I think it is fairly obvious that women will play little part in the computer revolution that is rocking the foundations of Western society.
Women have already had significant influence on the Computer Revolution, especially Grace Hopper.
I don't think I know a single female computer "nerd"...
Strange... I've met quite a few, including maybe 20% of the PhD students at Georgia Tech's College of Computing...not to mention a large number of professors...
I see no reason to think that this will change in the near future...men will dominate this technological field, as they dominate every other field.
I think we're just beginning to see this change, at least in most of the world.
I for one am thrilled that Star Wars, The Phantom Menace, is not being released on DVD; precisely because this helps the boycott of DVD technology, in response to the lawsuit by DVD-CAA against members of the Linux development community. Lest we forget what we had to go through:
One of the photos from the sparkler bomb site looks like the crowd is being zapped from orbit with some kind of energy beam. I'm willing to bet good money that someone is going to take this photo and use it as further evidence of a New World Order Conspiracy To Destroy Freedom Loving People.
The officer, seeing the gun in the car's center console (which in Georgia is where you're supposed to keep it if you don't have a CCW)
Whoa!! Stop right there!! One of the first things I learned in my firearms safety class is that you do NOT put a gun in your center console in Georgia UNLESS you have a CCW. You can put it in your glove box, or in a gun rug on your passenger seat, but the console is for CCW's only. You're absolutely right that this whole incident was a tragedy, and it's a prime example of just how fsckedup the legal system is in the United States today; but let's not anyone get the wrong idea about Georgia gun laws.
The biggest problem I have with the area is the lack of coffeeshops that are open late at night.
If you're willing to venture near Morse and Glenwood, both the Heartland Cafe and the Morseland Cafe are open late at night. Both have excellent open-mike scenes. There's also the Third Coast cafe on 1226 Dearborn, near Division. Good food, no open-mike scene, oh well. There's also good artsy-type hangouts at Neo (~2300 N Clark) and Charybdis (1750 N. Wolcott). (NB- all are in Chicago itself)
PS - Contact me if you're interested in doing Mac/Windows development in the Chicago suburbs
The first thing you should be asking yourself is, "Is Pittsberg really a good place to have a computer business culture in the first place?"
In order to encourage a good culture for computer-related businesses, you need to have a lot of bandwidth, clean electricity, very good universities, and a good tax and regulations environment for start-ups. If even one of these is missing, you will have problems. If two of these or more are missing, forget it. I can't emphasise this enough.
Let's use Chicago as an example. Chicago, where I grew up, is trying like hell to support local high tech industry through the idea of a "silicon prairie." It's not working. Ameritech has no unlimited local calling, and the Chicago area has poor DSL and ISDN access. This means that Internet access is very expensive. Commonwealth Edison can't keep the damn lights on in the summer, because their transmission and distribution systems are crud and Edison doesn't seem to realize this. Local regulations require that Ethernet cable be strung through metal conduit, which is very labor intensive (read: expensive) and not neccesary. So, despite having several major universities with very good CS departments (University of Chicago, Northwestern, DePaul, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Loyola University), not one but two nearby national research laboratories, and recently starting up a new communications center in the old Donnelly Directory building, Chicago will probably never become a center of computer business. Chicago has Motorola in the suburbs and that's about as good as it's going to get.
On the other hand, Chicago has very good resources for another industry entirely: biotech.
Biotech requires, first of all, a fertile field for medical research. Chicago has five major research and teaching hospitals (Loyola Medical, University of Chicago, Rush Pres-St. Luke's, Northwestern Memorial and University of Illinois at Chicago) and every day you hear about another medical advancement in the area.
Biotech doesn't require good bandwidth. It does require clean electricity, which means they'll have to set up a special deal with Commonwealth Edison to get power transmission up to spec. There are probably fewer business regulations to affect biotech than there would be to affect a computer business, especially since biotech requires a hell of a lot more starting capital.
The problem is, every time I try to tell someone who might listen that the city should concentrate on Biotech, my words seem to fall on deaf ears. They've got this bandwagon mentality: "We have to get in on this dot-com computer thing, and we have to do it now. This is the future." In the process, they will probably miss another potential future, and the opportunity to become a major world center of a new revolution ten years from now.
Therefore, let me turn your question around. Instead of asking, what can you do to make my city good for geeks; ask, what kind of geeks can we attract to this city? Not all geeks are computer geeks, and your city may have more to offer some other potentially very profitable industry than it has to offer the computer industry. Just my $0.02.
Speaking frankly, and keep in mind I'm not a securities trader or a financial analyst or a lawyer or whatever...for a long time, eToys was worth more than Mattel and Hasbro combined. That's the two largest toy makers in the US. As of today, eToys is worth less than either Mattel or Hasbro, even if only by a little. This makes more sense. eToys's income is far, far less than that of either company, and eToys is less established. If you ask me, this is probably just a correction, and a much-needed one.
It's true that their stock is almost at a 52-week low. But this doesn't necessarily mean that they're mishandling the business. I would be very surprised if investors started suing them over this.
eToys apparently still doesn't get it. Internet was never meant to be a shopping mall. Yes, commerce can succeed in this medium, but that does not neccesarily make this a shopping mall.
Internet is a neighborhood. This means that there's a great variety of resources here. Sure, there's stores, and some of them make a lot of money. There are also gathering places, theatres (some of them pretty bleeding-edge, like etoy), workshops, and homes. This neighborhood has been here, and has grown, long before eToys ever came on the scene. Now, eToys is saying, "We want this neighborhood to become a shopping mall." And they'll tear down the whole damn neighborhood to do it.
Ultimately what these companies want is not a bazaar, not a whole new world, not a new medium of communication; but a virtual suburb. Where everything is clean (or else), there are no angry people, no controversial opinions or expressions, and everyone is free, so long as what they want to do is make money. A virtual suburb that is safe for sheltered suburban children raised in good Mayburyish homes, where they can learn that Internet is safe, inoffensive, secure, protected. A virtual suburb where you don't find anything that might even vaguely disturb you. Where the music is soothing, the pictures are pretty, and you can make your dreams come true by entering your credit card number and expiration date. Don't worry, that information, along with all your other information, won't be handed off to anyone who might hurt you (just to other people who want to sell to you).
There's just one problem. Even if they get their way, it's all pure bullshit. Internet is not secure, will never be secure. Real life is full of controversey, different ideas, and shocking truths. If they get shoved off of Internet, they'll just move to another network, albeit perhaps a more exclusive one (think back to the BBS days). Moreover, the information you hand out is not safe. The difference is, today, if it's not safe, you'll find out quickly. Tomorrow, if it's not safe, you may never find out. Not unless you're on one of those BBS'es. Or unless it's already too late.
It doesn't have to turn out this way. We can win this fight. We're smart enough; together, we're rich enough; and we have enough to lose to keep us motivated in this fight.
As a note, I noticed today that eToys stock is at a 52-week low. Maybe it's time eToys figured out a new strategy?
People have already suggested a DVD boycott. Allow me to repeat this proposal, and lay out my arguement for such a boycott.
I'm aware that a boycott would not affect our legal standing on this matter. However, let us consider that DeCSS was created, in the first place, as a step towards a DVD driver for Linux. With this lawsuit, the DVD people are essentially telling us, "We don't want the Linux business."
If they don't want our business -- to the point where they'll sue us for trying to enable ourselves to get their business -- why the hell should we support them?
There's another principle at stake here though: while the content of DVDs, and the hardware, is (and should be) covered by copyright, the format of a DVD is currently a closed standard. In computer terms, it's closed source, and proprietary. If you consider a DVD player to be a dedicated computer, then a DVD player violates open source. To be consistent, we should keep away from this closed source standard.
Therefore, I suggest that we stop using DVD's immediately; not purchase any more DVD's; not purchase any DVD players; sell DVD's and DVD players that we have, or return them to the store or manufacturer; and simply not use any DVD technology, period, until they
drop this stupid lawsuit
allow us to write a DVD reader for Linux
apologize for being insensitive pricks about this whole thing.
Congratulations to the EFF and the other defendants on their victory. However, let's keep in mind that this is a small blow for free speech. In fact, there are still significant issues before the court. To wit:
Does a private individual have the right to make a program that executes a proprietary algorithm, if they used a clean-room method to find this algorithm?
Do individuals or companies have the right to keep data formats private?
Here's an important question: can you sue for damages, a person or group who released a product using your patents, if they gave that product away for free?
Let's hope that the good guys win this fight. Between this and the dropping of the etoy vs. eToys lawsuit, this has been a good day for free speach.
Wait a sec...how does a bug eat radioactive waste and make it inert? The atomic nuclei are still unstable; they'll still decay, releasing radiation; the best you can do is store it in some kind of glass and stick it somewhere where the gammas won't affect human beings. At least, I think that's the case. Can someone help me out here?
Some stand. If voting means you have miniscule power, not voting means you've effectively given those who do vote the right to speak for you. At that point, you may as well be a non-citizen.
Someone once said that democracy is like three wolves and a sheep voting on breakfast. Constitutional Democracy forbids such a vote. On the other hand, if the sheep decide not to excercise their rights, the wolves can simply ignore the Constitution. This might explain the government we have today, in fact.
Besides, who the fsck counts non-voters? I sure don't. All non-voting says to anyone is that you're too lazy to participate. Voter strike has to be the most brain-damaged protest concept I've ever heard of, period. No offense.
Alan Keyes is the African American candidate in this race. He's got a PhD from Harvard. He's also anti-abortion and anti-gay-rights, which is enough to eliminate him as a candidate for my vote.
Of course I am speaking relative to other candidates. Nader supports the Brady Bill, which has a lot of good ideas in it (now that instant background checking exists, and not counting the 10-round limit on detatchable magazines), and wants to implement "carefully thought out gun control." (emphasis mine) Compare this to:
It should be noted that Buchannan, Hatch, Keyes, Forbes and Bauer are similar to Browne in supporting gun rights. But all of these candidates (except Browne) are too fascist for me. Browne is Libertarian, which I have some issues with, although nowhere nearly as many as with the GOP in general.
True, but you might think about hedging your bet, and choose the lesser of two evils. If, for example, in your state, Bush beats Bradley by 1 vote, and those electoral votes were what he needed to win the election, and you voted for Nader, would you think that you made the right choice?
Warning: explicit political content
If Junior wins by only one vote, then he's in deep trouble over the next four years. Chances are the House would be run by Democrats...meaning Bush would have a hell of a time getting his platform through. Meanwhile, the Democrats might start paying more attention to their Liberal heritage, if they figured out that they lost that election due to former Democrats switching to the Greens. Would I think I made the right choice? Hell yeah. It might get some people in the Democratic party to wake up and figure out that it's not all about soccer moms and suburbanites.
I would feel even more right about it if the Democratic alternative was Gore. I can sum up the way I feel about Gore in two words: Clipper and Tipper.
I took the quiz myself and was pleasantly surprised to find Ralph Nader high on my list. Here's where Nader stands according to the Presidential Candidate Selector:
Pro-abortion-rights
Pro-gay
Pro-gun
Pro-environment (duh)
Pro-education-reform, including vouchers apparently
Anti-WTO/GATT
Pro-Linux (ok, this isn't on the website, but we know this about Nader from his recent comments.)
Frankly, the more I think about the alternatives, the more strongly I support Nader for President. He might not win, but fsckit, the idea is to vote for the (wo)man you want to be President, not necessarily for the winner.
The first three companies are pure Linux. The fourth is getting good advice on Linux systems from people in the community.
You absolutely want as little variation on your hardware as possible with these machines. This will up the price of each machine. However, it will also make them easier to maintain, repair, upgrade and find drivers for. The additional expense pays off in the long run, if you are going to deploy thousands of these things. Make this a condition of your contract.
Personally, I say go with ASL, if only because they're nice guys.
NB- I don't work for any of these companies, even (as far as I know) indirectly.
From reading this article, it looks like this company may have discovered an effect of quantum physics that has gone previously unexplored. Big deal, maybe, but hardly a grand unified theory.
Slashdot Mirror
Women have already had significant influence on the Computer Revolution, especially Grace Hopper.
Strange ... I've met quite a few, including maybe 20% of the PhD students at Georgia Tech's College of Computing...not to mention a large number of professors...
I think we're just beginning to see this change, at least in most of the world.
One of the photos from the sparkler bomb site looks like the crowd is being zapped from orbit with some kind of energy beam. I'm willing to bet good money that someone is going to take this photo and use it as further evidence of a New World Order Conspiracy To Destroy Freedom Loving People.
Whoa!! Stop right there!! One of the first things I learned in my firearms safety class is that you do NOT put a gun in your center console in Georgia UNLESS you have a CCW. You can put it in your glove box, or in a gun rug on your passenger seat, but the console is for CCW's only. You're absolutely right that this whole incident was a tragedy, and it's a prime example of just how fsckedup the legal system is in the United States today; but let's not anyone get the wrong idea about Georgia gun laws.
Man lookit the size of that laptop Torvalds is holding...
What, you mean there's naked wimmin in here too?
If you're willing to venture near Morse and Glenwood, both the Heartland Cafe and the Morseland Cafe are open late at night. Both have excellent open-mike scenes. There's also the Third Coast cafe on 1226 Dearborn, near Division. Good food, no open-mike scene, oh well. There's also good artsy-type hangouts at Neo (~2300 N Clark) and Charybdis (1750 N. Wolcott). (NB- all are in Chicago itself)
What, no UNIX/Linux jobs? :)
The first thing you should be asking yourself is, "Is Pittsberg really a good place to have a computer business culture in the first place?"
In order to encourage a good culture for computer-related businesses, you need to have a lot of bandwidth, clean electricity, very good universities, and a good tax and regulations environment for start-ups. If even one of these is missing, you will have problems. If two of these or more are missing, forget it. I can't emphasise this enough.
Let's use Chicago as an example. Chicago, where I grew up, is trying like hell to support local high tech industry through the idea of a "silicon prairie." It's not working. Ameritech has no unlimited local calling, and the Chicago area has poor DSL and ISDN access. This means that Internet access is very expensive. Commonwealth Edison can't keep the damn lights on in the summer, because their transmission and distribution systems are crud and Edison doesn't seem to realize this. Local regulations require that Ethernet cable be strung through metal conduit, which is very labor intensive (read: expensive) and not neccesary. So, despite having several major universities with very good CS departments (University of Chicago, Northwestern, DePaul, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Loyola University), not one but two nearby national research laboratories, and recently starting up a new communications center in the old Donnelly Directory building, Chicago will probably never become a center of computer business. Chicago has Motorola in the suburbs and that's about as good as it's going to get.
On the other hand, Chicago has very good resources for another industry entirely: biotech.
Biotech requires, first of all, a fertile field for medical research. Chicago has five major research and teaching hospitals (Loyola Medical, University of Chicago, Rush Pres-St. Luke's, Northwestern Memorial and University of Illinois at Chicago) and every day you hear about another medical advancement in the area.
Biotech doesn't require good bandwidth. It does require clean electricity, which means they'll have to set up a special deal with Commonwealth Edison to get power transmission up to spec. There are probably fewer business regulations to affect biotech than there would be to affect a computer business, especially since biotech requires a hell of a lot more starting capital.
The problem is, every time I try to tell someone who might listen that the city should concentrate on Biotech, my words seem to fall on deaf ears. They've got this bandwagon mentality: "We have to get in on this dot-com computer thing, and we have to do it now. This is the future." In the process, they will probably miss another potential future, and the opportunity to become a major world center of a new revolution ten years from now.
Therefore, let me turn your question around. Instead of asking, what can you do to make my city good for geeks; ask, what kind of geeks can we attract to this city? Not all geeks are computer geeks, and your city may have more to offer some other potentially very profitable industry than it has to offer the computer industry. Just my $0.02.
Speaking frankly, and keep in mind I'm not a securities trader or a financial analyst or a lawyer or whatever...for a long time, eToys was worth more than Mattel and Hasbro combined. That's the two largest toy makers in the US. As of today, eToys is worth less than either Mattel or Hasbro, even if only by a little. This makes more sense. eToys's income is far, far less than that of either company, and eToys is less established. If you ask me, this is probably just a correction, and a much-needed one.
It's true that their stock is almost at a 52-week low. But this doesn't necessarily mean that they're mishandling the business. I would be very surprised if investors started suing them over this.
eToys apparently still doesn't get it. Internet was never meant to be a shopping mall. Yes, commerce can succeed in this medium, but that does not neccesarily make this a shopping mall.
Internet is a neighborhood. This means that there's a great variety of resources here. Sure, there's stores, and some of them make a lot of money. There are also gathering places, theatres (some of them pretty bleeding-edge, like etoy), workshops, and homes. This neighborhood has been here, and has grown, long before eToys ever came on the scene. Now, eToys is saying, "We want this neighborhood to become a shopping mall." And they'll tear down the whole damn neighborhood to do it.
Ultimately what these companies want is not a bazaar, not a whole new world, not a new medium of communication; but a virtual suburb. Where everything is clean (or else), there are no angry people, no controversial opinions or expressions, and everyone is free, so long as what they want to do is make money. A virtual suburb that is safe for sheltered suburban children raised in good Mayburyish homes, where they can learn that Internet is safe, inoffensive, secure, protected. A virtual suburb where you don't find anything that might even vaguely disturb you. Where the music is soothing, the pictures are pretty, and you can make your dreams come true by entering your credit card number and expiration date. Don't worry, that information, along with all your other information, won't be handed off to anyone who might hurt you (just to other people who want to sell to you).
There's just one problem. Even if they get their way, it's all pure bullshit. Internet is not secure, will never be secure. Real life is full of controversey, different ideas, and shocking truths. If they get shoved off of Internet, they'll just move to another network, albeit perhaps a more exclusive one (think back to the BBS days). Moreover, the information you hand out is not safe. The difference is, today, if it's not safe, you'll find out quickly. Tomorrow, if it's not safe, you may never find out. Not unless you're on one of those BBS'es. Or unless it's already too late.
It doesn't have to turn out this way. We can win this fight. We're smart enough; together, we're rich enough; and we have enough to lose to keep us motivated in this fight.
As a note, I noticed today that eToys stock is at a 52-week low. Maybe it's time eToys figured out a new strategy?
Anything else you could recommend?
People have already suggested a DVD boycott. Allow me to repeat this proposal, and lay out my arguement for such a boycott.
I'm aware that a boycott would not affect our legal standing on this matter. However, let us consider that DeCSS was created, in the first place, as a step towards a DVD driver for Linux. With this lawsuit, the DVD people are essentially telling us, "We don't want the Linux business."
If they don't want our business -- to the point where they'll sue us for trying to enable ourselves to get their business -- why the hell should we support them?
There's another principle at stake here though: while the content of DVDs, and the hardware, is (and should be) covered by copyright, the format of a DVD is currently a closed standard. In computer terms, it's closed source, and proprietary. If you consider a DVD player to be a dedicated computer, then a DVD player violates open source. To be consistent, we should keep away from this closed source standard.
Therefore, I suggest that we stop using DVD's immediately; not purchase any more DVD's; not purchase any DVD players; sell DVD's and DVD players that we have, or return them to the store or manufacturer; and simply not use any DVD technology, period, until they
Comments? Questions? Rude remarks?
Congratulations to the EFF and the other defendants on their victory. However, let's keep in mind that this is a small blow for free speech. In fact, there are still significant issues before the court. To wit:
Let's hope that the good guys win this fight. Between this and the dropping of the etoy vs. eToys lawsuit, this has been a good day for free speach.
ESR's a good guy, and he's certainly got the brains and the money to hold office...but government by essay??
Wait a sec...how does a bug eat radioactive waste and make it inert? The atomic nuclei are still unstable; they'll still decay, releasing radiation; the best you can do is store it in some kind of glass and stick it somewhere where the gammas won't affect human beings. At least, I think that's the case. Can someone help me out here?
Some stand. If voting means you have miniscule power, not voting means you've effectively given those who do vote the right to speak for you. At that point, you may as well be a non-citizen.
Someone once said that democracy is like three wolves and a sheep voting on breakfast. Constitutional Democracy forbids such a vote. On the other hand, if the sheep decide not to excercise their rights, the wolves can simply ignore the Constitution. This might explain the government we have today, in fact.
Besides, who the fsck counts non-voters? I sure don't. All non-voting says to anyone is that you're too lazy to participate. Voter strike has to be the most brain-damaged protest concept I've ever heard of, period. No offense.
Alan Keyes is the African American candidate in this race. He's got a PhD from Harvard. He's also anti-abortion and anti-gay-rights, which is enough to eliminate him as a candidate for my vote.
It should be noted that Buchannan, Hatch, Keyes, Forbes and Bauer are similar to Browne in supporting gun rights. But all of these candidates (except Browne) are too fascist for me. Browne is Libertarian, which I have some issues with, although nowhere nearly as many as with the GOP in general.
Warning: explicit political content
If Junior wins by only one vote, then he's in deep trouble over the next four years. Chances are the House would be run by Democrats...meaning Bush would have a hell of a time getting his platform through. Meanwhile, the Democrats might start paying more attention to their Liberal heritage, if they figured out that they lost that election due to former Democrats switching to the Greens. Would I think I made the right choice? Hell yeah. It might get some people in the Democratic party to wake up and figure out that it's not all about soccer moms and suburbanites.
I would feel even more right about it if the Democratic alternative was Gore. I can sum up the way I feel about Gore in two words: Clipper and Tipper.
Frankly, the more I think about the alternatives, the more strongly I support Nader for President. He might not win, but fsckit, the idea is to vote for the (wo)man you want to be President, not necessarily for the winner.
This injunction is being filed in Federal court, so it could easily appeal to the whole United States. Mike
ABC News has a similarly slanted story on the DVD lawsuit.
Read the article, and then go complain about it.
The first three companies are pure Linux. The fourth is getting good advice on Linux systems from people in the community.
You absolutely want as little variation on your hardware as possible with these machines. This will up the price of each machine. However, it will also make them easier to maintain, repair, upgrade and find drivers for. The additional expense pays off in the long run, if you are going to deploy thousands of these things. Make this a condition of your contract.
Personally, I say go with ASL, if only because they're nice guys.
NB- I don't work for any of these companies, even (as far as I know) indirectly.
From reading this article, it looks like this company may have discovered an effect of quantum physics that has gone previously unexplored. Big deal, maybe, but hardly a grand unified theory.
The Kulturwehrmacht On the front lines of the Culture Wars
. . .
The Kulturwehrmacht
Listed as one of the year's events is a series of April Fools jokes, including a fake news story where Anti-MS protesters rioted through the streets of Seattle. And eight months later....
Conspiracy theories anyone?????
The Kulturwehrmacht