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GCA
the GenderChanger Academy
naturally brewed since November 1999
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   /       /bin       /boot       /dev       /etc       /home       /lib       /usr/bin       /usr/src       /proc/interrupts       /sbin       /var/log       /var/mail   

"put your boots on" - this means for the operating system to start. 
   in this directory is information about the boot-procedure 
       and sometimes the kernel "vmlinuz" is here.
      The kernel of an operating system operates the
    computer harware and interacts with user programs. 

Gender Changer Academy

HOWTO Encourage Women

Gender Changer Academy

What is the GCA?
The Gender Changer Academy is a nonprofit organisation by women for women, its primary goal being to improve women's understanding and skills with regards to computer hardware. To attain this the GCA provides workshops, makes and maintains a website and mailinglist, and distributes a reader. The GCA was borne out of the ASCII (Amsterdam Subversive Code for Information Interchange), a free internet workspace. Momentarily the GCA is run by a a small group of volunteer women. It was founded in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, March 2000 by Tali, brbr and Sara with Sisi. Donna, Maya, Sol and Jane joined later. We encourage women to crash computers and to put it all back together again. Preferebly with an improved installation.
 

What is a genderchanger?
Technically speaking a genderchanger is a small device or adaptor that changes the "sex" of computer cables. It has two sides with holes or two sides with pins, making any connection between port and computercable a possibility. The holes are female and the pins are male. In a more figurative sense a genderchanger can be seen as someone who wants to change the way the world perceives things, for example that computers are for men but WE ALL KNOW THIS IS NOT TRUE ;)
 

Why a computer hardware course?
Women work a lot with computers but mostly with the software. They generally know very little about what is under the hood of this piece of equipment. Hardware is a mystery, a barrier and a lot of fun. Education and Playing is a way to get to know how stuff works. Knowing how it works, being able to interact with it gives one a sense of control and independence. Secretaries of today should have a toolkit to be able to Do It Themselves, a millenium witchbag.

Computers are still in the prototype phase but that doesn't mean that as soon as something is outdated it is useless. The GCA supports the practice of maintanance and the use of secondhand parts where reasonable. Similarly knowledge and skills should not be in the hands of a select group of individuals. This asks for misuse and imbalance in the world. Hence the GCA promotes D.I.Y. and the use of Open Source products.
 

HOWTO Encourage Women in Linux

Encourage Women in Linux HOWTO
This document written by a kernel developer could help to bugfix some gender incorrect behaviour ... which leads until now to lots of men-only groups especially in GNU society
make clean, make no_gender_education, make society, make linux_society, make tea, make all_other_stuff, make install