Month: March 2018
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Shared today on Twitter
@HamoDonk @simonwaight I could see that in some cases, but not this particular one. If you want to avoid ambiguity, actually saying “I’d ask you but I suspect you’re not interested for X reasons…” is a good idea. Otherwise you’re making an assumption that I will not assume the worst in return.
@jsscclr Right? And it really sucks when they know it’s an issue you care about, because then if you don’t offer to help, it absolves them of making any sort of effort themselves. Ugh.
@Amys_Kapers There was zero chance I’d go for that role, but jesus, at least pretend you think I’m qualified, right?
@the_patima @jsconfeu PATIMA! That’s so wonderful – I knew you had it in you. Congratulations! ❤️
I had an ugly breakup in high school. He dyed his hair blue and we sniped at each other passive-aggressively for over a year. Twenty years later you have to worry that he’ll come in and shoot you. 🙁 https://t.co/x2Dd0RcPUJ
@KathyReid I don’t know TBH. Replies to my rant this morning indicate that quite a few guys get recruiting requests too. Maybe it’s anyone with a measure of visibility.
@KathyReid I do specifically get a lot of “please advise us on how to hire more women,” which is frustrating because it’s something I care about, but also not my actual job.
@Loquacities @KathyReid So, so tired.
RT @yow_conf: Have you booked your @thoughtworks feature #yownight with @zhamakd in Sydney? Her talk ‘API Gateway to Service Mesh’ will be…
@slace Didn’t finish a single thing. 😕
@slace I was supposed to, but sadly haven’t knitted a stitch in ages. Temporary loss of mojo! How’s the Show?
@slace It looks like the Broadway Games store!
I am not a morning person, but breakfasts like this reward the effort. https://t.co/nxdFBCcu4E https://t.co/OWBQOft4An
Watching “Nailed It” and CRYING with laughter. 😂 I needed that.
@elreadsalot6 You could try knitting continental style (working yarn in left hand) if you’re not already. It’s generally considered faster once you get the hang of it.
@elreadsalot6 I suuuuck at continental so I only do it when I have to (like using two colours in fair isle).
This Look Inside Spike Jonze’s Apple Ad Is as Fascinating as the Film Itself https://t.co/1ebUhFrg3o // I love this. I had no idea so much of it was done practically. That’s so cool.
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Shared today on Facebook
I am not a morning person, but breakfasts like this reward the effort.
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Shared today on Twitter
@desplesda @NightInTheWoods Congratulations!!!
RT @desplesda: WE JUST WON BEST NARRATIVE FOR @NIGHTINTHEWOODS WHAT WHAT WHAT HOW OMG
@jamiebuilds I was literally JUST playing it. 😂 https://t.co/iWa2KilYce
Tonight’s #awslambda Meetup kicking off at @industrieandco! https://t.co/79qrlG3ewl
@yow_conf @TacticalGrace @jedws Saved the best view for last, eh boys?
Keen to learn about machine learning with serverless from Alex Yu at @Green_Dot! #awslambda https://t.co/2de07mdxoR
Interesting. Alex wanted to use Rasa NLU for language processing, but the libraries are too large for AWS Lambda. So he figured out a way to compress! #awslambda https://t.co/M5PWE2kTJC https://t.co/0p4xIKuO64
Me: I hope somebody tweets the #yownight. WAIT! @unixbigot to the rescue! 😁👍
RT @georgiecel: 📢 We are looking for a host for the next @codebarSyd event on Tuesday 3rd April. We usually need a few desks and chairs for…
It’s like a sitcom punchline at this point.
Him: “Hey Kris! My company is hiring for this tech leadership role… Can you recommend anyone?”
Me: “Why wouldn’t you ask if I was interested?”Cue furious backpedaling.
No, I’m not looking for a new job. I like my job. But if you’re going to ask me to do the unpaid emotional labour of recruiting for you, at least give me the pretense that you might consider me for the role too.
We have so few women tech leaders here. This contributes. Guys – before you ask a woman to help you hire someone else, see if she wants to go for it.
Otherwise the message is: you don’t look like what I think people in this role should look like. And then you wonder why we struggle with Imposter Syndrome or drop out of the industry entirely. 😐
Also, I suspect that a guy wouldn’t get the same question. Men – do you have folks asking you to recruit for them constantly? Without asking if you’re interested in the role?
@simonwaight This was an ex-colleague. And I looked at the JD – there was nothing in it that I haven’t done or couldn’t do.
@yow_conf Haha, no, that’s more MY reaction. Is a little sucking up from people asking me for a favour too much to ask?! 😂
@darthted WTF IS THAT ABOMINATION. (#teampibb)
@darthted Says the guy in the Minnesota Vikings t-shirt.
Today’s To Do list:
1. Stop fuming about constant requests for unpaid work so you can actually do the work you’re paid to do.
😐
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Shared today on Twitter
@DamianM @Alegrya @GeoffreyHuntley Come on, that one’s a month old! The knitting community’s already been all over it. 😛
@drzax I’m keen to hear these answers too.
RT @drzax: Please send me your ‘this is the best office chair in existence’ hot takes. Seriously. #lazyweb
RT @yow_conf: We’re so pleased to welcome back @simplemach as our COMMUNITY GOLD sponsor for #yowdata, #ylj18, #yowperth, #YOWConnected, #Y…
Meetup Wrap – March 18, 2018 https://t.co/aRupqXbh9y – a big ol’ catch up post featuring lots of events across Perth, Bangalore, and Singapore! I gave some talks too. 🙂 https://t.co/pK4nfxVyVK
@codepo8 Come on, get me over to Europe! Work your magic! 🙂
Whoa! Broadway got a board games shop! https://t.co/W5FOpS57qo
@codepo8 I’m not as ginger anymore. I’ve been letting it revert back to my natural colouring, like a feral animal. 😂
RT @juniordev_io: It’s @Amys_Kapers giving us the low down on CSS Grid here at #CodeandTell at @Zendesk 🙌🙌 Another of the Perth @fendersper…
Don’t forget, Brisbane – tomorrow night is the final stop in @TacticalGrace’s Magical FP YOW! Night tour! And we’re even sending @jedws along with him. (You’re welcome.) There’s still time to get a ticket! ✨ https://t.co/RpSpq6TYBX (Thanks @battlepanda_au for the photos!) https://t.co/hjU6RpMA8I
@TacticalGrace @Paul_Bone @jedws @battlepanda_au @diz_beth We’ve got video! Just holding it until all the stops are finished. 👍
@trannosaurusma @TacticalGrace @jedws @battlepanda_au Oh, the Flickr album has SO MANY good ones. I just picked those 4 at random! I think Manuel possibly beats me at “best facial expressions while presenting.” 🙂 https://t.co/eYjV9jSEY4
@jgrb @TacticalGrace @jedws @battlepanda_au @yow_conf It definitely will!
@developerjack @Jonwestenberg How do you get them off? Do you have a favourite de-goo-ifier?
@KenScambler @trannosaurusma @TacticalGrace @jedws @battlepanda_au Does the FP community have a Slack somewhere? He really needs to be an emoji.
@developerjack @annie_parker @lyft We do! I’ve been enjoying trying out @Taxify_AU and @Olacabs though – more competition in the local market is better for everybody.
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Shared today on Facebook
Meetup Wrap – March 18, 2018 – a big ol’ catch up post featuring lots of events across Perth, Bangalore, and Singapore! I gave some talks too. 🙂
Ohmygod. So, so tempted.
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Meetup Wrap – March 18, 2018
Apologies for the extended radio silence! It’s been a busy couple of weeks and I’ve been travelling all over.
On March 1st I headed to Perth for our very first YOW! Night of the year. Evan Leybourn was presenting on “business agility” to an eager crowd at Bankwest headquarters.
If you want to learn more about business agility, you’re in luck – we’re bringing the Business Agility Conference to Australia this year!
I also got to let everyone know the big news that YOW! West is now YOW! Perth, and it’s moved to September to line up in a tour with Singapore and Hong Kong. Should be fun and allow us to bring even more amazing folks to that part of the world!
After Perth I headed to INDIA for the first time ever! I was speaking at Agile India 2018 in Bangalore. I didn’t get to see much of the city outside the conference, but the speakers and the community were wonderful. It was also nice to catch up with so many folks from the extended YOW! family like James Stewart, Jeff Patton, and Fred George.
I was still fine tuning my own presentation, but I did manage to catch some great talks over the three days I was there. One of my favourites was from Dan Makoski, the VP of Design at Walmart. Dan talked about making design more human, humble, and accessible, I especially liked this observation:
“Only two industries call their customers ‘users.’ Software development… and the illicit drug industry.” – Dan Makoski
Dan actually had us do some creative exercises during his presentation. In one of them, we used small cans of PlayDoh to imagine a futuristic toothbrush. (Mine was a pill “full of nanobots” that you chew on. 🤖) In another, we had 60 seconds to draw the person next to us. I made a new friend in the process!
There was a fascinating panel on diversity in leadership facilitated by Teresa Brazen from Cooper in San Francisco. The panelists were Reema Diwan of Taj Resorts, Poornima Girish from Shell, Dr. Sujitha Karnad from Sekai Solutions, Sue Cooper from Cooper, Mary Wharmby from BBVA, and Deepa Bachu from Pensaar.
My new friend Sohan Maheshwar from AWS gave a talk on building voice-enabled experiences with Alexa. Obviously this is a topic in which I have some interest! There are interesting challenges around feature discoverability when you talk about “zero UI.”
Jeff Patton‘s session was super popular, as always. He uses a technique where he mixes slides with live sketchnoting, which he projects using a fixed camera above the lectern. It’s a great way to keep an audience engaged with that you’re saying!
I was fascinated by Nils Kappeyne‘s talk about Shell, one of the largest companies in the world. (Roald Dahl worked for Shell in Africa during the 1930’s!) They’re investing huge amounts of money in IoT, AI/ML, renewable energy, and even working to disrupt themselves in various ways.
My talk was on Friday, and I started the day with an EPIC STACK – falling flat on my face in front of half the audience! Luckily only my pride was bruised, and I had plenty of time to recover before I spoke. 😂
The focus on the last day was on DevOps and Continuous Delivery, and it started with a keynote from my friend Gregor Hohpe. Gregor’s talks are always entertaining and filled with useful info! I especially liked his challenge to those who judged their current level of test coverage acceptable.
My session was called “Building Software That Lasts,” and you can see my slides here. I said that too often in technology, the immediate response when inheriting legacy code is to chuck it out and start over. This is rarely a good idea. I talked about some of the trade-offs and choices you can make to build software that lasts and evolves over time. I had a small but engaged crowd, and I got some good questions after too! I even convinced someone he needs to look into property-based testing.
I also saw an informative session from Nikhil Barthwal on chaos engineering. One technique he mentioned in particular was running Game Days with your team – events to simulate how you’ll respond in the event of a real service failure.
My friend James Stewart from the UK spoke about cloud security. James said that security is about gaining trust through demonstrating competence, and every breach you suffer erodes that trust. Customers these days have more and more options, and they will leave (that even goes for government sites).
The award for my favourite talk title at the conferences goes to Thierry de Pauw for his session “Feature Branching is Evil.” Thierry told us about his experience introducing version control to a team that had never used it before, and he made a lot of good arguments in favour of trunk-based development.
After Agile India, I headed from Bangalore back to Singapore for a couple more meetups. The first was the excellent Women Who Code Singapore, where I spoke on giving “Better Tech Talks.” Thanks to the excellent folks at Engineers.sg, you can watch it online now! The night also featured a panel of folks covering other aspects of speaking – like coming up with ideas and handling Q&A sessions.
On the last night of the trip, I attended the Junior Developers Singapore meetup. This is an offshoot of the community that started in Melbourne and has now spread to Perth and beyond!
There were four excellent talks on the night, but the one that really touched me was by Mai Jianlong. He spoke plainly and bravely about his struggles with depression, and he gave advice to those starting out in tech for how to deal with mental health issues and recognise when you need to get help. It’s a powerful talk, and you can watch it online here:
It was a wonderful but exhausting two weeks, and I’m definitely happy to be home now!
Other Stuff
- The Call for Presentations for YOW! Data and YOW! Lambda Jam has been extended to Friday, so you’ve still got time to get in a submission! Don’t delay any longer though…
- We have several upcoming YOW! Nights happening in Brisbane, Sydney, Hong Kong, and Perth over the next few weeks – including a very special one we’re doing in conjunction with the AWS Summit!
- Did you read this Jon Skeet’s post on Stack Overflow Culture? He proposes a covenant for both askers and answerers that basically boils down to: “Don’t be a jerk.” AskMeFi has struggled with this one as well and has some nice guidelines that are worth a look.
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Shared today on Twitter
RT @yow_conf: We are an unbiased and independent software dev conference.
Don’t believe us? Check out our new video featuring @nxdnz, @lyn…
Not to mention @ghohpe, @allPowerde, @MelissaKaulfuss, @lindaliukas, @jeffpatton, @davefarley77, @boicy, @thinkingfish, and heaps more! https://t.co/EOj1jyTRVQ
Melbourne folks – anyone know of a craft- or (ugh) makerspace that has programmable embroidery machines? A friend wants to play with one… (@OphelieLechat?)
RT @yow_conf: #yownight with @TacticalGrace tomorrow in Brisbane. Last chance to grab a $10 ticket to join us for an evening of #Functional…
@The_McJones @kbuttfield That’s basically what every Thursday stitch and bitch with @knitterjp and @unlikelylibrary is like.
@The_McJones @kbuttfield @knitterjp @unlikelylibrary I did once knit this and enter it into the Sydney Royal Easter Show. 😈 https://t.co/wVx0pjYsuv
RT @IndigGrapevine: Free community screening for Black & Indigenous Children/Families to see
#BlackPanther at Hoyts BROADWAY.
* Friday,…
@devdevcharlie LOVE this. Have you seen any of @minxdragon’s artwork?
RT @devdevcharlie: Machine Learning + Art 😍
Learning to see – Making deep neural network predictions on live camera input. https://t.co/…
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Shared today on Facebook
We filmed a really cool little video about YOW! a few months back. If you’re curious about what the heck I do, this video gives you a glimpse at some of the amazing folks I get to meet and work with throughout the year. 😁
Happy birthday Uncle Jimmy!
