Making stuff
Personal
“Uterine Invader! I mean, happy breeding to you!”
With thanks to JJ for the quote!
Folks, somehow this ended up in my uterus:
I KNOW, RIGHT? I’m as confused as you are, but I suspect that project partner, housemate, and special friend Far McKon may have had some involvement. I raise my eyebrow at you, sir.
Here’s a FAQ about my spawn.
Basic stats?
Due mid-August. Sex unknown. Name TBD. Proto-baby was not planned, per se, but also not a surprise. Anticipated delivery at The Birth Center. Using a doula who has a special interest in this birth, as she also acts as my sister when she’s not applying counterpressure or advising on the latest research on perineal massage.
I’m your friend. Why did you tell the Internet before you told me?
Erm, it’s complicated? I’m really sorry if my failure to disclose is annoying or hurtful. Parts of the Internet already know and it’s public knowledge … Read the rest
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How to Survive Your Capstone in 10 Easy (HA!) Steps
Here’s a quick thesis/capstone survival guide I put together for a talk at Penn last fall. It’s close to graduation time so hopefully it will come in handy to someone!
1. Capstones scare everybody. Face it together.
You might think you are the worst procrastinator in the world, that no one has ever been as scared of a stupid paper, and that everybody else is doing way better.
Nope!
Everybody suffers when they’re working on the magnum opus of their education thus far, the document that could propel them to greatness or banish them to mediocrity FOREVER. It helps to have a cadre of friends or colleagues for venting, study dates, and plain old empathy. You often get tips and insights when you talk through whatever you’re stuck on, that you wouldn’t get plugging away on your own. So even if it seems like some of your classmates have … Read the rest
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Be Your Own Puppet: Miwa Matreyek’s stunning video shadow puppetry
In mid-March I went to Baltimore’s Quest Fest to see a performance by Miwa Matreyek, an animator who I hadn’t heard of even a couple of months ago. I stumbled across her work on some internet afternoon stroll and was captivated by the clips that I saw. Lucky for me, other people from the Pricess Grace Foundation to TED had heard of her.
Her work is heavily inspired by shadow puppetry, and in fact when I first looked at her work my mind immediately went to this exquisite video for the Little Dragon song “Twice” by Johannes Nyholm.
But in her work, she is the puppet. She performed two pieces at Quest Fest, “Dreaming of Lucid Living”, and “Myth and Infrastructure”. In each, she projects an original animation on a screen, but uses a second projector in back of the screen to throw the shadow of her figure into … Read the rest
Read MoreGender and tech
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Hacking the Gender Gap at the Women In Tech Summit
Tomorrow, The Hacktory is excited to present a workshop at the Women In Tech Summit called Hacking the Gender Gap: A Hands-On Workshop for Boosting Gender Diversity in Tech. Georgia, Sarah, and Steph will facilitate activities to pull from people’s positive and negative experiences in tech as well as some of the research on the gender gap in STEM. We’ll work through strategies for combating sexist behavior and building a more diverse tech community. We hope to use this workshop as a first step in gathering data and stories that women, girls, and their allies can use in their organizations.
Check back here for a resource list and some of the outcomes from the session. And if you haven’t signed up for the summit they may still be taking some last minute registrations!
Happy Tech Week, everyone!… Read the rest
Read MoreE-Waste
Saving E-Textiles from an E-waste Fate
Dec 14: Also posted at The Hacktory.
E-waste sucks. In the US we trash about 400 million electronic devices every year. A study published this summer says that soft circuits and e-textiles are on track to become an even more intractable waste problem, unless early adopters turn it into a green technology.
An article in the Journal of Industrial Ecology from August discusses how the very thing that makes e-textiles interesting–the unobtrusive integration of electronics and fabric–could make them an e-waste nightmare.
What makes traditional e-waste so difficult is that it contains valuable stuff like precious metals and rare earths, but in small quantities that are hard to recycle and laced with toxins.
Enter e-textiles. Who isn’t charmed by the idea of a biking sweatshirt with built-in turn signals or accessories that could let your doctor know if your heart rate goes wacky? Not only that, but soft circuits … Read the rest
Read MoreGender and tech
11 To-Do’s for Women In Tech
Cross-posted at The Hacktory.
I’m at the venerable LISA (Large Installation System Administration) Conference in Boston this week. I just left a panel on Women in Tech. This rap session/problem-solving brainstorm was a great way to wrap up an exhilarating and encouraging year for women in IT. I was reminded of two of my favorite works on why the gender gap persists, not to mention lots of other diversity gaps: a 2006 study by the Free/Libre/Open Source Software Policy Support project and Skud’s amazing 13 minute breakdown of everything you need to know from OSCon 2009.
The discussion ranged from … Read the rest
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E-waste talk at Penn today
Today I’ll be presenting about e-waste on the Penn campus for my former department. Penn folks are invited, but I don’t think it’s open to the public just because of space considerations. As usual, I’ll be talking about how e-waste came to be such a problem and why recycling is not simply the environmentally just thing to do, but also a smart hedge against volatile commodities markets. I’ll be making the argument that any country that wants to be a serious player in tech manufacturing ought to work on making new electronics out of old electronics.
I’ve done a little bit of reading to catch myself up on the changes in the rare earth market and e-waste landscape since I finished my capstone project. I found that the rare earth shortage I wrote about has lead manufacturers to find ways to use less of them in the past six months, … Read the rest
Read MoreGeekery
In Which Chaos Computer Club Makes Me Feel Warm And Fuzzy
Add another C to CCC, this one for Classy.
Loyal readers will remember that I popped over to Berlin this summer to speak at Chaos Communication Camp. It was a blast, kind of like a really clever camping rave for geeks. Laser light shows every night, roaming art projects on trucks, invigorating conversation about internet freedom, and incredibly tight organization and comfortable infrastructure to support about 3000 smart, curious, mischievous people in the woods for 5 days. I was incredibly impressed by how well the event ran, how creature comforts were taken into consideration, and how nice the organizers were.
I also noticed that every single time I looked around, I saw women. I didn’t feel gendered, and I never felt like my credentials were in question. As Bl00 has said, it felt like people assumed that if you were there, it was for a good … Read the rest
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Tech Culture
Inclusion Is More Critical Than Uptime: Warming up the Occupy Philly Tech Tent
I support the Occupy Wall Street/Occupy Together movement. The wealth gap is a whole ‘nother macro thing, but this post is focused on my (admittedly limited) efforts to help the Occupy Philly tech crew boost their inclusiveness. Last night I did a little canvassing then talked to the tech crew on-site at City Hall. Before I left, I formed and discussed the recommendations below with the people I caught up with, and they liked the ideas. The folks I talked to at the tent were very busy but took time out of fighting fires and the General Assembly to talk about the issues. They were interested and receptive and I thank them for taking the time to reflect on their work process with me.  The first suggestion came directly from the media working group, so I can’t take credit. Here’s an email I sent to the tech organizing list … Read the rest
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The Truthiness About Red Wine
Naomi Most, a contributor at Noisebridge, has post about the gap between the perceived and proven health benefits of red wine. She puts it in context by pointing out that the quickest way to get press for anything resembling science is to publish results that seem to vindicate a human vice. The resulting press-bob-bomb is seldom commensurate with the significance of the finding. My pet peeve is nature/nurture research that “explains” gender gaps, but that’s a different story, told beautifully by Terri Oda.
Anyway, here is my favorite line from Naomi’s post:
Red wine is being used to “sell†scientific research about a phytochemical (resveratrol) which just happens to appear in a minute concentration in the beverage, much the way images of scantily clad young women are used to sell beer, especially in places where such women appear in minute concentrations.
Love, love, love.
Also, Noisebridge is … Read the rest
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