Women and technology

There is a common belief that women and technology don't go together. If that would be true every housewife would need a training before she could start using her kitchen.

I've been asked several times to help "make the presentation appear on the projector" by the room full of men. So I think saying "women don't understand technology" is just an excuse for those, who are either not interested in it or are simply too lazy to deal with it on their own.

However I could agree that women (if I dare to generalise this not at all unified category) maybe have different expectations and needs towards technology. And I'm not talking only about design preferences or various period tracker applications. There is an interesting debate about the topic in the comments of this post.

Personally when it comes to computers and software, I want it to:

• be simple (have good usability),
• be visually appealing (not flooded with colors and animations),
• allow customization,
• speak my language,
  
• have a bit of a personality.
  

Even though I am quite interested in the topic of gender and technology, I am still somewhat sceptical about gender specific technology. Firstly because "men" and "women" are not homogenous groups and most certainly not the only two gender groups. And secondly because attempts to find common characteristics in the gender groups usually means using blue vs. pink arguments.

So is it fair to say you designed software for women when it's not going to satisfy all the women? I think not. But I would definitely go for software with a little of personal touch.

Here's an example:
Beeing annoyed by endless windows popping up when least needed just to ask me if I am really sure about some action, I've wished I would have had different options than "No" or "Close". Having "STFU" or a third option "No. And never ask me again." did cross my mind several times. And I would definitely love to be able to rewrite certain commands in a more creative way. Of course that is not the only thing I'd like to change.

So what is the alternative? Honestly I don't know but if there is one, please do share it. After all the purpose of technology is to meet the needs of the people and not the other way around.

Why I like Saturdays in the city

Cause the streets come to life:

Geeky pop hits

Since we are more and more affected by a number of different online coomunities, it's probably only a matter of time before it starts to reflect in popular culture.

Actually I am quite surprised that we weren't yet honoured with pop hits like:

• Only a click away,
• Skype me baby one more time,
• Tweets for my sweets,
  
• I will always digg you,
• Jenny from the blog,
• Staying online,
• Master and server,
• Crazy little thing called Facebook,
• Do you really want to block me,
• I said I didn't google you but I lied,
  
• Fatal error seem to be the hardest words.

I'd love to hear those. Wouldn't you ;)?

Shopping nightmares

Through the years I've developed a certain kind of love & hate relationship with shopping. Love part mostly refers to buying gifts for friends and family on my travels while the hate part more or less covers all the other occasions.

Especially when I know exactly what I'm looking for, which is in most of the cases. And all that because for some weird reason I don't want my clothes to be polluted with roses, butterflies, sculls, shiny and glittering shit or phrases like: "Bitch", "2 hot 4 U" or "Sexy".

So usually I would spend waste several days looking for a specific piece of clothing. What usually happens is that I:

• don't find what I'm looking for,
• find it but not in my size,
• find it but in all the wrong colors,
• find it in the right colors and size, but it looks awful on me.

Afterwards I could really use a drink, a massage or a therapist. Possibly all three.

This time I got lucky. After few attempts of tryng to buy short pants, I finally got them - at men's department. The salesman didn't forget to kindly point that out several times and tried to offer me an "equivalent" female model. It was much shorter and what a surprise pink.

I'm sure they would go nicely with my tiara and baby blue high hills but somehow I found strenght to say no. After all Barbie might eventually claim her clothes back.

So I got these instead:

Friends

My social profiles tell me I got lots of friends. Lucky me. If those numbers were true I would go bankrupt every x-mas.

But who are friends anyway? I'd say someone:

• who loves and respects you and you feel the same way about them,
• you think about often even if you see eachother only every now and then,
  
• you can call for no obvious reason,
  
• who tells you to STFU when you are full of bullshit,
• who calls a cab and takes you home when you are too drunk to exist,
• who listens to you even when you don't make much sence,
• who might forget about your birthday, but will be there for you when you really need them.
  

Of course all of this goes also the other way.

So basically friends are people who know you, but like you anyway :).

Love you guys & girls - you know who you are.

Breakfast philosophy

I have a long history of "no sign of breakfast" behaviour. Sure, it's healthy and good for you but then again:

• Coffe and cigarettes ARE breakfast.
• Lunch counts as breakfast if you have it on empty stomach, right?
  
• Why waste time eating, when you can sleep longer?
  

So yes, I had quite some difficulties accepting the breakfast philosophy. And on the rare occasion when I could actually have breakfast, my fridge contained only things which MacGyver could use to make some weird kind of weapon.

And then something magical happened. No, not really. My ex's father had a very strong opinion that everyone should have breakfast. It was pretty much impossible to avoid eating in the morning. Jumping out of the window somehow didn't come accross as a very appealing option at that time. So I gave in.

And here I am now, a proud breakfast eater. Not only that, I made a whole ritual out of it. There is no day without breakfast. What I am going to eat very much depends on how I feel in the morning. But most of the times one of these two options will do the trick:

1.) Feelin' chewy: boiled eggs, bread & butter & salt, freshly squeezed orange juice

2.) Not feelin' chewy: fruity smoothie

before:

after:

And since my housewife genes are apparently kicking in it is only a matter of time before I make a philosophy out of snacks :)

Unite for the free world!

Is there a world beyond capitalism, hate and disrespect?

You bet there is!


When: 27^th April 2009 @ 12:00

Where: Trg OF (near the train station, Ljubljana)

Why: Because enough is enough!

more info @ http://zasvobodo.si/

Wanted LIVE @ Roxly

Ever been rocked by six women who know their instruments and are not afraid to use them?

Well, tomorrow is your chance. See u @ Roxly.

Keyboard for blondes

No, it's not a joke. Apparently creativeness has no limits. There actually is such a bizzare thing as keyboard for blondes.


Unfortunately they only come in pink but I guess the funky key signs provide enough entertainment to its owner. See what I mean:

Ecs = No
Space = The Big One, "I need my space" Key
Alt = Useless key
Backspace = Oops
Enter = Yes, I want it
Caps Lock = WARNING! Size XXL letters

Besides those there are also some additional "shortcut keys" for texting:

• Having a blonde moment
• Laughing out loud
• Boring date

No, I'm not getting one, even though it could be a nice funny gift. But probably not for people who are not good at blind typing.

Dream life