Dear Computer Engineering Barbie,

Due to team-wide productivity concerns, we are requesting that you no longer wear skin tight sparkly pants to work. Also, it's apparently led to an increase in time-consuming meetings with the sales dept.

Thank you, IT Manager Guy

Really stands out in the large photo:

http://mat.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pMAT1-7356750e...

Khakis would have been more realistic perhaps!

Computer engineering Barbie looks eerily similar to administrative assistant Barbie with an iPhone.

She comes with a EULA...

Production doll may vary from the photo shown above. Mattel reserves the right to modify the fashion/fabrics, sculpt, hair color/style, and accessories. Doll cannot stand alone. Name subject to change.

Doll cannot stand alone. I can't tell if I should laugh or cry...

Why does computer engineering Barbie have glasses? I'm fairly sure myopia or hyperopia aren't caused by your choice of career, or vice-versa.

> or vice-versa

I have quite bad myopia (-4.5). My parents didn't notice this until I was in fourth grade (~9 years old.) I have a feeling that this contributed to my early enjoyment of indoor, "up-close" activities (reading, video games) in preference to "outdoor activities" where I would have relatively little clue what was going on at the other side of the soccer field/baseball diamond/etc. So, in a way, my bad eyesight could have pushed me toward computers.

I've often wondered this. I have acute astygmatism, and like very few outdoor pursuits. I'm not nearly active enough as a person and wouldn't be surprised.

I do remember before I was diagnosed having terrible coordination, I'd really struggle in games like Tennis and Cricket, whereas with Computers I had no handicap. It made sense to me to focus on what I enjoyed and computing was easier than Cricket.

Computer engineers have a tendency to read while not using adequate lightning, and to stare at screens for quite too much. That being said, it's not so much a matter of computer engineers using glasses because they are geeks, it's more because a "Computer Worker" can easily get headaches or fuck up his vision even more because he's staring at a computer for 10+ hours with less than perfect vision. A chef, psychiatrist, teller, or security guard won't need the glasses as much as we do.

So yeah computer engineer are more prone to wearing glasses than the general population. That doesn't mean that more hackers need glasses than regular people, but it could easily mean that hackers feel the effects of imperfect vision more than regular people, and because of it, are more prone to use glasses to correct said vision impairments.

For the same reason some dictators execute people with glasses--they're only truly needed for reading, for many with those conditions.

I know that the Pol Pot regime considered people with glasses to be enemies of the state, but have any other dictatorships done the same thing?

You'd be surprised how many people walk around with terrible vision, without knowing it. My guess is that computer-related jobs require good vision, so people in these jobs are more likely to discover and treat their vision problems.

Also, until relatively recently glasses were uncool and unfashionable. Computer geeks generally pay less attention to such norms and choose function over form, so a geek with marginally poor eyesight would perhaps be more likely to go for glasses than a non-geek, who would survive without for appearance purposes.

I think jobs with computers are, in many ways, more forgiving to those with bad eyesight than other jobs. I have bad vision (just enough so I can't drive) but thanks to Gtk / Compiz, I can arbitrarily change the font size to be as big as I like it, and Orca and other screenreaders would help if I were completely blind. However, if I were a scientist or a taxicab driver or at a factory or throwing darts for a living, I'd be much worse off because I couldn't make those accommodations.

Wikipedia has something to say about this:

> Daylight may prevent myopia. Australian researchers had concluded that exposure to daylight appeared to play a critical role in restricting the growth of the eyeball, which is responsible for myopia or short-sightedness.[37] They compared children from other developed countries such as Singapore and Australian children spent about 2–3 hours a day outdoors which could increased dopamine in the eyes that restrict distorted shaping of the eyes.[38][39][40]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myopia

doesn't say anything about eye strain

I only need glasses to program. I started getting pretty bad headaches every time I would sit down to program, got my eyes checked and some glassed fixed the problem.

Programmer -> nerd -> lots of reading -> myopia.

Me -> programmer -> nerd -> lots of reading -> great eye sight.

Rub it in why don't you.

I'm just saying, we shouldn't be so quick to generalize :)

Sounds like a good HN Poll topic (does one need a certain level of points to create a poll?)

Yes, 200 points I believe.

Oh? How do you create a poll then? Is it a text submission with special formatting?

If I remember correctly, there is a link you click on to create a poll. Can't seem to dig it up at the moment though. Try searching around the site to see if you can find it.

It's obviously not universal, but I doubt that the stereotype of glasses-wearing nerd is pure coincidence either.

They must be those fancy glare reducing ones I've seen people use even with plain lenses ;-)

But good catch on the "glasses as geek(ette)" stereotype!

She has a 3D laptop

It's a bit girly for most of the lady engineers I see around. But, then, it's Barbie. The definition of girly.

I'm glad it's at least there tho.

There is a nice Ignite talk by a female Google engineer at http://igniteshow.com/videos/im-barbie-girl-cs-world

She argues that Matell is actually breaking with stereotypes here for a change (though inadvertently)- and that it's a good thing.

I'm not sure if this is exactly the point you're making; but my experience of women in the engineering trade (admittedly more electronic engineering than computing) is that they are fairly "girly".

Certainly not many fit the traditional stereotypes of "girl geek".

I'd say the doll pretty much fits well.

Yay! Empower those young women and doll-loving men

I was thinking, would they ever make an "action figure" like this for boys?

Holding an ipad instead of a m-16, would it sell?

Ask and you shall receive http://www.happyworker.com/geekman

The Internet is cool like that. You can think of a joke concept, and Google will generate it for you.

Yes.

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Mainframe_(G.I._Joe)

http://www.joebattlelines.com/reviews/toys/arah/1986/mainfra...

IT Joe?

With the Blackberry and giant keyring accessories.

I hope they also make "Barbie's Dream Cubical" and an overweight "workplace sexual harassment" Ken.

The headset made me wince a bit, bit I got one anyway.

She's not wearing the IT uniform though (khakis, polo shirt, dockers, and lanyard with ID badge). Maybe that's sold separately in an accessory pack?

Am I the only one who wondered if the binary on her top represented a meaningful message?

I know an earlier version of this doll had binary on the laptop itself which spelled out the ASCII codes for "BARBIE" but I'm not sure about this one.

Don't ask how I know this.

I want a pink laptop!

Such things are available for purchase at many fine establishments.

Geez, I KNOW that, but now Barbie has legitimized them! I can be a computer engineer AND have a pink laptop!

Better yet, I can ditch my tv-programmed dream of becoming a glamorous doctor/lawyer/detective in favor of becoming a glamorous computer engineer!

My friends and I will drive around in our pink convertible, hacking systems, meeting new geeks and every episode will end with our band playing a song. Maybe techno.

A search on Google reveals many websites dedicated to just that product category.

This is really cool, I bought one for my god daughter just now.. thanks!

Does the doll come with an ipod nano laptop?

I can pretty much garuntee, give this to any girl, and she'll throw away the laptop and pretend she's having babies or dating ken or doing a fashion show.

Fairly pointless.

Up next: Fashion show GI Joe to get boys interested in fashion!

I agree. It's a fact that men far outnumber women in I.T. for a variety of reasons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women,_girls_and_information_te...). One interesting point from the article:

"From a two year research initiative published in 2000 by AAUW, young girls in focus groups reported that "lack of interest" was not the reason for steering away from a computing career, but rather, their male peers were treating computers as toys"

Is it safe to assume girls + I.T. + toys != good times?

Speaking as a male peer, do you mean to tell me that computers aren't toys? Code is my game, and the line between "tool" and "toy" is extremely narrow based on how much enjoyment I get out of a good hard problem.

Damn buddy, that's harsh. I'll let you know how my 2 year old cousin reacts when I give one to her for Christmas :)

FWIW, I think Lego is a far better bet to get girls interested in maths, logic, building, creating, thinking, problem solving, etc

Lego is fun and a massive learning tool. A barbie with a pink laptop is just dumb.

Totally agree. Lego, or even just a traditional 1000+ piece puzzle.

I'm considering getting the doll for my CE lab in college though.