- Microsoft Fixes “Big Boobs” Coding Gaffe: “The hexadecimal string 0xB16B00B5 was discovered lurking in code that helps a Microsoft program work with Linux open source software.” See also: Matthew Garrett’s original blog post about the string and ZDNet’s summary: Microsoft ‘Big Boobs’ Gaffe Points to Wider Industry Problems for Women in Tech.
- Women Attend Comic-Con But Don’t Run the Show: “This year, 40 percent of the attendees at the just completed annual Comic-Con were women. If only that percentage was reflected in the event’s programming.”
- Gamers Against Bigotry Campaign Aims to Curb Online Harassment: ”In late June, he launched a site called Gamers Against Bigotry, which asks visitors to sign a pledge against using hateful language and identity-based slurs in-game.” The project is also seeking funding to establish itself as a non-profit.
- How a Gmail Engineer Conquered Impostor Syndrome: “And when the familiar specter of the impostor reappeared, Farmer used three questions to maintain an even keel. ’What’s the problem? What’s the worst thing that could happen? And is what you’re feeling real, or just your perspective?’ she said.”
- Egyptian Student Invents New Propulsion Method: “An Egyptian physics student has successfully created a new propulsion device that could accelerate space probes and artificial satellites through quantum physics and chemical reactions instead of the current radioactive-based jets and ordinary rocket engines.”
- The Truth About Girl Gamers: Female videogame player comments on the problems of being female and a gamer. In the followup video (linked below this video), she points out that most of the comments on the first video were “You’re just an attention whore” or “You play games and are hot! Marry me!”
- Make the World Better: Pamela Gay’s pro-policy talk at skeptic con The Amazing Meeting.
- For Anyone Still Wondering, Yes, Women Can Wear Full Armor, Too: “At heart, I don’t think the Silly Armor Argument is really about biology. I think it’s got everything to do with the sorts of activities that we are culturally comfortable with women participating in.”
You can suggest links for future linkspams in comments here, or by using the “geekfeminism” tag on delicious or pinboard.in or the “#geekfeminism” tag on Twitter. Please note that we tend to stick to publishing recent links (from the last month or so).
Thanks to everyone who suggested links.
Coding Horror’s new programming jargon includes “hooker code” (goes down all the time, get it?) and a “mad girlfriend bug” (“you see something strange happening, but the software is telling you everything is fine.”)
I stumbled on your blog while searching for an elusive concept on Goodreads (feminist romance…yeah…still working on that one…). I wish I was surprised at some of the content in these links, but sadly, it seems to be the dominant subjects of discussion on G+ lately. The geek world – which ought to embrace women and purports all the time to do so – is far too rife with this juvenile nonsense.
Much sighing, but thank you for the links. I’ll share some of ‘em on G+ later, when I’m up to battling yet another round of inevitable WATM and other assorted trolls.
Surprisingly good advice on writing female characters on shirt.woot in their usually flippant about-the-shirt section.