Nothing like some totally unsupported stereotypes to really contribute to the gender dialog. I'd like to test her out on that claim that she can tell a coder's gender. - ⓞnor
ⓞnor, you just say that because you are jealous. The woman is clearly a genius and a hero: she made her company institute docstrings and changelogs! - ana
Why should I be jealous of your touchy feely comments! Hmph. - ⓞnor
I think by the stereotype she probably could. I'm sure there are reverses, but I know I wrote a LOT of comments. ;) - Cyndy
Women write better birthday cards and letters. I don't think gender has influence on the ability to write better code. - Mo Jawhari
I get a different answer: three different blocks of results, the first for Ross Miller and Ross J. Miller, the second block for Danny Tarkanian, and then a third block for hits of Miller on the web, including rossmiller.net. It looks like Ross Miller and Danny Tarkanian are closely related terms in Google's mind, I suppose because of the Nevada secretary of state election? - ana
I guess you're just not interesting enough to the Google :) - Paul Buchheit
That is the exact opposite of a vanity search, no? - Cyndy
Is there a relation between the two names? - Philipp Lenssen
Odd. I'll invite some colleagues to dig into this. EDITED TO ADD: Ah ha, I think I found out what may be triggering this situation. Do a search on the two names, and you'll see that there was a big (political) race between -- you guessed it -- Ross Miller and Danny Tarkanian. And, contrary to the screenshot above, I'm unable to replicate a search results page without [ross miller] results at the top. Hmm. - Adam Lasnik
I did cut out the two top results to make it more compact... which is why it says "See result for:" instead of "Did you mean:"... That said... I still don't want to see results for Danny Terkanian when I search for my name... Just seems kind of weird... Even if he did run against that other *me* in Nevada... - Ross Miller
Ross, I'll mention this to folks here, but Google returns Ross Miller's Nevada Sec. of State website at #1, and our algorithms currently think that people interested in Ross Miller might also be interested in Danny Tarkanian. If you're not named Ross Miller, this would be a pretty helpful set of search results. :) - Matt Cutts
I love going back into history and comparing what people said then with their present beliefs. - Adewale Oshineye
"But the fact that this is coming from Odeo makes me wonder - what is this company doing to make their core offering compelling? How do their shareholders feel about side projects like Twttr when their primary product line is, besides the excellent design, a total snoozer?" I guess the shareholders are feeling just fine... :-) - ana
I love that by April last year they'd abandoned all their other plans in favour of Twitter: http://blog.obvious.com/2007/0... On the other hand if they'd listened to Arrington they would have focussed on Odeo and dropped Twitter. I wonder if there's room in the market for a blog which looks at TechCrunch's predictions for new startups and compares them to what actually happens? It could tell us if TechCrunch is really worth paying attention to. - Adewale Oshineye
I've never put much stock in TechCrunch's or other blogs' startup predictions. Hell, we can't make reliable weather predictions yet, how can anyone expect to be able to make reliable startup predictions? If it were that easy, Arrington would be founding startups instead of ranting on a blog... - ana
Yeah, I want a blog/service/whatever that looks at pundit predictions in general and compares them to what actually happens. Like "what were people in general predicting a year ago, and how did that turn out" and "how is the track record of Arrington|Cringely|Krugman|Brecher|etc. over time". - ⓞnor
We should also add Gartner and friends to the list - Adewale Oshineye
They sure got one thing right: throwing out that awful green logo. - Earle Martin
"Old friends and longtime aides are wringing their hands over Bill Clinton’s post–White House escapades, from the dubious (and secretive) business associations to the media blowups that have bruised his wife’s campaign, to the private-jetting around with a skirt-chasing, scandal-tinged posse. Some point to Clinton’s medical traumas; others blame sheer selfishness, and the absence of anyone who can say “no.” Exploring Clintonworld, the author asks if the former president will be consumed by his own worst self." - Jim Norris
So you're saying he's pretty much like 40 million other guys, but we should make a big deal of it because he used to be the president? - j1m
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. There was a time where a website was laughed off the net if it didn't have search. It's a -basic- feature. Sigh. - Bwana McCall
Who cares if they added search to their site? You can always do a "site:techmeme.com <your query>" search on Google... - ana
I would love to see the new TechMeme search also generate RSS. - Steve Rubel
Ana: the problem is all Techmeme archive pages have 40+ headlines. So if you search for [yahoo microsoft] in Google you may get a result page that has "yahoo" in one headline, "microsoft" in the other, but not what you wanted: both in the same Techmeme headline. Also, Techmeme Search can search full article text. - Gabe Rivera
"By definition, blogging is a personal, not-for-profit endeavor. The issues you talk about here (pageviews, comments on the site vs off the site, etc) are problems only for those that are trying to do some sort of online journalism, people that are trying to make money from their writing. Those are not bloggers; at least not in the traditional sense." - ana
um, no, Romy and Michelle invented post-it notes, and it wasn't a 20% project, it was during a hackathon. - j1m
@amund yep, it does seem official policy at 3M, but I wonder if they go as far as putting it in contracts, the way Google does; at HP this is also accepted practice (10% time, IIRC), but they have no contractual obligation - ana
@ana putting something on a company web page is a strong message. - Amund Tveit
"It seems this recurring debate on 'pro blogging' is due to a simple confusion of nomenclature, due to some extent to for-profit online news sites like TechCrunch that choose to call themselves a 'blog' because it demands from them less rigor than if they used the term 'journalism', which is really what they are trying to do." - ana
I'd love to know how exactly a blogger is considered amateur. When there are bloggers that make more than professional journalists, I think they've earned the right to be called professional. Winer way off, again. - Shawn Farner via twhirl
I think there is just a confusion in nomenclature, due in no little measure to for-profit online news sites like TechCrunch, which call themselves a 'blog' simply because it demands from them less rigor than if they used the term 'journalism'. A 'blog' is a personal online journal; as soon as it becomes a for-profit venture, it becomes something else. - ana
I also think it's a terminology issue. "pro blogger" often refers to the folks who blog about blogging for profit. That is, they give tips on their blogs on how bloggers can make money on blogs. That sort of blogger is really no different than the folks who sell books on how folks can get rich. The act of selling those books is exactly how (otherwise they would have retired simply on their methods). I don't think it's the "pro" vs "amateur" thing, though. Just my two cents... - lilbyrdie
lilbyrdie, I think you are taking "pro blogger" to mean the same thing as "Problogger". I see them as two different things. A "pro blogger" is someone who blogs about *anything* to a large audience. "Problogger" is Darren Rowse, a blogger that, yes, blogs about blogging. - Shawn Farner via twhirl
If a blog is monetized it is not successful, unsuccessful, amateur or professional. Those are irrelevant 20th century concepts. A blog is a blog: http://tinyurl.com/3dzunz. Leonardo da Vinci never made money from his helicopter and he never ran a start-up. - Jonathan Leavitt
"Professional", "amateur", irrelevant 20th century concepts? Whaa? - Shawn Farner via twhirl
@j1m you just don't know what is _real_ cold weather... *giggles* - silpol
I like it there - but does the tap water always smell of sulphur? - Thomas Brox Røst
Great country, blue lagoon is worth the trip alone. .. But now they even have among the highest interest rates (15ish percent) in the western world - http://www.sedlabanki.is/?Page... - Amund Tveit
"'That is not something to be proud of,' said Oddny, with a brisk smile, 'but the fact is that Icelanders don't stay in lousy relationships. They just leave.' And the reason they can do so is that society, starting with the parents and grandparents, does not stigmatise them for making that choice." - edythe
Take that, government-hating republicans! :D - Adam Lasnik
Well the punchline was about Icelanders being *Africans* at heart. Interestingly the World Values Survey doesn't seem to get to much of Africa, but in 2003, Nigeria was at the top of the list of happiest countries, though lower in the list on the "subjective well-being" question. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/afr..., http://thehappinessshow.com/Ha..., etc. I don't suppose we'll see an ad campaign for Nigeria saying that it's "like Iceland - but WARMER!" - Karim
maybe the equation must be read backwards? e.g. highest birth rate is not the cause of being happy, but a consequence. - 9000
I love seeing interviews with actual regular people. (I doubt that Americans are any more stupid than anyone else though -- this is just how people are) - Paul Buchheit
This helps me understand WV much better. I'm sure he had interviews with people who had rational positions though -- too bad he left those out. - Adam Thorsen
COFFEEHOUSE WOMAN: I just don't believe coffee should be black. INTERVIEWER: What about your coffee? WOMAN: My coffee -- this is a latte, it's not black. INTERVIEWER: Well, Obama is half black. He's like your latte. WOMAN: My coffee is not *Muslim.* INTERVIEWER: Those are Arabica beans. You're drinking a Muslim, half-black beverage. WOMAN: I... I'm drinking... [woman vomits explosively] - Karim
I had to stop watching it after the second people. I know people are like this but it's too painful to watch. - Brandon Titus
*big sigh* hard to credibly go tell the rest of the world what's right when stuff like this exists on your own turf. - Dan Hsiao
*sigh* indeed. Years ago when I lived in New Jersey, a colleague of mine justified going to war with Iraq with the eventual statement "Because the world owes us." *sigh*. I wonder how many of the voters in West Virginia feel that way. After all, we're only seeing a few people. I'd hate to walk away from this with a misapprehension of West Virginia. - Robert Konigsberg
Some ? oh ok .will grant that ! I was veering towards most ... - viki saigal
I applaud the American people for seriously considering a black president. Try that in Austria - he wouldn't get even 10% of the votes. Then again, Austria has no long history of black people. If Hillary would drop out of the race which she won't be able to win anyway, she could work in these states _with_ Obama to overcome these prejudgments. This would do this country more favor than anything else she can do right now. - sebmos
@ana: i was being sarcastic. to be explicit—the U.S. has a tendency to go and tell everyone else what is "right", but there are plenty of problems at home that, as you mentioned, really make one wonder why we think we're so qualified to do so. - Dan Hsiao
It is ironic that the Clintons made $105M in recent years, but HRC appeals to poor white people. Would it be more accurate to say that HRC appeals to white racists? - Mike Reynolds
Unbelievable. The white people in that town sounded completely retarded. The black people there sounded smart and socially aware. The thing with me is that I wasn't race-aware before I came to the States. I didn't know the difference between black and white (and I'm white). The US, the supposed "seat of freedom", taught me what racism meant. - Raoul Pop
@Raoul: I agree. I was born in the Philippines and immigrated to the US when I was 10. One of my first experiences with discrimination was when my 4th grade teacher (white, male) told me to go back where I came from. - April Buchheit
@Raoul: judging by your name, I take it you're Romanian, which means you must have observed at least some form of discrimination (and hate) against the Roma people (aka gypsies); or am I wrong? - Tudor Bosman
Yeah, the tags were the first thing that sprung in my eye. It's not just Americans, though. It's most people of most nations who have - shall we say: a limited horizon. I'll leave it at that. - Alex von Halem
I just hope that not all americans are like this...amen - Varun Mahajan
in response to Varun ... no not all Americans are ... trust me .. it's just that the real stupid ones get the most airtime .. unforutnately - JohnBfromMemphis via twhirl
Varun, not even close to all Americans. Remember, normal is "boring"... the media looks to sensationalize. We have our fair share of idiots, but what country doesn't? - Vince DeGeorge
"Remember, normal is 'boring'... the media looks to sensationalize." I wanted to follow up on this and contacted the creator of the video, Matthew Palevsky of The Real News. He says: "On version of the video that we have posted at www.therealnews.com, I left out only five of the total conducted interviews. Two of these were interviews with black, Obama supporting men who largely repeated what Stanley and Brenda had said, but in garbled sentences and with less authority. One of the other interviews was with a woman who was so overtly racist that my senior editor felt was heavy handed and unnecessary to include. The remaining two interviews were with Clinton supporters who had very little of anything to say and couldn't provide a decent reason why they were voting for Clinton--not even the de facto nod to her wealth of experience." - Philipp Lenssen
Remember, racism is not inherent, it is a learned behavior. Obama as President would most definitely not change a racist no more than Clinton as President would change a sexist. That said, he would be a beacon of hope for black people the world over (although the same might be said for Clinton giving hope to women in the same way). This era -- the past few centuries -- is jut not a particularly good time to be black, but some of us like it anyways. :) - David Adewumi
I think the one important thing that might have been overlooked by the sensationalism of this video (and perhaps I'm being overly glass 1/2 full) is that yes, these very conservative West Virginians are allowing race to color their opinion of who should be president (unsurprising), but we shouldn't forget that these selfsame conservative West Virginians are also willing to accept the possibility of a woman president (very surprising). To me, this actually a hint of progress - Jini
I agree with @Raoul some of those people were unbelievably racist. The President does indeed have to been born in the US and not naturalised (it came up in my citiznsip exam yesterday) yet they couldn't process that Obama was as American as they were. The country was founded by the Pilgrim Fathers who fled to America to gain religious freedom and people have a problem with him being black and muslim? It beggars belief and is very un-American compared to what the Constitution actually stands for - freedom of speecha nd freedom of religion. - Sally Church via Alert Thingy
This is more then just painful to watch. Its sad and disheartening. - Greg
@Sally, as a first generation American, I'll tell you from my personal experiences, many people would consider me fully American (black, un-accented English, albeit a funny last name) but not my parents, who are naturalized citizens, and speak accented English. The country was also founded by gold-seekers in Virginia who did not mix well with the natives. There are two distinct founding ideologies in the United States, and both are alive and kicking to this day. - David Adewumi
check out the URL (fashion? not science?). also, this report is completely different than what my personal experience has been. the problem here isn't the tech industry - it's the nytimes. - ƃuɐʞ
"The ideal worker in this realm is “the hacker who goes into his cubicle and doesn’t emerge for a week, having not showered or eaten anything but pizza. Those people exist and they are seen as heroes.” " -- sounds like the author believes that people that get so absorbed by their work are clearly Evil, and it is unfair to have the poor women compete with them for the same jobs - ana
just because you haven't experienced it doesn't mean it doesn't exist... - Neha Narula
I'm not sure why not showering and eating only pizza would be considered "predatory and demeaning and discriminatory" -- it just sounds like a bad idea. (Why is it ok to bring up the most insulting stereotypes of male tech workers though?) It would have been nice to have seen a few more concrete examples. - Jim Norris
=all 4 of you. I'm baffled every time I see this article written. Perhaps because I spend so much of my life surrounded by successful women working in science and technology. Perhaps because I've found actual locker-room conversation much tamer among technologists and scientists than among others. But yeah, the real problems with this article are the offensive stereotyping of men, and the fact that it works much harder than reality would to scare women away from technology careers. - j1m
I don't think that is a typical Jaiku thread, but rather a Jaiku-nerd thread. And that is not the majority of users. For a less slanted Jaiku thread sample, take a look at the "active conversations" bar on the right of the explore page (http://jaiku.com/explore). - ana
"The thing I take away from this is that Google is being sloppy. There's a lot going on, and it's hard to keep track of it all. That your health records are being tied to your Google account just reeks of some power struggle where the Google account people want to bolster their product's internal importance (or have managed to do so that they get veto power where they shouldn't have it), and it's simply not a pragmatic choice." - ana
When people write things like this I wish they would suggest a better way to do thngs. Blaine merely handwaves "use OAuth" even though that doesn't solve the problem that the same credentials (which people seem to share with every random web2.0 startup or service) are being used for services that have radically differing levels of criticality. It's a hard problem and I find it annoying when people trivialise it cf Blaine's MapReduce in in Ruby post - Adewale Oshineye
"To solve the problem, Twyman isn't begging the Lord for any specific act of intervention. He is not asking God to make OPEC pump more oil. Nor is he praying for all the speculative investors to be purged from the New York Mercantile Exchange, where crude oil is traded. Instead, he says anyone who wants to follow his example should keep it simple. "God, deliver us from these high gas prices," Twyman said. "That's all they have to say." " - ana
"It's as "clear as day. You see two eyes on each of them, they both have this little thing over their head. It's a little weird," said resident Reid Henuset. - ana
"In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, I cast out the demon of the intellect!" Fortenberry continued. "In the name of Jesus, I cast out the demon of anal fissures!" - ana
