Curse

EnDinG · Jun 15, 2005, 06:12 PM // 18:12

I was talking to a friend about how people can meet one another. Most often its easier for some then others.

Example, my friend is a musician, he often goes out and plays at theatres and other things like that where others play as well. Not bad? You can meet people that share the same tastes as you.

Playing pool, again, at a bar you can meet others who might be up for a challenge. However, I don't see as many woman around here playing the game as men yet.

Even photos. Taking pictures of people places or things. Might just run into someone whos doing the same thing for all you know and start up a convo about cameras or whatever else is involved with those things.

*I just deleted a ton of information and figured I'd mark it here. If anyone actually becomes intereted in what was deleted and wouldn't mind a small debate about it, my contact info is in my profile. Mainly on MSN most of the time.*

Where am I going with this? Well how about this? There are a lot of people out there who don't know much outside of the computer online life. These people when they go out have, most often, a harder chance relating to others they meet. I know this, I've met a number of them over my life time. Those people if they gathered together, would have one HELVA great time chatting it up about anything releated to a computer. =)

What does this boil down into?

That I'm positive, that the one event that has never happened yet (and if I'm prooved wrong I want details about it) is that there has never been a room of girls sitting around talking about computers and other things along that line.

If I ever walked into a situation like that, oh damn, I'd be shocked and stunned. The fact that there is (I'll pick randomly) 6 girls lounging around with nothing much better to do then talk about computer parts and software over coffee would knock me flat on my rear.

I know there will be those females out there who are going to say "Yea, I talk about computers!" but has there ever been a fairly large group, without any male presence? (If so, I still want to hear or gain some knowledge of what girls talk about when it comes to computers.)

The thought of it can come off so taboo that it has peaked my interest right now to hear back about this!

I know both of the topics are kind of random, but from my knowledge around these parts (South Ontario area) things like that don't happen. I've taken three years of computer classes, and each year there was less girls then the year before. Somewhere from little less then half the class, to most recently, a 40 year old mother and one very unattractive female. (Unless you greasey hair and what might be a mustache attractive.)

The typical male computer geek can often have trouble trying to finding a female to relate to on a computer level. Might be a lot of female gamers, true, but how many female computer techs are out there? In my department at work, 2/15 are woman, one was just transfered in, and the other I think deals more with the phone network of the building.

I hope this post hasn't come off as mean or anything, just figured I'd bring some of my strange weird logical thinking up. *Shrugs* =)

Vengeance · Jun 15, 2005, 06:22 PM // 18:22

For what it's worth ... I'll back EnD up here ... in this area, the number of female computer techs is pretty low ... I've seen a lot of women on Help Desks and such ... but generally not much more beyond that ...

So ... is this because of some sort of societal perception that women shouldn't be doing computer tech work (like the mindsets of old which said that they couldn't also be politicians or in places of power) ... or is it that the facets of a techie job just aren't as interesting to the main population of women?

Now ... much like End ... I'm not meaning any offense ... but why is it that the perception of a computer geek always starts with one of a male?

EnDinG · Jun 15, 2005, 06:24 PM // 18:24

You make points that could challenge the Dali Lama.

Vengeance · Jun 15, 2005, 06:31 PM // 18:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by EnDinG

You make points that could challenge the Dali Lama.

Thanks ... I think?

Do I need to start putting out Vengeance Brand Cliff Notes?

ManadartheHealer · Jun 15, 2005, 06:46 PM // 18:46

I am pretty sure the logic is like this...

A majority of "average" women enjoy to go shopping at the mall for clothes.

The average straight man has no desire to go anywhere like that for hours on end

The same concept applies to computers. The average straight woman is simply not as interested in technology (computers, DVD players, other gadgets that hold our attention) as men are. Those that are are exceptional in nature and few in number.

Edit: On second (or third

) thought, perhaps not

Dreamsmith · Jun 15, 2005, 08:43 PM // 20:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by EnDinG

That I'm positive, that the one event that has never happened yet (and if I'm prooved wrong I want details about it) is that there has never been a room of girls sitting around talking about computers and other things along that line.

If I ever walked into a situation like that, oh damn, I'd be shocked and stunned. The fact that there is (I'll pick randomly) 6 girls lounging around with nothing much better to do then talk about computer parts and software over coffee would knock me flat on my rear.

Seen it happen, many times. Granted, they weren't talking about computer parts (they wouldn't know a Pentium from an Athlon, much less which their own computer had), but software? Certainly. Games especially, both PC and Playstation. Of course, this was the same group of girls who spent half their spare time writing anime fanfic, and LARPing once a week.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ManadartheHealer

A majority of "average" women enjoy to go shopping at the mall for clothes.

The majority of average women are like the majority of average men -- people who would spend their time doing things or talking about things I'm not the slightest bit interested in. Average men don't sit around talking about computers, either. They talk about sports or some other topic I know nothing of. I find it no easier to relate to an "average" man than I do to an "average" woman. In both cases, it's someone with whom I have nothing in common and nothing to talk about.

CatLady · Jun 15, 2005, 09:21 PM // 21:21

Quote:

That I'm positive, that the one event that has never happened yet (and if I'm prooved wrong I want details about it) is that there has never been a room of girls sitting around talking about computers and other things along that line.

I dislike it when people take their own limited experience and assume it must apply everywhere and to everyone else.

I've seen groups of women sit around and talk tech-shop for hours, just as I've seen men do it. As DreamSmith said, not always about home-PC hardware - sometimes it's about networking, or business software, or whatever else. This is probably, however, because I live in a 'silicon valley' area - where many of the major jobs and careers have their focus on tech in one form or another, or at least require a healthy knowledge of such things in order to be 'competitive' and fullfill the job function - thus more of such people are going to gather in one place, both male and female.

I do, however, understand what you're saying. IMO, it's the age-old logical/mechanical vs emotional/nurturing, man vs woman debate that's been going on for centuries. Etc.

There are biological theories about such things - usually related to the instinctive procreation survival process that we have yet to outgrow etc...but at any rate, if you're not meeting the kind of folk you want to be meeting, I'd suggest frequenting/moving to a new area where more of those kind of folk are likely to gather.

And for the non-average record...I hate shopping.

Arbel · Jun 15, 2005, 09:32 PM // 21:32

Last month I installed a video card to my computer...by myself. It was a Geforce FX 5200, which I know it's crap, but that was the only PCI (not express) card that I could find that was at least 128. I was hoping for a 256 but nooooooo! My computer is such crap, with the integrated card and all. One day I'm hoping to get a tablet pc, so I can do artwork without the trouble of scanning and inking and cleaning up. The only problem is that the tablet pc doesn't have great processors at the moment, so I guess I'll wait that out.

I also upgraded my RAM on my dinky computer. Ordered it, recieved it, took off my clothes and sat on the kitchen floor with my computer. It felt good to have something big and hard in between my legs that I could just tweak to no end. My computer could only go up to 1 gigabyte but it was still an improvement. And.. and..

I like to shop, but I don't stand in one place for an hour. I go in, look for what I want, and get out. Ta-da!

chalt2 · Jun 15, 2005, 09:49 PM // 21:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arbel

I also upgraded my RAM on my dinky computer. Ordered it, recieved it, took off my clothes and sat on the kitchen floor with my computer. It felt good to have something big and hard in between my legs that I could just tweak to no end.

!

And I thought that was just a dream I had......

Principa Discordia · Jun 15, 2005, 10:55 PM // 22:55

Ergh.

/abruptlyendpost

Dumb Quixote · Jun 15, 2005, 11:17 PM // 23:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by EnDinG

The typical male computer geek can often have trouble trying to finding a female to relate to on a computer level.

Haha... to be perfectly honest, the typical male computer geek can't relate to a girl on any level.

Speaking as a man who has been married for nearly a decade (whoohoo!), different hobbies are the secret to happiness my friend.

And if you are being completely truthful, you'd HATE it if a girl out-geeked you.

Keesa · Jun 16, 2005, 03:47 PM // 15:47

I hate stereotypes.

What are you really asking here? Do pockets of women, when given the opportunity, discuss their common hobbies even if they involve microcircuitry? I have a couple girlfriends with whom I discuss the latest articles on www.tomshardware.com, which site most of my guy friends don't peruse all the time, either.

But I tend to talk to my technologically-savvy girlfriends all the time via well, technology, so no, we don't really "get together" and geek out. If we ever decided to go to a conference or something together we would, though.

Vengeance · Jun 16, 2005, 03:52 PM // 15:52

I think EnDinG is planning a road trip ... and wants to know where he should be making stops ... so he's looking for the highest concentration clusters of female geeks ...

After all ... while he's away on the road who will lavish him with attention over his mod-hood?

>

EnDinG · Jun 16, 2005, 04:24 PM // 16:24

Damn, you have found me out Ven.

And my point was mainly based off of my years of schooling and personal events. We never had more then 5 girls at any point in time in any of the classes I took. Generally around the 2nd semister, 2-4 would drop the course. I never really asked why (since I never got around to questioning them about it).

I commonly will often chat with buddies of mine over games of poker about PC's, or even at a bar. Might scare off some people, but meh, we talk what we know. I was all curious to know if there is actually a group of females that tend to do this as well. (Poker being once a week, bar trips maybe a couple of times.)

Think I need a few more replies before a structured theory could be put together of woman vs men - who in groups tend to converse more about the nature of computers. Games I wasn't really going to count in here, sorry, should have mentioned it before since well, a 5 year old could talk your ear off about them as well. :P (Not saying there aren't those odd 5 year olds who could build their own rocket ship with built in coffee maker.)

Just more of a... Full round view on the subject?

(And DQ, I actually know of one girl who can out geek me. =) )