computers

Kilobyte Couture: Geek Chic Jewelry to Make From Easy-to-Find Computer Components

admin — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:16:00 +0000

As someone who has recently begun making and designing jewelry using the standard materials—such as beads, chains, ribbons—I was impressed to see a book about jewelry made from computer parts. Yes, that’s right, computer parts. Written by former Etsy seller Brittany Forks, Kilobyte Couture touts itself as "geek chic", but I think many of the designs and styles are simply chic! For many of the styles, if you weren’t told it was made out of computer parts, you might never know. Forks literally transforms these “uncool and ‘nerdy’ things” and makes them “100 percent cute.” It connects women to things that may have in the past been relegated only to men: computer technology. It’s a fun way to creatively reclaim and rebrand what it means to be a geek while celebrating your love of uniquely geek-y things. There’s everything from rings and bracelets to ID holders and Wii charms.

Forks tells the reader where to get the items you'll need—whether online, from Radio Shack, or from local universities. You’ll also need some basic jewelry making tools from a craft store. There are vivid color pictures of the finished products along with detailed drawings of some of the more difficult (yet clear and easy to read) instructions. (As someone who teaches technical writing, I know clear and easy to follow directions are paramount!)

Kilobyte Couture isn’t just about creating fun and unique jewelry. It's an historical celebration of technology as well. Scattered throughout the book are Top 10 lists of the best nerdy date activities, leading men, cities, books, and more. There is also a timeline that traces the components you’ll be using for your jewelry back to the late 1800’s, which is when the first radio signal was transmitted.

Kilobyte Couture will inspire you to be proud of your inner (and now outer) geek!

Written by: Kristin Conard, July 21st 2009

Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives on Gender and Gaming

admin — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 10:36:00 +0000

By Yasmin B. Kafai, Carrie Heeter, Jill Denner, Jennifer Y. Sun

MIT Press

As I opened this collection, I had just finished shaking my head at a picture a man I know well posted of himself grinning vividly, arms around a young woman clad in a chain mail bikini top at a gaming conference. This “booth babe” photo rests comfortably within the confines of his MySpace page. I cracked the spine of this volume considering how I felt about the girl, the picture, the medium, and my own experiences as feminist scholar who is also an avid gamer. This book, I realized, is a timely addition to a conversation that ended too abruptly, and continuing from the first watershed edition of this conversation is very relevant at this particular moment in gaming culture.

I often felt guilty that I took on a “typical” female character in World of Warcraft. I do not play a warrior; I play a hybrid character that engages combat from afar and heals others. Although I love my character, I constantly feel un-feminist when gaming from such a culturally feminine position. These are the sorts of questions and conversations we are ready to have rather than simply an analysis of the demographics in gaming, and Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat moves us in this direction.

The editors rightly explain that the impetus for the collection is to go beyond the gaming analysis that evolved in the early ‘90s and the simple attention to both how many women were playing and how many women characters were bikini clad within the games. The moment of clucking a tongue at the buxom Lara Croft has passed us and gaming; gaming culture and its impact has reached a far more complicated moment in need of analysis, and this volume attempts that discussion.

In their introduction, the editors argue that a more complete discussion of the multi-billion dollar industry as a whole is an important element to a full analysis of the phenomena and impact of this cultural entity. This includes not only how many women play games, but what sorts of games and how the industry has responded to them—not just as players, but as designers or those who provide input into the industry.

One important element the book covers is that with the rise of more complex gaming is the rise of gaming communities, opening a clear avenue for a more enlightened and nuanced discussion of gender in gaming. (A conversation my online gaming community has frequently addressed in our private forums.)

This book would make an excellent text in a multi-media classroom as it deftly handles the past research, includes contemporary scholars who are the top of the field, and carefully paints a comprehensive picture of not simply game design, game players, and plot lines, but also of the industry as a economic whole, one that employs a wide range of labor. The book takes on hearty conversations of where gender plays into that labor and as a result, reinforces the gaming industry as a cultural staple and microcosm of larger social theoretical space.

The book also does well to not rely solely on quantitative research for its evidence or argument, and a collection of interviews with references to authors from the past research the book seeks to add to helps to paint a more qualitative conversation of the industry that is often solely measured in profits, percentages, purchases, or players.

Written by: Dr. Julie E. Ferris, April 16th 2009

She's Such a Geek: Women Write about Science, Technology, and Other Nerdy Stuff

admin — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 12:40:00 +0000

Edited by Annalee Newitz, Charlie Anders

Seal Press

A collection of essays by women geeks? What can self-professed geeks share with the rest of women about what it means to be female? A heck of a lot, whether you measure it in decimal or binary.

She's Such a Geek is a wonderful affirmation of what it means to be a geek and to be a woman (sometimes even feminine!) without falling into the trap of sounding bitter or obnoxiously over-assertive. I loved it. From essays like Kory Well’s “Really Good for a Girl” to Violet Blue’s “The Hacker’s Guide to What’s in Her Own Panties,” these essays explore the beginnings of geek culture with hard drives that had less memory capacity that floppy disks to the growing field of teledildonics – with musings on how cool it would be to have a vibrator that plugs into your USB port for cybersex.

These women think about logic and intuition and how male/female stereotypes apply to the worlds of geekiness. But geeks, of course, aren’t defined by computers. “To me, a geek is someone who is passionate about something,” Jessica Dickenson Goodman says. These geeks are obsessed with computers, chemistry, astronomy, history and (I would add) life. There are worse ways to live than being passionate about learning. Let these women introduce you to obsession, or validate your insecurities about your own passions.

Written by: Janine Peterson Wonnacott, March 9th 2007