I’ve seen many articles lately (mostly written by women) which sing the praises of the tech groups and meet-ups aimed solely at girls, to help them get into the industry. While some of these, in theory, could work to get more women interested in tech, I do not believe this is the correct approach to the so called problem.

Time and again, I’ve heard people say “we need to get more women into tech teams” and “we need to get more women interested in tech”. One of these phrases I agree with. One, I disagree with completely until the other is fulfilled. I’ll discuss my viewpoint on both of these comments and welcome any feedback or opinions of your own.

“We need to get more women into tech teams”

The argument that tech teams and the industry are unfairly dominated by men is a ridiculous one. In my current workplace I am the only female on the tech team, making up about 10% of the headcount. Does this make me uncomfortable? No. Does this make me feel that women are poorly represented in tech? Absolutely not. I am not sure what percentage the “pro girl geek” squad would like to see; I certainly hope it isn’t 50%.

My reasons for thinking that the balance in the industry is perfectly fine are based on the sheer number of women who decide at an early age to work in tech. During my degree (BSc (hons) Computer Science), there were at most 10% women on the course. This means that, on average, 10% of the people to graduate will have been female. Now, take the argument that there should be more women in tech teams. If you want to hire more women in tech just to even out the gender divide, you are completely discriminating against the men out there.

Based on the graduation figures for my course, for a random tech job, if there were 10 applicants, only one would be female. Now, would you expect a company to hire the woman? To even out the gender divide? If they do hire her based on pure talent, then that’s great. However hiring should only be done based on who is best for the role, and not to fill some “minority” quota. My personal opinion is that the gender percentages in tech teams should be on a par with those of technology courses, and as such, a 10% female headcount is perfectly fine.

Hiring figures are not the only issue here. The other is that there seems to be a large “lets empower ourselves as women and be better than the men *punch the air*” mentality. I’ve had so many people say to me “come on, do X, you need to represent the girl geeks!”. These comments sadden me. Yes I am a geek – I write code and I play games. This does not mean I want to stand up and say “Look at me! I am a girl and I can do geek things too!”. Gender is irrelevant in how good you are at your chosen profession. Fellow women – don’t be so weak as to think you need a special support group to help you succeed. If you’re good at your chosen career, you will naturally do well. The men of the industry don’t rely on groups to help them get on with their jobs – they just work hard, get the job done, and see the rewards. Us women (and I know a lot of us already do) should do the same. Work hard, keep learning, and you’ll do well, without the need for meet-ups and support groups.

This isn’t to say that I am completely against all groups/media aimed at women; and I’m certainly not opposed to the occasional girly lunch! We’re naturally going to have slightly different interests to guys, but we don’t need to have discriminatory groups to assist people in their chosen career paths. Why can’t we just have groups to help everyone of EVERY gender/race/sexuality etc rather than individual sub groups? Surely it would be better for everyone as a whole if we could all just work together on this. You want to support women? Great. You want to support non-straight sexualities? Awesome. You want to support people of ethnic minorities? Brilliant. But what about the average, straight, white guy? What support does he have? In all the battles to make the workplace and industry more equal, you risk positive-discrimination. Let’s, for once, just ignore race/gender/sexuality and all work together to be the best we can be.

“We need to get more women interested in tech”

So, how do we fix this issue of so few women choosing a career in tech? I do agree that it would be nice to see more women in the industry, but we can’t hope for some magical 50% on the gender divide. From a young age, both genders are conditioned to fit social stereotypes. Young girls are expected to like pink and play with dolls. Young boys on the other hand are given toy cars and building sets. If you want to fix the issue of gender inequality in certain industries then society as a whole needs to stop imposing these classic viewpoints upon our children. Everyone out there has the potential to do and be whatever they want. If a girl wants to race monster trucks, she should. If a guy wants to be a beautician, then he should be supported to do so.

There are fundamental issues in what society expects each gender to like/say/do, which is what causes these divides later on. To get more women interested in technology from a young age, stop giving them dolls, and let them pick what they like without fear of upsetting the classic social view. Schools need to teach technology in mixed-gender classes, with lessons that appeal to as wide a range of students as possible. And of course, this doesn’t just apply to tech – anyone should be free to show an interest in whichever areas they like.

A Vague Summary

I call this a vague summary because it is not easy to summarise a problem that doesn’t really exist. There is not (or should really not be) an issue with gender equality in the tech industry at present. If one in ten employees is female then we’re doing ok. What we do have a problem with, is the hype, the ridiculous moaning and complaining (mostly by women) saying that the tech industry is impenetrable. For goodness sakes ladies, just grow a pair, and prove you can do the job without any hand-holding from support groups.

Today, 4 toons and over a month of gameplay later, I’ve decided to suspend my account. Here’s why…

Reason 1: Lack of People
WoW for me was all about the community; the group of friends. A collection of lovely people with similar interests who you could chat to while gaming. Over the past 6 months or so, we’ve seen fewer and fewer people online. Not only are people just not logging on these days, but our guild leader recently quit due to unfair (and poorly documented) changes in an achievement he’d spent months grinding for. It appears people are losing faith/interest in the game/Blizzard and as such, it is now rare that anyone is online at the same.

Perhaps when Cataclysm is unleashed, we’ll see a month or two where the numbers pick up; where people will be interested again.

Reason 2: There’s a Big World of Awesome Games Out There!
Over a month of gameplay; replaying the same game but with different characters; repeating the same old quests (”Kill 10 of X”, “Gather 20 of Y”) just with slightly varying mechanics. Recently, I’ve asked myself: Why? In a month of gameplay, I could have played so many other games and built up more of a friend base on other platforms (PSN, Steam etc). There would be less grind, less repetitiveness, more fun.

Recently I’ve played Red Dead Redemption on the PS3, and it’s the first game in ages that made me rethink *how* I game. I don’t want to spend my entire gaming time trapped in the pull of one single game. A day or so of gametime, and the game is *complete* (to a satisfactory level). I’ll still dip in there from time to time to gather more trophies (as it’s fun), but I don’t have to dedicate hours and hours to it. I can move on…to Singularity!

So that’s it. I’ve suspended my account! I may pop back onto Nordrassil briefly once Catacylsm is released, but for now, I’ll be on my PS3 or Steam (id: catburton), shooting zombies and hogtie-ing bandits.

It’s been fun year or so, WoW, but I think it’s time we break up…

The venue is still TBC, but it’ll no doubt be somewhere in central London. If you’d like to come along, you can sign up for the event in early July.

Many thanks to Tink for finding us a slot in the busy LFPUG schedule!

A few failed attempts, and one childbirth later (not mine, fear not!), we have our pilot episode ready for public viewing!

As it’s a pilot, it’s a little rough round the edges, but not bad for a first episode! In this one, we review Blur and Red Dead Redemption, and explain who we are and our rating system.

For more info on the podcast and the team, we’ve got a blog at KidnappedByNinjas.net. You can also view the video on the following sites:

• Blip.tv
• Vimeo
• Facebook

If you like the video, or just feel like being lovely and supportive, please check out our Facebook page and spread the word! We’re aiming to have another video ready at the start of July. I’ll post more details here nearer the time.

“The registry is in use by another process, timeout expired”

For anyone else who has this problem, it’s due to background processes interfering with Steam.

There are a fair few pointless processes running when you boot into Windows 7. To fix this (and hopefully resolve the Steam issue), click run msconfig and select the services tab. Check the “Hide all Microsoft Services” button, then hit “Disable All”. This should stop any non-essential services running on startup, and should enable you to run Steam.

For more info, visit the Steam support page!

After lots of searching in forums and trying numerous suggested solutions (running the .exe in Vista/XP compatibility modes etc), I’ve found the solution that works on my PC. The issue appears to be that Stereo Mixing was disabled by default.

Here’s a link to a support page with instructions on how to fix this:

http://support.take2games.com/help/take2/take2_games/q632

Hope that is of some help to someone!

*Mumbles something about why I switched to console gaming for many years*

[Edit: I had massive issues with audio in GTA IV a while back too. Incredibly stuttery/crackly sound in game, making it completely unplayable. This fix appears to have resolved that issue too.]

Deciding on whether to stick with OSX or switch to Windows was a tricky decision. I enjoy using my MacBook. It’s well designed, nice to use, and I like OSX. I actually spent many months pondering a new Mac. I didn’t want another laptop (my MacBook is fine). Neither did I want an iMac…seems a waste of a good screen when you want to upgrade. Mac Pro’s are incredibly shiney, but they incur a bankruptcy inducing amount of Steve tax.

So, buying a Mac was out of the question. Next idea? Hackintosh! I get to use OSX, but without the shockingly inflated hardware prices. Only one problem – I have to build and maintain this myself. I need to actually understand which components are and are not compatible with OSX. Now, I’m not really that kind of geek – I have no real interest in hardware etc – I’m all about the games, the coding…

So suddenly, the ideas of both a legit Mac, and a hackintosh seemed to fall through. Time to start taking a look at Windows!

I haven’t used Windows properly for a reasonably long time – 15 months ago at my previous job at [some investment bank]. And then, that was XP. I have never used Vista, nor do I ever want to. It seemed a bit strange contemplating switching back to Windows, when I’d happily used OSX for two years. Then I started to hear reviews of Windows 7. Reviews from people who would call themselves Apple fanboys (and girls). These reviews were good…very good!  Time to ignore the hideous advertising campaign (seriously – whoever thought of those adds needs exterminating), and see if Windows 7 is good enough to drag me away from OSX.

I started looking at what I want to use my computer for, and what I’d want it to do. First and foremost, I am a gamer. I play WoW far too much, and…oh wait, no, that’s all I could seem to play on my Mac. Not only were the graphics rubbish, but the games availability was very poor. I want to be able to play the latest games, not wait forever for special Mac versions.

Next on my list of things I want to do? Games dev. I work as a flash developer by day (www.moshimonsters.com), so I need CS3, Eclipse, etc…all of which work on a Mac; all of which I’m assured run much faster on Windows. Fair enough, I thought – that’s worth a shot. And then, UDK was made available. Whilst I’m primarily an AS3 dev, I have this desire to try out more hardcore games dev. UDK is Windows only, as are lots of games dev tools. This is where the penny dropped and I decided to switch to Windows 7.

So that’s it – I’m a gamer who enjoys games dev. Windows 7 suits my needs far better than OSX, and so I have made the big switch.

Currently missing: Expose, Cmd+Space to open apps… *thinks* … wow, that list is shorter than I expected!

Currently loving: ZOMG! I has a print screen button! Oh, and this cheap, budget Dell keyboard is so much nicer to use than the horrid aluminium Apple one I used before. New PC is super speedy compared to my Mac. The UI of Windows 7 is lovely – very nicely designed and easy to use. …and that list is longer than I thought it would be!

So far, so good! Here’s hoping I still like Windows 7 once the novelty has worn off…

When I heard about the ultimate MMO gaming mouse, the Razer Naga, I simply had to get hold of one. I mean, it has 17 buttons. SEVENTEEN! What with that and the addons they’ve made for WoW, I just couldn’t resist. That’s just what my belf DK needs! Plus, I (foolishly) had been using an Apple “mighty” mouse for the last year, which has stopped scrolling and you can’t right click. Definitely time to purchase a decent gaming mouse!

So, I eagerly entered my details into play.com, and preordered this most awesome of mice…a month before it was due to be released. A little keen, perhaps, but with two weeks off work starting on the release date, this seemed like a logical thing to do! Time to sit bak and await the mouse of awesome…

…and wait…

…and wait some more…

The mouse was released on 28th October, which means by now, I should have had it for 11 days. That’s a lot of Wintergrasp action, a lot of dungeons…hell, it’s a lot of levelling my poor lvl62 rogue who’s still sat in Zangarmarsh!

So where is this illusive mouse, this awesome gadget of incredible button count? Since a couple of days after the release date, my order status on play.com has been set to “Awaiting stock”. Fine, I thought, I’ll be patient. What’s a couple of days to a gamer geek with 2 weeks off work…

I phoned play.com this morning to see what the status of this farce was. The response? “It’s not in stock. If you look at your order, you’ll see that.”. Well, thanks for that, genius. I know it’s not in stock, which is why I’m complaining to you first thing in the morning on a Sunday.

I grit my teeth, take a deep breath and calmly ask when it will be in stock. I mean, I’ve waited almost 2 weeks, what’s a few more days? “Well, it could take up to 28 days for it to come into stock…”. Wait. 28 days? I preordered a mouse at the start of October and you want me to wait until December for it? I think not.

I’ve now cancelled my play.com order as they are utterly useless. I shall not be ordering anything from them again. The super awesome mouse has now been ordered via EBuyer, who seem to have it in stock, hurrah! They’ve even confirmed it will arrive tomorrow! Double hurrah!

Now all I need is for my new PC to arrive tomorrow, and I’ll never need to leave my geek room again. Well, except to answer the door to the pizza delivery guy!

Full review of the mouse, and probably a Windows 7 one (I’ve been a Mac user for the last 2 years) will appear here soon!

[Scene: The Computer Store. Mitch and Dawson are looking at the laptop computers on display.]

Mitch: This baby does it all, Dawson. 850 megahertz, P3 processor, 128 megabytes of ram, 32-gig hard drive, DVD, 56k modem. What more could you want?

Dawson: I don’t know. A Mac, maybe?

Mitch: What?

Dawson: It’s become obvious to me that in life you’re either a Mac person or a pc person, and the choice defines you. Let me put it to you this way: Beatles or Elvis?

Mitch: Beatles.

Dawson: See? Exactly. This is no different.

Mitch: Dawson, I’ve done all the research. The T21 is by far the best buy, and that’s what we’re getting.

Dawson: Yeah, well, in that case, I’d just prefer you didn’t get me a laptop.

In the end though – Mitch surprised Dawson with a shiney new Mac. Good choice, I say!

EDIT: Here’s links to the two they were debating: T21 and PowerBook G4.

(Script snippet from twiztv.com).

Within a few hours, there were some amazing tweets submitted, some of which just blow my mind. All submissions can be found here. One of my current favourites is this one of a tree, which is just brilliant!

Needless to say, I couldn’t resist the challenge, so have created Painted Rain, which is _supposed_ to look like drops of paint falling into water and blending together. Was really tough to do in 140 characters! Here’s the link to the swf, and the code:

h=r();l=600;o[i++]={a:h*l,b:r()*l,c:h*30,d:h*1e7};g.clear();for each(e in o){g.beginFill(e.d,20/e.c);g.drawCircle(e.a,e.b,e.c++)}i>150?i=0:i

You can keep up to date on the contest by searching for #tweetcoding on Twitter!