Thank you (though I don't really feel like much of a rockstar - heh).  
I can see where it might appear that I was driving Mike's decisions if  
you had only Twitter to go by. The truth of the matter is, he knew  
about the GoGaRuCo presentation and fallout long before I did (a side-
effect of his tendency to wake up at ungodly hours). He was offended  
all on his own. And I didn't know anything about him leaving Activists  
until the die had already been cast - I woke up to the news.

I objected to the images in the slide show not because they are sexist  
(though I believe they are), but because they are sexUAL. Some  
parallel comparisons just aren't going to sit well with every audience  
member out there. And while, granted, you can't please all the people,  
all the time, it seems incredibly naive to think there wouldn't be  
some fallout from a "developer as porn star" analogous presentation.

Imagine a presentation about recruiting developers for your firm with  
the analogous presentation: "Big Game Hunting", replete with pictures  
of dead animals smilingly displayed by the hunters who killed them.  
Hunting is a perfectly legal sport and one which I personally have no  
objections to (just as I have no objections to porn), but do graphic  
images that will likely disturb at least *some* audience members  
really have a place?

What about a presentation about writing code on deadline: "Delivering  
Like a Birth Mom." Or how about graphic images of up-close  
breastfeeding in a talk titled "Nursing Your Projects Along."

I have four kids. I breastfed. I've hunted. I even like porn! But two  
great tastes don't always taste great together, and that is the point  
that so many seem to have failed to make, or to get.

Dana

On Apr 28, 2009, at 2:32 PM, Ben Reubenstein wrote: