Sorry but this sounds like bullshit to me. By that logic Microsoft could get money from anyone who's ever made a software product because "some patents in the vast portfolio can be found that may be in some sense considered violated."
I buy the other argument more, the one that says Android does horribly infringe on Apple's and Microsoft's patents because it's a copied product and that's what happens when you make a copied product.
The height of non-racisim isn't preferring a minority race over the dominant race, it's dealing with people as if you genuinely don't notice what race they're from. There's a great south park episode on this.
Similarly I believe the height of non-sexism isn't (in my humble opinion) giving women only help, it's dealing as if you don't notice the person's gender. Do eliminate brogramming and sexist jokes at the workplace but don't give women only meetups, courses, and preferential treatment.
"This is a bit of a delicate topic. Quite often I am the only female person in the team and have to be careful not to take advantage of the perks that come with it."
"you can get away with a lot of things just by fluttering your eyelashes and being a bit cheeky, which is a habit that is so easy to get into. I have to confess I’ve done it myself because if you are surrounded by guys all day you quickly feel powerful."
"Technical directors are really keen to hire girls because we boost the morale."
"If a male and a female developer with a similar skill level apply for a job, I bet that in 99.9% of the cases the girl will get the job."
How is all this not sexist? Or is sexism against males not sexism anymore? This is sexist, and shouldn't be upvoted.
OFFTOPIC - Man I can't believe how often I am coming across "sexist in IT" stuff now. I read your second link and I thought to myself it all makes sense. Demanding that compsci have more women is like demanding [insert women dominated field here] have more men, even though most men just aren't interested in the stuff. Why bother? Why not just let people work on what they want to work on?
Is this making me a sexist misogynistic jerk? I am not trolling, I am honestly curious. Explain to me why I am wrong. I will reflect and make up my mind and be intense and stuff.
Here's my take: I am a straight male and I go to a gay bar for a friends birthday. Guy there thinks I am hot, so after a few minutes of conversation he starts rubbing my chest. I politely apologize for leading him on and tell him I am straight. He understands and goes away.
In my mind that's an exact analogy to what happened there. Sure a tech conference isn't a bar, but according to the OP the "frat environment" was there. What I did was realize that I am out of place. What she did is the equivalent of me calling the guy a creep, handing gay people red/yellow cards for creepiness, posting it on Hacker news and getting lots of sympathy from self incriminating gay people.
Again, if you disagree. Educate me. Help me understand.
Heh... sure. That's an apt analogy. The "frat party environment I was stepping into" is totally comparable to elite colleges.
/s
I feel like what was really going on is that there were n young girls at defcon that went to defcon knowing what defcon is like. They were completely fine with it, enjoyed being hit on and maybe got some one on one time the cute hacker across the bar.
Then this one entitled lady that thinks is all wrong, and makes cards about how the people that made the conference she wants to go to are creeps.. and guys here read it and think they've gone wrong somewhere.
More women complaining about how the world isn't tailored to their every want and need, and they get all the sympathy in the world in spite of how plain whiny they're being. On the other end of the spectrum, I invite you to read this article, written by a woman, on how funny male rape is:
I don't know much about Defcon, but I get the idea that the person that wrote that post isn't organizing it, nor is a prominent figure in the scene. I also gather that the general atmosphere at that is.. fun-ish.
If you don't like that kind of fun, have you considered, um, not attending? Or did you just go ahead and demand that everyone at defcon behaved like you want them too, because, obviously, you're at the centre of the universe and everyone at defcon is just there to do what you please?
If you go to a gay bar you'll get your ass grabbed, if you go to the sketchy part of town at 2 am you'll get mugged, and if you go to defcon with a shoulder tattoo showing and you're flirting with some guy, you might get the tattoo licked. If you're not into these things, don't go to these places.
EDIT: looks like my link's story has been edited to remove the snarky comments first posted by @NatalieEvans85. Good for them
What the hell? How is the PageRank patent not protection to Google? If Yahoo, LiveSearch and whatever other famous search engine just went ahead and ripped off Google then Google wouldn't be the Google we know now... Proving it shouldn't be any more difficult than asserting any patent. The defendant would have to show how they're ranking pages I would imagine, and if there's an infringement, they're found guilty.
I buy the other argument more, the one that says Android does horribly infringe on Apple's and Microsoft's patents because it's a copied product and that's what happens when you make a copied product.