Barbie goes Geek
Hard-working Barbie is adding two more careers to her
long resume — news anchor and computer engineer.
The
two new ventures for the world's most popular fashion doll
were chosen for the first time by the public, who cast more
than 500,000 votes to select Barbie's 125th and 126th
careers, toymaker Mattel said on Friday.
The popular
vote went to Computer Engineer Barbie, who will be launched
in the fall of 2010 looking "geek chic" in a binary
code-patterned T-shirt, pink-framed glasses, a pink laptop
and a Bluetooth earpiece.
Funny... but I think that if it were
authentic... the glasses would be black and not a trendy
pink color... =]
dual monitors... and a
laptop... its not a data phone, though...
The binary on the computer
screens is pretty funny...
Here's what WIRED had to say:
The takeover of the world by
geeks has just made another giant leap forward. Yesterday,
Mattel announced that, as a result of a poll of fans, for
Barbie’s next career, she will be a computer engineer.
We at GeekDad are all for anything that might encourage
girls to pursue tech careers when they grow up, and this new
Barbie might just fit the bill. We especially like that its
accessories were chosen with help from the Society of Women
Engineers and the National Academy of Engineering, which
explains the geek chic shirt with the binary code all over
it, and the smartphone with Bluetooth headset.
We’re
concerned, however, that the doll will create unrealistic
expectations of what a job as a software engineer actually
entails. Some of these expectations may be encouraging and
some discouraging. For instance, Computer Engineer Barbie
is, like most (if not all) Barbies, wearing high heels,
which seems a ridiculously uncomfortable shoe choice for a
job where nobody really cares what you’re wearing so long as
it’s decent.
Here, then, are five ideas that we think
would make Computer Engineer Barbie more realistic (in no
particular order):
1. The choice of a coffee cup or
Mountain Dew can that, once put in her hand, can’t be
removed for two hours.
2. A cubicle farm playset,
with optional foosball table.
3. A switch to turn on
dark circles under Barbie’s eyes from having worked until
2:00AM three days in a row to get all the bugs fixed before
the new release is deployed.
4. A wrist brace for
when Barbie gets carpal tunnel syndrome.
5. The
choice between Mac Computer Engineer Barbie, Windows
Computer Engineer Barbie, and Linux Computer Engineer
Barbie. Then they could publicize the sales figures daily to
encourage geek parents to buy the version they want to win
for their kids.
Read More
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2010/02/5-ideas-to-make-computer-engineer-barbie-realistic
Seems
Google went too far with the 'connecting'
Google moved quickly to contain a firestorm of criticism
over Buzz, its new social network, taking the unusual step
of announcing changes to the product over the weekend to
address privacy problems.
Late Saturday, Todd
Jackson, product manager for Gmail and Google Buzz, wrote in
a blog post that Google had decided to alter one of the most
vehemently criticized features in Buzz: the ready-made
circle of friends that Buzz gives new users based on their
most frequent e-mail and chat contacts. Now, instead of
automatically connecting people, Buzz merely suggests to new
users a group of people that they may want to follow or want
to be followed by.
Google will give users who have
already signed up the same start-up screen as new users over
the next two weeks, to give them a “second chance to review
and confirm” the people they are following.
Buzz
will also no longer connect public Picasa albums and items
users shared on Google Reader automatically, another feature
that had been heavily criticized by some users and privacy
advocates.
Finally, Google is creating a new Buzz tab
in Gmail’s settings page that allows users to hide Buzz from
Gmail completely. The page gives users the option to disable
Buzz, deleting their posts and, importantly, removing their
Google profile, which in many cases listed publicly a user’s
circle of contacts in Buzz. The new feature could address
concerns that turning off Buzz and removing a public profile
was a multi-step process that confused many users and that
some described as a game of whack-a-mole.
MORE:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/google-alters-buzz-to-tackle-privacy-flaws/
I guess churches aren't
'neutral ground' anymore.
A Sunday church service in Richmond, California,
erupted into chaos when three gunmen opened fire on
congregants, injuring two teens, according to police.
Police headed to the New Gethsemane Church of God in
Christ about 12:30 p.m. (3:30 p.m. ET), after three hooded
men shot at churchgoers, Richmond police spokeswoman Bisa
French told CNN.
"We're not sure if those two victims
were targeted, but someone definitely in that general area
where the victims were, was targeted," French said.
Police are unsure why the church, filled with more than 100
people, was attacked. "The key people aren't being
cooperative"
MORE:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/14/MNDK1C1O68.DTL
One way to calm kids
down.
Who woulda thunk it? Giving WiFi to fidgety students on a
bus actually makes them more productive.
Nearly three years after an Arkansas school launched a
trial that delivered laptops, iPods and wireless internet to
a bus, an Arizona school district is discovering the merits
of such a system -- though with this one, there stands a
good chance for it to go well beyond the "pilot" phase.
Students in Vail, Arizona have been able to handle school
assignments, engage in research and even update their
Facebook status on the lengthy rides to and from school, and
the suits responsible for hooking Bus No. 92 up have stated
that mischief has all but subsided and the bus has magically
morphed into something of a "rolling study hall." As you'd
expect, Autonet Mobile is responsible for the technology
(the same company equipping select GM vehicles with in-car
WiFi), and it has already sold similar tech to schools or
districts in Florida, Missouri and Washington, DC.
MORE:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/14/arizona-school-bus-gains-wifi-students-suddenly-chill-out-and-g/
Greetings!
