You can make up experience right?
I’ve been having some issues with my current workplace and I haven’t been able to pinpoint why until recently.
It first began as a disagreement with my Sr. Developer. He had different ways of solving problems, and if I didn’t come up with those ways, then I was wrong. my first instinct was to blame myself. I figured my method was not as good and adopted new methods. Great! I was learning!
Then there were the issues with my variable naming convention. When I arrived, he told me use a certain convention that he favoured. It made sense so I stuck to it. Then a few months back he starts telling me that my naming conventions were bad and that I shouldn’t use it. Umm…OKAY. I told him that he told me to do it that way, and he responded to something of the effect “I changed my mind”. FINE. He’s allowed to change his mind. It wasn’t until he left that I realized that he never followed his own rules. Go figure.
Throughout my time with him, he always had stories from other workplaces to teach my why we do certain things. I didn’t always agree with it, but how can you argue with *EXPERIENCE*? I certainly didn’t have stories to tell from my previous workplaces so what did I do? I sat there and listened to the story no matter how irrelevant it seemed to me. Personally, I don’t learn very well just listening to other people’s stories. They are usually tangentially related and are often never the exact circumstances to the current problem at hand.
However, this is quickly becoming an issue for my own mental health. I don’t like being told that I can’t do something because something bad happened to someone else I’ve never met under similar but not the same circumstances. Whenever I try to argue my point though, it’s often met with a look. A look that says “I think you’re just too young and naive to know any better and you should listen to me because I’ve done ‘this’ before.”
So how do you argue with that!?
The best way I know how is to read study after study on all possible outcomes to all possible situations that could possibly arise. Because, you know, I have ample time to read all of this since I don’t have kids, a house, or a husband.
On that note, I’ve also had colleagues give me the “The only reason you can go out to eat and shop so often is because you don’t have kids, so I’m still better than you because I have kids and a house”-look. Yes, I don’t have kids. Yes, I’m very happy being in my mid-twenties without any kids. No, I can’t envision myself having any in the next 10 years no matter how many times you tell me, “I will one day.” And especially not after ranting for an hour about what terrible thing your kid or spouse did the other day. I can’t predict the future, but I really don’t need other people telling me how it’s going to be.
But again, they’re older than me so they know better because they’ve had more life experience.
So, how can I make up experience?
BH Meeting Follow-Up
Filed under: LadiesLearningCode, Thoughts | Tags: coding, gender, single-sex schools
Leave a Comment So on November 28th, I went to visit my old high school, Branksome Hall. It was SO much fun!
I first met with a small group of girls who were interested to go into computer science or engineering in general. They asked a lot of questions about curriculum and high school prep. I couldn’t answer all their questions about what courses they need to take in high school for specific programs, but one of the guidance councillors, Mrs. Ross, was there to assist me in that. I spoke about the usefulness and flexibility one gets with a computer science degree from U of T and talked about my PEY in Japan. Some of the girls were really thrilled about the chance to work abroad. They were even more thrilled when I told them, they’d get *paid* for it.
My second meeting was with a grade 12 physics class. I was happy to see my old physics teacher again since she was always very kind and patient with me, even when I didn’t do my homework. Some of the girls in that class were also in the lunch-time meeting, so there was some overlap. However, this time around, things were geared towards the importance of having a well-rounded (physics included) background in high school. Again I also went over what I was doing now, what I did for PEY, and the kinds of projects I worked on in school.
It was so much fun to talk to these girls. I tried not to sound overly teacher-ish and tried to come across as friendly and easy to talk to (like a friend). They probably get enough “grown-ups” telling them things, so I tried to relate to them and tell them things that might interest them instead.
One thing I found interesting was their lack of interest in knowing what there potential classmates would be like (i.e. the boys). Since BH is an all-girl school, I don’t think they gave it much thought and they’re not experiencing what it’s like to be in that kind of setting. After talking to a friend about this, she said that in co-ed schools, the girls in tech classes she talked to never asked any questions. When they had one, they would approach her after the talk was over. I thought that was terribly depressing, to be honest. In high school, I never thought twice about asking questions, but in university, I can understand. I think THIS is what the current problem is.
Girls have enough courage to take the courses in high school, but not enough courage to participate in them? I can image they’re afraid of asking silly questions and having other people look at them as if they’re stupid. The number of girls in first year computer science courses is pretty good, but I think many take them as a distribution requirement. Maybe they have a friend taking it and can help them. But the number dwindles as you go to more advanced classes. And I think many of them get turned off by their classmates. In an intro course, you get students of all skill levels. The problem is, that if most of your beginner students are female, they can be easily intimidated by the advanced students who will more likely be male.
I think I’m just rambling, but I think that to get more girls interested in these fields at the university level, girls need to get gain more confidence earlier on and understand that any feelings of insecurities in university is shared by a lot of people in their classes…
…from what I’ve experienced anyway.
Reinvigorated-Pong!
Filed under: LadiesLearningCode, Thoughts | Tags: Branksome Hall, Computer Science, Mission, Women
Comments (2) Hello blogosphere!
This past weekend I spent a day helping out at the first #LadiesLearningCode Workshop. It was a most eye-opening experience. It made me realize that there is a huge demand for a space where women can learn how to code. I want to quickly say thanks to Heather Payne and all the organizers and developers who helped make the day run so smoothly. As a developer realized what a terrible teacher I am. However! It has, happily, left me with a new drive to spread the word to all women in Engineering and Computer Science and young ladies all around the city.
One of the lightning talks given by Jessamyn Smith made me realize that all the feelings of insecurity I had for 3 years of my undergrad were apparently normal! Who’d have thought!? It took me until my fourth year, after coming back from my Professional Experience Year, to realize that I actually *DO* know just as much if not more than a lot of the guys I thought were always smarter than me. Finishing up now, I realize how much university has helped shape me into a more confident, and independent person. This is largely due to the interactions I’ve had with some of my classmates (for better and worse). So really, Thank you all!
A couple weeks ago, when I was first put in touch with Heather, I started thinking about why I was in computer science. I always tell people it’s by chance in high school, but I wish it wasn’t. When I graduated high school I was one of a handful of girls going into a technical field. I always felt put-off by that fact especially since I was lucky enough to go to a prestigious school that’s ranked on a world-wide scale. So why weren’t more girls interested in programming or computers? Why was there such emphasis on the arts and humanities where it was less so on maths and sciences?
I’m hoping to be able to make it a personal goal of mine to get to the bottom of it. The current plan is to contact *someone* from the faculty and get some information. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to eventually give a talk to these girls about the merits of technical fields, the problems they may encounter, and anything else I can come up with. *IF* I do get to give a talk, I’ll definitely be looking for input about content from my fellow CS girls or Branksome girls.
Wish me luck!
Holy cow it’s been a while!
Hello all in the blogosphere. It’s been a long time since I posted anything.
Just a heads up to anyone who cares, I’m still working on my Google Chrome extension. As soon as I get any significant progress done on it, I’ll post my results up here.
University life is soon coming to an end. 2 more months, 1 more class and it’s all over! So what am I supposed to do from here? Well fortunately enough, I’m already employed full time so that’s not an issue. But what else? With work, there is less time for travel (though I long to go back and visit all my friends in Japan!) We’ll just have to wait and see.
I can already envision myself becoming restless. No more assignment deadlines. No more tests lurking around the corner. No more overnighters in BA. I admit, I’m going to miss all of that. I took a vacation just after my last exam in April to relax on a beach in Mexico. It was phenomenal! I did nothing and thoroughly enjoyed myself. But even as I lay there soaking in the sun, I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling of an assignment I forgot to do or a test I forgot to study for. I just hope that feeling doesn’t last too long once I’m officially done.
I think this means I’ll have *MUCH* more time to work on my pet projects…in theory. Life commitments seem to appear out of nowhere. For now, the end is near….I can taste it!
Accessibility Project Update
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Accessibility, Chrome, Extensions, javascript, python
Leave a Comment Okay, one month in, and I still feel like I haven’t done enough. I keep hitting the silliest road blocks.
At first, I started working on some front end things and integrating into the chrome browser. Admittedly, I don’t feel like I did enough for a first milestone. I had basic front end functionality and basically no back end functionality.
Milestone 2: ‘Coming Along’
I decided to focus on server side processing and have the client interact with the ‘master server list’ of videos that are problematic. This meant that I could write a server side application that just scrapes YouTube for content and processes each video. Initially, I thought this would be OK. I knew the Python Imaging library existed and so I thought I’d try my hand at it. That was a failing attempt. Not only did I not remember much Python, I couldn’t even get a development environment set up (I’m terrible at that sort of thing). Next, I thought I could do it in Java, since I’m more familiar with Java. Again, I couldn’t get my environment set up. (yes, I’m a failure). The Java media Framework did NOT want to cooperate with me. In the end I turned to Matlab. Trusty, reliable, bloated Matlab. This was because it’s just easier. No environment to set up, it has all the packages I need already so I didn’t have to go out and download/install other libraries. Simple! Also, given that I’d already done this type of thing in Matlab, I had the basic code written up in 15 minutes. *sigh* <– One whole weekend of work….
My Matlab program appears to come up with the same results as the PEAT application, but does not display them as nicely. I look at the average value of each frame and compare it to previous frames. If there is a difference of moret han 100 between a set of frames, then set a warning because this indicates a large change in the sequence of frames. Granted, this is not the most scientific way to detect flashes in a video, but it’s start. To save time, we can stop processing the rest of the video once a warning sign has been detected.
Next I had to set up a local server. I decided to just use my localhost. Googled how to do it, and found IIS simple enough for my purposes. Now my client can connect and read data off my localhost. *good enough*
My new problem is trying to get a modal dialog box to appear in the YouTube window that covers the video and warns the viewer of the video. I can get a regular dialog box, but not the flashy in window frame. I might just stick to this for now.
Next Steps:
Trying to get the server to automatically scrape YouTube for videos to process OR accept requests from the client. Accepting requests however, means that I can somehow automate the process of grabbing videos off YouTube, process it, and return the result back to the user in a timely manner. (not likely to happen anytime soon)
I need to make the client side more usable. Still lots of “features” that need to be attended to. I also need to test on a real server, but I need help setting one up properly and not just hacking together a default localhost.
Accessibility Project Proposal
Filed under: Usability | Tags: Accessibility, Chrome, Extensions, Usability
Comments (2) Many videos and web sites contain a lot of flashing images. This can be a problem for people with epilepsy. There is currently a free Photosensitive Epilepsy Analysis Tool (PEAT) tool that can gauge whether a web site or video is capable of inducing photosensitive epileptic seizures. The tool is for web developers to ensure that they are aware if their sites can induce a seizure. This program works well for web developers aware of the issues.
PEAT is designed as a free, downloadable resource for web developers to identify seizure risks in their web content and software. It is NOT designed to analyze commercial videos or games, to remove epilepsy risks, or for day-to-day web site screening by a person with photosensitive epilepsy. It also cannot make unsafe videos safe (but others can use it to figure out how to make small changes in their content to make it safe). – PEAT User Guide
Thus, my proposal is a tool that would be able to integrate it into browsers for day-to-day web site screening by a person with photosensitive epilepsy.
I wish to start with a Google Chrome extension that detects if a Youtube video is capable of inducing a photosensitive seizure. It is often difficult to determine the contents of a Youtube before it starts. Before it plays, there should be a warning if there is a possibility of inducing seizures. If the user is on Youtube, it will take the video before playing, analyze the frames and determine if there are high contrast flashes that occur in the video. If there are, a warning box will appear in the window before playing the video to see if the user wants to continue or not.
To extend this to websites in general, the PEAT tool takes a video of the site contents while it’s loading and running. This video is then analyzed and can then be used to see the implications of certain Flash applications or animations. I would try something similar to this and provide a warning before the website renders and/or offer a warning in the browser URL bar.
Frame-by-frame Processing:
The image intensity can be calculated for each frame and compared to the previous and next frames to determine whether there is a large change in intensity. The basic calculations are easy, but optimizing for speed is something I need to look into.
Google Chrome Accessibility Options
Filed under: Usability | Tags: Accessibility, Chrome, Extensions, Usability
Comments (1) This post is looking at the accessibility options given to users of Google Chrome. There are several extensions in development and some are better than others in terms of ease of use. However, I feel as though evaluating these tools as a person with no limiting disabilities does not give the tools justice, so I also took into consideration some of the comments left on these tools by other users.
The reason I am focusing on these extensions is because I plan to write my own Chrome extension that will hopefully improve on what already exists.
Scales the webpage to the size of the browser. It can scale it down to a minimum size, and the maximum appears to be the size of one’s monitor. It removes the whitespace in web browsers usually placed on the sides of a website.
The advantage of this is that it’s an easy way to enlarge websites. However, this does not allow further enlargement than the width of the monitor. This also doesn’t make the page any cleaner and keeps the same layout. So even though there is a kind of zoom, it’s very limited. And if the window is shrunken, the site shrinks as well. How often does someone want to make things smaller on their screen? Answer: not very.
Allows users to create gestures for smoother browsing using only their mouse. This reduces the number of buttons that users need to click, which can be useful for users that have difficulty clicking on small buttons frequently such as forward and back. It also gives an alternative to keyboard shortcuts. In Google Chrome, there are many keyboard shortcuts for opening and closing tabs and links that many users are unaware of. Using smooth gestures, not only allows users the ability to learn that these actions exist, but also perform them without needing the keyboard shortcut. A simple mouse gesture can accomplish any of these tasks.
The good thing with this extension is that is allows users that have difficulty clicking small buttons the ability to ignore navigational buttons of the browser. However, when actually navigating sites, this does not help people with certain motor skills. It will be difficult to make gestures if the user has motor disabilities and cannot use a mouse properly.
Changes the style of websites to be simple. Users have the option to set the background and text colour as well as the link colours. It removes all background colours and formatting and only keeps the page layout intact. Since this extension strips all page styling, it can sometimes be difficult to differentiate different parts of the web page. For example, if this is used on Gmail, the style is removed, but all the emails, contacts, and links are all in the same place. The only difference is that it is difficult to differentiate between sections. The background colour often shows where the navigational links are and where the content is.
For visually impaired users, this extension makes things easier to read since it is of higher contrast than most web sites. However, this makes it difficult to differentiate between sections of the web page. It can be difficult to read emails and navigate through web sites. Even i found it difficult to navigate through my emails with this application. One good thing about this application is that you can opt-out of using this extension for designated sites. This allows regular browsing for certain sites that have been flagged as ok.
ChromeVis – allows users to magnify passages of text and displays it at the top of the window in a high contrast text and background. You can also select text with a mouse or keyboard. You can also navigate pages and toggle the visualization on and off with the keyboard. This allows users with visual impairments to read passages of text more easily. It will appear at the top of the screen and in high contrasting colours.
The difficulty with this is navigating through the page. Users have to learn specific commands to move forward and back through sentences or use their mouse to highlight a passage they would like to read. If, users can read the passage to know that they want to read a certain passage, do they still need this tool? If they rely solely on the keyboard navigation of the tool, it can sometimes be difficult to find the right passages to be reading.
Lets users navigate the web using only their keyboard. Activating the extension with a simple press of a comma, this application gives an identifier to each link on the page. This goes for clickable images and links. The idea is so users can completely surf the internet with only their keyboard and nothing else.
This is good for people who find it easier to use a keyboard over a mouse, but some of those users may find it difficult to use a keyboard even. People with cognitive disabilities might also find it difficult to remember all the commands and complicated key combinations for navigating where it might be easier to simple enlarge and convert the entire site to high contrast visuals.
Renders web pages easier to read by extracting only text from the website. Settings are customizable and easy to escape from. It is an automatic rendering that users can opt out of. This allows them to select certain sites that are okay for viewing regularly. The tool is customizable through the options display but also as each page renders. A toolbar appears at the top and bottom of each page along with an escape button. This button is rather small so clicking on it might be difficult, but having the options on display at each page is useful. It lets users instantly change the size of text, colour scheme and page width. Since this tool extracts text, users don’t have to worry about navigation and can focus on reading the text at hand. If navigation is necessary, users can exit the TidyRead mode, and go to the regular site to navigate.
This is easy to use for visually impaired users. Set up is the simplest of all the tools I have looked at. The pages get rearranged into the style specified by the user and make it easy to read in a single column. This only solves one problem for users though. Since navigation is stripped away, users have to exit TidyRead mode to navigate. This can be difficult if the navigation if the original site has a terrible navigation bar.
Course Enrollment Frustrations
Let the ranting begin:
Enrolling in courses not of your PoSt at U of T is the biggest pain ever. I’m currently on the waitlist for 4 of the courses I want to graduate. Sure, I was a little late to the process, but 1 hour shouldn’t have made that much of a difference. There has to be a better way. If I don`t get into these courses, there`s a good chance that I`ll end up taking more next summer (which I already have to take a credit in.) My other alternative is to take an extra semester (because I REALLY want to give the university THAT much more of my money and time.) Sure, all students are treated equal after priority lift, but should we really be? As a student trying to graduate this year, shouldn’t I get to take the courses I want and need to be able to graduate on time?
Sure I could enroll in some other ‘bird’ courses, but I’m not interested in any of the other courses. Shouldn’t university be the place where you can study subjects that your interested in? I want to make the most of my university life and take courses that I actually want to learn about. Second year geography doesn’t interest me. Astrology doesn’t interest me. I don’t care if the course I want is hard, I want to take it. I don’t care if it’s not a ‘GPA booster’, I want to learn about it. Some people give me funny looks when I tell them that. As if the only reason to be in university is to get a good GPA and a piece of paper to prove it.
Sadly I can’t do anything to change my current position. I can only continuously check ROSI to see if my place in line has moved.
Ahh! Toronto, my home!
Filed under: Adventures, Thoughts | Tags: Canada, Japan, Plans, Tokyo
Leave a Comment Ok, so I’ve been home for over a month now. So many things to update anyone who’s interested on.
Leaving Japan was rough.
Saying goodbye to my office and co-workers was so sad! I didn’t expect it to be so emotional, but it was embarrassingly so. Everyone in the office helped make my transition and life there that much easier. Sure, it was difficult to conversate with them at first, but afterwards, I had so much fun. My Japanese is still terrible (and only getting worse), but being able to still have basic conversations makes me really happy.
One week before I left, I shipped two boxes of *stuff* and packed my suitcase full of everything else I could fit. I was rather peeved, when customs opened one of my boxes. I wouldn’t have been if they had managed to re-pack it so that my things were not destroyed, but they could not. I came home one day to find that my box had been opened, and poorly retaped with clothes bursting out of the seems. They managed to bend several of my books ways that they should not be bent! (I like to keep my books in pristine condition, and they were not longer that).
My last days in Matsumoto were great. I finally realized that I truly enjoy being outgoing and meeting new people. One night I managed to encounter a traveller passing through Matsumoto. We talked a lot about his travels and adventures around the world and I offered to try and show him around the city the next day. Apparently I’m a terrible tour guide, since I really didn’t know much of Matsumoto regretably. At any rate, his travels should take him to North America sometime, and perhaps I can show off Toronto a lot better!
Travelling to the airport was rather easy. I shipped my larger luggage to the airport the day before so I wouldn’t have to carry it on the train and around Tokyo with me (why don’t we have services like this in Toronto? If we do, why is it so unknown?) I spent my last weekend in Tokyo with my friends, Megumi and Maya. It was a very relaxing weekend. We went to some nice restaurants, met with Isaac, and went clubbing. No more shopping (I had no space to carry anything else home). At the airport, Maya and I had some farewell sushi and then I left.
I was incredibly excited to go home and eat everything in sight. That is exactly what happened too. Being home now, though, I miss Japan terribly! It was much more relaxing there. This is partly due to my freedom and lack of resposibilities and obligations. Living alone was a big plus as well. There are also so many little things that made living there that much easier.
Everyone asks me if I’ll ever go back to live and I seriously want to, but I’m not sure if I could live and work there forever. Job opportunities and work environment might drive me crazy. I enjoy living in a country of ‘equal’-er opportunities for women.
After seeing friends and family again, I’ve realized how much I’ve changed. Someone once told me that the friendships I make in Japan are only temporary, but I really don’t think so. I intend to make them last and I miss them dearly.
Summer plans:
- ROM – Terra Cotta Warrior exhibit
- Summerlicious
- Luminato
- AGO
WonderlandThe Ex – Must go shopping- Jersey Boys
Rain the Beatles Experience- Miss Saigon
- New York/Boston/California – anywhere really…I want a *real* vacation
Taste of the Danforth
Some ongoing things for the summer:
- Going to the beach
- Golfing
- Working out
- Work (still at EPSON)
- Summer school – Intro to Psychology
- Spend time with friends and family
- Trying new restaurants in and around the city
I’m Alive!
Filed under: Adventures | Tags: Christmas, Disney, festival, Hokkaido Snow Festival, Japan, New Years, Onbashira, Plans, Roppongi, Sake Festival, shopping, Skiing, Tokyo, Tokyo Disney Resort, Tsukiji
Leave a Comment Okay, it’s definitely been a while since my last post. Tons have happened since then though! This is just an update on what I’ve been up to.
- Christmas with Yukari at her church. Met some JETs from Shiojiri and American missionaries.
- Skiing at Gala Yuzawa with Isaac and friends. Most convenient ski resort I’d ever been to followed by first Onsen experience. Very relaxing.
- New Years in Tokyo with Megumi and Yuuka. Went to a Shinto shrine for wishes and fortunes. New years shopping in Shibuya and Harajuku (Crazy Madness!). Of course no trip with them is complete without at least one night on the town in Roppongi.
- Tokyo Disney Land and Disney Sea with Aoyagi-san and her family. Made me feel like a kid again. It was so much fun! I LOVE Disney!
- Skiing around Nagano-ken with Aoyagi-san and her family. Watching kids ski is the cutest thing ever!
- Skiing in Niseko, Hokkaido and a bit of the Snow festival. Back country and tree skiing in the best powder ever. Skiing followed by outdoor Onsen is blissful.
- Skiing in Hakuba. More relaxing, more nice weather.
- Sake Festival in Niigata. Drank so much sake and met english teachers from Niigata. Partied with them until around 2 in the morning, then woke up and drank more sake the next day. I bought a grape flavoured sake and Amazake infused with Sakura. They are both delicious.
- More trips to Tokyo, this time with new English teaching friends, Andy and Rachel. Stayed at a strange friend’s place. Went to cool art show where I met a Torontonian who used to draw for Marvel (secretly admired him) and another Torontonian who used to dance on Electric Circus (Who remembers that?). Saw a closed Tsukiji Market (Boo).
Work is chugging along. Only 2 months left and it feels like there’s still so much to do. Not just finishing up things here and taking care of logistic things, but also so many festivals and things to do! My weekends are booked for April and probably May.
- April 2-3: Onbashira bringing down of the log (Yamadashi). This is where crazy Japanese people ride logs down a mountain. There are reports of people dying and many people getting injured in the past. This festival only happens once every 6 years. So I’m so excited!
- April 10-17: Osaka, Himeji, and Hiroshima with Jen. It’s going to be fun times and lots of eating.
- April 24-25: Clam picking in Nagoya with Aoyagi-san, her family, and her family friends. That’s going to be interesting.
As of yet, I have no plans for Golden Week. Not many vacation days, so probably can’t go too far. Maybe Tokyo, or Nagoya. This is also the time for the second part of Onbashira, Satobiki, which is the raising of the pillars at the shrines. Definitely must see the Cherry Blossoms in the Kiso Valley. It’s supposed to be famous. I’m going to try and see if I can arrange to go to Shiga-ken to see Akina (my Japanese exchange partner from high school).
I hope I can survive the rest of the craziness here in Japan. It’s going to be a busy couple of months.