2020 Hindsight

Websites for women in science and engineering

Big ol' compilation page, housed at MIT.

100 most influentail women in aviation and aerospace

ran across this among my other searches. Not exactly on topic (to the search; is there such a thing as being off topic at 2020 Hindsight? I think not!), but interesting nonetheless.

Women in Aviation's 100 most influential women in the aviation and aerospace industry

In honor of the approaching Centennial of Flight on December 17, 2003, Women in Aviation International has selected a unique celebration. This year instead of inducting the normal number of women or groups into our Pioneer Hall of Fame, we will instead pay tribute to "100 Women Who Made a Difference" in the first 100 years of aviation.

Oral history project explores women in science

Centered around University of Wisconson, Madison. They're looking for more interviews with women who've worked in any science.

I'm looking for anything having to do with oral history and General Electric (both of my grandparents worked for GE.)

The last section of this article, Role Models Needed, (scroll down to "The Broader View") discusses the first and only woman president of ASME, Nancy Fitzroy, describing her experiences at GE (She knew my grandmother there).

"GE finally realized that I was doing the same work," she said, "and that I should be called an engineer." The title didn't end her barriers. "Once when I was up for a raise, my boss was forced to find out how much money my husband was making," she said. "They wouldn't let me make more than my husband. It was the paternalistic tenor of the time—the 1960s—but it was something like 'little girl, it's just not a good idea to make more than your husband.' "

This week in Electrical History

A page from the IEEE's history center... this week marks the birthdays of Elihu Thompson (founder of General Electric) and Samuel Morse. The founding of Apple computer (1976) and of RCA - the Radio Corporation of America (1919) and the demo of the microwave in 1931 between Calais, France, and Dover, England.

Powell's.com interviews Karen Armstrong

Her new memoir, The Spiral Staircase follows her other books, A History of God, the Battle For God, Muhammed, Islam: A Short History, and Through the Narrow Gate (her memoir about leaving a Roman Catholic convent at age 24). The current memoir takes up from the point she left the convent. [via WannaWrite]

Her interview with Powell's ranges over all the religious topics she's covered, and her take on religious beliefs. In this excerpt, she's asked what kinds of questions keep coming up from people attending her book book tour readings and signings.

"Do you believe in God?" I point out that that's a very Christian question, a very Western, modern question. It's not actually the proper question, but nevertheless it's what people want to know. For them, that is the question.

Dave: And what is the question that you prefer to ask instead?

Armstrong: I say that religion isn't about believing things. It's ethical alchemy. It's about behaving in a way that changes you, that gives you intimations of holiness and sacredness.

Lots of good stuff in the interview, go read it all.

Matt Neuberg: Creating online help docs using Tinderbox

It's geared toward Online help for MacOS using the Apple Help viewer. [via Traumwind] But if the writing tool generates HTML documents, couldn't the same thing be true for Windows online help? I'm getting ready to do a user guide for a (cross-platform) app that some friends have been developing.

Though I love my outdated copy (ver 5.5) of Framemaker, esp for the way it tracks figure numbers and cross-references, and (bliss!) the dead-easy way it creates .pdf files, I'm happy to learn of other documentation options.

L. A. Times Festival of Books - April 24-25 at UCLA

Okay, it's a month away. But it's already coming up in my plans.

"No, I can't help you with your garage sale that weekend, because it's the L.A. Times Festival of Books."

"Oh really? I want to go! I'll reschedule the garage sale!"

I've gotten tons of good info from the speaker panels in years past. I keep checking back to see if they've posted the list of panelists and schedule -- not yet, prolly beginning of April. Tickets are free, and will be available from So Cal Ticketmaster outlets beginning Noon April 18th, the Sunday before the festival.

So there. Now you know.

What was the first browser-based control panel software?

The type of software is ubiquitous nowadays: the "terminal" to get into some piece of hardware or software is the web browser, with a control panel.

I know of the Cobalt Qube, which is what inspired Dave Winer to change Frontier and morph it into what became Manila. He said that Cobalt was his inspiration.

The entire genre of content management system/weblogging software works through the web browser as a control panel.

Nowadays there are web servers hard wired into all sorts of equipment: Routers, an air station, printers--too many to say.

What I'm trying to figure out is -- who was the first? Was it Cobalt? Someone else? Do you know?

UPDATE: Bless those medical geek-men! Al helps get the question out, and Jason Levine at Q helps answer -- taking it back to Oracle WebServer 1.0, vintage 1995.

Pooh case thrown out - Disney wins because plaintiffs stole evidence

When you go against The Mouse, thou shalt not steal from its house. (Even if it's to support claims that The Mouse has stolen royalties from you.)

(previous posts about this story)

Al Qaeda chief reveals full 9/11 plan

Other U.S. Targets: Library Tower in downtown L.A. (the tallest building west of the Mississippi, and tallest building in earthquake region) and Sears Tower , Chicago.

"The original plan was for a two-pronged attack with five targets on the east coast of America and five on the west coast," he told interrogators.

"We talked about hitting California as it was America's richest state and bin Laden had talked about economic targets."

Bin Laden, who like Khalid had studied engineering, vetoed simultaneous coast-to-coast attacks, arguing that "it would be too difficult to synchronise".

Khalid switched to two waves: hitting the east coast first and following up with a second attack. "Osama had said the second wave should focus on the west coast," he said.

On the attacks and what happened afterwards...

When the suicide planes struck on September 11, al-Qaeda seems to have been taken by surprise - both by the success of the attacks and by the US reaction.

"Afterwards we never got time to catch our breath, we were immediately on the run," Khalid said.

"Osama declared Tony Blair our principal enemy and London a target."

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed,

to US interrogators

He said the war on terrorism and the US bombing of Afghanistan completely disrupted their communications network. Operatives could no longer use satellite phones and had to rely on couriers, although they still used internet chat rooms.