip-on-the-shoulder of always having to "prove" I could program with the rest of the guys in undergrad. Not a very good experience at all. Still, I liked programming enough to pursue a Masters in a related subject at MIT, where pleasantly, the stereotype did not follow me. I wonder if perhaps this was because I was no longer on the pure CS track? Or perhaps when you're at a university focused on math and science, the general assumption is that everyone is on the same level?
:(
It's funny because the whole reason I pursued CS to begin with was because of the positive experience I had in high school. Again, it was a math and science high school so perhaps when schools specialize, the gender bias is neutralized when it comes to CS.
Fast forward seven years out of school and I'm happy to say I'm still programming and have bright colleagues who are women. I experience none of the stereotypes like those from my undergrad days. I love programming, but the painfulness of my undergrad experience make me loathe to recommend the major to any of my younger female relatives.
It makes me sad when I look back on how discouraging my undergrad experience was, and how easy it would have been to simply switch out, even though deep down I really enjoyed programming. I think a lot of the guys then didn't realize when they were being patronizing or demoralizing to female classmates around them. They were just geeks being geeks and it's easier to not be afraid of a girl when you assume she's dumber than you.
That's not to say I didn't ever run into gals who did fit the stereotype. In fact, I always inwardly winced when I came across another gal who did because I felt it perpetrated the stereotype to my detriment. And part of me always wondered if perhaps they had caved to the pressures of the stereotype? These were smart gals, but their lack of self confidence when programming and second-guessing themselves might've killed otherwise good instincts.
C'est la vie.
The have a killer app coming up.
:)
It's called ANIMAL CROSSING.
At SIGGRAPH (a computer graphics conference) this year, they played the raw footage of Hanks performing his lines hooked up to the motion capture system, side by side with the animated characters he was portraying. The effect was way more *chilling* than impressive. Hanks looked great and you could see the emotion he was conveying (a mixture of sadness, wistfulness and bitterness), but when you looked over at the animated character mimicking him, (the hobo), it looked downright evil and sinister.
If you check out eBay there is a page worth of auctions for people to buy Linden Dollars in order to buy real estate, etc. in Second Life. So currency goes both way. :)
The bongos come with a copy of the game. (The game is bundled with the bongos). This is a little awkward in that if you are doing 4-players with the bongos, you've got 3 extra copies of the game.
Clearly, having a Slashdot account is the quintessential indicator of non-geekiness. I mean, all the cheerleaders and jocks I know have Slashdot accounts and run Linux at home! It's just soooooo in! ;)
Being a female tech geek myself, I was with you all when I thought the the mini was an idiotic concept priced for failure.
But then they started putting these ads in the InStyle magazine (girly fashion mag touting the latest styles out there). The ad was two facing pages with postcard pop-ups of paper iPod Minis to actual size, one of each color. Damn it if it didn't look as nice as some of those cute little handbags in the same price range a few pages away.
I still didn't get it, but I swear, if they slap a little Hello Kitty on it, I may have to cave in to the cuteness factor.
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/article/0,
http://home.earthlink.net/~smalldollars/dollar/
"How many companies these days are willing to drop money into some technology that may not turn a profit for many years?" Check out the MIT Media Lab's list of sponsors: http://www.media.mit.edu/sponsors/sponsors.html Many of these companies have been giving money for years. All so crazy grad students (and profs) can go out and try the "what-ifs" without the companies worrying about reputations being on the line. ;)
Missionary Man,
If you're looking for something specifically for the classroom, there is this great device sold by JDR that appears to come with a set of integrated labs for students to do. It is NSF (Nat'l Sci. Foundation) sponsored, and you may get a discount if you become a beta college/university partner.
http://mission-technology.com/
Hope this helps!