I have long said one of the reasons I've done well in IT, depsite being of the female persuasion, is this. And it's not just women - if you have face piercings and spiky hair, or come from a different country and speak with a funny accent, but you have the relevant skills and can get the job done then - great! But discussing this theory with a boss once he said to me "yes that's all very well until something goes wrong - then the funny looking person is more likely to end up in the firing line, even if they did nothing wrong themselves".

So while I'd like IT to be a proper meritocracy the fact remains that people will often go for the most familiar looking, non-threatening choice even if it isn;t the "best" one. How else can we explain the success of microsoft?

Back in the late 80's when I did Comp Sci there were lots of girls in the course - but I don't know where they all went. I've always worked in IT and I never ran into any of them. Meanwhile numbers going into Comp Sci and IT courses have dropped and dropped. Sometimes I talk to girls who are good at maths and encourage them towards IT. They smile and shrug and say they just can't see themselves doing it. I guess when I started the boy geek image was not so entrenched as now.

I don't know if it's as simple as childhood encouragement. As a 42 year old female who's been working in IT for more than 20 years you can imagine I encourage both my son and daughter to be interested in maths, science and computers. Boy loves it all and is very interested; girl does not want to know. Why is this? Maybe just natural tendencies - I don't know. Wish I did.

In the Vietnam war colour blind soldiers were in demand for spotting the vietcong from helicopters. The weren't distracted by all the jungle green.

An old friend of my mother's had this job

I met this really interesting permafrost expert on a plane last year - boy did he have some great stories! He was also of the opinion that global warming is preferable to global cooling.

Yeah that's probably 88% Talk about hubris! :-P

Studies reveal 87% of AC posters on slasdot can't spell.

OK let's think about the parents. After seeing my step-mother shouting herself hoarse trying to get my then teenaged half-brother out of bed in time to get to school every day, I think both of them would have welcomed the extra hour!

As a parent myself, with a son about to go into high school next year, I'd have no problem with going off to work and leaving him to get himself to school. I think the opportunities for mischief are less in the morning, and they've got to start taking responsibility for themselves sooner or later!

I've always been a morning person too - never needed an alarm clock, that sort of thing. But I certainly remember it wasn't like that for most of my friends when I was a teen!

Hey do you fancy being a personal recommendation engine for a minute? I love Neal Stephenson - who else should I check out?

I'm living in a non-english speaking country at the moment so rely on amazon for book buying, and I'm waayyyy out of touch.