Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 28th May 2012 19:25 UTC
This topic comes up quite a lot on technology websites, but I generally try to steer clear from it as much as possible, since I'm not the one to talk about it (you know, with me being a man and all that), however, I feel it might be a good idea to just get my opinion out there and be done with it. The topic of women in IT is a hot-button issue, so let me just go out guns blazing: assuming women need special treatment, help, protection, and affirmative action is just as insulting and degrading as outright claiming women have no place in IT - maybe even more so.
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/25/13 0:45 UTC
"So in summary... Google has pulled the plug on support on a protocol they've helped popularize, after years of promising interoperability, for reasons that are dubious at best, and in a way that leaves people who don't jump to the new Hangouts app unable to talk to their contacts without any feedback that their IMs aren't getting through... And they've done that with no warning to anyone. I imagine there's a bunch of people out there wondering where some of their buddies have gone, or why their messages aren't getting responses, because this isn't documented anywhere." Google really messed this up. Such a dick move.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 23:59 UTC
The Tizen Greek Community has some screenshots of a very recent build of Tizen running on a Samsung GT-i8800. It looks wholly unremarkable.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 22:33 UTC
Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Linked by Howard Fosdick on 05/24/13 21:41 UTC
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 14:44 UTC
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 23:22 UTC
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:04 UTC
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:01 UTC
"In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 17:52 UTC
"The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 22:23 UTC
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.More News »
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I'll give you that one... That is not the current or historic rationale to such programs - they have never been about compensating for reduced capabilities. Thom should retract that bit in his article because it is patently false.
And I agree, yes - that is exactly what it is "about".
That I don't agree with. I work in IT - with women. My boss is a woman. All said the percentage of women in our IT department is around 10%.
Is that "well represented"? What exactly would be? Do we have "only" 10% women because we discriminate? Are we bigots? I'm sorry but the entire point of view you are promoting is a steaming pile of horsesh*t... We have 10% women in our department, but I would guarantee you that the percentage of women applying for jobs is way less than 10% (more like 3% if that)...
You want more women in IT? Get them to go into IT. If they are good then they will get hired. If they are really good they will get promoted. Im not saying there is no sexism going on - but sexism isn't the problem... The problem is simply less women than men pursuing careers in IT.
I can't speak for any other companies, but at ours women already have a better than fair chance - and it isn't because of affirmative action, it is because more often than not the well qualified ones are quite good at their jobs. Isn't that a good thing? Would it be better that we had 30% women but most of them sucked because we hired them just because of their sex?
I'm sorry but it feels like a solution looking for a problem that for the most part isn't there... Yes, there are sexist twits at every company (probably even mine), but do you really think these guys are running things? Anyone working in IT (especially in development) in this day and age that think that a woman can't do the job as well as a man is a moron... Most people I know would agree with that statement. Haven't you already won?
Just to be clear, I'm not against affirmative action - as in the real meaning of the term - taking actions that promote job openings equally to all. But I am against quotas and other such favoritism practices that masquerade as something else but in reality are really quotas (which are still technically illegal in the US but you would be hard pressed to notice). And I am definitely against the notion that success is judged by how "well represented" a group is. Equal salary? Fair game, I totally understand that one. But looking at the problem as being percentage employed is just moronic - that shouldn't be the goal...
edit: To expand upon that last statement... The problem with setting employment goals (as in percentages) is that it transforms the problem from "making things fair" to "making things fairer than they were last year". Everyone gets the magic 50% target number on the brain and forgets about the real problem... At some point things will truly be fair, but it won't be because 50% of IT workers are women, it will because no one even thinks about it anymore.
Edited 2012-05-29 08:35 UTC