Just who exactly is our new oracle DominiConnor????

[moondog]

I like it all.

[ruty]

you are a trekkie/trekker DC. Ah well that explains everything.

[Tortington]

ever played dungeons and dragons?

[DominiConnor]

Yes, I did play it a bit of D&D 20 years ago.
Not sure what that tells you about me.
What do you think it means ?

Trekker is the more common term these days I agree, just got into the habit a long time ago.

[Tortington]

do you play online games which involve wizards?

[zippitippitoes]

is there a direct correlation between trekkers and computing programmers or is that a fallacious construct

[Tortington]

i dont know what you just said but it sounded ded rude :)

[zippitippitoes]

lol I panicked after I posted that because i thought maybe I had had a spelling blank, don't want dc to get the wrong idea

[zippitippitoes]

in fact now I've read it again and I see it's even worse..rofl

[ruty]

Ahhh! Fallacious construct! Love it.

[motherinferior]

You are clinging to your long-standing fallacies.

[DominiConnor]

I don't play online games, wizards or otherwise.

There is of course a correlation between high educational attainment, high earnings, being male and watching Star Trek. I recall at one point the 3 richest men in the world were all trekkies, now sadly down to 3 out of the top 5.

Of course you don't see that in the media, which is part of the reason that hardly any women do technology.
My favourite stats whilst working at PC Mag was that we had less than 1/2 the % female readership of Penthouse, and it was so low compared to the confidence interval that they could not state for a fact that any women read it at all.

I have some ruder statistics...

We are uniformly portrayed as shambling sociopaths dressed in cheap T shirts.
And yes, I do have roughly 1.5 cubic metres of clothes provided by computer vendors :)

[notasheep]

Oh we have something in common-lapsed Catholic too

As for Statistics! blah.......

[dinosaure]

PC Mag used to have a woman editor though did it not?

[spidermama]

Well he's got my back up.
I think he needs to read more and post less.

[GeorginaA]

Well I'm a card carrying wizard online-gaming female and know of plenty of other women who also play - we're not that rare a breed.

In fact, I'd argue that role playing games in general, which require cooperation, imagination and communication to enjoy to the full are probably ideal female past-times

I'd love to know how readership stats are worked out - does someone stand over the till operator's shoulder in the newsagent to check? Certainly in this (admittedly geeky) household any magazine gets read by both of us regardless of who bought it.

[GeorginaA]

(Actually, that was an exaggeration. I'd never play a wizard. Elven ranger is much more my style )

Right off to play \link{http://www.elderscrolls.com/games/oblivion_overview.htm\Oblivion}

[DominiConnor]

PC Mag used to have a woman editor though did it not?
Not during my time, or since to my knowledge.
Did have a female publisher, but that role is basically the head of sales for ads.

We did have women technical editors They developed a tendency to sit there waving their hands over their head when technology was mentioned. One was clearly scared of her PC. No I'm not exaggerating.

For various reasons the only women who knew any technology were the Mac using production team who were very good indeed. Was quite shocked the first time one pointed out a hole in a piece of mine about hardwired maths on chips.

PC User's final editor was female, an ex-ziffie don't know what happened to her. PC Direct had a shambolic wretch of a creature in charge who some claimed was a woman. Claimed to have a physics degree but in one meeting asked what an Ohm was.

Can think of only one female IT writer who does stuff other than variations of "how people feel about their iPods".

At various points in my life I've tried to use my pathetically small influence to increase the number of owmen in IT. Not only have I failed miserably, but the number is rapidly decreasing.

[NotQuiteCockney]

Hmm, DC, if you're still pimping, most of the women IT folks you're seeing are in the financial markets? Or do you pimp financials, rather than IT folk?

(I used to be a city IT contractor, for yonks. But gave it up post-kids, as the whole field is so family-unfriendly.)

[dinosaure]

Okay, DC. I'll cut and paste your lovely post into an email to my mate who was an editor at PC Mag.

[EnidVonTeese]

I bet they wore make up too as well as being crap with computers

[NotQuiteCockney]

Goodness me, Enid, interesting new name. Is your DH Marilyn Manson then?

[tamum]

They were probably too worried about chipping their nail varnish to use a keyboard, I'll warrant. I'm the same.

[Pruni]

PMSL Dinosaur, could you let us know her reply?
DC you're a top wind-up merchant, I'll reluctantly give you that.

[dinosaure]

Pruni, I will do! She's just had a baby, actually, so I am hoping she will join mn. She is very funny. She's escaped from the world of computers now (just as well really) and edits a magazine in a different field entirely now.

[tamum]

Dino, might I respectfully suggest that if you're hoping to persuade her to join MN, sending her DC's post might not be the best way of tempting her in? :o