Articles by Rebecca

As everyone may have heard by now, Lucent Technologies and Alcatel are on the way to wedded corporate bliss.  You can read about it at this link here.  This is probably a good thing for them financially.  Lucent’s profits were coming more from their pension plan investments than from their business, and that couldn’t have gone on much longer really.  From a technology standpoint, it looks like it makes sense.  Alcatel now has a wireless play when before they did not.  Also, Lucent’s Professional Services organization gives Alcatel a boost up since Alcatel didn’t really have one before. 

I think for me though, it’s a sad loss of the Bell Labs Research Institution.  I’m all for companies being stronger and more able (though frankly the record of that happening in mega mergers like this is very low, please see stories about the lack of success of megamergers here @ C/net, and here @ HBR).  But the United State’s private corporate labs (such as Bell Labs) and our public labs (such as Lawrence Livermore) are national treasures that helped keep our country a technology leader.  For sure, Bell Labs won’t disappear and the defense piece will be kept in tact under U.S. influence.  Still, this just feels like a sort of dismantling of some national treasures.

What were the causes of Lucent’s demise?  Probably too many to list, but there’s a well done article on this by Chinese blogger  Dr.Richard Zhao Liang (赵粮) that is well worth a read.  You can see his article at this link here.

I saw two specials the other day on Comedy Central.  Both were hosted by comics.  One was a woman, the other a man.   The woman was significantly funnier than the man was.  Their styles were different too. She was more self-deprecating, and not afraid to be "naked" as we say in the blogosphere, when it came to how she joked about life, her travels through it, and her observations of it.  And the crowd was laughing out loud.   

The man’s humor was different.  It was more one liners and more challenges to the audience that they had better laugh, his material was funny!  His flow was off too, probably just a bad night, but while he is a funny, national headliner for comics, he seemed more prone to goad the audience into laughing about his material than telling a story to have them laugh with him.  It was an interesting contrast between the two.

That got me to wondering about humor between men and women.  Have you ever wondered how they differ or are the same?   Well there’s a great article, written by Gina Barreca, at Ms. Magazine entitled  "Real stories, real laughter, real women" that I think you might like that talks about this.

Gina Barreca makes this interesting observation about the differences:

The difference, in fact, between men’s humor and women’s humor seems to
be the difference between revolt and revolution. Masculine humor has of
course included digs at the conventions of the world, poked fun at the
institutions and establishments, but without the truly anarchic edge
that characterizes feminine humor. Women’s humor calls into question
the largest issues, questions the way the world is put together.

She also makes note that feminine humor has been and is often hidden:

Why has the feminine tradition of humor, ubiquitous as it is, remained
essentially hidden from the mainstream? In part it is due to the
Tupperware mentality that sought to preserve humor by keeping away from
the potentially hazardous male gaze. If men didn’t find funny what we
found funny, then they would think we were foolish. If they thought our
joking was foolish, we might learn to like it less ourselves. It wasn’t
worth the risk.

You can read the whole article for yourself by clicking to this link here.

(photo courtesy of benhamin’s photos, used under Creative Commons license)

You would never know it from looking at
her, but she had a prosthetic leg, had been through WWII, worked at a
spy for both the British and the U.S. and had received the highest
medals for distinguished service from Britain, France and the United
States for her work in WWII.  If it weren’t for her pivotal role, key
parts of the war against Germany in France would not have been won by
the Allies.

The book, "The Wolves at the Door:
The True Story of America’s Greatest Female Spy" penned by
Judith L. Pearson is a fabulous true story of Virgina Hall.  Born in
the United States, yet with an incredible passion for Europe,
particularly France, Virginia accomplished more in her lifetime than
most people even dream of.  Perhaps the best part of the story though
is not what she accomplished but the obstacles she had to get over in
order to accomplish them.  I won’t spoil the story for you, but those
obstacles were physical in terms of her body, and discrimination, for
being a woman.  In the end, her amazing tenacity and inventiveness
and sheer passion for her life’s mission - being a spy and helping to
defeat the German’s - allowed her to rise above and triumph.

The book is one of those little
treasures.  Well written and about a niche topic that is very
valuable to read.  I highly recommend it.   Grab some tea, curl up on
a couch, and read!

You can get the book at your fav book store or at Amazon by clicking on this link here

My friend, Koan Bremner, of Multidimensional Me fame just posted about how she’s faring now that she’s post-op and she’s faring wonderfully!!   I couldn’t be more happier for her!  Please, drop her a comment on her blog to congratulate her :)  I know she’ll be blessed by your action, and you’ll be blessed by doing it

Little snippets have been slipping out over the past 18 months that Google is buying it’s own telecommunications backbone.  You can see these snippets here, here and here.   While the telecommunciations backbone piece has been somewhat in the shadow of Web/Tech world, Google’s desire to push WiMAX to users has been very visible, and you can see plenty of info on that at the links here, here and here.

Why would Google do this?   What do they have to gain?   Because controlling the distribution network (the means of getting content to you or having you physically access the Internet) may end up being a cost game more than anything else.   Surely, Google’s being able to use their almost unparalleled ability to target advertising to users will be improved by controlling the network. But, when companies like AT&T, who now own most of the on/off ramps to the network start setting up toll booths to get on or direct traffic (see article AT&T Sets up Internet Toll Booths here) then perhaps Google’s other reason is simply cost.  Why pay or be beholden to a toll booth operator to run traffic on their monopoly when you can build your own road and control it and your costs yourself. 

This may end up being one of the new AT&T’s biggest blunders.  Certainly, they own the pipes and can do what they will with them, but, but charging rather than partnering (and with excess dark fiber still out there and enabling technologies coming online such as WiFi and WiMAX) AT&T may inadvertently be pushing greater competition against themselves, rather than drawing them to themselves.  The end result?  It gives users such as you and I more choice, and lower costs.   It costs AT&T business, possibly subverting their network hold and causing long term losses in the long term.  Is this the kind of thing we can expect from the resurgance of Ma Bell?  If so, I think the Web/Tech world will be rife with innovative new approaches to getting on and off the net to skirt AT&T’s potential for too much control.

When rushed for time before work do not…

• Mistakenly grab and then apply your pink lip gloss as beard cover (ahhh it sticks like glue!)
• Epilate both legs and then both arms thinking "hey this will take only 5 minutes"
• Try at that moment to figure out how to style your hair - just use the wig
• Decide that rosy red cheeks can be corrected two seconds after having PUSHED the blush into the pours of your face with the same force as you would pound a 10-penny nail into a 2×4
• Choose to feed two hungry cats who decide at that exact second, when your ready to start working, that they are your bestest of buddies and snuggle oh so close and SHED white fur all over your new black blouse

There is an interesting artilce on Transgenderism (gender dysphoria) in the Lahey Clinic Fall 2005 Journal. The clinic actually features this article, and you can read it at this link here. I was referred to it from doing some reading at Andrea Jame’s outstanding TS Roadmap.

The article does a good job of outlining the potential sources for our being transgendered as well as the ethical issues in intervening in children who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria. There are other good insights in the article as well, such as the authors opinion that psychological issues (such as depression, fairly common in the trans-community) are really a result of not dealing constructively with a person’s gender dysphoria.

Click here for this excellent article, from this well respected medical institution in New England

4-2-2008 Update
There is a nice Q&A Interview on the author of this Lahey Clinic article, Dr. Norm Spack. It was done in Boston.Com. You can reach the Boston.com Article by clicking here. You can read our coverage at Beck’s Cafe on this Boston.com article by clicking into Beck’s Cafe at this link here.

A friend of mine has breast cancer.  She’s taking it well actually.  She figures that she’ll just go in, have the mastectomy and be done with it.  I envy her courage though I’m sure her outside calm must in the middle of the night give way to worry and fear.    Each year more than 200,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer and of those 40,000 will die according to the American Cancer Society.  Doing some simply bath in my brunette head, that comes out to be a 25% mortality rate.  The good news is, 97% of women survive breast cancer when it is discovered early.

The ACS recommends a Breast Cancer Self Exam (BSE) monthly and posts directions you can read at this link here.   There are some additional options though for the BSE that may be worth taking a look at that are reported to make the BSE easier:

Read the rest of this entry »

This workin’ girl has been traveling way too much lately, so much so I’ve not had time to do much writing.  However, whilst sipping blazing hot, strong coffee this morning in the cafe I happened upon this article HERE, penned by Jory Des Jardins on her blog, Pause. 

It’s well worth a read.  I think the quote that sums it up best from her post is this:

Competence has become a commodity.The only way to differentiate yourself in the business world today is to insist on being yourself. Ironically, it takes some of us years to come full circle back to the place we were, before we tried to be someone else.

Interesting eh?  I’ve noticed myself that as I come to grips more with who I am, with being transgendered, that I’m able to me more authentic.  And, wonder of wonders, people respond to that positively (or are confused enough to just respond nicely, I’ not sure now that I think of it!).   It’s an interesting side benefit that I’d not anticipated frankly.   So as I don’t lead anyone astray here, I’m not out at work at this time.  However, the current effect is an interesting personal experience.   It sounds like all of us, whatever your walk in life, would benefit well from just being yourself.  And if your a leader or serve in a leadership position (whether business, civic or religious) it sounds like the key for you to do even better is to be authentic.  Read Jordy’s post and enjoy!

A friend of mine was the subject of a rumor that hurt her.  She put up a very well done post that describes the bad effect rumors can have on people - it’s always a good idea to think twice before you spread that seemingly juicy bit of gossip you hear

You can read her post at her blog here:  The Snake that Poisons Everyone