Saturday, June 18, 2011

Humans Shouldn't Drive

Humans shouldn't drive.  We're just no damned good at it.

See this rumpled backside of minivan? I watched this accident happen. The driver correctly and legally stopped for two pedestrians -- myself and a companion -- only to find that the large pickup truck behind her was going too fast and following too close.  We winced as the inevitable happened. Loudly.

After everything came to a stop, we directed traffic around the scene and went to see if everyone was all right.  We found the minivan's driver, a woman, holding the two girls who had been riding with her.

"I'm just so glad they're all right," she said.  "I'm just so glad."

The driver of the pickup truck?  A young woman, dressed nicely,  looking dazed. Based on her speed, I guessed she was trying to get somewhere. I wanted to say, "What, you were running late?"

Tons of steel. Distracted human minds.

People shouldn't drive. Just no damned good at it.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Dev Women: Request for Opinions, Anecdotes, Etcetera

I've started a project about women in technology, inspired by the many times I've been asked by those in a managerial or hiring capacity, "how can we get more women?"

More women, meaning engineers and developers. Women, if you're interested, here's the longer description of the Dev.Women.Voices project.

Help me answer companies who want to know how to find, hire, and retain women developers. Submit an article, write me email, or chat with me on IM about your thoughts. You can also help by forwarding or retweeting this call for submissions.

Opine! Rant! Tell me what you think!

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Hacker Humor: Programming Languages as Religion

Yes Devpals, this one has been making the rounds for years, but I hadn't seen it for a while and had forgotten. I think hacker humor tells us a bit about where our geek lies. For me it was the one about LISP that really got to me:


Lisp would be Zen Buddhism - There is no syntax, there is no centralization of dogma, there are no deities to worship. The entire universe is there at your reach - if only you are enlightened enough to grasp it. Some say that it's not a language at all; others say that it's the only language that makes sense.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

The Rejection Saga Complete

The Rejection Saga is finally finished. I have made a collection of the correspondence between myself and Dr. Emmons of the Journal of Universal Rejection for your chronologically ordered reading pleasure.

This is my first published meta fiction of which I am inordinately proud. Enjoy.