web-goddess

Month: November 2016

  • Shared today on Twitter

    RT @yow_oz: Need an Introduction to Clojure? @stuartsierra’s upcoming #yow16 workshop is the one for you https://t.co/hNo0rb1s3H

    Hey @LukeMesiti – Nice to meet you today and hear about @juniordev_io! I’ll be checking it out. 🙂

    Paging @auxesis… 😂 #yownight https://t.co/XSJ1RLqTl8

    @auxesis PHEW!!

    So excited to kick off tonight’s @yow_oz #yownight at @Zendesk with our speaker @auxesis! https://t.co/kZFoa4hCcR

    RT @saramic: #yownight about to get started https://t.co/ZU4D5X7fkA

    The AU government has over 2200 different websites… *that they know of. 😳 – @auxesis #yownight

    Oh nice. The @DTO has built https://t.co/LSKtn1twnu – a prototype of how AU gov services might be joined up online. #yownight

    In the past, gov releases were big, stressful events. Now with continuous integration and delivery, releases are a non-event. #yownight

    It’s a myth that organisations need to choose between speed and reliability. #yownight https://t.co/upHQcqsDID

    Man, @auxesis is killing it. Such a good speaker. Brisbane and Sydney – #yownight tickets are still available!! https://t.co/7J44Yepb48

    RT @evanderkoogh: Pay attention large corps. Even the Australian government has figured it out: #yownight @dto https://t.co/OG6zjaDGbT

    @mark_sabbatical It’s all happening at @yow_oz, mate.

    I continue to be delighted by the concept of the government’s ORCA. #yownight https://t.co/q5aLVHuIhn

    Heh. And there’s the #CensusFail question. Poor @auxesis! You knew that one was coming. 😂 #yownight

    RT @saramic: #yownight @auxesis suggests “AWS Best Practices for DDoS Resiliency
    June 2016” https://t.co/g6klMFURKf some good ideas even fo…

    Melbourne #yownight folks – sorry I had to run to the airport! Connect with me so I we can keep conversations going. 😁

    @Xavier_Ho I think we’re gonna pass each other in mid-air

    @Xavier_Ho LOL

    Earlier in the day. Such dorks. 😂 @MichelePlayfair https://t.co/EuUBb5oZJV https://t.co/8oMRmnhjzh

    @MichelePlayfair Seems good so far. Made it here in record time!

    The people you run into at the airport… https://t.co/ji3tPkngzj https://t.co/QAwX0nFozf

    Interesting. There was a similar situation involving accusations of copying between AU knitting blogs a few years back. https://t.co/FAQRoQWQPG

    @azadehkhojandi I’ll be there!! Once I finish my coffee and get dressed. 😀

    RT @azadehkhojandi: With @web_goddess at Microsoft event #MicrosoftDev https://t.co/k1m7B20zSd

    Anybody else at #MicrosoftDev event this morning with me and @azadehkhojandi? It’s pretty full! https://t.co/SDWb4JwUV8

    @ADuckIsMyFiend 👋

    @katsbud @azadehkhojandi @bemaia We’re in the middle, front of the back section (right by the video camera).

    @obabic @MYOB 👋 at @developerjack!

    Heh. When @satyanadella comes on stage, the crowd is suddenly filled with mobiles. #MicrosoftDev https://t.co/zDv3yoKsXe

    HUGE NEWS! Now people can stop DMing me begging for @yow_oz @ctosummit wait list tickets. 😁👍 https://t.co/NYIOZP5qLd

    “It’s perhaps not the best day to talk about Australian cricket…” @satyanadella gets a chuckle from the audience. #MicrosoftDev https://t.co/m8RT2aMXQl

    Azure Bot Service launching today! Im sure the #sydneybots crowd at @bilue_voice will be interested. #MicrosoftDev https://t.co/9drBD44QdJ

    Blockchain, cloud, AI, machine learning, augmented reality. I think that’s BINGO for me!

    Wow. Surface Studio video actually got applause!

    @gilmae At one point he referred to an “app plat.” I couldn’t tell if he misspoke or he’s trying to make plat happen.

    Wow. Mark Kelly actually did use HoloLens aboard the ISS. #MicrosoftDev https://t.co/l7vK1pkOAk

    RT @developerjack: “Make a difference in the world”
    This is my takeaway from @satyanadella’s keynote at #MicrosoftDev https://t.co/4IIrit2P…

    @gilmae DINDINGDING “Blockchain as a Service”

    Listening to @jakkaj tell us his story. (Where are you, @codepo8?) #MicrosoftDev https://t.co/eelOaT9Snu

  • The people you run into at the airport…

  • Earlier in the day. Such dorks. 😂 @MichelePlayfair

  • Shared today on Twitter

    @lightningdb @JemBen You have a separate basketball-focused Twitter account?! 😂

    Feel-good yoga isn’t doing the trick. Sadly, no good options here. Big gap in the market, personal trainers! https://t.co/MlBOLyzm7Z

    @taybenlor Suddenly very jealous of the adorable mascot on your cards and bereft at the lack thereof on mine.

    Final call for tomorrow night’s @yow_oz night in Melbourne with @auxesis! Not many tickets left… https://t.co/r4TzWQJgoI

    @rosepowell Cake for dinner is *always* a legitimate life decisions, and this week even more so. (I’ll be having pumpkin pie.)

    Woohoo! Thrilled to be invited to speak alongside @aurynn and @jessfraz at #WOOTConf next month as part of @linuxconfau. THANKS @KatieConf!

    @evanderkoogh You should totally go! I’ve heard a version of his talk (I think) and it’s excellent. PLUS I’LL BE THERE!

    @pixel8ted Yeah, I want to go back to kickboxing but I need to build my knees up slowly first. 🙁

    Nice one @andykelk! Looking forward to hearing it. 🙂 https://t.co/vuEgtX1LJR

    Really glad to hear that @kiwicon is going forward as planned! https://t.co/h5yT0V4TAO

    RT @KatieConf: We’re stoked to announce we have the illustrious @web_goddess and the fantastic @hannahcancode speaking at #WOOTConf!

    @noopkat Saw you were having a shit time. Hope things are better. Things really, really suck. I know how hard it is to see any hope. 🙁

    @KatieConf @hannahcancode “Illustrious”? 🤔

    RT @yow_oz: Still tickets left for YOW! CTO Summit in Sydney https://t.co/foLSY4XY1n

    RageDonate – https://t.co/L9yroBxdY9. What a fantastic friggin’ idea.

    RT @ACLU: Thanks to all of our new supporters, Donald Trump will confront the strongest ACLU in the 100 year history of our organization.

    Melbourne-bound again! (@ T2 Multi-User Domestic Terminal – @sydneyairport in Mascot, NSW) https://t.co/kbKrAZpMvB

  • Shared today on Twitter

    Positive action: I’m proud to be in this video about great work @elevacao_org is doing with women entrepreneurs. https://t.co/VFxjZy61Xq

    @gilmae Like what? Tell me what more this white American can do.

    @gilmae (And I really hope it’s “punch the patriarchy in the face,” because that’s what I’m working towards.)

    RT @delitescere: A few tickets left for the @yow_oz / @ctosummit in Sydney, also keynote by @rebeccaparsons! https://t.co/3ipRe86bDq

    @ButtCoin Ugh. Of course.

    Weekly Meetup Wrap – including Melb MPUG, Melb CTO School, @webdirections Direction conf, and Sydney Bots meetup! https://t.co/OfxP6AdlUZ

    She had me in tears at the end. https://t.co/lUwW44u9Wg

    Happy (early) Thanksgiving! https://t.co/npXw6vJbcq https://t.co/ttHASa4PFm

    RT @msharp: This benevolent god approves 😉 //cc @web_goddess https://t.co/EarlLoAbB0

    RT @51monfarrow: Code reuse. https://t.co/KEaoM6DQlw

    RT @HuffPostArts: Yoko Ono issues rather appropriate response to Donald Trump’s election https://t.co/BeGvbrWywZ https://t.co/Ws04vQV5mO

  • Happy (early) Thanksgiving!

  • Weekly Meetup Wrap

    The YOW! 2016 Conference is now sold out in Melbourne, but you can still get tickets for Sydney and Brisbane. We’re also hosting YOW! Nights in Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney  from Nov 15-17…

    I spent the first three days of the week in Melbourne, visiting several tech companies and talking with CTOs and senior engineers. On Monday night I attended the MPUG – Melbourne Python Users Group. This meetup is held at the University of Melbourne and is run by the fine folks at Python Charmers. The first speaker for the night was Brad Nguyen, a data scientist at Redbubble. Brad gave a lightning talk on how Redbubble used data to test, iterate, and improve on a particular new product feature. My favourite takeaway from Brad’s talk was that “Data science doesn’t have value by itself. It requires cross-functional collaboration.”

    The next speaker was Ben Finney, whose entire talk was essentially a review of Mike Pirnat’s book How to Make Mistakes in Python. It was the first talk I’ve ever seen where the “slides” were actually just the text of the e-book! Ben told us about the parts he thought were particularly relevant, especially to the many Python newbies in the audience. I was interested to learn what “Hungarian notation” was and why it’s a bad idea.

    The third talk of the night was by Robert Layton, a data scientist at Red Marker. Robert’s talk made heavy use of live coding in Jupyter Notebook as he showed us everything that had changed in the latest version of Pandas, an open source Python library used for data analysis. Robert was a fantastic speaker and used examples that were easy for everyone to understand, no matter their level of experience. I was also interested to learn afterwards that he’s working on establishing a startup accelerator in Ballarat. Very cool!

    The final speaker of the night was.. ME! The organisers had let me know a few days earlier that they had room for a short lightning preso, so I gave my talk from TEDxMelbourne on ways you can embed data in knitting.

    On Tuesday evening I attended CTO School Melbourne, which was hosted by Envato. It was a small but highly engaged group with representatives from some of the most prominent tech companies in Melbourne. The speaker was Nigel Fernandes, Architecture Practice Manager at Seek. Nigel talked about McKinsey’s concept of the Three Horizons of Growth, and how those horizons might be applied to people and teams as well as architecture and tech strategy. Nigel was a highly entertaining speaker and I really appreciated some of the practical activities he suggested for teams focusing on the different horizons.

    On Thursday I attended the first day of Web Directions Direction 16 conference as a volunteer. I really appreciated how John Allsopp worked to create a positive tone for the day in his introduction.

    I spent most of the day with Mike Sharp assisting at the Panedia VR booth. Founder Aaron Spence showed us how to work the Samsung Gear VR headsets, which played a short demo with full 360-degree live video that took you under the sea, beside the Opera House, and paragliding above the coast. We had a lot of fun during the breaks putting people into the headsets and watching them twirl around in amazement!

    I did manage to listen to a few of the Direction 16 talks as well. Jonathan Shariat gave a great talk about tragic design – how bad design fails people and what designers can do about it. He got a laugh during his section on Impolite Software, when Clippy “helpfully” popped up to assist him with his presentation. Impolite software pushes itself forward, patronises, and assumes that its needs are more important than the user’s.

    I also enjoyed the opportunity to geek out on fonts during Wayne Thompson’s talk “Everything you always wanted to know about fonts (but were too afraid to ask)”. Wayne talked to us about the nut and bolts of creating fonts, and why most free downloadable fonts on the web are pretty crap.

    In addition to showing us what makes for a good font, Wayne also gave us a list of fonts NOT to use. As he put it, “If you have Arial as your corporate font, I urge you to resign.” 😂

    The next talk was by my friend Lucinda Burtt, Head of Product Design at Fairfax. Lucinda’s topic was the importance of using data to inform design: qualitative, quantitative, attitudinal, and behavioural. She also gave us tips on A/B testing as well as some data-driven pitfalls.

    The last talk I saw – and probably my favourite – was from Aubrey Blanche, Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Atlassian. Without slides, Aubrey simply talked of the practical strategies she and her team had employed to increase the percentage of women hires. She talked about overcoming subconscious bias, and how Atlassian proved that coding submissions from men were more likely to go forward to interview. (They controlled for code quality by literally submitting the same code again with a woman’s name on it!)

    I particularly liked the process Aubrey described for rewriting Atlassian’s job ads to be more inclusive. They cut down on the number of requirements and ensured they were all skills-based rather than experience-based. They also eliminated language like “ninjas” and “rockstars” which tend to appeal more to men.

    The last event I attended for the week was the Sydney Bots Meetup at Bilue. This is a new group and this was only the second meetup ever. The first speakers were both from Domain: Mark Cohen, CTO, and Gary Lo, Android Developer. Mark started off by telling us some of the internal uses Domain has found for chatbots, such as finding meeting rooms in their newly renovated offices and submitting coffee orders to the company barista!

    Next, Gary told us about the customer-facing bot they had built atop Facebook’s Messenger platform. Gary said that Domain got some excellent free PR for it, and they were excited to see people really making use of it. The early analytics and logs really helped the team to refine and improve the responses they provided to users.

    The final speaker for the night was Alex Boudreau, Tech Lead at Boomworks. Alex traced the evolution of chatbots from their earliest incarnations, including IVR and a familiar annoying paperclip.

    Alex also told us about the current state-of-the-art with chatbots, including Amazon’s offer to award $1M to anyone who can build a bot that can converse coherently for twenty minutes. He also talked about natural language processing and how neural networks are being used to build bots that are context-aware. Rather than simply recognising a keyword and spitting out a response, the bots of the future will be able to learn how to respond to any command.

    Only a few more weeks of meetups left before the holidays! Next week for me will be dominated by our YOW! Night talks with Lindsay Holmwood from the government’s Digital Transformation Agency. Tickets are still available for Melbourne (Nov 15), Brisbane (Nov 16), and Sydney (Nov 17). Hope to see you there…

  • Shared today on Twitter

    @hellomista I’m from the American Midwest. I spent 22 years of my life there. Am I qualified? I escaped because so many WERE bigoted racists

    @mmastertheone Thanks. Moomins always appreciated, but this week more than ever!

    @hellomista And not only uneducated, but openly hostile to me as a “school nerd.”

    @hellomista I don’t mean to have go at you, but rather idea that no urban lefties understand Trump supporters. A lot of us came from there.

    @Malarkey We miss you two already!!

    @hellomista I know. And there are plenty of good folks in the Midwest. (Waves at @imdominating and @Justacogitating) & I know anger doesn’t

    @hellomista change people’s minds. But I also believe you call a spade a spade. The majority ARE uneducated. A lot are bigots.

    @hellomista I’m just tired of making excuses for people and I’m embarrassed and ashamed this is where I came from.

    @hellomista I shouldn’t still be so livid. I just did yoga. 😂

    @hellomista I guess right now I don’t much care if racists get their feelings hurt by me calling them racists. Clearly, I need more yoga!

    @mootpointer Ha. Gary from @Domaincomau showed a graph at meetup the other night with regular huge spikes. What’s that? Saturday.

    RT @t: Best t-shirt I’ve seen at #sciencehackday #SF via @BasilLeaf:
    https://t.co/WBBPHkXnOl
    #NASA #NASTY #parody #nastywoman (ttk.me t4kH2)

  • Shared today on Twitter

    Positive action: Donate to Planned Parenthood @PPFA: https://t.co/N0ztj8FaVE

    Positive action: I just made my donation to the @ACLU – please support their work, too: https://t.co/r9zrHvj99U

    UGH. Used @stripe to replace PayPal for my @mefiblue donation but discovered Thiel’s got his fingers in there too. Bitcoin, I guess?

    @DarrenNolan_ Peter Thiel bankrolled the lawsuit that ruined Gawker and gave $1M+ to Trump.

    @mark_sabbatical …which is the same night as the YOW Night at Canva. There aren’t enough Thursdays in the month!

    @tomjadams Natural Language Processing. Big in the AI/machine learning/chatbot scene.

    @misswired @the_snook We’re eating. We’ll come back

    @misswired @the_snook Scratch that. Too tired! Going home

  • Shared today on Twitter

    The best part of running the VR stand is taking silly videos of your friends. @stevelikesyou #Direction16 https://t.co/KxMZJpAS6a

    RT @elefontpress: We’re privileged to be able to choose the work we do, so choose work that makes the world a better place.
    – @johnallsopp…

    Lurking and listening to @DesignUXUI’s excellent #Direction16 talk. https://t.co/CnT0r1o7JN

    Impolite software insists that its notifications and needs are more important than yours. #Direction16 @DesignUXUI https://t.co/hQzE8IskTg

    Soufflé effigy – why free fonts are bad, and also the name of my rock band’s first album. #Direction16 @WayneATF https://t.co/4pEbOfQSgg

    “Supposing is good, but finding out is better.“ – Mark Twain – Great quote from @LucindaBurtt’s talk on data-informed design. #Direction16 https://t.co/bGNKNHq4L8

    This made me feel better. https://t.co/S9GVtompbh

    @NicoleWill100 I know. But HE can’t.

    Our brains are very plastic, and marketing teaches us which type of people are allowed to do things. #WomeninTech #Direction16 @adblanche https://t.co/BMjoNWCoTr

    RT @graphqlmelb: 🙋 We’ve just announced the details of our first meet up! 17th of November (Next Thursday)

    https://t.co/XMYciXKKYI https:/…

    Atlassian overhauled their employer branding, rewrote ads, reached out to women CS grads to increase diversity of applicants. #Direction16

    “We don’t want rock stars. Rock stars come in at 11 and suck at building software.“ HA. #Direction16 @adblanche

    The #1 predicting factor for those in top US unis is how much $ their parents make. Stop using it to filter job candidates! #Direction16

    In the virtual world, @msharp and I rule as benevolent gods. https://t.co/WFEXpWJtQV

    Outtakes with @msharp. https://t.co/bwt3aUA5Vw

    RT @adrianweckler: Wow, @davemcclure has a MELTDOWN on #WebSummit stage over Donald Trump election https://t.co/aRJmFpYyQA

    Attending my first Sydney Bots meetup at @bilue_voice! https://t.co/jqNFEL1gaS

    Listening to @markc tell us how @Domaincomau is making use of bots. #sydneybots https://t.co/dMi6tB0QeG

    Gary Lo from @Domaincomau telling us about some of the ACTUAL searches people submitted to their FB bot. #sydneybots https://t.co/Hv24Vb0Pla

    Gahhh. My second Clippy reference in ONE DAY courtesy of @alexboudreau at #sydneybots. https://t.co/f2d8YoumUg

    Interesting. @alexboudreau is tracing evolution of chatbots all the way back to IVR. #flashbacks #sydneybots

    One problem I have at tech meetups lately is that I always parse NLP as “neuro-linguistic programming.”

    @LizlingC @alexboudreau New meetup group!! https://t.co/Fv4LDAIdGo

    @DannyWebs @alexboudreau He’s speaking here: https://t.co/Fv4LDAIdGo

    Remember f(x)=y from high school? Neural networks are about learning the f; not the x or the y. @alexboudreau #sydneybots

    Heh. I think @whalec is kicking us out. #sydneybots https://t.co/br38TVixlm

    @cbiggins The earlier reference was a talk at #Direction16 about impolite and patronising UX. 😂

    @cbiggins HA! Did I put a VR headset on your head? I thought that hair looked familiar.

    @cbiggins I’ll be there in the morning tomorrow. Come by and try! It’s not barfy. 🙂

    @iangrunert @msharp I just finally watched it. HA. JESUUUUSS WEPT!

    @wordofmichael Hello! *waves*

    Whoa. Sudden pressure. https://t.co/H3aLRsfVHC

    RT @ohwitchplease: Good morning. Today, like every day, let’s keep asking ourselves: what would Hermione do?

    She would keep working. https…

    My 30,000th tweet was, appropriately, Hermione. https://t.co/VyCyP4d70j

    @cbiggins I’ve got a wicked headache so I reckon I’m going to stay away today. But you should still do it! @msharp will take care of you. 🙂

    RT @gerrycanavan: I think about this poem three times a day. https://t.co/fXkHwQywhQ

    @coolbreeeze_ @awkwordly @Lackadazy @imdominating💥 https://t.co/o4lX0VLUeA

    I cancelled my @PayPal account. That felt good. Haven’t yet pulled the trigger on @facebook. But I really can’t stand Peter Thiel…