Chris McDermott on “Lean Coffee”How often have you gone to a meeting, sat there for an hour and left without making a contribution. You had something to say but you were either never asked, there wasn’t a slot in the agenda to discuss what you wanted to discuss or the whole meeting was dominated by one person. By the time you get to AOB your energy has been sapped and you’re desperate to leave. Lean Coffee is a simple, structured agenda less format that applies Lean and Agile principles to help create a democratic meeting that gives everyone a voice and the opportunity to contribute.Andy Barry on “Componentising Webapps with BladeRunnerJS”
It’s generally accepted that dividing things up and encouraging encapsulation is a good idea. I’ll give a quick demo of how BladeRunnerJS can provide tooling and conventions that can help us componentise our webapps in an easy and scalable way.
Category Archives: Tech Event
Techmeetup Glasgow: January 2014
With the start to the new year, Techmeetup Glasgow is back after its 2 month hiatus. Due to a double booking this month it will take place on Thursday rather than the usual Wednesday but will still take place in Glasgow University.
The talks this month:
Nima Montazeri from ThoughtWorks on Transport Network Route Finding Using A Time Dependant Graph
Nima will share his experiences of building a route finding application for Manchester’s Metrolink system (www.tramchester.co.uk) using open data (GTFS) and graph database technology (Neo4j). He will touch on the data he had to work with, the modelling process (successes and failures), and the importance of time in the model.Thanks to our sponsors Neo, SkyScanner and Glasgow University for making the event possible.
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Andrew Fowler from Skyscanner on Test Automation: Evaluating a convergent approach for web and native apps
Within Skyscanner we have been investigating how we could move from a dual automation approach (two different technology stacks, two different engineering technology skill sets, one which is focussed on native apps, one which is focussed on web) towards a convergent tooling stack and approach.
This presentation would include a demonstration of a prototype framework running across real devices and genymotion emulation for mobile and a direct comparison of code constructs across Mobile and Web implementations.
As usual, I will be around for further discussion and drinks afterwards.
Seven Languages in Seven Weeks
Its the start of the year; so time to set some learning challenges! A few of the guys from Glasgow Techmeetup started a Code Craft meetup based on the Manifesto for Software Craftmenship and a love for craft beer (just don’t ask about Joe’s chant…). They picked out a book in The Pragmatic Programmers series – Seven Languages in Seven Weeks: A pragmatic guide to learning programming languages.
I’ve looked at some of the languages before but not with a lot of progress. Looking forward to getting a good start to learning this year – not to mention drinking some good beer with others on the same journey.
Techmeetup Glasgow: September 2013
This Wednesday sees the continuation of Techmeetup in Glasgow. Some cracking talks this month :
Luke Dicken: Introducing The International Game Developers Association
With a history spanning over twenty years, and thousands of members around the world, the International Game Developers Association has been a uniting force, bringing together people from all disciplines interested in, or actively pursuing game development. In this talk, Luke Dicken, the first director of the organisation to ever be elected from outside of North America, will explain the mission of the IGDA, why it matters and why it is of relevance to the broader tech sector as well.
Keith Harrison: Why Humans use F#
The talk will show how users with a math background can use F# to build sophisticated solutions. I will cover closures, higher order functions and explain how F# takes advantage of the .NET Framework.
Thanks to our sponsors Neo, SkyScanner and Glasgow University for making the event possible.
Luke has given some great talks before and always delivers a lively presentation. He can be found on Twitter as @luked or at his site http://lukedicken.com.
Not too familiar with F#, so will be interesting to hear what it has to offer.
As per usual things kick off from half 6 at
5th Floor
School of Computing
18 Lilybank Gardens
G12 8QQ
by Hillhead Underground
Glasgow Westend
Afterwards the usual post event drinks at the newly refurbished Brel.
TechMeetup Glasgow: Lightning Talks
TechMeetup Glasgow returns this Wednesday. As always I will be in attendance. This month features another round of lightning talks, featuring:
Gary Fleming, Graeme West, Craig Nicol, Sam England, Steven Grant, Rohan Gunatillake
For those not familiar with lightning talks, each presenter gets 20 slides and has 20 seconds to present each slide before they advance automatically.
TechMeetup is made possible by the amazing financial support from the University of Glasgow, Neo, and SkyScanner.
See you on the 28th of August, 2013 at 6.30pm.
5th Floor
School of Computing
18 Lilybank Gardens
G12 8QQ
by Hillhead Underground
Glasgow WestendFor queries email Ijonas Kisselbach (ijonas.kisselbach@gmail.com)
About TechMeetup Glasgow:
TechMeetup Glasgow is the “west coast chapter” of TechMeetup, Scotland’s finest monthly tech gathering. We talk about technology, design, code, mobile apps, web apps, social networking and the ecosystem they form.TechMeetup has been run in Glasgow since April 2009 and draws a good crowd of nice folk and great speakers – held together by the magic of pizza and beer.
TechMeetup is held in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Glasgow.
As always we will be in Brel afterwards for a few beers. For more information visit http://techmeetup.co.uk/ or follow @techmeetup on Twitter.
TechMeetup Glasgow: Gaming & Startups
TechMeetup Glasgow returns this Wednesday. As always I will be in attendance. Details can be found below:
TechMeetup Glasgow is back on the 5th Floor of the School of Computing this Wednesday – 24th of July 2013 – at 6.30pm
Our two talks this month form the focus of a great gaming/startup-oriented evening.
Alan Shaw on WallaBee: 83 Countries, 50 US States, 2 Years.
Alan is on the creative side of game mechanics, artwork at WallaBee. This talk is about how WallaBee launched, built up users and how they retain them. Alan will also focus on third party developers, their products and how they can make money off WallaBee.Roger Dubar on Zapcoder
Zapcoder lets you create & share games & apps on smartphones, tablets and desktops. Roger will tell us about his journey creating Zapcoder and his journey finding funding to support his project.TechMeetup is made possible by the amazing financial support from the University of Glasgow, Neo, and SkyScanner.
See you on the 24th of July, 2013 at 6.30pm.
5th Floor
School of Computing
18 Lilybank Gardens
G12 8QQ
by Hillhead Underground
Glasgow WestendFor queries email Ijonas Kisselbach (ijonas.kisselbach@gmail.com)
About TechMeetup Glasgow:
TechMeetup Glasgow is the “west coast chapter” of TechMeetup, Scotland’s finest monthly tech gathering. We talk about technology, design, code, mobile apps, web apps, social networking and the ecosystem they form.TechMeetup has been run in Glasgow since April 2009 and draws a good crowd of nice folk and great speakers – held together by the magic of pizza and beer.
TechMeetup is held in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Glasgow.
A few of us will be heading to Brel on Ashton lane afterwards to continue the discussions over a nice cold beer.
Approved: STEM Ambassador
My criminal background check (Disclosure Scotland) confirmed that I’ve never been charged or convicted of a crime and I am now a fully approved STEM Ambassador. Next steps are to update my Science Connects profile, contact a few local schools in Stirling and Glasgow about setting up Code Clubs.
At a push I should manage to run 2 clubs at once but I will probably start with 1 and gauge things from there. My hope is to inspire the next generation of software engineers and promote the vast number of career opportunities within IT.
TechMeetup Glasgow Tonight 6.30pm Talks on School Pupils & Tech + OpenGL/WebGL
TechMeetup Glasgow is back TONIGHT on the 5th Floor of the School of Computing.Besides drinks, pizza, and a natter we’ve two great talks on offer:
Aileen HamiltonEncouraging school pupils to follow a career in the world of Technology.Daniel Livingstone and Andrew RichardsKhronos: Leading OpenGL, WebGL and many others.As ever, the event is free and no sign-up is necessary.
TechMeetup is made possible by the amazing financial support from the University of Glasgow, Neo, SkyScanner and small donations from community members. Thank you all.
See you TONIGHT at 6.30pm.
5th Floor
School of Computing
18 Lilybank Gardens
G12 8QQ
by Hillhead Underground
Glasgow WestendHere’s a Google Map to the venue.
For queries email Ijonas Kisselbach (ijonas.kisselbach@gmail.com)
Techmeetup Glasgow – Wednesday 24th April
I will be attending next week’s Techmeetup in Glasgow. This month rather than 2 speakers the event will play host to an evening of lightning talks. I had thought about doing a talk on STEM ambassadors but I’ve been busy moving jobs and missed last month’s induction session(a talk for another day it seems) . Pizza and beer will be provided as always from the sponsors. After talk discussions and drinks in Brel till late are likely to follow if you can’t make the main event.
More details can be found in open tech calendar – http://opentechcalendar.co.uk/index.php/event/268
Monthly Developer Hangout – Hackdays and Codecamps
Next Thursday (25th) I will be attending the monthly Developer Hangout on Google+. This month’s discussion topic is on hackdays and codecamps; who benefits from them and what do they involve?
Should be an interesting discussion. Admittedly I’ve yet to manage to attend a hackday for various reasons, although I am keen to get along to one. I will be bringing up the potential benefits as experimenting with new technologies and methods that I don’t have opportunities to try in my daily development role that could benefit my code.