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Val Henson - IT Goddess

By thusspakezuska on August 29, 2006.

At FairerScience.org I found this link to Val Henson's home page. Val is an operating systems programmer and one helluva woman. You'll want to check out her A Woman of Deeds essay. The essay takes its title from one of those "there, there, don't you worry your pretty little head about it" comments Val got from a 'friend' who, along with her husband, stole and patented one of her ideas. (Yes, I said along with her husband. Yep, they're now divorced.) The friend dubbed her "a woman of deeds, not ideas". That is just so precious. Val, if you will just point me in the direction of your friend, I will gladly barf upon his shoes. Your ex's shoes, too.

(By the way, I once actually had an engineering professor say to me, in response to my raising my hand to ask for help with an in-class assignment, "Now just what's gotten your pretty little head all in a tizzy this time?" If I weren't so sure that he is dead by now, I'd look him up and barf on his shoes.)

Val has also posted an incredibly funny photo essay entitled Val Henson meets the Honeywell H316 Kitchen Computer and I swear to god, you could not make up stuff as funny as this piece of futuristic technology from the past. Val is clearly a real IT goddess. She could teach those misguided Screen Goddess IT fancy whores a thing or two. Here's a little taste of the photo essay.


i-edb770ab0e229a0a641a52d5346e7937-happy_kitchen.jpg

Hello! It is 1969, and my wonderful husband has bought me a Honeywell Kitchen Computer to help me with my cooking! It is a $10,000+ status symbol from the Nieman Marcus catalog. It will replace my unwieldy and difficult to use recipe box. How I love my Kitchen Computer! And my husband!

Update

Commenter Crster is entirely correct and the 'Woman of Deeds' essay is by Val's mother, not Val. Which, as Crster notes, makes things even more interesting. Clearly Val has learned a lot from having a kick-ass goddess mother. And Zuska has (re)learned that she should not stay up so late writing, as it appears to be just as bad for her accuracy as for her migraines.

Tags
The Real Geek Goddesses

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Read more carefully :-) The "Woman of Deeds" essay is by
Val Henson's _mother_. Interesting family. Thanks for the
link anyway. VH is a babe _and_ a way better computer geek than I'll ever be.