I actually don't think technology people are that bad, not as a class. Most types of ambitious male business people are a lot more vulgar and perverse than the technologists. VC-istan execs tend to have inappropriate, power-imbalanced office affairs, traders and bankers go strip clubs more often than is healthy... programmers swear slightly more than average and some are socially awkward. Not the same category.
My limited time in Europe suggests that European culture on the whole is less attentive on this subject as well. Rather notable lapses in that category also occasionally make HN (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3975588) but usually it somehow avoids the radar, perhaps due to Europe otherwise having a reputation as progressive/liberal.
The only exception I can think of is concerning the holocaust.
EDIT: Anyway, I can recommend anyone to live in another culture for some time in their life. First you will feel alienated or even offended by many of the things you hear and see. However if you look deep enough (and many people don't) you will understand that neither your culture nor theirs is right.
I also think it's strange to see how you try to protect TV viewers from nipples and the "F-word".
It's not surprising that it produces people like AR who thinks any offence is worth fighting.
Technology is still defective, but it's less-so than most other industries.
The difference, and the reason there are fewer women in technology than the more defective culture of banking, is that technology's appeal is to risk-seekers and idealists... who tend in this particular context, for a variety of (probably cultural) reasons, to be men.
To the extent that technology has problems, most of that comes from tech executives who swoop in to take advantage of idealistic (and socially awkward) tech people, then encourage an imbalanced and nasty culture.
I know that probably wasn't your intention, but please let's not turn this story into one of those interminable threads about gender relations, there are enough of those elsewhere.
I agree, but it will be interesting to watch this trend shift over time. There was a time in the not-so-distant past when if you were a computer guy, you were a "geek". Computers were for "geeks", which meant at least one of your parents was a "geek" to involve you with computers as a child. And, generally, "geeks" may be awkward socially, but are pretty normal, easy-going people (obviously generalizing here, but I also consider myself part of this group). You can see this represented in the pop-culture of the past 30 years.
But that stigma is definitely disappearing, if it hasn't disappeared already. What will the place look like when the would-be Alpha-males of the financial world (which has been gutted as a career) go to the next best place to make a killing, where the money flows like water? Is it already happening?
I decided to promote my card game: https://twitter.com/MichaelOChurch/status/314934411223252995
I think the PlayHaven guy will be fine. All he needs to do is say, "I'm the Dongle Guy". Adria didn't deserve the Internet hatred (which probably came mostly from trolls and assholes, not tech people) but her getting fired wasn't unreasonable. If you're a tech evangelist, your job is PR and you ought to know that public shaming is Seriously Not Cool.
No.
Imagine if PyCon had a reasonable code of conduct instead of this "Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any conference venue, including talks...In particular, exhibitors should not use sexualized images, activities, or other material. Booth staff (including volunteers) should not use sexualized clothing/uniforms/costumes, or otherwise create a sexualized environment."
Which I suspect was designed because a bunch of sex-negative feminists like those at the Ada Initiative just don't like booth babes. They have an obsession with marginal things that they believe might lead to sexism.
When I was more involved with Drupal, I wrote a letter against adding this kind of language to DrupalCon's code of conduct, because I felt it should focus on dealing with actual harassment instead of things some people don't like. I think because I am a woman, people listened to me. Working in tech can be dehumanizing enough as it is without having codes against an entire aspect of humanity- sex, because it might make some people uncomfortable. It's also vague enough that it could turn into a witch hunt pretty quickly.
I started out in Python but it's been like six years since I used it seriously, but if I were still involved I would try to get that removed from the Code of Conduct.
These are vastly not the same thing.
One of them gets in the way of the message, gets in the way of discussion, and furthermore DOES make some people highly uncomfortable. Sure, some of those people may be sex negative. But many, many more are probably just rather annoyed at being treated like they're some buffoon who is going to flock to any booth with some tits on it.
Furthermore, not everyone wants to live quite so loudly. When you're standing at a booth with booth babes at it, you can't help but feel the eyes on you of other, nearby attendees. What if they're genuinely interested in what the product at the booth is- but suddenly they're put into the uncomfortable position of feeling like people might mistake what they're doing for something less seemly?
Perhaps it's a bit much to keep those kinds of jokes out of the talks, for the sake of culture. Then again? If it gets in more programmers, to not have that kind of content there, then they should stand by it.
(And one thing I might add: It's possible to be sex positive without wanting to be so public about it, and still being annoyed with its use, sometimes.)
I would encourage people who are offended by booth babes to contact that company that hired them, rather than lobby for highly subjective code of conduct regulations.
But yeah, to the extent that various written and unwritten codes of conduct would try to have us pretend to be perpetually "nice" and asexual to each other in nearly all public contexts, this broadness is is utterly depraved.
Additionally, any recommendations for which to try to attend as a first year computer science student?
> Eben Upton, one of the creators of the Raspberry Pi,
> shared with us the brilliant insight that many young
> people used to have to “choose not to program” when
> they turned their computers on, in order to play games
Amstrad 128k Microcomputer (v3)
© 1985 Amstrad Computer Electronics plc
and Locomotive Software Ltd.
BASIC 1.1
Ready
I love that the Pi attempts to revive this for today's kids. At the moment I think the closest they come to anything resembling code is if they use Firefox or Chrome and accidentally stumble into the developer tools.
Though, as far as hacking goes, I'd almost prefer a BASIC prompt [or `irb`, `idle`, or any other number of modern REPLs] as opposed to a shell prompt.
I can hack away at bash scripts... but bash just doesn't seem as warm and inviting as BASIC was.
I think part of that is: shells are _primarily_ an interface to your filesystem. They offer IO redirection and the ability to run arbitrary executables.
While their scripting facilities are certainly "complete", and plenty usable, I'd disagree that they're designed for it.
When I fudge my fingers writing some Ruby, Go, Python, or Perl, the compiler or interpreter is usually pretty helpful in guiding me to my mistake. Often times it's also helpful in _suggesting_ the means to fix that mistake.
When shell scripting goes _wrong_, (as it often _will_ for a complete novice), I don't think the shell is as helpful in correcting the mistake.
That's my $.02 anyways.
I did not even hear about the Twitter incident. I consider it a twitter incident and not real.
I'm a Ruby developer, but it sounds like your community is really excellent. I'd love to come check out PyCon sometime in the future.
I was surprised at how damaging the "incident" was to my perception of pycon overall. The only thing I really heard about the event was all this BS, so I'm glad that this post really informed of the true value and importance of events like these.
At Pycon I met the developers and project maintainers of high-profile projects I use all of the time like Django and SQLAlchemy. Heck, I paid $150 to receive classroom training from Mike Bayer himself. How inexpensive is that to receive training from the developer and maintainer of SQLAlchemy himself?
The tutorials were incredibly useful, the keynotes moving (Noller, Hettinger, etc.), the sessions well-produced and all of the speakers well-spoken.
I feel like we stole my ticket for as inexpensive as the trip was for me and several developers our company drug along.
How did they do? Awesome. I would like to say thank you to the PSF for such an incredible conference. My entire dev staff will be attending next year!
my wife used to teach python to gifted middle schoolers as an intro programming course. she brought this up at a regional educator's event when the speaker asked if anyone was doing intro to programming in a language other than VB (or something else, maybe Java). my wife raised her hand sheepishly and said "I used python". everyone was suddenly interested.
the kids did great with python, but she eventually gave up on it because the kids wanted instant gratification and slick UI games. she explored scratch but got pulled in different directions in her teaching load. however, several of her python students over the years have gone on to do interesting things at university.
Also don't forget that we had an amazing Python Data conference during the sprints, with over 300 people and featuring Peter Norvig and Fernando Perez as speakers.
There were so many interesting talks and I have so many new ideas that I am going to hack on when I get home. It's a shame that I didn't meet as many people as I would have liked.
It's a real shame that all the good things that went on seem to have been forgotten.
Uh, no. There are far far uglier things that happen on the internet. every. single. day.