Girly Geekdom Blog

W-Tech 24 June 2009

2009-06-02T10:15:00.009+01:00

For those who've not heard of it, W-Tech 2009 is a free 1-day event on Wednesday 24 June 2009 - described as a "one day recruitment, career development and networking event for women interested in IT" - with a panel on IT careers and drinks afterwards.

Organised by the British Computer Society and Women in Technology and sponsored by Microsoft and Google amongst others, it has an interesting and varied programme and an impressive line up of speakers (almost all female), amongst whom I notice is our own Judith "deCabbit" Lewis. Although I've always thought that how to behave in an all male team consists of just talking louder and louder until eventually they can't fail to notice that you're speaking. Cough cough.

It seems well worth signing up to go, for the professional networking as well as the many talks, workshops and seminars. The site also has a general careers advice page.

Leyio - First UWB Data Transfer Device - Reviewed

2009-05-04T20:19:00.003+01:00

What is it?
This device is the very first 16gb Ultra-Wideband device on the market. It's basically a hard drive with fingerprint reader and fast data transfer technology. Now lets get into the detail on it!

The Looks
On first impressions this device looks very tactile and fun with it's curvy edges high definition screen and it's fingerprint reader it's a pretty impressive little geek device. Then you start looking down the side of it and you find a mini USB port, a standard USB port and a removable USB flash drive. All in all a shiny, stylish little hardware package!

Usability
When I first turned the device on it was pretty easy to figure out.... with only one button and a fingerprint reader you start off by thinking how on earth will this work... but actually it's really intuitive. The device gets you to register your fingerprint with it to start with and then goes on to the main menu. To move through the menu you swipe up/down, left & right with the fingerprint reader. You can also use the button to go back to the main menu when in a side menu (just in case you hadn't figured out the sideways movement for selecting into and out of the menu) and the same once you are on the main menu use the button to select that option. It really couldn't be simpler. However just watch out for holding the button down for too long as it will turn the device on and off and also enable data transfer to and from the device to the removable USB key.

Pairing the device up with another Leyio was also pretty easy as you just hold down the button after selecting an item on the device i.e. a picture or video and the other person does the same and holds down the button on their device. The icon changes to show the connection and then with a flick of the wrist it goes across.

Speed
Now I bet you are really wondering about the speed of this Ultra Wide-Band device... 10MB/s is the advertised speed and it doesn't disappoint at all. I so want someone to integrate this technology into a mobile phone. However something worth noting is that UWB isn't yet an approved IETF standard and has had a pretty rough ride. So far the FCC have said yes to it and Ofcom have also agreed to it as a standard however other countries standards bodies are against the idea so there doesn't appear to be a global solution to date. Now the question here is, is UWB here to stay or are competing technologies going to win out like the HD- DVD vs BlueRay scenario. Lets hope that this little device doesn't end up in the middle of this battle.

Reliability
Whilst using the device we didn't have any failed transfers or anything. The only real reliability issue I had when using the device was false negatives on the fingerprint reader but that was down to me forgetting which finger I registered 2 days earlier. As such just remember which finger you registered... once I'd gotten over that bit it was all good. To date I've not had anyone else manage to get into the device... maybe I should give it to a security expert to see what they think about the security of it... And guess what I know just the person!

Mr Security says: "This device gives the illusion of security however a fingerprint reader gives the illusion of security however it is just an identification feature and not an authentication feature. To do that this device would also need a pin to be secure. However identification is better than nothing."

Size
The Leyio is quite thick but isn't all that heavy, it is a nice weight in your hand and isn't a huge addition to carry around. To be honest I'm likely to carry mine around as a useful little USB hdd with the added use of being able to view the files and folders on it. It fits nicely in all my bags and I loved the Apple style packaging too.

Battery Life
So far the battery life has been pretty good it's really not been that much of a problem. I've had the devices for a week and still haven't had to charge either of them. When you're doing data transfer onto the device it's plugged into the USB and as such is charging at the same time so that's all nice and easy really.

Areas for Improvement
I love the design of the device and the look and feel of it but there were a few things that felt like they were missing in this little device. Firstly you couldn't read the V Cards that were stored on the device. Secondly you couldn't view pictures on it. Also storing music and video is all well and good in such a small device but what happened to putting in an audio jack so that people can play them? I loved the idea of this device and I can definitely see me using it as a quick to carry around storage device with a basic UI but I'd love to see a mobile phone company get in touch with Leyio and integrating the technology used here into a sleak mobile phone with good storage capacity.

The area where this device unfortunately falls down is really the price. At £149 it's an expensive hdd with funky data transfer on it and unless the price comes down it is going to be one of those devices that people are going to have to look cool but won't really be something for the average user. I can see the geeks and girl geeks having fun swapping files at our events but it's not something that people will use as an every day device.

Curious and want to see it in action then click on our video below:

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Coraline in glorious 3D (with funky glasses)

2009-04-26T19:12:00.003+01:00

Advanced notifications for preview cinema screenings is a nice benefit, so I see movie screeners on a regular basis. However, the one I attended today is rather special, as it is in full 3D. Technology has moved a long way; the 3D glasses we are most likely to remember are anachrome optical diopter glasses. These have the reminiscent blue and red lenses. I was quite happy to find that the ones being handed out look much better. In fact, the lenses have no colour in them and are the creation of RealD. So how good are they?

I shall start with one of the trailers we saw.

Ice Age 3
To put it simply, the 3D effect was amazing. It was quite a long trailer but it highlighted just how good the 3D technology was. As each scene unfolds, objects in the foreground felt so close and real that you could almost touch them. Distance perception was utilised to full effect, there was a scene where our plucky squirrel chases after the acorn and as the camera swoops and plunges, you felt that you was part of that ride and experience. Experiencing this for the first time on the big screen, it was an incredible 15 minutes. There were sounds of “OOHH”, “AHHH” and “WOW” from the audience and I can see that this 3D implementation is going to shift cinema tickets with ease.

Now for the main film...

Coraline
If you have ever watched Nightmare Before Christmas or Corpse Bride, then you will be familiar with the whimsical premise of this movie. It starts with the protagonist, a girl named Coraline Jones. She moved into a new neighbourhood and she is bored. Her parents have no time for her, and so she has a little exploration into the antique house that is now her home. She stumbles across a small locked door, and through her sleep, she goes through and discovers a parallel world where there are replicas of her parents with button eyes. Everything in this new world is fantastical and perfect, but she soon discovers things are not what they seem...

This film will suit all ages and I personally loved it. It had the lovely weird factor, it reminds me very much of Spirited Away by Studio Ghibli, in terms of plot and execution. A commendable movie production, the animation was great and the voice acting really suited the characters played.

I can safely say that if you think the Ice Age 3 trailer was great in 3D, then you have an absolute feast in Coraline. There was one moment where a sewing needle darted forward on the screen, I instinctively jerked back in my seat, and it felt THAT CLOSE to my face I could not help myself. There were many moments like these, there were no gimmicks had here; the movie experience multiplied tenfold when produced in 3D.

The movie itself was great and the 3D aspect was fantastic, I cannot say anymore than that except go and watch it for yourself.

Footnote: These will fit over your existing glasses, it was slighly awkward for me but it did the job fine.

Get your content connected, the writing's on the wall...

2009-04-24T15:21:00.001+01:00

I am re-publishing the below by kind permission of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), as it was written for the May issue of their Update magazine.
[Image Source: Qwantz]

Research findings released late last year by the University of Illinois suggest that when conducting cardiopulmonary resuscitation on those who have suffered a cardiac arrest, even medical practitioners benefit from singing a song with a tempo of 100 beats per minute (bpm) to match the optimum 100 compressions per minute required to revive a patient. Songs matching the 100bpm rate include, appropriately enough, 'Staying Alive' by the Bee Gees, less appropriately 'Another One Bites the Dust' by Queen, and 'Connected' by Stereo MCs, with a tempo of 100.7bpm, lyrics of which go something like this:

'If you make sure you're connected, the writing's on the wall, but if your mind's neglected, stumble you might fall, stumble you might fall...'

One can only presume that those in command at the Guardian and BBC came across this research and decided that the approach applied equally well to information stores as to human patients, for in the six months since, both institutions have opened up semi-public discussion around how best to set their valuable information free and get themselves connected.

The BeeBCamp 2.0 unconference, held at White City on 18 February 2009, brought together a diverse 'digital' group from around the BBC. I was privileged to attend, despite the event being primarily for internal BBC staff (GirlyGeekdom Note only: as was another 'outsider', Rachel Clarke, who wrote up some great notes on her blog). Conversations held at the various 20-minutes informal sessions covered such topics as harnessing user-generated content, encouraging the public to innovate, reviving the BBC Computer Literacy Project which popularised BBC Micro computers in the 1980s, and technical and bureaucratic issues around such changes.

For information practitioners, the session of most interest was entitled 'Semantic BBC'. During this session, BBC insiders discussed:

a proposed iFinder to help staff find multimedia content across BBC sites

the possibility of incorporating the BBC Press Database which contains text transcript 'scrapes' from BBC news stories (obtained by converting interview recordings from audio to text), associates common keywords to such transcripts, and subsequently maps such keywords against the BBC ontology, enabling BBC staff to search for keywords/speakers' names, etc. Access to the BBC Press Database isn't available to the public for copyright reasons, but the BBC Programmes Ontology is published online

semantic tagging trials within BBC Vision, the division responsible for broadcasting the content of BBC television channels

ways the BBC online team might incorporate programme details stored in the BBC Programme Catalogue maintained by the BBC's Information & Archives team. The BBC Programme Catalogue was created in the mid 1980s to replace their legacy card system, and trial public online access to the calogue was provided from 2006-2008, however this has been removed until further notice

providing the public with information visualisations, visual representations of data, with such visualisations relating to searches made on www.bbc.co.uk, BBC iPlayer audience viewing patterns, and so on

proposals to tag new BBC website content with GPS co-ordinates, where relevant

the BBC field journalists' content management systems and that group's current migration across to their internally developed and maintained Content Production System (CPS)

a proposed semi-closed taxonomy for the BBC audience to suggest new tags but with moderation

the semedia.org online collaborative 'crowdsourced' project whereby users can play BBC archive films and tag the film in real-time, with such tags cross-referenced against those proposed by other users, as where tags are identical for the same section they will be considered more likely to be accurate.

For more information on BeeBCamp2 and to learn more about similar BBC initiatives, visit the BBC Internet Blog round-up.

BarCampLondon6 (GirlyGeekdom Note only: which was organised with military precision by the fabulous Emma Persky, Kevin Prince and co., thanks again!), held over the weekend of 28-29 March, was another 'unconference', open to those lucky enough to obtain a ticket via the online ticketing system. BarCamp6 was the first large conference held at the Guardian's new offices by Kings Cross, and as BarCamps traditionally involve 'camping' at the venue overnight, the new facilities were well and truly tested.

One session was run by Simon Willison, a software architect who joined the Guardian in late 2008 with the remit to ''work with both the Guardian's existing data sources and third-party companies to prepare content for the [www.guardian.co.uk] platform, allowing the external development community to create applications using Guardian content'.

During his session, Willison shared objectives and technological underpinnings of the Guardian's Open Platform project. As part of this, the Guardian's technology team has developed an application programming interface (API) providing access to every piece of content on the Guardian's website for which the newspaper has enough relevant rights (c. 700,000 individual articles from the past 10 years), and the team intends to continue to share this content as it gradually brings other non-digital assets online. (Girlygeekdom Note only: this figure slightly differs from that on Simon's personal blog however this is what he said at BarCamp a couple of weeks later, following the official launch, so I presume 700,000 is more accurate.)

The Open Platform project includes the API Explorer, a 'Firebird-inspired' console which enables those interested to connect their own web services to Guardian editorially chosen tags and rich metadata. The API content is largely shared through RSS, though JSON format is also supported, and Atom feeds are supported for tools such as Yahoo Pipes, to enable end-users to build on that.

Another fascinating project is the Guardian Data Store which shares raw Guardian research data which it hopes the public might cross-reference against other data, perhaps creating infographics and finding correlations. Distribution is the key focus for the Guardian, and provides the impetus for opening such content stores. Its paper weekday circulation is 400,000, while its website gets more than 33m hits per month: as the Guardian's revenue is largely derived from advertising, continuing to share their content makes a great deal of sense.

Visit the Guardian's Open Platform project site (also visit this site to request an API key)

Visit the Guardian's Data Store project site

Guardian and BBC information being set free in this way certainly makes my pulse quicken, and where practicable we might follow their example to keep our own content alive... 'make sure you're connected, the writing's on the wall...'

The Next Web: Chippy & The Girl Geeks

2009-04-20T20:16:00.009+01:00

Whilst over in Amsterdam for The Next Web Conference I decided it would be a great idea to catch up with the Amsterdam Girl Geeks. Also whilst over there I came across a couple of Belgium Girl Geeks too so we all got together with Chippy who I sort of accosted after meeting him at the coffee stand in the conference. Who is Chippy I hear you say... possibly one of the most gadgeted up Guy Geeks that was at the conference! On his person he had a whole host of gadgets. So to make our Girl Geek meetup fun he got invited along to lunch with us.

I bet you're now curious about what devices we got talking about now... well anything from MID devices through to batteries an a brand new mobile hardware piece that is fully open source!

I have a feeling I'll be after that external battery (u20 i-up battery) for my IPhone and my laptop! And I don't think I'd be disappointed if any of those deviced landed on my desk either!

BTW do watch all the way through to the end of the video as the last 5 mins are on a great new piece of hardware!

The Next Web 09: Wilg Sketch Notes

2009-04-19T20:38:00.000+01:00

As many of you know, writing conference notes can be dull and distracting, however when I was at The Next Web conference over in Amsterdam I came across Esther Gons, aka Wilg/ Wilgengebroed. She did some wonderful sketch notes whilst at the conference and I managed to borrow her for a few minutes to give a brief overview of what she did at the conference in terms of her notes.

You can find more of her sketch notes from this and other conferences on her website!

Are women Wired in the UK?

2009-04-10T10:13:00.006+01:00

ooo A new Wired Magazine - UK edition. More technology for our geeky pleasure. But are GirlGeeks being overlooked?

My first read of just lauched UK edition of Wired and I was struck by the obvious; where are the women writers?...

A particularly pertinent piece was the article 'The People Who Really Run Britain' (PWRRB) (p.136). Thankfully not Bob Quick as Senior Counter Terrorist Officer, but a portfolio of ardent workers who for Philip Sinden 'operate in the shadows'. Individuals who range from the 'nation's memory keeper' - guarding official documentations in an underground 'safe house'; 'the time setter' responsible for keeping the nations clocks to time; to the a 'Channel tunnel guardian' who 'keeps air flowing through the Eurotunnel'.

Only one of the PWRRB's Top Ten is a woman. I do not want to labour the point too much, but it seems appropriate to point out (with the support of GirlyGeekdom) that women are not only the minority in terms of written content in Wired, but the same is also true in terms of subject and article presence. The (only) Woman Who Really Runs Britain is Caroline Porter, 29, a business manager at London Metal exchange. Her role is to control the feeds of metal prices - 'the global reference prices' - that are delivered to the global economy. Without her there would meltdown, literally.

Skip to the front of Wired (P.15) and the 05.09 Contributors Page, of the six main contributors, one, Susan Greeenfield (Baroness no less), is the pioneer of content contributed by women. I am not suggesting that Wired is all male-to-male content. Far from it. UK Wired is, in my opinion, far better than its US counterpart in the publication of balanced, interesting and satisfyingly technology divulgent coverage. But then I flick back again through the magazine and the if the masculine led written word doesn't hit you, the masculine emphasis of marketing and advertisement will. TagHeur watch here, Sony Bravia with football coverage there, Jaguar where 'the thrill lasts much longer' and Tom Ford 'for men' set the tone for the First Edition.

The 'How to...' contribution from Kevin Braddock and Jack Dyson (a relation?) is a revelation in its inventiveness for instructions for everday living. From 'eating for free', to 'making your own lipstick'. The boys may fail to explain how to raise the profile of women within a wired culture... but maybe they are building to that in the next edition...

Oh and FYI, type 'Susan Greenfield' into the search engine of Wired...

Your search - susan greenfield - did not match any documents.

Suggestions:

Make sure all the words are spelled correctly.
Try different keywords.
Try more general keywords.

Yes. Well I think that says it all really.

#ALD09 Dr Betty A Toole - Writing about Ada

2009-03-24T17:53:00.005Z

Whilst I was away on vacation Betty sent me the blog post below to be posted today for the Ada Lovelace Day. So just in time for the event here is her post below:

If you don’t know Ada Lovelace let me introduce you to her, as she is a fascinating human being. I got to know her intimately by hand transcribing, back in the 1980s, both her letters and publications. At that time they did not allow a computer into either the Bodleian Library at Oxford or the British library. My two books, “Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers,” and many articles, from “poetical science,” to “analyst and metaphysician” stem from that endeavor and are described on my web site http://www.well.com/user/adatoole.

Why Ada Lovelace day? Ada Lovelace is addicting for once you get to know her you want to know more. It is because she is unique; she is not a model to be put on a pedestal. Her greatest legacy was her ability to think both creatively and critically, being an integrator. That is how she was able to not only predict the impact of today’s computer revolution but to write a table of instructions for how a machine could calculate a complicated mathematical equation.

Ada, the Countess of Lovelace, was the daughter of the poet Lord Byron and a dear friend of Charles Babbage. They both lived in the 19th century and many smart people regard them as pioneers of the computer. Yes, I know Babbage’s Analytical Engine never came to pass then, but now looking around I see it has happened, even beyond their wildest dreams, and some of those dreams seemed pretty wild at the time. Ada saw the idea and the structure of Babbage’s Analytical Engine, not the Difference Engine, and described it in a publication in 1843 as something new. She saw its possibility to compose music, see and make pictures, and to be a benefit to business. The structure of Babbage’s idea and Ada suggesting a perfect example of how the machine might calculate complicated algorithms, as well as her predictions, turned out to be close to the truth.

Gibson and Sterling used Ada as a character in the marvelous science fiction novel the “Difference Engine”. Ada had a secret,, a modus, and a special way of seeing the world. I call it “Poetical Science” based on a scrap of paper I found in her files. It is not poetry or science, imagination or rationality, it is not romance (putting her on a pedestal) or the opposite (trashing her). It is getting poetry and science as close together so that you can see “the heart of the matter,” and when you see the heart of the matter you can predict, as she did in 1843, the potential of an idea. This ability is needed today, by women, by all people, who want to see how technology can benefit of mankind. Ada spelled that need out in 1843 and how she saw her legacy She wrote:

Far be it from me, to disclaim the influence of ambition & fame.; ….I certainly would not deceive myself or others by pretending that it is other than a very important motive & ingredient in my character & nature.

I wish to add my mite towards expounding & interpreting the Almighty, & his laws & works, for the most effective use of mankind; and certainly, I should feel it no small glory if I were enabled to be one of his most noted prophets…And I should prefer… being known as a benefactor of this description…promulgating truths from obscurity & oblivion.

( Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers, p.230)

By Dr Betty A. Toole

Ada Lovelace Day Pledge :: Florence Nightingale, The Lady of the Lamp and Polar Area Diagram

2009-03-23T23:56:00.026Z

This post on Florence Nightingale was written in support of Suw Charman-Anderson's fantastic Ada Lovelace Day Pledge to 'publish a blog post on Tuesday 24th March about a woman in technology whom I admire'.

[Florence Nightingale Image Source: ThrillSeeker]

Florence Nightingale & Information Visualisation

While Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) is generally remembered for nursing reform and the appealing image of her wandering about hospital wards with a lamp during the Crimean War, she was equally adept at illuminating the appalling hygiene conditions of soldiers in the British Army through statistics. Information visualisation is important to those of us who need to convey complex information and relationships between information sets to others, and Florence Nightingale was a pioneer in the field; as a result of her work using statistics to support her arguments for health policy reform, she was the first female elected to membership of what is now the Royal Statistical Society, in 1858.

While Florence Nightingale's father ensured that she received early private tuition in mathematics, philosophy and languages, this formative education proved to be at odds with the aims of her mother who wished her to marry and settle into a privileged role in society. Consequently, Nightingale spent most of her twenties lobbying her family to be allowed to undertake meaningful work (first asking to be a mathematician, and later a nurse), travelling, studying, and declining suitors. Her views on restrictive Victorian society were expressed in an 1852 essay, Cassandra, which she self-published anonymously as Suggestions for Thought in 1860; with extracts later referenced by her friend, John Stuart Mill, in The Subjection of Women, and subsequently by Virginia Woolf in A Room of One's Own. After the years of protest, Nightingale's family at last gave her permission to enter nursing and she quickly gained a reputation for leadership through her work in establishing a Home for Gentlewomen in Harley Street, London. She was subsequently permitted to lead a group of nurses to Turkey to help improve the well-publicised unsanitary hospital conditions at the Crimean battlefront. Once in Turkey, Nightingale spent two years developing new nursing systems and lobbying for improvements, and gained her international reputation as a ministering angel. It was in the next forty years of her life following her return to Britain as a partial invalid, however, that she proved to be an exceptional statistician and social activist.

Polar Area Diagram (also known as the Nightingale Rose)

While the Florence Nightingale Museum site incorrectly states that Florence Nightingale invented the pie chart, which was developed by William Playfair fifty years earlier, she did create the polar area diagram as part of the >800 page report 'Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administration of the British Army' submitted to Queen Victoria in 1858 upon her return from the Crimean War. Following submission of the full report, Nightingale self-published 2,000 booklets containing key extracts (the key text and diagrams which she referred to as the report's 'coxcomb') and forwarded this to government decision-makers to help support her suggestions for improvements to conditions in local hospitals.

The below "Diagram of the causes of mortality in the army in the East" incorporated general UK population mortality data generously provided by William Farr, Compiler of Abstracts in the General Registry Office, for comparison with her own Crimean mortality data. Disregarding Farr's recommendation to make her statistics as dry as possible, Nightingale instead communicated the data in this vivid visual form. Self-corrections to her earlier 'bat's wing' diagrams led to development of her polar area diagram. In the below final graphic, each segment represents a month (where January starts at the 6-7 o'clock position), blue represents deaths occuring from preventable disease, red represents deaths occuring from wounds, and black represents deaths due to other causes. For a clearer view of the diagram, refer to the excellent visuals at Science News site (though they inaccurately refer to the diagrams as the 'coxcombs').

Diagram of the causes of mortality in the army in the East

[Source: 1958 gift to Queen Victoria, The Royal Collection of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II]

Florence Nightingale as Project Manager

Florence Nightingale seems to have been a perserverant, intelligent, logical, pragmatic and stubborn individual. When she set off to the Crimea she bought her own supplies for the hospital en-route, forseeing that the supplies would be in disarray upon arrival despite having been promised that they would be available, her foresight was rewarded as the promised supplies seemed to be in permanent transit. At a later stage, when new hospital supplies were locked away through bureaucratic incompetence, she ordered that a store door be knocked down to enable her patients to receive supplies. While still in Crimea and beset by military bureaucracy questioning her work locally and initiating defamation campaigns in the UK press at home, she enlisted the support of her sponsor, Sidney Herbert, Secretary at War, who arranged for Queen Victoria to write a public commendation of Nightingale's work, which quietened disapproval and also helped change perception of nursing to that of a respectable occupation. Less appealingly, following the Crimean War, when working to prepare statistical reports, she broke off relations with Sidney Herbert when he suffered a breakown and was unable to help complete the work - after his death she endeavoured to appease her own conscience by self-publishing a testimonial to the worth of his career. Interestingly, attempts to sabotage Nightingale's reputation continue, with Wikipedia edits suggesting she had few friendships with women though correspondence records show otherwise (these will be corrected!), and others reprinting defamatory correspondence which is at odds with other public records and also suggesting she took personal credit for Crimean improvements while failing to note that it was Nightingale who illustrated a direct link between patient survival and improvements in hygiene.

It is true that while having written nursing guidelines (see Notes on Nursing) and having devoted her life to improving nursing conditions, Florence Nightingale was against a formal certification for nurses as she didn't see how it could be uniformly assessed, it's also true that Mary Seacole was declined in her request to join Nightingale's nurses in Crimea for reasons unknown, however Nightingale's contribution to public health improvements are unquestionable, and with the vast amount of work currently underway in information management in the UK NHS, we can still learn a great deal from Nightingale's approach to information visualisation that is applicable to development of information tools today, and for that she is a woman 'in technology' to be admired.

Information Visualisation

If you too have a fetish for information visualisation, start by taking a look at the exquisite Information Aesthetics blog, and Edward Tufte's site.

Other Ada Lovelace Day Pledges

For more details on the Ada Lovelace Day Pledge, read our previous post about Ada Lovelace Day, visit The Ada Lovelace Day Collection site to read other posts, or better still, visit the pledge site to submit your own post if you haven't done so already!

The fantastic people at the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering & Technology (UKRC4SET) have solicited a pledge response from Ada Lovelace's great-great-great-niece, Dr Honora Smith, a lecturer in Operational Research and Management Science at the University of Southampton School of Mathematics - read Honora Smith's post nominating two inspirational colleagues here.

Viva Piñata – Trouble in Paradise on XBox 360

2009-03-23T00:49:00.001Z

Firstly, I have to apologise to Sarah for not posting this sooner, I had a slight snafu with Microsoft Word. Well actually, it gave me the two-finger salute and I lost my entire document. So here I am, rewriting it again...

I have only briefly played the first game, so in a way playing Rare’s second outing with our papery friends was going to be a new experience. If you have ever played games such as Harvest Moon, then this will be familiar to you. The premise is to grow a luscious garden, to attract strange and new Piñatas and ultimately they turn into permanent residents. The learning curve is, well to be honest there isn’t one. There is general direction to help you along, but the whole idea is for the player to go on a journey of discovery. Questions such as what certain piñatas like to eat, or what each seed does, is all part of the fun. The UI is very easy to use; your main tools will be the watering can and the spade, as you plant all sorts of vegetation.

The piñatas themselves are endearingly cute, some are natural predators and if you want to keep certain creatures, you may need to use your watering can to keep them in check. I wanted to water my daisies and as I started to pour, a little ladybird piñata wandered in and had an accidental shower. Poor little thing has been scared of the can ever since, it made me feel slightly guilty. You find the longer you play, the more attached you get to the animals that come and go. You can name each one when they become a resident, “Fluffy” and “Boris” seems to be my favourites at the moment. It’s like having your own little Noah’s Ark, but your adventures are not restricted to a patch of turf. You can travel to other areas, such as desert terrain where you can lay traps to capture even more piñatas of rarity.

Flowers are not the only things you can plant in your garden. You can also cultivate fruit and vegetables, which are sold to gain money. With the extra cash, you can buy more seeds or decorate your garden with fences or paving slabs. A nice feature is the use of the Live Vision camera, which I need to explore further. You can add new piñatas by taking snaps of specially printed cards, which unlocks them in the game. There are just so many things to discover, time just flies by and I have only touched the tip of the iceberg in this review. You will notice that you can level up, and after a certain level, you can upgrade the size of your garden. However, it’s not a grind, the levelling just comes naturally with normal play.

This is the kind of game you can relax to, although after awhile you become obsessed with watering things. Having a virtual garden can end up being a full-time job, but it is definitely bags of fun and not a chore.

European Code of Best Practices for Women and ICT signed

2009-03-07T22:43:00.030Z

For those who've not seen this EU statement:

"On 3 March 2009 the European Commission received a signed Code for Best Practices for Women in ICT by some of the major actors in the ICT sector. The Code provides for practices which aim not only to attract women in ICT but also to keep them in the sector and help them reach their full potential."

The signatories were Alcatel Lucent, imec, Motorola, Microsoft and Orange.

The Code was handed over at a one day conference on 3 March entitled Cyberellas are IT! (am I the only one who's cringing slightly at the term "cyberella"?). The conference also presented the results of the EU's 2008 shadowing initiative (see previous post) "to give young women a taste of what a job in ICT would be like. The idea has been to show them what a typical day would be like, by accompanying or "shadowing" a female role model for a day."

In my view much of the Code is pretty bland and common sensical and embodies little more than would be required to comply with anti-gender discrimination laws anyway.

Like most "Codes of Practice" there's nothing legally binding in there and the signatories don't actually promise to follow all the "best practices" stated in the Code, they just (and I quote so you can see how hedged about it is):

"pledge their support for the overall goals of this Code and undertake to ensure that their company's actions and practices are in line with the Code. The Code is intended as a guide to best practice. Not all signatories will pursue all the recommended practices. Indeed, many practices have similar or overlapping objectives. Also, in a few cases, best practice in one country may be illegal in another. All signatories will of course continue to act in full conformity with the laws that apply to them. Nor does signature of the Code create any legal obligation or liability".

However there are a few positive concrete things in the Code.

Many will like the sound of the following recommendations, and it'll be interesting to see which signatories do in fact implement them and to what extent (bearing in mind that "not all" will, and not all the recommendations will be legal throughout the EU!):

Finance programmes targeting female graduates giving them the opportunity to pursue a PhD in ICT-related science and technology fields;
Set up mentoring schemes with female engineers at all levels... Introduce female mentoring programmes, coaching aiming to familiarise and encourage women to acquire leadership skills and develop plans and mid-term to long-term career aspirations (one for Nicole, certainly!);
Create and use female expert databases where CVs of women with the skills and competencies are collected and can be tapped when recruiting where consistent with the applicant law;
Finance care expenses (e.g. childcare) when training outside usual working hours;
Organise/provide child-care facilities for preschool, after school and holidays, creating where necessary in-house child-care service, where parents may also be "shareholders";
Ensure flexible work arrangements for mothers and fathers and flexibility at the work place (office, mobile, at home);
Promote women entrepreneurship for example in public tenders where consistent with the applicable law

But I'm a bit puzzled by "Use performance management to evaluate and promote women". What means do they use to evaluate and promote men, then: the old boys' club? Sorry sorry sorry, the satirical cynic in me hasn't been let out to play for far too long...

And they also left out, having more women speak at tech conferences.

Finally, one of my bugbears, being a potential career changer myself, is that the focus always seems to be just on encouraging and providing role models for girls or young female students, or on childcare / returning to work after having children, rather than on helping women (or indeed men) of shall we say more mature years who want to switch to an IT career.

If they really are so concerned that, as they put it:

"An important skills gap is predicted in the sector and the shortage will affect all parts of the globe;
A shortage of qualified staff in the ICT sector will seriously weaken the whole economy;
Qualified ICT staff, whether working in the ICT sector or other sectors, often drift away from their areas of special expertise towards other activities.;"

- such that the EU and the Code signatories are keen to encourage more women "to enter and stay" in the technology sector, then why isn't more being done to support career switchers?

More (probably much, much more!) from me on all that anon. Though not before May or June.

Ada Lovelace Competition - Win a Valentine’s Day themed Xbox 360 controller

2009-02-22T03:23:00.002Z

Sarah was lucky enough to be given two Xbox 360 controllers, and to celebrate Ada Lovelace Day she has one to give away! After much deliberation, we decided this idea would be fun. For a chance to win, you need to invent a new add-on to bolt onto the controller (such as the Microsoft Chatpad). You also need to provide a brief description on how it works within a game of your choice; it can be a fictional game you dream up or one that is already released to enhance gaming experience. If you really feel inspired, you can also provide a rough sketch in Photoshop etc. of what it will look like.

Of course, keep all entries within moral boundaries.

Sample ideas:
A fishing rod add-on for Dangerous Sports Series – Bass Fishing Extreme. This is probably done by now.

A cattle prod add-on for use if someone fails at Guitar Hero too many times. Although could be debatable on whether this is morally permissible or not.

All entries can be submitted by replying to this post. The closing deadline for this is Tuesday 24th March, which is Ada Lovelace Day.

A Whooper of a Social Networking Saga

2009-02-05T12:06:00.002Z

We like to bring a range of stories and commentaries to the GG blog. What follows is as much for your stomach as your social network. And could do damage to both...

In the light of Facebook’s fifth birthday (yesterday) have you heard that the ‘King’ of the burger giants has created an application for Facebook that allows users to delete 10 friends in exchange for a free Whopper. Is this a marketing promotion gone mad, a social signal that our friends are just our ‘friends’ (and therefore disposable in exchange of soggy bun and a pound of flesh), or a promotion of an unhealthy meal deal both for stomach and friendships alike?

Via the beef-cow King’s website there is also the social opportunity (suicide) to nominate friendships to ‘sacrifice’. On reflection, this has a disquieting effect. Increasingly mediated through a range of technologies friendships can be experienced as ‘quite different’ from those previous days when friends were made, sustained and broken across the playground.

Perhaps his majesty is making a valid point, where SNSs by their very nature have replaced the sanctity of friendship with a blatant disregard of their value and personal place in personal lives.

From its humble origins as a site to connect Harvard students as ‘The Facebook’, today 150 million registered users/friends occupy its social networking space and live out friendships in the full broadcast view of others.

On the flip side there are those (such as I can count on one hand) who doggedly dismiss, ignore and reject Facebook requests. Such persistence has to be admired. It would be hard to diversify as a Girl Geek without an accompanied (over) attachment to technology.

In the past there has been suspicion about purely ‘online’ connections – particularly if we recall the 1990s days of cyberspace full of chatrooms and online ‘dates’. At best such introductions represented exchanges that were ill advised and imprudent, at worst irrational and dangerous.

Where the Whopper wades back is acknowledgement of the level of participation. Friends cannot be ‘made’ unless both parties take action and accept the mutual invitation. However, it seems you can break friends all on your own and for the sake of a burger.

I'm tempted to conclude with 'have it your way', but then I'd think you would agree the marketing monkey's have got me after all.

Image: Flickr unsureshot.

A new Final Fantasy awaits

2009-02-02T21:57:00.002Z

I cannot contain my excitement over the next installment of Final Fantasy, now on number XIII. A new trailer has been released by Square Enix, posted on YouTube, which shows some actual battle scenes. The good thing is that not only will it be released on the PS3, but also on the Xbox 360 as well.

I have already preordered my copy on the 360, funnily enough on shopto.net they have the release date for the Xbox 360 version as 27/03/2009, whilst the PS3 owners gets theirs on 01/01/2010. That's a whole year away for the black console.

Either way when this puppy gets released don't be surprised if I disappear off the planet for a month. The same goes for Starcraft 2 when that gets a solid date. I need to empty my drool bucket...

Why the Nokia N85 is like Naomi Campbell

2009-01-31T09:36:00.007Z

Last week, Nokia sent me an N85 for testing. I conveniently outsourced the actual tech reviewing to Sigrid (internet), Clopin (gaming) and Applefan (music) and kept the best part for myself: the girl geek test.

Unboxing: because even a smartphone never gets a second chance to make a first impression. As Belgian blogger Michel Vuijlsteke demonstrates in his N85 unpacking video, the unboxing experience is clearly inspired by Apple products. Beautiful box, quick and easy set-up. No wrap rage or RTFM frustration at all.

Looks. The N85 is definitely not pink or bling (thank god). It's black and shiny, even a bit iPhone-like. Compact and sleek, not bulky or heavy at all. An excellent conversation starter, too: casually put in on the coffee table and it's bound to attract lots of attention.

Fingerprints. Oh my. The N85 attract fingerprints as if it was made in CSI probie heaven. After holding an N85 for half an hour you'll find yourself breathing against the surface, then wiping off the fingerprints.

Handbag and pocket test: success. Dimensions: 103x50x16mm and weight: 128 g. The good thing about sliders is that they allow you to cover your keyboard even when you put it in the pockets of your skinniest jeans.

User interface. After a quick start, the N85 gradually confused me. The software interface has so many ins and outs that I got lost and felt stupid for it. And what are all these little buttons (eight of them!) for?

Conclusion: the N85 is a top model as far as looks are concerned. It's just plain gorgeous. And if you look at what this baby can do (5 megapixel camera. WLan, GPRS and EDGE connectivity. High-Speed USB 2.0 support! IMAP, POP3 and SMTP for mails. And an FM transmitter!) it's definitely worth its money. But like top model Naomi Campbell, the N85 will also get the reputation to be difficult to work with.

HTC Touch HD - Nice things come in small packages

2009-01-13T01:10:00.002Z

So I got myself a new gadget, it cannot be helped it is that time of the year where I see new things being released and I want everything. Of course wanting to make an informed decision as to where my money goes, you have to shop around. My mobile phone contract was up for renewal and peering through the shop windows, there is a plethora of shiny new phones up for grabs. After much deliberation, I decided on this little beauty... the HTC Touch HD. This is a condensed version of the initial review I posted on my blog, no doubt I will write a definitive review as I put it through its paces over the next couple of weeks.

I will get right down to it, the screen is bigger and better than the iPhone. The clarity is quite astonishing, considering it is still only TFT and not OLED. However don’t let the HD moniker fool you, the screen is not 1080p resolution as seen on TVs. It would be one hell of a feat to accomplish, but the HD part just means it has a better screen than other devices. The OS is Windows Mobile 6.1, disappointingly, it is not 6.5 and even more disappointingly, it is not running Google’s Android (although I have heard about stability issues with this). Now before you gasp about random crashes and inherent flaws in the operating system which has plagued this platform, it works pretty well in this case. I can understand why this perception is often thought of when WinMo is mentioned, but maybe HTC has the knowhow to integrate things a little better than other manufacturers.

The Touch Flo 3D interface sits comfortably on top, with no lag whatsoever. It has the obligatory finger gestures and it works quite nicely. Comparing to other devices such as the Samsung Omnia, trying to switch between different applications gets the odd stutter and you feel the unit is sluggish and underpowered. Luckily, I have not experienced this with the Touch HD and the phone feels solid and comfortable to hold.

Camera and video snapping can be a little sluggish at times, and there is not an instant button to take a picture with. Even going through the applications list would take you a few seconds to find and by then the photo moment is gone. However I don’t use the camera that often so this is not much of an issue to me. There is no lens cover for the camera either, which is a minor gripe. Battery life so far is 3 days and still going, I am about halfway down on the battery meter. Pretty good.

For iPhone zealots I doubt they will move away from Apple and get this. Simply because there is such a fan base and it has established itself as the de facto for touch screen phones within the consumer world. But having said that, I love the Touch HD as it does exactly what I want, more so than the iPhone and this would be an excellent business alternative. In terms of competing against Apple’s slick slab of sexiness, it comes pretty damn close. With the countless Windows Mobile applications available, it also has the advantage of working in an enterprise environment much easier than with an iPhone. It just feels so so nice, it’s like how I felt when I first sat in a BMW M3. It brings a smile to one’s face and you are instantly in a comfort zone (having sat in that seat I am now extremely poor). For me personally, I have no regrets picking this over the iPhone or any other touch screen device and gripes aside, I can only sing its praises.

You can read my full first impressions and check out the pictures at my blog I started last week on Pork and Beans.

Ada Lovelace Day

2009-01-06T16:46:00.017Z

If you're a blogger and happy to write/video/podcast about one of your female technology heroes on 24th March 2009, please do join us in supporting the following fantastic initiative from Suw Charman-Anderson and sign-up to the Ada Lovelace Day Pledge:

I will publish a blog post on Tuesday 24th March about a woman in technology whom I admire but only if 1,000 other people will do the same. — Suw Charman-Anderson

While the chosen date for celebrating female technology role-models has no particular significance, Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), does, of course, as Ada was one of the world's first computing pioneers.

Ada, the daughter of Lord Byron and Anne Milbanke, lived with Byron for only the first month of her life after which time she was raised in her mother's household. Though unsuited temperamentally, Byron and Anne had courted and married after being attracted by one another's intellect. Anne's parents had, most unusually for the time, supported her education and interest in mathematics by arranging for her to be tutored by a former Cambridge professor. Ada, similarly, was very well educated, she was also a member of the Bluestockings.

One of Ada's mentors and fellow Bluestocking, the mathematician Mary Somerville, was, with Caroline Herschel, jointly first female honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society (though women weren't permitted fellowship until 1916), and is the woman after whom Somerville College is named. Somerville College, founded in 1879, was one of the first Oxford colleges to admit women (though women weren't permitted Oxford university membership until 1920).

Through such friends, teachers and connections, Ada developed an interest in and communication with leading thinkers of the day including Charles Babbage. While the degree of Ada's involvement in developing programmes for Babbage's Difference Engine is uncertain, paths for independent recognition were largely barred to women for another century in any case, so it's remarkable she was able to apply her mathematical ability and gain publication of notes summarising and commenting on the Difference Engine in Richard Taylor's Scientific Memoirs Volume 3 in 1843.

Ada Lovelace was an independent pioneer in the field of computing, and an illustrative example of what gifted women might have achieved in preceding centuries given a supportive upbringing, supportive marital relationship, and a similar education to men. It will be wonderful to learn more about others' female technology role-models on 24th March!

Further Details of the Pledge from Suw ::

Deadline to sign up by: 24^th March 2009

More details
Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. Women's contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines. Whatever she does, whether she is a sysadmin or a tech entrepreneur, a programmer or a designer, developing software or hardware, a tech journalist or a tech consultant, we want to celebrate her achievements.

It doesn't matter how new or old your blog is, what gender you are, what language you blog in, or what you normally blog about - everyone is invited to take part. All you need to do is sign up to this pledge and then publish your blog post any time on Tuesday 24th March 2009. If you're going to be away that day, feel free to write your post in advance and set your blogging system to publish it that day.

We will gather as many of the posts together on the day as we can, and we'll let you know exactly how we're going to do that nearer the time. For ongoing updates about Ada Lovelace day, please follow us on Twitter, join our mailing list or see our blog.

http://findingada.com/
http://twitter.com/FindingAda
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/findingada

(Ada's residence at 12 St James's Square, St James's, London)

What Super Hero would you be?

2008-12-01T19:54:00.004Z

Norton from Symantec got in touch as they are trying to find fun ways to appeal to the guy and girl geeks. They need your help, they are trying to create a ‘Norton Hero’ character for its new super speedy Norton product range. To help them towards the creation of a new ‘Norton Hero’ they would like to know what Super Hero you would be. What super powers would you have, what hair colour, who would be your enemy? Norton and I would love to know! Simply tell us what Super Hero you would be by selecting from a range of multiple choice questions via the survey links below and create your own character.

If you like you can also leave links to your own drawings via here as I love comic art! You never know maybe Norton will pick one if it matches up with the survey results! (they've not said that but I can point them in the right direction ;) )

The survey will be open until 31 December. The survey is in English, French and German. To access the survey please choose from one of these links, relevant to your country and language:

http://www.norton.com/uk/girlgeeks
http://www.norton.com/fr/girlgeeks
http://www.norton.de/girlgeeks

Whilst this is a bit of fun, Norton will be using the answers to help towards the design and creation of a new Norton Hero character that will appear throughout it product range.

Amplified 2008 :: The Future of the Book

2008-11-28T02:37:00.007Z

Amplified 2008

Amplified 2008, a 'network of networks' event bringing together entrepreneurs, creatives, digital media practitioners, and geeky types, was held from 4-8pm on Thursday, 27th November 2008 at NESTA's offices by Chancery Lane. NESTA did a great job of hosting the event, also providing much-needed refreshments throughout. Amplified 2008 attracted around 200 attendees, followed an unconference format, and covered a wide range of topics, some of which are summarised on the Amplified Wiki. Congratulations to @sleepydog @joannejacobs @DT @loudmouthman and @sizemore on bringing together such a diverse range of people and stimulating some great discussions.

A session of interest to me -- as an obsessive reader who absorbs fiction/non-fiction in any form readily available while also collecting first edition children's books and so appreciates the book as fetish object -- was the 'Future of the Book' session that had stimulated some debate on Annie Mole's Going Underground blog, and has been a topic of interest in pop culture for decades, it seems. I've posted my notes from the session, below, which I hope might be of interest. Below these notes I've also made some suggestions for the dream eReader which it would be fantastic to have your ideas about, perhaps we can send these ideas to a mobile lab so they might start producing the types of eReaders we'd like to use (and not in pink)!

The Future of the Book (rough notes)
Held By: Annie Mole, Billy Abbott, Chris Meade
Details: 4.30-5.10pm session in T2 @ NESTA

Future of the Book :: Introduction & Overview
Annie Mole

Annie sees many reading on the tube each day, wonders if people will be reading differently in 5 years. In November 2005 saw her first eReader (size of the Asus Eee) and yet she's still not seeing many people with eReaders on the tube. She believes the eReader-centric reading future may not be quite as near as 5 years away. We're used to seeing scary titles such as 'The Death of the Book' ("Publishers are braced for the slow death of the book", February 13, 2008, Times Online) - often there's a book vs eReader discussion where it's considered one will die and the other survive - why can't they co-exist?

Phillip Pullman currently protesting against a school librarian being surplus to requirements - this has stimulated debate. Whatever happens to books, we still need guides around libraries - in Annie's blog comments on this topic a contributor made the point that "a library without a librarian is like an internet without search engines". You can't make sense of that much information without having someone to guide you through it.

Consuming Books - does the device matter? As long as people continue to read, that's the primary concern, whatever device they use to read? Whatever you may think about the Richard&Judy bookclub, it's managed to get more people reading than many similar initiatives in this country (as has its inspiration, Oprah Winfrey's Book Club internationally).

Entertainment on the move (books versus movies versus gaming) - much discussion is around portability of our entertainment on the move, not necessarily about books. There's no reason that future media can't incorporate story-rich elements, for example, ARGs have amazingly complicated storylines, and if children are able to embrace those worlds through gaming that's equally valid.

Future of the Book? :: Books ain't dead
Billy Abbott

Tablets with writing on them have over 8000 years of history, it's quite extreme to suggest books will be replaced by technology overnight. eReaders have only been pushed to the mainstream in the UK for the past few months (Sony readers are currently priced around £200), though for about a year in the States. eReaders vary from Sony readers to full laptops (Asus Eee etc) - there are portability advantages and ease-of-transfer, for example Billy bought Stephenson's hefty Anaethem in Sony eReader format, while Sizemore has shown him graphic novels on the iPhone. Some eReaders also incorporate interesting interactive elements, for example the 'Blue Book' (as shown in a YouTube video uploaded by account simonwardley) enables readers to play with the story, when can flick through the Blue Book printed book and press on particular page sections the 'book' triggers blue-tooth connections between the book and your personal laptop nearby and enables readers to interact with their computer.

Re. publishing costs breakdown, distribution and printing total around 2/3 of the cost of producing any individual book, therefore eBooks really should be cheaper. Publishers are currently working on how to price these, however the cost of books isn't actually about printing&distribution, it's really about how much consumers are willing to pay. Some retailers are using pricing as an advantage, for example, Sony is selling Anathaem for £8 (my note: the only version available in print, hardcover, currently retails for £20). Similarly, Charlie Stross & Cory Doctorow give books away for free (Accellerando.org was given away by Charlie initially) and are leading the field in different models of author-public interaction and purchasing models.

The Future of the Book Think Tank
Chris Meade

Chris started paying more attention to eReaders/similar following his becoming depressed by the idea of books as objects. Books, in Chris's opinion, shouldn't so much be considered as objects so much as an experience through a certain type of platform. Chris recommended follow up on points made by Bob Styne who set up the Institute for the Future of the Book in the States.

As we transfer from page to web, we're moving from the Gutenberg Press format just as the press moved from hand-printed publications. Gutenberg went bankrupt when he printed the first book (it cost as much as a farm at that time). Websites are becoming physical books - we get so caught up in the screen being the big issue - however we have to think about what a 'book' really is, and it would be useful to try to understand the concern people have about the 'loss' people are feeling about these changes.

In terms of the writer-publisher relationship - there is a new model emerging - writers may get excited about this as they progress.

Audience Member: Books were initially published through serial magazine publications. Similarly, science-fiction / genre fiction writers are published through those magazines in short form and then using that as the basis for honing their work.

Audience Member 2 - Currently publishing his own work as PDF and focusing on encouraging a community around that work.

Audience Member 3 - How is Piracy affecting the industry?
Chris - Unless someone is buying a work there's no point in piracy copying it - so it doesn't change the issue for the majority of works published on the web, but it does affect larger authors. Billy bought Stephenson's work but actually read them on pirated PDF versions on his PDA.

The Amplified 2008 Future of the Book session provided a great overview with interesting insights into the various issues facing publishers and consumers of eBooks, and was supplemented by some wonderful photos from Annie Mole, documenting reading habits she's observed on the London Underground.

The Perfect eReader

Further to the great discussion stimulated by the above session and previous posts on Going Underground, I'd like to contribute a starter wishlist for characteristics of the Perfect eReader (you know, kinda like Penny's Computer Book in Inspector Gadget) - sure I've missed many useful features, all contributions welcomed:

Ruggedised (eg. a plastic enclosure option similar to those already available for those who go sailing, for bathtime reading)
Light
Flexible
Have a screen that opens like a book in the middle of a phone
Adjustable to suit backlighting preferences etc.
Instant-opening of eBooks, as we'll wait only a few seconds for files to open
Annotatable
Universal format and DRM-free (eg. PDF)
Cheaper than real books as distribution costs so low
Content accessible to kids in developing countries - focus on linking OLPC, Wikipedia, Project Gutenberg etc.
Don't want to separate them from other devices - make the reader either an add-on device for existing phones or build into phones
Possibly enable people to share annotated versions simultaneously so all can share ideas and comment on each other's point sharinginfo. Ideally a virtual mobile library connected to friends, with friends checking out annotated versions of each others books, imagine the insights shared. This could be started quite readily with a mobile-friendly site linking to out-of-copyright books from Project Gutenberg) that would be fantastic.

As I noted at the Going Underground blog, this topic really isn't an issue that affects a great proportion of the population at present, however if those in undeveloped countries continue as previously, moving straight to mobile devices (skipping PCs) and absorbing their personal information requirements in that form, with those in developed countries similarly move to smaller and smaller OLPC/Asus Eee style laptops before similarly skipping to amped-up PDAs for day-to-day information needs, then it does seem to be the direction we're moving in. Many don't mind how information is delivered, as long as it's accessible - and books beat most formats for one-to-many efficiency (save text files & MP3 for those of us who don't mind consuming our info. electronically) -- what with books being sold without chains&padlock or 'this book will self-destruct within a month of reading it' DRM bombs as most eBook/non-MP3 format publications are currently sold to the few of us who put up with their rubbish.

In any case, only 57% of UK homes currently have broadband (as of earlier this year), presumably it's mostly those with broadband who bother with eBooks/audio versions (save those who still use CD walkmans), so until we start sorting out mobile phone screens & delivering Project Gutenberg out-of-copyright text through cross-platform readers, around 40% of the UK population won't find electronic formats very useful at all - perhaps this is exactly what we need to do...

Facebook can't come to the phone right now...

2008-11-13T12:46:00.005Z

The humble telephone, at one time purely for voice-to-voice communication, now with a new competitor in town. The proposed (and rather crassly named) INQ1 from 3 functions to keep you 'Alive with your social life' and up-to-date with any number of SNSs that are streamed straight to your mobile.

Intended for launch by the UK's mobile retailer 3 - their marketing pitch for the INQ1 is as follows;

It has a slick new browser with 'auto-landscape' that changes the orientation view when you rotate the phone.
It gives you high-speed internet access. And can be used as a plug & play modem with your laptop.

I'm asking myself how is this different from the 'slickness' of Apple's iPhone and haven't Google recently launched their own mobile that holds similar possibilties with 'high-speed intenert access'.

The main thrust of difference seems to be in the marketing message where 3 have hooked onto social networking to give a higher profile to otherwise very familiar sounding technology.

Accodingly the INQ1 will allow access to Skype, Facebook, Windows Live Messenger, Last.fm, and with eBay support for all those on-the-go purchases.

The INQ1 as an example of innovation for new technology? No. But a definate 'hit' in terms of those marketing gurus. Here the mobile really is the message, and the message reads loud and clear as, 'social networking is the future of social media'.

We're in the top 25 Mobile Blogs?!

2008-11-07T19:48:00.005Z

So I got an e-mail today telling me that this blog has been ranked as one of the top 25 Geek Blogs by Traffic according to Cellphones.org. Which to be honest I find rather strange and quite remarkable! I know we do write a fair bit on here about mobiles and gadgets as well as media and technology. (I've been told off once already for calling it social media ;) So I'll refrain from calling it that! )

Top 25 Blogs by Geek Rank

Rank	Site	Google Page Rank	Alexa Rank	Technorati Rank	Geek Rank™
1	Geekologie	6	10	10	26
2	Chris Pirillo	6	8	9	23
3	Laughing Squid	7	3	10	20
4	Geek Dad	7	1	10	18
5	Red Ferret	4	6	6	16
6	Roger Meike’s Blog	5	10	1	16
7	Tech Blog	6	10	0	16
8	How to Geek	4	9	1	14
9	Geeks Are Sexy	5	2	6	13
10	The Geek	4	9	0	13
11	The Raw Feed	6	2	4	12
12	Geek News	5	1	6	12
13	Geeks of Doom	4	3	4	11
14	Geek Style	3	8	0	11
15	Forever Geek	3	5	2	10
16	Geeks Make Me Hot	6	1	2	9
17	Girly GeekDom	6	1	1	8
18	Geek Parenting	6	1	1	8
19	Librarians Matter	5	1	1	7
20	Protocolostomy	5	1	1	7
21	Geek Estate Blog	4	1	1	6
22	Two Mad Geeks	4	1	1	6
23	Thwack	4	1	1	6
24	Geek Practitioners	4	1	1	6
25	Girl Developer	3	1	1	5

Anyway if you fancy taking a look at the stats and who else is in the top 25 Geek Blogs and for that matter who isn't!!!! (To me there appear to be a LOT missing from the list... but who am I to comment on such things ;) ) Here's the link!

Have fun and enjoy giving feedback. Whilst you're at it feel free to let us know what you would like to hear more about and/or less about on here! :)

Girl Geeks Leeds 2.0

2008-11-07T11:02:00.011Z

Well it really has been too long. Such was the popularity of our first Girl Geek Dinner in the North East (the version 1.0), we really hope you can make it to the next Girl Geek event, Leeds 2.0. Timed perfectly on the 3rd December to coincide with the first jingle bells.

This time round we have a new venue at The Loft on Lower Briggate and with full disabled access. I think that you'll agree, that opting for a stylish and smart setting best befits the Girl Geek image and allows for a creative space for our purposes.

The Girl Geeks will be in the Loft reception which has a large seating and bar area. Perfect for networking and incidental Girl Geek meetings.

I'm also delighted to share that our main speaker for the evening will be Monica Tailor the Marketing Director from Kilo 75 one of the leading web design agencies in the north-east. Monica's primary role is to define and deliver growth strategies for internet based businesses. She has worked in new media since 1999 and over the past nine years has worked on internet projects with the likes of Apple, Cisco, Unilever and Vernons. After joining kilo75 in 2002 Monica continues to take what she describes as a 'hands-on approach' to project management, whilst maintaining flawlessly her image as a leading Leeds entrepreneur. A more than worthy candidate for a fabulous Girl Geek Speaker.

For just £15, you can enjoy some drinks, delightful xmas-y nibbles and opportunity to rub shouldars with the city's brightest creatives, technologists, programmers, entrepreneurs, marketeers, PR professionals and creative & digital girls. And yeah yeah, we'll have a smattering of Guy Geeks too ;-)

Our main sponsor is Digital 2020 who will make sure that Girl Geek's in attendance are provided with a welcome drink. We sold-out FAST last time so do take this opportunity to reserve your place and enjoy what will be an highly sociable and worthwhile event.

Registration is open now via our main Leeds Girl Geek site

The evening will be relaxed, informal, friendly and with just the right amount of xmas chill. We really hope you feel as welcome and excited as at our first meeting and share this occasion with some new Girl Geeks too!

GirlGeeks, step away from the computer!

2008-10-18T03:56:00.005+01:00

Ok I’ve been ‘away’ from my GirlGeekdom dedication for a while (in case you don’t know, I've two weeks left until I submit for my doctorate – phew!)

So in the run up to submission date, I’ve been negotiating the (yet to be mastered), all too subtle art of digital notification. This involves learning to step away from my communication links. And yes this means being logged out of Facebook (well for an hour at a time, a gal wouldn't want to miss anything after all!)

So in this way you are ‘away’, or rather ‘unresponsive’ to messages, but everyone really knows that you’re there and can get hold of you anyway. My pet hate for this are automatic email notifications, ‘I’m away at present (yawn) and will get back to you shortly’. Essential in todays, always on, always connected culture, but reminiscent of a Spam invitation when such messages hit my inbox. Yuk. I am aware I am being totally hypercritical here as my own Gmail has had its own ‘count down’ to PhD progress auto reply for the past month, which reads something like ‘working hard on the thesis, so your message will not be read immediately, please bear with me!’

I was in Italy last weekend for the first ever academic BarCamp. BarCamp for academics and geeks alike. Or rather academic geeks in my case. There’s some suitably wired up video, blog, forum etc. pages (and yes I’m featured, but not in Italian I might add!) What was striking about this event (unsurprisingly) and the Italian GirlGeek Dinner the night before was the lengths that people would go to in order to notify others of their absence. This pointed to both the quality of the events, people didn’t want to miss out, or withdraw their immediate attention from what was going on around them, and so had phones set to ‘silent’, never off, and laptops for ‘purposeful’ communication. When I was presenting, I think this was a nice way of saying ‘I’m updating Twitter’.

And so the attention in this posting is not only to credit the hard work of the Italian GirlGeek’s and BarCamp pioneers, but to suggest that our culture has changed from the expected time lag in communication, to a near instaneous feeding on feeds, which are constant. Or perhaps a better way to think about this is how they are persistent (incessant?)

Does this mean they are invasive? Or just part of a new set of social expectations? Also as ‘GirlGeeks’, we can be defined as suitably ‘wired up’ and savvy with technology, what about those who are not as confident. Does this level of sociality erk of ‘exposure’ or represent an inevitable and more integrated way of life.

Thoughts on a (digital) postcard/Twitter feed/comment page/posting/thread/media share/poke please.

I want teach someone’s first programming class

2008-10-09T00:39:00.008+01:00

“I want to teach someone’s first programming class” my geek friends have heard me make this comment far too many times. So I reckon I better explain myself …Being out of uni for less than 5 years means I can still vividly remember my struggle to understand and find the relevance to real life in what my lecturers were continuously and tirelessly trying help me understand.

Ok so this is not a rant on my lecturers I believe they did the best they could. This piece is more of a rant on the programming curricula or course plans.
I believe the issue of high drop out rates in programming courses is due to a fundamental flaw of how programming is taught: The aim of most programming courses are to teach students to write programs [in a, b and x languages] but maybe the aim of any programming course should be to teach a student to solve problems using programming principles.

So here in lies our problem, teaching students how to only write programs means that programming principles and constructs like recursion , data structures , hashing are taught as informative exercises rather than as an exercise to teach why these principles are important and in what ways they are needed to solve real life problems.

I remember struggling to understand why I was writing a programming assignment to loop through and output the values 1-10 or programming to traverse a tree structure or to add and delete nodes from a linked listI am not saying these exercise didn’t help in the long run I am just saying it might have helped give the couple the hundreds who drop out or failed their programming classes a better chance. Maybe? Or is it more a case of survival of the fittest?

I am no educationist but this is my 2 cents if first year programming classes were more about teaching students problem solving through programming whilst leaning heavily on giving students the knowledge and skills to write good solid algorithms, I might have enjoyed my first year and second years of programming in the university before the light bulb came on in my third year.

Like anyone who has being the same boat, once the light bulbs came on [I took enough internships to give me real life programming experience] I came to understand the underlying principles, why they were necessary and where they could be best applied. By learning this switching between programming languages became much easier.

So back to my original statement why do I want to teach someone’s first programming class? Having survived C++ in my first semester and Java in my second, I have being through and understand the struggle of being a first time programmer. I now understand the reasons why that was such a struggle and understand what is important for a programming course i.e. problem and solving and making programming fun as opposed to a chore …So next semester then…

Go on what was your first programming class like? Did you enjoy it? If not what could have being done to make it a better experience?

Google Calling

2008-09-19T11:12:00.005+01:00

Well i'm still in the Girl Geek category of 'envy' as other Geek friends have both the iPhone mark one, and as soon as it was available the iPhone mark two. BUT perhaps such geeks were too hasty? Google may have come to our rescue at it prepares to unveil its first mobile phone.

Clever marketing for the Christmas shopping season? Oh yes. Decent enough competition for the iPhone? Well this remains to be seen. The name is a little over-sickly, know as, 'Dream' (*yawn*) the handset will be made exclusively available on the T-Mobile network in the UK. Fabulous, as i have issues with the O2 iPhone purveyors.

Here's hoping Google's Dream-set will be in stores as early as November. Just in time to say 'Hello, Father Christmas is that you calling?'

As expected, the handset will run Google's new phone O/S, Android, and have a slide-out Qwerty keyboard gps etc. Also it will run Google's range of web applications including, Gmail, Google Docs and Google Maps.

It is likely that Google's new web browser, Chrome will also be on board for seamless Web searching and updating.

So will Google take over iPhone as the Geek's handset of choice? There's certainly potential where applications and features are targeted to such audience. Will Dream be able to point, click and send a photo. Something that seems lost to the iPhone. More to the point what will it look and feel like? And will we all have to walk round talking with Google branded to our ear?

Watch this blog...

And apologies for referring to Christmas twice, in September.