My New Blog: Life, Code, etc

Hello, Folks!

I realize I haven’t really posted in quite some time now… with all the goings on of moving back to the US, a new job, new exciting projects, and just trying to make new friends in the middle of nowhere, I haven’t…. yeah, you get the picture. I thought if I could blog in micro ways, which we all know tumblr is very good at encouraging, I would do it more often. Plus, I’m really going to blog more often if I don’t just have to write about techie things.

So I started my new blog, Life, Code, Etc over yonder at tumblr. Be sure to visit me there! To be quite honest, I will probably be posting the most over there…

I’ve also been blogging on Femgineer.com. I’ve written about what’s it’s like to be a young girl in tech, advice from the brogrammers, roundups of blogs I read, and a book review of Clean Code. You’re gonna see me there every Friday (we call em Frances Fridays), so if you have any topics you’d like me to write about, feel free to shoot me an email!

Sometimes, my roundups on software development and startups get published in Women 2.0 as well.

And my articles on getting that perfect internship has appeared in The Levo League too, in tres parts: un, deux, and trois.

So many goings on, so may things to do, so many good things happening…sometimes, I’m afraid I’m going to go insane — if I haven’t already. For sure, this is a very exciting time to be a young girl in tech, and I just hope that I can share more of my experiences and lessons learned more often.

Women Who Code: Blogs You Want to Know

According to this article, only a third of women recognized in “women-in tech” type of lists actually code. I did notice that of all the tech blogs I read, I haven’t encountered very many female coders. (Confession: Even my own blog is not that programmer-y.) I agree with the spirit of the article as well. Even though there are more women in technical fields such as social media, user experience, product management, design, etc., we need more women in actual engineering. We need more women coders to encourage the next generation of girls that computer science is not just for the boys, that girls can totally kick-ass in software engineering.

Thus, today, I list a few blogs I’ve found that are written by women coders and software engineers. Reading them has inspired me to continue on my path as a software engineer, and to be proud of my chosen profession. Someday, I hope to be a great engineer like these women are, unapologetically rocking out their diva-ness in a rockstar world.

1. Jean Hsu

Great posts on technical interviews, learning how to code, life of a CS student, etc. My favorite is her post on being a female software engineer.

2. engineers don’t blog

Blog of an engineer who now runs two startups, I admire author Hadiyah Mujhid for being a technopreneur and a coder.
She has a great roundup of resources to help if you have a great idea but don’t know how to code.

3. Vanessa Hurst – Code for Humanity

Insightful posts on the mentoring and the opportunity for women in STEM (scienece, tech, engineering, and math) fields. Check out her amazing post/tutorial on object-relational mappers.

4. Sara J Chips – Girl Developer

Sara J Chipps has great tips on getting starting with MongoDB. Also, you think the guys at Facebook (as seen in The Social Network) the only ones who code “in the zone”? Find out what this coding superstar listens to as she codes.

5. Janet Talks Code

This blog has a lot of technical posts on IDEs, regular expressions, etc. as the author documents her academic career.

6. Sarah Golemon – Still Trying to Get It All Out

Great posts on the nuances of PHP, and even greater tutorials on Zend + PHP  (see her links to her DevZend articles).

Check back tomorrow for Part 2.

All About the History of Search

The complete book summary can be read on The Levo League, where the post was originally published.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEARCH, PRE-GOOGLE

Archie by Alan Emtage, McGill University, 1990. The first internet-based, pre-Web search engine.

Veronica by University of Nevada students, 1993. Connected users to the document itself, versus just the machine where it is located.

WWW Wanderer by Mathey Gray of MIT, 1993. Pioneered a breadth algorithm still used today.

Web Crawler by Brian Pinkertron, University of Washington, 1994. First to index the entire contents of a webpage.

Alta Vista by Louis Monier , DEC, mid 1990s. Pioneered the use of thousands of crawlers at once.

Lycos by Dr. Michael Mauldin, Carnegie Mellon, 1994. First to use links as a way of ranking and to include a summary of the results.

Excite by six Stanford alumni, 1994. Started personalization and free email.

Yahoo by Jerry Yang and David Filo, PhD students at Stanford, 1994. Started out using a directory-type structure that organized the Web into categories. Shares stark similarities with Google (both founded by Stanford PhD students, both have the quirky culture, both have fun office complexes).

GoTo.com by Bill Gross, founder of IdeaLab, 1997. Came up with the pay-per-click model; results were fully commercial.

To read the complete book summary (and find out how Google revolutionized the search space) click here.

I Try to Exercise my Writing Skills…

• iACADEMY’s Official Mag
  Last Spring 2011, I was asked by iACADEMY to create the college’s first magazine in one month. (There were many brave souls before me, but sadly, things did not push through.) A very big thank you to all who made this possible, but a very special thank you to our kick-ass creative editor, Paolo Geronimo. Unfortunately, I took an internship back in the US, and had to turn the mag over to an even-better EIC. I’ll be posting links here as soon as the other issues are published online. If you’d like to see the PDF version of the pioneer issue, here it is!

• Round and Around the Internet, The Levo League
  Every week, I summarize the best of the Web for all the ambitious women out there.
  January 27, 2012
  February 3, 2012

  I also pioneered the monthly column “Levo Lit”.
  A summary on The Search  by John Battelle

• JNSQ Magazine
  I also co-wrote an article about having the most wonderful staycation in the November issue.

Favorite Blogs

(Post taken from my old blogger, R.I.P) Hello to all out there! I apologize for not writing in a while. I just went back to Manila where I go to college, and adjusting to the time zone hasn’t been that smooth. Anyways, I am back to my junior year, after being excused by the dean to be about 3 weeks late for the start of classes. I tried my hardest to do everything remotely, so I can at least be on the same page as the class — but what I found out was if the class were not meant to be online, it is quite hard to stay on track.

So now, I find myself with a rather long to-do list, which I can accomplish, of course, I think. Plus, it did inspire me to write this blog post, a post about my favorite blogs and sites on getting stuff done and self-empowerment (I guess we can include fun blogs too…I guess).

Enjoy!

1. Lifehack.org

This is by far my most favorite blog! It has everything a determined person would want — tips on avoiding procrastination, how to do well in a job interview, pursuing your passions, etc. It has pretty much everything, from relationship advice to date night ideas. One of the posts that is very useful is a grand master list of student resources, study tips, posts on how to be the best student yet, etc., and  most of them free, and ALL quite useful! Here is their master list of the best posts for 2009.

2. ZenHabits.net

Simple is always best — that is the essential message of Zen Habits. Every time I visit the site, my brain feels like it’s on vacation.  It has great posts about simplifying your life, avoiding work-overload, etc. It’s has great ideas to balance our technology-drowned lives; start with their guide to zen living. It’s everything you’ll need for a productive, relaxed, and balanced life.

3. Time Photo Essays

The best of photojournalism… everything you expect from Time. With healthy doses of posts about social issues,  history, science, and the World Cup, it’s definitely worth checking out. It’s hands-down the best way to catch up on the news.

4. Polyvore.com

Need fashion ideas? Want new outfits from the same ol’ pieces in your closet? Check out this great site! It is pure inspiration for both the couture girls and the frugalista girls. It even has an art section and an interior design section! Check out their collections.

Let Your Dreams Take Flight by Frances Advincula featuring Christian Louboutin shoes

5. KhanAcademy.org

This has video tutorials on a vast area of academic topics including physics, algebra, finance, and statistics. It’s how I did well in calculus… ‘nough said.

6. ThePioneerWoman.com

This blog has a special place in my heart. Not only did it teach me how to make sushi and great steak, but it has healthy doses of humor as well. It also has one of the best photography I’ve seen in blogs… but wait until you find out what this is really about! Cali girl meets cowboy, they fall in love, and …she has to adjust to being married to a rancher. I guess I can relate to this blog because I spend my life both in Missouri and Manila, and when I miss the open space and the cows, I’ll check out this blog.  It also has great recipes, Photoshop tutorials, a photography section, as well as a homeschooling section. Don’t miss out on their love story !

Photo Credits:

Image 1: From FreeDigitalPhotos.net by Michelle Mieklejohn

Hello world!

In programmer tradition, Hello World! Welcome to my blog! Just random musings and curating from a geek girl gone glam.  

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