skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I in fact agree with you and think you are 100% right but I think you are parsing the situation incorrectly. In fact it seems to be Ms. Richards who will cause women to be reluctant to report real sexual harassment.

Let me draw from a past experience of mine involving a female colleague who was sexually harassed. She related the situation to me and I had absolutely no doubt that what was said to her was inappropriate and needed to be reported to HR. I in fact encouraged her to bring the issue to HR. She told me she was highly reluctant to say anything because she was afraid it would affect the perception of her in the office.

This is a real and legitimate concern for women in the workplace today.

But the fact is, the person she, and women like her, do not want to be seen as is Ms. Richards. My female colleague had experienced a real threat in her workplace that was truly hostile. Ms. Richards demeans very real threats to gender equality in the workplace by using a penis joke told in a private conversation to deal real, public damage senselessly. I am greatly concerned for my female colleagues who are lumped into the same "team" as Ms. Richards, particularly in the inevitable case that they do experience truly awful sexual harassment or threat.
Hmm. They seem to be launching this almost as if its part of their service, but really it's just a sort of general-purpose example that utilizes their services. Might this indicate some kind of partnership with Stripe?

Edit: Yup. http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2013/03/21/stripe-partners-with...
Every hour let's say they're losing 1% of their customer base. What would you do?
Sad, sad irony. Screenshot: http://d.pr/i/8WgF
And with Apple it is the opposite: if you don't at least once a month have to accept their terms your iPhone is likely being monitored.
All this careful superior engineering and all the sophisticated desktop UX libs and I can't name one desktop app that is nice to use (except SketchUp but that's thanks to innovative 3D tools not the UX which is ugly).

While many webapps written with crap tech thats only advantage is fairly flat learning curve look marvelous, responsive and are perfect in what they do.
She could have simply turned around and told them that she found what they were saying offensive and that would have been the end of it. Instead she choose to publicly humiliate and shame them, at the cost of one man's job, and that was going to far. Frankly, she acted like a bully.

When I saw some other post she'd made on Twitter where she joked about telling a guy to stuff a sock in his pants for TSA searches I really felt like she was the bad actor here... it made her seem more than a little hypocritical.
You should not make such an offer. Either ask a small fee for the project or either get a cool idea and make a small app and post it on github, or maybe you can start a small startup if you have a lot of time and just want to show people your coding skills. Do not make deals that have an unknown outcome for you
It might be unlikely if this were over a random [anime,gaming,furry,...] convention, but these are people at the leading edge of web technology. Given the audience, it's entirely possible someone within it could orchestrate such an attack.

That tweet is unsigned, where all others are. They clearly have a well-enforced policy of tweet signing, but the firing tweet has none. FB posts have the same signing--except the post about the firing. The blog and status portal sites have the comment under clear user accounts, so it doesn't look like they're trying to have a unified front on it, as might be implied by unsigned tweets and FB posts.
You are probably unfortunately correct.

This should be scary. What if a mob or someone with access to a botnet contacts your employer and demands you be fired?

This whole thing is very sad. People did wrong things but are getting punishment way out of whack for the "crime."
I agree, and I think sexism is a problem in the industry, but on the other hand, wasn't she sort of "eavesdropping"? How do you draw the line?
Finding the strongest shapes with 3D printing
CISPA

PIPA

SOPA

DMCA takedown abuse

Foreign raid on Megaupload

Mickey-Mouse copyright extensions

huge fines for filesharing

I think the list could go on. These are all outside-of-market solutions to the content industry's competition problem. The hope is that if these avenues are no longer available to the MPAA/RIAA, they will be forced to consider collaborating with modern technology solutions that give consumers more freedom, more choices, and more control (because the competitor, piracy, gives people these things already).
You only have to hijack one account if the password across all four services isn't unique.
1) 100% agreed

2) What I find amusing about jwz's blog is that every time he has to interact with government he gets screwed - massively massively screwed - yet he still thinks that anyone proposing less government is self-obviously a nut case.
I agree with you that her actions were a bit on the obscene side.

However, you are failing to see the import here.

"because they said something you generally don't like.
_This is what happened_"

No, this is not what happened. The developer said an offensive joke, as a representative of his employer, at a conference full of his peers. He behaved in a disrespectful and unprofessional manner and deserves all the shame heaped on him (aside from being fired).

Dick jokes are not something that people "generally don't like". They are inappropriate in this setting. Joke around with your buddies at the bar all you want, but on company time and when you're in a professional setting, SHUT UP.
Key Business Drivers for Network Projects
Contact the FBI to report the DDOS attack?
Fox News is a cash cow, and MSNBC is trying to get into the game
>> And honestly, she can't even function as a sort of "women's tech evangelist" anymore. Most [all, actually] of the women I've talked to about this are furious with her over how badly this portrays women.

Needs references.
Just model the grid as a battery in your head. Just because the grid is really bad at storing energy now, doesn't meant hat this won't change soon. And that's not Apple's problem.

All the energy that they produce and put on the grid is energy that is not generated by fossil fuels or nuclear. Good enough.
Scott Adams once wrote about this side of his Dilbert series: "It seems I don't offend people. I offend other people."

(Quoted from memory. He was speaking about the letters he got about how his jokes could offend a group of people to which the senders did not belong.)
You're looking at this really single-mindedly though. Yes, there are always repercussions for anything you say depending on who the audience is. The guys who made these jokes within earshot of Adria learned this. Now Adria is learning this after shaming them on the entire Internet.

It kind of comes down to what is a reasonable response, and it seems that's what 50% of the Internet disagrees with. If someone makes an offensive joke near you, we hopefully agree that you can't turn around and shoot that person in the face. We hopefully agree that you can't turn around and punch that person in the face. Calling the conference organizers and reporting them and having them kicked out doesn't seem unreasonable, but going out of your way to shame them on Twitter and a blog does. That just seems like overkill to me. That overkill, at least as I see it, is the thing that perhaps she might apologize for.
Real Makers Ship & the Kickstarter Hangover
Even in large companies, hiring and firing is not solely in the domain of the HR department. Firing decisions usually involve at least the employee's direct superior. Given that SendGrid is a small company, and that this employee was involved in a very public controversy, I imagine that the executive team also had to weigh in on the matter.

Because the controversy involved an allegation of sexism, a prudent company would also bring in a lawyer. Besides the usual covering-the-bases needed when firing anyone, you have an employee who believes she acted to stop sexual harassment. She could very well try to frame the firing as something that stems from gender discrimination.

Oh yeah, you also want to talk to the employee herself.

So, trying to get what is at least 5 to 6 different people on the same page and in meetings takes time, logistically, to schedule. Nevermind the time it takes to investigate the matter and doublecheck the facts and have give-and-take debates about it.

You really think that when a enterprise company like SendGrid goes under attack, only the ops people are the ones up late at night? Don't you think the executives and customer relations have some weight to pull?

All of the above factors make it difficult to believe that the firing took place after a deliberate, thorough process in the span of two days. It's not impossible, but it's unlikely enough that no one can be blamed for being skeptical or surprised.
Whats the FBI going to do? Revolutionize a new way of countering DDOS attacks in a few hours?
Sexual and sexist are only the same if you believe women are chaste, which is horrendously sexist.
Nice! As someone who's been getting by using only the bare necessities in Chrome DevTools, I've been on the lookout for something like this to help me get more out of it. Thanks, Paul.
Except that what we really have is like 50/50 legal system / mob rule.

The legal system isn't protecting Sendgrid from having the awesome day they're enjoying right now.
Retain her as a consultant, maybe?
I don't understand why this whole issue is being looked at from a feminist Angle. What would the reaction be if a guy has tweeted the same thing? I am not sure if what she did was right/wrong. deciding if she is right or wrong considering it a action of a women saddens me.
This reminds me why I hate real names on public social networking when talking about these types of issues.

Whatever this woman's original motive was got immediately lost in the shallow exchanges which follow, but the commentary becomes important because it is now personal.

I feel more contempt for the real name trolls now gloating over her firing too. None of whom I assume were present at the original event. The internet is full of bile, but I'm happier with anonymous bile.
Yes, actually there was. One of the things that she was upset about was what she perceived to be a sexual joke about the word "fork" sounding like "fuck".

What she didn't understand (since she's not a developer, and probably isn't exposed to these things) is that "fork" is a reference to "git fork".

And if you were to read the follow ups from the guys who were shamed over their oh-so-offensive discussion of dongles and code management, you would see that "fork" was an in joke between them. "Fork" in this context meaning a form of flattery.

For instance "Danilo is a good developer; I'd for his repo".

There is NOTHING sexual about this, but you might not know that if you're not a person who uses git.

Which is exactly what happened.
If they didn't essentially fire him for making a dongle joke, they'd probably have tried harder to make that clear in the announcement
Context is everything. No other definition for racism given in the same article depends on the racist being a member of a privileged race.
Bitcoin interest spikes in Spain as Cyprus financial crisis grows
I guess it seemed relevant to me, because the whole point was that Adria was (perhaps too easily) triggered by comments with sexual undertones. There is something scatological and offensive about photocopying your bum, but it doesn't seem all that sexual. Mooning a stranger is obnoxious, but exposing yourself to a stranger makes you a sex offender.

(And yes, it's pretty easy to photocopy your ass without photocopying the other parts if you sit on the photocopier the right way.)
I get the feeling you're fighting a losing battle re. rudeness...
I'm pretty sure they were waiting until the Supreme Court composition favored them before bringing a case. Heller was a 5-4 decision, filing when the court was more left/liberal could have had resulted in a devastating judicial precedent for gun owners.
I was trying to be rather non-denominational :) here, but yes, essentially NCO's.

Commonwealth Armies use chevrons, or "stripes" to the layman. Americans (except the USAF/Navy, for some reason) flip those upside down to be different. Other armies use different things, but basically, more == higher.

Of course we also have crowns up here in Canada just to confuse new recruits. :-)
PG: has anyone tried reaching out to SendGrid to give a comment? I'm sure if you gave a call they'd say something :)
I see this case as being no different from that attack on Phil Zimmerman in the 90s, except that Zimmerman is still a free man. Anaya did not "choose sides," he provided a legal service to willing customers without prying, no different from a cryptography expert who helps people deploy and use cryptosystems.

This man was prosecuted to intimidate others like him -- other people who might make such modifications to cars. The goal was to ensure that such compartments do not become commonplace. Zimmerman was attacked in the 90s out of an effort to keep email encryption from becoming commonplace. If a technology makes law enforcement more difficult, the creator of that technology should expect to be prosecuted.

Nobody "chose sides" in this case. Anaya is the victim of an vastly overpowered law enforcement system, one that has resulted in the United States having an order of magnitude more prisoners than any other country.
> "Most [all, actually] of the women I've talked to about this are furious with her over how badly this portrays women."

Okay, time to speak up! Hi, I'm a woman in tech. And this upset me, but not for the reasons you think. I agree that Adria went too far in publicly Tweeting and "name and shaming" these guys. But the vitriol and hate that has spewed forth online to her is what takes my breath away. Comments calling her a "cunt" and saying she should be raped (this I found on her blog, presumably before she had a chance to delete it.)

As a woman in tech, I deal with sexism all the time. And it's usually not blatant, "blah blah a woman's place is in the home get out of my office" type of stuff. That's egregious and I would shut that down. It's usually less obvious. Like the guy at a conference I went to recently (with my fiance, Brian) who asked me my name, asked Brian his name, and then proceeded to spend 10 minutes talking to Brian and trying to figure out why he (who is a front-end developer at a startup) was at an entrepreneurial conference.

My fiance: I'm here because of Erica. (points at me)

Guy: Oh. But I don't get it. Why are you here?

Brian: She comes here because she's a successful entrepreneur and likes to hang out with other entrepreneurs. I'm tagging along with her.

Guy: Oh. But you're not an entrepreneur...so why are you here?

This went on like this for several minutes. Dude never said a single word to me, and finally wandered off, confused.

Or a more recent scenario at SXSW where I was talking to a huge, well-known tech big-wig (founder of a multi-billion-dollar tech company) who proceeded to make a flippant, condescending remark about his wife--and then stared at me, the only woman nearby, to gauge my reaction. Borderline sexist, but definitely unprofessional. What do I do? Do I call him out by name? Right now it's been a week and I'm still working out the best course of action. I'm horribly disappointed because this is someone I looked up to and hoped to have as a mentor.

These are just recent examples. I am hard-pressed to name a conference I've attended where one of these "borderline" sexist issues hasn't happened. Oh, wait, I can...the coworking conference I recently attended, where nearly 50% of the attendees were women.

Was Adria's reaction, to this as an isolated event, out of hand? Yes. But when this happens to you every single day--and in her case, multiple times a day!--sometimes you can't take it anymore and you just snap. I get where she's coming from, even if I wouldn't have done the same thing in her situation.

This doesn't portray women as badly as it portrays our entire tech culture badly. It's as frustrating to me as it is to anyone else. The blatant sexism is mostly gone, but the undertones remain. And that makes it harder than ever to gauge what the "right" reaction is as a woman when one of these events happens around you.
That said, I wouldn't take the lack of a notice like that as a sign that I'm not being monitored.
I would feel really uncomfortable if I was in the same room as this person. What if I accidentally say something that she finds offensive? Am I next?

People say the same things all the time in companies where women complain about inappropriate sexuality. "What if I say something that offends her?"

Most of us are good, inoffensive people. We are saddled with growing up in a world that is changing. It used to be acceptable to have a topless woman on a calendar in your locker at the factory. Not any more. Men used to take each other to strip clubs for business entertaining. Not outside of Oracle.

We all deal with the fact that we're in the middle of change, and it isn't always comfortable. Just as it wasn't comfortable for people dealing with the acceptance of homosexuals: I think everyone accepts that the word "faggot" is no longer appropriate.

It would be far, far easier for everyone if they just, well, shut up. But these things are hard, and it's up to our generation to carve out new social norms so that our children will reflexively and automatically act in ways that don't offend anyone.

I feel for you, there's absolutely zero wrong with you having and expressing these concerns. My message to you is that we men can come together and support each other and be a generation that others look back on with respect, just as we look back on the generations that broke the colour barriers with respect.
Really Danilo? You don't see anything wrong with what she did? This is OK. Next time you are at PyCon people can take face shots of your, post them online, with stupid childish insults underneath to see like "ass clown".

It is really sad that you don't see why that might create a hostile and unwelcome environment. Notice, not as many condemn her for _PRIVATELY_ notifying organizers. That is event #1, event #2 was that she publicly posted her tweet. That is not OK and it is sad to see you condone and defend that.

PSF has also been hiding in the weeds with event #2. They issued a neutral statement about #1 and then a surreptitious Github update to their policy to include some of what happened.

If this was a groping incident and all they did was made a Github commit, there would be a shitstorm 10x this one. But public face picture posting with insulting tags, for friends, kids, employers, to see, essentially forever is OK.

I've said it before and will repeat myself again, unless PyCon organizers issue a condemning statement I will not be coming to PyCon. It is a hostile environment and I don't feel safe.
This is actually not true, and has been verified by the Irish Data Commission (http://www.dataprotection.ie/documents/press/Facebook_Irelan... see Page 44)

User accounts that are deleted have all associated user created content and data hard deleted after account is deleted. Additionally, a user deletes content (status updates, comments, etc..) that data is hard deleted.
The weakest link is always the user.

In the event that an account was compromised, I'd put money on it being 100% due to a naive user.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of jobs in the US, especially the ones that in the I/T industry and in the startup world, have "at will" employement, which means very little protection for the employees. Also, startups typically have very little assets, which means that a lawyer is unlikely to take a wrongful termination lawsuit on a contingency basis. In the US, you get the best justice money can buy.
I really don't agree.
The jokes (I read them) are not offensive.
Even Github sells http://shop.github.com/products/fork-you-shirt-mens-medium

And I really dislike the Python Goons for kicking those guys out.

It would be one thing if they said something about gender or racial stuff that actually targets people.

I can fork both genders, especially if one of them has a big dongle, so forking as a joke, is gender-free.

But this was just fucked up. I am glad she got fired. People like that are jaded and will be difficult to be around. I would not want to be around someone I need to tip toe around.

Dongles für alle!
The difference is the one between negligence and manslaughter. If your negligent actions result in something else down the line, you are still, in part, responsible.

There can, and usually is, more than 100% blame to go around.
Why can't people make sexual jokes to each other?
Mm. A lot of these comments preclude the possibility that Adria might grow, change, or rehabilitate herself.

And as such, these come off very much as if they're putting nails into her coffin. There are people who do deserve to be run out of their industries, Stephen Glass, or Jonah Lehrer come to mind immediately. That is not a proportionate or reasonable response to what has happened here, but then, nothing about these circumstances have been proportionate or reasonable.
This trend is likely to continue as the billion or so potential customers in emerging markets start getting their hands on affordable smartphones.

The idea right now for telecoms and device manufacturers is more about getting their stuff in as many people's hands as possible, not about whether they can replace a screaming desktop with a handheld.
Why wonder? I worked it out once and for the USA you'd only need an area the size of Edwards Air Force Base, and the existence of Edwards AFB proves that such allocation of space is not objectionable.
the mods can move 'em
Who knows, may be they cannot afford it !?

I just think it's dust in eyes :) in 2011 was least green because of it's coal usage and now it's pure 100%...
I was wondering what about the other guys in the picture.

If she had posted the pic but with all identity blurred out, I think she would have achieved 99% of what she wanted to accomplish, and everyone would still be employed.
Ha, no. I camp. It's National Forest Service land, so you can throw up a tent wherever you like. I sit down with a bottle of beer, throw a steak on the fire, and read a book.
This thing is completely ridiculous. Dear PlayHaven and SendGrid, hire both of your ex-employees back, publically apologize, and start making sense.
First Amendment to the US Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,
or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to
petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Can someone please show me the asterisk that says "unless done to protect national security"?
> Read your article:

I've read it several times, just in case the text changed between my visits

> I still suspect this was a firing for many reasons, not just this incident.

And yet the post provides no information whatsoever and crucially does not come close to hinting that this was not the reason, you'd think. There may have been other reasons, but the timing is odd, why wait until he gets involved in something at PyCon? And even if it happened to be the straw breaking the camel's back it's not like they had to fire him on the spot.

Unless they wanted to milk some views, after all some say no publicity is bad publicity.
> People have a right to attend a conference without sexual jokes leaking into their ears while they attend a talk. It's as simple as that.

Hmm wonder if they have a right to attend without a fear of having their lives ruined by a an idiot with a smart phone camera and a twitter account.
Danilo, following up an argument from authority with an ad hominem attack is not constructive either.