Sometimes it is easy to forget that Sweden is a really good place to live, for instance if you are a transsexual person. Even more if you happen to have chosen to devote your life to work in the armed forces. Some may have heard of the US policies called “Don´t ask – Don´t tell” which in essence says that you can be gay just as long no one knows. And the employer is not allowed to ask if you are. If someone finds out – you are discharged. The same goes for transsexuals, they are also discharged if they starts their transition while in the US Armed Forces. Makes me really sad. Read more here. Compare that to IBM who not only allows transsexuals in the company, they also pays for your medical care!
Month: January 2007
Why don
Sometimes I have a hard time understandning how people really work. I sometimes find myself in a situation when I am sitting in a group of people and someone is suddenly referreing to me as “him” or say “Well, boys…” to the group and I am the only woman sitting there. Usually no one ever says anything (to correct and remind) even though it is people I know. I have thinking about this and just wonder why they don´t. Here are some options:
– They did not notice at all.
– They do not care.
– They want to say something but think it is better for me not to.
– They want to say something but do not want to take that conflict (now).
– They agree.
Of course I also wonder why people say this at all. I am sure no one means any harm but somehow something about me or what I do make them not think of me as a female. The strange part is that in each moment it so very hard to figure out what that is. The question is of course if I know that, would I want to change all of that just to pass as a woman? Sometimes I might just want to be myself and occasionally it has the drawback of being seen as a sign of the other sex. This of course happens to all people but I guess it usually means more for my appearance than others. Still, quite a few men strive really hard to not “act female” in any way 🙂
Please feel free to comment!
Hillary for President
Well, today it happened and I guess we have all just waiting for when rather than if 🙂 . Hillary Clinton have officially announced her ambitions to become the next US President by forming a so called Exploratory Committee on her own webpage. I personally was a big fan of the TV-show Commander-in-Chief and even though it was prematurely cancelled I think it prepared the US people for a woman in the Oval Office. I am reading her book now and I can´t help liking her I think she will be a good President.
It is remarkably easy to use…really.
Another one of my friends joined the good forces of the world – the community of Mac users. This time a really dear friend of mine and as always when I have talked my friends into getting a Mac I want them to enjoy their new investment. For some reason I still get a bit surprised to see that the Mac is actually as easy and pretty as I told them. My friend more or less became the prefect example of a good switcher when she immediately figured out how iPhoto worked and started doing creative stuff with all her images right away…she stayed up until 6 o’clock in the morning just because it was that fun. Amazing, isn’t it?! It is like the magic of Mac OS X brings out the urge to do stuff that for some reason (Windows!) seem a little bit to hard before.
BTW, soon Apple need to start some kind of kick-back program for all us how converts people in masses. I have soon passed generating 50 Macs 🙂
Steve Jobs Keynote
Well, of course I followed it though I wish Apple would broadcast live as it did a years ago. However, a few hundred thousand of us Apple-fans still gather at our computers to watch (or rather read) live text comments about the content of the keynote. That means that someone in Moscone Center is sitting with a MacBook and a mobile phone and updating a webpage with text and the occasional picture. Still it is very exciting!
No matter how some how you put it Steve Jobs know how capture the attention of the audience. The whole spin before the keynote finally explodes when he enters the stage. He does it gracefully rather than a jumping and screeming as Steve Ballmer from Microsoft does. The audience loves Steve and shows that by giving him an really warm and long applause. Not screaming becuase Ballmer screems. Steve´s greatness is most visible when he invites guests from other big companies on the stage. Usually I stop listening after a minute or two. No passion and only corporate bullshit. Steve talks to me but these other business executives talk to the shareholders – big difference in tone. This year the CEO of Cingular gave one of the worst (and longest) guest appearances at any MacWorld.
Speaking of MacWorld. This actually was a MacWorld ’07 Keynote but it did not actually contain much about Macs at all. This year Steve started by introducing Apple TV which is an iTunes extender to be connected to your plasma TV or projector. I need a device like that but I am not sure that it is the best one for me. For starters, movies and TV-shows can only be bought in the US for now so everything I would like watch most likely would need to be converted to the QuickTime with Sorenson or MPEG-4 with or without H.264. It can sync one computers and recieve streams from 5 more.
Next up was one of longest rumoured devices ever in the Apple world. The iPhone. A stunning piece of equipment that to me looked just right when it comes to software, user interface and industrial design. No keyboard – just an advanced input sensitive touchscreen. Brilliant and I suddenly just looked down to my Sony Ericsson P990i and smile a bit. The difference in handling is dramatic. My 990i has all the features but frankly they are way to hard to use.
A few hours later Apple now usually posts a link to a video-on-demand version of the keynote in QuickTime. It cane be seen here