
Barbie Gets to be a Computer Engineer - tiffani
http://www.barbiemedia.com/?cat=7
======
jcl
_For the ﬁrst time ever, Barbie® asked the world to help her select her next
career._

Actually, Barbie® asked the _internet_. And it chose a computer career, which
is about as surprising as moot winning the Time 100 poll.

(Edit: See the original Reddit thread for the call to action as well as
various vote stuffing attempts. Apparently, this poll was more resistant than
the Time one.
[http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/aobsa/vote_for_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/aobsa/vote_for_barbie_to_be_a_computer_engineer/)
)

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jamesk2
Barbie used to think that "Math is hard," now she's a master of recursion and
lambdas.

~~~
rit
Monads are hard, let's go shopping!

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ugh
See
[http://www.barbiemedia.com/admin/uploads/ComputerEngineerBar...](http://www.barbiemedia.com/admin/uploads/ComputerEngineerBarbie.pdf)
[PDF] for a photo.

~~~
DannoHung
Not that I could come up with anything better, but is anyone else a little
disappointed in what they've come up with? We need better accessorization to
appeal to little girls, I guess.

Couldn't they have at least put some code on her laptop instead of 0's and
1's?

~~~
squidbot
Agreed! Maybe we could lobby them to replace it with a DeCSS snippet.Or just
be subversive and have some stickers printed up and leave them on shelves next
to the Barbies.

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radicalmatt
"To create an authentic look, Barbie® designers worked closely with the
Society of Women Engineers and the National Academy of Engineering to develop
the wardrobe and accessories for Computer Engineer Barbie®. Wearing a binary
code patterned tee and equipped with all the latest gadgets including a smart
phone, Bluetooth headset, and laptop travel bag, Computer Engineer Barbie® is
geek chic."

A swing, and a miss.

~~~
matrix
A wild off-balance swing and a stumbling miss, I agree.

Of course, real-life business casual isn't going to work ("Hey, its J.Crew
Barbie!") but they could have gone for:

\- An edgy all-black mod look ala The Matrix.

\- Slim-fitting jeans, and fitted t-shirt with 8-bit graphics motif;
accessorized with a super-slick looking laptop running Gentoo.

\- A cute Unix hippy look, with BSD or Linux t-shirt, and a bus analyzer/logic
analyzer as the accessory.

~~~
Groxx
_\- An edgy all-black mod look ala The Matrix._

haha, hopefully you're not referring to Trinity in that. Though I'd love to
see Ken decked out like Neo when they stormed the building, guns and all.

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timr
It's only a matter of time until Barbie loses her job to a Chinese-made
equivalent.

~~~
jjs
Are you sure she's not already made in China?

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Josh_e
When I was a kid my dad didn't let me play with Dolls. He ended up getting rid
of all of my sister's Barbies so I would play with other toys instead.

Ever since I never play with or thought about buying a Barbie until now.

I will for sure be getting this one.

~~~
olliesaunders
He didn't want to reinforce gender stereotypes?

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dugmartin
As a father of two daughters I'm both intrigued and repelled by this.

~~~
olliesaunders
Why repelled?

~~~
jcmhn
Pink explosion.

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epochwolf
Non-standard navigation... To scroll you have to click the up/down arrows in
the bottom right.

~~~
judofyr
Hopefully that's the first thing Barbie will fix in her new occupation.

~~~
dmix
I believe we'll still need designer Barbie to fix the crime that is black text
on a hot pink background.

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tiffani
I never willingly played with Barbies as a kid (I sold my last 6 at a yard
sale my mom had when I was like 8 or 9), but I do believe I'll be buying this
one--even if she just stays in the box.

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starnix17
Does anyone else find the crazy amount of copyright symbols in that press
release funny?

~~~
rbanffy
Most computer engineers would

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rbanffy
Bluetooth headset?! Come on!

~~~
Tichy
And she still has a wristwatch.

~~~
rbanffy
What is a wristwatch?

~~~
pbhjpbhj
It's an accessory design to increase profit for design firms and jewellers.

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moron4hire
When I saw the headset on the doll, I immediately jumped to thinking it was
some kind of "tech support Barbie", i.e. a demeaning job, not requiring a
degree, barely above janitor at most IT firms, often staffed by people who
found out they couldn't hack it in higher education.

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jff
As a computer engineer, I might have to buy one and stash it away for any
future daughters.

However, we don't wear "binary code patterned t-shirts". I guess maybe
conference shirts aren't as recognizably geeky.

~~~
ryanelkins
Yeah, I thought it was a bit silly myself, but I realize it's a difficult
thing to design for - we don't really have any instantly recognizable uniform
they could use. I'm not sure what I could come up with that someone could
guess what she is supposed to be just by looking at her and not be somewhat
ridiculous.

~~~
scdlbx
Khaki cargo pants and a black t-shirt with "Got Root?" written on it.

~~~
akadien
I was hoping for a FreeBSD daemon tshirt, but "Got Root" would work, too.

~~~
rapind
Or Rush

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Frazzydee
"Both News Anchor Barbie® and Computer Engineer Barbie® are currently
available for pre-order exclusively at www.MattelShop.com."

Could anybody actually find it on their site?

~~~
johnswamps
Nope, I couldn't either

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conesus
Oy, Computer Engineer Barbie gets a bluetooth headset and bad taste in
clothing. Shouldn't she be selling the industry, not mocking it?

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ricardo_sdl
I couldn't look at the site, it hurt my eyes.

~~~
cmelbye
Don't worry, I've heard a rumor that her next profession is a web designer.

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docgnome
I think this is my favorite thread of all time.

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Groxx
Are those binary semaphores, or are you just happy to see me?

I wonder what this implies for "tail-end recursion" o_ô

