breast cancer

Breast Cancer

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Here are the posts I’ve written so far about having breast cancer, arranged roughly in chronological order of the events and feelings they describe (not necessarily the order I posted them). Obviously, this will be updated from time to time.

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women in technology

Sex and Tech Events

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I set the scene in an earlier post: at any conference that I attend, especially when working a booth, I am expending energy every moment to prove that I am there as a technical contributor to my company and the event – a role which, for men, is taken for granted.

Now let’s look at an incident that occurred at a tech event I did not attend, and conjecture about how I might have reacted had I been there. Below is a description from a male attendee of a company-sponsored party at Sun Microsystems’ Java One in 2007:

Continue reading Sex and Tech Events →

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my life in tech, women in technology

Twenty Years of Being a Woman at Tech Events

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Since the early 1990s, I have attended tech events large and small in the US, Italy, Germany, and India. I was usually one of a small number of women attending or staffing in some technical capacity, i.e. able to speak knowledgeably about technologies and products. There were always other women around, but most of those were contracted for the duration of the event to work in a booth, taking business cards and giving out schwag. That work is useful and needed, but was not what I was there for.

I understood early on that I was an anomaly. A few times I even played on it: wearing a miniskirt while on booth duty, then waiting in glee to see how long it would take people to realize that I actually knew what I was talking about. (In Italy, it is not unusual for women to wear miniskirts to professional events.) But, even when I played with it, I wanted to be recognized for my brains and technical knowledge, not for my body.

No matter how I dressed, it was always an uphill battle.

Continue reading Twenty Years of Being a Woman at Tech Events →

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videoblogging, what I do

How I Shoot Video in 2015

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Current Rig

(This is an update of what I used to use. I have ditched the Beachtek adapter, though it might still be useful in some situations, and the Rode VideoMic, ditto.)

Camera

I am still faithful to the Canon Vixia models, though I’ve finally made the switch from tape to memory cards. (Which I am now completely paranoid about losing.) A good-quality consumer camcorder now costs around $200.

Mics

I still love the Sennheiser mic sets like this one – at least, when I have a corporate budget to buy them with (these have not diminished noticeably in price since I first began buying them around 2008). But, for home and personal use, I make do with the camera’s internal mic and it’s usually fine.

Tripod

It’s worth buying something a little better than the cheapest possible tripod, to try to get a smooth swivel in the head mount for when you’re filming a speaker who moves around a lot, or panning a room to get focus on different people speaking in a panel or group. My current work tripod is a Manfrotto compact model, because it’s handy to be able to stash it in a backpack or carry-on. I’m not entirely satisfied with the swivel on this one, however.

Filming on an iPhone

In a pinch, I use my iPhone. It’s not my favorite option, because:

  • The zoom is hard to use, and noticeably diminishes video quality.
  • Just because of the way it fits your hand, an iPhone is harder and more tiring to hand-hold and keep steady. However, in a situation where I’m reduced to using it, I’m also not likely to have any kind of tripod available. (Yes, there are tripod mounts for iPhones, and you should certainly get one if you’re going to use a phone for extensive filming.)
  • You have to have plenty of storage space free on the phone to shoot long videos and, when you’re in a hurry, it can take too long to clear stuff off your phone to make room.

But I have used iPhones to film in many situations, including a full-length OSCON talk.

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Australia

Watching Cricket in Sydney

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I see a lot of cricket lately, because Brendan loves it. He’s good at explaining it, so I’ve even become interested (which has not been the case with any other sport I’ve encountered in my life).

While we were in Australia this year, an international test match was being played between Australia and India. Naturally, we had to go! This was Day 1 (Jan 6, 2015) of the match at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Frankly, this happened to be a boring game, one of a series of disappointments for the Indian fans. I know from other matches I’ve seen (including the current ICC World Cup) that cricket is by no means necessarily boring. Still, it was an interesting experience to be there.

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