Grace Hopper Community Volunteers

I am thrilled to be co-chair of the Grace Hopper Celebration's Communities Committee again this year.  I love working with the Anita Borg Institute, talking and working with other technical women, and bringing the excitement and inspiration of this conference to women and men the world over.

I first volunteered as a blogger in 2007, and immediately became hooked.

Being an official blogger or note taker let's you get your thoughts written down while everything is fresh in your mind, making those memories last longer.  This is great for me, otherwise I tend to let my notes languish in a notebook.  This is also great for the conference organizers and speakers, as these moments are kept for posterity.  Best of all, people can participate in the conference remotely, through our words.

If you don't have a blog, don't worry, you can take notes on the official Grace Hopper Wiki.

Being an official blogger or note taker only requires a commitment of 3 posts, and gets you a nifty ribbon you can attach to your badge - an immediate conversation starter!

Want to join us? You can read more about the communities we participate in and what it means to volunteer, and then sign up!

This post syndicated from Thoughts on Security, Beer, Theater and Biking!

Amazing Commute Today

Our regular bike route has a bridge out this week for repairs, so Mark suggested we hop on our mountain bikes and head out to work on the Bayshore trail.  It had been more than two years since I had ridden in along the San Francisco Bay. I had forgotten how wonderful it was.

When Sun Microsystems, Inc. was up in Menlo Park, the trails along the Bayshore were all paved, so we could ride our road bikes in and get into work in pretty good time. The Santa Clara trails, though, are not paved.  Since then we've moved down to Santa Clara. As mountain bikes are generally slower and we're always running short on time, we always take our road bikes in along lightly traveled roads.

But, do you know what? Lightly traveled roads still have cars on them. And leaf blowers. And drivers that turn right right in front of you.

The Bayshore just has runners and a few other bikes.

It was so peaceful and beautiful. Riding behind Hanger One, naked now. Forlorn.  Seeing the other hangers at NASA Ames.  Smelling the sea air, hearing the birds, watching the squirrels scurry up and down the hills.

We saw several blue herons, egrets, ducks, geese, coots, a night heron and Mark caught a glimpse of an otter.

Yes, the ride took longer, and I was beyond starving when I got home, but I feel recharged. Happy. Peaceful.

This Blog is Read in Russia

Futzing with my blog this AM, trying to get the "Labels" gadget to work correctly again (currently, you can either see a cloud with every label I've ever used, or none - selected labels no longer works) - I was paging through the various blogger pages and discovered that I get the most readers from the US. No surprise, but then the second highest readership comes from Russia.  Not just by a little bit, but way more than any country.  Sure, Russia is big, but this is a big gap.

So, Hello my Russian readers!  What brings you here?

Support the Ada Initiative and Drink Beer!

Two of my favorite things to talk about, all in one place! The Ada Initiative, which supports and encourages women participating in Open Technology, is holding a meetup tonight, Wednesday August 1st, at the Tied House in Mountain View, CA (which now has 14 beers on tap!) so we can all learn more about what the Ada Initiative is up to and socialize while drinking beer!

So, if you're curious about open technology, women in open tech, or just want to support this great organization, come on by!

Check out the Ada Initiative's event registration page for more details.

See you there!

Early Bird Registration for Grace Hopper Closes Today!

I know, it seems so far away, but the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is just around the corner!  The conference will be held in Baltimore, MD, October 3-6, 2012.

I'm particularly excited about the Security technical track - something I've been asking about for years. The security related topics are always very well attended, and there's so much more to learn (for all of us) in security.

Whether you're student who's curious to learn about different technologies you can work on once you graduate, or a more experienced woman looking to expand your knowledge, there is something for you at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.

This is an amazing place to exchange ideas, meet other women working in your field, learn, network and remind yourself that you are not alone as a woman in technology!

What talks are you planning on going to? 

How safe is your hotel room?

I've heard many people lament about the loss of the old fashioned hotel room key - you know, like the one you use in your house. Of course, those get lost and are difficult to replace, so hotels have switched to electronic keys.

Those keys are problematic and annoying. It seems they constantly get erased or your door is recoded. At a DefCon conference a few years ago, I was sharing a room with 2 other people. Inevitably, one person's key would stop working - they would go to the front desk and get 3 new keys, but then couldn't find me. Then my key wouldn't work, rinse, and repeat.

But, now it seems that the manufacturers of these devices have put a too simple administrative interface on the actual doors that allow ne'er-do-wells access to your room.

Something to think about while traveling.

New job!

Okay, I haven't written for awhile - and boy, have I had things to write about! But, I've suddenly found myself much more busier than normal.  I've taken a new position at Oracle, I'm now managing the Solaris Cryptographic Technologies team.

That's right. I'm a manager now.  I've done it. Gotten the lobotomy. Working on my pointy hair.

I'm sure you've heard me say that I've been a manager before... at a record store and a dollar store.  The biggest management concerns we had at both were: hiring people that could count, knew the alphabet, weren't mean to the customers, and didn't steal too much.

Managing software engineers is, obviously, very different, but a natural progression from the team leadership I've been doing for a few years.  It's hard work - much longer hours, and the price for screwing up is more severe.

So, my postings have gone down - I'm using this to break the ice again, so to speak.