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Well, I went to Notacon yesterday after all. I decided it was worth $100 to have a new experience, outside Canton, and possibly hang out with people.
And I was right.
I arrived in the middle of Gabe Schaffer's "5-minute Photoshop Techniques", but as far as I could tell I was already familiar with the techniques he was discussing. I was still getting my bearings and didn't mind the familiarity though. (Meanwhile there was a "Locksmithing Basics" workshop next door, but I'd skipped that since I've already read the MIT Guide To Lock Picking.)
Next was Greg Boehlein (who I know from the Ohio LinuxFest) and friends talking/ranting about how the big phone monopolies are bad for consumers and small ISPs. It was interesting, but one of the three panelists took more of the time than I would've liked.
After that I went upstairs to check out the consuite, and found it packed with people practicing their newly-acquired lock-picking skills. It was a rather amusing sight. I didn't stay though, and went back down to listen to someone discuss his experiences with "self-destructive communities". (His ultimate conclusion, if there was one, seemed to be that invitation-only is the only thing that works.)
After that things started getting more interesting. Leigh Honeywell gave a talk on the lack of women in tech communities, and how to change that. Besides her own experiences, she was primarily drawing from a Carnegie Mellon study and subsequent book on the topic. This fact prompted one of the few women in the audience, Beth Lynn Eicher, to speak up as "the only woman in tech support at CMU" (who by the way has also done a lot of work to make the Ohio LinuxFest work). It was disappointing to me that there were only about 25 people in the room, most off in the corners focused on their computers, and only about ten people apparently paying attention and participating in the discussion. I ended up with the conclusion that there are three stages of problems (parents and teachers not treating girls the same as boys, a lack of role models for girls who might have tech interests, and the existing tech community not always treating women as equals), but the last two would be best solved by solving the whole problem of getting more women in technology. I know the role model issue has been a big one in getting more women into rock music; I wonder if simply having more women in *prominent* technical roles would help. On the other hand, both cultures seem to have a problem with women who prefer to get attention from men in ways that are detrimental to the women in the culture who want to be taken seriously and treated as equals.
After that I ran into Mike Meffie from the Canton Linux group (who's also the main guy behind the Ohio LinuxFest), and we ended up joining most of the crowd to listen to Drew Curtis (of Fark.com) rant about the "lazy media" and the way they handled the Cheney shooting and Janet Jackson's breast, among other things. It was fun and entertaining, though a little bit right of me politically. He also mentioned that his favorite news source is a think-tank called Stratfor.
After Drew's talk, Mike and Greg invited me to join them for sushi, and mentioned a hotel bus waiting to take the group. But going into the day one of the talks I was most interested in was the "Network Printer Hacking" talk up next, plus sushi is a bit limiting for vegetarians. They insisted, but I decided to stay, and watched them drift out along with everyone else I named above. A couple minutes later the printer talk started, and I realized that (a) it didn't seem to be going in the direction I'd hoped, (b) I could probably get all the information on the net somewhere, and (c) no matter the food, I'd probably have more fun with the group going for sushi than sitting in the talk. So I left the room, found the sushi group in front of the hotel waiting to get on their transport, and was welcomed into the fold.
I ended up with Drew helping me pick vegetarian sushi (hey, I like tamago and natto sushi), Gabe taking lots of *bright* flash pictures of everyone (especially Drew's 3-year-old son), but I mostly talked with Leigh and her boyfriend, who kind of remind me of my friends Ryan & Kaci; Leigh especially reminds me of Kaci. But Canadian. :-)
While we were eating, apparently the Indians won their game half a block away; the booming and flashing of the fireworks made us wonder if the neighborhood was being bombed.
When we eventually returned to the hotel, things there were mostly wrapping up for the day, and everyone pretty much went their separate directions, so I decided to head home. At one time I'd considered going to a show at the Beachland, but I was too tired for that.
Unfortunately I never got a chance to get contact info for the new friends I'd made.
And I was right.
I arrived in the middle of Gabe Schaffer's "5-minute Photoshop Techniques", but as far as I could tell I was already familiar with the techniques he was discussing. I was still getting my bearings and didn't mind the familiarity though. (Meanwhile there was a "Locksmithing Basics" workshop next door, but I'd skipped that since I've already read the MIT Guide To Lock Picking.)
Next was Greg Boehlein (who I know from the Ohio LinuxFest) and friends talking/ranting about how the big phone monopolies are bad for consumers and small ISPs. It was interesting, but one of the three panelists took more of the time than I would've liked.
After that I went upstairs to check out the consuite, and found it packed with people practicing their newly-acquired lock-picking skills. It was a rather amusing sight. I didn't stay though, and went back down to listen to someone discuss his experiences with "self-destructive communities". (His ultimate conclusion, if there was one, seemed to be that invitation-only is the only thing that works.)
After that things started getting more interesting. Leigh Honeywell gave a talk on the lack of women in tech communities, and how to change that. Besides her own experiences, she was primarily drawing from a Carnegie Mellon study and subsequent book on the topic. This fact prompted one of the few women in the audience, Beth Lynn Eicher, to speak up as "the only woman in tech support at CMU" (who by the way has also done a lot of work to make the Ohio LinuxFest work). It was disappointing to me that there were only about 25 people in the room, most off in the corners focused on their computers, and only about ten people apparently paying attention and participating in the discussion. I ended up with the conclusion that there are three stages of problems (parents and teachers not treating girls the same as boys, a lack of role models for girls who might have tech interests, and the existing tech community not always treating women as equals), but the last two would be best solved by solving the whole problem of getting more women in technology. I know the role model issue has been a big one in getting more women into rock music; I wonder if simply having more women in *prominent* technical roles would help. On the other hand, both cultures seem to have a problem with women who prefer to get attention from men in ways that are detrimental to the women in the culture who want to be taken seriously and treated as equals.
After that I ran into Mike Meffie from the Canton Linux group (who's also the main guy behind the Ohio LinuxFest), and we ended up joining most of the crowd to listen to Drew Curtis (of Fark.com) rant about the "lazy media" and the way they handled the Cheney shooting and Janet Jackson's breast, among other things. It was fun and entertaining, though a little bit right of me politically. He also mentioned that his favorite news source is a think-tank called Stratfor.
After Drew's talk, Mike and Greg invited me to join them for sushi, and mentioned a hotel bus waiting to take the group. But going into the day one of the talks I was most interested in was the "Network Printer Hacking" talk up next, plus sushi is a bit limiting for vegetarians. They insisted, but I decided to stay, and watched them drift out along with everyone else I named above. A couple minutes later the printer talk started, and I realized that (a) it didn't seem to be going in the direction I'd hoped, (b) I could probably get all the information on the net somewhere, and (c) no matter the food, I'd probably have more fun with the group going for sushi than sitting in the talk. So I left the room, found the sushi group in front of the hotel waiting to get on their transport, and was welcomed into the fold.
I ended up with Drew helping me pick vegetarian sushi (hey, I like tamago and natto sushi), Gabe taking lots of *bright* flash pictures of everyone (especially Drew's 3-year-old son), but I mostly talked with Leigh and her boyfriend, who kind of remind me of my friends Ryan & Kaci; Leigh especially reminds me of Kaci. But Canadian. :-)
While we were eating, apparently the Indians won their game half a block away; the booming and flashing of the fireworks made us wonder if the neighborhood was being bombed.
When we eventually returned to the hotel, things there were mostly wrapping up for the day, and everyone pretty much went their separate directions, so I decided to head home. At one time I'd considered going to a show at the Beachland, but I was too tired for that.
Unfortunately I never got a chance to get contact info for the new friends I'd made.
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