Kathleen McGivney

Lucky

Lucky, originally uploaded by kmcgivney.

This is our housemate's cat, Lucky. She is tiny, only 5 1/2 pounds or so, and is 18 years old. She still scampers around like a kitten, though, and kills catnip-filled mice with reckless abandon.

She was the lady of the house until we brought my one-eyed cat, Jack, to NYC from L.A. (She may look like she has one eye in this image, but her left eye is just in shadow.) They get along in that uneasy cat way, where they swat at each other occasionally when we are around but will sniff each other's noses and sit close to each other when they think we're not looking.

This shot was taken with our Canon 5D and the Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens. I just got this lens, and I really love it. It was quite difficult to maintain focus in this shot because she's a cat and therefore refuses to hold still when I want her to. I did manage to catch another shot with her face in focus, shown after the jump along with a couple of images from the Nokia N82 - a kitty standoff and Lucky lounging on her most prized possession, our cat-hair-filled cable box.

More from the Monument

Untitled, originally uploaded by kmcgivney.

Yesterday, I posted a photo of The Monument in London, which commemorates the Great Fire of 1666. While my boyfriend at the time (now husband) climbed its 311 steps on the day I took these photos, I walked around the area, taking photos of whatever caught my eye.

This image is from a carved relief on the west side of the base of the monument. It is quite large, as you can see in this photo on Wikipedia. I captured this using a Lensbaby on my Canon 5D.

To get the full effect of this image, you really need to see it larger, though. A larger version is posted after the jump.

The Monument, London

The Monument, originally uploaded by kmcgivney.

The Monument to the Great Fire of London is exactly what its title says it is - a monument that commemorates the Great Fire that happened in 1666. Built in 1677, it is 202 feet tall and stands 202 feet away from the point where the fire started. You can climb to the top of the monument up a steep and narrow winding staircase. It is 311 steps to the top - quite a feat, but well worth it for the views from the top. You even get a little certificate when you climb it.

I climbed it in 1999 on my first trip to London, but can't find the photos that I took with the point & shoot film camera I borrowed from a friend (I've come a long way, baby). This is a photo of the base of the monument taken in 2005. Normally it's surrounded by tourists checking out the sights or locals walking to or from work, but on this day I managed to capture it with nobody in the frame.

Why women quit technology careers

There is an interesting article up at ComputerWorld discussing a research project recently published in Harvard Business Review on the high levels of attrition amongst women in technology and science fields. I have often found myself thinking about this topic, as I know a large number of women in technology, most of whom have been in their fields for quite some time. The article states that one of the factors leading to women leaving technology companies (or even the field altogether) is that machismo and misogynistic attitudes permeate these fields; I'd have to agree somewhat with that. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've been met with skepticism or outright derision when joining a project as a senior technical person, or seen the blatant expressions of surprise register on someone's face when I prove that I know not only what I'm doing, but how to do it extremely well. I'll admit that some of that skepticism may derive from my perceived age; I've been told countless times that I look much younger than I am, and once, when I told someone that I have been working with Notes, Domino, etc. for over 12 years, they replied, "did you start when you were a kid?" But since I've seen that same skepticism applied to other female colleagues, even those who are older or more well-known in their technical areas of expertise than I am, I feel that it may be due to some inherent gender bias still hovering around the technology field, the "girls can't do computers" line of thinking that seems so antiquated to many but still manages to persistently stick around.

Other reasons the authors of the study give for women leaving or being dissatisfied with careers in technology or science include isolation - being the only woman on a team or project or sometimes even in an entire department or floor - and lack of mentoring. I've also found these factors to exist, the former moreso than the latter (at least in my personal experience). However, they bother me less than gender bias does. I have often found myself to be the only woman in a group of colleagues, but I've never found it to be in any way inappropriate or isolating - perhaps I've just been lucky to have the groups of coworkers that I've been fortunate enough to work with. As for mentoring, I don't have a preference as to which gender a mentor is, as long as they can give me information and guidance that is appropriate to my career. I can see how those factors could affect women in science and technology careers, however.

Whatever the reason, it saddens me to see women leave technology and science, because many women do excel in those fields, and because I want to see my daughter's generation grow up seeing that they can be whatever they want to be when they grow up. (Which brings us back to the mentoring point - which could be a factor in women choosing not to even enter science or technology fields at all.) I hope that one day, we can all overcome our biases and have true equality for women in the workplace.

links via Boing Boing Gadgets

Nokia N82: a very unscientific review

Camera cat with cameras, originally uploaded by kmcgivney.

As I mentioned last week, I picked up a Nokia N82 smartphone after an unsuccessful experiment with a Nokia N95. I have been using it pretty much nonstop for about a week now, and have a review and summary of it. My review concentrates on two things: usability compared to a Blackberry Pearl and photographic capabilities.

First, usability: I had a Nokia model before I had the Blackberry Pearl, so I was able to get used to Nokia's interface again very quickly. I found that moving around the interface was intuitive, and there are many things I liked over the Pearl, including the gallery interface (much slicker on the N82, with a rotating menu, and much, much faster than the Pearl). I also very much like that the screen tilts if you turn the phone on its side, much like the iPhone, but I think that is mostly beneficial for scrolling, as typing in that position is quite difficult. The browser on the N82 is approximately one billion times better than the limited browser on the Pearl, but that can be worked around by using Opera for the Blackberry, which is much better than the native BB browser.

What I found lacking on the N82 versus the Pearl are: predictive text, ease and feel of button navigation, and a couple of minor "number of clicks" issues. Predictive text on the Pearl is amazing and can figure out most words very easily (though I had to train it to cuss; when I first used it, I said "duck" and "shut" a lot). The N82 uses T9, which gets things wrong enough that I just turn it off and resort to multi-tap. I was very fast at it before I got the Pearl, though, and it's only taken me a week to get close to my pre-Pearl texting speeds.

Button navigation on the N82 is easy, but some of the buttons are very close together, which makes it very easy to accidentally press the wrong or multiple buttons. The Pearl's scroll wheel is much easier to use than the Nokia's scroll buttons. And for some apps like Gmail, I have to tell the phone that the application is allowed to access the internet every time I open it on the N82. Not so with the Pearl. Annoying, but I can work around it.

What's really special about the N82, and my main deciding factor in keeping it, is its camera. It packs a 5 megapixel camera into a fairly compact phone, with a Zeiss lens, real autofocus (with an assist light for low-light situations), and a real Xenon flash. The camera in this phone is enough to replace your casual point & shoot camera. The flash is much more powerful than any LED flash on any cameraphone I have handled in the past and works well in low-light situations (see bar images below). All of the photos in this entry were taken with the N82 and I am very happy with the image quality. Also a bonus are the Flickr and Vox integration features that are included out of the box; once configured, I can post a photo directly to my Flickr photo stream via the internet instead of sending it via MMS. And since the phone has built-in WiFi capabilities, if I am near a wireless access point, I can use that instead of my cell phone data plan to upload the images.

All in all, I think that the Nokia N82 is an excellent phone for someone who likes photography and is a heavy web user. If your primary use of your mobile device is work-related e-mail, the Blackberry is better suited for what you are doing. But for someone like me, who needs a fully capable multimedia device, the N82 is perfect.

More photos after the jump.

Basilica di San Vitale, Ravenna

Basilica di San Vitale, Ravenna, originally uploaded by kmcgivney.

During our trip to Italy, we took a day trip to Ravenna, which is not too far from the Adriatic coast. Ravenna was a prominent city in Roman times, and after the fall of Rome and a few changes in rulership, eventually came under the control of Justinian, emperor of the Byzantine empire. Ravenna then became the seat of Byzantine government in Italy.

During Byzantine rule, the Basilica di San Vitale was completed (though much of the artwork was completed during the period of Gothic rule). It holds some amazing examples of Byzantine mosaic art, which are considered some of the most important examples of Byzantine art in western Europe.

The photos we captured there do not do justice to the beauty and colors of these mosaics, most of which are over 1,400 years old. They are absolutely stunning.

More photos after the jump, including a detail shot. Keep in mind that the entire apse and surrounding arches are all decorated in mosaic pieces smaller than my fingernail. The ceiling in the main part of the church is painted, however.

Brooklyn Botanical Garden

Japanese Garden, originally uploaded by kmcgivney.

The Brooklyn Botanical Garden is a wonderful oasis in New York City. My favorite thing about the BBG is that it has a large Japanese garden, which contains a large number of cherry trees. Cherry blossoms are one of my favorite things, both for their aesthetics and their symbolism. Each year, the Brooklyn Botanical Garden celebrates the Sakura Matsuri, or Cherry Blossom Festival. It is a huge, weekend-long event with Japanese art, performances and music. We love to go there to see the cherry blossoms in bloom and enjoy the festivities.

This image was captured at last year's Sakura Matsuri with a Leica D-Lux 3. More images from last year's festival can be found in my Sakura Matsuri set.

My husband can fly!

My husband Atom is a photographer and also works as a photo assistant. This week, he's been working as an assistant, shooting some catalog stuff in a studio. During a break, the photographer shot a couple of test shots. This one is my favorite:

Photo by Kevin OBrien.

Nokia N95: Hello and goodbye

For the past couple of months, I've wanted a new mobile phone that really addresses my personal requirements for a mobile device - a great camera, excellent web capabilities, and good phone quality. GPS is a good bonus but not a showstopper if the device doesn't have it. I've been eyeing the Nokia N95 for a while now, and as is my wont when Apple makes an announcement regarding the iPhone, I bought one last night. (I bought my current phone, the BlackBerry Pearl, the day the iPhone came out. What? I like to defy Steve Jobs, or as Warren Ellis called him, Bay Area Moses.)

I went to the Nokia flagship store in midtown Manhattan last night with the ol' ball and chain and we manhandled both the regular N95 and the 8GB model. I read a bunch of reviews before going there, and was prepared for the feel of the device - the build quality feels a little flimsy, not how I'd expect a high-end phone to feel. But the features fit my requirements, and we took home an N95 8GB model. However, after playing with the setup last night, it is going back to the store today.

My main problem with the device is volume control. The N95 has powerful speakers for playing music. When we were in the store, Atom stumbled across a video that was on the demo phone and it started playing very loudly. He pressed the volume control buttons and nothing happened. Thinking it was just a problem with the demo model, we moved on. However, when I got it home and began changing ringtones, I noticed the same problem - as I scrolled through each ringtone, I was unable to change the volume on them using the volume buttons. After checking some Nokia user forums, I discovered that this is a known problem with some applications and games - if the game does not have built-in volume controls, you either have to play it on full volume or mute, because the volume buttons have no effect. This strikes me as odd since volume control is very, very basic functionality and I know that past Nokia models have had the ability to control volume no matter what application you are using. My roommate, who knows stuff about things, says that the ability to control volume no matter what you're doing is native in the Symbian OS, so I don't really understand why it works this way. I'd assume I got a dud device, but since the one in the store also does this, I have to assume that this is how it works on this phone, and that's the main reason why it's going back. The other major reasons are mostly usability and build quality issues, the biggest of which is the lack of lens cover for the camera.

I've been doing some more research today and may get an N82 instead - it has the same 5MP camera, but with a Xenon flash instead of the N95's weak LED flash, as well as most of the features of the N95 that I like. According to reviews, its build quality feels more solid as well. And it has a lens cover. We're going to the Nokia store tonight to test it out - and we'll pay much closer attention to those volume controls this time.

Under the Bean in Chicago

Under the Bean, originally uploaded by kmcgivney.

As anyone who has ever been to Millennium Park in Chicago knows, the park is filled with fantastic examples of art and architecture. One of my favorites, affectionately known as "The Bean", is Anish Kapoor's metal sculpture, Cloud Gate. It's beautiful when you approach it, as it reflects the sky and surrounding buildings and people, and it's also fun to wander underneath and see the swirling abstractions created by its curves.

This photo was taken underneath the bean with a Leica D-Lux 3. More bean photos can be seen in my Chicago set on Flickr.