Confessions of an Internet Junkie

Hi, my name is Virginia, and I’m an Internet addict. YouTube is my breakfast. The blogosphere is my playground. Gmail is my dinner. And CrunchyRoll.com is my replacement for sleep.

I know I have a problem because I spend my work days copy editing on a computer screen only to go home and surf the Internet on my beloved Dell Inspiron 9300. (It’s a beautiful silver beast of a laptop with a 17″ screen.) I’m a devoted user of Firefox, which is a swanky Web browser.

I’ve found that the Internet is both a wonderful tool and an invaluable entertainment source. I used Evite to send out invitations for my housewarming party. I acquired three large pieces of art for my walls via eBay (and I’ll continue to hunt for more). In the spring, I love to watch the Indianapolis falcons on the FalconCam. In terms of entertainment, I’m a big fan of reading stories on the Internet. I regularly check Yahoo! Odd News, but I also diligently hunt for fiction, both original writing and fan works (known as fanfiction, or fanfic). The Internet continues to fuel my love for anime (Japanese animation), which in many cases would otherwise be very difficult to find. For the past couple of years, I’ve been trying to convince my mother that if there’s anything she doesn’t know but wants to find out, the answer is always “look it up on the Internet.” I think it’s sunk in, because I found myself asking her a question one day, and she replied with “go look it up on the Internet!”

I don’t think being an Internet addict is a bad thing. Actually, it saved my bacon once. Last year, an Internet friend I’d known for years was coming to visit me for a weekend. I went to pick her up at the airport, but lo and behold, she wasn’t there. I found out at the baggage claim that she would be arriving several hours later — 12:30 a.m. to be precise. I returned home to find five or six messages from my friend on my answering machine, letting me know she’d missed her flight because of traffic. However, she didn’t leave her cell phone number, and I couldn’t find the number anywhere. I urgently needed to respond and let her know that it was okay and that I’d be at the airport to pick her up, and she didn’t need to get a taxi to my home. I hopped onto my friend’s blog. On her blog’s user profile was an option to send her a text message. Zip! Off went the text message. A short time later, my friend called me back, and all was well. (And I quite carefully made sure to write down her phone number.) We ended up having a very fun weekend.

Maybe there’s a cure for an Internet addiction. If there is, I’ll pass.

Reality Check

All along while working on the IT Girls Guides our question has been “Are they going to get it?”  And whether they refers to a journalist, a bookstore buyer or a customer looking for a new book, the answer has always been “We sure hope so.”  A lot of blood, sweat and tears have gone into these books, most of all from the authors, but certainly from the team that’s worked on them.  Our hope has been that customers see them for what they are, a fun, irreverent and informative way to get up to speed on a new technology. 

 Recently, I attended BookExpo, a publishing industry conference that takes place over what must certainly be the longest weekend of the year.  I saw a lot of the same old same old books, and some new and exciting ones.  Fiction and celebrity non-fiction tend to take center stage here, but it was a surprising book that caused me to stop in my tracks to take a closer look.  The book title?  Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips.  Yes, you read that right.  Someone was daring to take what is often a morbid and depressing subject and, as the author said in the foreword, give it a makeover.  I thought this was exactly the attitude an IT Girl would take. Of course, when an editor came over to ask me if I had questions about the galley I was checking out, the first thing that came to my mind was how in the world they sold that to a bookstore buyer. I asked if there was any pushback, or negative feedback. Because, if there was, after reading only the backcover, I was willing to go in to any buyer’s office and make the case for this wonderful read. The editor said that yes, there was some hestitation, but that most buyers were willing to take a chance on the book. Most? C’mon. As someone who has close friends and family fighting cancer, I know that laughter is more than the best medicine, it’s what keeps you getting out of bed day after day. My hat is off to author Kris Carr, even my hat isn’t nearly as cool as the one she was wearing at BookExpo. She truly embodies what an IT Girl is supposed to be. And for the reps who went out and sold this title – kudos to you too. For putting it in perspective for me, and hopefully others. I hope this book knocks it out of the park.

–Ellen

Microsoft Tech Ed 2007 – Women in Tech

I have been attending Tech Ed for the last 5 years (well, minus two years ago when I was 8 months pregnant and the thought of waddling around a convention center in 95 degree weather in Orlando was less than appealing), and in the last 3 years, Microsoft has added a Women in Technology Luncheon to the list of events to attend. WHOOHOO!

Every year, the Women in Technology luncheon provides an opportunity for IT Girls like us to network with other professional women in the computer industry. This year’s lunch is on Wednesday, June 6, from 11:30 A.M.-2:00 P.M. and will feature a guest keynote speaker who will discuss the challenges of being a woman and a technical professional in today’s constantly changing world.

After the keynote, there will be a panel of women who will answer questions and have open discussions with the audience. I find this part of the lunch to be the most interesting aspect. Women discuss everything from techie questions about products to juggling family and work life. Ani Babaian, author of The IT Girl’s Guide to Becoming an Excel Diva, will be one of the guests on the panel. She is a Senior Identity Manager for Microsoft and will be a great addition to this year’s group. She recently told me that Microsoft is expecting 1,000 women to attend the luncheon this year. Last year there were over 600 women in attendance, and I have heard rumors that there will be a few BOFs related to women in technology as well. I am excited to see how it goes! I’ll be sure to follow up with the scoop after next week. 

Posted by Katieeditor 

DVRs – my (best) friend, TV network foe

I read a very interesting article in this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly entitled “Are You Killing TV?” I often gloss over these articles, only reading what truly interests me…like I skipped right over that Michael Moore movie article without a thought. But the title of this made me want to see how exactly I WAS KILLING TV. Turns out that I am exactly who this article is aimed at. I was surprised to read that they estimate that only 17% of homes have a DVR – I’d think it would be higher. What I do is what the major network bigwigs have termed ”time shifting.” I watch the shows, just not when the networks want me to watch it. I realize that I am costing the networks ratings and precious commercial dollars, but that is not really my concern. I was also interested to learn that the networks now account for people like me when doing there reporting. The article states that the networks are putting forth a “live plus three” ratings system that is appeasing the commercial sponsors. The theory (flawed, IMO) is that commercials are not necessarily being skipped, just watched up to three days later on the DVR.  Also, apparently Nielson factors time-shifting into its overall ratings number (started in December 2005) though they don’t say how they do this and it seems impossible to me for them to track such things.

Maybe I just view this differently. I’m not particularly a rebel, but I DO like to have things on my terms, especially in my home. I remarked to my Dad last week how amazing it is that I used to sit around to watch Woody Woodpecker until 4 pm but my son can demand Thomas the Tank Engine (especially the Henry or Gordon episodes) and I just pull them up from our playlist. Now with my little to no attention span, hatred of commercials that last 5 minutes, long spans of repeats during certain months of the year, and the overall inability to wait for anything, I have turned my TV watching into series of must-have shows that I manage to watch on a rainy Saturday or boring night.  I have a total of 3 tivos in my home, two of which are actively running right now as the third sits in our guest room awaiting the move into a nursery for my next maternity leave and late night feedings this fall. And wow! has my life gotten even better since we bought an HD tivo for our downstairs family room 14 months ago.

I have truly turned my TV watching into an art. I record a months worth of shows and then watch them continuously so as not to have to wait for anything!  And,what I have managed to do is not EVER watch a TV show live (**After reading through this, I correct myself. I watch The Sopranos live. However, there are no commercials). Even if I am watching a show in “real time” – like American Idol or Dancing with the Stars (did I just admit to being an avid viewer of these shows???), I’m really not. Let me explain this art. I am too frustrated with watching 5 minutes of show to get 5 minutes or more of commercials. So I will at 8 pm begin watching another of my recorded shows (like Law & Order: CI). When that is over in 40 minutes, I turn to AI or DWTS and somehow with the art of skipping the commercials manage to watch every ounce of tv action and end the show before the hour is up! Unbelievable…and when I’m forced to sit through an hour of filler to find out who is voted off the next night, well, I’m sure you can figure out what I do – and I still manage to see the fine performances by Gwen Stefani, Fergie, etc. that I deem worthwhile for me. Confusing? Maybe, but my time is too short to watch an hour of filler and commercials. On top of the weekly shows, I also check out each week the movies running on HBO, TNT, Pay-Per-View, etc. to record. I like this because it gives me that chance to see movies I would never pay $10 to see in the theater or rent the DVD. I actually have not rented a DVD in over 2 years because of this.

So back to the DVR article. Am I supposed to feel guilty that TV networks (boo hoo…sniff sniff…) are being short-changed by the DVR revolution? I can certainly say that I am not guilty. Here is a piece of technical wonder that has been created just for me to suit my lifestyle and my everyday needs. I want to partake in what TV has to offer, but at my convenience. Lost on at 10 pm??? I’m in bed by 9 pm! So at least I’m still able to watch a show that got me hooked when 2 years ago it premiered at 8 pm ET! Unable to find Scrubs because NBC has moved it to different nights/time slots 5 times in the last 2 years??? The networks need to adapt and realize that people with the means will still have it their way.

Posted by Jen Webb

IT Girl Unplugged

posted by katie f.

I just returned from spending 7 days and nights with my honey in Belize on the island of Ambergris Caye. The vacation was many things, one of the most significant being unplugged. Technology makes our lives better and I embrace it but never underestimate the power of a good unplugging.  We knew going into this to fully savor our vacation we needed to unplug. No work emails, no work phone calls, limited personal calls, no cars (only golf carts) and no Internet. And certainly no Roomba to clean our floors.  We placed our last cell phone calls and sent our last Blackberry messages from the Miami International Airport, boarded a plane and off we went. Our condo had no phone, no Internet connection, and our cells and Blackberry would not work (and yes we checked them, multiple times). Ambergris Caye is unplugged I think deliberately because people crave the relaxation,  and also just by nature of the location. Take the electricity for example. It’s expensive so most places except for the most expensive hotels forgo energy-sucking appliances like dishwashers. I won’t lie – it was unsettling at first. Knowing that in the case of an emergency at home it would require a phone call to the condo office and a message and not a direct cell call was freaky. Not being able to check the Internet and news sites was also strange – I never realized that not only do I keep up with friends and family primarily through blogs and email, but also just keeping up with the goings-on of the world. 48 hours into the vacation we were both a little freaked at the abrupt cutoff.  But by Tuesday all was well.  I stopped missing Salon.com, Perezhilton.com and other online news outlets and my boyfriend stopped turning his Blackberry on every day “just to make sure it won’t work”.   It was refreshing to have the constant stream of information (emails, phone calls, voice mails, and often depressing news announcements) stop for just a little while – it let my brain rest. It was also a good opportunity to pause and realize that I am so fortunate to be living in 2007 where I can go online to see photos of my best friend’s sons who otherwise due to geography I would miss growing up. The lesson to be learned here? I embrace and love technology of course, but I will never underestimate the power of a good unplugging.  

Why I’m an IT Girl

I’ve always been into technology in one form or another. My fascination may have started with the Simon I got for Christmas when I was, oh, five or six years old. I begged for an Atari 2600 when I was ten. By the time I was in middle school, I was taking computer classes… and I still remember programming dumb loops and playing Oregon Trail on Fridays.

I didn’t actually get my own computer until I was in college, when my then-boyfriend got tired of me always needing to write papers when he wanted to play Doom or Total Annihilation. So I got a hand-me-down computer, my own personal email account, and the ability to research, write, and play games whenever I wanted. Since then, I’ve used extra cash and bonus checks on technology: my laptop, my latest digital camera, my PDA (which I mostly use to play Mahjong).

Working as an editor of technology books, I found myself taking bits and pieces from the books I edited and applying them to my own projects. I created my own website using only Notepad and HTML code. I used Photoshop to touch up and resize my digital photos for my website. When I moved in with my wonderful boyfriend Eric, I networked our computers so we can both play World of Warcraft at the same time and quest together.

But it isn’t just my love of technology that makes me excited about the IT Girl’s Guides. It’s that these books are written by and for women, and I believe they’ll help more women embrace technology and make it their own.

Posted by Jean R.

Being a Geek for 30 years

I am often asked what is really important to me. It often seems like an odd question…important to me now? last year? 5 years ago? when i was 10 years old?  I have tried to really live in the here and now the last few years. So my answer usually revolves around my son, Alex, and my family. I’ll throw work in here in case my boss reads this too. But this month has managed to get me thinking about my life 30 years ago. I was 5 years old (going on 18) and my brother and I were in the middle of a long, nasty divorce between our parents. There was very little that was making us happy at the time – EXCEPT the anticipation of a space movie hitting movie theaters at the end of May. When each Saturday your Dad takes you to whatever movie you want to see, you become highly familiar with what is playing – unlike now since I have a 22 month old at home.

30 years ago right now, we were waiting for the May 25th release of Star Wars. My brother was fascinated with the heavy breathing of Darth Vader…I thought that the lightsabers were pretty cool. But nothing – not popcorn or candy – prepared us for the technical and special effects feast that our mind would experience in 1977 (btw – at the time, George Lucas really was making leaps and bounds in the special effects world)!  That summer, we made our Dad take us to see it each weekend. We must have seen it 12 times that year in the theater so that we could learn all the lines, pick up on anything that we might have missed, and just stare in awe at the screen.  My Dad must have been a good sport about this b/c we have lived and breathed Star Wars to this day. This movie definitely led to our need to have a computer, video game console, various toys that light up and make noise.  And with the release of each episode, my brother and I stood in line on opening day to be there first – with the exception of Revenge of the Sith which came out after my move to Indiana so my husband and I (I was 9 months pregnant too!) took a day off of work to see it 3 times – and then we saw it again the following week. But hey, my movie days were numbered!  I also had the pleasure of attending the Star Wars Celebration III here in Indianapolis in April 2005. It was really one of my most memorable experiences being immersed in Star Wars for a full weekend and getting to see alot of the costumes, original props, and models used in the movies. Unfortunately Celebration IV this year is in LA because it needed a bigger venue. However, in our recent newsletter from the Indianapolis Children’s Musuem (where I spend alot of time now), they will have an exhibit of Star Wars toys and collectors items on display for TWO HOURS ONLY on June 24th. Guess that Alex will not get a bath that night….

My husband and I enjoy sitting down on a Saturday (or really any night!) and watching Star Wars movies on DVD or even on regular TV! It’s even better now with our surround sound system that we invested in many years ago mainly with the thought of how Star Wars movies would sound.  We also keep handy Darth Vader’s lightsaber and helmut with voice box as well as the Ask Yoda doll who has solved many, many issues we encounter.  Alex even now loves to make the “lightsaber noise” while waving an empty wrapping paper roll around the house. He has also taken part in many battles around his train table.  We do plan to buy him his own lightsaber when he is old enough.

It amazes me that something has stayed in my life actively for 30 years and is truly shaped my interest in anything and everything digital – from the two Roombas that clean my floors 3 times a week or the 3 tivos that I have actively recording to how I store my memories and pay my bills.  And when times are calling for inner guidance, I’m really not afraid to sit in my office and say “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi; you’re my only hope.” 

 Posted by Jen Webb

Having it all

Like lots of other professional women my age (30), I grew up secure in the knowledge, passed on by my mother, that I could do or be anything I wanted. I wasn’t confined to the home and the hearth. No need to learn to cook or sew. Why would I take home economics classes when I could be studying Russian literature, Physics, or Computer Science? No daughter of Shirley’s was going to don the pearls and bake a chocolate soufflé for dessert every night, tend the baby and finish the new slipcover for the sofa while waiting for her man to come home. I’ve got better things to do. I’ve got a life to live and a career to build!

 

Except it would be kind of fun to occasionally make that chocolate soufflé for myself and my friends. It turns out that convenience foods, while tasty, are mostly bad for one’s health and the environment, so if you care about limiting fuel consumption, not contributing more than necessary to landfills, and living to enjoy your retirement, you’ve got to learn to cook something– maybe even garden. Nice curtains are really expensive, and I can’t find anything I like at the mall, so it would be really great if I could pick out my own fabric and sew my own. I still don’t want or need a man, but I’d like to be a mom someday, and it turns out that I need some medical assistance to make that happen. I want to make sound medical decisions, so that’s going to take research. Where’s a girl (who wants it all) to turn?

 

Ah, women of the Internet–  Mom taught me to value my independence, develop my critical thinking skills, and to be resourceful. You taught me to make my own shortcake biscuits, when and where to plant Little Marvel garden peas, how to turn wool into a beautiful lace scarf, and how to choose a competent Reproductive Endocrinologist. You also introduced me to technologies like 30 Boxes and OneNote– both tools that have helped me organize my colliding personal and professional lives and become a more efficient worker.

 

Women’s shared experiences have the power to open doors for other women. I know because they’ve opened doors for me. By sharing what we know, we can help each other become more successful, more self-confident, and more independent. That’s why I’m so excited to be working on the It Girl’s Guides, the first-ever technology series written for women by women. If you’re trying to break into the boy’s club, win over a Web design client, create an amortization worksheet to help you shop for your next mortgage, or build a blog to support your business, we’re working to get you the information you need. We know where you’re coming from because we want it all, too.

 

Posted by Melody

Girl on Cars

I’m pretty much car apathetic.  I’d never say “phobic” because as an IT Girl I’m not afraid of many things.  If it’s not something I’m interested in, it’s hard to put much effort forth.  However, seeing a woman be so comfortable and interested in cars like Laura is in this video, maybe there’s something to this “auto-lust” that typically only affects men.  I remember Laura from her working with Leo Laporte on his Technology Almanac – good to see her surface again.

Posted by IT Girl Ellen G.

Introducing IT Girl Ani Babaian

I first met Ani at Microsoft Tech Ed in Boston last summer. We were introduced at the Wiley Publishing exhibit booth, and later I ran into her at the Women in Technology Luncheon. She was the first person who made the initiative to ask the speaker a question when the Q&A session started. I was immediately impressed with her passion and excitement for technology and for women in technology.

When The IT Girls Guides team started brainstorming and discussing title ideas and authors for this fabulous new series, I couldn’t help but think to contact Ani B! Ani came to the US in 1989 as an Armenian refugee from Iran. She holds an MBA and an MS in Information Systems and currently works as a Senior Identity Manager for Microsoft Corporation. Before her career with Microsoft, she was a consultant on .NET Development, SQL Server, and many other technologies.

Ani is very active in the local developer community and has presented at numerous user groups in Denver and Jacksonville. She enjoys snowboarding, skydiving, mountain biking, yoga, and she is learning to scuba dive and climb. She is the author of our upcoming The IT Girl’s Guide to Becoming an Excel Diva, and is very excited to “help women and girls realize their fullest potential,” and she wants them to better “understand how easy this IT stuff can be!” The book is due out in October. For those IT Girls who need to fine tune your Excel skills, this conversational, helpful, and entertaining book is written just for you!

Posted by: katieeditor