Ever think about attending an “UN-conference”? Wondering what the hell that is? Well, let me tell ya that after attending the first day of She’s Geeky, I am totally sold.
How does it work? Well, all the conference attendees are invited to grab a pen and piece of paper to write down a topic that they’d like to talk about. Either you’re an “expert” and want to share or you’re a novice and want to invite experts to your session to learn more.
We went around the room allowing everyone an opportunity to announce their topic and give a brief description. Then folks post their topics on a board. The board has a bunch of color coded stickies denoting the various session spaces. You pick a sticky put it on your topic so folks know where to meet to discuss your topic and then you post your topic under a session time.
And that’s it. That’s your conference. Filled with topics that at least one person was interested in discussing. And interestingly, it’s rare not to have anyone attend your topic. Unless you’re totally obscure (and even still!), chances are high that there’s another woman here who wants to chat with you.
The people here are wildly interesting and topics just run the gamut from food for developers (I looked at Django/Python code this morning) to honing your interview, leadership and presentation skills.
I’m finding it hard choosing which topics to attend because I want to listen in on everything. Fortunately, each topic has a designated note taker who is typing furiously so that the notes can be posted on the She’s Geeky site later.
January 29th, 2011
Led by Vicky Tuite @Vixter55
Django is to Python what Rails is to Ruby. Models correspond to models in rails. And templates are like views. The View File is your Controller. A Form is like a Helper.
MVT => Models Views Templates
urls.py is your routes file and settings.py maps to enviornment.rb
Objects is a “manager” which allows you the ability to call methods on the model. This is where you do your work because you can’t do calculations in the template (rails view).
User clicks on a url
url file directs you to view
the view displays the template
the form is optional and helps you display data in the template
Django makes it easy to share objects(models, templates, etc) across various projects.
Admin comes for free when you set up a Django app. These screens show you model data for free. Kinda like scaffold.
January 29th, 2011
She’s Geeky session on how to use CSS3 to swap out CSS files that change your layout based on the resolution of your browser. Wildly important when you want your site available to mobile and tablet technologies.
It’s all about the media property!
<link rel=”stylesheet” href=””smartphone.css” media=”only screen and (min-device-width : 320px) and (max-device-width : 480px)”>
Here are some important links for more info:
A List Apart, Responsive Web Design
960.gs
JQuery Masonry plugin is a layout plugin
Matthew James Taylor
HardBoiled CSS3 Media Queries
January 29th, 2011
I led this session at the end of day one of She’s Geeky. I chose to have my session in the teepee but it turned out to be too small to hold the group and awfully hot inside. So we all grabbed pillows and sat on the floor.
There were seven women including myself. Half of us have school age children and the other half have toddlers and babies. So there was lots of reminiscing, personal stories and advice.
I brought up a topic that I’ve been struggling with… I call it Mom Fog. As a coder, it is very difficult to reconcile logical thinking for your job with the very emotional task of raising children. Since the birth of my son, I find that at last my Mom Fog is beginning to lift. I don’t think it is a coincidence that I’m getting more sleep these days, but likely there is a hormonal aspect to it as well.
The women tell me that this is a phenomenon that gets better about a year after birth, but never completely goes away. And we talked about strategies to capitalize on our manic, ADD days with the opportunities for intense focus that seem to ebb and flow throughout the month.
We even got to hear from the kids who attended today’s event who talked about what it was like to have a “tech mom”. It was moving to hear them talk about their positive experiences and I hope that my kids will talk about me that way someday.
There are some mom friendly, task management applications out there to check out: Backpack, Cozi, Things, and organizing advice from FlyLady.
As working moms, a number of us are lucky to have supportive partners and we are encouraged to trust them with our children. Along those lines, it’s important to remember to build a village to support you. Ask for help. And accept help when it is offered.
This morning I was hesitant to introduce this topic since this was my very first She’s Geeky event. But I’m truly glad that I did. I got some much needed validation today. And I’m hoping the other moms got a lot out of it too.
January 28th, 2011
Some great conversations gave insight to both sides of this issue. We discussed the difference between being managers and leaders, and the challenges and pitfalls of doing both. Also discussed was how to manage difficult work situations. One of the more important takeaways is to remember that managers are people too. It’s important to have frank conversations about expectations whether you are a manager or employee.
January 28th, 2011
Attending an Internet data privacy session being led by @identitywoman. We are discussing and working on a response to the Department of Commerce Green Paper on Privacy.
“The purpose of Identity Commons is to support, facilitate, and promote the creation of an open identity layer for the Internet — one that maximizes control, convenience, and privacy for the individual while encouraging the development of healthy, interoperable communities.” Check out the Identity Commons Wiki.
January 28th, 2011
So, I’ve been to a number of Women in Tech type of events. More often than not they tend to be 95% marketing folks and/or bloggers. But I am so pleased to find that She’s Geeky is extremely dev heavy. And many of the topics are truly techie geeky. What fun!
Session1
Cyber Security
Agile in Reality: Keeping your promises
Backyard Chickens (What the cluck?) : Websites and Mobile Apps that support the poultry industry
Career Suicide: work harder, make less money, under utilize your tech skills and love it
Hitting the glass ceiling in Software Engineering
Session 2
Network Technology (Hardware/Software)
Writing Browser Etensions
Facebook Social Networking Privacy and You
Name that App
Women + CS (no whining)
Going Beyond Relational Databases?
Session3
WordPress/ PHP Plugin Development
I Can Improve Your Website
Commerce Dept Geen Paper on Privacy Response
Do people have a hard time understanding you at work because of your accent
CMS Design and Implementing Patterns
Session4
News/ Blogs iMagazines/ Etc: Where are we headed?
Troubleshooting Leadership & Management
Weather Stations
She’s Geeky Seattle and Allies
Monetizing Blog/ Online Services
Session5
Agile Event PLanning
BeeKeeping
Tech Moms: Navigating your career with kids
Project Management and Development Tracking Tools and Best Practices
Starting Up: Now what?
Branding: How to do it without feeling “gross”
January 28th, 2011
Whoever comes are the right people
Whatever happens is the only thing that could have
Whenever it starts is the right time
Whenever it is over it is over
If you are not learning or contributing, it is your responsibility to respectfully find some place that you are.
January 28th, 2011
Since the fall, work has really heated up. Which is a good thing. RBM has more work than developers these days. We also have a monthly workshop now that has been well attended. I’m also working on putting together a women’s study group in February. All good.
But it means that I don’t have an oodle of free time for pursuing my Railscasts Project. Since the summer, it’s lost steam. Which makes me very sad because I gotten a lot of positive feedback. And I’d like to continue.
As I’m blogging now, an idea occurs to me. A way to keep this idea going and perhaps involve others as well. Sadly, I haven’t the time to share at this moment. I’ve just arrived at the She’s Geeky conference in San Francisco. And there’s already much to blog about on that topic.
We haven’t started yet, but already I know I’m in for some mind expanding. We’re in one huge loft with curtains separating the space for breakout groups later. All the seats are arranged in circles rather than rows. One area is just a bunch of pillows on the floor. And there is a teepee in one corner. I’m fascinated about how that might possibly be used.
It’s time to mingle and chat with the new arrivals, but I’m going to do my best to live blog as much as possible.
January 28th, 2011
I find myself with an odd moment to blog about episode #28. And I do in fact find this topic odd.
There isn’t much to say about it. I mean, in_groups_of *is* a handy little method that will transform your array into groups, as you might think. And this is useful for displaying tables as demonstrated by Ryan in the screencast.
But really? *yawn*
I think I’m done with starting from the beginning of the railscasts. My company is transitioning to Rails 3 and Ryan has been blogging about it since February.
Since I really need to catch up, I think it’s time to skip. I can always come back to the older posts later, right?
After all, I’m sure Julie didn’t do all of Julia’s recipes in order. Didn’t she save the canard à l’orange recipe till last?
So folks, where do you think I should skip TO? Does Episode 200: Rails 3 Beta and RVM seem like the most likely place to start?
December 1st, 2010
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