Welcome to The IT Girl’s Guides

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 

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

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.  

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.