Month: January 2018 (page 3 of 7)
- minxdragon: Excuse me but obviously it has to be the Aust end Farty lol https://t.co/7qqCDXyw4W
- The_McJones: āComputers are here to support and enhance human creativity, not to replace itā – @maetl #artandtech #lca2018
- The_McJones: Before we start, has anyone seen Guardians of the Galaxy?
*whole rooms raises hand* - attacus_au: Watching the @AnimalLogic presentation about rendering fractals to generate the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 setsā¦ https://t.co/VqtZ0DmTRI
- voltagex: Long penguin is looooong #lca2018 #artandtech
- freakboy3742: TIL. Geelong has a scarf festival.
There really is a community and an event for everything. Find your people. Be wā¦ https://t.co/r8YkYBAU4J
- glasnt: She's a chef and artist š
I adore how @web_goddess was able to bring in people outside the normal #lca2018 sphereā¦ https://t.co/YYOrCLkeLV (in reply to glasnt)
- glasnt: Hearing about @currawongwhsper having issues trying to get tech hardware working for her is just re-enforcing the mā¦ https://t.co/AUJqFaQG7l (in reply to glasnt)
- spidie: @pjf Hats off @web_goddess – yes I agree…. great conf idea. (in reply to pjf)
- attacus_au: Wow, @stibbons' talk on LED basics at #lca2018 #artandtech is going off!
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and - thesecretlab: āYouāll need a current limiting resistor, if youāre using an LED. Otherwise, theyāll shine very brightly, very brieā¦ https://t.co/RzNBQ5XZfZ
- minxdragon: Go make something fun! The theme of #artandtech in a nutshell #lca2018
- The_McJones: āSo crochet is different from knittingā – @ADuckIsMyFiend
* @web_goddess starts nodding*
#artandtech #lca2018 - stibbons: The demo gods were unkind, and I wasn't able to show off my sound-activated liquor cabinet. But you can see it runnā¦ https://t.co/2tHcTCgPvX
- freakboy3742: *HUGE* thanks to the @web_goddess et al for organizing #artandtech at #LCA2018. Amazing stuff – +1 would attend again.
- thesecretlab: And with that, weāre done! Huge thanks to @web_goddess for running this miniconf! #lca2018 #artandtech https://t.co/h3nlyrvmMx (in reply to thesecretlab)
- HeartOfPluto_: Brilliant miniconf @web_goddess ! You should be so proud š
- HeartOfPluto_: #lca2018 talk done and dusted! Phew time to fall into a heap š thanks so much @web_goddess for organising theā¦ https://t.co/LfQCdYzf2y
- DivZero_: @The_McJones @minxdragon Live stream was amazing. Loving the #artandtech miniconf (in reply to The_McJones)
- millyrowboat: @KenScambler Amen @KenScambler. This was me the first time I heard it https://t.co/RrkLxmi8Av (in reply to KenScambler)
- mark_sabbatical: I need to admit I just finally watched Wonder Woman. I already had expectations, but it was so much better than I hā¦ https://t.co/WShxd5TJwZ
- Gaohmee: Jumped on the bandwagon.
Nailed it. š https://t.co/YNRZp0LFvv
- unixbigot: Iām exhibiting my video-game medicine cabinets at #lca2018. They alert you if you miss a dose, and reassure you ifā¦ https://t.co/3ToIPM0EZB
- nickyringland: So much fun assembling the LoliBot at #LCA2018 https://t.co/PqHwzwGBaO
- auxesis: Just realised the #lca2018 favicon is a bin chicken and this is peak Sydney https://t.co/IQanVBQvyE
- The_McJones: Game developer Barbie is a big deal – @pjf #lcagm #lca2018 https://t.co/shO47sz09l
- The_McJones: fan fiction with the most stigma associated with it is written by and for young women – @pjf #lcagm #lca2018
- FCTweedie: Producing and publishing this fic (creating websites, making videos & games) takes technical skills, but many of thā¦ https://t.co/Aqj5TgPYmx (in reply to FCTweedie)
- jaimekristene: Art & Tech! #LCA2018 https://t.co/YQvNvjR54V
- IngaPflaumer: I gave a talk at #lca2018 and I have a proof https://t.co/B3dVbCZnVB
- joshsimmons: Seriously. Open source dev conferences: you are alienating the single largest population of developers in existenceā¦ https://t.co/EWXc9dpoSL (in reply to joshsimmons)
- hannahcancode: I think this photo by @web_goddess pretty accurately captures how excited I was to have successfully soldered sometā¦ https://t.co/bx9Eltq3nP
- OphelieLechat: Iāve found it really hard to explain my new career direction, but this thread helps. https://t.co/4T7rLBRoxQ
- wiredferret: https://t.co/HyI11v4gjp
This is really neat knitting!
- sarahboesveld: This is Eleanor. Sheās 7 and she made this amazing sandwich board sign. #WomensMarch2018 #WomensMarchTO https://t.co/E9DpCfXf99
- noopkat: I feel like I'm publicly damning myself within the software scene every time I tweet this stuff about myself but I'ā¦ https://t.co/LBpIXR5um2 (in reply to noopkat)
- IronStache: Thank you to all of the women who are marching today, and who have spent the first year of the Trump administrationā¦ https://t.co/XUDFADNY4A
- maetl: š¼ā¤ļøš» #lca2018 Iāll be there, with some generative writing projects to play with as a preview for my talk on Tuesdayā¦ https://t.co/7TLERLYHRQ
- delitescere: @msharp My heatwave brings in the bees from the yard. Damn right, itās hotter than yours. (in reply to msharp)
On paper it seems like this was a light week… but not really. Technically I only made it to one official meetup though – the Android Australia User Group – Sydney. It was a special one too, as it was Georgina’s final meetup as organiser (after 4.5 years!). Before the š, we had a couple talks, both of which built on topics I had learned about from YOW! speakers last year…
The first was by Quirijn Groot Bluemink from The Iconic. Quirijn’s talk was an introduction to Flutter,Ā a new mobile app SDK to help developers and build mobile apps for both iOS and Android. Flutter uses Dart, a programming language that Google developed and uses to run some very large apps.
Our first talk for the night is from @QuirijnGB with Flutter-y things #androidsyd pic.twitter.com/DWyXEWqQ5I
— Zarah Dominguez š¦ (@zarahjutz) January 16, 2018
I learned about Flutter and Dart last December from Kasper Lund‘s talk at YOW! 2017. Basically it saves you from having to reimplement your app’s functionality for each platform – you can literally use the same code for both! I was amused that both Quirijn and Kasper mentioned the Hamilton appĀ as one of the most well-known apps built with Flutter.
Learning about @flutterio from @QuirijnGB. TRIVIA: At @yow_conf last month, I learned from Kasper Lund that Flutter was used to build the @HamiltonMusical app! #androidsyd https://t.co/jLikQQdkk8 pic.twitter.com/MsFfzsDZRO
— Kris Howard š (@web_goddess) January 16, 2018
A lot of people learning about Flutter at Android Sydney Meetup from @QuirijnGB #androidsyd pic.twitter.com/yVisCuORzU
— J'Wow (@jwowchuk) January 16, 2018
The second talk of the night was Mitch TilbrookĀ giving us a peek at Kotlin “backstage.” Kotlin is a programming language that runs on the JVM but can also be compiled to JavaScript source code. While it’s been around since 2011, it got a big push this year when Google announced first class support for Kotlin on Android at I/O.
Up next is @sir_tilbrook giving us a behind-the-scenes look at kotlin. #androidsyd pic.twitter.com/qbuIwTqKqN
— Zarah Dominguez š¦ (@zarahjutz) January 16, 2018
I was lucky enough to see two talks on Kotlin last year by Svetlana Isakova, one of the core developers of Kotlin at JetBrains. She gave a keynote at YOW! Connected 2017 called “You Can Do Better With Kotlin” (video here) as well as as a YOW! Night that dived deeper into features like support for coroutines.
After the two talks, there was a special presentation of thank yous and flowers to Georgina for everything she’s done for the group. Well done, G!
Today was the last #androidsyd meetup run by @GRobilliard. Thank you for all your work the past 4 years. Youāve done an incredible job of building the community and making the meetup such a warm and welcoming space. pic.twitter.com/XZ3Lmhv11J
— Fiona Chan š³ (@mobywhale) January 16, 2018
I had hoped to attend DevOps Sydney on Thursday night, but unfortunately it was cancelled. Frankly I was relieved, as my brain was rapidly turning to mush as I battled through the three-day functional programming course put on by Data61 and the Queensland Functional Programming Lab. I expected it to be challenging… and yeah.
Big crowd at @Data61news for @dibblego's functional programming course! Current mood: intimidated but optimistic. #krislearnsfp pic.twitter.com/wZG40aDTEg
— Kris Howard š (@web_goddess) January 16, 2018
I’m not gonna lie – this wasĀ hard. The instructors were great and my fellow students were all friendly, but the reality is that this is literally a semester’s worth of university-level content covered in three 8-hour days. Not just that, but FP in general is quite a mind-flip from other programming paradigms. I found that I would hit a wall every couple of hours where things would suddenly stop making sense. That would trigger a stressful fight-or-flight response, and it was really hard to push through. (Massive thanks go to assistant instructor Dave and my friend Jed for helping me as best they could.)
Did you ever have one of those nightmares where people are speaking to you quickly in a language that sounds like English but isn't? š¢ #krislearnsfp
— Kris Howard š (@web_goddess) January 17, 2018
The fact that I returned after that first day is solely down to the Snook persuading me that I could do it. (I really, really didn’t want to go back.) I survived though, and even if I didn’t understand everything, I have a much better grasp on the concepts that I did before I started. I learned a lot of vocabulary and demystified some of the more arcane bits of FP jargon. The next time I crack open my Haskell book, things will be easier.
Holy crap. I wrote a thing that does something semi-useful! #krislearnsfp pic.twitter.com/z3XlJ7eHBD
— Kris Howard š (@web_goddess) January 19, 2018
Massive thanks to @bsimyo @dibblego @queenslandfplab @Data61news (and Dave!) for putting on this course. One of the most challenging things I've done in years, but I learned heaps. āŗļø #krislearnsfp pic.twitter.com/pZ7knQAsL8
— Kris Howard š (@web_goddess) January 19, 2018
Other Stuff
- I’m going to India! I was honoured to be invited to speak at this year’s Agile India 2018 in Bangalore in March. I’ll be talking about Building Software That Lasts. If you’re in the area, you should definitely attend.
- LinuxConfAUĀ kicks off tomorrow! Tomorrow I’ll be hosting an art exhibition during the lunch break, and onĀ Tuesday the 23rd Iāll be running theĀ Art + Tech Miniconf. (There are a limited number of miniconf-only tickets available for purchase for Tuesday, so let me know ASAP if you want one.)
- Tickets are still available for Sydney’sĀ Global CFP Diversity DayĀ event on February 3! If you’ve got a goal of speaking at a tech conference, you should come along to this workshop.
- Curious about what Webpack actually does? I found this excellent Reddit comment that explains it in straightforward English. If you’ve ever wanted to know why we don’t just add <script> tags to a page anymore, read that.
- The YOW! team often shares links to interesting stories in tech via our internal Slack. I especially liked this one from my boss Dave:Ā Your Next T-Shirt Will Be Made by a Robot. I will beĀ very curious to see if this company can pull it off. I’ve seen videos of robots trying to fold towels, and they are so flummoxed by soft fabrics that they have to move verrrrry sloooooooowly.
- And one more reminder ā we have two upcoming YOW! events in Sydney with open Calls for Presentations!Ā YOW! DataĀ will be held on May 14-15 and is looking for speakers onĀ data-driven technologies and applications.Ā YOW! Lambda JamĀ is coming up on May 21-23 and is all about functional programming.
I leave you with a final bit of wisdom from my FP course…
When you are breaking your brain trying to reconcile a test in a comment to the function you've written, it helps to make sure you haven't introduced some errant goddamn parentheses in the test. š¤ #krislearnsfp
— Kris Howard š (@web_goddess) January 19, 2018