Web Teacher

Useful links: Doing good, Responsive Images, Ancient Tech

vdebolt — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:29:05 +0000

5 Hot Startups Using Tech for Good is a great post. These are the kinds of antidotes to money and power that I’d like to see more of.

Chris and Christopher got together and did a lot of work on the pros and cons of various techniques for using responsive images. Which responsive images solution should you use? Thanks for all the organizing and evaluating, Chris and Christopher.

Photo by Virginia DeBolt

They’ve been excavating the Easter Island heads and have found they are attached to bodies with all sorts of informative designs inscribed on them. I need to upgrade my Easter Island head statue.

Dell Conference Moderator Fails to Amuse Women

vdebolt — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:50:48 +0000

Dell held a big international conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. Michael Dell himself attended. The conference moderator was a Danish media personality named Mads Christensen. Most of the attendees were male, but there was one woman there: Christiane Vejlø. She wasn’t amused by Mads Christensen, and I don’t think you will be either. Here’s Christiane Vejlø’s comment on what happened: “Damn! I did not know the dress code was blue tie and male. I am at Dell’s big summit with Michael Dell in Copenhagen. Here we learn how to say “shut up bitch” and that women don’t belong in tech.”

Christiane Vejlø’s story appears in Dresscode: Blue Tie and Male. There she recounts what happened:

Mads Christensen shares with us his whole “show” about the bitchy women who want to steal the power in politics, boards and the home. “Science” he calls it and mentions that all the great inventions come from men. “We can thank women for the rolling pin,” he adds. And then the moderator of the day finishes of[f] by asking all (men) in the room to promise him that they will go home and say, “shut up bitch!”.

I turn pale. Not because I am personally offended. I know Mads Christensen and what he stands for and I don’t usually pay much attention to what he says. I am pale because I am in a state of [s]hock realizing that a large professional company as Dell will conciously hire someone with the well known agenda Mads Christensen has.

Christiane Vejlø went beyond just reporting on what was said. She also wrote an analysis. Using Google Translate, you get a rough idea of some of her analysis. First she described the moderator:

The chosen moderator is especially known for very conservative and strong opinions about the relationship between men and women and talk about a culture of failure to act caused by the dominance of women in society. This is what he lectures about, and which represent his brand. He is NOT comedian, but known as a controversial commentator and lecturer and a man with sharp opinions in gender debate. His speech is not built up of set ups and punch lines, but rather a provocative rant on the positions he is also known to have beside the stage. He describes it himself as “research”.

Again, via Google translate, she talks about the current attitudes toward women in tech:

IT industry is already very difficult to attract female workers. The fight is to entice more young women to take technical education and for more women to enter the IT industry. There is talk among other things the lack of role models, whether an image as a closed man’s world that repeatedly forget that women are actually half the population and thus of potential employees and customers. There has been debate about the phenomenon of booth babes (BBC) and the idealisation of brogrammers – drengerøvs programmers with a penchant for beer and just ladies. Tech company Sqoot lost all his sponsors and had to cancel an event by offering “friendly female staff” – at the bar!

I’ll paraphrase her conclusions and spare you any more of the translation. She argues that the topic of women in tech is already a sore point, and it shows a huge lack of judgment for a large multinational corporation to condone talk that encourages men to tell their wives, “shut up, bitch.”

Reactions

Molly Wood from CNet shared some of the reaction and response from Dell in her article Why We Need to Keep Talking about Women in Tech. According to her article the head of Dell in Denmark issued a rather lame apology – one of those “sorry you didn’t like it” apologies. And Dell’s VP of Global Communications also spoke up saying that Mads Christensen did not reflect the attitude and behavior of Dell. Here’s Molly’s one minute rant on the topic:

Molly Wood’s CNet article also contains translations of Christiane Vejlø’s tweets during the conference. (She’s @christianevejlo on Twitter, with a stream partly in Danish and partly in English.)

Molly added analysis on Dell’s lack of wisdom, saying,

First, imagine if something like that had happened in the U.S., at an event where the CEO of a major publicly traded company was the keynote speaker. Everyone involved would be either fired or frantically apologizing, and that should be happening now.

Second, Dell in particular ought to be extra sensitive to the topic, after intense criticism in 2009 for a Netbook marketing campaign that suggested women only want computers for shopping and calorie counting. That was the same year, by the way, that Dell paid almost $10 million to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit from its employees over equal pay.

When last I looked, there were over 300 comments at Ycombinator Hacker News on the original article. The comments cover every aspect the topic and are great reading. I particularly liked this bit of fantasy fiction from commenter josephclooney, who said,

Picture this if you will:
Half way through Mads Christensen’s ‘spot/tirade’ Michael Dell walks onto the stage carrying a microphone. Mad’s microphone goes dead. “Well Mads, I know we (Dell) asked you to come along and speak today” says Michael “but your views about women are very, very wrong. They don’t represent my views, the views of my company, and they have no place at this conference. We’re going to have a 15-minute impromptu Q&A with Nicolai Moresco while I make sure the PR people who invited Mads here today never receive another cent from Dell, and then I’ll host the panel. I’m deeply sorry for this mistake.”

Yeah!

Too bad it isn’t real.

There was some reaction on Reddit.

You can follow Twitter trackbacks on “Dresscode: Blue Tie and Male” at Topsy. Here are a few tweets:

Not sure what the hell they were thinking at Dell… ow.ly/aTPwL

— A Geek Mom (Shannon) (@ageekmom) May 14, 2012

My God, what is wrong with Dell? bit.ly/KWDzRT

— Ms. Beat (@MsBeat) May 14, 2012

Baffling Dell PR fail that took place in Copenhagen: bit.ly/K5QLTk via @omarg

— Allison Peacock (@Allison_Peacock) May 14, 2012

@Dell is ok with hiring blatant sexists for its speaking engagements? bit.ly/IUAkik

— James Cohen (@JamesCohen82) May 14, 2012

Dell Issues a More Careful Apology

Dell came along after a few hours with a more thoughtful apology on Google+. Dell said,

During a Dell-hosted customer and partner summit in Copenhagen in April, well-known public speaker and moderator, Mads Christensen, made a number of inappropriate and insensitive remarks about women. Dell sincerely apologizes for these comments. As members of our Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) know, Dell is an enthusiastic and committed advocate of women in business and IT. These comments do not reflect Dell’s company values and undermine much of the work we’ve done in support of women in the workplace overall.
. . .
Once again, we apologize for this unfortunate event. Going forward, we will be more careful selecting speakers at Dell events.

A better apology. More sincere sounding with all the right words. Does that give Dell a free pass on this one?

Because the apology by Dell was published on Google+ there was some discussion. A comment by Karen Lopez summed up the situation for me:

For those of you not getting it…no one really cares that some one person has an agenda for hating women at work. What we care about is that a vendor hired him knowing that, laughed along with him, then waited until the shit hit the fan to first to a “sorry you were offended” apology, then finally a real one.

What the Lady Said

In this day and age, situtations like this should never be allowed to happen. The fact that they do simply reinforces the fact that women in tech are not treated as equals. It’s time for the culture of men in tech to change.

5 Ways We Can All Prepare For the Evolving Digital Future

vdebolt — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:28:01 +0000

Mobile Device Evolution by Adam Selwood

Google recently debuted “Project Glass,” their new augmented reality glasses that allow wearers the space-age capability to access information, video, and more in literally the blink of an eye. Project Glass is just the latest proof that technology is evolving at a relentless pace—and if you want to succeed, you’ve got to keep up. We’ve compiled five of the most important facets of preparing for a digital future below.

Educate yourself. Education is the name of the game when it comes to understanding and capitalizing on the digital future. There’s an IT school to suit every style of learning and level of skill, with online courses that offer valuable insight to computer newbies and savvy tech-experts alike. You’re just a few clicks away from finding a class that’ll keep you in the loop and ensure your continuing relevance in the digital marketplace.

Evaluate your digital needs. It’s tempting to get in line for every new gadget on the market, but too many devices can be distracting, not helpful. Evaluate the offerings of a new product before you pounce, and make sure it aligns with your needs; if you rely on practical features like GPS and email access, then a tablet designed specifically for movie streaming is just excess baggage.

Stay current. IT Degree aside, you can stay informed simply by perusing everyday headlines. Tech advancements are always in the news, and following trends in the current market can illuminate tech direction for the future. Set your smartphone to send you auto-updates and stay on top of the latest in the digital evolution.

Upgrade. Still lugging around a phone or laptop that looks and functions like an antique? Step into the light and upgrade to a product that can service your information, entertainment and business needs while streamlining your daily life.

Embrace change. The digital future is here, and you’d better get on board if you want to succeed. There’s no better time than the present to embrace the increased efficiency, reach, and control that technological advances can bring your life.

Guest Author: Philip J Reed, on behalf of Westwood College.

It’s Who You Know

vdebolt — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:27:24 +0000

“Same-sex couples should be able to get married.”—President Obama

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) May 9, 2012

For most of my long life I lived in small towns. I wasn’t aware of anyone I knew being gay. In 1993 I moved to Austin and I started working in high tech environments. I met and made friends with several quietly gay people. (It was the early 90s, after all.) I started attending SXSW Interactive events and realize that some of the people I admired in the interactive world were gay. In about 2004 I moved to Albuquerque and met even more gay people. As my knowledge grew about who was writing the books I reviewed on this blog, who was giving the talks at tech conferences, who was leading the meetings I attended, I realized that some of the smartest leaders in the web design field were gay. And one of my best friends here in Albuquerque turned out to be gay.

None of these people are giving me political lectures on gay rights or trying to do anything to raise my consciousness regarding gay rights. Just by being who they are, they’ve done those things, however.

By working with, watching, respecting, and being friends with all these varied people I realized how wrong it is to discriminate against them for any reason.

I don’t have a romantic vision of marriage. To me it’s a legal arrangement that involves binding contracts, wills, guardianship, inheritance, health care, insurance, and community property. Nor do I have a religious view of marriage. It’s an agreement between people to be together. They can imagine that God brought them together and blessed them if they like that thought, but it’s more of a business deal than a religious event.

For a long time now, I’ve thought that gay people deserve all the rights any citizen has – not just to marry, but every other right citizens enjoy in the United States of America. Because they are, in fact, some of the most valuable citizens we have.

As for the gay speakers, programmers, writers and leaders in the tech world, I can only hope they were please by the symbolic dropping of one more barrier to equality yesterday when the President announced his opinion that marriage equality should become fact.

These are opinions I’m expressing here. I’m sure there will be many who disagree with my opinion, which is their right. However, I want to declare my support in this public way for my gay friends and colleagues. I’m going to disable comments on this post. I do value the opinions of others, but I don’t want to encourage divisive discussion here when there are so many gay people in tech who have my respect.

Book a Flight with a Tweet

vdebolt — Wed, 09 May 2012 12:40:53 +0000

Sure, you could make a charitable donation using Twitter. But you couldn’t really buy anything. Until now. Media Bistro’s All Twitter blog tells us about TweetAFlight Lets You Book Flights on Twitter.

TweetAFlight is a site that has solved the problem of how to book a flight on Twitter. TweetAFlight is selling airline tickets, but you can be sure that if this system works, everything plus the kitchen sink will soon be for sale on Twitter.

Illustration from Chirpify

Here’s how it works

So simple, so simple. . .

Follow @TweetAFlight on Twitter
When you see a tweet for a flight you want, reply with the word “BUY”.

That reply message to “buy” gets processed by Chirpify. (On Twitter, it’s @Chirpify.) Chirpify is a new Twitter Commerce platform that handles transactions from Twitter through PayPal. Chirpify doesn’t just sell for giant companies like airlines. You can use it yourself to sell items. It can be used for donations. It can be used to buy any item which someone offers you on Twitter. Stand back, because I’m sure you can imagine how this is going to explode.

It doesn’t cost you any extra cash to make a payment for something with Chirpify. It’s like any other payment you make through PayPal. The sellers pay a small percentage – between 2 and 4% to process the sale. Chirpify even works with retweets – an important point for those who might be collecting donations.

Not Just Plane Tickets

As GeekWire points out in Chirpify lands $1.3 million to sell music and concert tickets through Twitter, it isn’t just plane tickets going on sale. According to ChrisTeso, Chirpify started out to be for musicians. From that humble beginning, and with funding of only $1.3 million, I believe something huge this way comes.

The notion of selling anything on Twitter has got to make millions of people’s eyes light up with new money making ideas. It may also make millions of people want to run from Twitter as quickly as possible. Which camp are you in?

[Note: Cross-posted at BlogHer.]

Useful links: Accessible Apps, Mommy Bloggers, Google+ Hangouts on Air

vdebolt — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:09:28 +0000

Designing Accessible Apps is from Moms With Apps.

Mashable has a huge infographic about Mommy Bloggers. If you have scoffed at the importance of mommy bloggers, this will be an education for you.

Educators will no doubt be eager to take advantage of the newly announced Google+ Hangouts on Air. Here’s a post telling you how to get started using it from ReadWriteWeb. And a bit more about how it works from Mashable.

Power Your Comments: WordPress vs. Disqus vs. IntenseDebate vs. Facebook Comments

vdebolt — Mon, 07 May 2012 12:54:43 +0000

Everyone seems to argue the merits of social networking platforms these days. Everywhere you go, it is Twitter or Facebook, LinkedIn or Google Plus, whether or not to Tumblr. It has become the “Mac vs. PC” of the modern day.

But under the radar, a new war is brewing – the War of the Comment Formats. It might seem like a less interesting conflict, but if you think about your own use of commenting platforms, and how they have changed in just the last two years, it isn’t quite such a stretch to understand it.

To find a victor, we have to view the outcome of each comment style’s battle against their main competitor. Here is the breakdown:

Battle No. 1: WordPress vs. Disqus

WordPress is the primary blogging platform at this stage, given the free or low cost features it provides its users, and the ease of customization and updating. The comments are very basic, just posting as either a WP user or anonymously (based on the blog admin’s settings).

The downside is that is isn’t a format that works on other sites. So it is pretty much isolated to WP hosted sites, or those that have been activated to be compatible with the service. However, there are plenty of ways that it can be used, without additional and unnecessary frills.

Disqus, on the other hand, is like a multi-comment device. It lets you sign in to that single account, and then post on pretty much any major social media platform that has enabled it (which is most). This means Google Plus, Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, Tumblr and many others.

Another great feature is it keeps a log of all comments on each platform you have synced and used through Disqus. You even get automatic email notifications of replies, though you have to put that against frequent server crashes and problems that seem to be slowly smoothing out.

In the end, I would have to say the winner here is Disqus.

Battle No. 2 – IntenseDebate vs. Facebook

IntenseDebate means well. Certainly, they have their share of loyal followers that swear it is the best open source comment system you can find. So far, they are integrated with Facebook, Twitter, OpenID and Gravatar. You can add it to WP, Blogger, Tumblr or Typepad.

Facebook Connect has dominated the scene, as it is generally already enabled on most commenting systems, along with their Like buttons and easy sharing syncing. Not a lot has to be said as there is every chance you have used Facebook for this purpose more than once.

The award between these two has to go to Facebook, for its multi-purpose and wide availability.

The Final Battle: Disqus vs. Facebook

When it comes to these two, you have their usual pros that might make them seem fairly easily matched – especially if you find that you don’t want to connect all of your posts in one place like Disqus does, or if you do, like Facebook does not.

The bigger issue, however, is privacy, which can only be gained through one …

The Champion: Disqus

Unlike Facebook, you can still maintain some anonymity. It is all inclusive, easy to use and efficient. Between all commenting platforms, it is probably the best. Of course, this is a matter of opinion, but I feel confident in the proclamation.

Image Credits: 1, 2.

Guest Author Tom Chu is the SEO manager at PsPrint, an company specializing in online printing. PsPrint offers an array of free tools, for example it lets you make your own business cards online.

Weebly Goes Mobile

vdebolt — Fri, 04 May 2012 13:07:45 +0000

I reviewed the web site creation tool Weebly in 2008. See A Look at Weebly. Now they’ve created an app for iPhone that lets you create posts from your mobile. It’s really simple and may appeal to many people who want to do easy blogging and posting while on the go. Since I already have a history with Weebly, and because they’ve managed to survive and thrive all this time in a competitive niche, I thought a look at their app was in order.

The app is free from the App Store. It works on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad and requires iOS 4.3 or later. I’d head to the App Store first. If you go to the weebly site, they ask for your mobile number before they send you a link to the app. You may ultimately have to give them your mobile number to use the app, but I found it really annoying that they asked for it even before you’d had a chance to take a look.

TeleSummit to Focus on Women in Technology; New Infographic Details Business Benefits of Women Tech Leaders

vdebolt — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:53:40 +0000

I signed up for this conference. I’ve participated before and it’s a good conference. You attend from home, so it’s laid back and the snacks are always available. Their press release:

Women dominate technology and social media, and tech companies that recognize this fact are better positioned to innovate, adapt, and succeed. That is one of the themes of the 4th Annual Women Who Tech TeleSummit to be held Wednesday, May 23, 2012.

The daylong summit, held by Internet audio and web from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. EDT, will feature more than two dozen high-profile tech experts speaking on subjects as diverse as funding start-ups, open source software, agile development, digital rights, online privacy, social media and social movements, and women in international tech. But one overriding theme will be the challenges women face in turning their powerful position as tech consumers into positions of power at tech companies.

“Like our last three sold-out TeleSummits, this one will be packed with some of the most thought-provoking discussions led by the most passionate and talented women and men in tech,” said Allyson Kapin, founder of Women Who Tech. “But one thing is very clear – the tech sector no longer belongs to pocket-protector toting guys hooked on sci-fi and video games. The companies that recognize that will be the ones that succeed.”

An infographic released through the organization’s website in advance of the TeleSummit shows that women represent 55 percent of Facebook and Twitter users, and the average social gamer on sites like Zynga is a 43-year-old woman. Yet female tech entrepreneurs begin with about one-eighth of the funding of male-owned ventures. “Diverse tech and start-up teams are critical for innovation,” said Kapin. “We need gender-balanced perspectives in order to create technology and products that are innovative, useful, and meaningful to everyone.”

Kapin also pointed out the male/female imbalance is not restricted to start-ups. It extends to the C Suite as well. Companies like Facebook and software leader Adobe currently have no female board members. Neither do many recent IPOs like Pandora, Zillow, Zynga, and Splunk. And major players like Apple, LinkedIn, and Groupon have only one female board member. “With the majority of their customers being women, let’s hope they listen to her,” said Kapin.

Several Microsoft stores nationwide, including the San Jose store in Silicon Valley and University Village in Washington, among others, will stream the TeleSummit as part of their Microsoft Retail Group program for women. The showings will be held in their theater spaces that each seat 125 people and have large touch screens. The event is also being recognized as an educational opportunity by several colleges in San Jose, which are offering students extra credit for attending and writing essays on the subjects discussed.

Panelists participating in the TeleSummit include:

Sarah Allen, Blazing Cloud

Cathy Brooks, Moderator

Shaherose Charania, Founder Labs and Women 2.0

Jen Consalvo, Tech Cocktail

Amy Errett, Maveron

Jill Foster, Live Your Talk

Sarah Granger, Consultant

Kaliya Hamlin, She’s Geeky

Liz Henry, BlogHer

Tara Hunt, Buyosphere

Lynne Johnson, Whispr Group, Inc.

Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg, Ph.D, Akili Dada

Beth Kanter, Author and Trainer

Susan Mernit, Oakland Local

Shireen Mitchell, Digital Sistas

Sarah Novotny, O’Reilly Media

Claire Diaz Ortiz, Twitter

Elisa Camahort Page, BlogHer

April Pedersen, Salsa Labs

Jon Pincus, Qweries

Heather Ramsey, Women’s Leadership Program, IIE and TechWomen Program

Corvida Raven, Shegeeks.net

Adria Richards, SendGrid

Arthur Richards, Wikimedia Foundation

Laurel Ruma, O’Reily Media

Liza Sabater, Culture Kitchen

Michael Silberman, Greenpeace International

Amanda Steinberg, DailyWorth

Pemo Theodore, Startup Coach

Amy Sample Ward, NTEN

Jane Well, Automattic

Joanne Wilson, Investor

The cost to attend the TeleSummit is $20. Sponsorships are available through the Women Who Tech website. “Access is very important to us,” said Kapin. “We don’t like to turn away anyone due to a lack of funds.”

The 4th Annual Women Who Tech TeleSummit is sponsored by Rad Campaign, Blackbaud, NTEN, Salsa Labs, Singlebrook Technology, Women 2.0, and BlogHer. For additional information visit http://www.womenwhotech.com.

Here’s the infographic, a gigantic JPEG which I fervently hope has loaded completely while you were reading the press release.

I’ll be there. Hope you will, too.

July 9: Is it Doomsday for the Internet?

vdebolt — Wed, 02 May 2012 12:56:48 +0000

The reports about the July 9 virus, which affects both Windows and Mac, are calling it “Internet Doomsday” and Internet Blackout. A virus that could shut down thousands of Internet users certainly should make headlines. More important news is there is a way to check your computer to see if you are at risk.

Image from DNS Changer test site

The malware that could do all the damage is called “DNS Changer.” DNS stands for Domain Name Service. It’s the system for how the Internet keeps track of where servers and files are located. According to a report on Mashable, this malware . . .

redirects your computer’s DNS queries from your ISP’s server to one created by the trojan’s creators — essentially hijacking all Internet traffic from your machine. That way, the bad guys can send you to hacker-created websites filled with ads whenever they want.

The FBI Works with DCWG on Fixes

The FBI has set up a web site with security firm DCWG to help to determine whether your computer is at risk. There’s a description of what lead up to the situation and what the malware does:

The botnet operated by Rove Digital altered user DNS settings, pointing victims to malicious DNS in data centers in Estonia, New York, and Chicago. The malicious DNS servers would give fake, malicious answers, altering user searches, and promoting fake and dangerous products. Because every web search starts with DNS, the malware showed users an altered version of the Internet.

Under a court order, expiring July 9, the Internet Systems Consortium is operating replacement DNS servers for the Rove Digital network. This will allow affected networks time to identify infected hosts, and avoid sudden disruption of services to victim machines.

The DCWG site includes options for you to detect the malware on your computer, fix it if you are infected, and protect yourself from further infection with the DNS Changer.

You may also be able to find helpful information from your own internet service provided. I use Comcast for my Internet service, and found this page for Comcast users.

Both the DCWG site and the Comcast help page send you to dns-ok.us which runs a check to see if your computer is okay. This page is for English results. If you are not in the U.S., you can find a list of similar sites for other languages at DCWG/detect.

All the test involves is for you to click on the link. You don’t download anything.

Should your computer fail this quick detection test, there are instructions on what to do next. If you are okay, you see a cheerful green background with a message that you are okay. If you see a red background, you are given information about a fix. Be aware of the message below the fold on the page, however, even if you get the happy green okay message:

Had your computer been infected with DNS changer malware you would have seen a red background. Please note, however, that if your ISP is redirecting DNS traffic for its customers you would have reached this site even though you are infected. For additional information regarding the DNS changer malware, please visit the FBI’s website at: www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/november/malware_110911.

Do It

Run the test, make sure you’re computer is safe. If not, use the instructions at DCWG to fix it. As the lady so eloquently said, “Check yourself before you wreck yourself.”

Note: Cross-posted at BlogHer.