Monday June 20, 2005

Off to a new adventure

It seems I18n G.A.L.* is truly going international. In a couple of weeks I will be moving to England. Granted, I won't be using another language. But it is a different culture (and a slightly different language). I have always wanted to live in Europe, I just didn't think it would take this long, and I didn't think it would be England.

Unfortunately it doesn't look like I'll be able to stay with Sun after the move. I have tried and will continue to try a little longer. But I've also created a new blog:

http://i18ngal.blogspot.com/

I haven't put much there apart from a short welcome message. I'm pretty much up to my eyeballs in sorting, packing, recycling, donating, and throwing away stuff. Having just finished doing all that for my office, I'm now in full swing at home. When you're accustomed to sitting for a good chunk of the day, it's pretty exhausting to be up and running around. Even when I can sit and pack, it doesn't last long. I must admit I'm enjoying it in a perverse way. I get to take a look at things I haven't seen in a long time, or have forgotten existed (I've been in my current house for over 11 years). I have an excuse to get rid of a bunch of stuff, and I appreciate the chance to simplify. I know I'm still keeping way too much junk, but it'll be significantly less than before.

It will be hard to adjust, but I'm hoping to channel my energy during my periods of isolation (and less than stellar weather) to putting together some photo albums and scrapbooks that have been waiting for their chance in the sun (all puns intended).

I have also invested in a sun lamp, and will install full spectrum bulbs throughout whatever house I wind up in. (No sense in suffering from SAD needlessly.)

It feels good, momentarily, to have a few uncertainties ahead - no job, no home of my own, etc. I may not wind up working in internationalization, nor even computer software. I could work for an environmental firm and teach Pilates on the side. I could start my own business doing, I don't know, American style sweets and snacks (no, no, not the food business!) Maybe I could just be home for awhile. Time will tell. The path is unknown, and that means the possibilities are endless.

I hope to be writing about some of my experiences in my new blog. I don't know that I can be as clever as Bill Bryson, but maybe I can make a few folks smile and chuckle. Until then.

* goddess-at-large

( Jun 20 2005, 09:45:16 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [1]

Wednesday June 08, 2005

Another set of myths ... about women in science and engineering

For those of you who are not aware, there is an online mentoring organization called MentorNet. MentorNet "addresses the retention and success of those in engineering, science and mathematics, particularly but not exclusively women and other underrepresented groups." If you'd like to sign up, they're looking for people working in the sciences, though they seem to have a glut of computer scientists. MentorNet puts out a newsletter for its members, and recently published the following article:

Exploding Myths About Women in Science and Engineering

In the article, 3 myths about why so few women go into the sciences are discussed. It is instructive, but I don't think it goes far enough. Myth #1 states that "Math = Science", but I don't see what that has to do with women. Unless they're referring to another long held belief in the myth that women can't do math. Which is, of course, pure bunk.

What I find scary is that people really believe this nonsense, to the point where a Harvard president vocalizes these beliefs. Would that it were that they could walk a mile in a woman's shoes ... they might face the situation that a "mentee" of mine faced. She spent a semester studying at a state college in Florida (her college was in California). Since her major was computer science, naturally she took computer science classes. In a couple of cases, she was the only woman in a large class. In one case the professor took her aside and asked her what she was doing in the class. Not understanding, she explained that her major was computer science. To which this complete idiot "college professor" replied that girls don't go into the sciences, they usually stick with liberal arts subjects. This was 1997, folks, a college professor. Not to mention that in another class where she was the only woman the professor continually singled her out, referring to her as an example, calling on her extensively, to the point of embarrassment. Gee, I wonder why women give up...

When I tell stories like this, people don't believe me, or they think this is an isolated incident. I've heard from several women who've left engineering because of the environment. This kind of stuff goes on all the time, relentlessly. Those of us who can put up with it do. But many want a better quality of life than that, and so they move on to different careers, or to found their own companies.

For woman who want a leg up, I'd recommend reading Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide

( Jun 08 2005, 09:15:55 AM PDT ) Permalink

Monday June 06, 2005

Putting the myths together - what do you get?

Bippity boppity boo.

And now, the summary of the Internationalization Myths (drum roll, please):

1. "Internationalization means externalizing the user interface so the software can be translated."
2. "Translators choose the best phrase in the target language."
3. "The code is in Java and therefore it's internationalized."
4. "My product supports Unicode and therefore it's internationalized."
5. "My product uses open source and so internationalization requirements don't apply."
6. "ISO-8859-1 is the standard encoding for HTML."
7. "All company employees speak English, so only English needs to be supported by internal tools."
8. "Administration interfaces don't need internationalization."
9. "We've never localized this product/module/component/blidget, so it doesn't need internationalization."
10. "We added internationalization in the last release, so we're done."
11. "If something is wrong, our customers will tell us."
12. "My product works in Japanese, therefore it's internationalized."
13. "Internationalization is implemented after the base product is written by a separate group of engineers."
14. "Internationalization is only needed in the software development department."

Tell everyone you know about these myths, and tell them to tell others. It would be such a pleasure never to hear them again! But of course without them we'd have nothing to laugh at. Or would we?

( Jun 06 2005, 09:19:52 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [1]