tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2446190404043833831.post960325338581335078..comments2023-11-02T09:01:07.944-04:00Comments on Kay Steiger: How Journalism Needs to ChangeKay Steigerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09366285915703503466noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2446190404043833831.post-25269609534067600212010-09-20T23:51:38.501-04:002010-09-20T23:51:38.501-04:00I hesitate to say "great post" because t...I hesitate to say "great post" because that is such a favorite of spammers, but great post. I would add just one little tidbit regarding "xhtml", and a very very pleasant example of exactly the kind of reading you might do if you want to understand web technology, with or without mastering the syntax of various languages and APIs. Namely: <a href="http://diveintohtml5.org/past.html" rel="nofollow">Mark Pilgrim's description of the history of (x)html</a> leading up to the current and next html version. It shows the very human and contingent way these technologies get developed and adopted -- it is hard to summarize but one takeaway, for example that confused the hell out of me until I read it, is that it is no longer necessary to fuss about the "x" in xhtml; it was a noble but mostly unsuccessful experiment. It would be a great essay question for a high-level web programming class: "What doctype should we be using and why?"<br /><br />Also regarding the lack of diversity in tech: another way of looking at it is that many men across the range of technical talent are insecure creeps; their ability to do certain things regarded as hard is a little crutch they use to feel superior -- the put downs, the dismissive voice when doubts they only recently cleared up are raised -- these are real, and apply unfortunately to grad student instructors, professors, professionals alike. It doesn't affect us white dudes quite as much because we don't assume they know what they are talking about -- nobody else should either. Just take on a few programming challenges if you want to learn to program. I was a couple years out of college before I was able to get past the feeling of incompetence that the "weed-out" classes and the programming culture instilled and really try to write programs I wanted to use. (Another source of insecurity is this constant droning on the part of techies to the effect of "anything you might want to use has already been written by someone much better than you" -- this is also bullshit.) You can do fun and interesting stuff the first week, try Python or Ruby and a database like MySQL or SQLite and you are off and running.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com