Author Archives: Terri

About Terri

Terri is a web security researcher, open source developer, teacher, amateur photographer, naturalist, geek, gamer, musician, and woman in technology. She blogs/tweets under the name terriko, and maintains a web security blog at WebInsecurity.net.

Quick hit: WHO invented the internet?

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I’m betting there’s some of you who’ll want to discuss this awful article that starts by claiming that MEN invented the internet. But rather than quote the irritating original article in this post, I’m going to quote part of this rebuttal from Xeni Jardin:

You guys, ladies suck at technology and the New York Times is ON IT.

Radia “Mother of the Internet” Perlman and the ghosts of RADM Grace Hopper, Ada Lovelace and every woman who worked in technology for the past 150 years frown upon you, sir. Women may have been invisible, but the work we did laid the groundwork for more visible advancements now credited to more famous men.

“Men are credited with inventing the internet.” There. Fixed it for you.


I ragequit this article like, 10 times, and couldn’t get past that awful opening line.

Read the rest of the rebuttal on BoingBoing, or read the original article.

So, uh, yeah. Here’s a post so you can have a comment thread on the topic that is moderated by feminists.

Open Thread: I AM IRONMAN

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I AM FEMALE. Fe=Iron, Male=Man. Therefore, I AM IRONMAN.

Text reads: I AM FEMALE. Fe=Iron, Male=Man. Therefore, I AM IRONMAN.

In honour of the superhero movie season starting up, I give you this image that’s been making the rounds.

This is an open thread, where you can feel free to talk about superheroes, hollywood interpretations thereof, older stories, share extra links, or anything else that’s on your mind.

Quick hit: Top Girl, Rock Bottom

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I’ve played some pretty terrible video games, but this sounds like it may be a candidate for the worst game ever:

And that’s when it hits me, the one brilliant thing about this game: there is something in it for everyone. Everyone who plays it would find something in it that they hate.

Feminists would hate it. “Men’s Rights Activists” would hate it. Parents already hate it. Left-wingers would hate the consumerism and the objectification of women; right-wingers would hate the sexualization of young girls. Economists, as I’ve said above, would be baffled. Grammar enthusiasts would be appalled at its many punctuation and spelling errors. Models would hate that it makes modeling look easier and less cutthroat than it is. Fashion designers and artists would hate it for all the mismatched, misguided styling choices. My father would hate this game and Caryl Churchill would hate this game. Israelis and Palestinians would hate this game. We would all be united by our hatred of this, the most useless, uninteresting, universally offensive game known to humanity.

Read the rest of Mara Wilson’s detailed and funny review here: Top Girl: The Game for Everyone!

Ways for men to respond to harassment of women

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This isn’t exactly geek feminist, but we often get asked questions about how to be a better ally, so I thought this was worth sharing. It’s a video of a bunch of men demonstrating ways to respond to street harassment. Within geeky circles, stuff that’s not unlike street harassment does happen at conferences and other gatherings, and it’s worth being prepared.

Not only is this a good collection of lines to have in your head, but their delivery and expressions also help get the message across:

So if you see bad behaviour happening, these are some non-violent ways you can step in and tell someone to cut it out. Sometimes, a clear expression of disgust from other men will make a really big impression, and once one person says something others will chime in and make the offender really look and feel like he’s in the minority. It’s good to have a bunch of lines prepared and practiced so you aren’t left with your mouth gaping open thinking, “did he really just say that? here?” and instead you can launch right into responses like, “I can’t take you anywhere,” “That’s not ok,” “Are you serious?” or “It’s not a compliment.” This video is obviously targeted at male allies, but some of these lines may be useful to others who want to be able to step in.

Remember, the wiki has an article on allies that can always use more links and tips. If you’ve seen any great resources, please mention them in the comments or add them directly to the wiki!

GF Classifieds: Google Summer of Code 2012 edition

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Google Summer of Code applications are open for students starting today (March 26) and closing April 6th which means now is a great time for students and mentoring organizations to find each other!

Picking an open source project is a daunting task at the best of times, and may be extra scary for students in the GF community because we’ve heard the stories about various geek groups. But there are lots of great projects out there with excellent mentors, and many mentors are also part of the GF community. So this thread is to help you get in touch with each other. If you’re a mentor, post about who you’re looking for and why your project is awesome. If you’re a student, feel free to ask questions or ask if anyone knows a project that would perfectly suit you!

Google Summer of Code 2012

Google Summer of Code 2012 logo

I’m mentoring for two projects this year, so I’ll get the ball rolling by describing them here. The rest of you, please feel free to pitch your projects or ask questions in the comments below.

Systers

Systers is a international email community for technical women; many geek feminism readers and writers are already members. The core of Systers is the reasonably high-signal low-noise mailing list, which relies on some customizations of GNU Mailman (see below), and we’re looking for students to help us maintain and extend those customizations, as well as prepare new ones. We have suggested projects requiring a range of experience levels, from beginner-friendly to those for students with some years of experience already, from backend work to front-end usability. Our mentors are drawn from the Systers community, so it’s a great chance for students to work with other technical women! You can get in touch with us via the systers-dev(at)syster.org mailing list and we can be found at #systers-dev on irc.freenode.net.

GNU Mailman

GNU Mailman is free software for managing email discussion lists. It’s incredibly popular among open source projects as a way to build communities and allow developers to communicate, and I like to feel that I’m contributing to more than one project by making Mailman better! We’re looking for students to help with a variety of projects, including work on the archives and new web ui (Postorius), so if you know python or django you’ve already got a head start! And if you’d like to really own your own little feature, from start to finish, there’s some intriguing project ideas there too. Our previous GSoC students really pushed the project forwards and you can see their work in the new web UI. I’ll probably be mentoring Postorius-related projects if you’d like to work with me, and I can personally vouch for my fellow mentors being awesome people. You can get in touch with us via the mailman-developers(at)python.org mailing list or find us on #mailman on irc.freenode.net.

And you are, of course, welcome to ask me any questions you’d like about these projects in the comments below or by email at terri(at)zone12.com.

Are all female programmers also knitters?

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Like many geeks, I’m a big fan of making things or hacking them to suit my needs. A friend recently asked if all female programmers are also knitters, and while I think that’s unlikely (I only learned to knit two weeks ago, and I’ve been a programmer for getting close to two decades), it does make a lot of sense that people who are good at writing code might be drawn to other types of patterns such as the algorithms used to generate knitted and crocheted items. What do you think?

And while I’ve got the maker spirit, here’s two three geeky things I made this week:

16g necklace


This hardly counts as something I made, as all I did was make a little circle of wire to attach this very shiny USB key to a necklace, but the end result is a reasonably cheap and totally functional piece of geeky jewelry. Bonus: the USB key is waterproof, so I don’t have to worry about it getting wet if I get caught in a downpour or sprint all the way to work.

Kindle Fire Case


I’m not usually an early adopter for hardware since it’s so easy to get burned, but I snagged a Kindle Fire before Christmas and haven’t regretted it. What I *do* regret is that cases can be so darned expensive! I learned to knit less than a week before making this, so it’s clearly a project suitable for a beginner. Instructions here for those who like patterns (or just want to know what yarn that is).

Edit: I forgot another geeky thing I made last week on the plane:
Penguin Ball


As I’ve mentioned here before, I’ve crocheted a lot of Angry Birds as an excuse to play games with strangers and friends alike. The round penguin pattern I made as an extension of that for when I was playing “real life Angry Birds” around open source folk, as a reference to the Linux penguin. This is one of a bunch I made for the Pycon sprints, where I gave them out to my fellow GNU Mailman developers. If you want to make your own, it’s a very quick project: I wrote the pattern up here.

So… while all female programmers probably aren’t also knitters, I know there’s a lot of makers of various stripes within the Geek Feminism community. Please tell us about the cool things you’ve been making in the comments below!

Open Thread: Science Nation Army

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Using real footage and sounds from a working science lab, the Inside Knowledge team have reconstructed the White Stripes song Seven Nation Army from scratch. Here’s the video:

This is an open thread, for general discussion of any topic as long as you adhere to our commenting policy. Feel free to suggest links, ask questions, share videos, comment on older stories whose individual comment threads are closed, or anything else that tickles your fancy.

Dystopian/Scifi stuff with strong female characters?

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This is an Ask a Geek Feminist question for our readers:

I watch a lot of dystopian/post-apocalyptic movies, and one RECURRING theme is “once there are no laws, women are cattle” in one form or another. I find it a. ridiculous, and b. a sad commentary that it is just assumed that with no one to stop them, men will just rape and enslave women to their heart’s content.

I really want to see a (non-sketchy or “omg they rule by being sexy”) matriarchal dystopian/post-apocalyptic setup, just for a change of pace, or a “hey, even though things got crappy, there is still a shred of humanity in more than JUST the protagonist of the movie”

The friend who forwarded me this question said someone else had mentioned Octavia Butler and Ursula K LeGuin, but feel free to explain why they fit below for those who aren’t familiar with their work. Still, they can’t be the only people to have explored this type of dystopia. Does anyone have any suggestions of movies, books, games or other media that fit the bill?

Quick Hit: 100-year-old woman feels 80, thanks to Nintendo DS

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100 yr old Kit Connell playing Nintendo DS

100 yr old Kit Connell playing Nintendo DS

Kathleen “Kit” Connell, dubbed “Britain’s oldest gamer” by The Sun, claims that gaming keeps her mind sharp. Watch her speak about it here:

Read more: 100-year-old woman feels 80, thanks to Nintendo DS

I absolutely love the idea of playing DS and then taking a break for tea before playing again. What’s your gaming routine like? Mine often involves texting my sister and seeing if she wants to play together!