I'm attending the annual American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Conference next week in Vancouver. Yeah, it is joint with the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicsts. My poster is (basically) ready, though not printed. I think I have plane tickets, a hotel room reserved, and a conference registration. So is the hard part done yet?
I haven't started looking at the conference schedule to figure out what I am going to attend. I don't even know if I need to do so. At the APS (March or April meeting) conferences there are so many parallel sessions that it is impossible to just wander and hope you see the right talks. APS even has a helpful schedule planner on the website. It is much easier to do planning ahead for APS meetings rather than trying to use the booklet to plan once you get there.
I haven't started collecting a list of other events I want to go to. I know there is a Geant4 meeting/get together the first evening, which I will attend. There is a Stanford get together the same night, so I don't know if I will be going to that. I don't know if there are other things I would want to go to. Again, at APS there were often breakfasts and evening meetings for students or specific interests. Some of the breakfasts required advanced registration.
I haven't looked at the poster authors and speakers to see if there are people I know who will be there. I don't know that many people who are going from Stanford, so it would be great if my social circle at this meeting had more than 3 people. Otherwise, I will take a lot of books. Which means I need to go stock up at borders...
I haven't started packing. This is my first time going to Vancouver, so I don't know what type of weather to expect. Worse, I don't know what the indoor climate will be like. My assumptions about Anaheim were pretty spot on - it was usually freezing in the convention center. It is hard to pack minimally when the error bars are 10 degrees. I also don't know the level of dress that I will feel most comfortable in. At American physics conferences (opposed to European ones) talks are regularly given by people (students, usually) in jeans and tennis shoes. The audience looks similar. An e-mail reminder about the AAPM conference stated that the dress code in business casual, which I expected. The medical physics crowd is used to clinic dress code, which - here at Stanford - is conservative business casual. I'm not entirely sure I could put together an outfit that satisfies the clinic dress code here, but I hope to never need to... Also, I might want to pack enough so that if the US economy collapses I can just stay in Canada (-:
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Smartphones: sexist?
It looks like I will be the one getting a new smartphone. I'm mostly overwhelmed by the options and features. I barely keep my current cell phone with me, and rarely actually have it on me to know if someone is calling. I've thought about not having a phone at all. So, a smartphone seems like a reasonable solution - I bet they are rubbish for actual calls. But have all sorts of games!
I went in to the Verizon store to look at them today. I realized why I think of them as being very redundant with a tablet... I don't think smartphones are any more portable than tablets. When I look at a smartphone, I see a device that will sit in my backpack all the time. Granted, my current phone normally does this. But sometimes... sometimes... it goes in my pocket. A smartphone will never do so. It is too damn big.
Are the tech companies to blame for this? No, it is just an unfortunate truth of women's fashion: pockets tend to be very small, if they exist at all. Specifically I am thinking of front pockets on jeans and slacks. A phone like the X2 or iPhone will not fit in the front pocket of the majority of my jeans. Could I get a cell phone holster? This was my solution back in the day, but I don't know if people use them anymore. I don't want to look geeky, right? A belt-holder for a cell phone is only a partial solution: it will work with chunky belts that are structural, not those skinny belts. Honestly, I've never figured out how to wear the skinny belts anyways.
Of course, there is then the problem of skirts and dresses and all of the fashion choices that don't have pockets or belt loops at all. I rarely have this problem, but if I dressed according to the Stanford Clinic dress code, I would. So when the people perceive that tech gadgets are predominantly a men's market, I believe that this is at least fashion driven. Not because the X2 doesn't come in pink, but because women in a business environment won't have as easy of a time carrying them around. If I accept I'll be hauling some sort of purse or briefcase around to carry my smartphone, I might as well just have a netbook or tablet.
So no, I don't think smartphones are sexist. They just aren't very compatible with women's business attire.
I went in to the Verizon store to look at them today. I realized why I think of them as being very redundant with a tablet... I don't think smartphones are any more portable than tablets. When I look at a smartphone, I see a device that will sit in my backpack all the time. Granted, my current phone normally does this. But sometimes... sometimes... it goes in my pocket. A smartphone will never do so. It is too damn big.
Are the tech companies to blame for this? No, it is just an unfortunate truth of women's fashion: pockets tend to be very small, if they exist at all. Specifically I am thinking of front pockets on jeans and slacks. A phone like the X2 or iPhone will not fit in the front pocket of the majority of my jeans. Could I get a cell phone holster? This was my solution back in the day, but I don't know if people use them anymore. I don't want to look geeky, right? A belt-holder for a cell phone is only a partial solution: it will work with chunky belts that are structural, not those skinny belts. Honestly, I've never figured out how to wear the skinny belts anyways.
Of course, there is then the problem of skirts and dresses and all of the fashion choices that don't have pockets or belt loops at all. I rarely have this problem, but if I dressed according to the Stanford Clinic dress code, I would. So when the people perceive that tech gadgets are predominantly a men's market, I believe that this is at least fashion driven. Not because the X2 doesn't come in pink, but because women in a business environment won't have as easy of a time carrying them around. If I accept I'll be hauling some sort of purse or briefcase around to carry my smartphone, I might as well just have a netbook or tablet.
So no, I don't think smartphones are sexist. They just aren't very compatible with women's business attire.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
The Computer Culture War
Our household will be increasing its quantity of computer gadgets. Some number of laptops/tablets/smartphones will be purchased in the next few months due to expiring contract, expiring backlights, and a general sense of patriotic consumerism (lol). While the majority of the responsibility of this lies with Tom, I am part of conversations and the phone decisions. The upcoming purchase is quite different in tone to my recent (few months ago) purchase of a netbook. I hadn't appreciated the capability-to-cost ratio in modern netbooks until a vist to Fry's, after which I did some online research and returned to Fry's the next day to purchase one. I knew I would be working in Ubuntu ~100% of the time, especially after installing more memory than Windows would support.
Now Tom is going to buy an apple product or two. Other products have been considered, but some sort of iThingy looks like the new addition to our digital household. Through this process I have decided that digital gadget monopolies - I mean, brands - are a sort of geek culture war. There is often little room for compromise and we may view those who hold different opinions as being responsible for the current destruction of society. Here are my sides in this battle:
Now Tom is going to buy an apple product or two. Other products have been considered, but some sort of iThingy looks like the new addition to our digital household. Through this process I have decided that digital gadget monopolies - I mean, brands - are a sort of geek culture war. There is often little room for compromise and we may view those who hold different opinions as being responsible for the current destruction of society. Here are my sides in this battle:
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