Photo by Aristocrat (cc)

Today, 24^th March 2009 is the first Ada Lovelace Day. Bloggers around the globe are invited to write a blog post about  a women in technology that they admire. The aim is to highlight female role models and encourage women to become leaders in technology.

What does “in technology” mean?

It’s up to you how you interpret the phrase “in technology”. We’re not just interested in hardcore ninja programmers, but any woman who creates, invents, or uses any technology in an innovative way. Feel free to interpret it as widely as you like.

- From the website FindingAda.com

Who is Ada Lovelace?

Ada Lovelace is today appreciated as the first computer programmer. (more…)

While checking my personal e-mail on Yahoo! today (another) flash overlay advertisement disrupted the simple task that I was trying to do. Sure, this happens now and again but what was different about this one? Well, when I clicked on the ‘close’ button it opened the link to the product that was being advertised in another tab. So, I closed that and clicked ‘close’ again, thinking that I must have made an error and have missed clicking the ‘close’ button the first time (I was clicking ‘close’ quickly in frustration afterall). But no, it did exactly the same thing. While I’m not a fan of pop-up flash advertisements that cause me to be distracted from what I was originally doing, when I click close, I expect the ad to actually close! (more…)

Photo owned by Thai Jasmine (cc)

I learned a lot in 2008… and I loved a lot as well. Read about some of the highlights of my year from music, books, design, the web and technology to Obama, going green, success and failure, who I am/ what I do and sticktuitiveness!

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Photo owned by Chris Seufert (cc)

This is my first week of self-employment. Friday was my last day in my permanent job and yes, I did choose to leave that safe pensionable job in the middle of the recession!

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I saw the new Microsoft advertisement on tv earlier today. Microsoft’s response to Apple’s “I’m a PC… I’m a Mac” advertisement seems more like a retaliation than an innovation. “I’m a PC and I’ve been made into a stereotype.” Is that an admission that the smaller rival is winning or are they taking them head-on?

What’s clever about Microsoft’s ad is that it focuses on the everyday nature of the PC and the good they can do in the world. A nerdy PC-user is just a scene setter. The ad then quickly moves through lots of different types of PC users including an African school teacher, a blogger for Obama, a McCain supporter, people wearing jeans, designing jeans, and studying genes and not to mention some celebrity endorsement in the form of Pharell Williams, Eva Longoria and BG himself. This is a refreshing contrast to the Apple ads because they take place in a variety of different, colorful locations, with a variety of races and cultures, rather than existing within Apple’s clinical, white world.

Microsoft’s I’m a PC – Life Without Walls website features more information and a chance for users to become a PC on TV by uploading their own “I’m a PC’ videos, which Microsoft will use for their online advertising and TV campaigns.True, this could be considered a great Parthian shot at Apple but what about the people who use both PC’s and Mac’s? We’ve got 2 Mac’s and 4 PC’s in our house… what does that make us? *Niamh walks away saying “I’m a PC and a MAC”… Though, I’m more of a Mac! *

Watch the “I’m a PC” video on YouTube.