Need More TAs : Ruby on Rails Workshop for Women

[Liana Leahy]

The Berkman Center at Harvard University in coordination with the
Center for Research on Computation and Society is putting together a
Ruby on Rails workshop for women on October 16th and 17th. And we
need more TA's!

Due to the popularity of this workshop we are seeking more TA’s. Got
any co-workers or friends who can help out? Bring ‘em! Information
and sign up can be found here:
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/genderandtech/ruby-on-rails-workshop-for-women/teaching-assistants/

We would like to meet with all teaching assistants on Thursday evening
at 7pm to discuss curriculum and responsibilities for the day.
Most likely we will meet at the Berkman Center Annex at 50 Church
Street in Harvard Square. But we are still waiting to confirm this
space. If you have a conference room or meeting space available that
night that we can use, please let me know.

More information about the event can be found here:
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/genderandtech/ruby-on-rails-workshop-for-women/

Best,
Liana Leahy












We are also seeking an individual who would be willing to teach a
break out class. If you are interested in helping out, please contact
me via this email address right away.



If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email.



Again, thanks so much,

Liana Leahy

[ni...@hanoian.com]

I am too far from Boston now. Otherwise I would have registered to do the TA.

However, if you post some beautiful photos of the group, probably you will
attract more Ruby specialists to become TAs ;)

[Michael Breen]

Are you really that big of a jackass?

[Carlisia Campos]

It seems this women focused workshop couldn't happen soon enough.

-=-carl...@gmail.com

[Braulio Carreno]

I want to apologize to Liana for the members of my gender, I hope you
understand that most men do respect professionals regardless of their
sex.

Good luck with the workshop.

Braulio Carreno

On Oct 12, 10:35 pm, Carlisia Campos <carli...@gmail.com> wrote:
> It seems this women focused workshop couldn't happen soon enough.
>

> -=-carli...@gmail.com

>
> On Oct 12, 2009, at 8:33 PM, Michael Breen wrote:
>
>
>
> > Are you really that big of a jackass?
>
> > On Oct 12, 2009, at 8:28 PM, ni...@hanoian.com wrote:
>
> >> I am too far from Boston now. Otherwise I would have registered to
> >> do the TA.
>
> >> However, if you post some beautiful photos of the group, probably
> >> you will
> >> attract more Ruby specialists to become TAs ;)
>
> >>> The Berkman Center at Harvard University in coordination with the
> >>> Center for Research on Computation and Society is putting together a
> >>> Ruby on Rails workshop for women on October 16th and 17th.  And we
> >>> need more TA's!
>
> >>> Due to the popularity of this workshop we are seeking more TA’s.  
> >>> Got
> >>> any co-workers or friends who can help out?  Bring ‘em!  Information
> >>> and sign up can be found here:

> >>>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/genderandtech/ruby-on-rails-workshop-for...

>
> >>> We would like to meet with all teaching assistants on Thursday
> >>> evening
> >>> at 7pm to discuss curriculum and responsibilities for the day.
> >>> Most likely we will meet at the Berkman Center Annex at 50 Church
> >>> Street in Harvard Square.  But we are still waiting to confirm this
> >>> space.  If you have a conference room or meeting space available  
> >>> that
> >>> night that we can use, please let me know.
>
> >>> More information about the event can be found here:

> >>>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/genderandtech/ruby-on-rails-workshop-for...

[ni...@hanoian.com]

In my defense, I have to say that I meant it as a joke. If you don't have
any sense of humor, just please ignore it.
I apology if some female members think that it is inappropriate.

And I didn't use any dirty language and didn't have any dirty implication
about sex or whatsoever in my post.

If some people think about dirty things, because they are in their dirty
minds.

If some people thinks that they have problem with it, too bad. It is easy
for cowards to hide in insult people over the Internet. That is a coward
act of coward animals.

[Aaron D. Ball]

Ninja,

I'm male, and this isn't a pet issue of mine, but what you wrote isn't cool.

When you write "I [apologize] if some female members think it is
inappropriate", you're implying that (a) only women will object and
(b) their objection isn't something you can accept, both of which mean
you Don't Get It.

When you write what you wrote earlier in the thread, you're writing as
though female members of our profession are primarily interesting to
you as visual stimulation, not as intellectual equals.

No doubt many programmers find women and/or men attractive, but that's
not the subject matter under discussion, and changing the subject from
programming to how attractive we find women is unwelcoming to women
who want to focus on programming, especially if it happens every damn
time women are mentioned in a programming context.

Perhaps you wouldn't mind being complimented on your looks from time
to time (I know I wouldn't), but I bet it would get tiresome real fast
if it hijacked every conversation and derailed attempts at unrelated
activities.

--Aaron.

[John Norman]

I usually hide in insult people.

They are quite capacious.

[ni...@hanoian.com]

1) My original post was a response as a joke to a post for female Ruby
group => I said my apology to female members.

2) I already apologized for any misunderstanding that I caused, without
any bad intention.

What else do you need? What else should I do?

3) Do you see any mention about malicious intention about visualization
and sexuality? It was a joke, a bad joke, maybe, but not a malicious joke.

So what is the problem?

[Travis Briggs]

Do you need a laptop to TA? I have an old G3 iBook with Fedora 11
installed, but it famously refuses to boot at inopportune moments, and
I have yet to successfully connect to a wireless network.

Also, I'm shy about whether I'm a rails "rock star". I've written my
blog from scratch in rails, and I've even contributed code to rails
core.....but rock star?? -_-

-Travis

[Max Newell]

I think they really need human TAs. A laptop wouldn't make a great TA, or even an acceptable one.

[Brian Cardarella]

Travis,

If you have the time to commit I'm sure you would be welcome.
Considering that this is going to be a "from scratch" course there
will probably be a lot of questions that are not "rock star" (I hate
that term) level.

To be honest, I think the real difficulty is going to be getting
everybody's environments setup. If everybody brings MacBooks, great.
But I don't think that will happen.

- Brian

[Travis Briggs]

Agreed. Has anyone every successfully developed rails on WIndows? ;0 I
have never successfully gotten a mysql gem installed myself....but
maybe my problem was because I was using cygwin?

-Travis

[Max Newell]

I used Rails and Cygwin successfully a few years back. Painful and slow, but it did work.

[Brian Cardarella]

A few years ago when I was just starting out with Rails I developed on
Windows. Was using the RadRails IDE. Never had an issue with MySQL gem
back then, although I was no using Cygwin.

My first suggestion is to always say don't develop on Windows. People
get annoyed at this, but why develop in an environment that doesn't
even remotely resemble the environment that you'll be deploying to? I
ran into so many issues where I would get different behavior in
development and in production.

Ubuntu is a simple zero-dollar solution. If you really need windows
you can setup a dual-boot machine. There is a learning curve for a *nx
environment, but Ubuntu is friendly enough and there are more than
enough guides out there to get people started. I'd like to meet the
person that has switched from Windows to *nx for development and has
regret it.

- Brian

[ben wiseley]

+1

[ni...@hanoian.com]

Ok, come back to the Rails work.

For a scope of a workshop, I think the easiest way for Window users is
using Instant Rails. There are Apache, Ruby, Rails, mongrel and mysql with
phpMySQL configured for Instant Rails already, just download and run.

I myself is a Mac OS X and Linux user. However, I have worked with teams
that use all of the following configurations on Window successfully:

- Instant Rails. With both MySQL and PostgreSQL.

- Install Ruby, Rails, server (Apache, Mongrel, Nginx, Thin ..etc..)
separately. Databases : Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL

- Cygwin.

However, I think that Cygwin is the most difficult env to configure on
Window, unless you install gdc/g++ and different C/C++ tools to build
other things in Cygwin too.

So, for the short and fast setup, Instant Rails is still the easiest.
However, installing other things separately is not bad for development on
Window either.

But at the end of the day, the deployment is still on Linux.

> I used Rails and Cygwin successfully a few years back. Painful and slow,
> but
> it did work.
>

[John Norman]

I get a lot of students in my Ruby/Rails class at Harvard who use Windows. I have considered recommending a dual-boot setup, or running a virtual machine, but these solutions are really hard for some students, who are learning Ruby/Rails not to becoming professional Ruby/Rails developers, but for a whole host of other reasons. The classic reason they're forced to use Windows is that their work machine is Windows, and there are rules prohibiting them from installing other OS's -- it's challenging enough to even get Ruby/Rails installed in their work environments.

The basic strategy is to use the one-click installer and get a native (to Windows) Ruby set up. For gems with native code, you have to use the precompiled gems for Windows; many of the biggies are covered.

Also, the preview installer for 1.9 does work (http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=167&release_id=38052)

, though gem coverage will be limited, and it doesn't install the ri files right.

I do now require Cygwin, mostly so that students can use tail and a few other utilities, and the Gnu-style zip.

[Dan Pickett]

you could also do a virtual machine for this. RailsBridge is working on a VirtualBox implementation for the Bugmash events, but it would be pretty easy to roll up an ubuntu image for it.

--
=========================
Dan Pickett
Principal
Enlight Solutions, Inc
http://EnlightSolutions.com

http://www.twitter.com/dpickett

[ni...@hanoian.com]

"John Norman: In your students' cases, virtual machine such as VMWare is a
good answer. They can install VMWare for Window, and run a virtual machine
which can have any kind of Linux installed on it.

[Brian Cardarella]

That's a good point about work machines. Thanks for the tips. I'm
wondering what process Thoughtboters have for their training classes.

- Brian

[Michael Breen]

DevChix wiki has instructions for getting Ruby/Rails on Windows: wiki http://wiki.devchix.com/index.php?title=Server_2003

(but doesn't have instructions for MySQL gem)

[John Norman]

Ninga, You would be amazed at how locked-down student machines, especially work machines, can be: While I could recommend a VM, I can't require it. Even when they're not locked down technically, there can be political issues with installing anything. Ruby they can justify 'cos their company may be picking up the tuition.

Plus, we want to teach Ruby and Rails: We don't have much time, so teaching people Linux and/or debugging their setups is rather out-of-scope.

I suppose the upshot of this is that until you've taught with the wide variety of students I get, you realize that there are severe constraints on what you can require. I have to tread lightly.

On the other hand, they see me using OS/X and Linux exclusively, so a lot of students get the message.

[Dan Croak]

On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 2:20 PM, Brian Cardarella <bcard...@gmail.com> wrote:

> That's a good point about work machines. Thanks for the tips. I'm
> wondering what process Thoughtboters have for their training classes.

Brian,

For the last 10 courses or so, we have provided machines for
thoughtbot training and deploy to Heroku. We take the position that
each person's development environment is their own preference, and
often very personal.

We load up Mac OS X machines with everything from here...

http://robots.thoughtbot.com/post/159805668/2009-rubyists-guide-to-a-mac-os-x-development

...and keep the latest gems (nokogiri, RedCloth, heroku, rubygems,
etc.) installed.

They're on laptops hooked up to 20-something-inch monitors, external
keyboards, and mice. Each student pairs on each workshop.

--
Dan Croak
@Croaky

[Dan Croak]

On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 2:35 PM, Dan Croak <dcr...@thoughtbot.com> wrote:

> We take the position that
> each person's development environment is their own preference, and
> often very personal.

Meaning, we can't predict what people will want to develop on. We want
to focus on Rails development, not configuration. So, we can't spend
the time debugging environmental problems. For a couple of days we
control the environment to something we're familiar with and students
go home to configure their own systems with their favorite editors,
OSes, etc.

--
Dan Croak
@Croaky

[<-_-_-|Rek2|-_-_-->]

+1

ben wiseley escribió:

[cmusinsky]

"I usually hide in insult people.

They are quite capacious. "

HAHA! I love you, John Norman.

[Michael Breen]

On Oct 13, 2009, at 1:10 PM, ni...@hanoian.com wrote:

> And I didn't use any dirty language and didn't have any dirty
> implication
> about sex or whatsoever in my post.

A lack of dirty language or sex does not make your statement any less
offensive. "Jokes" without dirty language can still make others
uncomfortable.

>
> If some people thinks that they have problem with it, too bad. It is
> easy
> for cowards to hide in insult people over the Internet. That is a
> coward
> act of coward animals.

Not calling you out as a jackass for your insensitive remarks would
have been an act of cowardice.

[ni...@hanoian.com]

Michael Breen: Have you got enough?

I already said my apology, so what do you insist on?

I wonder how many cowards would really dare to say something in front of a
real man, instead of hiding behind the monitor and insult other people
over the Internet?

[Brian Del Vecchio]

A real man...you mean the kind who signs posts to a mailing list with
his real name?

Brian Del Vecchio | hybernaut.com | b...@hybernaut.com | @hybernaut

[Brandon Casci]

You seem very scientific. I think the only way you can establish a true baseline would be to go to the next meeting, say something like this in front of everyone and see if you get the same reaction. Then you'll really know.

On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 6:25 PM, <ni...@hanoian.com> wrote:

--
=========================================
I'm having a bout of spondylosis, so I can't hammer away at the keyboard too long. Please don't mistake short e-mails for rude e-mails..
=========================================

[Michael Breen]

On Oct 13, 2009, at 6:25 PM, ni...@hanoian.com wrote:

>
> Michael Breen: Have you got enough?
>
> I already said my apology, so what do you insist on?

Because "ninja" you didn't just apologize. You tried to justify your
lame joke and then tried calling me a coward.

If you had just apologized I would have left it at that.

[ni...@hanoian.com]

I think we should take this discussion off the list, because it is not
about Rails.

Anybody has problem with me, please send e-mail privately to me, or please
stop spam the list.

I am not in the Boston area now, in fact about several thousands miles
from Boston. However, any coward who dares to say something to my face,
please feel free send a name and a address to my private mail.

If there are enough cowards, I might consider to buy an airplane ticket to
Boston, just to see the cowards cowering in front of me.

[rainy...@comcast.net]

I would like to request that the group moderator take ninja off the group.  His original statement was an insult to all women on the list, and his subsequent "apologies" and posturing indicate that he just Doesn't Get It, as has been commented earlier. 

 

Making abusive statements and then calling them a joke simply doubles the abuse.  Apologies that start I'm sorry and then go on with but... are not apologies, but indicate a basic lack of respect for the dignity of others and a disgusting self-righteous attitude. 

 

Taking ninja off the list would put a stop to this flame war.

 

Louise Rains

[Daniel Higginbotham]

+1

[Randy Cole]

One way to get a dual-boot system up easily is the Wubi installer
version of ubuntu. Wubi installs ubuntu image to a file within windows,
and installs grub for dos! I tried this a year or two ago and it was
painless to set up. Eventually a kernel update broke things :( .

So, if dual booting is allowed, the choice is between the pain of
setting up your environment in linux vs. dealing with windows ruby/rails
problems, or paying more for Apple equipment.

> <http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=167&release_id=38052>), though gem

> > coverage will be limited, and it doesn't install the ri files right.
> >
> > I do now require Cygwin, mostly so that students can use tail
> and a few
> > other utilities, and the Gnu-style zip.
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 1:59 PM, Travis Briggs

> <audi...@gmail.com <mailto:audi...@gmail.com>>

> > wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> Agreed. Has anyone every successfully developed rails on
> WIndows? ;0 I
> >> have never successfully gotten a mysql gem installed myself....but
> >> maybe my problem was because I was using cygwin?
> >>
> >> -Travis
> >>
> >> On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 1:40 PM, Brian Cardarella

> >> <bcard...@gmail.com <mailto:bcard...@gmail.com>>

> >> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > Travis,
> >> >
> >> > If you have the time to commit I'm sure you would be welcome.
> >> > Considering that this is going to be a "from scratch" course
> there
> >> > will probably be a lot of questions that are not "rock star"
> (I hate
> >> > that term) level.
> >> >
> >> > To be honest, I think the real difficulty is going to be
> getting
> >> > everybody's environments setup. If everybody brings MacBooks,
> great.
> >> > But I don't think that will happen.
> >> >
> >> > - Brian
> >> >
> >> > On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 1:35 PM, Max Newell <m...@thirdbit.net
> <mailto:m...@thirdbit.net>> wrote:
> >> >> I think they really need human TAs. A laptop wouldn't make a
> great
> >> TA,
> >> or
> >> >> even an acceptable one.
> >> >>
> >> >> On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 1:32 PM, Travis Briggs

> <audi...@gmail.com <mailto:audi...@gmail.com>>

> >> wrote:
> >> >>>
> >> >>> Do you need a laptop to TA? I have an old G3 iBook with
> Fedora 11
> >> >>> installed, but it famously refuses to boot at inopportune
> moments,
> >> and
> >> >>> I have yet to successfully connect to a wireless network.
> >> >>>
> >> >>> Also, I'm shy about whether I'm a rails "rock star". I've
> written my
> >> >>> blog from scratch in rails, and I've even contributed code
> to rails
> >> >>> core.....but rock star?? -_-
> >> >>>
> >> >>> -Travis
> >> >>>
> >> >>> On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 2:00 PM, Liana Leahy
> >> >>> <lle...@cyber.law.harvard.edu

[Max Newell]

I use Wubi right now and am pretty satisfied with it as a way of repurposing a 'doze box without traditional annoying dual-boot schemes. Pretty painless; I haven't had it break.

[Ron Newman]

This needs to stop. Now.

On Oct 13, 2009, at 6:25 PM, ni...@hanoian.com wrote:

[Randy Cole]

The best part of Wubi - you can continue running Windows while the
installer is running!

Max Newell wrote:
> I use Wubi right now and am pretty satisfied with it as a way of
> repurposing a 'doze box without traditional annoying dual-boot
> schemes. Pretty painless; I haven't had it break.
>
> On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 9:00 PM, Randy Cole <rand...@gmail.com
> <mailto:rand...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>
> One way to get a dual-boot system up easily is the Wubi installer
> version of ubuntu. Wubi installs ubuntu image to a file within
> windows,
> and installs grub for dos! I tried this a year or two ago and it was
> painless to set up. Eventually a kernel update broke things :( .
>

-- snip --

[Liana Leahy]

Travis,

I do not call myself a rockstar either. But your ror experience will
no doubt be helpful to those starting out at the workshop. So please
come and TA. We could use your help.

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/genderandtech/ruby-on-rails-workshop-for-women/teaching-assistants/

Best,
Liana

On Oct 13, 1:32 pm, Travis Briggs <audiod...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Do you need a laptop to TA? I have an old G3 iBook with Fedora 11
> installed, but it famously refuses to boot at inopportune moments, and
> I have yet to successfully connect to a wireless network.
>
> Also, I'm shy about whether I'm a rails "rock star". I've written my
> blog from scratch in rails, and I've even contributed code to rails
> core.....but rock star??  -_-
>
> -Travis
>
> On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 2:00 PM, Liana Leahy
>
>
>

> <lle...@cyber.law.harvard.edu> wrote:
>
> > The Berkman Center at Harvard University in coordination with the
> > Center for Research on Computation and Society is putting together a
> > Ruby on Rails workshop for women on October 16th and 17th.  And we
> > need more TA's!
>
> > Due to the popularity of this workshop we are seeking more TA’s.  Got
> > any co-workers or friends who can help out?  Bring ‘em!  Information
> > and sign up can be found here:

> >http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/genderandtech/ruby-on-rails-workshop-for...

>
> > We would like to meet with all teaching assistants on Thursday evening
> > at 7pm to discuss curriculum and responsibilities for the day.
> > Most likely we will meet at the Berkman Center Annex at 50 Church
> > Street in Harvard Square.  But we are still waiting to confirm this
> > space.  If you have a conference room or meeting space available that
> > night that we can use, please let me know.
>
> > More information about the event can be found here:

> >http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/genderandtech/ruby-on-rails-workshop-for...

[Liana Leahy]

heh. Very true Max. Likely the TAs won't work on their own laptops
much if at all. You'll be spending your time working on everyone
else's. Please come.

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/genderandtech/ruby-on-rails-workshop-for-women/teaching-assistants/

Best,
Liana

On Oct 13, 1:35 pm, Max Newell <m...@thirdbit.net> wrote:
> I think they really need human TAs. A laptop wouldn't make a great TA, or
> even an acceptable one.
>
>
>

[Liana Leahy]

If given the choice, I agree with Brian. But sadly some places are
still Windows shops.

I've been working with ror on Windows since late 2006 and so far so
good. So it is possible.

Best,
Liana

On Oct 13, 2:10 pm, Brian Cardarella <bcardare...@gmail.com> wrote:
> A few years ago when I was just starting out with Rails I developed on
> Windows. Was using the RadRails IDE. Never had an issue with MySQL gem
> back then, although I was no using Cygwin.
>
> My first suggestion is to always say don't develop on Windows. People
> get annoyed at this, but why develop in an environment that doesn't
> even remotely resemble the environment that you'll be deploying to? I
> ran into so many issues where I would get different behavior in
> development and in production.
>
> Ubuntu is a simple zero-dollar solution. If you really need windows
> you can setup a dual-boot machine. There is a learning curve for a *nx
> environment, but Ubuntu is friendly enough and there are more than
> enough guides out there to get people started. I'd like to meet the
> person that has switched from Windows to *nx for development and has
> regret it.
>
> - Brian
>
>
>

> On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 1:59 PM, Travis Briggs <audiod...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Agreed. Has anyone every successfully developed rails on WIndows? ;0 I
> > have never successfully gotten a mysql gem installed myself....but
> > maybe my problem was because I was using cygwin?
>
> > -Travis
>

> > On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 1:40 PM, Brian Cardarella <bcardare...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >> Travis,
>
> >>   If you have the time to commit I'm sure you would be welcome.
> >> Considering that this is going to be a "from scratch" course there
> >> will probably be a lot of questions that are not "rock star" (I hate
> >> that term) level.
>
> >>   To be honest, I think the real difficulty is going to be getting
> >> everybody's environments setup. If everybody brings MacBooks, great.
> >> But I don't think that will happen.
>
> >> - Brian
>

[Liana Leahy]

:)

On Oct 13, 12:14 pm, Braulio Carreno <bcarr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I want to apologize to Liana for the members of my gender, I hope you
> understand that most men do respect professionals regardless of their
> sex.
>
> Good luck with the workshop.
>
> Braulio Carreno
>
> On Oct 12, 10:35 pm, Carlisia Campos <carli...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > It seems this women focused workshop couldn't happen soon enough.
>
> > -=-carli...@gmail.com
>
> > On Oct 12, 2009, at 8:33 PM, Michael Breen wrote:
>
> > > Are you really that big of a jackass?
>
> > > On Oct 12, 2009, at 8:28 PM, ni...@hanoian.com wrote:
>
> > >> I am too far from Boston now. Otherwise I would have registered to
> > >> do the TA.
>
> > >> However, if you post some beautiful photos of the group, probably
> > >> you will
> > >> attract more Ruby specialists to become TAs ;)

[ni...@hanoian.com]

Hi Liana,
Thank you very much for accepting my apology.

Although I am too far away from Boston, and cannot work directly as TA,
but I am available for answering questions, assuming that I have knowledge
about the things that are discussed.

And within this group, I will try to stay within the Rails, like a train :)

I will take my jokes around Europe and somewhere else, where people don't
have problem with compliment ;)

Have a great day.

>
> Apology accepted. I do appreciate that you want to be supportive.
> The point of the workshop and subsequent open source code mashes is
> for everyone to learn how to work together. Just know that it is a
> faux pas to point out how attractive/unattractive people are in a
> "work environment".
>
> At the after-event party at the local pub, I give you permission to
> tell me how pretty I am. :) Uh-oh... bad joke?
>
> Best,
> Liana
>
> On Oct 13, 1:32 pm, ni...@hanoian.com wrote:
>> 1) My original post was a response as a joke to a post for female Ruby
>> group => I said my apology to female members.
>>
>> 2) I already apologized for any misunderstanding that I caused, without
>> any bad intention.
>>
>> What else do you need? What else should I do?
>>
>> 3) Do you see any mention about malicious intention about visualization
>> and sexuality? It was a joke, a bad joke, maybe, but not a malicious
>> joke.
>>
>> So what is the problem?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> > Ninja,
>>
>> > I'm male, and this isn't a pet issue of mine, but what you wrote isn't
>> > cool.
>>
>> > When you write "I [apologize] if some female members think it is
>> > inappropriate", you're implying that (a) only women will object and
>> > (b) their objection isn't something you can accept, both of which mean
>> > you Don't Get It.
>>
>> > When you write what you wrote earlier in the thread, you're writing as
>> > though female members of our profession are primarily interesting to
>> > you as visual stimulation, not as intellectual equals.
>>
>> > No doubt many programmers find women and/or men attractive, but that's
>> > not the subject matter under discussion, and changing the subject from
>> > programming to how attractive we find women is unwelcoming to women
>> > who want to focus on programming, especially if it happens every damn
>> > time women are mentioned in a programming context.
>>
>> > Perhaps you wouldn't mind being complimented on your looks from time
>> > to time (I know I wouldn't), but I bet it would get tiresome real fast
>> > if it hijacked every conversation and derailed attempts at unrelated
>> > activities.
>>
>> > --Aaron.
>>
>> > On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 13:10,  <ni...@hanoian.com> wrote:
>>
>> >> In my defense, I have to say that I meant it as a joke. If you don't
>> >> have
>> >> any sense of humor, just please ignore it.
>> >> I apology if some female members think that it is inappropriate.

>>
>> >> And I didn't use any dirty language and didn't have any dirty
>> >> implication
>> >> about sex or whatsoever in my post.
>>

>> >> If some people think about dirty things, because they are in their
>> dirty
>> >> minds.

>>
>> >> If some people thinks that they have problem with it, too bad. It is
>> >> easy
>> >> for cowards to hide in insult people over the Internet. That is a
>> coward
>> >> act of coward animals.
>>

[Liana Leahy]

A HUGE thank you to everyone offering time to assist with the ruby on
rails workshop for women. Your help is greatly appreciated!!

I sent an email last night to folks who signed up but it seems that
some didn't receive it, so I'll post here just in case.

Thursday evening, teaching assistants are meeting at the Berkman
Center Annex at 50 Church Street, 3rd Floor in Harvard Square at 7pm

to discuss curriculum and responsibilities for the day.

If you can’t make it to the Thursday session, please come to Austin
Hall at 5pm on Friday for some quick prep. And be sure to check out
the course materials found here:

http://wiki.devchix.com/index.php?title=Workshop_Installation_Notes
http://wiki.devchix.com/index.php?title=Workshop_Topics

Best,
Liana Leahy