Imperial world. Imperial Girl.

Imperial World, Imperial Baby Shower.

So one of the most exceptionally awesome couples I know is anticipating the arrival of a long-awaited much-desired baby.  They are unique in this Universe in innumerable ways that I need not describe here, but they are Geek Royalty, for good, and for sure. 

So here comes the Imperial Baby Shower, kids. 

There are sites and ETSY things that have baby shower items available, but they’re all … Light Side.  For those of us who are die-hard 501st Legion people, that’s … okay, I guess.  Yoda.  Okay.  My lip curls a little even typing that. 

Toweringly awesome and loyal Imperial parents deserve a classy and fantastic Imperial Baby Shower.   It’s co-ed and will be as much for Dad as for Mom. 

Ideas?  Suggestions?  Colors are mahogany, cream and gold.  Dad goes by the nickname “Farva”, and if you saw him, you’d immediately know why. 

So where do we go with this?  Gold Imperial Cogs on cupcakes?  Ewok target practice? 

Hit me. 

The FBI, Anti-Sec, and iPsychosis.

So I’m on my way in to work this morning, after a nice relaxing weekend, and my mellow is unexpectedly harshed by news of the following:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120904/07434620264/hackers-get-personal-info-12-million-apple-users-fbi-laptop.shtml

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/fbi-no-evidence-we-sought-obtained-apple-device

So if this proves to be verifiable, here’s what we’ve got.

1.  There is a repository of user information that should be proprietary to Apple.  Unique User IDs for each Apple device:  iPhones, iPads, whatever.

2.  An FBI agent is allegedly in possession of that information, likely via a little agency called NCFDA (who?) and an arm of the FBI called the Cyber Initiative and Resource Fusion Unit.

3.  The information is on the FBI agent’s laptop, and “Anonymous” members picked him out—not hard, since he was the FBI’s poster child for “We Need Hacker Help” campaign—and hacked his computer.

4.  The hackers came across loads of fun stuff, and the document with 12 million Apple User IDs was in that pile.

5.  The hackers decided to share, in order to give the apathetic public hard evidence that the government is watching them and their information is never secure.

6.  Now people can access lists wherein they can figure out if their user information was on the list published.

There is so much wrong with this, it’s hard to decide where to start.

“I’m a private employer. I can handle Social Media issues however I want.”

There are a whole lot of companies out there due for a rude awakening—be it now, or sometime in the future.

Did you know that Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act protects some categories of “concerted activity” when it’s for “mutual aid and protection” of fellow employees?

Guess what the National Labor Relations Board considers it to be, under some circumstances, when rabblerousing employees trade barbs about their how their company treats them, on Facebook?

As always, consult a local attorney about your particular fact scenario.  I am NOT giving *you* advice.  I am merely commenting …

CISPA hilarity, and Sandra Day O’Connor.

So this whole post is going to sound like complete insanity, but it’s true, start to finish.  I’ll fast forward to the unbelievable part because the rest is kind of boring—I can’t write the part I was going to write because I have to go to a formal tea with retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.  That rules, on a scope that’s hard for me to even absorb.  So the rest of my story goes as such:

I was going to sit down and knock out a walkthrough of CISPA (the Congressional Research Summary) because it’s relevant to my huge monster paper that I’ve been writing that keeps rewriting itself … I write a chunk, and something happens, and something else absolutely *has* to be included, and the landscape of it changes, and I read some more, and some other things change. 

It makes me wonder why I wanted to get into Tech in the first place.

Then I remember that with my inherent “SQUIRREL!” tendencies, the constant fireworks show of new information and material to mull over is probably the perfect thing for me.

Anyway, everyone’s screaming about CISPA.  I can do a walkthrough and feel like I’m contributing to the Greater Good, because as much as people are howling about the thing, how many of them do you think have read it?  Or even read the summary?  I know it’s an inherent weakness of my character, but I dislike having people—bloggers—writing hysteria and hyperbole about things that I’m pretty sure they haven’t even read.  I know they need blog hits to make a living.  I understand the business model.  Call it sheer, unadulterated arrogance on my part if you wish, and I’m okay with that.  I’m not going to let those guys tell me what to think.

So I’ll read over it again, this time with a fine-toothed comb.  I’ll write about it.  You all can peruse it if you wish, or not.  C.Mabe can take a look and pretend she’s never seen it before when I submit my paper later, or not. 

Now I have to go find something to wear to tea.  TEA.  With this country’s first female Supreme Court Justice. 

I am a lucky girl.

Postscript to “I’m THAT kind of Freak”

I love being a geek mentor.  The moral of this story is, don’t get so busy that you don’t go back and check the notes on your old Tumblr posts.

A couple of my friends liked my “Freak” post—about being a geek and having pride in knowing that in spite of people never really understanding it, you’re doing good work—but you always expect your friends to like your stuff.  They’re your friends.

Today I caught this in the notes of the post, from im-no-jedi:

“I literally started crying while reading this.  Words cannot even describe just how grateful I am that there are people like this out in the world.  Each and every single person involved in this is a true hero in my eyes, even if they’re dressed up as a villain.  Thank you to everyone involved.  You guys are amazing.” 

And she tagged it:  “my dream job now is become a member of the 501st”  and “I will make this happen”

A 23-year-old redhead geek, now inspired to go out in the world and do charity geek work, because of something she saw that *I* wrote and threw out into the universe.  This is geek mentoring as it should be, kids.  The simple fact remains that, be it in the tech industry or geekdom or law or the 501st Legion, there just still aren’t as many girls as there are guys.  It doesn’t matter why.  It just is.

Girl geek hate has been a hot and highly debated topic, and it makes me crazy.  To all those out there that want to slam the door shut to anyone else trying to get into the “club”, I shake my head in wonder at how regrettably short-sighted and petty their insistence on exclusivity continues to be. 

If you don’t let anyone new into the club, when you and your friends die off, who will be left to carry on the standard?

Look, I got in to the 501st as Mara Jade.  She is a fantastic character, incredibly dynamic, female empowerment and badassery at its finest.  I have had groups of teenagers come up to me and a bunch of my friends in Stormtrooper gear with the intent of stealing pieces of my friends’ armor since the visibility out of those helmets is nigh on zero.  I crossed my arms over my chest, tilted my chin down, and in my knee-length cloak, boots, shin guards, black catsuit, gunslinger-style holster, lightsaber hilt attached to my hip, merely gave them a good long stare.

They changed their minds.

Note however, the catsuit.  People, makeup can do lots of things, and Spanx are my friend, but I am *not* going to be stomping around in that thing into my 50s.  I’m just not.  Some things will need to be left for the younger ladies as the years pass.

In business, they call this having a continuity plan.  Hello, Geekdom?  You might want to give this a bit of a thought.  Instead of the few women that are out there digging their heels in and howling about “They don’t love comics like *I* love comics!” and running off all the pretty girls, how about mentoring them?  How about teaching them about the best of what *you* love in your favorite realms?  If you had to only read three graphic novels for the rest of your life, which would they be?  What comic character speaks the most to your heart, and why?  What story arc have you most loved in your life?  What turned you into a comic fan?  Have you read Sarah Kuhn’s book?  

You have the option of doing like The League of Extraordinary Ladies has done and assembling the finest in female fandom.  You can look at people like Terri Hodges,   Consetta Parker, Andrea “ArkhamAsylumDoc”, Nicole Wakelin, Katrina Hill and Jessica Mills and so many others that say, “Hey, I love this stuff, and I would love to share what I love with you.”  You want the best ever?  Try the Geek Girls Book Club.

So maybe the people who got beaten up and bullied all through high school don’t want the “cool kids” to suddenly start wanting to wear a Captain America costume and thinking they understand the Super Soldier program.  I get that.  I was a band geek, you wouldn’t have exactly called me “socially adept” either.  Two things I got from that experience, though, were: “We take care of our own”, and “If someone wants somewhere to go, we accept them”.

Is that so hard?

Oh, and when im-no-jedi saw that I followed her today, she wrote, “OMFG, I’m not worthy!”  That’s just cute.  Maybe she’ll watch what I do and go out and do something to make the world a better place.  In any case, she will know that there’s another redhead girl out there that manages to be a fully-functioning professional, and mom, and geek.  You can grow up and do all the grownup things, as a woman, and you don’t have to give up the things you love. 

My work here is done.

Pinterest Copyright policy updated! And there was great rejoicing.

As of the first week of April, Pinterest’s policies will change for all users.

Pinterest’s New Copyright Policy

I’m so proud.  Makes me tear up a little.

Among other things, it lists very formal (compliant with DMCA) language specifying what someone should do if they feel that their copyright has been infringed, what will happen if a user is accused of infringing a copyright, and a warning that if a user infringes copyrights repeatedly, their account could be revoked.

Why do we care?  Well, this policy arguably gives them “Safe Harbor” under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, protecting Pinterest if a copyright owner wanted to sue for infringement.  For people who love pinning, and just want to be able to go about their obsessive decorating and redecorating and redecorating of their fantasy homes, it’s fantastic news.

All of their terms have changed.  If you’re a user, you should likely take a look.  The main takeaway is this:  Be a good site neighbor, and don’t be sketchy.  If someone has something great on their site, and you love it, that’s wonderful.  Link to it—to *their* page/their content/their whatever.  Don’t copy the content to your site to increase your traffic.  You wouldn’t want someone to do it to you, so don’t do it to someone else.

So now that Pinterest seems to be getting its situation together … what do we do about ACTA?