{"site":{"name":"Chris Chinchilla","url":"https://chrischinchilla.com","description":"A technical communicator with a love of explaining technical concepts in documentation, blog posts, videos, books and more. Also a podcaster, video maker, writer of interactive fiction, and games."},"categories":[{"slug":"tech","title":"Tech","description":"Technical writing, documentation, tooling, client work, and technology coverage.","count":1034},{"slug":"writing","title":"Writing","description":"Blog posts, books, stories, essays, and long-form writing projects.","count":207},{"slug":"music","title":"Music","description":"Music releases, performance work, podcasts, and audio-first projects.","count":253},{"slug":"games","title":"Games","description":"Game projects, interactive fiction, and related creative work.","count":54}],"types":[{"slug":"blog","label":"Blog","description":"Blog posts on tech, writing, music, and more.","count":946,"listUrl":"/blog","hasBody":true},{"slug":"books","label":"Books","description":"Books Chris has written or contributed to.","count":19,"listUrl":"/books","hasBody":true},{"slug":"stories","label":"Stories","description":"Short fiction.","count":39,"listUrl":"/stories","hasBody":true},{"slug":"newsletters","label":"Newsletters","description":"Newsletter issues.","count":31,"listUrl":"/newsletter","hasBody":true},{"slug":"music","label":"Music","description":"Music releases.","count":12,"listUrl":"/music","hasBody":true},{"slug":"software","label":"Software","description":"Open-source projects Chris created or contributed to.","count":8,"listUrl":"/software","hasBody":true},{"slug":"gear","label":"Gear","description":"Equipment and tools Chris uses.","count":32,"listUrl":"/gear","hasBody":true},{"slug":"courses","label":"Video courses","description":"Video courses and audio/visual projects.","count":3,"listUrl":"/courses","hasBody":true},{"slug":"games","label":"Games","description":"Game projects Chris has worked on.","count":28,"listUrl":"/games","hasBody":true},{"slug":"events","label":"Events & talks","description":"Talks given, events organised, and events attended.","count":226,"listUrl":"/events","hasBody":true},{"slug":"clients","label":"Clients","description":"Clients and companies Chris has worked with.","count":38,"listUrl":"/clients","hasBody":true},{"slug":"podcasts","label":"Podcasts","description":"Podcast episodes (live from the podcast feed).","count":359,"listUrl":"/podcast","hasBody":false},{"slug":"videos","label":"Videos","description":"YouTube videos (live from the YouTube playlist).","count":50,"listUrl":"/videos","hasBody":false}],"items":[{"type":"blog","id":"2026/ai-features-on-this-site","title":"Making this site easy for AI tools to use: MCP, WebMCP, and more","url":"/blog/2026/ai-features-on-this-site","summary":"I've added several ways for AI assistants and agents to read, search, and cite this site properly: a remote MCP server, in-browser WebMCP tools, a JSON content API, llms.txt, and an \"Open with AI\" menu on articles. Here's what each does and how to use them.","date":"2026-10-16","tags":["AI","MCP","WebMCP","Astro","Netlify"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"newsletters","id":"141026","title":"Full disk regrets","url":"/newsletter/141026","summary":"Sovereignty, efficiency, acquisitions, and AI tools go rogue (again)","date":"2026-10-14","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"events","id":"2026-10-10-bircon-2026","title":"Bircon 2026","url":"/events","summary":"BIRCON is a pen & paper, tabletop roleplaying game convention run by fans for fans.","date":"2026-10-10","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://bircon.berlin"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"ai-powered-protection-from-digital-fraud-with-guardian","title":"AI powered protection from digital fraud with Guardian","url":"/podcast/ai-powered-protection-from-digital-fraud-with-guardian","summary":"In this episode, I speak with Rita Barbosa of Guardian Labs, who is working on an Europe-based AI-powered scam protection app that pulls in up-to-date scam data to help prevent vulnerable phone users from being scammed.","date":"2026-10-08","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/guardian-proactive-on-device-scam-protection"},{"type":"events","id":"2026-10-07-oss-2026","title":"Open Source Summit Europe","url":"/events","summary":"I report on the latest updates from projects and communities that are part of the Linux Foundation.","date":"2026-10-07","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://events.linuxfoundation.org/open-source-summit-europe/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2026/transcription-devices-eurekamind-vs-plaude","title":"AI-powered transcription devices: EurekaMind vs Plaude","url":"/blog/2026/transcription-devices-eurekamind-vs-plaude","summary":"In this post I compare two AI-powered transcription devices, EurekaMind and Plaude, and discuss whether you need a dedicated device at all.","date":"2026-10-05","tags":["AI","Transcription","Devices","Review"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"books","id":"collective-verses-volume-vi","title":"Collective Verses Volume VI","url":"/books/collective-verses-volume-vi","summary":"A collection of poetry written during the Storytelling Collective's annual April Daily Poem challenge, in which poets write a poem every day for the month based on simple prompts.","date":"2026-10-01","tags":[],"categories":["writing"],"externalUrl":"https://www.drivethrufiction.com/en/product/585943/collective-verses-volume-vi"},{"type":"books","id":"in-a-flash-volume-iv","title":"In a Flash Volume IV","url":"/books/in-a-flash-volume-iv","summary":"A collection of flash fiction under 1,500 words, written during the Storytelling Collective's month-long Flash Fiction February challenge.","date":"2026-10-01","tags":[],"categories":["writing"],"externalUrl":"https://www.drivethrufiction.com/en/product/585931/in-a-flash-volume-iv"},{"type":"events","id":"2026-10-01-startup-revolution-2026","title":"Startup Revolution 2026","url":"/events","summary":"I will be at Startup Revolution 2026 in Skopje, and I want to hear about your projects and ideas. If you’re attending, please reach out and let’s chat!","date":"2026-10-01","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://startuprevolution.ai/pages/venue"},{"type":"blog","id":"2026/next-app-devcon","title":"Running the world's largest mobile developer conference with Greg Fawson of next.app devCon","url":"/blog/2026/next-app-devcon","summary":"I speak with Greg Fawson, CEO of Mobile Seasons, about how droidcon grew into next.app devCon, why mobile developer communities are merging, and what it's like to run a developer event in Berlin in 2026.","date":"2026-09-25","tags":["Mobile development","Android","Flutter","iOS","Swift","Kotlin","droidcon","Events","Berlin","AI"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"newsletters","id":"240926","title":"Don't let the Sun go down on Open Source","url":"/newsletter/240926","summary":"The legacy of Sun, the future of Open Source, decolonising maps, and more.","date":"2026-09-24","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2026/ifa-2026","title":"IFA 2026 trends - local AI boxes, open back headphones, e-ink, and more","url":"/blog/2026/ifa-2026","summary":"I spent some time on the show floor at IFA 2026 in Berlin looking at mini PCs, local AI devices, headphones, speakers, input devices, smart plant sensors, and e-ink phones. Here's what caught my attention.","date":"2026-09-24","tags":["IFA","Berlin","Hardware","Local AI","NAS","Headphones","Audio","E-ink"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2026/lf-energy-berlin-2026","title":"What's new for LF Energy in 2026","url":"/blog/2026/lf-energy-berlin-2026","summary":"A tour of Linux Foundation Energy's project portfolio, and a look at what was announced and demoed at LF Energy Summit Europe in Berlin.","date":"2026-09-23","tags":["Energy","Open Source","Linux Foundation","Berlin"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"events","id":"2026-09-22-humanx","title":"Human X","url":"/events","summary":"Europe is having its AI moment, and HumanX is coming to Amsterdam to bring the world’s leaders right into the centre of it. This is where leaders share implementation strategies, spark connections, and accelerate European AI on a global scale.","date":"2026-09-22","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.humanx.co/europe"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"autonomous-security-in-the-agent-age-with-enclave","title":"Autonomous security in the agent age with Enclave","url":"/podcast/autonomous-security-in-the-agent-age-with-enclave","summary":"I speak with Enclave, which is building an autonomous security team for the enterprise with always-on agents that map your attack surface, find attack paths, repair weaknesses, and verify the path is closed.","date":"2026-09-17","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/autonomous-security-in-the-agent-age-with-enclave"},{"type":"events","id":"2026-09-15-lf-energy","title":"Linux Foundation Energy","url":"/events","summary":"Linux Foundation Energy is a conference dedicated to accelerating the energy transition through open source technology and collaboration. The event brings together industry leaders, developers, and stakeholders to discuss and showcase innovative solutions for a sustainable energy future.","date":"2026-09-15","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.linuxfoundation.org/events/lf-energy/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2026/adoc-studio-5","title":"What's new in adoc Studio 5 for AsciiDoc writers","url":"/blog/2026/adoc-studio-5","summary":"There aren't many desktop tools for technical writing that are native to macOS and iPadOS. adoc Studio is one of the few, built specifically around AsciiDoc. I covered it before, and the team has been busy since. Here's what's new in versions 4 and 5, including export options, accessibility tools, multilingual support, and AI features.","date":"2026-09-15","tags":["Technical Writing","AsciiDoc","Documentation","AI","Mac"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2026/application-sync-homebrew","title":"How I sync applications between Macs using Homebrew","url":"/blog/2026/application-sync-homebrew","summary":"How I attempted to sync applications between Macs using Homebrew and Brewfiles.","date":"2026-09-11","tags":["Homebrew","macOS","Productivity"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"events","id":"2026-09-04-ifa-2026","title":"IFA","url":"/events","summary":"I'm at IFA, the world's largest consumer electronics show, to see what crazy ideas the world is working on.","date":"2026-09-04","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.ifa-berlin.com"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-worlds-largest-conference-for-mobile-developers-with-greg-fawson","title":"The world's largest conference for mobile developers with Greg Fawson","url":"/podcast/the-worlds-largest-conference-for-mobile-developers-with-greg-fawson","summary":"I speak with Greg Fawson of next.app dev con, the largest mobile app developer conference in the world, right here in my home of Berlin. We speak about how they got there, their plans for the future, and organising events in Berlin in 2026.","date":"2026-09-03","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/the-worlds-largest-conference-for-mobile-developers-with-greg-fawson"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"270826","title":"SimDystopia","url":"/newsletter/270826","summary":"Dystopian stories, AI safety, and stories of simulations","date":"2026-08-27","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2026/2026-observability-audit","title":"The 2026 Observability Audit - Separating Single Vendor Silos From Community Innovation","url":"/blog/2026/2026-observability-audit","summary":"Open source projects dominated by a single vendor are a hallmark of \"open source in name only.\" Rather than filling the traditional role of open source fostering innovation and decision-making from a diverse community, \"open source in name only\" projects are often used as marketing tools for proprietary platforms. These projects are also seen as riskier than community-driven projects because a single vendor is more apt to abruptly terminate long-term support, restrict contributions, or switch from an open-source license to a more restrictive one (forcing some previous contributors to pay for the project they helped build). In these projects, critics claim that investments are often lopsided and heavily skewed toward onboarding, marketing, and brand-related support. As a result, technical contributions are frequently less developed, opaque, undocumented, or lacking in real substance, often manifesting merely as a superficial \"ease of entry and onboarding.\" Because of these underlying gaps in documentation and codebase depth, developers are routinely forced to reverse-engineer functionality simply to get the tools to work correctly.","date":"2026-08-26","tags":["Observability","Open Source"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"http://dzone.com/articles/2026-observability-audit"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-hidden-influences-behind-the-algorithms-that-run-our-lives-with-luca-belli","title":"The hidden influences behind the algorithms that run our lives with Luca Belli","url":"/podcast/the-hidden-influences-behind-the-algorithms-that-run-our-lives-with-luca-belli","summary":"In this episode, I speak with Luca Belli about his forthcoming Manning book, “Hidden Influences,” which explains how algorithmic recommendation systems work from socio-technical and ethical perspectives rather than teaching readers to build them.","date":"2026-08-20","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/the-hidden-influences-behind-the-algorithms-that-run-our-lives-with-luca-belli"},{"type":"videos","id":"the-hidden-influences-behind-the-algorithms-that-run-our-lives-with-luca-belli-2w9EzGI9OZY","title":"The hidden influences behind the algorithms that run our lives with Luca Belli","url":"/videos/the-hidden-influences-behind-the-algorithms-that-run-our-lives-with-luca-belli-2w9EzGI9OZY","summary":"In this episode, I speak with Luca Belli about his forthcoming Manning book, “Hidden Influences,” which explains how algorithmic recommendation systems work from socio-technical and ethical perspectives rather than teaching readers to build them. Belli describes how recommenders and users shape each other, why debates about societal harms (including misinformation) often lack nuance, and why “wor…","date":"2026-08-20","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w9EzGI9OZY"},{"type":"videos","id":"namequick-for-macos-do-you-need-ai-powered-file-naming-F0xyHrGmu6g","title":"NameQuick for macOS - Do you need AI-powered file naming?","url":"/videos/namequick-for-macos-do-you-need-ai-powered-file-naming-F0xyHrGmu6g","summary":"In this video, I look at NameQuick for macOS. It connects with local and remote models to help you name files intelligently based on the content of the file. But do you need it? Is it worth it? https://www.namequick.app/ 00:00 - Intro 00:28 - Intro to the app 01:23 - First attempt with a local model 03:21 - Second attempt with local model 06:06 - Third attempt from Finder 09:39 - Summary","date":"2026-08-17","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0xyHrGmu6g"},{"type":"videos","id":"testing-openmusicai-to-create-a-dramatic-confession-backing-track-A-csrXP6rXk","title":"Testing OpenMusicAI to create a dramatic “confession” backing track","url":"/videos/testing-openmusicai-to-create-a-dramatic-confession-backing-track-A-csrXP6rXk","summary":"In this video I experiment with OpenMusicAI to create a 7-minute dramatic, confession-style backing track for a theatre project: a reality TV interpretation of Antony and Cleopatra. Aside from prompt-based music generation tools, and a plethora of other AI music tools of mixed utility, OpenMusicAI has several tools that are actually useful for music creators, such as stem separation and MIDI gene…","date":"2026-08-17","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-csrXP6rXk"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"130826","title":"But can AI play Doom?","url":"/newsletter/130826","summary":"AI in places it's not needed, Doom in places it shouldn't be, and an engineer behind dozens of classic albums shares their advice.","date":"2026-08-13","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2026/openmusic-helpful","title":"Is OpenMusic actually a helpful music AI assistant?","url":"/blog/2026/openmusic-helpful","summary":"I tested OpenMusic to generate a dramatic confession-style backing track for a theatre project, a reality TV take on Antony and Cleopatra. Beyond the usual prompt-based generation, it has stem splitting and MIDI tools that are actually useful for music production.","date":"2026-08-11","tags":["AI","Music","Ableton Live","OpenMusicAI"],"categories":["writing","music"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"fast-by-default-performance-engineering-with-den-odell","title":"Fast by default: Performance engineering with Den Odell","url":"/podcast/fast-by-default-performance-engineering-with-den-odell","summary":"In this episode I speak with Den Odell, author of a new comprehensive book on performance engineering about the practice technically as well as justifying to business and product stakeholders.","date":"2026-08-06","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/den-odell"},{"type":"music","id":"antony-cleopatra","title":"Antony & Cleopatra - Love is War soundtrack","url":"/music/antony-cleopatra","summary":"Soundtrack for the performance of \"Antony & Cleopatra - Love is War\"","date":"2026-08-04","tags":[],"categories":["music"],"externalUrl":"https://aeonv.bandcamp.com/album/antony-cleopatra-love-is-war-soundtrack"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"310726","title":"Games, gear, and gregarious tales","url":"/newsletter/310726","summary":"I haven't been reading much news, so instead I haphazardly promote some of my work.","date":"2026-07-31","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"games","id":"karaoke-vampire","title":"Karaoke Vampire","url":"/games","summary":"A story-driven, rules-light roleplaying game for 2+ players who love to sing, love to sparkle, and love to suck blood.","date":"2026-07-27","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.itch.io/karaoke-vampire"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"enjoy-a-better-fairer-experience-browsing-the-web-with-rewarded-interest","title":"Enjoy a better, fairer experience browsing the web with Rewarded Interest","url":"/podcast/enjoy-a-better-fairer-experience-browsing-the-web-with-rewarded-interest","summary":"I speak with Thede Loader of Rewarded Interest, another project and product attempting to make privacy and consent on the web better, while offering you an opportunity to make a slice of revenue. Too good to be true?","date":"2026-07-23","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/enjoy-a-better-fairer-experience-browsing-the-web-with-rewarded-interest"},{"type":"blog","id":"2026/platform-engineering-ai-agents","title":"Platform Engineering 2.0 - Evolve the Substrate for AI and Agents","url":"/blog/2026/platform-engineering-ai-agents","summary":"Al has blindsided cloud native infrastructure management, rendering established platform engineering woefully inadequate. Original platform engineering often suffers from a developer-only focus, but a platform that serves only one persona in a multi-persona organization ultimately delivers a shrinking fraction of its potential enterprise value. Autonomous agents are already beginning to write, review, test, and deploy code or fixes with or without human intervention. This shifts the primary organizational bottleneck from writing code to delivering it safely and quickly. The gap requires a new model: Platform Engineering 2.0.","date":"2026-07-16","tags":["Platform engineering","Internal developer platforms"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/platform-engineering-ai-agents"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"160726","title":"While my app gently memory leaks","url":"/newsletter/160726","summary":"Finally, I am back with a new newsletter.","date":"2026-07-16","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2026/nokia-phones-history","title":"Nokia S 14 Years Of Mobile Phone Supremacy Ended In An Afternoon","url":"/blog/2026/nokia-phones-history","summary":"IN 2005, NOKIA SOLD its billionth mobile phone, a budget-friendly device that went to a customer in Nigeria. By then, the company, based in Espoo, Finland, was making one of every three cellphones globally. But just nine years later, the mobile-device maker offloaded its entire handset division to Microsoft for pennies on the dollar, compared to what it had been worth at its peak.","date":"2026-07-13","tags":["Nokia","History","Mobile phones"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://spectrum.ieee.org/nokia-phones-history"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"video-generation-as-a-service-with-ricardo-noriega-and-doug-smith","title":"Video Generation As A Service With Ricardo Noriega and Doug Smith","url":"/podcast/video-generation-as-a-service-with-ricardo-noriega-and-doug-smith","summary":"I speak with Ricardo Noriega and Doug Smith from Red Hat about their experiments using VLLM Omni for video generation.","date":"2026-07-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/video-generation-as-a-service-with-ricardo-noriega-and-doug-smith"},{"type":"videos","id":"video-generation-as-a-service-with-ricardo-noriega-and-doug-smith-7KwTYjCBvxs","title":"Video Generation As A Service With Ricardo Noriega and Doug Smith","url":"/videos/video-generation-as-a-service-with-ricardo-noriega-and-doug-smith-7KwTYjCBvxs","summary":"I speak with Ricardo Noriega and Doug Smith from Red Hat at PyTorch Con Paris in 2026 about their experiments using VLLM Omni for video generation. Your journey to stunning videos starts here FlexClip is a simple yet powerful video maker and editor for everyone that helps users easily create compelling video content for personal or business purposes without any learning curve. https://go.chrischi…","date":"2026-07-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KwTYjCBvxs"},{"type":"blog","id":"2026/i-have-a-new-book","title":"I have a new book out on creating the sustainable web","url":"/blog/2026/i-have-a-new-book","summary":"Finally, after a lot of work over a long period of time, I have a new non-fiction book out, co-written with Ines Akrap. It’s “Building the Sustainable Web”, out with Apress now.","date":"2026-07-06","tags":["Books","News","Sustainability"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"videos","id":"ableton-live-track-walkthrough-how-we-fixed-and-polished-mistakes-WkdSFKhdTkE","title":"Ableton Live track walkthrough: How we fixed and polished mistakes","url":"/videos/ableton-live-track-walkthrough-how-we-fixed-and-polished-mistakes-WkdSFKhdTkE","summary":"A quick walk through a new track from the debut Aeon V EP, \"The dark embrace of infinite space\" in Ableton Live 12. Listen to the track here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/aeonv/the-dark-embrace-of-infinite-space-2?ref=release https://aeonv.bandcamp.com Plugins: https://www.ikmultimedia.com/ https://www.owenrossmusic.com 00:00 Intro 00:29 Introduce track 01:37 The bass ttrack 02:37 The guitar…","date":"2026-07-01","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkdSFKhdTkE"},{"type":"books","id":"building-the-sustainable-web","title":"Building the Sustainable Web","url":"/books/building-the-sustainable-web","summary":"A guide to designing, building, and hosting digital products that respect people and the planet, covering infrastructure, backend architecture, frontend performance, UX, content strategy, and marketing practices that reduce environmental impact while improving performance and accessibility.","date":"2026-07-01","tags":[],"categories":["tech","writing"],"externalUrl":"https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/979-8-8688-2521-7"},{"type":"videos","id":"ai-assistants-for-ableton-live-gJA_alJD4hg","title":"AI assistants for Ableton Live","url":"/videos/ai-assistants-for-ableton-live-gJA_alJD4hg","summary":"Let's face it, generating boilerplate tracks before diving into making your next masterpiece is tedious. Twiddling dials to get that perfect sound to realise that where you started was fine, a waste of time. So why not get AI tools to do it for you? In this video, I look at two options: Feater: https://feater.ai/ Producer Pal: https://producer-pal.org/ I look at how they work, how they compare, a…","date":"2026-06-27","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJA_alJD4hg"},{"type":"videos","id":"app-audio-routing-and-volume-control-on-macos-L8Pv7hlfsc8","title":"App audio routing and volume control on macOS","url":"/videos/app-audio-routing-and-volume-control-on-macos-L8Pv7hlfsc8","summary":"macOS has always lacked the default functionality to control individual app volume, resulting in several third-party solutions such as @RogueAmoebaVideos SoundSource. However, I wanted the ability to control those app volumes with an external controller, and so for a while, I settled on SoundDesk from @LoudLab . It used the fantastic MIDI plugin for the @elgato Stream Deck, and I was happy. Then…","date":"2026-06-27","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8Pv7hlfsc8"},{"type":"videos","id":"converting-messy-documents-into-structured-data-with-peter-staar-of-docling-vRg6StHiMdI","title":"Converting messy documents into structured data with Peter Staar of Docling","url":"/videos/converting-messy-documents-into-structured-data-with-peter-staar-of-docling-vRg6StHiMdI","summary":"In this episode, I speak with Peter Staar of Docling about the wonderful open-source project that converts messy documents into structured data, perfect for ingestion into AI tools and more. Recorded live at PyTorch con in 2026.","date":"2026-06-27","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRg6StHiMdI"},{"type":"videos","id":"cotypist-developer-daniel-grafe-talks-about-his-journey-and-process-4J1HKrfnt1A","title":"CoTypist developer Daniel Gräfe talks about his journey and process","url":"/videos/cotypist-developer-daniel-grafe-talks-about-his-journey-and-process-4J1HKrfnt1A","summary":"Joining me in person (and thus the horrible audio quality) is Daniel Gräfe, independent developer of the amazing apps Timing and CoTypist. Based in Germany, we discuss how he builds his apps, why there are so many independent macOS developers in Germany, demand how the future looks for independent developers.","date":"2026-06-27","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J1HKrfnt1A"},{"type":"videos","id":"join-the-open-source-resistance-with-mike-mcquaid-KcZ91eVmPxQ","title":"Join the Open Source Resistance with Mike McQuaid","url":"/videos/join-the-open-source-resistance-with-mike-mcquaid-KcZ91eVmPxQ","summary":"This episode, I am joined again by Mike McQuaid, Homebrew project leader, amongst many other things, including OSS Resistance, a new quiet call to encourage people to contribute to open source when they feel they should. 100s of amazing Mac apps Looking to supercharge your Mac with 100s of apps to choose from and one low monthly price? Take a look at Setapp from MacPaw. https://go.chrischinchilla…","date":"2026-06-27","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcZ91eVmPxQ"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"join-the-oss-resistance-with-mike-mcquaid","title":"Join the OSS Resistance with Mike McQuaid","url":"/podcast/join-the-oss-resistance-with-mike-mcquaid","summary":"This episode, I am joined again by Mike McQuaid, Homebrew project leader, amongst many other things, including OSS Resistance, a new quiet call to encourage people to contribute to open source when they feel they should.","date":"2026-06-26","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/join-the-oss-resistance-with-mike-mcquaid"},{"type":"music","id":"the-dark-embrace-of-infinite-space","title":"The dark embrace of infinite space","url":"/music/the-dark-embrace-of-infinite-space","summary":"Debut EP from Aeon V — electronic, cinematic soundscapes exploring the dark embrace of infinite space.","date":"2026-06-14","tags":[],"categories":["music"],"externalUrl":"https://aeonv.bandcamp.com/album/the-dark-embrace-of-infinite-space"},{"type":"blog","id":"2026/im-releasing-music","title":"I am releasing music for the first time in 15 years","url":"/blog/2026/im-releasing-music","summary":"Today I am 45, so I am releasing music for the first time in about 15 years. A look at my musical journey and the new EP I am releasing.","date":"2026-06-13","tags":["News","Music"],"categories":["tech","music"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"converting-messy-documents-into-structured-data-with-peter-staar-of-docling","title":"Converting messy documents into structured data with Peter Staar of Docling","url":"/podcast/converting-messy-documents-into-structured-data-with-peter-staar-of-docling","summary":"In this episode, I speak with Peter Staar of Docling about the wonderful open-source project that converts messy documents into structured data, perfect for ingestion into AI tools and more. Recorded live at PyTorch con in 2026","date":"2026-06-10","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/converting-messy-documents-into-structured-data-with-peter-staar-of-docling"},{"type":"events","id":"2026-06-10-nexus-2026","title":"Nexus Luxembourg","url":"/events","summary":"I will be at Nexus Luxembourg 2026 in Luxembourg City, and I want to hear about your projects and ideas. If you’re attending, please reach out and let’s chat!","date":"2026-06-10","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://nexusluxembourg.com"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"050626","title":"Holy retro human","url":"/newsletter/050626","summary":"Pope vs tech. Music vs AI. A slice of ARM history.","date":"2026-06-05","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2026/links-from-ten-years-ago","title":"Revisiting 2016 - Links from ten years ago","url":"/blog/2026/links-from-ten-years-ago","summary":"Revisiting links saved ten years ago, exploring what captured my attention and the world's interests back in 2016.","date":"2026-06-03","tags":["nostalgia","Links","2016"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"removing-barriers-in-audio-with-sharath-narayana-of-sanas","title":"Removing barriers in audio with Sharath Narayana of Sanas","url":"/podcast/removing-barriers-in-audio-with-sharath-narayana-of-sanas","summary":"This episode, I am joined by Sharath Narayana of Sanas, and AI company working to remove the barriers in audio since 2020.","date":"2026-05-28","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/removing-barriers-in-audio-with-sharath-narayana-of-sanas"},{"type":"music","id":"you-and-i","title":"You and I","url":"/music/you-and-i","summary":"A charity single from Berlin collective Auslander:IN, supporting the Hejmo Open Music School — a free, inclusive music knowledge-sharing community in Berlin.","date":"2026-05-27","tags":[],"categories":["music"],"externalUrl":"https://omsrecords.bandcamp.com/track/you-and-i"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"220526","title":"A demonic plugin obsession","url":"/newsletter/220526","summary":"Too many plugins, too many layoffs, and too many… Awards? All that and more in this issue.","date":"2026-05-22","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"newsletters","id":"140526","title":"Gaining an artvantage","url":"/newsletter/140526","summary":"Game or art and has tech become boring?","date":"2026-05-14","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"events","id":"2026-05-15-sim-2026","title":"SIM","url":"/events","summary":"I will be at SIM 2026 in Porto, and I want to hear about your projects and ideas. If you’re attending, please reach out and let’s chat!","date":"2026-05-14","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://simconf.com"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"daniel-grafe-of-timing-and-cotypist","title":"Daniel Gräfe of Timing and CoTypist","url":"/podcast/daniel-grafe-of-timing-and-cotypist","summary":"Joining me in person (and thus the horrible audio quality) is Daniel Gräfe, independent developer of the amazing apps Timing and CoTypist. Based in Germany, we discuss how he builds his apps, why there are so many independent macOS developers in Germany, and what the future holds for independent developers.","date":"2026-05-07","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/daniel-grafe-of-timing-and-cotypist"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"300426","title":"Less tech, more me(c)h","url":"/newsletter/300426","summary":"Small newsletter today covering niche topics like Berlin tourism, the slow decline of an open source project, and other interesting tidbits.","date":"2026-04-30","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-pytorch-foundation-with-mark-collier","title":"The PyTorch Foundation with Mark Collier","url":"/podcast/the-pytorch-foundation-with-mark-collier","summary":"In this episode, I speak with Mark Collier, executive director of the PyTorch Foundation, from PyTorch Con in Paris.","date":"2026-04-23","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/the-pytorch-foundation-with-mark-collier"},{"type":"blog","id":"2026/ai-tools-problem-solving","title":"How AI tools are changing the way developers solve problems","url":"/blog/2026/ai-tools-problem-solving","summary":"AI tools are transforming how we approach complex problems by automating tasks, enhancing decision-making, and fostering collaboration. This article explores the impact of AI on my software development work, ethical considerations, and the future of problem-solving in the AI-driven era.","date":"2026-04-16","tags":["AI","Software Development","problem-solving","Ethics"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"newsletters","id":"160426","title":"Leaky Claudron","url":"/newsletter/160426","summary":"In this newsletter, Anthropic leaks, skills seep, sounds speak, and CSS leaps!","date":"2026-04-16","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"are-bio-processors-the-next-step-for-computing","title":"Are bio processors the next step for computing?","url":"/podcast/are-bio-processors-the-next-step-for-computing","summary":"I speak with Ewelina Kurtys about Final Spark, a company building a bioprocessor, which they believe will enhance AI growth with no energy restrictions","date":"2026-04-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/are-bio-processors-the-next-step-for-computing"},{"type":"events","id":"2026-04-07-pytorch-con-2026","title":"PyTorch Con 2026","url":"/events","summary":"I will be at PyTorch Con 2026 in Paris, and I want to hear about your projects and ideas. If you’re attending, please reach out and let’s chat!","date":"2026-04-07","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://pytorch.org/events/conference/2026/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2026/ableton-live-ai","title":"Controlling Ableton Live with AI using Feater and Producer Pal","url":"/blog/2026/ableton-live-ai","summary":"AI tools promise to automate the tedious parts of starting a music project. I tried two MCP-based options for Ableton Live, Feater and Producer Pal, to see how much they help me make music.","date":"2026-04-06","tags":["Music","AI","MCP","Ableton Live","Claude"],"categories":["writing","music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2026/app-audio-routing","title":"I Replaced My Custom Mac App Audio Routing Solution with Elgato Wave Link 3 and Love It","url":"/blog/2026/app-audio-routing","summary":"macOS has always lacked a built-in way to route and mix audio on a per-application basis. Windows users have had per-app volume control for years, but on macOS, you need third-party tools to get anything close. I had been using a combination of SoundDesk, the Stream Deck MIDI plugin, and a Stream Deck plus with dials to solve this. The setup worked, but configuring it was fiddly. Then Elgato released Wave Link 3, and everything changed.","date":"2026-04-02","tags":["macOS","Audio","Stream Deck"],"categories":["tech","music"]},{"type":"newsletters","id":"020426","title":"Vive la différence?","url":"/newsletter/020426","summary":"Squeezing this in before Europe vanishes for Easter, if they haven't already. On the subject of Europe, a great piece about Tech Bros in Europe, The dictionary sues OpenAI, and all sorts of mac tweaking power user wonder. Enjoy!","date":"2026-04-02","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"whats-new-with-java-and-jdk26-with-simon-ritter","title":"What's new with Java and JDK26 with Simon Ritter","url":"/podcast/whats-new-with-java-and-jdk26-with-simon-ritter","summary":"In this episode, I speak with Simon Ritter of Azul about what's new in the JDK26 release and how you maintain community interest with a language that has the vintage of Java.","date":"2026-03-26","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/whats-new-with-java-and-jdk26-with-simon-ritter"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"190326","title":"Opening the can of AI-generated worms","url":"/newsletter/190326","summary":"An open source community tAIrs itself apart, Grammarly upsets an awful lot of people, and RIP VC?","date":"2026-03-19","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2026/typeboost","title":"Is TypeBoost the AI personal assistant you've been looking for?","url":"/blog/2026/typeboost","summary":"TypeBoost is an AI personal assistant that helps boost writing productivity by allowing you to apply prompts to text in any application. In this post, I test the tool to see how well it performs and how much it improves my productivity.","date":"2026-03-17","tags":["AI","Productivity","macOS","Assistant"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"storytelling-and-ai-with-victor-of-supreme-robot","title":"Storytelling and AI with Victor of Supreme Robot","url":"/podcast/storytelling-and-ai-with-victor-of-supreme-robot","summary":"In this episode, I speak with the fascinating Victor of Supreme Robot about their AI-powered projects to help storytellers, screenwriters, game designers, and other story-driven creators.","date":"2026-03-12","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/storytelling-and-ai-with-victor-of-supreme-robot"},{"type":"videos","id":"combining-macos-focus-modes-and-raycast-for-ultimate-productivity-Rh_0r9bc0ZY","title":"Combining macOS Focus Modes and Raycast for Ultimate Productivity","url":"/videos/combining-macos-focus-modes-and-raycast-for-ultimate-productivity-Rh_0r9bc0ZY","summary":"In this hands-on video, I explore how to combine macOS Focus Modes with Raycast Focus Categories for an optimal productivity environment. I explain how these tools can help minimise distractions by managing notifications and application access. Christian provides a step-by-step guide on setting up focus modes in system settings, adding filters, and using Raycast to block applications and websites…","date":"2026-03-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh_0r9bc0ZY"},{"type":"videos","id":"hands-on-with-opera-neon-the-ai-agentic-browser-from-opera-G85Gp4o5AxM","title":"Hands-on with Opera Neon — The AI Agentic Browser from Opera","url":"/videos/hands-on-with-opera-neon-the-ai-agentic-browser-from-opera-G85Gp4o5AxM","summary":"In this video, I go hands-on with @Opera's new agentic browser, Neon — a rethink of how we navigate, query, and automate the web. Neon offers several contexts (Do, Research, Make, and Chat) and some miscellaneous other features to bring Agentic browsing to the Opera suite of browsers. I test how Neon handles flight booking, purchase comparison, research, and web page summaries. If you’re curious…","date":"2026-03-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G85Gp4o5AxM"},{"type":"videos","id":"is-typeboost-the-ai-personal-assistant-youve-been-looking-for-IjAObCPYqNw","title":"Is TypeBoost the AI personal assistant you've been looking for?","url":"/videos/is-typeboost-the-ai-personal-assistant-youve-been-looking-for-IjAObCPYqNw","summary":"In this video, I look at TypeBoost, a cross-platform app that bundles prompts into a system-wide assistant to help you manipulate text and audio with the power of AI. AI-assistants are a busy space. Does TypeBoost deliver and compare with the myriad of other options? I take a look! 00:00 Intro 00:55 What is Typeboost 01:50 Installation and setup 03:13 Testing Typeboost 04:32 Typeboost settings 05…","date":"2026-03-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjAObCPYqNw"},{"type":"videos","id":"keep-the-heroes-out-a-solo-play-through-and-review-YwbzEuAsv7g","title":"Keep the Heroes Out - A solo play through and review","url":"/videos/keep-the-heroes-out-a-solo-play-through-and-review-YwbzEuAsv7g","summary":"Keep the Heroes Out is a cooperative dungeon-defence board game where players control monsters working together to repel waves of pesky adventurers. I don't normally cover video games much, but knowing my love of board games, the designers of this digital version of a popular board game asked me to try it out and see what I thought. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2592340/KeeptheHeroesOut/ 00:…","date":"2026-03-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwbzEuAsv7g"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"050326","title":"Autocomplete the fun in your life","url":"/newsletter/050326","summary":"New hardware, old hardware, making history fun, and more.","date":"2026-03-05","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"newsletters","id":"040326","title":"Autocomplete the fun in your life","url":"/newsletter/040326","summary":"New hardware, old hardware, making history fun, and more.","date":"2026-03-04","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2026/opera-neon","title":"Testing Neon - Opera's agentic browser","url":"/blog/2026/opera-neon","summary":"Opera Neon is a new browser with an AI assistant that interacts with web pages on your behalf, completing tasks that typically require manual clicking, typing, and navigation. In this post, I test the browser with real tasks to see how well it performs.","date":"2026-03-04","tags":["AI","agentic browsers","Opera","Browsers"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"automating-complexity-for-all-with-fabia-q-veit-of-makecom","title":"Automating complexity for all with Fabia Q Veit of make.com","url":"/podcast/automating-complexity-for-all-with-fabia-q-veit-of-makecom","summary":"In this episode I speak with Fabia Q Veit, CEO of make.com, a long established automation platform, that like many others has moved into AI orchestration.","date":"2026-02-27","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/automating-complexity-for-all-with-fabia-q-veit-of-makecom"},{"type":"blog","id":"2026/big-cloud-runs-containers-on-vms","title":"Big Cloud Still Runs Most Containers on VMs; What Does that Mean for the Rest of Us?","url":"/blog/2026/big-cloud-runs-containers-on-vms","summary":"If bare metal provides the best raw performance, why do hyperscalers still insist on running their own infrastructure on virtual machines? The answer reveals what the companies running the world’s most complex infrastructure really think about cloud architecture.","date":"2026-02-27","tags":["Cloud","Bare Metal","Containers"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/big-cloud-runs-containers-on-vms"},{"type":"videos","id":"does-this-tool-have-all-the-audio-and-video-editing-tools-you-need-ZwayH1JVGf0","title":"Does this tool have all the audio and video editing tools you need?","url":"/videos/does-this-tool-have-all-the-audio-and-video-editing-tools-you-need-ZwayH1JVGf0","summary":"In this video, I take a look at @flexclipapp a new service that packs a lot of AI-powered features into an online platform for audio and video generation. I look at text-based editing, video and audio generation, transcription, and other features, and compare them with those in MacWhisper, Adobe Premiere, and Descript. What to try yourself? Use my referral link to help me and the time it took to…","date":"2026-02-25","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwayH1JVGf0"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"190226","title":"Close the gate on your way in","url":"/newsletter/190226","summary":"Sustainable festivals, age restricting the internet, and more.","date":"2026-02-19","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"connecting-all-the-things-with-avery-pennarun-of-tailscale","title":"Connecting all the things with Avery Pennarun of Tailscale","url":"/podcast/connecting-all-the-things-with-avery-pennarun-of-tailscale","summary":"Another great interview for Web Summit 2025, where I speak with Avery Pennarun of Tailscale, a product I use all the time to connect to my remote machines.","date":"2026-02-19","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/connecting-all-the-things-with-avery-pennarun-of-tailscale"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-evolution-of-the-web-with-dana-lawson-of-netlify","title":"The evolution of the web with Dana Lawson of Netlify","url":"/podcast/the-evolution-of-the-web-with-dana-lawson-of-netlify","summary":"In this episode, I speak with Dana Lawson, CTO of Netlify, about the journey of the company so far, where they're heading and how it fits into the company's predictions on the future of the web.","date":"2026-02-05","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/the-evolution-of-the-web-with-dana-lawson-of-netlify"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"040226","title":"Stop the slop!","url":"/newsletter/040226","summary":"More jQuery, open source has had enough, and many sad goodbyes","date":"2026-02-04","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"events","id":"2026-02-01-fosdem-2026","title":"Fosdem 2026","url":"/events","summary":"This year at Fosdem I'm helping organise the Documentation tooling developer room, so drop on by.","date":"2026-02-01","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://fosdem.org/2026"},{"type":"blog","id":"2026/cleaning-cloud-storage-with-cleanmymac","title":"Cleaning Cloud Storage with CleanMyMac","url":"/blog/2026/cleaning-cloud-storage-with-cleanmymac","summary":"CleanMyMac has long been a go-to tool for macOS maintenance, but its recent addition of cloud storage cleanup is worth examining. In this post, I test the new feature to see how well it helps manage cloud storage across services like iCloud and Google Drive, and whether it's a useful addition or just a gimmick.","date":"2026-01-24","tags":["Mac","Mac Utilities","Cloud Storage","Maintenance"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"security-and-password-management-for-all-with-nancy-wang-of-1password","title":"Security and password management for all with Nancy Wang of 1Password","url":"/podcast/security-and-password-management-for-all-with-nancy-wang-of-1password","summary":"In this episode, I speak with Nancy Wang, at the time SVP of engineering at 1Password, now Chief Technology Officer, and we talk about the growth of the company and how they plan to keep serving consumer and business needs.","date":"2026-01-23","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/security-and-password-management-for-all-with-nancy-wang-of-1password"},{"type":"events","id":"2026-01-21-open-everything-2026","title":"Open Everything 2026","url":"/events","summary":"Vale was created as open source language “linter” to help people check their text for grammar and style rules, violations, and style. Especially in technical audiences, Vale has proven popular with several high profile companies and teams using it and a healthy ecosystem of rulesets and tooling.","date":"2026-01-21","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://2026.everythingopen.au/schedule/presentation/22/"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"080126","title":"Adobe Photolost","url":"/newsletter/080126","summary":"What happened to German engineering, where did (some of) the vegans go, and a trip down (lack of) memory lane and early computing.","date":"2026-01-08","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"digital-trust-in-the-age-of-ai-with-keyfactor","title":"Digital trust in the age of AI with Keyfactor","url":"/podcast/digital-trust-in-the-age-of-ai-with-keyfactor","summary":"In this episode, I speak with Ellen from Keyfactor about digital trust in the age of agentic AI and how the company uses their knowledge and history to help organisations, no matter the new challenges they face.","date":"2026-01-07","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/digital-trust-in-the-age-of-ai-with-keyfactor"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-story-of-apples-advanced-technology-group-with-john-buck","title":"The story of Apple's advanced technology group with John Buck","url":"/podcast/the-story-of-apples-advanced-technology-group-with-john-buck","summary":"In this episode, I speak with John Buck about the book \"Inventing the Future\" about Apple's advanced technology group and the myriad technologies they created.","date":"2025-12-18","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/the-story-of-apples-advanced-technology-group-with-john-buck"},{"type":"events","id":"2025-12-10-ai-the-docs","title":"API Days","url":"/events","summary":"Vale was created as open source language “linter” to help people check their text for grammar and style rules, violations, and style. Especially in technical audiences, Vale has proven popular with several high profile companies and teams using it and a healthy ecosystem of rulesets and tooling.","date":"2025-12-10","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://apithedocs.org/ai-docs-paris-2025"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"041225","title":"Talk to JQuery, cos Ruby 'aint listening","url":"/newsletter/041225","summary":"Internet outages, make music through voice, Ruby is dead, and long live… jQuery?","date":"2025-12-04","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"videos","id":"clean-cloud-storage-with-cleanmymac-8kOEYcNuPwU","title":"Clean Cloud storage with CleanMyMac","url":"/videos/clean-cloud-storage-with-cleanmymac-8kOEYcNuPwU","summary":"Discover CleanMyMac's New Cloud Cleaning Feature! ☁️ Running out of iCloud or Google Drive storage? CleanMyMac's latest cloud cleaning feature helps you reclaim valuable cloud space by identifying and removing unnecessary files, duplicate photos, and forgotten data cluttering your accounts. In this video, I walk you through : ✨ How to access the cloud cleaning feature ✨ What types of files it ide…","date":"2025-12-03","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kOEYcNuPwU"},{"type":"videos","id":"ifa-2025-headphones-ai-and-productivity-wqQnM2DacHI","title":"IFA 2025: Headphones, AI, and productivity","url":"/videos/ifa-2025-headphones-ai-and-productivity-wqQnM2DacHI","summary":"IFA in Berlin is typically full of dozens of halls of the latest consumer goods, from toasters to robots. I trawled through the vast Messe to find what interested me, which included: @XPPen table screens @hohemglobal AI powere gimble @PlaudAI Note AI assistant @EarFunOfficial earbuds and headphones @ReSoundUS hearing aids Komutr by Artronic earbuds @CoStar Headphones @beyerdynamic Headphones","date":"2025-12-03","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqQnM2DacHI"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"open-source-in-energy-with-jonas-van-den-bogaard-of-alliander","title":"Open source in Energy with Jonas van den Bogaard of Alliander","url":"/podcast/open-source-in-energy-with-jonas-van-den-bogaard-of-alliander","summary":"I speak with with Jonas van den Bogaard of Alliander about the Linux Foundation's energy community that fosters open source energy generation and distribution","date":"2025-11-27","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/open-source-in-energy-with-jonas-van-den-bogaard-of-alliander"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-european-open-source-academy-with-lydia-pintscher-and-daniel-stenberg","title":"The European Open Source Academy with Lydia Pintscher and Daniel Stenberg","url":"/podcast/the-european-open-source-academy-with-lydia-pintscher-and-daniel-stenberg","summary":"In this episode, I speak with Lydia Pintscher and Daniel Stenberg from the European Open Source Academy and their efforts to highlight excellence in European open source communities.","date":"2025-11-13","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/the-european-open-source-academy-with-lydia-pintscher-and-daniel-stenberg"},{"type":"events","id":"2025-11-11-web-summit-2025","title":"Web Summit","url":"/events","summary":"Chris is back at Europe's pre-eminent event for Startups and keen to meet interesting products, projects and people.","date":"2025-11-11","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://websummit.com"},{"type":"blog","id":"2025/ukraine-weapons","title":"At Ukraine’s Top Tech Event, Faster and Cheaper Rule","url":"/blog/2025/ukraine-weapons","summary":"Four years into a full-scale invasion and a decade after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Ukraine’s tech ecosystem continues to flourish at home and in exile around the world. After celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2024, Ukraine’s premier tech event, IT Arena, returned to the Arena Lviv Stadium for the first time since 2019.","date":"2025-11-10","tags":["Ukraine","Defense tech","Startups","Events"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://spectrum.ieee.org/ukraine-weapons"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"061125","title":"A leaking bubble","url":"/newsletter/061125","summary":"The AI bubble, memory leaks, startups in Syria, and more!","date":"2025-11-06","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"ai-and-tech-writing-with-selvaraaju-murugesan","title":"AI and Tech Writing with Selvaraaju Murugesan","url":"/podcast/ai-and-tech-writing-with-selvaraaju-murugesan","summary":"Selvaraaju Murugesan of Kovai and I speak about the future of AI in tech writing.","date":"2025-10-30","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/ai-and-tech-writing-with-selvaraaju-murugesan"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"fourty-four-esoteric-languages-with-daniel-temkin","title":"Fourty-Four Esoteric languages with Daniel Temkin","url":"/podcast/fourty-four-esoteric-languages-with-daniel-temkin","summary":"I speak with Daniel Temkin about his book, Fourty-Four EsoLangs and about the world of esoteric programming languages. Formed the basis of this article: https://spectrum.ieee.org/esoteric-programming-languages-daniel-temkin","date":"2025-10-16","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/fourty-four-esoteric-languages-with-daniel-temkin"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"091025","title":"RIPrivacy","url":"/newsletter/091025","summary":"RIP your favourite browser, privacy, and music streaming?","date":"2025-10-09","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-width-and-breadth-of-european-tech-events-roundup","title":"The width and breadth of European tech: Events roundup","url":"/podcast/the-width-and-breadth-of-european-tech-events-roundup","summary":"Cate and Chris recap a month of events, including IFA, the Bologna Gathering, LF Energy, IT Arena, and How to Web.","date":"2025-10-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/the-width-and-breadth-of-european-tech-events-roundup"},{"type":"blog","id":"2025/focus-macos-raycast","title":"Increasing focus with macOS Focus Modes and Raycast","url":"/blog/2025/focus-macos-raycast","summary":"Surrounded by digital devices, it's all too easy to use any number of them to access a world of distractions, rather than focus on doing what you need to get done. In a strange, ironic twist, many of the devices and operating systems now offer tools to help block and filter these distractions.","date":"2025-10-05","tags":["Productivity","Focus","Apple","Raycast","macOS"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"events","id":"2025-10-01-how-to-web-2025","title":"How to Web 2025","url":"/events","summary":"Eastern Europe’s technology conference that brings builders and visionaries together.","date":"2025-10-01","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://howtoweb.co/"},{"type":"events","id":"2025-09-26-it-arena-2025","title":"IT Arena 2025","url":"/events","summary":"Chris is back to see what Ukrainian entrepreneurs are working on.","date":"2025-09-26","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://itcluster.lviv.ua/en/events/it-arena-2025/"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"180925","title":"A cup of Tahoe","url":"/newsletter/180925","summary":"New Apple operating systems, the history of essential apps, nine hour Monopoly, and more.","date":"2025-09-18","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"craft-exceptional-api-experiences-with-speakeasy","title":"Craft exceptional API experiences with Speakeasy.","url":"/podcast/craft-exceptional-api-experiences-with-speakeasy","summary":"I speak with Sagar Batchu about Speakeasy, the platform for crafting API experiences from simple definition files, including exposing them as MCP servers.","date":"2025-09-18","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/craft-exceptional-api-experiences-with-speakeasy"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"empowering-open-source-multimedia-innovation-with-gpac","title":"Empowering open source multimedia innovation with GPAC","url":"/podcast/empowering-open-source-multimedia-innovation-with-gpac","summary":"In this episode, I speak with Romain Bouqueau of Motion Spell about GPAC, an open source framework that has revolutionized the way we handle audio-video streaming, transcoding and packaging.","date":"2025-09-11","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/empowering-open-source-multimedia-innovation-with-gpac"},{"type":"events","id":"2025-09-10-lf-energy","title":"Linux Foundation Energy","url":"/events","summary":"Linux Foundation Energy is a conference dedicated to accelerating the energy transition through open source technology and collaboration. The event brings together industry leaders, developers, and stakeholders to discuss and showcase innovative solutions for a sustainable energy future.","date":"2025-09-10","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.linuxfoundation.org/events/lf-energy/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2025/esoteric-programming-languages-daniel-temkin","title":"Esoteric Languages Challenge Coders to Think Way Outside the Box","url":"/blog/2025/esoteric-programming-languages-daniel-temkin","summary":"Have you ever tried programming with a language that uses musical notation? What about a language that never runs programs the same way? What about a language where you write code with photographs? All exist, among many others, in the world of esoteric programming languages, and Daniel Temkin has written a forthcoming book covering 44 of them, some of which exist and are usable to some interpretation of the word “usable.” The book, Forty-Four Esolangs: The Art of Esoteric Code, is out on 23 September, published by MIT Press.","date":"2025-09-04","tags":["Programming","Art"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://spectrum.ieee.org/esoteric-programming-languages-daniel-temkin"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"040925","title":"Fix the web and look good doing it","url":"/newsletter/040925","summary":"The web is drowning in JavaScript and the vibe is, there will be more.","date":"2025-09-04","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"events","id":"2025-09-04-ifa-2025","title":"IFA","url":"/events","summary":"I'm at IFA, the world largest consumer electronics show to see what crazy ideas the world is working on.","date":"2025-09-04","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.ifa-berlin.com"},{"type":"games","id":"dork-borg","title":"Dork Borg - A Mork Borg Hack","url":"/games","summary":"A Mork Borg hack about nerds and dorks locked into a vast city-sized arena, forced to survive through strategy, skill, and cunning.","date":"2025-09-01","tags":[],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"telemetry-and-observability-for-security-with-cribl","title":"Telemetry and observability for Security with Cribl","url":"/podcast/telemetry-and-observability-for-security-with-cribl","summary":"I am joined by Ed of Cribl, an observability and telemetry platform for security tracking and teams.","date":"2025-08-28","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/telemetry-and-observability-for-security-with-cribl"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"210825","title":"Artificial arrogance","url":"/newsletter/210825","summary":"Quieter dog days of summer issue with what else, but tales of woe!","date":"2025-08-21","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"videos","id":"chosen-path-brings-ai-to-storytelling-the-right-way-R4u6xGiqL8M","title":"Chosen Path brings AI to storytelling the right way","url":"/videos/chosen-path-brings-ai-to-storytelling-the-right-way-R4u6xGiqL8M","summary":"Adding AI to interactive storytelling tools is not new, but so far they’ve generally been aimed more at players doing what they want and not giving storytellers the power to create the worlds they want. Chosen Path takes a different approach, allowing you to use AI to draft and then finesse all the elements of a storytelling world. And for players, it offers rich decisions, character selection, r…","date":"2025-08-20","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4u6xGiqL8M"},{"type":"videos","id":"using-the-vale-mcp-server-sbJ51s7ZUC8","title":"Using the Vale MCP server","url":"/videos/using-the-vale-mcp-server-sbJ51s7ZUC8","summary":"Use the Vale MCP server to bring Vale's highly configurable offline language linting into AI tools via MCP. https://github.com/ChrisChinchilla/Vale-MCP https://vale.sh","date":"2025-08-20","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbJ51s7ZUC8"},{"type":"blog","id":"2025/virtualized-containers-vs-bare-metal","title":"Virtualized Containers vs. Bare Metal - The Winner Is…","url":"/blog/2025/virtualized-containers-vs-bare-metal","summary":"The blanket statement that bare metal is superior to containers in VMs for running containerized infrastructure, such as Kubernetes, no longer holds true. Each has pros and cons, so the right choice depends heavily on specific workload requirements and operational context. Bare metal was long touted as the obvious choice for organizations seeking both the best compute performance and even superior security when hosting containers compared to VMs. But this disparity in performance has slowly eroded. For security, it is now hard to make the case for bare metal’s benefits over those of VMs, except for very niche use cases.","date":"2025-08-15","tags":["Cloud","Bare Metal","Containers"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/virtualized-containers-vs-bare-metal"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"30-years-of-mysql-with-peter-zaitsev-of-percona","title":"30 years of MySQL with Peter Zaitsev of Percona","url":"/podcast/30-years-of-mysql-with-peter-zaitsev-of-percona","summary":"In this episode, I speak with Peter Zaitsev of Percona about the history of MySQL, his history with the venerable database, and his history with Percona.","date":"2025-08-14","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/30-years-of-mysql-with-peter-zaitsev-of-percona"},{"type":"blog","id":"2025/30-years-mysql","title":"At 30 years old, can MySQL Revamp Itself for the AI Age?","url":"/blog/2025/30-years-mysql","summary":"On May 23rd 2025, the MySQL database celebrated its 30th anniversary. Look at the usage trends for databases on DB-engine and MySQL and its owner since 2010, Oracle's own product occupy the top two spots. However, the same rankings show that the popularity of most of the top four is declining, especially for MySQL. It has been in slow decline since the era of \"cloud computing\" began, but like many other areas of technology, it is the demands of and for artificial intelligence (AI) that are causing the most pressure. As it celebrates its 30th year, what is the project doing to remain relevant and competitive in the new AI age? With rivals hot on its tail and some of its biggest competitors offering fully compatible, free alternatives, how does it plan to survive for another 30 years?","date":"2025-08-14","tags":["Databases","Mysql","AI"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"emotional-digital-design-with-vadym-grin","title":"Emotional Digital Design with Vadym Grin","url":"/podcast/emotional-digital-design-with-vadym-grin","summary":"I speak with Vadym Grin about his forthcoming book on good, bad, and ugly design for digital products and services.","date":"2025-08-07","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/emotional-digital-design-with-vadym-grin"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"010825","title":"Live Lizard Model","url":"/newsletter/010825","summary":"A packed issue with music, AI, macOS history, work trends in tech, and so much more.","date":"2025-08-01","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2025/grammarly-desktop-alternatives","title":"3 Grammarly desktop alternatives","url":"/blog/2025/grammarly-desktop-alternatives","summary":"Much like \"googling\" has become a generic term for searching, Grammarly has become almost synonymous with a general grammar and style checker, outside of those provided by tools like Word or Google Docs. I have used the pro version for several years, and while its advice is not always correct and inconsistent, it's generally a good aid in giving ideas and pointers for writing. However, every year, that subscription comes up for renewal, and I start thinking about alternatives and features I'd like to have that Grammarly doesn't offer. In this post, I look at the disappointingly few alternatives that exist.","date":"2025-07-28","tags":["Writing","Writing Tools","Style checking"],"categories":["tech","writing"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-state-of-european-tech-media","title":"The state of European tech media","url":"/podcast/the-state-of-european-tech-media","summary":"In this episode, Cate and Chris discuss some of the recent downsizing of European tech media and ask how we got here, what's next, and what does it all mean for the European tech industry.","date":"2025-07-24","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/the-state-of-european-tech-media"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"container-management-and-security-with-platform9-and-root","title":"Container management and security with Platform9 and Root","url":"/podcast/container-management-and-security-with-platform9-and-root","summary":"A packed container of an episode where I speak with Madhura Maskasky of Platform9 about their long-running container management platform and efforts to help people migrate from VMware and John Amaral of root.","date":"2025-07-17","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/containers-with-platform9-and-root"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"170725","title":"Hyper hype","url":"/newsletter/170725","summary":"This issue, I finally embrace a pro-user keyboard shortcut, containerization on macOS gets even better, AI bands storm the streaming charts, and more!","date":"2025-07-17","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"events","id":"2025-07-10-we-are-developers-2025","title":"We are developers congress 2024","url":"/events","summary":"I am back, covering the world's leading event for developers and tech decision-makers.","date":"2025-07-10","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.wearedevelopers.com/world-congress/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"voices-from-fosdem-2025","title":"Voices from FOSDEM 2025","url":"/podcast/voices-from-fosdem-2025","summary":"Fast rewind back to February and I had some fascinating conversations with various projects at FOSDEM in Brussels, including the Rust Foundation, Sysdig about StratoShark, Nextcloud, and Mastodon.","date":"2025-07-03","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/voices-from-fosdem-2025"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"precious-metal-recovery-with-regenx","title":"Precious metal recovery with Regenx","url":"/podcast/precious-metal-recovery-with-regenx","summary":"I spoke with Dom Weatherbee of Regenx to discuss their precious metal recovery technology and how it can benefit the circular economy for new gadgets and devices.","date":"2025-06-19","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/precious-metal-recovery-with-regenx"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"190625","title":"WWWe'll see","url":"/newsletter/190625","summary":"It was WWDC time, so this newsletter is unashamedly packed with Apple related news, but stay with me… It's in-depth!","date":"2025-06-19","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"videos","id":"is-continue-an-open-source-alternative-to-codex-claude-code-and-copilot-iSaIZAycrN0","title":"Is Continue an open source alternative to Codex, Claude Code, and CoPilot?","url":"/videos/is-continue-an-open-source-alternative-to-codex-claude-code-and-copilot-iSaIZAycrN0","summary":"Continue as an open-source extension for VSCode and ⁨@JetBrainsTV IDEs that lets you use numerous remote, local, closed, and open-source models to help you code with AI assistance. I spoke with Nate Sesti about the project and the company's origins, how it works, and how they intend to remain competitive with new default assistants in editors and IDEs, and a new wave of AI-first editors. 00:00 In…","date":"2025-06-16","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSaIZAycrN0"},{"type":"videos","id":"three-grammarly-alternatives-to-try-JTR19h-BL4s","title":"Three Grammarly alternatives to try","url":"/videos/three-grammarly-alternatives-to-try-JTR19h-BL4s","summary":"Tired of @grammarly or just curious if there’s something better out there? In this in-depth review, I explore FOUR powerful writing tools that go head-to-head with Grammarly – @languagetool785 @ProWritingAidTV and @JetBrainsTV Grazie. Whether you’re writing blog posts, emails, papers, or code comments, this video breaks it all down for you! These tools are not just browser extensions! I tested fo…","date":"2025-06-16","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTR19h-BL4s"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"from-berlin-to-bono","title":"From Berlin to Bono","url":"/podcast/from-berlin-to-bono","summary":"In this episode, Cate and Chris discuss a flurry of events over the past months, including Deep Tech Momentum, Gitex, London Tech Week, Super Invest, and more!","date":"2025-06-13","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/from-berlin-to-bono"},{"type":"blog","id":"2025/kubevirt-can-vm-management-with-kubernetes-work","title":"KubeVirt - Can VM Management With Kubernetes Work?","url":"/blog/2025/kubevirt-can-vm-management-with-kubernetes-work","summary":"KubeVirt offers a bridge between virtual machines and containerized environments. As an open-source project, its standout feature is the ability to run VMs and containers side by side. But while the concept is promising, several caveats remain for organizations that need to support critical at-scale VM workloads. The CNCF project also reflects how containers are not going to replace VMs, while the reverse may be true in the long term for many use cases.","date":"2025-06-12","tags":["Platform engineering","Internal developer platforms"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/kubevirt-can-vm-management-with-kubernetes-work"},{"type":"events","id":"2025-06-09-london-tech-week","title":"London Tech Week","url":"/events","summary":"Innovators. Investors. Tech giants. The visionaries applying new tech to solve the world’s biggest problems. Enterprise tech leaders who are creating solutions to make work easier and life more fun.","date":"2025-06-09","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://londontechweek.com"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"050625","title":"Got a podcast in my pocket","url":"/newsletter/050625","summary":"Classic shows and services say goodbye and new approaches try something new.","date":"2025-06-05","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"robust-turnkey-caching-at-massive-scale-with-momento","title":"Robust, Turnkey Caching at Massive Scale with Momento","url":"/podcast/robust-turnkey-caching-at-massive-scale-with-momento","summary":"I speak with Daniela Miao of Momento to discuss her journey from DynamoDB at AWS to creating an alternative caching platform for large scale real time applications.","date":"2025-05-30","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/robust-turnkey-caching-at-massive-scale-with-momento"},{"type":"blog","id":"2025/cross-border-data-processing-with","title":"Cross-Border Data Processing With Privacy Compliance Through Expanso","url":"/blog/2025/cross-border-data-processing-with","summary":"Many organizations work with clients and infrastructure around the world and face significant challenges ensuring they follow privacy regulations as their application data flows across borders. This post looks at how you can use Bacalhau to handle distributed cross-border processing and anonymize data with Microsoft Presidio to help meet some of these requirements.","date":"2025-05-22","tags":["Cloud","Privacy","Data"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.bacalhau.org/p/cross-border-data-processing-with"},{"type":"blog","id":"2025/turning-ai-into-an-api-documentation-assistant","title":"Turning AI Into an API Documentation Assistant","url":"/blog/2025/turning-ai-into-an-api-documentation-assistant","summary":"API documentation is generally predictable, follows common patterns, and is one of the least interesting tasks in a documentation project. It's also a task with a degree of pre-existing automatic generation tools and practices. It sounds like a perfect use case for AI-assistive tools! In this post, I look at general and specialized tools for generating API documentation from code and text-based prompts. I also cover potential problems and pitfalls in generated docs and how to test the generated output to ensure its accuracy.","date":"2025-05-22","tags":["AI","API","Documentation"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://ekline.io/blog/turning-ai-into-an-api-documentation-assistant"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"using-ai-to-assist-breast-cancer-examination-with-jessica-baladad","title":"Using AI to assist breast cancer examination with Jessica Baladad","url":"/podcast/using-ai-to-assist-breast-cancer-examination-with-jessica-baladad","summary":"In this episode, Chris and Cate speak with Jessica Baladad, of feelforyourlife.com, an advocacy platform that utilizes digital and print resources for better breast health.","date":"2025-05-22","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/using-ai-to-assist-breast-cancer-examination-with-jessica-baladad"},{"type":"events","id":"2025-05-20-gitex","title":"Gitex Europe","url":"/events","summary":"The European version of the world’s largest tech fair from Dubai is coming to Berlin in 2025. GITEX Europe is the meeting point for tech innovators, governments, and industry leaders from around the world. Be part of the event as delegations from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia gather in Berlin to accelerate technological transformation and shape a globally connected future.","date":"2025-05-20","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.gitexeurope.com"},{"type":"events","id":"2025-05-20-green-tech","title":"Green Tech Festival","url":"/events","summary":"The GREENTECH FESTIVAL is where sustainability drives business success, innovation meets cutting-edge technology, and changemakers come together to shape a greener future. Connect with industry leaders, discover the latest in green tech, and join a global community dedicated to turning sustainability into business opportunities and transformative change.","date":"2025-05-20","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://greentechfestival.com"},{"type":"blog","id":"2025/agentic-ai-opera-mini","title":"Opera Includes AI Agents in Latest Web Browser","url":"/blog/2025/agentic-ai-opera-mini","summary":"The Opera Web browser, first introduced 30 years ago, has over its long tenure helped to pioneer features that would later become commonplace among all Web browsers—including tabs, sync, and built-in search. Opera was among the first to introduce a built-in AI assistant (Aria) as well as the ability to use locally running models with its developer version. Now, Opera aims to be the first to offer a new kind of AI agent–based browsing, with a feature called Browser Operator.","date":"2025-05-14","tags":["AI","Browsers","Europe"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://spectrum.ieee.org/agentic-ai-opera-mini"},{"type":"events","id":"2025-05-13-deep-tech-momentum","title":"Deep Tech Momentum","url":"/events","summary":"DTM is Europe’s largest, invite-only growth engine for Deep Tech, connecting top-tier startups, investors, and industry leaders to fast track funding and partnerships at scale.","date":"2025-05-13","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.deeptech.build"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"defending-the-internet-with-the-eff-and-delivering-the-internet-with-harness","title":"Defending the internet with the EFF and delivering the Internet with Harness","url":"/podcast/defending-the-internet-with-the-eff-and-delivering-the-internet-with-harness","summary":"Two interviews from Web Summit 2024… Corynne McSherry from the EFF and Nick Durkin from Harness.","date":"2025-05-08","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/defending-the-internet-with-the-eff-and-delivering-the-internet-with-harness"},{"type":"blog","id":"2025/getting-started-with-machine-learning","title":"Getting Started with Machine Learning on Bacalhau","url":"/blog/2025/getting-started-with-machine-learning","summary":"Machine Learning requires vast amounts of resources, and distributing these resources across multiple devices and regions helps with cost, speed, and data sovereignty. Bacalhau is an open-source distributed orchestration framework designed to bring compute resources to the data where and when you want, drastically reducing latency and resource overhead. Instead of moving large datasets around networks, Bacalhau makes it easy to execute jobs close to the data’s location, reducing latency and resource overhead.","date":"2025-05-08","tags":["Cloud","Machine Learning","Data"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.bacalhau.org/p/getting-started-with-machine-learning"},{"type":"videos","id":"8-science-backed-writing-tips-to-help-you-write-more-effectively-zdnro2de41E","title":"8 Science-backed writing tips to help you write more effectively","url":"/videos/8-science-backed-writing-tips-to-help-you-write-more-effectively-zdnro2de41E","summary":"In this video I share 8 tips to help you write more effectively. Mostly for those looking to up their game with academic, scientific, and technical writing, but there's also plenty for creative writers too. Based on this blog post: https://go.chrischinchilla.com/8tips Links to tips: https://go.chrischinchilla.com/tip1 https://go.chrischinchilla.com/tip2 https://go.chrischinchilla.com/tip3 https:/…","date":"2025-05-07","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdnro2de41E"},{"type":"videos","id":"learn-how-to-play-the-drums-sticks-the-kit-and-basic-grooves-P1kJ48lE5o0","title":"Learn how to play the drums: Sticks, the kit, and basic grooves","url":"/videos/learn-how-to-play-the-drums-sticks-the-kit-and-basic-grooves-P1kJ48lE5o0","summary":"Finally! Part 2 of my series on learning how to play the drums, based on teaching I've been doing for the past 18 months or so. If you've never played the drums before and want to learn, this series will help you get playing beats quickly. In this second video, I look at how to hold drumsticks, the characteristics of each drum and cymbal and how to hit them, and look at three basic grooves you've…","date":"2025-05-07","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1kJ48lE5o0"},{"type":"videos","id":"musical-experiments-with-the-fishman-tripleplay-express-0FH_sXijn0w","title":"Musical experiments with the Fishman Tripleplay Express","url":"/videos/musical-experiments-with-the-fishman-tripleplay-express-0FH_sXijn0w","summary":"In my unboxing and review video a few months ago quite a few of you asked for more examples of the music I'm making with the @FishmanMusic Tripleplay Express MIDI guitar pickup. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAT2XtT7v8Y&t=93s Well here you go! 00:00 Intro 00:36 Example with synth 06:23 Example with strings 10:39 Example with Organ 12:35 Outro music midi guitar ableton fishman","date":"2025-05-07","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FH_sXijn0w"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"italian-tech-and-opera","title":"Italian Tech and Opera","url":"/podcast/italian-tech-and-opera","summary":"In this episode, Cate discusses the state of Italian tech, and Chris and Cate discuss the recent Opera Days announcements.","date":"2025-05-02","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/italian-tech-and-opera"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"300425","title":"Disconnect the World","url":"/newsletter/300425","summary":"Lots of interesting content regarding the fallout from tariffs this issue, the death of some infamous legacy technology, and the impact of generative AI on open source projects. In this increasingly divided world I'd love to hear from you on how you keep you're head above water but out of the sand.","date":"2025-04-30","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"videos","id":"the-ultimate-guide-to-getting-started-with-asciidoc-VTjLTso0JjQ","title":"The Ultimate guide to getting started with AsciiDoc","url":"/videos/the-ultimate-guide-to-getting-started-with-asciidoc-VTjLTso0JjQ","summary":"Interested in trying AsciiDoc, that flexible and standardised alternative to markdown for documentation, technical content, presentations, and more? In this video, I cover the syntax you need to know to get you started with the markup language, using a new macOS and iOS editing tool called adoc studio. Looking for a blog version of this content? You can find that and more about adoc studio here:…","date":"2025-04-30","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTjLTso0JjQ"},{"type":"videos","id":"type-faster-with-ai-powered-autocomplete-BY-uddDOsx8","title":"Type faster with AI-powered autocomplete","url":"/videos/type-faster-with-ai-powered-autocomplete-BY-uddDOsx8","summary":"macOS has an inbuilt default autocomplete… Kind of… It's quite sporadic, hard to customize, and is inconsistent. From the same developer as Timing, the awesome macOS time tracking tool, comes Cotypist, a locally running, AI-powered autocomplete tool for macOS that offers context-aware suggestions and learns more about your writing as you use it. It's still in public preview as it pushes towards v…","date":"2025-04-30","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY-uddDOsx8"},{"type":"blog","id":"2025/cloud-orchestration-cost-optimization","title":"Cloud orchestration cost optimization","url":"/blog/2025/cloud-orchestration-cost-optimization","summary":"The move to the cloud promised to save users money and give them insights into their usage and costs. However, the opposite happened. A 2025 report from AAG stated that around 82% of respondents found cloud spending challenging. A cloudzero report from 2024 states that more than 20% of respondents had no clear idea of their cloud costs, with reports for large users sometimes consisting of thousands of rows of hard-to-read usage data.","date":"2025-04-25","tags":["Cloud","Cost Optimization","Cloud Native"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.bacalhau.org/p/cloud-orchestration-cost-optimization"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"build-faster-and-waste-less-time-with-depotdev","title":"Build faster and waste less time with Depot.dev","url":"/podcast/build-faster-and-waste-less-time-with-depotdev","summary":"I speak with Kyle from Depot.dev, which promise to speed up your your Docker image builds and GitHub Actions workflows. Depot easily integrates with your existing CI provider and dev workflows to save hours of build time.","date":"2025-04-24","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/build-faster-and-waste-less-time-with-depotdev"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"automate-any-workload-with-northflank","title":"Automate any workload with Northflank","url":"/podcast/automate-any-workload-with-northflank","summary":"I speak with Will of Northflank, a self-service developer platform for apps, databases, and jobs. Start with one workload, scale to hundreds on compute or GPUs.","date":"2025-04-17","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/automate-any-workload-with-northflank"},{"type":"blog","id":"2025/chinchilla-squeaks-trends-and-tools-for-april-2025","title":"6 new macOS and iOS tools for April 2025","url":"/blog/2025/chinchilla-squeaks-trends-and-tools-for-april-2025","summary":"Welcome to a new newsletter/post/radar/term-yet-to-be-defined from me that I have been planning for ages. I intend it to be something of a round up of tools and services i’ve been trying recently, plus also industry analysis and trends. To begin with it’s just the tools and service round up as the analysis part requires more thought that I haven’t had time for yet.","date":"2025-04-16","tags":["News","Trends","Tools"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"functional-licenses-and-the-open-source-pledge-with-chad-whitacre-of-sentry","title":"Functional licenses and the open source pledge with Chad Whitacre of Sentry","url":"/podcast/functional-licenses-and-the-open-source-pledge-with-chad-whitacre-of-sentry","summary":"In this episode, I speak with Chad Whitacre of Sentry about their functional software license and the open-source pledge.","date":"2025-04-10","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/functional-licenses-and-the-open-source-pledge-with-chad-whiteacre-of-sentry"},{"type":"events","id":"2025-04-10-opera-days","title":"Opera Days","url":"/events","summary":"Opera's regular announcement event of new products and features, and a chance to meet the team behind the browser.","date":"2025-04-09","tags":[],"categories":[]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"onehouse-your-universal-data-lakehouse","title":"Onehouse: Your Universal Data Lakehouse","url":"/podcast/onehouse-your-universal-data-lakehouse","summary":"In this episode, I speak with Vinoth Chandar about Onehouse, a Universal Data Lakehouse and the only data platform instantly accessible from any engine, from BI to AI.","date":"2025-04-01","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/onehouse-your-universal-data-lakehouse"},{"type":"blog","id":"2025/cotypist-ai-autocomplete-macos-review","title":"Cotypist AI-powered autocomplete for macOS review","url":"/blog/2025/cotypist-ai-autocomplete-macos-review","summary":"Autocomplete has existed on macOS in some form for years, and it's always been inconsistent. I tried Cotypist, an AI-powered autocomplete tool that works across almost every app on the Mac, to see if it does a better job.","date":"2025-03-31","tags":["macOS","AI","Productivity","Writing Tools"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2025/distributed-data-warehouse-with-bacalhau","title":"Bacalhau v1.7.0 - Day 5: Distributed Data Warehouse with Bacalhau and DuckDB","url":"/blog/2025/distributed-data-warehouse-with-bacalhau","summary":"With many applications that rely on data warehouses, you need to keep data sources in different locations. This could be due to privacy or regulatory reasons or because you want to keep processing close to the source. However, there are still times when you want to perform analysis on and across these data sources from one location but not move the data. This post uses Bacalhau to orchestrate the distributed processing and DuckDB to provide the SQL storage and querying capacity for some mock sales data based in the EU and the US.","date":"2025-03-28","tags":["DuckDB","Data"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.bacalhau.org/p/cloud-orchestration-cost-optimization"},{"type":"videos","id":"can-andreas-kling-and-ladybird-challenge-the-current-browser-landscape-0kPxxWOpiGg","title":"Can Andreas Kling and Ladybird challenge the current browser landscape?","url":"/videos/can-andreas-kling-and-ladybird-challenge-the-current-browser-landscape-0kPxxWOpiGg","summary":"I speak with @awesomekling about his history building browsers, how the Serenity Operating System helped bring peace to a crazy period of his life, and how now the @LadybirdBrowser aims to bring diversity and standards to the world of web browsers. Formed the basis of this article: https://thenextweb.com/news/serenityos-creator-building-ladybird-browser","date":"2025-03-13","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kPxxWOpiGg"},{"type":"blog","id":"2025/european-cloud-alternative-to-aws-azure-and-gcp","title":"European cloud hosts are offering an escape from AWS, Azure, and GCP","url":"/blog/2025/european-cloud-alternative-to-aws-azure-and-gcp","summary":"When the modern-day internet began emerging in the early 2000s, finding hosting services and resources to run the new wave of dynamic web applications was hard. You needed a database to store application data. These were slow, expensive, and unreliable, regularly bringing applications to a grinding halt when a single instance failed. You needed a server to run interpreted languages like PHP, Python, or Ruby. These were equally expensive, often needed configuration, had security issues, and frequently ran out of memory or CPU resources, again bringing applications to a grinding halt.","date":"2025-03-13","tags":["Cloud","Europe"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://thenextweb.com/news/european-cloud-alternative-to-aws-azure-and-gcp"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"medtech-and-fossbackstage","title":"MedTech and FOSSBackstage","url":"/podcast/medtech-and-fossbackstage","summary":"In this episode Cate talks about the state of European medical tech and Chris talks about the recent FOSSBackstage event that covered topics around open source software that aren't development.","date":"2025-03-13","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/medtech-and-fossbackstage"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"130325","title":"Mr Writeside","url":"/newsletter/130325","summary":"Hopefully some of you are old enough to get the reference. If not, well, you missed pogoing around clubs in the early 2000s to a song, that frankly, most of us got sick of hearing. I digress. Time for some links!","date":"2025-03-13","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2025/mermaid-chart-review","title":"Text-based diagrams taken mainstream with Mermaid Chart","url":"/blog/2025/mermaid-chart-review","summary":"A while ago I made a video on Mermaid, the markdown-style syntax for creating diagrams and charts. It's still one of my more popular videos, and it needs an update. In the meantime, the people at Mermaid Chart, a new commercial company formed by some of Mermaid's original creators, reached out to show me their platform. So in this post, I take a look at what it adds on top of the default Mermaid syntax.","date":"2025-03-13","tags":["Mermaid","Diagrams","Documentation","Tools"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"videos","id":"text-based-diagrams-taken-mainstream-with-mermaid-chart-TYuPExY2-VI","title":"Text-based diagrams taken mainstream with Mermaid Chart","url":"/videos/text-based-diagrams-taken-mainstream-with-mermaid-chart-TYuPExY2-VI","summary":"Mermaid is a popular Javascript-based diagramming tool that renders Markdown-inspired text definitions to create and modify diagrams dynamically. Mermaid enjoys widespread popularity and adoption in toolchains, but the text-based nature has often made it complicated for non-technical people to use. Memrmaid Chart is a company built by some of the maintainers of open-source Mermaid. It aims to bri…","date":"2025-03-13","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYuPExY2-VI"},{"type":"videos","id":"work-with-and-control-your-mac-with-your-voice-uAv39wdf_0k","title":"Work with and control your Mac with your voice","url":"/videos/work-with-and-control-your-mac-with-your-voice-uAv39wdf_0k","summary":"I take a look at @aquavoice , a new Mac Native application that lets you dictate notes, instructions, corrections, and much more. https://withaqua.com It's fast, accurate, and opens new ways of interacting with applications, all with the power of your voice. NOTE: I have intentionally left Adobe Premiere's incorrect transcript so you can see how the results compare to Aqua Voice. This video was s…","date":"2025-03-13","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAv39wdf_0k"},{"type":"events","id":"2025-03-10-foss-backstage","title":"FOSS Backstage","url":"/events","summary":"The conference on everything related to governance, collaboration, legal and economics within the scope of FOSS.","date":"2025-03-10","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://25.foss-backstage.de/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"30-years-of-pragmatic-programming-with-dave-thomas","title":"30 years of pragmatic programming with Dave Thomas","url":"/podcast/30-years-of-pragmatic-programming-with-dave-thomas","summary":"I speak with the infamous Dave Thomas about his programming journey, his book, the pragmatic programmer and his publishing history, and much more!","date":"2025-03-06","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/30-years-of-pragmatic-programming-with-dave-thomas"},{"type":"blog","id":"2025/dagger-and-bazel","title":"Dagger and Bazel","url":"/blog/2025/dagger-and-bazel","summary":"For those of you in the Bazel ecosystem, when you hear \"Dagger\", you probably think of the dependency injection framework for Java, Kotlin, and Android. And for good reason. Dependencies are frequently part of a build process. But there's another Dagger in the wild, a tool and platform for ephemerally building and testing multi-language projects. Sound familiar? In this post, I look at what (the new) Dagger is, how it works, and how it compares to Bazel.","date":"2025-02-24","tags":["Dagger","Bazel","Build tools"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.aspect.build/dagger-and-bazel"},{"type":"videos","id":"audit-application-logging-in-temporal-XOWB3cL0SaM","title":"Audit & Application logging in Temporal","url":"/videos/audit-application-logging-in-temporal-XOWB3cL0SaM","summary":"In this video we explain how to extend Temporal to send application and workflow logs to Parseable. You can use this integration to capture audit logs, debug failure, analyse user behaviour and more. tutorial logging temporal observability security audit opensource","date":"2025-02-23","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOWB3cL0SaM"},{"type":"videos","id":"chris-ward-writing-for-robots-dxbkfbLe8ZY","title":"Chris Ward: Writing for Robots","url":"/videos/chris-ward-writing-for-robots-dxbkfbLe8ZY","summary":"Automated processes and tools have been reading our content for some time, building humongous databases of our carefully crafted words so people can actually find them buried across the vast swathes of the internet. And now, even more automated processes and machines are reading our content, packaging it into large models that make sense to few but bring sense to so many. A lot of you listening a…","date":"2025-02-23","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxbkfbLe8ZY"},{"type":"videos","id":"monitor-privilege-escalations-with-ebpf-xaefPf5cpsM","title":"Monitor privilege escalations with eBPF","url":"/videos/monitor-privilege-escalations-with-ebpf-xaefPf5cpsM","summary":"This video shows you how to use Falco to detect potential risks and then log them to different Parseable log streams depending on their severity using Fluent Bit. Security threat hunting by nature is extensive. You’d ideally want to capture everything you can - with least amount of instrumentation. This is where eBPF shines. You can capture OS level metrics, events with zero instrumentation with…","date":"2025-02-23","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaefPf5cpsM"},{"type":"videos","id":"parseable-as-logging-target-for-minio-audit-debug-logs-jB0_RAMJH6M","title":"Parseable as logging target for MinIO Audit & Debug logs","url":"/videos/parseable-as-logging-target-for-minio-audit-debug-logs-jB0_RAMJH6M","summary":"Learn how to setup Parseable as the audit logging and debug logging target for your production MinIO cluster. Read the related blog post here: https://www.parseable.com/blog/minio-audit-logging Sample code available here: https://github.com/parseablehq/blog-samples/tree/main/minio-audit-logging If you like the project, star Parseable repo here: https://github.com/parseablehq/parseable","date":"2025-02-23","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB0_RAMJH6M"},{"type":"videos","id":"set-up-a-cdc-pipeline-to-capture-and-analyze-real-time-database-changes-with-parseable-JQoBTLPZK3w","title":"Set up a CDC pipeline to capture and analyze real-time database changes with Parseable","url":"/videos/set-up-a-cdc-pipeline-to-capture-and-analyze-real-time-database-changes-with-parseable-JQoBTLPZK3w","summary":"In this tutorial, learn how to set up a CDC (change data capture) pipeline on your machine to capture and analyze real-time database changes with Parseable using Postgres, Debezium, and Redpanda. When data changes are needed, update easily and without errors + store the data on Parseable for deeper insights. In this walkthrough, we use a Docker compose file to configure. ⭐️ us on GitHub! https://…","date":"2025-02-23","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQoBTLPZK3w"},{"type":"videos","id":"visualize-observability-data-with-superset-ay6ofGGN4zA","title":"Visualize Observability data with Superset","url":"/videos/visualize-observability-data-with-superset-ay6ofGGN4zA","summary":"Databases are one of the core components of a business. Well performing, well tuned databases mean faster transactions, better experience and better profits. Most of the popular databases offer several built-in telemetry features. But as companies grow, workloads evolve, it is crucial to centralize all application and infrastructure telemetry into a single location. In this video, we'll show case…","date":"2025-02-23","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay6ofGGN4zA"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"what-is-the-future-of-european-tech","title":"What is the future of European tech?","url":"/podcast/what-is-the-future-of-european-tech","summary":"In this episode Cate and Chris talk about the future of European tech in the wake of the many challenges the block faces from the US, Russia, China, and more.","date":"2025-02-20","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/what-is-the-future-of-european-tech"},{"type":"newsletters","id":"190225","title":"Newsletter 3.0","url":"/newsletter/190225","summary":"It's nearly March 2025 and I am finally back with a Newsletter! Sorry about that 😬. I have been spending some time fixing up the toolchain behind the Newsletter as I intend to do more with it (and some new newsletters too) and wanted to build something that made it easier for me to get content together and keep a copy on my website. Anyway, back now, and with a fair backlog of content.","date":"2025-02-19","tags":[],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"videos","id":"fishman-tripleplay-express-midi-guitar-pickup-review-NAT2XtT7v8Y","title":"Fishman tripleplay Express MIDI guitar pickup review","url":"/videos/fishman-tripleplay-express-midi-guitar-pickup-review-NAT2XtT7v8Y","summary":"Are you a guitar player who wants some flexibility with your playing but always thought MIDI pickups were slow, unreliable, or expensive? I take a look at the Tripleplay Express from @FishmanMusic and find that now, MIDI guitar pickups, with a few caveats, are a quite usable and effective way to may your music more creative. This video features an unboxing, how to attach it to a guitar (a squier…","date":"2025-02-17","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAT2XtT7v8Y"},{"type":"videos","id":"tower-a-graphical-interface-for-git-9fg5cXk2Tr4","title":"Tower: a graphical interface for git","url":"/videos/tower-a-graphical-interface-for-git-9fg5cXk2Tr4","summary":"Like many of you, I use Git regularly. Some of us use the terminal and other tools built into our IDE. Whereas I, and many others, like to use a dedicated git graphical user interface (GUI). For many years, I have used Fork, but the good folks at Tower sent me a license to take their well-known and venerable git GUI for a spin. I take a look at it, how it compares to what I use already, and look…","date":"2025-02-17","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fg5cXk2Tr4"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"infobips-global-startup-program-with-nikola-pavesic","title":"Infobip's global startup program with Nikola Pavesic","url":"/podcast/infobips-global-startup-program-with-nikola-pavesic","summary":"I speak with Nikola Pavesic about Infobip's global startup program, Tribe.","date":"2025-02-13","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/nikola-pavesic"},{"type":"events","id":"2025-02-13-waicf-2025","title":"WAICF 2025","url":"/events","summary":"Europe's leading AI conference is back in Cannes, and Chris is keen to hear about your projects and ideas.","date":"2025-02-13","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.worldaicannes.com"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"copy-editing-game-rules-with-rachel-lapidow","title":"Copy editing game rules with Rachel Lapidow","url":"/podcast/copy-editing-game-rules-with-rachel-lapidow","summary":"I speak with Rachel Lapidow about tips and tricks for copy editing role play and board game rules.","date":"2025-02-06","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/copy-editing-game-rules-with-rachel-lapidow"},{"type":"events","id":"2025-02-01-fosdem-2025","title":"Fosdem 2025","url":"/events","summary":"This year at Fosdem I'm helping organise the Documentation tooling developer room, so drop on by.","date":"2025-02-01","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://fosdem.org/2025"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"edtech-and-open-source-in-europe","title":"EdTech and Open Source in Europe","url":"/podcast/edtech-and-open-source-in-europe","summary":"In this episode, Cate and Chris discuss the state of education tech in Europe, and as the open source community gears up for FOSDEM and side events week, how does open source look in Europe?","date":"2025-01-30","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/edtech-and-open-source-in-europe"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"intelligent-telemetry-data-management-observability-with-apica","title":"Intelligent Telemetry Data Management & Observability with Apica","url":"/podcast/intelligent-telemetry-data-management-observability-with-apica","summary":"I speak with the CPTO of Apica, Ranjan Parthasarathy, about how they bring AI to the big and busy world of telemetry and observability data.","date":"2025-01-27","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/intelligent-telemetry-data-management-observability-with-apica"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"2025-tech-trends","title":"2025 tech trends","url":"/podcast/2025-tech-trends","summary":"A few weeks late but what they hey. In this episode Cate and Chris share their tech trends and predictions for 2025.","date":"2025-01-17","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/2025-tech-trends"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-developer-relations-foundation","title":"The Developer Relations Foundation","url":"/podcast/the-developer-relations-foundation","summary":"I speak with Stacey and Phil of the newly launched Developer Relations Foundation, recognising the work of tech workers with community, marketing, and relations roles.","date":"2025-01-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/the-developer-relations-foundation"},{"type":"blog","id":"2024/orka-desktop-oci-compliant-vm","title":"Using Orka Desktop to run and create OCI-compliant VMs on macOS","url":"/blog/2024/orka-desktop-oci-compliant-vm","summary":"Changes in recent versions of macOS have made running macOS and Linux virtual machines far easier and more performant. Primarily used for testing, a plethora of new applications that take advantage of these features emerged, so when Mac Stadium released a free desktop version of their long-running Okra range of virtualisation tools, one feature in particular stood out to me as something different and potentially useful.","date":"2024-12-30","tags":["Emulation","Virtualization","Containers"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"testcontainers","title":"Testcontainers","url":"/podcast/testcontainers","summary":"In this episode, I speak with Oleg of Testcontainers, an open source library for providing throwaway, lightweight instances of databases, message brokers, web browsers, or just about anything that can run in a Docker container.","date":"2024-12-19","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/testcontainers"},{"type":"books","id":"the-dead-among-us","title":"The dead among us","url":"/books/the-dead-among-us","summary":"A post-post-apocalyptic thriller love story set ten years after a war between the living and the previously dead, where fate throws two couples together and turns their lives upside down.","date":"2024-12-19","tags":[],"categories":["writing"],"externalUrl":"https://ko-fi.com/s/0a76b75a05"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"tech-layoffs-and-what-even-is-tech-anyway","title":"Tech layoffs and what even is tech anyway?","url":"/podcast/tech-layoffs-and-what-even-is-tech-anyway","summary":"In this episode Cate and Chris discuss recent tech layoffs and how to handle them better, plus what even is tech anyway?","date":"2024-12-13","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/tech-layoffs-and-what-even-is-tech-anyway"},{"type":"blog","id":"2024/fishman-tripleplay-express-review","title":"Fishman TriplePlay Express MIDI guitar pickup review","url":"/blog/2024/fishman-tripleplay-express-review","summary":"I used to be a full time guitar player, and more recently I've been experimenting with electronic drums, MIDI devices, and DAWs. Converting an analogue instrument I'm used to playing into MIDI signals has always interested me, so I tried the Fishman TriplePlay Express, a relatively affordable MIDI guitar pickup, to see how it holds up.","date":"2024-12-10","tags":["Music","MIDI","Guitar","Ableton Live"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"videos","id":"create-and-share-macos-virtual-machines-with-orka-desktop-GKzN2ilMf3A","title":"Create and share macOS virtual machines with Orka Desktop","url":"/videos/create-and-share-macos-virtual-machines-with-orka-desktop-GKzN2ilMf3A","summary":"A new macOS virtualisation tool from @macstadium makes creating, running, and sharing macOS virtual machines easier. Even better, it's free! Orka desktop lets you push and pull images from OCI-compatible image registries, fitting right into developer and DevOps workflows. It has a couple of rough edges, but it is a promising entry to the suite of options available for macOS virtualisation. 00:00…","date":"2024-12-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKzN2ilMf3A"},{"type":"videos","id":"creating-interactive-fiction-with-squiffy-aZgnTLugDv4","title":"Creating interactive fiction with Squiffy","url":"/videos/creating-interactive-fiction-with-squiffy-aZgnTLugDv4","summary":"It has a strange name, but a few of you asked me to take a look at this simple but clean online tool for creating HTML-delivered interactive fiction. I'm not sure of its maintenance status, but it's well-suited for creating simpler stories requiring a little programming logic. https://textadventures.co.uk/squiffy 00:00 Intro 01:09 The basics of Squiffy 02:31 Passages and sequences 08:09 Turn coun…","date":"2024-12-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZgnTLugDv4"},{"type":"videos","id":"learn-how-to-play-the-drums-what-is-a-drum-kit-and-its-history-w3CMakz1eDM","title":"Learn how to play the drums: What is a drum kit and its history","url":"/videos/learn-how-to-play-the-drums-what-is-a-drum-kit-and-its-history-w3CMakz1eDM","summary":"Kicking off my series on learning how to play the drums based on teaching I've been doing for the past 18 months or so. If you've never played the drums before and want to learn, this series will help you get playing beats quickly. In this first video, I look at what a drum kit is and a brief history. Thanks to James Harding for helping with filming and Frank for lurking in the background. 00:00…","date":"2024-12-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3CMakz1eDM"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"astro-version-5-with-elian-van-cutsem","title":"Astro version 5 with Elian Van Cutsem","url":"/podcast/astro-version-5-with-elian-van-cutsem","summary":"In this episode, I speak with Elian Van Cutsem about one of my favourite web frameworks and what I use for my own website, Astro. We talk generally about the project, its history, and version 5, which was released this week!","date":"2024-12-05","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/astro-version-5-with-elian-van-cutsem"},{"type":"events","id":"2024-12-03-apidays-paris","title":"API Days","url":"/events","summary":"API documentation is generally predictable, follows common patterns, and is one of the least interesting tasks in a documentation project. It's also a task that has had a degree of automatic generation tools and practices for some time.","date":"2024-12-04","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.apidays.global/paris/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"accessible-quantum-computing-with-horizon","title":"Accessible quantum computing with Horizon","url":"/podcast/accessible-quantum-computing-with-horizon","summary":"I speak with Joe Fitzsimmons of Horizon Quantum, who are attempting make the move from traditional computer programming easier.","date":"2024-11-28","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/accessible-quantum-computing-with-horizon"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"circularity-startups-and-alternatives-to-x","title":"Circularity startups and alternatives to X","url":"/podcast/circularity-startups-and-alternatives-to-x","summary":"In this deep dive episode Cate and Chris dig into circular economy startups and how all the alternatives to Twitter/X/Twix compare.","date":"2024-11-21","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/circularity-startups-and-alternatives-to-x"},{"type":"events","id":"2024-11-21-suaw-symposium","title":"SU&W Community symposium","url":"/events","summary":"A presentation about the Berlin meetup at the SU&W Community symposium in Cambridge.","date":"2024-11-21","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://suawsymposium2024.splashthat.com"},{"type":"blog","id":"2024/7-alternative-text-editors-and-ides-for-macos","title":"7 alternative text editors and IDEs for macOS","url":"/blog/2024/7-alternative-text-editors-and-ides-for-macos","summary":"I've been a mostly happy VSCode user for a few years now. So much so that I even maintain a couple of extensions for it. Before VSCode, I loved Atom. And before that… I can't remember anymore. But every now and then, it's good to look into alternatives and see how they compare, what options you haven't considered they offer, and if they bring anything new to your productivity.","date":"2024-11-15","tags":["IDE","Text Editors","Writing Tools","Programming tool"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-graph-renaissance-with-neo4j","title":"The graph renaissance with neo4j","url":"/podcast/the-graph-renaissance-with-neo4j","summary":"I speak with Michael Hunger of neo4j about the history of graph databases and how they are finding new use cases with the current wave of generative AI tools.","date":"2024-11-14","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/the-graph-renaissance-with-neo4j"},{"type":"events","id":"2024-11-11-web-summit-2024","title":"Web Summit","url":"/events","summary":"Chris is back at Europe's pre-eminent event for Startups and keen to meet interesting products, projects and people.","date":"2024-11-13","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://websummit.com"},{"type":"blog","id":"2024/at-30-years-old-is-ruby-in-a-mid-life-crisis-or-a-renaissance","title":"At 30 years old, is Ruby in a mid-life crisis or a renaissance?","url":"/blog/2024/at-30-years-old-is-ruby-in-a-mid-life-crisis-or-a-renaissance","summary":"Ruby’s creator, Yukihiro Matsumoto (Matz), released the first public version of the programming language in December 1995, making Ruby just shy of its 30th birthday. It spread across Japanese-language Usenet newsgroups, a popular way of exchanging conversation and media before the World Wide Web, and then reached broader communities throughout the late 1990s.","date":"2024-11-11","tags":["Ruby","Programming"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://thenextweb.com/news/at-30-years-old-is-ruby-in-a-mid-life-crisis-or-a-renaissance"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"government-bailouts-in-tech-and-tech-influence-in-government","title":"Government bailouts in tech and tech influence in government","url":"/podcast/government-bailouts-in-tech-and-tech-influence-in-government","summary":"In this topic deep dive, Cate and I discuss government bailouts for tech companies, EU investment in tech companies, and the possible manipulation of US politics by tech companies and cybercrime.","date":"2024-11-05","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/government-bailouts-in-tech-and-tech-influence-in-government"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"creating-an-open-source-ai-definition","title":"Creating an Open Source AI definition","url":"/podcast/creating-an-open-source-ai-definition","summary":"I speak with Stephen Hood of Mozilla about their joint efforts with the Open Source Initiative to create a definition of open source AI.","date":"2024-10-31","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/creating-an-open-source-ai-definition"},{"type":"videos","id":"alternative-text-editors-and-ides-for-macos-R1L8CbttZgc","title":"Alternative Text Editors and IDEs for macOS","url":"/videos/alternative-text-editors-and-ides-for-macos-R1L8CbttZgc","summary":"We all love our text editor or IDE of choice, but sometimes it's too easy to get stuck in a rut using the same one because it's comfortable, and it might be worth challenging yourself with something new. In this video, I look at seven alternatives, old and new, macOS-native and cross-platform, feature-packed and more focused, to see if there's anything I might consider to wake myself from my VSCo…","date":"2024-10-25","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1L8CbttZgc"},{"type":"videos","id":"another-ifa-ifa2024-short-a-bar-in-a-box-making-the-perfect-cocktail-compactly-9U_IltM-SCw","title":"Another #ifa #ifa2024 #short A bar  in a box making the perfect cocktail compactly","url":"/videos/another-ifa-ifa2024-short-a-bar-in-a-box-making-the-perfect-cocktail-compactly-9U_IltM-SCw","summary":"","date":"2024-10-25","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U_IltM-SCw"},{"type":"videos","id":"creating-device-presets-in-ableton-live-12-shorts-S8pCMDZLeFg","title":"Creating Device presets In Ableton Live 12 #shorts","url":"/videos/creating-device-presets-in-ableton-live-12-shorts-S8pCMDZLeFg","summary":"abletonlive quicktip on creating device presets so you don't have to recreate the same settings every time you use a plugin or other device. shorts","date":"2024-10-25","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8pCMDZLeFg"},{"type":"videos","id":"creating-track-groups-in-ableton-live-12-shorts-GB6qLGbA5ZM","title":"Creating Track groups In Ableton Live 12 #shorts","url":"/videos/creating-track-groups-in-ableton-live-12-shorts-GB6qLGbA5ZM","summary":"@Ableton live quicktip on creating groups of tracks, so you can apply devices, volume, and other aspects to multiple tracks at once.. shorts abletonlive abletontips","date":"2024-10-25","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB6qLGbA5ZM"},{"type":"videos","id":"developer-looking-for-help-writing-documentation-QgTb0WOko78","title":"Developer looking for help writing documentation?","url":"/videos/developer-looking-for-help-writing-documentation-QgTb0WOko78","summary":"My first book of the year! \"Technical writing for software developers\" on Packt publishing. https://bit.ly/3Xn3px8 books writing techwriting development booktube","date":"2024-10-25","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgTb0WOko78"},{"type":"videos","id":"is-it-a-dog-is-it-a-horse-its-another-dancing-robot-from-ifa-ifa2024-from-tecno-robot-x53xM7SA2Iw","title":"Is it a dog? Is it a horse? It's another dancing #robot from #IFa #ifa2024  from #tecno #robot","url":"/videos/is-it-a-dog-is-it-a-horse-its-another-dancing-robot-from-ifa-ifa2024-from-tecno-robot-x53xM7SA2Iw","summary":"","date":"2024-10-25","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x53xM7SA2Iw"},{"type":"videos","id":"jetbrains-ai-assistant-how-does-it-compare-bFq1GgCUhiU","title":"JetBrains AI assistant . How does it compare?","url":"/videos/jetbrains-ai-assistant-how-does-it-compare-bFq1GgCUhiU","summary":"JetBrains is well known for its IntelliJ family of IDEs and has always bundled smart assistive tools. Now, like other vendors and tools, the company has added a privacy-first AI assistant to its full suite. How does it compare to competing tools like Copilot? Does quality suffer for privacy and data sovereignty? I'll take a look! Thanks to JetBrains for providing me with a free premium month. htt…","date":"2024-10-25","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFq1GgCUhiU"},{"type":"videos","id":"one-final-ifa-ifa2024-video-is-this-curious-lg-robot-that-tells-you-stories-cK1A-DCaPzc","title":"One final #ifa #ifa2024 video is this curious #lg #robot that tells you stories","url":"/videos/one-final-ifa-ifa2024-video-is-this-curious-lg-robot-that-tells-you-stories-cK1A-DCaPzc","summary":"","date":"2024-10-25","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK1A-DCaPzc"},{"type":"videos","id":"pocketdrum-plus-2-straight-from-ifa-a-dream-for-every-apartment-drummer--68sU1OlTXb4","title":"PocketDrum Plus 2 straight from #ifa a dream for every apartment #drummer ?","url":"/videos/pocketdrum-plus-2-straight-from-ifa-a-dream-for-every-apartment-drummer--68sU1OlTXb4","summary":"My highlight of IFA 2024 in Berlin was the PocketDrum Plus 2 that has audio and MIDI out for silent air drumming… https://www.aeroband.net/products/pocketdrum2-plus","date":"2024-10-25","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68sU1OlTXb4"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"workbrew-turning-homebrew-into-a-business-with-mike-mcquaid","title":"Workbrew, turning Homebrew into a business with Mike McQuaid","url":"/podcast/workbrew-turning-homebrew-into-a-business-with-mike-mcquaid","summary":"I speak with Mike McQuaid, long-term maintainer of Homebrew, the macOS package manager, about Workbrew, a new commercial version of Homebrew that brings extra security and governance features to Homebrew.","date":"2024-10-17","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/workbrew-turning-homebrew-into-a-business-with-mike-mcquaid"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"tech-events","title":"Tech events","url":"/podcast/tech-events","summary":"In this episode, Cate and Chris dive into tech events. The different types, how they work, how they feel, and how they've changed the past few years.","date":"2024-10-10","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/tech-events"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"ai-powered-code-reuse-with-crowdbotics","title":"AI-powered code reuse with Crowdbotics","url":"/podcast/ai-powered-code-reuse-with-crowdbotics","summary":"Corey from Crowdbotics joins me in the Tech Lounge to talk about their six year journey in creating an AI-powered code reuse platform, long before others jumped on the bandwagon.","date":"2024-10-03","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"books","id":"ableton-12-cookbook","title":"The Ableton 12 cookbook (Cancelled)","url":"/books/ableton-12-cookbook","summary":"A forthcoming book on Ableton 12. Sadly, the project was cancelled.","date":"2024-10-01","tags":[],"categories":["music","writing"]},{"type":"events","id":"2024-09-26-it-arena-2024","title":"IT Arena 2024","url":"/events","summary":"Chris is back to see what Ukrainian entrepreneurs are working on.","date":"2024-09-26","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://itcluster.lviv.ua/en/events/it-arena-2024/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"wasm-at-kubecon-eu-2024","title":"WASM at KubeCon EU 2024","url":"/podcast/wasm-at-kubecon-eu-2024","summary":"This episode is all about WASM at KubeCon EU 2024 way back in March. I speak with WASMEdge and Cosmonic to find out what they bring and their thoughts on WASM.","date":"2024-09-20","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/wasm-at-kubecon-eu-2024"},{"type":"events","id":"2024-09-15-shift-24","title":"Shift","url":"/events","summary":"Infobip Shift returns to Croatia, bringing together the global tech community once more. Join us as we connect, innovate, and explore the future of code together. Developers, software engineers, founders, disruptors, coding pros, enthusiasts, and everyone in between – this one's for you.","date":"2024-09-15","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://shift.infobip.com"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"alternative-meats-and-what-actually-is-ai","title":"Alternative meats and what actually is AI?","url":"/podcast/alternative-meats-and-what-actually-is-ai","summary":"It's a discussion episode! And this time, Cate Lawrence from Tech.eu joins me to talk about alternative meats and proteins, and I ask in a sea of jargon and hype, what really is artificial intelligence?","date":"2024-09-12","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/alternative-meats-and-what-actually-is-ai"},{"type":"events","id":"2024-09-11-euruko-24","title":"Euruko","url":"/events","summary":"I return to the Balkans to cover Europe's largest Ruby event.","date":"2024-09-11","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://2024.euruko.org"},{"type":"events","id":"2024-09-11-civo-navigate","title":"CIVO Navigate","url":"/events","summary":"Civo Navigate Europe 2024 is a tech event packed with talks and workshops focused on navigating and succeeding within the cloud native landscape.","date":"2024-09-10","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.civo.com/navigate/europe"},{"type":"blog","id":"2024/immutable-operating-systems-future","title":"Are the operating systems of the future immutable?","url":"/blog/2024/immutable-operating-systems-future","summary":"Developers talk a lot about “immutability.” Outside the technical world, it usually means something negative: unmoving, inflexible, and entrenched. However, in the technical field, these features become an advantage and mean that a system is reliable and reproducible.","date":"2024-09-06","tags":["Operating Systems","Immutable","NixOS"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://thenextweb.com/news/immutable-operating-systems-future"},{"type":"events","id":"2024-09-06-ifa-2024","title":"IFA","url":"/events","summary":"I'm at IFA, the world largest consumer electronics show to see what crazy ideas the world is working on.","date":"2024-09-06","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.ifa-berlin.com"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"sustainable-infrastructure-and-ai-powered-ides","title":"Sustainable infrastructure and AI powered IDEs","url":"/podcast/sustainable-infrastructure-and-ai-powered-ides","summary":"In the tech lounge this episode, I have Leonard Pahlke talking about bringing sustainability to infrastructure and the work of the CNCF sustainability TAG and Dedy Kredo from Codium AI talking about their AI-powered IDE and text editor extension.","date":"2024-09-05","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/sustainable-infrastructure-and-ai-powered-ides"},{"type":"videos","id":"6-tools-for-running-windows-games-on-macos-RsnSfp5JTKg","title":"6 tools for running Windows games on macOS","url":"/videos/6-tools-for-running-windows-games-on-macos-RsnSfp5JTKg","summary":"I've been using @parallels Desktop for a while, but with @vmware making Fusion pro free for personal use, I thought it was time to look at alternatives for running windows linux and other operating systems on macos In this video, I look at Parallels Desktop, VMWare Fusion, UTM, QEMU, Crossover from @Codeweavers-Ltd , Wine, and Whisky. This video took a lot of experimentation and time with some of…","date":"2024-08-30","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsnSfp5JTKg"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"programming-update","title":"Programming update","url":"/podcast/programming-update","summary":"No real episode, but rather a small update on some changes coming to the show.","date":"2024-08-08","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2024/6-tools-running-windows-linux-macos","title":"6 tools for running Windows & Linux on macOS","url":"/blog/2024/6-tools-running-windows-linux-macos","summary":"I've been happily using [Parallels Desktop][1] for my Windows and Linux virtual machine needs for about the past three years. It's performant, supports a reasonable variety of guest operating systems, and, with some tweaks, can also run headless developer machines and Kubernetes clusters.","date":"2024-08-07","tags":["Emulation","Virtualization","Containers"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"1st-august-classic-crunch-crawl","title":"1st August: Classic crunch crawl","url":"/podcast/1st-august-classic-crunch-crawl","summary":"My news episode featuring AI crawlers roaming wild, classic MacOS tools, Tech Crunch loses its way, and more!","date":"2024-08-01","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"games","id":"penance-of-charity","title":"Penance of Charity - A Summer Solstice Adventure","url":"/games","summary":"A summer solstice adventure where pilgrims travel to ten temples seeking the blessings of the gods, while locals exploit their generosity.","date":"2024-07-29","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://www.dmsguild.com/product/484496/Penance-of-Charity-A-Summer-Solstice-Adventure?src=newest_in_dmg&filters=45469"},{"type":"blog","id":"2024/homebrew","title":"After 15 years, the maintainer of Homebrew plans to make a living","url":"/blog/2024/homebrew","summary":"Installing and updating applications and other dependencies on a computer really should be a solved problem by now. Yet almost every major desktop operating system provides multiple options, with no real clear answer to “which is best.”","date":"2024-07-26","tags":["macOS","Homebrew"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://thenextweb.com/news/homebrew-maintainer-make-a-living-15-weeks"},{"type":"blog","id":"2024/jetbrains-writerside","title":"JetBrains' Writerside - A Tech Writing IDE","url":"/blog/2024/jetbrains-writerside","summary":"JetBrains is known for its variety of developer-focused IDEs, all based around its IntelliJ core. In recent years, they developed their own writer-focussed plugin, Grazie, for handling grammar and style guidance, Writerside for a wide variety of tech writing tasks, and more recently, an AI assistant for writers. The company has also helped with community-maintained plugins such as those for markdown and asciidoc. But then, a year or so ago, JetBrains announced that Writerside would become a fully-fledged tech writing IDE. I've been using it on and off for some time, and in this post, I take a look at some of its features, recent updates, and related plugins.","date":"2024-07-25","tags":["IDE","JetBrains","Technical Writing","AI"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"kubecon-docker-build-cloud-and-aiven","title":"Kubecon: Docker Build Cloud and Aiven","url":"/podcast/kubecon-docker-build-cloud-and-aiven","summary":"More interviews from KubeCon Paris. This time, Matt Wilson, a colleague from Docker Build Cloud, and Sebastian Blanc of Aiven.","date":"2024-07-25","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"music","id":"the-house-of-bernarda-alba","title":"The house of Bernarda Alba","url":"/music/the-house-of-bernarda-alba","summary":"Soundtrack for the performance of \"The House of Bernarda Alba\"","date":"2024-07-20","tags":[],"categories":["music"],"externalUrl":"https://aeonv.bandcamp.com/album/the-house-of-bernarda-alba"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"18th-july-a-verbiage-filled-delve","title":"18th July: A verbiage-filled delve","url":"/podcast/18th-july-a-verbiage-filled-delve","summary":"Cracking open LLMs, 45 years of the Walkman, How the UK's new Government plans to invest in tech, and more!","date":"2024-07-18","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2024-07-17-we-are-developers-2024","title":"We are developers congress 2024","url":"/events","summary":"I am back, covering the world's leading event for developers and tech decision-makers.","date":"2024-07-17","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.wearedevelopers.com/world-congress/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"kubecon-2-civo-and-the-open-infrastructure-foundation","title":"Kubecon 2: CIVO and the Open infrastructure foundation","url":"/podcast/kubecon-2-civo-and-the-open-infrastructure-foundation","summary":"In this episode, I speak with Dinesh from CIVO, a European cloud-native hosting company, and Thierry of the Open Infrastructure Foundation, whose projects typically power data centres. This episode is powered by magic mind, a little green bottle of goodness that helps your focus and energy. Head over to magicmind.com/chinchillasqueaks and use the code \"CHINCHILLASQUEAKS20\" for 48% of subscription…","date":"2024-07-12","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"games","id":"aipokalypse","title":"A.I.Pokalypse","url":"/games","summary":"An auto-battle card game where you build your engine and fight for survival after the A.I.Pokalypse - raised €54,000 on Kickstarter in 2024.","date":"2024-07-10","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aipokalypse/aipokalypse-the-expert-auto-battle-card-game"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"5th-july-sim-life-ai-vs-music-and-after-cloud-comes","title":"5th July: Sim Life, AI vs Music, and after cloud comes?","url":"/podcast/5th-july-sim-life-ai-vs-music-and-after-cloud-comes","summary":"There is a good dose of retro computing, tech trends, and edge technologies in this issue, so let's dive in. I am literally powered by Magic Mind right now. It's helping me focus and keep going in some tough weeks of poor sleep and too much to do. If you also need that helping hand, head over to magicmind.com/chinchillasqueaks and use the code \"CHINCHILLASQUEAKS20\" for 48% of subscriptions or 20%…","date":"2024-07-05","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"voices-from-uk-tech-lorna-mitchel-and-amanda-brock","title":"Voices from UK tech: Lorna Mitchel and Amanda Brock","url":"/podcast/voices-from-uk-tech-lorna-mitchel-and-amanda-brock","summary":"Two of my interviews from the State of Open Con in London back in February. Featuring Lorna Mitchell, VP of developer experience at Redocly and Amanda Brock, CEO of open UK.","date":"2024-06-27","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2024-06-24-tekom-ireland","title":"Tekom Ireland","url":"/events","summary":"Automated processes and tools have been reading our content for some time, building humongous databases of our carefully crafted words so people can actually find them buried across the vast swathes of the internet.","date":"2024-06-24","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://lnkd.in/eFETEPp2"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"20th-june-wwdc-streaming-vs-music-and-chinese-keyboards","title":"20th June: WWDC, Streaming vs Music, and Chinese keyboards","url":"/podcast/20th-june-wwdc-streaming-vs-music-and-chinese-keyboards","summary":"I am back from Melbourne with a good dose of developer news, AI, and computing history","date":"2024-06-20","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"make-synthetic-data-a-reality-with-datacebo","title":"Make Synthetic Data a reality with Datacebo","url":"/podcast/make-synthetic-data-a-reality-with-datacebo","summary":"I spoke with Kalyan of Datacebo, a company that creates open-source and enterprise tools for generating synthetic data for testing, load testing, and more.","date":"2024-06-13","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2024-06-04-toa-2024","title":"Tech Open Air 2024","url":"/events","summary":"At TOA, tech founders, investors & industry leaders meet to accelerate their businesses and careers. Join us on our mission to help people and organizations become future-proof.","date":"2024-06-04","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://event.toa.media"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"enterprise-level-knowledge-bases-with-saravana-kumar-of-document-360","title":"Enterprise-level knowledge bases with Saravana Kumar of Document 360","url":"/podcast/enterprise-level-knowledge-bases-with-saravana-kumar-of-document-360","summary":"I speak with Saravana Kumar of Document 360 about their enterprise-level solution for documentation and knowledge management and what AI could mean for the industry.","date":"2024-05-30","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2024/my-audio-video-setup","title":"My Audio And Video Setup","url":"/blog/2024/my-audio-video-setup","summary":"A few years ago I detailed the hardware and software I use for producing my podcasts and videos. Since then, I have changed a lot, so it seemed a good time to revisit.","date":"2024-05-29","tags":["Podcasting","Video","Audio","Editing"],"categories":["tech","music"]},{"type":"events","id":"2024-05-republica-2024","title":"re\\:\\publica 2024","url":"/events","summary":"republica GmbH's re:publica Berlin is Europes largest digital society festival. re:publica participants represent a cross-section of (digital) society, which include professionals from economics, politics, business, hacker culture, NGOs, media, and marketing, as well as bloggers, activists, artists, and social media experts.","date":"2024-05-27","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://re-publica.com/en"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"25th-may-batten-down-the-hatches-ai-ishere","title":"25th May: Batten down the hatches, AI is here","url":"/podcast/25th-may-batten-down-the-hatches-ai-ishere","summary":"In this episode, I look at the history of Dell, Apple, and Nokia, as well as current efforts to stop the AI machine from gobbling all and sundry.","date":"2024-05-24","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2024-05-22-latitude-59-2024","title":"Latitude 59 2024","url":"/events","summary":"Latitude59 is the flagship startup and tech event of the world’s first digital society.","date":"2024-05-22","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://latitude59.ee"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"kubecon-eu-2024-humanitec-dagger-scalr","title":"KubeCon EU 2024: Humanitec, Dagger, Scalr","url":"/podcast/kubecon-eu-2024-humanitec-dagger-scalr","summary":"In the first round-up of interviews from KubeCon EU 2024 in Paris, I focus on developer platform-related tools and productivity. The episode features interviews with Humanitec, Scalr, and Dagger.","date":"2024-05-16","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"10th-may-music-is-hard-for-humans-and-ai","title":"10th May: Music is hard for humans and AI","url":"/podcast/10th-may-music-is-hard-for-humans-and-ai","summary":"I cover AI's limitations in understanding sheet music, musicians facing financial challenges while touring, and share updates on my recent Medium post and YouTube interview with Sysdig.","date":"2024-05-10","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2024/eu-cloud-native","title":"As Kubernetes turns 10, experts predict the future of cloud-native","url":"/blog/2024/eu-cloud-native","summary":"In June, Kubernetes celebrates its tenth birthday. The system is now so widely used by hundreds of thousands of companies worldwide to scale their applications to meet demand it’s hard even to remember a time before it existed. But there was a time when other options were available, and I even remember using some of them.","date":"2024-05-02","tags":["Kubernetes","KubeCon","Cloud Native"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://thenextweb.com/news/the-future-of-cloud-native-kubernetes"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"generative-infrastructure-as-code-with-appcd","title":"Generative Infrastructure as code with AppCD","url":"/podcast/generative-infrastructure-as-code-with-appcd","summary":"I speak with Asif Awan of AppCD about their generative AI tool that creates the infrastructure as code configuration you need based on application code.","date":"2024-05-02","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"news-25th-april-a-vice-like-grip","title":"News 25th April: A vice-like grip","url":"/podcast/news-25th-april-a-vice-like-grip","summary":"In this episode, I discuss how Mcdonald's inspires good management, alcohol and other vices, AI, and more!","date":"2024-04-25","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2024/writing-for-robots","title":"Writing for robots – How to optimise your writing for LLMs","url":"/blog/2024/writing-for-robots","summary":"Who do you think reads most of your technical writing? Customers? Potential customers?","date":"2024-04-23","tags":["AI","Llm","Writing"],"categories":["tech","writing"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"real-time-analytics-at-cloud-scale-with-rockset","title":"Real-time analytics at cloud scale with Rockset","url":"/podcast/real-time-analytics-at-cloud-scale-with-rockset","summary":"I have Venkat from Rockset back to discuss their search and analytics database built for the cloud, with real-time indexing and full-featured SQL on JSON, time series, geospatial and vector data.","date":"2024-04-17","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2024-04-16-everything-open","title":"Everything Open","url":"/events","summary":"\"The internet\" has the same carbon impact as the airline industry. However, this number is probably much higher as it doesn't include a wide gamut of other impacts of application development and implementation, such as phone apps, desktop applications, or even the impact of websites and apps on users' own devices.","date":"2024-04-16","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://2024.everythingopen.au/schedule/presentation/22/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"news-12th-april-coding-in-the-80s-flaws-in-the-open-and-the-floppy-jonathan","title":"News 12th April: Coding in the 80s, flaws in the open, and the floppy Jonathan","url":"/podcast/news-12th-april-coding-in-the-80s-flaws-in-the-open-and-the-floppy-jonathan","summary":"","date":"2024-04-11","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2024/open-source-europe","title":"The state of open source in Europe","url":"/blog/2024/open-source-europe","summary":"Open source is at a crossroads. For the past few years, venture capital has directly or indirectly paid for many of the contributors and much of the infrastructure it needed to keep going.","date":"2024-04-11","tags":["Open Source","Europe","FOSDEM"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://thenextweb.com/news/state-open-source-europe"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"software-supply-chain-security-with-socketdev","title":"Software supply chain security with Socket.dev","url":"/podcast/software-supply-chain-security-with-socketdev","summary":"I speak with Feross Aboukhadijeh of Socket.dev about their smarter and more considered solution for securing software supply chains.","date":"2024-04-04","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2024-04-03-ai-the-docs","title":"AI the docs","url":"/events","summary":"Automated processes and tools have been reading our content for some time, building humongous databases of our carefully crafted words so people can actually find them buried across the vast swathes of the internet.","date":"2024-04-03","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://apithedocs.org/ai-2024/chris-chinchilla"},{"type":"books","id":"developers-guide-to-technical-writing","title":"Technical Writing for Software Developers","url":"/books/developers-guide-to-technical-writing","summary":"A practical guide to documentation for software developers, covering essential grammar, language tips, and the fundamental types and styles of technical writing.","date":"2024-03-29","tags":[],"categories":["tech","writing"],"externalUrl":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYL9SWZ5"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"news-28th-march-what-is-open-ai-and-long-live-the-twiggy-drive","title":"News 28th March: What is open AI and long live the Twiggy drive!","url":"/podcast/news-28th-march-what-is-open-ai-and-long-live-the-twiggy-drive","summary":"A light news show where I cover the growing need to label what \"open\" AI really is, local LLMS reprised, and long live the Twiggy drive!","date":"2024-03-28","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"games","id":"and-then-there-were-none","title":"Fairytale Fables of the Feywild","url":"/games","summary":"An adventure into the Feywild where classic fairytales come to life, featuring Puss in Boots, Little Miss Muffet, Goldilocks, and more.","date":"2024-03-23","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://www.dmsguild.com/product/473859/Fairytale-Fables-of-the-Feywild"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"generative-ai-for-3d-asset-creation-and-market-research-with-atlas-and-gathers","title":"Generative AI for 3D asset creation and market research with Atlas and Gathers","url":"/podcast/generative-ai-for-3d-asset-creation-and-market-research-with-atlas-and-gathers","summary":"In this episode, I speak with Atlas about their AI tool for generating 3D assets for games and architectural use and with Gathers about their AI tool for market research and competitive analysis. Generative AI tools all the way down! https://www.atlasai.co/ https://gathers.ai/","date":"2024-03-21","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2024-03-19-kubecon-2024","title":"KubeCon and CloudNativeCon 2024","url":"/events","summary":"I report on the latest updates and best practices for Kubernetes and Cloud-native computing.","date":"2024-03-19","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://events.linuxfoundation.org/kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"news-for-14th-march-what-lurks-in-llms-ableton-12-and-star-trek-musical-instruments","title":"News for 14th March: What lurks in LLMs, Ableton 12, and Star Trek musical instruments","url":"/podcast/news-for-14th-march-what-lurks-in-llms-ableton-12-and-star-trek-musical-instruments","summary":"I am back with my fortnightly round-up of interesting links and resources, AI (of course), music, and SciFi this issue.","date":"2024-03-14","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"stories","id":"a-lack-of-adventure","title":"A Lack of adventure","url":"/stories/a-lack-of-adventure","summary":"A swaggering adventurer named Morag the Mighty is indignantly turned away at a city gate by thoroughly unimpressed guards.","date":"2024-03-12","tags":["Fiction","fantasy","Humor","adventure"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"small-talk","title":"Small talk","url":"/stories/small-talk","summary":"An unreliable narrator tells a story about a chance encounter with a stranger.","date":"2024-03-12","tags":["Fiction","speculative","Humor","satire"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"the-plan-to-ban","title":"The plan to ban","url":"/stories/the-plan-to-ban","summary":"A weary government clerk works through a long list of furious, blustering wizards to inform them that magic is being banned.","date":"2024-03-12","tags":["Fiction","fantasy","Humor","satire"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"generative-ai-meets-observability-with-flip-ai","title":"Generative AI meets Observability with Flip AI","url":"/podcast/generative-ai-meets-observability-with-flip-ai","summary":"In this episode I speak with Corey Harrison of Flip.ai, one of a handful of new companies bringing generative AI to the DevOps space. In Flip.ai's case, this is leveraging to bring intelligence and flexibility to observability data.","date":"2024-03-07","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2024-03-04-foss-backstage","title":"Foss backstage","url":"/events","summary":"You've spent hours and sleepless nights coding a project that promises to solve someone's problems bigger, better, and faster. But no one understands it or how to use it. This workshop aims to help you communicate your project's intentions more clearly.","date":"2024-03-04","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/X7PCWD/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"internet-and-cultural-preservation-with-fastly-and-bevart","title":"Internet and cultural preservation with Fastly and BevArt","url":"/podcast/internet-and-cultural-preservation-with-fastly-and-bevart","summary":"In this episode I speak with Simon Wistow of Fastly about their work to keep the internet running and Christian Nielsen of BevArt who aim to keep cultural artefacts in museums and galleries lasting for as long as possible.","date":"2024-02-21","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2024/tracking-with-wordcounter","title":"Tracking the words you write with WordCounter","url":"/blog/2024/tracking-with-wordcounter","summary":"How many words do you write every day? Think about it. Every time you send an email, post in Slack, or comment on an Instagram post. Oh, you thought I would mention those wondrous words you pour into your latest novel, blog post, marketing copy, or script?","date":"2024-02-19","tags":["Productivity","Writing"],"categories":["tech","writing"]},{"type":"books","id":"css-in-depth","title":"CSS in Depth, 2nd Edition","url":"/books/css-in-depth","summary":"A revised edition covering advanced CSS techniques, patterns, layouts, and methods for building beautiful, modern front ends beyond the basics.","date":"2024-02-18","tags":[],"categories":["tech","writing"],"externalUrl":"https://www.manning.com/books/css-in-depth-second-edition"},{"type":"books","id":"small-gregarious-fiction-volume-2","title":"Small gregarious fiction volume 2","url":"/books/small-gregarious-fiction-volume-2","summary":"A second collection of flash fiction full of short tales set in strange, slightly recognisable worlds, with characters undertaking the unexpected.","date":"2024-02-15","tags":[],"categories":["writing"],"externalUrl":"https://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/468695/Small-gregarious-fiction-volume-2"},{"type":"stories","id":"home","title":"Home","url":"/stories/home","summary":"A lifelong runaway recounts leaving home again and again across the decades.","date":"2024-02-08","tags":["Fiction","literary","melancholy"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"93-days","title":"93 days","url":"/stories/93-days","summary":"Ninety-three days after the sun vanishes from the sky.","date":"2024-02-07","tags":["Fiction","dark","apocalyptic"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"events","id":"2023-02-07-soocon-2023","title":"State of Open 2023","url":"/events","summary":"Chris is back at the UK's Open Technology Conference for Open Source Software, Hardware, Data, Standards, & AI.","date":"2024-02-07","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://stateofopencon.com/soocon-2023/"},{"type":"stories","id":"the-box","title":"The Box","url":"/stories/the-box","summary":"A buyer finally takes delivery of a legendary, history-shaping artefact from its reverent seller.","date":"2024-02-07","tags":["Fiction","fantasy","Humor","satire"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"events","id":"2024-02-06-soocon-2024","title":"State of Open 2024","url":"/events","summary":"Chris is back at the UK's Open Technology Conference for Open Source Software, Hardware, Data, Standards, & AI.","date":"2024-02-06","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://stateofopencon.com/soocon-2024/"},{"type":"stories","id":"king-of-bores","title":"King of bores","url":"/stories/king-of-bores","summary":"A minstrel performing for his life before Malfor the Mighty — a tyrant who executes anyone who bores him — talks his way off the chopping block by offering the one thing the jaded king truly craves.","date":"2024-02-05","tags":["Fiction","fantasy","Humor","dark"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"planet-jl","title":"Planet JL","url":"/stories/planet-jl","summary":"David and Herbert explore the mysterious Planet JL, encountering signs of life and hope amidst the chaos of their journey.","date":"2024-02-04","tags":["Fiction","Science Fiction","adventure","space"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"barry-the-mole","title":"Barry the Mole","url":"/stories/barry-the-mole","summary":"Barry, the bravest mole his colony has ever known, has burrowed in every direction without fear — until he digs too far down and encounters something so unsettling he refuses to ever speak of what lies beneath.","date":"2024-02-03","tags":["Fiction","fable","horror","dark"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"events","id":"2024-02-03-fosdem-2024","title":"Fosdem 2024","url":"/events","summary":"This year at Fosdem I'm helping organise the Documentation tooling developer room, so drop on by.","date":"2024-02-03","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://fosdem.org/2024"},{"type":"stories","id":"a-world-i-will-know","title":"A World I Will Know","url":"/stories/a-world-i-will-know","summary":"A person chooses to experience the future firsthand by entering a cryogenic facility, exploring the unknown changes that time will bring.","date":"2024-02-02","tags":["Fiction","Science Fiction","adventure"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"the-forgotten-gate","title":"The Forgotten Gate","url":"/stories/the-forgotten-gate","summary":"Two old friends reminisce in a cosy tavern about the chaotic days when magical gates spat unpredictable creatures into the world — and they decide to have one last adventure.","date":"2024-02-01","tags":["Fiction","fantasy","Humor","adventure"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"voice-cloning-with-respeecher","title":"Voice cloning with Respeecher","url":"/podcast/voice-cloning-with-respeecher","summary":"I have a fascinating conversation with Alex from Respeecher, a Ukranian startup whose work you have probably heard in high-profile games, movies, and campaigns.","date":"2024-02-01","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"data-processing-made-easy-e-governance-in-ukraine-and-marketing-pharma","title":"Data processing made easy, e-governance in Ukraine, and marketing Pharma","url":"/podcast/data-processing-made-easy-e-governance-in-ukraine-and-marketing-pharma","summary":"Two interviews from Web Summit 2023 in this episode. First, with Irina and Dmitri of Datuum, an interesting data processing platform powered by AI. Second, Anna from Viseven, where we talk about Ukraine's DIA app and how the company she works for handles marketing with the pharmaceutical industry.","date":"2024-01-23","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2024/9-transcription-tools-podcasters-video-creators","title":"Transcription tools for Podcasters and Video Creators","url":"/blog/2024/9-transcription-tools-podcasters-video-creators","summary":"I create a lot of content with audio. Interviews that become final podcasts, final podcasts, videos, and more. In almost all cases, a transcript of that audio is useful. Often, I use it to create a blog post based on that audio, and I am also in the process of creating interactive transcripts for my backlog of podcasts. And that aside, accompanying transcriptions of shows are good for SEO and accessibility.","date":"2024-01-17","tags":["Podcasting","Video","AI"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"learning-git-with-anna-skoulikari","title":"Learning git with Anna Skoulikari","url":"/podcast/learning-git-with-anna-skoulikari","summary":"In this episode, I speak with Anna Skoulikari about her new book, \"Learn Git\" from O'Reilly. https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/learning-git/9781098133900/ Use the code \"learngit23\" for a 30% discount!","date":"2024-01-11","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2024/loss-death","title":"Loss and absence in death","url":"/blog/2024/loss-death","summary":"We had to put our 17-year-old cat to sleep last week. First, why does English have such terrible words for this action? “Putting down”, “putting to sleep”. They are both terrible ways to describe such an action, but I’m not sure I have any better ideas…","date":"2024-01-06","tags":["Death","Loss"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.medium.com/loss-and-absence-in-death-6c41d86be448"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"open-source-at-wikimedia-and-diversity-inclusivity-and-equity-in-open-source","title":"Open source at Wikimedia and Diversity, Inclusivity, and Equity in Open Source","url":"/podcast/open-source-at-wikimedia-and-diversity-inclusivity-and-equity-in-open-source","summary":"In this episode, I finish up my interviews from last year's Open Source Summit with two amazing interviews. First is Leszek Manicki, engineering manager at the Wikimedia Foundation Second is Jessica Tegner an advocate for diversity, inclusivity, and equity in open source","date":"2024-01-05","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"games","id":"aberrations","title":"Aberrations - Inflection Point - A Monster Horror Adventure In Icewind Dale","url":"/games","summary":"A monster horror adventure in Icewind Dale, where an elder mindflayer melds aberration biology with creatures of the North inside a shattered, buried castle.","date":"2023-12-27","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://www.dmsguild.com/product/463789/Aberrations-Inflection-Point--A-Monster-Horror-Adventure-In-Icewind-Dale"},{"type":"blog","id":"2023/runme","title":"Making Markdown Interactive with Runme","url":"/blog/2023/runme","summary":"Markdown may be popular for its simplicity and \"plainness\", but it's often full of information. Whether for internal or external consumption, that information often contains code snippets for running certain commands or code examples. Wouldn't it be great if you could run that code directly as you read from within the markdown?","date":"2023-12-22","tags":["Markdown","Interactivity"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"testing-websites-and-accessible-websites","title":"Testing websites and accessible websites","url":"/podcast/testing-websites-and-accessible-websites","summary":"In this episode, I finish up my interviews from We Are Developers earlier in the year and speak with Filip Hrick about testing websites with Cypress and Dennie Declercq about creating vision-accessible websites. Enjoy! Full show notes at: http://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/","date":"2023-12-15","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/testing-websites-and-accessible-websites/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2023/apple-shortcuts-obsidian","title":"Bring the power of Apple Shortcuts to Obsidian","url":"/blog/2023/apple-shortcuts-obsidian","summary":"I've mentioned before that I have been using Obsidian more and more, and from a knowledge management perspective, it's fantastic, with a plethora of plugins that extend its functionality to connect to many external services. But as a cross-platform Electron application, integration with the host operating system is one of the places it fails. As the underlying data store is a folder of files, some integration is possible there, but Obsidian has minimal awareness of changes that happen.","date":"2023-12-13","tags":["Automation","Apple","Shortcuts"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2023/a-newcomers-quest-scoring-apps-for-drum-notation-on-a-budget","title":"A newcomer's quest: Scoring apps for drum notation on a budget","url":"/blog/2023/a-newcomers-quest-scoring-apps-for-drum-notation-on-a-budget","summary":"I have a past life in music. In the late 1990s, I produced one of the first online fanzines and wrote for several street press magazines in London and Melbourne. In the middle of that, I also played in bands in the UK and Australia, playing guitar and, latterly, drums. And then I stopped. My musical creative spark had run out. Fast forward to about 2021, and it returned, primarily due to relearning the instruments I had always played by “feeling” in the past. Actively learning instruments and production techniques familiar to me properly opened my musical mind again, and I am slowly producing music I always wanted to make in the past before joining rock bands.","date":"2023-12-08","tags":["Music","notation"],"categories":["music","tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.scoringnotes.com/opinion/a-newcomers-quest-scoring-apps-for-drum-notation-on-a-budget/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"a-more-sustainable-internet-with-chris-adams-of-the-green-web-foundation","title":"A more sustainable internet with Chris Adams of the Green Web Foundation","url":"/podcast/a-more-sustainable-internet-with-chris-adams-of-the-green-web-foundation","summary":"I speak with Chris Adams, the director of the Green Web Foundation. We discuss their mission, tools, programs, and plans for making the online world as sustainable as possible. https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrchrisadams/","date":"2023-12-07","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/a-more-sustainable-internet-with-chris-adams-of-the-green-web-foundation"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"stories-from-ukraine-it-arena-2023-the-future-of-airports-hiring-and-education","title":"Stories from Ukraine, IT Arena 2023: The future of airports, hiring, and education.","url":"/podcast/stories-from-ukraine-it-arena-2023-the-future-of-airports-hiring-and-education","summary":"In this episode, I share interviews from the IT Arena event in Lviv, Ukraine. As I dive into conversations with tech innovators from around the world, we discusses a range of topics, from a digital platform for airports to remote hiring of developers and the future of education in tech. I also explores the state of the tech industry in Ukraine, the influence of artificial intelligence, and my own…","date":"2023-11-24","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/stories-from-ukraine-it-arena-2023-the-future-of-airports-hiring-and-education"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"what-is-developer-relations-with-richard-roger","title":"What is Developer relations with Richard Roger","url":"/podcast/what-is-developer-relations-with-richard-roger","summary":"I speak with Ricarhd Roger of VoxGig to discuss what exactly developer relations is, its history, future, and potential impact. Show notes: chrischinchilla.com/podcasts","date":"2023-11-16","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/what-is-developer-relations-with-richard-roger"},{"type":"events","id":"2023-11-13-slush-2023","title":"Slush","url":"/events","summary":"Chris is back at Europe's cosy winter for Startups and keen to meet interesting products, projects and people.","date":"2023-11-13","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://slush.org/speakers/"},{"type":"events","id":"2023-11-13-web-summit-2023","title":"Web Summit","url":"/events","summary":"Chris is back at Europe's pre-eminent event for Startups and keen to meet interesting products, projects and people.","date":"2023-11-13","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://websummit.com"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"loris-degioanni-of-sysdig","title":"Loris Degioanni of Sysdig","url":"/podcast/loris-degioanni-of-sysdig","summary":"I'm back with a great interview covering Sysdig and its journey in helping secure cloud computing. Accompanied by a healthy dose of news. We speak about the history of the company, Falco, eBPF, and cloud security and observability from a person who has been involved in the ecosystem for some time. Full notes: https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/","date":"2023-11-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/loris-degioanni-of-sysdig"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"oss-summit-linux-foundation-europe-and-open-source-metrics","title":"OSS Summit Linux Foundation Europe and Open Source metrics","url":"/podcast/oss-summit-linux-foundation-europe-and-open-source-metrics","summary":"This episode is another round of interviews from OSS Summit in Bilbao and features interviews with Gab Columbro, the general manager of LF Europe and Dawn Foster of the CHAOSS project. We talk about open source strategy and challenges in Europe and measuring the health of large and small open source projects. It also features more announcements from Canonical, a round-up of less well-known audio…","date":"2023-10-20","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast/oss-summit-linux-foundation-europe-and-open-source-metrics"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"oss-summit-energy-and-sustainability","title":"OSS Summit Energy and Sustainability","url":"/podcast/oss-summit-energy-and-sustainability","summary":"In this episode, I speak about the sustainability of cloud-native workloads and infrastructure and how the Linux Foundation spearheads efforts for open-source energy generation, distribution, and monitoring. Also features links to the latest Ubuntu and Canonical releases, the death of Unity, how the US military wants to understand Linux, and much more! Full notes: https://chinchillasqueaks.substa…","date":"2023-10-12","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2023/configure-and-switch-macos-displays-with-displayplacer","title":"Configure and switch macOS displays with Displayplacer","url":"/blog/2023/configure-and-switch-macos-displays-with-displayplacer","summary":"I am extremely lucky to have a display problem. I have a small home office and a studio setup. At home, I sometimes have my laptop under my screen and sometimes to the left. In the studio, I have two external screens, one of which I switch to 1080p when recording videos. So that’s four potential screen configurations. I have always found screen configuration on macOS relatively smart and reliable. It tends to remember individual screens and automatically switch to the configuration you last used with that screen. But if you want to manually change layouts or resolutions, what do you do? You can keep jumping into system settings to make changes, but that gets tedious quickly. I wondered if there was a better way.","date":"2023-10-05","tags":["macOS","Version Control"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/macoclock/configure-and-switch-macos-displays-with-displayplacer-650c62c0f1bf"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"dragos-nedelcu-of-the-senior-dev","title":"Dragos Nedelcu of the Senior Dev","url":"/podcast/dragos-nedelcu-of-the-senior-dev","summary":"Greetings from a hotel room in Lviv where I am attending IT Arena for the fourth time 😱. In this episode, I continue clearing my interview backlog to speak with Dragos Nedelcu of the Senior Dev, a company that provides training, upskilling, and mentoring for JavaScript developers looking to advance their careers. Full show notes: https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com/p/4228d861-88ea-4641-a25f-1…","date":"2023-09-28","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2023-09-28-it-arena-2023","title":"IT Arena 2023","url":"/events","summary":"Chris is back to see what Ukrainian entrepreneurs are working on.","date":"2023-09-28","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://itcluster.lviv.ua/en/events/it-arena-2023/"},{"type":"games","id":"romanian-mythos","title":"Romanian Mythos - Sourcebook of Horrors for Lovecraftian RPGs","url":"/games","summary":"A compendium and setting guide for Lovecraftian investigative RPGs, inspired by Romanian culture and history.","date":"2023-09-25","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/454061/Romanian-Mythos--Sourcebook-of-Horrors-for-Lovecraftian-RPGs"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"molham-aref-of-relationalai-the-ai-coprocessor","title":"Molham Aref of RelationalAI, the AI coprocessor","url":"/podcast/molham-aref-of-relationalai-the-ai-coprocessor","summary":"In this episode I speak with Molham Aref from Relational AI. we discuss the concept of an AI co-processor for data and its relevance to those working with Snowflake. We delve into the importance of data management in machine learning and AI projects. The interview covers topics such as the integration of Relational AI with Snowflake, the company's roadmap for the future, and the possibility of ex…","date":"2023-09-21","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2023/is-the-future-of-documentation-dynamic","title":"Is the Future of Documentation Dynamic?","url":"/blog/2023/is-the-future-of-documentation-dynamic","summary":"What do American Online, the Apple Newton, DVDs, Tamagochis, MP3, PDF, and Sony Discmans all share in common? They were all products born in (and some dying in) the 1990s. An era I remember vaguely well as I spent most of my mid to late teenage years in it. And now I see the fashions and band T-shirts from that era back on the streets and…","date":"2023-09-19","tags":["macOS","Version Control"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"events","id":"2023-09-19-oss-2023","title":"Open Source Summit Europe","url":"/events","summary":"I report on the latest updates from various projects and communities part of the Linux Foundation.","date":"2023-09-19","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://events.linuxfoundation.org/archive/2023/open-source-summit-europe/"},{"type":"books","id":"automated-testing-report","title":"Automated Testing report","url":"/books/automated-testing-report","summary":"DZone's 2023 Automated Testing Trend Report assessing current trends in automated testing, from architecture and test-driven development to the observed benefits of AI and low-code tools.","date":"2023-09-14","tags":[],"categories":["tech","writing"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/trendreports/automated-testing"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"ifa-and-startup-night-berlin-2023-slow-but-steady","title":"IFA and Startup night Berlin 2023, slow but steady","url":"/podcast/ifa-and-startup-night-berlin-2023-slow-but-steady","summary":"It's a busy weekend of tech in Berlin, but have things cooled or are we all taking a well-earned break? No ads for this episode, but instead, a personal request to anyone I've interviewed or featured or if you're a long-term or short-term follower. Please spread the word by rating, reviewing, or sharing the newsletter or podcast. First, a couple of links The best iPad score reader for most people…","date":"2023-09-13","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2023/my-highlights-of-ifa-and-startup-night-berlin-2023","title":"My highlights of IFA and Startup Night Berlin 2023","url":"/blog/2023/my-highlights-of-ifa-and-startup-night-berlin-2023","summary":"It’s been a few years since I attended Berlin’s Internationale Funkausstellung, better known as IFA. And after several slow years for conferences and trade fairs, capped off with a slowdown in tech and tech-adjacent spending, I was interested to know what the show floor would feel like.","date":"2023-09-09","tags":["macOS","Version Control"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.medium.com/my-highlights-of-ifa-and-startup-night-berlin-2023-d0417bbcb610"},{"type":"books","id":"collected-verses","title":"Collective Verses","url":"/books/collected-verses","summary":"A collection of poetry written during the Storytelling Collective's annual April Daily Poem challenge, in which poets write a poem every day for the month based on simple prompts.","date":"2023-09-04","tags":[],"categories":["writing"],"externalUrl":"https://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/445428/Collective-Verses"},{"type":"books","id":"in-a-flash","title":"In a flash","url":"/books/in-a-flash","summary":"A collection of flash fiction under 1,500 words, written during the Storytelling Collective's month-long Flash Fiction February challenge.","date":"2023-09-04","tags":[],"categories":["writing"],"externalUrl":"https://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/439885/In-a-Flash"},{"type":"events","id":"2023-08-01-ifa-2023","title":"IFA","url":"/events","summary":"I'm at IFA, the world largest consumer electronics show to see what crazy ideas the world is working on.","date":"2023-09-01","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.ifa-berlin.com/home-page-ifa-2023"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"sefi-carmel-of-spheretrax-and-what-is-music","title":"Sefi Carmel of Spheretrax and what is music?","url":"/podcast/sefi-carmel-of-spheretrax-and-what-is-music","summary":"Something of a music theme in this issue. My interview is with Sefi Carmel of Spheretrax, a new take on selecting, synchronising, and licensing music for TV, films, and games. I also look at what \"noise\" really is, ancient music software, the continuing sage of Terraform, the end of Google, and maybe one of the most famous Rock and roll fights of all time. Sponsored by Zencaster This issue is spo…","date":"2023-08-30","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2023/my-note-taking-and-knowledge-management-process-updated-for-2023","title":"My note-taking and knowledge management process updated for 2023","url":"/blog/2023/my-note-taking-and-knowledge-management-process-updated-for-2023","summary":"About 18 months ago, I covered my attempts to replace Evernote. I was surprised by how popular that post was and how much feedback it received. Unsurprisingly, I have adapted and changed my setup since then and in this post, I cover what I now use and how I use it. Hopefully, with the same level of readers and feedback 😁.","date":"2023-08-25","tags":["macOS","Version Control"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.medium.com/my-note-taking-and-knowledge-management-process-updated-for-2023-d570ffaf61f0"},{"type":"blog","id":"2023/2023-08-16-creating-narrative-story-timelines-with-aeon-timeline","title":"Creating narrative story timelines with Aeon Timeline","url":"/blog/2023/2023-08-16-creating-narrative-story-timelines-with-aeon-timeline","summary":"In this post, I cover how I use Aeon Timeline, an application for building interactive narrative timelines. If you want to read more, then take a look at the post I wrote on the Setapp applications I use regularly.","date":"2023-08-16","tags":["macOS","Version Control"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/macoclock/creating-narrative-story-timelines-with-aeon-timeline-9261f3065f21"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"elise-bently-on-tincymce-and-ckeditor-ai-in-the-developing-world","title":"Elise Bently on TincyMCE and CKEditor, AI in the developing world","url":"/podcast/elise-bently-on-tincymce-and-ckeditor-ai-in-the-developing-world","summary":"A packed issue full of AI content, what powers the internet, the real cost of food, offline-first, and an interview all about CK editor and TinyMCE. Full show notes here: https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com/p/bd2d57e5-b110-4963-947b-5afaa19130c8","date":"2023-08-16","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"a-greener-web-with-ines-akrap","title":"A greener web with Ines Akrap","url":"/podcast/a-greener-web-with-ines-akrap","summary":"This episode I speak with Ines Akrap at the recent We Are Developers event about how we can make the web greener. Trust me on this one, nothing captured the enthusiasm I felt from her in the room, but I try 😁. This issue is sponsored by Zencaster, who's all-in-one podcasting platform helps me deliver my show episode. Use my special link zen.ai/chinchillasqueaks [https://zen.ai/chinchillasqueaks]…","date":"2023-08-02","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2023/the-setapp-macos-applications-i-use-on-a-regular-basis","title":"The 14 Setapp macOS applications I use regularly","url":"/blog/2023/the-setapp-macos-applications-i-use-on-a-regular-basis","summary":"Welcome to Setapp Month! I have been a user of Setapp for quite a while now, almost ever since the service launched, and I visited Macpaw’s offices in Kyiv, touring their awesome Apple museum and meeting the office cats. Setapp is a macOS and iOS application subscription service, where for $9.99 a month, you get access to dozens of applications, large and small, complex and simple, old favourites and new arrivals.","date":"2023-07-29","tags":["macOS","Version Control"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/macoclock/the-setapp-macos-applications-i-use-on-a-regular-basis-14abdb64f271"},{"type":"events","id":"2023-07-26-wearedevelopers-2023","title":"We are Developers Congress 2023","url":"/events","summary":"I report on the latest updates and best practices for developers of various topics.","date":"2023-07-26","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.wearedevelopers.com/world-congress/"},{"type":"games","id":"mysterium-tempus","title":"Mysterium Tempus - A Mystery in Spacetime","url":"/games","summary":"A mystery in spacetime for 4-6 players at level 5, exploring a village frozen in a single instant.","date":"2023-07-17","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://www.dmsguild.com/product/445342/Mysterium-Tempus--A-Mystery-in-Spacetime"},{"type":"games","id":"oculus-prime","title":"Oculus Prime - A Bizarre Mystery Adventure","url":"/games","summary":"A bizarre mystery adventure in a metropolis plagued by disappearances, uniting a death cult and a malevolent beholder.","date":"2023-07-17","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://www.dmsguild.com/product/483011/Oculus-Prime--A-Bizarre-Mystery-Adventure"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"lab-grown-forks","title":"Lab grown forks","url":"/podcast/lab-grown-forks","summary":"This episode is a links show and I cover Red Hat's latest open source upsets, lab grown meat, AI 'aint that bad, happy birthday ethernet, and more! This episode is sponsored by Zencaster, who's all-in-one podcasting platform helps me deliver my show episode. Use my special link zen.ai/chinchillasqueaks [https://zen.ai/chinchillasqueaks] to save 30% off your first month of any Zencastr paid plan.…","date":"2023-07-12","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"replacing-people-with-machines-that-play-mad-libs-with-john-davenport","title":"Replacing people with machines that play Mad Libs with John Davenport","url":"/podcast/replacing-people-with-machines-that-play-mad-libs-with-john-davenport","summary":"I am joined by hacker turned software entrepreneur, John Davenport to show me his new idea for using AI to summarise conversations and drill into topics covered. Also features… AI and Music-Making Part 2: Tomorrow Is The Question → [https://www.ableton.com/en/blog/ai-and-music-making-part-two-tomorrow-is-the-question/]This is Part 2 of our deep-dive into AI music-making. In Part 1, we learned wha…","date":"2023-06-29","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"games","id":"jack-frost","title":"Jack Frost - A Murder Mystery in Icewind Dale","url":"/games","summary":"A murder mystery adventure in Icewind Dale for 4-6 players at level 5, culminating in an epic climactic battle.","date":"2023-06-28","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://www.dmsguild.com/product/442399/Jack-Frost--A-Murder-Mystery-in-Icewind-Dale"},{"type":"games","id":"triad-of-death","title":"Triad of Death - A Murder Mystery In Waterdeep","url":"/games","summary":"A murder mystery adventure in Waterdeep for 4-6 players at level 5, centred on three legendary artifacts of Vecna and Orcus.","date":"2023-06-25","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://www.dmsguild.com/product/440170/Triad-of-Death--A-Murder-Mystery-In-Waterdeep"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"50-years-of-text-adventures-and-50-weeks-of-ai-adventures","title":"50 years of text adventures and 50 weeks of AI adventures","url":"/podcast/50-years-of-text-adventures-and-50-weeks-of-ai-adventures","summary":"Hello all! It's been a little while and I've been holding on to a really great interview the whole time. In summary, after a long few years of running the podcast through varying shapes and sizes… I am joining a podcast network and agency! This is great news for me and will help me move the show to the next level, however I need to do a few technical transfers behind the scenes and that made me p…","date":"2023-06-14","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2023/7-macos-native-generative-ai-tools-to-try","title":"7 macOS native generative AI tools to try","url":"/blog/2023/7-macos-native-generative-ai-tools-to-try","summary":"Generative AI tools and platforms are not just the flavour of the month (for now), they’re the flavour of the year, if not the decade.","date":"2023-06-11","tags":["macOS","Version Control"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/macoclock/7-macos-native-generative-ai-tools-to-try-1e6fa5c489b"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"open-source-insights-with-scarf-and-questioning-ai","title":"Open Source insights with Scarf and questioning AI","url":"/podcast/open-source-insights-with-scarf-and-questioning-ai","summary":"Hello everyone! A big dive into questioning artificial intelligence and an interview with Avi from Scarf, who aims to help open source developers gain insights into their usage. Questioning artificial intelligence It's another AI-heavy issue, but this time I want to highlight some content that questions the technology and attitudes to it in some nuanced ways. I start with how AI creators and user…","date":"2023-05-25","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2023/my-tech-writing-setup","title":"My tech writing setup","url":"/blog/2023/my-tech-writing-setup","summary":"In my previous post I covered my creative writing setup and the post proved quite popular, so I thank everyone who read and left comments for that. Next in this series of posts covering my various setups is my setup for technical writing. In this post I use the term “tech writing” to cover my documentation, blog post, and longer form technical writing work.","date":"2023-05-17","tags":["macOS","Version Control"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.medium.com/my-tech-writing-setup-75bcbcb9cf19"},{"type":"books","id":"small-gregarious-fiction-volume-1","title":"Small gregarious fiction volume 1","url":"/books/small-gregarious-fiction-volume-1","summary":"A collection of flash fiction full of short tales set in strange, slightly recognisable worlds, with characters undertaking the unexpected.","date":"2023-05-15","tags":[],"categories":["writing"],"externalUrl":"https://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/437813/Small-gregarious-fiction-volume-1"},{"type":"blog","id":"2023/google-io-2023","title":"Google IO 2023","url":"/blog/2023/google-io-2023","summary":"Or how Google IO made me realise I probably need to find a new job in 2 years","date":"2023-05-11","tags":["macOS","Version Control"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/aimonks/google-io-2023-ee16469392f0"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-life-and-death-of-ai","title":"The life and death of AI","url":"/podcast/the-life-and-death-of-ai","summary":"Let's start with some fun This newsletter gets dark quickly, so first something to enjoy. Farrago 2 soundboard for Mac arrives with 50 new features including Shortcuts and Stream Deck integration → [https://9to5mac.com/2023/04/13/farrago-2-mac-soundboard/] Rogue Amoeba is releasing a major update to Farrago, the great soundboard app for Mac. Farrago 2.0 includes 50 new features ranging from fun e…","date":"2023-05-11","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2023/kubecon-back-to-business","title":"KubeCon, back to business","url":"/blog/2023/kubecon-back-to-business","summary":"I didn’t attend Detroit last year, but did attend Valencia, and while it was great to be back at a reasonably large in-person event again, the event did feel slightly subdued.","date":"2023-05-02","tags":["macOS","Version Control"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.medium.com/kubecon-back-to-business-722007516c02"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"kubecon-eu-2023-back-in-business","title":"KubeCon EU 2023, back in business","url":"/podcast/kubecon-eu-2023-back-in-business","summary":"KubeCon, back to business Ahead of the event I arranged some interviews with companies that piqued my interest and don't all fit under the headings in my write up that you can read here - https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com/p/9c266812-78f0-4985-a719-2b745ff7053c SLIM.AI I previously covered the slim toolkit from Slim.ai and in the interview I am joined by Nnenna Ndukwe, developer advocate at t…","date":"2023-04-30","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2023/my-experiences-migrating-a-site-from-jekyll-to-astro","title":"My Experiences Migrating a Site from Jekyll to Astro","url":"/blog/2023/my-experiences-migrating-a-site-from-jekyll-to-astro","summary":"In my last post, I looked at the decision process I went through in deciding what to migrate my long time Jekyll-powered website to. I arrived at Astro and in this post I cover my experiences in migrating to and using Astro.","date":"2023-04-20","tags":["macOS","Version Control"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://javascript.plainenglish.io/my-experiences-migrating-a-site-from-jekyll-to-astro-9bd422d106bc"},{"type":"events","id":"2023-04-18-kubecon-2023","title":"KubeCon and CloudNativeCon","url":"/events","summary":"I report on the latest updates and best practices for Kubernetes and Cloud-native computing.","date":"2023-04-18","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://kccnceu2023.sched.com"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-strangest-of-places","title":"The strangest of places","url":"/podcast/the-strangest-of-places","summary":"Podcast version Find the podcast version of this newsletter, including my interview with Bertrand of Canonical on the Substack podcast page or wherever you find your podcasts. Tech A mixed bag this issue covering everything from the slow death of Russia's tech scene, a visual history of Android, GPT-4 in role-play games in role-play games in classified comment leaks. Erm, yes, you read that right…","date":"2023-04-13","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"ms-wot","title":"MS-Wot?","url":"/podcast/ms-wot","summary":"It's time for open-source users to open their wallets → [https://www.zdnet.com/article/its-time-for-open-source-users-to-open-their-wallets/] It was around the year 1999 and I was attending my first Linux convention at the Research Triangle where Red Hat was headquartered. I was, needless to say, excited. Internet Arcade → [https://archive.org/details/internetarcade] The Internet Arcade is a web-…","date":"2023-04-06","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2023/2023-03-23-work-all-day-on-phone","title":"Would it be possible to work all day on a phone?","url":"/blog/2023/2023-03-23-work-all-day-on-phone","summary":"Last week, I stupidly left the apartment to take a stroll with my office keys. As I shut the front door to double lock it and stared at the wrong set of keys in my hands with disbelief, I realised my mistake. To make things worse, I was sick, the weather was foul, and my wife wasn’t due to return from a work trip until late evening.","date":"2023-03-23","tags":["Android","Pixel","Productivity"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"games","id":"around-the-world","title":"Around The World In 80 Days - A Travel Adventure","url":"/games","summary":"A short travel adventure for 4-6 players at level 3, journeying to remote corners of the map and back within 80 days.","date":"2023-03-20","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://www.dmsguild.com/product/428799/Around-The-World-In-80-Days-A-Travel-Adventure"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"silicon-valley-tanks","title":"Silicon Valley Tank(s)","url":"/podcast/silicon-valley-tanks","summary":"Hello everyone welcome to my regular ramble through geeky subjects from tech, to history, games, writing, language, and more. This issue is a little light on links, but I have a great interview with Marshall Jung of Tabnine you can hear in the voiceover section of this newsletter or wherever you find your podcasts. We spoke about the company's take on AI coding assistants and how they've been doi…","date":"2023-03-16","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2023/2023-03-15-intellij-writing","title":"Technical writing with JetBrains' Writerside and Grazie","url":"/blog/2023/2023-03-15-intellij-writing","summary":"The docs as code trend, where technical writers and developers work more closely using similar tools and processes, has grown in the past few years.","date":"2023-03-15","tags":["JetBrains","IDE","Grammar checking","Linting","Spell checking"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/geekculture/technical-writing-with-jetbrains-writerside-and-grazie-2009208f1d4b?source=rss-------1"},{"type":"blog","id":"2023/my-creative-writing-setup","title":"My Creative Writing Setup","url":"/blog/2023/my-creative-writing-setup","summary":"I finally finished my first fiction novel after two years of work and have already begun work on my second. I’ve also produced several short stories and have some game supplements in slow progress.","date":"2023-03-08","tags":["macOS","Version Control"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/macoclock/my-creative-writing-setup-8691c3a65b3f"},{"type":"stories","id":"invisible-follower","title":"Invisible Follower","url":"/stories/invisible-follower","summary":"Walking home through a rain-soaked alley, a person becomes aware of unseen footsteps perfectly matching their own — and must decide whether to flee or face whatever is there.","date":"2023-03-04","tags":["Fiction","supernatural","suspense"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"museum-of-antiquities","title":"Museum of Antiquities","url":"/stories/museum-of-antiquities","summary":"A far-future museum guide leads a crowd through the baffling mysteries of early 21st-century technology, culminating in the most horrifying revelation of all: people had to talk to each other.","date":"2023-03-04","tags":["Fiction","Science Fiction","Humor","satire"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"well-fight-them-on-the-breaches","title":"We'll fight them on the breaches","url":"/podcast/well-fight-them-on-the-breaches","summary":"Welcome Hello everyone welcome to my regular ramble through geeky subjects from tech, to history, games, writing, language, and more. This issue is a little light on links, but I have a great interview with Josh Koenig of Pantheon you can hear in the voiceover section of this newsletter or wherever you find your podcasts. I remember Pantheon from my Drupal days. And we spoke a lot about the past,…","date":"2023-03-02","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"stories","id":"the-daughter-of-death","title":"The Daughter of Death","url":"/stories/the-daughter-of-death","summary":"Moments after a fatal car accident, a man finds himself in darkness where a quietly confident woman in impossible black approaches to guide him — with patient answers — to whatever comes next.","date":"2023-03-01","tags":["Fiction","supernatural","dark","philosophical"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"happenings-in-interval","title":"Happenings in Interval","url":"/stories/happenings-in-interval","summary":"A time-stopping thief slips between the ticks of a frozen party, helping themselves to valuables and mischief before stepping back through a tear in time — never to see the chaos they leave behind.","date":"2023-02-28","tags":["Fiction","supernatural","Science Fiction","Humor"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"appointment-with-old-enemies","title":"Appointment with Old Enemies","url":"/stories/appointment-with-old-enemies","summary":"Jared visits a brusque supernatural functionary who will arrange any act of revenge for a fee — and impulsively commits to something far worse than he intended before he can take it back.","date":"2023-02-27","tags":["Fiction","supernatural","Humor","dark"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"enchanted-garden","title":"Enchanted Garden","url":"/stories/enchanted-garden","summary":"Yasmin tends a beloved garden with one unsettling corner she has never been able to cultivate — a permanently shadowed patch of shifting shapes she has quietly learned to leave alone.","date":"2023-02-25","tags":["Fiction","supernatural","dark"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"moving-faster-than-light","title":"Moving Faster Than Light","url":"/stories/moving-faster-than-light","summary":"David Bowie and H.G. Wells take a faster-than-light joyride through space in a steam-powered ship, trading quips and setting a course for Mars.","date":"2023-02-25","tags":["Fiction","Science Fiction","Humor","adventure"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"games","id":"bamberg","title":"Bamberg","url":"/games","summary":"A game of social deduction inspired by the European witch hunts of the 17th century.","date":"2023-02-23","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bamberg/bamberg-a-thrilling-game-of-social-deduction"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"developer-experience-with-jetpack-and-mac-for-linux-and-windows","title":"Developer experience with Jetpack and Mac for Linux and Windows","url":"/podcast/developer-experience-with-jetpack-and-mac-for-linux-and-windows","summary":"Podcast version Find the podcast version of this newsletter [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com/podcast], including my interview with Daniel on the Substack podcast page or wherever you find your podcasts. From me… Read more about my experiments with managing the macOS home folder with version control [https://medium.com/macoclock/managing-a-home-folder-with-version-control-b0a4078ceb20]. Sto…","date":"2023-02-23","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"stories","id":"steepled-town","title":"Steepled Town","url":"/stories/steepled-town","summary":"A battle-hardened army camps on the eve of their assault on a great walled city, drinking and gambling as their officers contemplate the uncertain fate awaiting them at dawn.","date":"2023-02-23","tags":["Fiction","fantasy","dark","historical"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"vague-lights-geometrical-figures","title":"Vague Lights Geometrical Figures","url":"/stories/vague-lights-geometrical-figures","summary":"A regular client visits Jerry Kolynski — psychic slug and therapist — for a 20-minute session of transcendent visions, only to be judged for it by a stranger on the street.","date":"2023-02-23","tags":["Fiction","Science Fiction","Humor","absurdist"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"visit-to-someone-wil","title":"Visit to Someone Wil","url":"/stories/visit-to-someone-wil","summary":"A journalist treks across two continents to interview Alfonso, a 3,437-year-old tortoise and the oldest known creature alive — only to find he has very little to say for himself.","date":"2023-02-22","tags":["Fiction","Humor","absurdist"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2023/2023-02-20-managing-a-home-folder-with-version-control","title":"Managing a home folder with version control","url":"/blog/2023/2023-02-20-managing-a-home-folder-with-version-control","summary":"Some time ago, I mentioned a process I triedthat allowed me to partially recreate my Mac setup on","date":"2023-02-20","tags":["macOS","Version Control"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/macoclock/managing-a-home-folder-with-version-control-b0a4078ceb20"},{"type":"stories","id":"determinism","title":"Determinism","url":"/stories/determinism","summary":"A mysterious website offers vague prophecies about your future — and Morris discovers that knowing what's coming is entirely useless when you have no way to change it.","date":"2023-02-18","tags":["Fiction","Science Fiction","Humor","philosophical"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"transposition-of-identity","title":"Transposition of Identity","url":"/stories/transposition-of-identity","summary":"A narrator casually recounts life with their homemade 'meat puppet' — an eerie physical clone they mostly use for company at bars and dancing — while cheerfully sidestepping any ethical questions.","date":"2023-02-18","tags":["Fiction","Science Fiction","Humor","philosophical"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"babylonjs-artificial-everything-and-customer-care","title":"Babylon.js, artificial everything, and customer care?","url":"/podcast/babylonjs-artificial-everything-and-customer-care","summary":"From me… Migrating a website from… [https://medium.com/geekculture/migrating-a-website-from-jekyll-to-54f0bea3de7a] Read more about my journey overhauling my old old website, and my progress so far. Storytelling Collective Flash February Every day I am writing 500 words of flash fiction, read them on Medium [https://medium.com/@chrischinchilla]. In bots we trust My new show with my friend Killian…","date":"2023-02-16","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"stories","id":"special-senses","title":"Special Senses","url":"/stories/special-senses","summary":"A soul-finder with a preternatural sixth sense describes their nightly work tracking down panicked, newly-dead souls and guiding them to the next stage of the afterlife.","date":"2023-02-16","tags":["Fiction","supernatural","Humor","first-person"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"ancient-stairs","title":"Ancient Stairs","url":"/stories/ancient-stairs","summary":"On his deathbed, legendary dwarven warrior Grangal is haunted by the one quest he fled from — a crumbling castle staircase where a Lich's nightmare curse brought him to his knees in guilt and shame.","date":"2023-02-15","tags":["Fiction","fantasy","horror","dark"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"ancient-colossus","title":"Ancient Colossus","url":"/stories/ancient-colossus","summary":"After months crossing a lethal desert, a desperate traveller arrives at a mysterious ancient colossus and begins the perilous climb to claim the legendary Bloodstone held in its grasp.","date":"2023-02-14","tags":["Fiction","fantasy","adventure"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"odd-nocturnal-ritual","title":"Odd Nocturnal Ritual","url":"/stories/odd-nocturnal-ritual","summary":"The townsfolk of a coastal village have long ignored the strange nightly walks of cantankerous Ol' Perwiddle — until one bold young thief follows him to the beach and witnesses something she cannot explain.","date":"2023-02-14","tags":["Fiction","horror","supernatural","folklore"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"mysterious-doors","title":"Mysterious Doors","url":"/stories/mysterious-doors","summary":"Friedre wages an escalating battle of wills against a door that refuses to stay shut, resorting to increasingly drastic measures to defeat her wooden adversary.","date":"2023-02-12","tags":["Fiction","Humor","absurdist"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"dreams-of-flying","title":"Dreams of Flying","url":"/stories/dreams-of-flying","summary":"Frankie the fly accidentally ends up on a plane and finally achieves their lifelong dream of soaring high above the city — right up until a rolled-up newspaper intervenes.","date":"2023-02-11","tags":["Fiction","Humor","absurdist"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2023/2023-02-11-migrating-a-website-from-jekyll","title":"Migrating a website from Jekyll to...","url":"/blog/2023/2023-02-11-migrating-a-website-from-jekyll","summary":"I have stuffed so much into my website over the years it was starting to creak","date":"2023-02-11","tags":["Jekyll","websites","Web Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/geekculture/migrating-a-website-from-jekyll-to-54f0bea3de7a"},{"type":"stories","id":"dreams-of-falling","title":"Dreams of Falling","url":"/stories/dreams-of-falling","summary":"A man wakes every morning from the same recurring vision of apocalyptic destruction wrought by vast, incomprehensible beings — and instead of fearing it, he feels chosen.","date":"2023-02-10","tags":["Fiction","horror","cosmic","dark"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"elemental-spirit-intrudes","title":"Elemental Spirit Intrudes","url":"/stories/elemental-spirit-intrudes","summary":"On her first day as a dungeon cleaner, goblin Azravel gets an earful from her veteran colleague Grengel about the particular misery of cleaning up after elemental spirits.","date":"2023-02-10","tags":["Fiction","fantasy","Humor"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"power-of-darkness","title":"Power of Darkness","url":"/stories/power-of-darkness","summary":"Darkness speaks in first person, tracing its ancient relationship with humanity — from the comfort of the womb to the final mystery of death.","date":"2023-02-10","tags":["Fiction","prose-poetry","supernatural","philosophical"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"unnatural-life-in-picture","title":"Unnatural Life in Picture","url":"/stories/unnatural-life-in-picture","summary":"An anonymous painting appears in a hip gallery, and while the owner sees only a publicity coup, her friend is filled with creeping dread at the disturbing forms emerging from its impossible colours.","date":"2023-02-07","tags":["Fiction","horror","supernatural","dark"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"house-of-horror","title":"House of Horror","url":"/stories/house-of-horror","summary":"A legendary house in an ancient city has swallowed every visitor who dared enter — and now a plucky young traveller, spurred on by her peers and an unrequited love, pushes open the door.","date":"2023-02-06","tags":["Fiction","horror","fantasy","suspense"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"interference-with-time","title":"Interference with Time","url":"/stories/interference-with-time","summary":"In a world where everyone gets a once-a-decade undo of any past action, one recipient agonises over how to spend their CTRL+Z day — and ends up paralysed by the infinite weight of consequence.","date":"2023-02-06","tags":["Fiction","Science Fiction","Humor","philosophical"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"lingering-influence","title":"Lingering Influence","url":"/stories/lingering-influence","summary":"A self-declared atheist spends a night on the couch of a friend's 'murder house', musing on how we confront the dark history of the places we inhabit — and wakes utterly untroubled.","date":"2023-02-06","tags":["Fiction","supernatural","philosophical","Humor"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"visions-of-future","title":"Visions of Future","url":"/stories/visions-of-future","summary":"Cthulhu receives a deeply unsettling vision — not of apocalyptic triumph, but of a plan that was never going to work — and is forced to confront an existential mid-aeons career crisis.","date":"2023-02-06","tags":["Fiction","Humor","cosmic","fantasy"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"artificial-terrestrial","title":"Artificial terrestrial","url":"/podcast/artificial-terrestrial","summary":"Updates from me… Alternative browsers for macOS I was interested in diving into the many new browsers emerging right now, especially for macOS. Video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8JUzs2BNq4] Blog post [https://medium.com/@chrischinchilla/new-alternative-web-browsers-for-macos-8edf6edaf517?source=yourstoriespage-------------------------------------] Flash fiction February 2023 This daily writ…","date":"2023-02-03","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2023/2023-02-03-new-alternative-web-browsers-for-macos","title":"New Alternative Web Browsers for macOS","url":"/blog/2023/2023-02-03-new-alternative-web-browsers-for-macos","summary":"I have long been concerned about the state of browsers and the dominant","date":"2023-02-03","tags":["macOS","web browsers"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/geekculture/new-alternative-web-browsers-for-macos-8edf6edaf517"},{"type":"stories","id":"return-of-body","title":"Return of Body","url":"/stories/return-of-body","summary":"A professional body-swap operator rents their consciousness to a rich teenager for a night out, then must navigate 24 hours inside an unfamiliar body while hoping the customer returns theirs on time.","date":"2023-02-02","tags":["Fiction","Science Fiction","supernatural","Humor"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"stories","id":"return-of-spirit","title":"Return of Spirit","url":"/stories/return-of-spirit","summary":"A secret service chief reinstates ghosts as agents, only to discover their first mission has an unexpected obstacle.","date":"2023-02-01","tags":["Fiction","Humor","supernatural","espionage"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"open-games-open-ai-and-the-state-of-open-con-with-amanda-brock","title":"Open games, open AI, and the state of open con with Amanda Brock","url":"/podcast/open-games-open-ai-and-the-state-of-open-con-with-amanda-brock","summary":"OGL 1.1/1.2/1.3/😱 Wizards of the Coast goes into firefighting mode to stop the exodus of D&D fans. An Update on the Open Game License (OGL) → [https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1423-an-update-on-the-open-game-license-ogl] When we initially conceived of revising the OGL, it was with three major goals in mind. First, we wanted the ability to prevent the use of D&D content from being included in hate…","date":"2023-01-26","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"what-happens-when-the-living-and-the-previously-dead-fall-in-love","title":"What happens when the living and the previously dead fall in love?","url":"/podcast/what-happens-when-the-living-and-the-previously-dead-fall-in-love","summary":"\"The Dead Among Us\" is a post-post-apocalyptic love story that shows emotion and understanding can conquer history, resentment, and generational divides to create a truly new world. I have been working on this novel for just over two years and now after several drafts I am ready for public feedback. If you are interested, then fill in this Google form [https://forms.gle/1Ev9ZM6PLUV2u2Wx6], I won'…","date":"2023-01-18","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"games","id":"treasure-island","title":"Return to Treasure Island - A Pirate Adventure!","url":"/games","summary":"A one-shot pirate adventure for 4-6 players at level 10, returning to the fabled treasure island years after the first fortune ran out.","date":"2023-01-17","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://www.dmsguild.com/product/423696/Return-to-Treasure-Island-A-Pirate-Adventure"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"welcome-to-twenty-twenty-wee-hee","title":"Welcome to twenty twenty wee hee","url":"/podcast/welcome-to-twenty-twenty-wee-hee","summary":"Hey everyone! So, I am quite late with this newsletter and podcast as I was travelling blah blah. But also Twitter owns the service I was using for newsletters (Revue), which meant I needed to look for a replacement. I looked at a few but settled on where all the cool kids were… Substack. Then I noticed they also support podcasts, so migrated my podcast too. I wanted to give a good window of time…","date":"2023-01-12","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2023/the-past-present-and-future-of-interactive-fiction","title":"The past, present, and future of interactive fiction","url":"/blog/2023/the-past-present-and-future-of-interactive-fiction","summary":"Or, maybe in a more click-generating sub-heading, “how to combine creative writing and programming to create interactive fiction”.","date":"2023-01-03","tags":["Jekyll","websites","Web Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/geekculture/the-past-present-and-future-of-interactive-fiction-51f4f589274"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-12-28-5-docker-desktop-alternatives","title":"5 Docker Desktop Alternatives","url":"/blog/2022/2022-12-28-5-docker-desktop-alternatives","summary":"For Windows and macOS users, Docker Desktop has been the main way to use Docker containers for many years. While it remains a viable and usable option for hobbyists and small development teams, recent pricing changes for larger user bases sent people looking for alternatives. I am not looking to replace Docker Desktop myself, but I was interested in trying the alternatives and seeing how they compared.","date":"2022-12-28","tags":["Docker","Containers"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://hackernoon.com/5-docker-desktop-alternatives"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"ai-ai","title":"AI AI","url":"/podcast/ai-ai","summary":"Hello all! Lots of lovely AI and machine learning links for you this issue as I am working on a new show! Also Twitter, Mozilla, and that internet thing? It's dead. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https:/…","date":"2022-12-01","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-11-22-virtualization-emulation-macos","title":"Virtualization and Emulation on MacOS","url":"/blog/2022/2022-11-22-virtualization-emulation-macos","summary":"I have been using Parallels for a couple of years now, primarily for running Windows virtual machines (VMs), but occasionally Linux VMs too. I mostly use it for playing games, testing, and the occasional Windows-only application. There are some other long-standing options such as VirtualBox, QEMU, and VMWare. I am intentionally ignoring anything that also runs containers, such as Docker, as that’s a different use case, and a whole other gamut of options.","date":"2022-11-22","tags":["macOS","Virtual Machines","Virtualization","Emulation"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://hackernoon.com/virtualization-and-emulation-on-macos"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"raytracing-llamas-in-the-metaverse-interviews-from-build-stuff","title":"Raytracing Llamas in the Metaverse - Interviews from Build Stuff","url":"/podcast/raytracing-llamas-in-the-metaverse-interviews-from-build-stuff","summary":"I'm back after two weeks of conferences. I interview speakers from Build Stuff in Lithuania, report back from other events, dig into the history of JavaScript frameworks, and hang out with Lana Moore… Or not. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, v…","date":"2022-11-18","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-11-15-developer-trends-thoughtworks-radar-27","title":"Developer Trends from Thoughtworks’ Technology Radar 27","url":"/blog/2022/2022-11-15-developer-trends-thoughtworks-radar-27","summary":"Thoughtworks’ Technology Radar is a regular time to take a look at what experienced industry experts think might be the next wave of tools, practices, and technologies to consider or stop using.","date":"2022-11-15","tags":["Thoughtworks","Trends","Machine Learning","Observability","Sbom","Sustainability"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://hackernoon.com/developer-trends-from-thoughtworks-technology-radar-27"},{"type":"events","id":"2022-11-09-build-stuff-2022","title":"Build Stuff 2022","url":"/events","summary":"I report on the latest updates and best practices for developers of various topics.","date":"2022-11-09","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.buildstuff.events/events/build-stuff-2022-hybrid-conference"},{"type":"events","id":"2022-11-08-tcworld","title":"tcworld","url":"/events","summary":"Video consumption of information was already increasingly popular, and in the past year, video consumption and usage has accelerated. There's an increasing amount of video versions of blog posts, livestreaming of tutorials, online office hours, and much more.","date":"2022-11-08","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://tcworldconference.tekom.de"},{"type":"events","id":"2022-11-03-heapcon-2022","title":"heapcon","url":"/events","summary":"Interactive fiction (IF) occupies a curious middle ground between technical writing, programming, and creative writing. This presentation takes a look at the history of IF games, the tools used to create them across the decades, and how you can use your programming skills to tell stories.","date":"2022-11-03","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://heapcon.io/2022/a-short-guide-to-creating-interactive-fiction/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"kin-lane-of-postman-announcearama-and-tech-loses-its-shine","title":"Kin Lane of Postman, announcearama, and tech loses its shine","url":"/podcast/kin-lane-of-postman-announcearama-and-tech-loses-its-shine","summary":"Hey all 👋 Kin Lane is back on the show. Also a week of announcements from companies that begin with \"A\", the speed behind Tech's sails starts to slow (and is that good or bad?) and life… Life not as we know it Jim. xxx Chinch --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to…","date":"2022-10-27","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-10-20-serenityos-love-letter-90s-user-interfaces","title":"Running SerenityOS, a Love Letter to '90s User Interfaces","url":"/blog/2022/2022-10-20-serenityos-love-letter-90s-user-interfaces","summary":"I have always loved messing around with operating systems and desktop environments. I believe my first graphical operating system was AmigaOS. In the decades since I have worked through various Windows versions, every version of macOS since 7.0, different Linux flavors and combinations, and many other small niche OSs I have forgotten about in a sea of windows and menus.","date":"2022-10-20","tags":["Operating Systems","Serenityos","90S"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://hackernoon.com/running-serenityos-a-love-letter-to-90s-user-interfaces"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-10-14-macpaw-supports-ukraine","title":"Cybersecurity Awareness Month - MacPaw Supports Ukraine","url":"/blog/2022/2022-10-14-macpaw-supports-ukraine","summary":"It's Cybersecurity awareness month every October and this year I thought I'd share something relevant from my recent trip to cover IT Arena in Lviv, Ukraine.","date":"2022-10-14","tags":["Ukraine","Macpaw","Security"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://hackernoon.com/cybersecurity-awareness-month-macpaw-supports-ukraine"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"it-arena-2022-ukrainian-tech-braves-the-war","title":"IT Arena 2022 - Ukrainian tech braves the war","url":"/podcast/it-arena-2022-ukrainian-tech-braves-the-war","summary":"This was my third invitation to attend in Lviv, Ukraine. But this was the first time, and indeed a first for me overall, that the conference happened during a war and in what was effectively a warzone. Read my blog post for full context - https://hackernoon.com/it-arena-2022-ukrainian-tech-braves-the-war And daily diaries starts at about 26:00 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinch…","date":"2022-10-13","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-10-13-it-arena-2022","title":"IT Arena 2022 - Ukrainian Tech Braves the War","url":"/blog/2022/2022-10-13-it-arena-2022","summary":"I have been to many tech conferences over the years. I have sat in so many startup pitches and talks that are barely masked marketing pitches. I have introduced myself and told people what I do and where I am from so many times that it all becomes something of a blur.","date":"2022-10-13","tags":["Ukraine","It Arena","Conferences","War","Technology"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://hackernoon.com/it-arena-2022-ukrainian-tech-braves-the-war"},{"type":"events","id":"2022-09-30-it-arena-2022","title":"IT Arena","url":"/events","summary":"Chris is back to see what Ukrainian entrepreneurs are working on.","date":"2022-09-30","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://itarena.ua/it-arena-2022-lviv-s-tech-event-that-braves-the-war"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"a-legendary-merge","title":"A legendary merge","url":"/podcast/a-legendary-merge","summary":"In this episode I round up the latest geeky news that has caught my attention including the Ethereum merge, looking forward to macOS Ventura, AI images already getting banned in image stores, a history of ARM, and much more! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to b…","date":"2022-09-28","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"dotan-horovits-of-logzio-watch-your-heroes-and-the-life-of-clippy","title":"Dotan Horovits of Logz.io, watch your heroes and the life of Clippy","url":"/podcast/dotan-horovits-of-logzio-watch-your-heroes-and-the-life-of-clippy","summary":"In this episode I speak with Dotan Horowits from Logz.io [http://logz.io] about Observability and OpenTelemetry. Also features how much GPT-3 truly knows about you, the life of clippy and why you should always have an air of scepticism in what you read. Magic mind discount codes The next 10 days, you can get 40% off your subscription at: https://www.magicmind.co/chinchilla A 20% discount code of…","date":"2022-09-15","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"tiny-css-and-moores-magic-mac","title":"Tiny CSS and Moore's magic Mac","url":"/podcast/tiny-css-and-moores-magic-mac","summary":"In this episode I speak with the authors of Tiny CSS projects [https://www.manning.com/books/tiny-css-projects], Michael Gearon and Martine Dowden. I also look at Apple's new repair program, the saviour of Moore's law, and more! Magic mind discount codes The next 10 days, you can get 40% off your subscription at: https://www.magicmind.co/chinchilla A 20% discount code of any single purchase: CHIN…","date":"2022-09-05","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"games","id":"pioneers-path","title":"Pioneer's Path To Port Luxus - An Urban Mystery Adventure!","url":"/games","summary":"An urban mystery adventure to Port Luxus for Dungeon Masters looking to spice up dragon encounters beyond a repetitive slugfest.","date":"2022-09-04","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://www.dmsguild.com/product/408396/Pioneers-Path-To-Port-Luxus-An-Urban-Mystery-Adventure"},{"type":"games","id":"frostpunk","title":"Frostpunk","url":"/games","summary":"The epic board game based on the video game, which raised over €2 million on Kickstarter in 2020.","date":"2022-09-01","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://glasscannonunplugged.com/frostpunk-the-board-game/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-08-30-eye-on-observability-august","title":"An eye on observability for August 2022","url":"/blog/2022/2022-08-30-eye-on-observability-august","summary":"The silly season, or the quiet season for news depending on your perspective and country. Still, before we all prepare for packed announcement times in September and October here’s a few observability and cloud native related nuggets from across the interwebs.","date":"2022-08-30","tags":["Observability","Prometheus","PromQL"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chronosphere.io/learn/an-eye-on-observability-for-august/"},{"type":"games","id":"moons-millions","title":"Moon's Millions - A Phandalin Adventure!","url":"/games","summary":"A Phandalin adventure that gives high-level adventurers a fresh challenge beyond typical combat, puzzles, and traps.","date":"2022-08-30","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://www.dmsguild.com/product/407574/Moons-Millions-A-Phandalin-Adventure"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"matt-butcher-of-fermyon-gta-tauri-and-is-veganism-really-that-popular","title":"Matt Butcher of Fermyon, GTA, Tauri, and is Veganism really that popular?","url":"/podcast/matt-butcher-of-fermyon-gta-tauri-and-is-veganism-really-that-popular","summary":"On this episode I have Matt Butcher of Fermyon to talk about their cloud-hosted webassembly platform. I also cover Tauri, tech settings you should change, Umbrella Academy, ask if Veganism is really hype, and much more! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus…","date":"2022-08-18","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-08-06-testing-macos-betas-with-virtualbuddy","title":"Testing macOS betas with VirtualBuddy","url":"/blog/2022/2022-08-06-testing-macos-betas-with-virtualbuddy","summary":"Every time Apple announces a new macOS beta, I am tempted to somehow","date":"2022-08-06","tags":["macOS","web browsers"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/geekculture/testing-macos-betas-with-virtualbuddy-c4f38d680d99"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"apache-pulsar-with-patrick-mcfadin","title":"Apache Pulsar with Patrick McFadin","url":"/podcast/apache-pulsar-with-patrick-mcfadin","summary":"I have Patrick McFadin back on the show to discuss using Apache Pulsar for distributed cloud-native streaming and how it fits into Data Stax's plans and business goals. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [htt…","date":"2022-08-03","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-08-02-eye-on-observability-july-2022","title":"An eye on observability for July 2022","url":"/blog/2022/2022-08-02-eye-on-observability-july-2022","summary":"Well hello there! If you’re reading this monthly round up of Observability (and related) news, then you’re one of the few not on vacation and I thank you 🙇 . That last sentence was basically me making an excuse for not having too much to write about, but there’s just enough","date":"2022-08-02","tags":["Observability","Prometheus","PromQL"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chronosphere.io/learn/an-eye-on-observability-for-july-2022/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-07-29-cristian-heilmann-principal-program-manager-devel","title":"Cristian Heilmann - Principal Program Manager Developer Tools at Microsoft","url":"/blog/2022/2022-07-29-cristian-heilmann-principal-program-manager-devel","summary":"Ian and Chris speak with Cristian Heilmann, Principal Program Manager Developer Tools at Microsoft about his long career through developer relations/evangelism, teaching technical skills, and so much more!","date":"2022-07-29","tags":["Developer Experience"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"all-in-one-friendly-observability-with-groundcover","title":"All-in-one friendly observability with groundcover","url":"/podcast/all-in-one-friendly-observability-with-groundcover","summary":"On this episode I speak with Shahar Azulay of ground cover who claim an all-in one observability solution with minimal change to your existing application code. Too good to be true? I find out. But they do have a very cheerful interface at least ;) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscr…","date":"2022-07-27","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"sboms-and-software-security-with-scribe","title":"SBOMs and software security with Scribe","url":"/podcast/sboms-and-software-security-with-scribe","summary":"In this episode I speak with Barak Brudo of Scribe Security about software bills of material and their impact on software supply chains. https://scribesecurity.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://…","date":"2022-07-21","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"live-play-battle-of-the-bards-by-dustin-winter","title":"Live play - Battle of the Bards by Dustin Winter","url":"/podcast/live-play-battle-of-the-bards-by-dustin-winter","summary":"Cross-post from my Solo Adventurer channel and podcast. Will my musical past help me win a battle of the bands… Against myself? I compose a song, and maybe even sing it… Live! This game by Dustin Winter was featured in the latest Level 1 anthology part of Free RPG day. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss t…","date":"2022-07-19","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-07-10-increasing-cloud-native-sustainability-with-obser","title":"Increasing Cloud-Native Sustainability With Observability","url":"/blog/2022/2022-07-10-increasing-cloud-native-sustainability-with-obser","summary":"Learn about the unintended environmental impact and cost of the proliferation of cloud services, frameworks, and \"throw an other service at it\" development.","date":"2022-07-10","tags":["Cloud Native"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/increasing-cloud-native-sustainability-with-observ"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"a-bumper-bonus-buffet","title":"A bumper bonus buffet","url":"/podcast/a-bumper-bonus-buffet","summary":"Back again after a lot of events, bouncing around the globe. So in this episode I report back on Open Infra Summit, OSCAL, HashiConf, and Monitorama. I also look at links from the past few weeks that caught my eye. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episo…","date":"2022-07-07","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-07-07-eye-on-observability-june-2022","title":"An eye on observability for June 2022","url":"/blog/2022/2022-07-07-eye-on-observability-june-2022","summary":"Phew! A group of Chronospherians attended Monitorama back in person in Portland and we had a whistlestop (partial) week meeting customers and observability enthusiasts. I had a talk which sparked a lot of interesting discussion, we hosted a very successful whisk(e)y tasting, and all in all, had a great time.","date":"2022-07-07","tags":["Observability","Prometheus","PromQL"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chronosphere.io/learn/an-eye-on-observability-for-june-2022/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-07-05-cloud-native-sustainability","title":"Increasing cloud native sustainability with observability","url":"/blog/2022/2022-07-05-cloud-native-sustainability","summary":"What are the hidden impacts of all the infrastructure and dependencies that are used to run a cloud native application?","date":"2022-07-05","tags":["Observability","Sustainability"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chronosphere.io/learn/increasing-cloud-native-sustainability-with-observability/"},{"type":"events","id":"2022-06-27-monitorama","title":"Monitorama","url":"/events","summary":"A talk examining how observability practices can help measure and improve sustainability.","date":"2022-06-27","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://monitorama.com/2022/pdx.html"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-06-26-open-source-monitoring-and-metrics-landscape","title":"Open Source Monitoring and Metrics Landscape","url":"/blog/2022/2022-06-26-open-source-monitoring-and-metrics-landscape","summary":"Navigate what open source monitoring standards are available, where in the ecosystem they fit, and how interoperable they are with each other.","date":"2022-06-26","tags":["Open Source","Monitoring","Metrics"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/open-source-monitoring-and-metrics-landscape"},{"type":"events","id":"2022-06-18-oscal","title":"OSCAL","url":"/events","summary":"Video consumption of information was already increasingly popular, and in the past year, video consumption and usage has accelerated. There's an increasing amount of video versions of blog posts, livestreaming of tutorials, online office hours, and much more.","date":"2022-06-18","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://oscal.openlabs.cc"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"kong-koyeb-and-kuma","title":"Kong, Koyeb, and Kuma","url":"/podcast/kong-koyeb-and-kuma","summary":"Hey all, more KubeCon kontent for you, this time Vic and Yann from Kon and Koyeb, talking service meshes. Plus a few more details from WWDC and frameworks increase developer adoption. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.su…","date":"2022-06-15","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"amanda-brock-of-openuk","title":"Amanda Brock of OpenUK","url":"/podcast/amanda-brock-of-openuk","summary":"This episode I take a look at open source censorship in China, wether forms spelled the end of the WWW and I speak with Amanda Brock of Open UK about their projects and their current state of open survey. The survey - https://bit.ly/OpenUKStateofOpen2022 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other…","date":"2022-06-08","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2022-06-07-open-infra-summit","title":"Open Infra Summit","url":"/events","summary":"I report on the latest updates and best practices for Kubernetes and Cloud-native computing.","date":"2022-06-07","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://openinfra.dev/summit/"},{"type":"games","id":"silicon-valley-mystery","title":"Silicon Vallery mystery","url":"/games","summary":"A detective game where players race to solve a mystery using the freshest clues, set in Silicon Valley with resources to create your own scenarios.","date":"2022-06-05","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.itch.io/silicon-valley-mystery"},{"type":"games","id":"solemscriptures","title":"Solemn Scriptures of the Battle Nuns of the Mercyful Sepulcher","url":"/games","summary":"A sourcebook of occult and divine spells for the Order, system neutral with stats for 5e and Hypertellurians.","date":"2022-06-05","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://mottokrosh.com/machinations/solemn-scriptures/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-06-01-eye-on-observability-may","title":"An eye on observability for May 2022","url":"/blog/2022/2022-06-01-eye-on-observability-may","summary":"Yes, KubeCon returned with vengeance to Europe, and over 7000 cloud native hungry folks made their way to Valencia to see what was new in the world of Kubernetes and cloud computing. There was a lot that happened, and for more detail, read our wrap up post, the rest of this newsletter summarizes some of the most relevant topics.","date":"2022-06-01","tags":["Observability","Prometheus","PromQL"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chronosphere.io/learn/an-eye-on-observability-for-may/"},{"type":"books","id":"collective-verses-2","title":"Collective Verses Volume II","url":"/books/collective-verses-2","summary":"A collection of poetry written during the April 2022 April Daily Poem challenge hosted by the Storytelling Collective, featuring three of my poems - Hunger, Endless, and Decay.","date":"2022-06-01","tags":[],"categories":["writing"],"externalUrl":"https://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/397653/Collective-Verses--Volume-II"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"kubecon-eu-with-napptive-simplified-kubernetes-environments","title":"KubeCon EU with Napptive, simplified Kubernetes environments","url":"/podcast/kubecon-eu-with-napptive-simplified-kubernetes-environments","summary":"In this first interview recorded at KubeCon EU in Valencia I speak with Napptive, who aim to simplify Kubernetes environments to be usable by anyone. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasque…","date":"2022-06-01","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2022-06-01-soapconf","title":"Soap! Conf","url":"/events","summary":"Video consumption of information was already increasingly popular, and in the past year, video consumption and usage has accelerated. There's an increasing amount of video versions of blog posts, livestreaming of tutorials, online office hours, and much more.","date":"2022-06-01","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://soapconf.com/workshops-schedule/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-05-31-instrumenting-a-javascript-application-for-opente","title":"Instrumenting a JavaScript Application for OpenTelemetry, Part 1- Setup","url":"/blog/2022/2022-05-31-instrumenting-a-javascript-application-for-opente","summary":"This post looks at the first steps for instrumenting a JavaScript application to report OpenTelemetry metrics.","date":"2022-05-31","tags":["JavaScript","Metrics"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/instrumenting-a-javascript-application-for-opentel"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"kubernetes-powered-time-travel","title":"Kubernetes powered time travel","url":"/podcast/kubernetes-powered-time-travel","summary":"This issue I am back from (in-person!) KubeCon. I also look at time travel, erasing yourself from the internet, and how you'd better up your game if you want to read or write poetry, because the robots are coming… --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episod…","date":"2022-05-26","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2022-05-18-kubecon-eu-2022","title":"KubeCon and CloudNativeCon","url":"/events","summary":"I report on the latest updates and best practices for Kubernetes and Cloud-native computing.","date":"2022-05-18","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://events.linuxfoundation.org/kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"back-to-the-baltics-with-techchill","title":"Back to the Baltics with TechChill","url":"/podcast/back-to-the-baltics-with-techchill","summary":"This episode I cover my recent trip to Riga and Tech Chill, a wonderful startup and tech event in the Latvian capital of Riga. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmed…","date":"2022-05-13","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"books","id":"flashbang-3","title":"Flashbang! A Collection of Very Short Stories Volume III","url":"/books/flashbang-3","summary":"A collection of short fiction written during the Storytelling Collective's February 2022 Flash Fiction February challenge, featuring my story - Oath.","date":"2022-05-06","tags":[],"categories":["writing"],"externalUrl":"https://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/390676/Flashbang-A-Collection-of-Very-Short-Stories--Volume-III"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"to-open-or-not-to-open","title":"To open or not to open","url":"/podcast/to-open-or-not-to-open","summary":"Hey Gregarious Mammals 👋 Back after holidays, work travel, sickness, and general \"bleh\". Life is getting back to pre-2020 normality and it's taking a little getting used to! 😅 Anyway, as it's been a while, there's a lot to cover, so let's get down to it. xx Chinch --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this…","date":"2022-05-06","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-04-26-eye-on-observability","title":"An eye on observability for April 2022","url":"/blog/2022/2022-04-26-eye-on-observability","summary":"Observability is fast changing from a practice that those close to engineering knew was useful, to a practice that everyone knows is useful for technical and business reasons.","date":"2022-04-26","tags":["Observability","Prometheus","PromQL"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chronosphere.io/learn/an-eye-on-observability-for-april-2022/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"twedit","title":"Twedit","url":"/podcast/twedit","summary":"In this issue I cover the far-reaching nuances of privacy, switching from Google, Twitter breaks itself, and D&D goes beyond! 🎲 xx Chinch --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substac…","date":"2022-04-15","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"hardening-javascript-with-kris-kowal","title":"Hardening JavaScript with Kris Kowal","url":"/podcast/hardening-javascript-with-kris-kowal","summary":"In this episode I speak with Kris Kowal, a software engineer at Agoric. We discuss the origins of securing code, the future of Javascript, and, Chinchillas. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchi…","date":"2022-04-06","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-04-06-tales-of-an-attempted-switch-from-google-workspace","title":"Tales of an attempted switch from Google Workspace","url":"/blog/2022/2022-04-06-tales-of-an-attempted-switch-from-google-workspace","summary":"Many years ago, I took over a small publishing company, that's an","date":"2022-04-06","tags":["Google","Productivity"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/geekculture/tales-of-an-attempted-switch-from-google-workspace-fbf53fde177e"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"exodus","title":"Exodus","url":"/podcast/exodus","summary":"Some serious subjects for this issue, from forced human migrations, to what engineers can do about sustainability. Sometimes that's what's needed. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks…","date":"2022-03-31","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-03-29-eye-on-observability","title":"An eye on observability for March 2022","url":"/blog/2022/2022-03-29-eye-on-observability","summary":"The sun is rearing its sleepy head across much of the northern hemisphere, making news a little quiet this month. But we have a few choice items for you, and with the first in-person conference seasons in a while on the horizon, there’s plenty more to come!","date":"2022-03-29","tags":["Observability","Prometheus","PromQL"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chronosphere.io/learn/an-eye-on-observability-for-march-2022/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"internet-3-point-uh-oh","title":"Internet 3 point uh oh","url":"/podcast/internet-3-point-uh-oh","summary":"In this episode I cover risks to the internet from various sources, technology for cyber defence, and more. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmedium=podcast&utmcamp…","date":"2022-03-24","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"charmed-kubeflow-with-rob-gibbon-of-canonical","title":"Charmed Kubeflow with Rob Gibbon of Canonical","url":"/podcast/charmed-kubeflow-with-rob-gibbon-of-canonical","summary":"In this Chinchilla Squeaks interview I speak with Rob Gibbon, Product Manager at Canonical about their flavour of Kubeflow and how it can be used for machine learning workloads with Kubernetes. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchilla…","date":"2022-03-03","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-03-02-eye-on-observability","title":"An eye on observability for February 2022","url":"/blog/2022/2022-03-02-eye-on-observability","summary":"As big fans of bestowing the positives of distributed tracing, we’re excited to see so many others in the observability space discussing the subject.","date":"2022-03-02","tags":["Observability","Prometheus","PromQL"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chronosphere.io/learn/an-eye-on-observability-for-february-2022/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"forging-the-meta","title":"Forging the Meta","url":"/podcast/forging-the-meta","summary":"This episode I take a look back at old tech concepts made new, Using AI to understand language, the future of Firefox and much more! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?…","date":"2022-02-24","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/dato-cms","title":"Testing DatoCMS, another headless CMS that promises an easier life","url":"/blog/2022/dato-cms","summary":"I put DatoCMS through its paces to see if it finally solves the gap between a great editing experience and simple content delivery that every other headless CMS has left me with.","date":"2022-02-23","tags":["CMS","Headless CMS","DatoCMS","Jamstack"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-02-20-how-setup-raspberry-pi-files-media","title":"How I set up a RaspberryPi to share my files and media","url":"/blog/2022/2022-02-20-how-setup-raspberry-pi-files-media","summary":"Over the past months, I've been slowly assembling a suite of self-hosted tools and services on a shiny new RaspberryPi 400, and finally, I think I am finished and ready to write up my experiences. At the least, it will help remind me what I have, but I hope it might also help others taking similar journeys.","date":"2022-02-20","tags":["ebooks","calibre","nextcloud","minidnla"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"kubernetes-automation-with-damian-marquez-of-kubermatic","title":"Kubernetes automation with Damian Marquez of Kubermatic","url":"/podcast/kubernetes-automation-with-damian-marquez-of-kubermatic","summary":"In this interview and demo I speak with Damian Marquez of Kubermatic about their Kubernetes management and automation platform. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmme…","date":"2022-02-10","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-02-07-the-differences-between-a-service-catalog-interna","title":"The Differences Between a Service Catalog, Internal Developer Platform, and...","url":"/blog/2022/2022-02-07-the-differences-between-a-service-catalog-interna","summary":"There are many services and tools to help manage microservices. This post looks at some options to highlight the similarities, differences, and when or why to use one.","date":"2022-02-07","tags":["Paas","Microservices","Platform As A Service","Services"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/the-differences-between-a-service-catalog-internal"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-02-06-a-search-for-an-evernote-replacement","title":"A search for an Evernote replacement","url":"/blog/2022/2022-02-06-a-search-for-an-evernote-replacement","summary":"I was a happy, loyal, and paying","date":"2022-02-06","tags":["Evernote","Productivity"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/geekculture/a-sreach-for-an-evernote-replacement-4481322202a6"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-02-06-the-differences-between-a-service-catalog-interna","title":"The Differences Between a Service Catalog, Internal Developer Platform, and...","url":"/blog/2022/2022-02-06-the-differences-between-a-service-catalog-interna","summary":"There are many services and tools to help manage microservices. This post looks at some options to highlight the similarities, differences, and when or why to use one.","date":"2022-02-06","tags":["Paas","Microservices","Platform As A Service","Services"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/the-differences-between-a-service-catalog-internal"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"old-man-shouts-at-cloud-computing","title":"Old man shouts at cloud computing","url":"/podcast/old-man-shouts-at-cloud-computing","summary":"In this episode I discuss ageing entrepreneur, staff exoduses, unsung heroes, futuristic interfaces, and more! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmedium=podcast&utmc…","date":"2022-02-04","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-01-27-eye-on-observability","title":"An eye on observability for January 2022","url":"/blog/2022/2022-01-27-eye-on-observability","summary":"Welcome to 2022 🥳 and a year that already promises to be as lively and active for Observability.","date":"2022-01-27","tags":["Observability","Prometheus","PromQL"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chronosphere.io/learn/an-eye-on-observability-for-january-2022/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-01-27-tools-docs-as-code","title":"Tools to help generate screenshots for your documentation","url":"/blog/2022/2022-01-27-tools-docs-as-code","summary":"Docs as code is an increasingly popular approach for tech writers that follows similar principles for writing that developers follow for writing code. Docs as code typically means writing in markup languages such as markdown, asciidoc, or restructured text. The tools for writing in these markup languages are different from the specialized technical writing tools you might have used before, and again, are often designed for coding or general writing. This post looks at some of the best you can try if considering a switch to docs as code.","date":"2022-01-27","tags":["Editors","Docs As Code","Tools"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.knowledgeowl.com/home/toolsforeditingdocsascode"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-01-26-the-importance-of-giving-and-receiving-in-communities","title":"The importance of giving and receiving in communities","url":"/blog/2022/2022-01-26-the-importance-of-giving-and-receiving-in-communities","summary":"2021 was a difficult year for many. That's not to say that 2020 was any","date":"2022-01-26","tags":["Community","Events"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/@chrischinchilla/the-importance-of-giving-and-receiving-in-communities-2aaeb10ea86a"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"a-virtual-problem","title":"A virtual problem","url":"/podcast/a-virtual-problem","summary":"I am back after a small break… And a spell of COVID 😷. This issue I look far and wide at the \"wonders\" of Crypto, ponder why I should care if I take too long to reply to an email, and dig deep into a thorny issue I recently discovered with virtual cameras on M1 Macs 🤓. xx Chinch --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like…","date":"2022-01-20","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-01-20-reducing-negative-language-documentation","title":"Reducing negative and biased language in documentation","url":"/blog/2022/2022-01-20-reducing-negative-language-documentation","summary":"The discussions on what represents negative, biased, and diverse language continue in many open source communities, often sparking heated and strongly opinionated debate. Setting those discussions aside, say you have decided what language you want to increase, decrease, or change in your community. How do you enforce and track those changes?","date":"2022-01-20","tags":["Documentation","Linting"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chronosphere.io/learn/reducing-negative-and-biased-language-in-documentation/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2022/2022-01-13-devops-tools","title":"Our Favorite DevOps Tools for 2022","url":"/blog/2022/2022-01-13-devops-tools","summary":"“DevOps” merges Development and Operations team functions through practices and tooling, all the while making continuous improvements to applications. Teams that adopt DevOps tools, culture and practices perform better and build faster. Let’s walk through each stage of DevOps and the popular DevOps tools you may want to consider in 2022.","date":"2022-01-13","tags":["DevOps","Tools"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://konghq.com/blog/devops-tools/"},{"type":"games","id":"forests-of-pangaia","title":"Forests of Pangaia","url":"/games","summary":"A competitive forest-building game - proofread the rules manual.","date":"2022-01-01","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/317859/forests-pangaia"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"twenty-twenty-uh-huh","title":"Twenty twenty uh huh","url":"/podcast/twenty-twenty-uh-huh","summary":"I take a look back on the year that was. What did I accomplish, what did I want to accomplish and what do I have planned for 2022? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?ut…","date":"2021-12-30","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-12-27-pixel-6-to-google-or-not-to-google","title":"The Pixel 6. To Google or not to Google?","url":"/blog/2021/2021-12-27-pixel-6-to-google-or-not-to-google","summary":"I am one of those rare and crazy people that owned the one and only","date":"2021-12-27","tags":["Gadgets","Mobile","Android"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/@chrischinchilla/the-pixel-6-to-google-or-not-to-google-f3938b718f57"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-12-20-what-does-it-take-to-excel-and-should-you-care","title":"What does it take to excel and should you care?","url":"/blog/2021/2021-12-20-what-does-it-take-to-excel-and-should-you-care","summary":"This Weekend I have been thinking about excellence, or what does it mean","date":"2021-12-20","tags":["Community","Work","Productivity"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/@chrischinchilla/what-does-it-take-to-excel-and-should-you-care-41872e869d8c"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"abstract-time-machine","title":"Abstract time machine","url":"/podcast/abstract-time-machine","summary":"In this episode I look at the abstraction of code, writing rules (and why?), Mac migrations, and historical religions (ooh yeah). --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utm…","date":"2021-12-17","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-12-14-gke-autopilot","title":"How to use Chronosphere to monitor your GKE Autopilot deployment","url":"/blog/2021/2021-12-14-gke-autopilot","summary":"As big Kubernetes users ourselves, we know that one of the best ways to run Kubernetes is to use Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). Earlier this year, Google Cloud announced a new mode for running GKE called Autopilot. Google Cloud designed Autopilot to reduce the operational cost of managing clusters, optimize clusters for production, and yield higher workload availability. Autopilot takes a lot of the legwork and complexity out of managing Kubernetes clusters, saving you time and money. But, like all critical infrastructure, you still need a plan for monitoring and observability for the cluster. That’s where Chronosphere comes in.","date":"2021-12-14","tags":["Alerting","Kubernetes","Cloud"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chronosphere.io/learn/how-to-use-chronosphere-to-monitor-your-gke-autopilot-deployment/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-12-12-migrating-applications-and-data-to-a-new-mac-without-using-time-machine","title":"Migrating applications and data to a new Mac without using Time Machine","url":"/blog/2021/2021-12-12-migrating-applications-and-data-to-a-new-mac-without-using-time-machine","summary":"I have been trialing a handful of tools and processes recently building","date":"2021-12-12","tags":["macOS","Backup","Homebrew"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/@chrischinchilla/migrating-applications-and-data-to-a-new-mac-without-using-time-machine-240e1de77892"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-12-12-migrating-mac","title":"Migrating applications and data to a new Mac without using Time Machine","url":"/blog/2021/2021-12-12-migrating-mac","summary":"You want to migrate data to a new Mac but are also interested in using a clean install instead of restoring from a backup to remove any of that unnecessary crud that gathers, especially when you someone like me who constantly installs and uninstalls applications and tools. I have been trialing a handful of tools and processes recently building towards helping with this and now I have a shiny new M1 Pro laptop it seemed a perfect time to see how useful they were. Here’s what I wanted to test and how the process went.","date":"2021-12-12","tags":["Mac","macOS","M1","Migration"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"a-world-of-wires","title":"A world of wires","url":"/podcast/a-world-of-wires","summary":"In this episode I look at the (un)intended consequences of tech utopias, why wired is back baby, why (oh why) are 15 minute delivery companies spreading so fast, reflections on Nanowrimo, and much much more. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, vi…","date":"2021-12-08","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-12-04-nanowrimo-2021","title":"Nanowrimo 2021 wrap up and novel status","url":"/blog/2021/2021-12-04-nanowrimo-2021","summary":"For Nanowrimo (national novel writing month) 2021 I continued my novel from last year. To remind anyone who hasn’t followed my sparse updates on the novel, the novel is a speculative fiction set after a global zombie and human conflict where the two (let’s call them) species coexist in a tense harmony. For Nanowrimo this year, I set myself two targets.","date":"2021-12-04","tags":["Writing","Fiction","Nanowrimo"],"categories":["tech","writing"]},{"type":"games","id":"fairy-trails","title":"Fairy Trails","url":"/games","summary":"A Forged in the Dark tabletop RPG where you play fairies on wild and wonderful adventures.","date":"2021-12-03","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/377573/Fairy-Trails-Deluxe-Edition"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"maximising-content-with-christopher-willis-of-acrolinx","title":"Maximising content with Christopher Willis of Acrolinx","url":"/podcast/maximising-content-with-christopher-willis-of-acrolinx","summary":"Acrolinx is an AI-powered platform/framework/tool/🤷‍♂️ for content optimisation. I have always wanted to know more about the product, and for this episode I speak with their CMO, Christopher Willis to finally find out more. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to b…","date":"2021-11-24","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-11-18-pagerduty-chronosphere","title":"How PagerDuty and Chronosphere work together to help you get alerted faster","url":"/blog/2021/2021-11-18-pagerduty-chronosphere","summary":"One of the most important capabilities of an observability platform is alerting. How quickly can you know when something is wrong, so you can rapidly triage and remediate that problem? Chronosphere recently released a new approach to defining alerts called “Monitors,” which gives users more flexibility with alerts and makes them easier to create and manage.","date":"2021-11-18","tags":["Alerting","Triage","Observability"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chronosphere.io/learn/how-pagerduty-and-chronosphere-work-together-to-help-you-get-alerted-faster/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"reach-out-and-touch-bar","title":"Reach out and Touch Bar","url":"/podcast/reach-out-and-touch-bar","summary":"This episode… The browser wars, developer tools you should now about, how could the Touch Bar have succeeded and much more! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmedium…","date":"2021-11-18","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-11-11-eye-observability-nov","title":"An eye on observability for November 2021","url":"/blog/2021/2021-11-11-eye-observability-nov","summary":"As conference season slowly draws to a close, and we fill that few months between the end of summer and the start of the seemingly never-ending holiday season (hemisphere and region-dependent naturally), there has been a flurry of activity in the observability ecosystem, so it’s time to, err, cast an eye over it 😬.","date":"2021-11-11","tags":["Observability","Prometheus","PromQL"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chronosphere.io/learn/an-eye-on-observability-for-november-2021/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"dial-m1-for-monterey","title":"Dial M1 for Monterey","url":"/podcast/dial-m1-for-monterey","summary":"In this episode I discuss the latest releases from Apple, the tribulations of Clubhouse, 20 years of the iPod, what to do with files you find on old computers, and much more! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.co…","date":"2021-11-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-11-08-continuous-delivery-with-humanitec-postman-collection","title":"Continuous Delivery With the Humanitec Postman Collection","url":"/blog/2021/2021-11-08-continuous-delivery-with-humanitec-postman-collection","summary":"Humanitec provides an API-first way to build your Internal Developer Platform to enable developer environment self-service. This post shows how to use that API with Postman collections to make creating environments even easier.","date":"2021-11-08","tags":["Postman","API","Gitops","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://humanitec.com/blog/continuous-delivery-with-humanitec-postman-collection"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-10-28-games-tools","title":"Digital tools for boardgames and roleplay games","url":"/blog/2021/2021-10-28-games-tools","summary":"I endlessly discover cool digital tools, apps, and websites for enhancing board games and roleplay games and needed an excuse to try them. So I wrote a blogpost!","date":"2021-10-28","tags":["Board Games","toleplay","Tools"],"categories":["games","tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-10-28-open-source-tracing-landscape","title":"The open source tracing landscape","url":"/blog/2021/2021-10-28-open-source-tracing-landscape","summary":"Distributed tracing tools help you track a request through an application or system that consists of multiple applications, services, and infrastructure. This gives you a deeper understanding of what is happening within the system through graphical representations of how much time the request took on each step. A span is the building block of any distributed trace, with each component in a service contributing a span to the distributed workflow. There are a handful of well known open source tracing tools, and another handful of lesser known ones. Most work in similar ways, with one or two nuanced differences, and this post walks through most of them to help find the right tracing tool for you.","date":"2021-10-28","tags":["Observability","Open Source","Tracing"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chronosphere.io/learn/the-open-source-tracing-landscape/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"kubecon-na-2021","title":"KubeCon NA 2021","url":"/podcast/kubecon-na-2021","summary":"Another KubeCon roundup from the recent hybrid event in Los Angeles. Featured are: Nick Durkin of Harness Buddy Brewer and Mark Robinson of New Relic Anurag Gupta of Calyptia Martin Mao of Chronosphere Chang Li of Hashicorp Laurent of Cast AI Enjoy! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subsc…","date":"2021-10-27","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2021-10-17-all-things-open","title":"All things open","url":"/events","summary":"The discussions on what constitutes negative, biased, and diverse language continue in many open source communities, often sparking heated, and strongly-opinionated debate. But if you have decided what language you want to increase, decrease, or change in your community, how do you enforce and track those changes? In this presentation I look at how to use the open source language linter tool, Vale, to check text (in supported locations and formats) for rules and styles you define. I start with showing how to setup and configure the tool, and then how to use existing rule sets, or create your own. Finally I show how you can track progress during initial language overhauls, and how to track violations moving forward.","date":"2021-10-17","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://2021.allthingsopen.org"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"a-landline-life-coach","title":"A landline life coach","url":"/podcast/a-landline-life-coach","summary":"How will the landline \"die\", adding emotion to games, Twitch.tv [http://twitch.tv] leaked, life coaches exposed, and much more! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmme…","date":"2021-10-13","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"only-fools-and-tech-courses","title":"Only fools and tech courses","url":"/podcast/only-fools-and-tech-courses","summary":"In this episode I cover AI coding, GitLab, filling all those tech vacancies, trusting VPNs, undersea cables, and obscure actors with popularity in equally obscure places… xx Chinch --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.subst…","date":"2021-10-01","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-09-22-containers-days-hamburg","title":"Reporting back from Container Days Hamburg","url":"/blog/2021/2021-09-22-containers-days-hamburg","summary":"Nestled amongst the port of Hamburg, the sound of cranes loading containers of a different kind onto vast cavernous ships, I’m at my first in-person conference in about 18 months. It’s taking place on an old cargo ship, the HMS Bleichen (German), a ship obsoleted by the arrival of containerization and now home to talks about containers of a different kind.","date":"2021-09-22","tags":["Conferences","Open Source","Containers"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chronosphere.io/learn/reporting-back-from-container-days-hamburg/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"screw-you-reality","title":"Screw you reality!","url":"/podcast/screw-you-reality","summary":"In this episode I look at attempts at a floating \"paradise\", AI in education, the race to delivery groceries, Umberto Eco's advice for writers and more! Like what you hear? Read, watch, listen to, and play with my creations: https://chrischinchilla.com Sign up for my office hours: https://bit.ly/ddofficehours Join my Discord server: https://discord.gg/s3UFwFejKT Support me: https://chrischinchill…","date":"2021-09-16","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"youre-not-as-smart-as-you-might-think-you-are","title":"You're not as smart as you might think you are","url":"/podcast/youre-not-as-smart-as-you-might-think-you-are","summary":"In this episode I cover… The history of smartphones, Docker, and Hyperlinks. Also is AI fast catching up to (bad) developers, and what will become of Afghanistans Internet? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com…","date":"2021-09-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-09-07-my-audio-video-production-setup","title":"My audio and video production setup 2021","url":"/blog/2021/2021-09-07-my-audio-video-production-setup","summary":"I’ve been running podcasts for years, and while I worked on some video courses in the past, over the past year I have invested more time in my audio and video setup, primarily for live-streaming. After months and months of getting It to a point where I am “kind of” happy with it, I thought it was high time I documented it. Partly so others can learn from my setup, and partly so I can keep tabs on it myself.","date":"2021-09-07","tags":["Video","Audio","Podcasts","streaming"],"categories":["tech","music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-09-03-nextcloud-and-kubernetes-in-the-cloud-with-kuma-s","title":"Nextcloud and Kubernetes in the Cloud With Kuma Service Mesh","url":"/blog/2021/2021-09-03-nextcloud-and-kubernetes-in-the-cloud-with-kuma-s","summary":"Want a powerful, self-hosted personal cloud? Then look no further than Nextcloud running on Kubernetes with a service mesh to add all the help and features you need.","date":"2021-09-03","tags":["Kubernetes","Service Mesh","Gke","Self-Hosting","Cloud Computing"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/powering-kubernetes-in-the-cloud-with-kuma-service-1"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"careful-where-you-put-that-data","title":"Careful where you put that data","url":"/podcast/careful-where-you-put-that-data","summary":"In this episode I look at the many facets of unintended data, Google's messaging journey, happy birthday Linux, and much more. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmed…","date":"2021-09-02","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-08-31-eye-observability-aug","title":"An eye on observability for August 2021","url":"/blog/2021/2021-08-31-eye-observability-aug","summary":"How did you enjoy the first installment of this regular look back at a month in observability? Well, it’s back again, and as August and vacations draw to a close, the amount of news and content to tell you about is increasing. It’s time to get started, and as always, get in touch if you have stories for inclusion.","date":"2021-08-31","tags":["Observability","Prometheus","PromQL"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chronosphere.io/learn/an-eye-on-observability-for-august-2021/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-08-03-eye-observability-jul","title":"An eye on observability for July 2021","url":"/blog/2021/2021-08-03-eye-observability-jul","summary":"Welcome to the first installment of a monthly look back at the latest news in observability and the related cloud-native landscape. If you have any stories you think are worth considering, get in touch.","date":"2021-08-03","tags":["Observability","Prometheus","PromQL"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chronosphere.io/learn/an-eye-on-observability-for-july-2021/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-07-22-open-source-monitoring-landscape","title":"Open source monitoring and metrics landscape","url":"/blog/2021/2021-07-22-open-source-monitoring-landscape","summary":"Metrics and managing and understanding them is an essential part of any modern complex application. As with any active and busy technical ecosystem, there is a proliferation of competing open source monitoring standards. A handful emerges as the most popular solutions. Slowly, the community creates a standard that most projects follow in some way.","date":"2021-07-22","tags":["Observability","Prometheus","PromQL"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chronosphere.io/learn/open-source-monitoring-landscape/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"relaunch-announcement","title":"Relaunch announcement","url":"/podcast/relaunch-announcement","summary":"I've been quiet for a while, here's why. I'm relaunching the show soon and here's what I have planned. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmedium=podcast&utmcampaign=…","date":"2021-07-21","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"games","id":"europop-vampire","title":"Europop Vampire interactive fiction","url":"/games","summary":"A short piece of interactive fiction where you play a vampire deciding what to do for a night of entertainment.","date":"2021-07-16","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.itch.io/europop-vampire"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-07-15-why-your-software-teams-need-internal-developer-platform","title":"Why your software teams need an internal developer platform","url":"/blog/2021/2021-07-15-why-your-software-teams-need-internal-developer-platform","summary":"Companies that are built upon or are building software typically want to move fast and not break things. But how can growing teams allow developers to keep building new features and fixing bugs without operations teams slowing them down with complex and arduous processes?","date":"2021-07-15","tags":["DevOps","Kubernetes"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://techbeacon.com/app-dev-testing/why-your-software-teams-need-internal-developer-platform"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"real-time-analytics-with-venkat-venkataramani-of-rockset","title":"Real-Time Analytics with Venkat Venkataramani of Rockset","url":"/podcast/real-time-analytics-with-venkat-venkataramani-of-rockset","summary":"Rockset promises The real-time indexing database for modern data applications. How does it compare to the competition? I speak with Venkat Venkataramani to find out. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https:…","date":"2021-07-07","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"full-stack-automation-with-consul-and-nomad-of-hashicorp","title":"Full Stack Automation with Consul and Nomad of HashiCorp","url":"/podcast/full-stack-automation-with-consul-and-nomad-of-hashicorp","summary":"Many of us in software development know of, and have used HashiCorp projects. How do they stay innovative in a rapidly changing ecosystem? I speak with Ray (Consul) and Chang (Nomad) to find out more. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chi…","date":"2021-06-30","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-06-24-how-can-recording-and-roll-up-rules-help-your-metrics","title":"How can recording and roll-up rules help your metrics?","url":"/blog/2021/2021-06-24-how-can-recording-and-roll-up-rules-help-your-metrics","summary":"If you need to reduce the amount of metrics data stored in your time series database (TSDB) or improve query performance, there are generally two common methods to do so.","date":"2021-06-24","tags":["Observability","Prometheus","PromQL"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chronosphere.io/learn/how-can-recording-and-roll-up-rules-help-your-metrics/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"modern-application-connectivity-with-idit-levine-of-soloio","title":"Modern Application Connectivity with Idit Levine of Solo.io","url":"/podcast/modern-application-connectivity-with-idit-levine-of-soloio","summary":"I have Idit Levine back on the show to discuss how solo.io [http://solo.io] use Istio and Envoy Proxy to provide API Infrastructure from the Edge to Service Mesh. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://c…","date":"2021-06-23","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"monitor-everything-with-robin-schumacher-of-netdata","title":"Monitor everything with Robin Schumacher of Netdata","url":"/podcast/monitor-everything-with-robin-schumacher-of-netdata","summary":"Netdata helps you troubleshoot slowdowns and anomalies in your infrastructure with thousands of per-second metrics, meaningful visualizations, and insightful health alarms with zero configuration. Observability is a busy space, how do they compare? I speak with Robin Schumacher to find out. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you w…","date":"2021-06-16","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"creating-production-ready-containers-with-john-amaral-of-slimai","title":"Creating Production-ready containers with John Amaral of Slim.ai","url":"/podcast/creating-production-ready-containers-with-john-amaral-of-slimai","summary":"How can slim.ai [http://slim.ai] help you create production-ready containers quickly? I speak with CEO, John Amaral to find out how. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?…","date":"2021-06-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"games","id":"uprising","title":"Uprising","url":"/games","summary":"The first fully cooperative 4X fantasy board game, which raised over $300k on Kickstarter and $600k for a second printing.","date":"2021-06-05","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://uprising.nemesis.games"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"ransomware-in-kubernetes-with-veeam","title":"Ransomware in Kubernetes with Veeam","url":"/podcast/ransomware-in-kubernetes-with-veeam","summary":"Infrastructure as code offers many possibilities, but introduces a large amount of potential security vulnerabilities. How can Veeam help? I speak with Michael Cade to find out. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack…","date":"2021-06-02","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-05-27-an-introduction-to-promql","title":"An Introduction to PromQL","url":"/blog/2021/2021-05-27-an-introduction-to-promql","summary":"For metrics stored within Prometheus, the Prometheus Querying Language (PromQL) is the main way to query and retrieve the results you are looking for. Chronosphere supports querying metrics data using PromQL and Graphite functions, but as PromQL is the most popular option we see customers use. PromQL has some differences to other query languages you might have used. Here is an overview guide to get you started.","date":"2021-05-27","tags":["Observability","Prometheus","PromQL"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chronosphere.io/learn/an-introduction-to-promql/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-05-20-kubecon-2021","title":"KubeCon EU 2021 - Observability and Interoperability take center stage","url":"/blog/2021/2021-05-20-kubecon-2021","summary":"As many large-scale events start to feel they’re close to “getting back to normal,” this year’s KubeCon EU was the second online, and while it lacked any large announcements, there was plenty of consolidation and maturing of concepts.","date":"2021-05-20","tags":["Observability","Kubernetes","PromQL","KubeCon"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chronosphere.io/learn/kubecon-eu-2021-observability-and-interoperability-take-center-stage/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"percona-and-the-future-of-data-with-matt-yonkovit","title":"Percona and the future of data with Matt Yonkovit","url":"/podcast/percona-and-the-future-of-data-with-matt-yonkovit","summary":"I speak with Percona's Chief Experience Officer to discuss their recent Percona live event, the future of data and how we store and collaborate with it, and what open source means to the company. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchil…","date":"2021-05-20","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"building-and-sharing-data-with-streamlit","title":"Building and sharing data with Streamlit","url":"/podcast/building-and-sharing-data-with-streamlit","summary":"Streamlit turns data scripts into shareable web apps in minutes. All in Python. All for free. No front‑end experience required. I speak with Adrien Treuille and Amanda Kelly to find out more about the company and how it fits into data pipelines. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribe…","date":"2021-05-13","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"open-source-service-mesh-with-william-morgan-of-linkerd","title":"Open Source Service Mesh with William Morgan of Linkerd","url":"/podcast/open-source-service-mesh-with-william-morgan-of-linkerd","summary":"This episode starts a run of talks from KubeCon EU 2021, and I speak with William Morgan of Linkerd, the first service mesh for Kubernetes. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substa…","date":"2021-05-06","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-04-20-10-great-podcasts-software-test-engineers","title":"10 great podcasts for software test engineers","url":"/blog/2021/2021-04-20-10-great-podcasts-software-test-engineers","summary":"Software development practices change fast. Development teams use an endless stream of new tools, frameworks, and practices, and it’s your job as a test engineer to make sure that no matter what your development teams use or create, everything runs and works reliably.","date":"2021-04-20","tags":["Podcasts","Learning","Education","Coding"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://techbeacon.com/app-dev-testing/10-great-podcasts-software-test-engineers"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"hybrid-cloud-object-storage-with-ab-periasamy-of-minio","title":"Hybrid cloud object storage with AB Periasamy of MinIO","url":"/podcast/hybrid-cloud-object-storage-with-ab-periasamy-of-minio","summary":"This episode I speak Hybrid cloud object storage with AB Periasamy of MinIO. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmedium=podcast&utmcampaign=CTA1]","date":"2021-04-15","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"security-in-the-age-of-microservices-with-tzury-bar-yochay-cto-and-co-founder-of-reblaze","title":"Security in the Age of Microservices with Tzury Bar Yochay, CTO and co-founder of Reblaze","url":"/podcast/security-in-the-age-of-microservices-with-tzury-bar-yochay-cto-and-co-founder-of-reblaze","summary":"Service mesh is one of the keys to securing bleeding-edge microservices , and how can companies continue to capitalize on the containerization trends, without sacrificing security? I speak with Reblaze founder, Tzury Bar Yochay to found out how… --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribe…","date":"2021-04-08","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-weekly-squeak-kubernetes-native-gitops-with-cornelia-davis-of-flux","title":"The Weekly Squeak - Kubernetes native GitOps with Cornelia Davis of Flux","url":"/podcast/the-weekly-squeak-kubernetes-native-gitops-with-cornelia-davis-of-flux","summary":"I speak with Cornelia Davis, CTO of Weaveworks about GitOps, Flux and simplifying the creation of Kubernetes clusters. https://www.weave.works https://fluxcd.io/blog/2021/03/flux-is-a-cncf-incubation-project/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, v…","date":"2021-03-25","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"open-observability-with-anthony-woods-of-grafana-labs","title":"Open Observability with Anthony Woods of Grafana Labs","url":"/podcast/open-observability-with-anthony-woods-of-grafana-labs","summary":"Chris speaks with Anthony Woods of Grafana Labs about Grafana, Prometheus, Cortex, and about the current state of observability. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmm…","date":"2021-03-15","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2021-03-09-last-clubhouse","title":"LAST Clubhouse","url":"/events","summary":"Developers are users too! In this presentation I give a quick overview of the growing field of developer experience (DX), and how to tailor developer-focussed projects to meet the demands and needs of this very particular user group.","date":"2021-03-09","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://clubhouse.lastconference.com/offers/jt4DeFvC"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-03-03-gitops-pros-and-cons","title":"The Pros and Cons of GitOps","url":"/blog/2021/2021-03-03-gitops-pros-and-cons","summary":"GitOps takes familiar tools such as Git and Continuous Delivery pipelines to automate infrastructure. The GitOps approach is vendor-neutral, provides a clear history of changes, and allows you to reproduce or roll back deployments. Yet, we can't ignore the problems with this approach: Proliferation of repositories, no help for secrets management, or simultaneous file writes. Let's explore.","date":"2021-03-03","tags":["Kubernetes","Gitops","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://humanitec.com/blog/gitops-pros-and-cons"},{"type":"events","id":"2021-02-27-fosdem-2021","title":"Fosdem 2021","url":"/events","summary":"This year at Fosdem I'm helping organise the Documentation tooling developer room, so drop on by.","date":"2021-02-27","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://fosdem.org/2021/live/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-past-present-and-future-of-snagit-with-daniel-foster","title":"The past, present, and future of Snagit with Daniel Foster","url":"/podcast/the-past-present-and-future-of-snagit-with-daniel-foster","summary":"I speak with Daniel Foster, Snagit strategy manager about the long running screenshot creation and management software. I also cover the recent debacle in Australia, the business of zero-day exploits, why everyone should use Ethernet and more… --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers…","date":"2021-02-25","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-02-25-why-development-teams-should-play-roleplaying-gam","title":"Why Development Teams Should Play Roleplaying Games","url":"/blog/2021/2021-02-25-why-development-teams-should-play-roleplaying-gam","summary":"How can playing roleplaying games help development teams work together better? Chris speaks with Karthik Nagarajan to find out.","date":"2021-02-25","tags":["Roleplaying","Team Building","Communication","Improvement","Self Improvement"],"categories":["games","tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/why-development-teams-should-play-roleplay-games"},{"type":"events","id":"2021-02-20-arizona-stc","title":"Arizona STC","url":"/events","summary":"I cover the basic principles, tooling, and processes of \"docs-as-code\".","date":"2021-02-20","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.meetup.com/Metro-Phoenix-Technical-Communicators/events/276301189/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-jamstack-book-with-raymond-camden-and-brian-rinaldi","title":"The Jamstack Book with Raymond Camden and Brian Rinaldi","url":"/podcast/the-jamstack-book-with-raymond-camden-and-brian-rinaldi","summary":"I speak with Raymond Camden and Brian Rinaldi about the book they are working on for Manning publications covering everything Jamstack. I also cover Vivaldi, dependency hell, crazy laptops, and more. Want a 40% discount on all books in the Manning catalogue, use podchinc19 or http://mng.bz/8NQW Want a free book? Leave a review wherever you listen to the show! --- Send in a voice message: https://…","date":"2021-02-17","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-02-10-developer-experience-documentation","title":"Developer Experience - How to Define Good Documentation?","url":"/blog/2021/2021-02-10-developer-experience-documentation","summary":"When comparing products, you want to decide on their usefulness. Yet, we often forget to evaluate the project's documentation. A project might offer an excellent set of features but might lack easy-to-use documentation. This can have a detrimental effect on the developer experience and your team's efficiency. So, how do you evaluate the developer experience of documentation?","date":"2021-02-10","tags":["Developer Experience","Documentation"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://humanitec.com/blog/developer-experience-documentation"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"ebpf-cloud-native-computing-with-neela-jacques-of-isovalent","title":"eBPF Cloud Native computing with Neela Jacques of Isovalent","url":"/podcast/ebpf-cloud-native-computing-with-neela-jacques-of-isovalent","summary":"I speak with Neela Jacque about eBPF and what does Cilium and Isovalent offer to cloud-native networking and security. I also cover the rise of VSCode, the re-rise of co-working, Telegram v Signal, and more! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, vi…","date":"2021-02-10","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"cloud-native-automation-with-jon-edvald-of-garden","title":"Cloud Native automation with Jon Edvald of Garden","url":"/podcast/cloud-native-automation-with-jon-edvald-of-garden","summary":"This episode I speak with Jon Edvald of Garden about their cloud native automation platform. I also cover Linux on the M1, Google Chrome, Web extensions on Safari, and more! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com…","date":"2021-01-28","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-01-22-scaling-your-team-alongside-kubernetes","title":"Scaling your team alongside Kubernetes","url":"/blog/2021/2021-01-22-scaling-your-team-alongside-kubernetes","summary":"Many of you have probably read countless technical articles about scaling application infrastructure and capacity with Kubernetes. This is not one of those posts. Rather, it looks at how and when to implement Kubernetes when your team or the demands on your team grow rapidly.","date":"2021-01-22","tags":["Kubernetes","Teams","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://humanitec.com/blog/scaling-your-team-alongside-kubernetes"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"apollo-graphql-with-geoff-schmidt","title":"Apollo GraphQL with Geoff Schmidt","url":"/podcast/apollo-graphql-with-geoff-schmidt","summary":"This issue I speak with Geoff Schmidt of Apollo about their GraphQL offerings. I also cover general AI, decades old technology bets, is it wise to remove WhatsApp, and much more. xx Chinch --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasquea…","date":"2021-01-21","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2021/2021-01-14-screenshot-tool-comparison","title":"Tools to help generate screenshots for your documentation","url":"/blog/2021/2021-01-14-screenshot-tool-comparison","summary":"I won’t repeat any famous phrases about how pictures equalling a quantity of words, I think we all understand the potential power of a good visual. Well considered images in documentation can help illustrate a concept, clarify a complex idea, or show a reader what they can expect from undertaking certain steps.","date":"2021-01-14","tags":["Documentation","Screenshots","Tools"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.knowledgeowl.com/home/screenshot-tool-comparison"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"updates-from-the-ukrainian-startup-scene-with-stepan-veselovskyi","title":"Updates from the Ukrainian Startup scene with Stepan Veselovskyi","url":"/podcast/updates-from-the-ukrainian-startup-scene-with-stepan-veselovskyi","summary":"I speak with Stepan Veselovskyi, the CEO at Lviv IT Cluster about what's been happening in the Ukraine tech and startup scene since my last visit. I also cover JetBrains, Google, WhatsApp, and… The Amiga --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit…","date":"2021-01-13","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"nvidia-jetson-with-amit-goel","title":"Nvidia Jetson with Amit Goel","url":"/podcast/nvidia-jetson-with-amit-goel","summary":"This week, I speak with Amit Goel, Director of Product Management for Embedded AI Platforms at NVIDIA about the Jetson platform. I also cover the M1 (again), Discord, the Romans, and the Archers… xx Chinch --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visi…","date":"2021-01-06","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"games","id":"wicked-ones","title":"Wicked Ones","url":"/games","summary":"A Forged in the Dark tabletop RPG where you play fantasy monsters raiding human lands and building a dungeon to protect your loot.","date":"2020-12-23","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/338480/Wicked-Ones?affiliate_id=1403878&src=BanditCampHomepage"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-12-18-whats-new-for-documentarians-in-snagit-2021","title":"What's new for documentarians in Snagit 2021","url":"/blog/2020/2020-12-18-whats-new-for-documentarians-in-snagit-2021","summary":"I ran a live stream a while back where I looked at new features in","date":"2020-12-18","tags":["Documentation","Screenshots","Tools"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/@chrischinchilla/whats-new-for-documentarians-in-snagit-2021-24ce729fa87e"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"algolia-search-with-julien-lemoine","title":"Algolia search with Julien Lemoine","url":"/podcast/algolia-search-with-julien-lemoine","summary":"In this episode I cover the new Algolia integration with Netlify and look at the rapid growth of interest in their search solution. Also features news on Fuscia OS, taking Google offline, GPT-3, and much more! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes,…","date":"2020-12-16","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-12-15-api-design-developer-experience","title":"How to decide on an API that gives your team the best developer experience","url":"/blog/2020/2020-12-15-api-design-developer-experience","summary":"If you want to build your applications and business on existing APIs and not reinvent all functionality yourself, how do you decide between the plethora of options available? This article helps you make that decision based on the developer experience (DX) you should expect from an API.","date":"2020-12-15","tags":["Developer Experience","API","Design"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://humanitec.com/blog/api-design-developer-experience"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"ubuntu-on-lenovo-with-mark-pearson-and-martin-wimpress","title":"Ubuntu on Lenovo with Mark Pearson and Martin Wimpress","url":"/podcast/ubuntu-on-lenovo-with-mark-pearson-and-martin-wimpress","summary":"In this Weekly Squeak I speak with Mark and Martin and cover how the two teams worked together to make Ubuntu shine on Lenovo machines. Also features content on Slack acquisition, M1 on AWS, Garbage language, and much more… --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bo…","date":"2020-12-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2020-12-09-automate-api-perfection","title":"APIDays","url":"/events","summary":"API documentation can originate from many sources, and take many forms, so how do you ensure that the content is accurate and crucially, works? In this presentation Chris looks at options for testing, standardising, and checking your API documentation is as good as your API.","date":"2020-12-07","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://writethedocs.org/"},{"type":"events","id":"2020-12-04-write-the-docs-au","title":"Write the Docs","url":"/events","summary":"User experience has been a fundamental part of modern products for some time, but for tools aimed at developers, there is a growing focus on \"developer experience\" (DX, DevEx). Documentation is a key component of developer experience. As people with an eye on making sense out of technical complexity, documentarians should feel qualified and empowered to improve more than just documentation.","date":"2020-12-03","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://writethedocs.org/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"software-error-tracking-with-brian-rue-of-rollbar","title":"Software error tracking with Brian Rue of Rollbar","url":"/podcast/software-error-tracking-with-brian-rue-of-rollbar","summary":"This week I speak with Brian Rue of Rollbar, The Continuous Code Improvement Platform. No links… Because apparently, I didn't read anything… --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.subst…","date":"2020-12-02","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-weekly-squeak-headless-cms-with-aurelien-georget-of-strapi","title":"The Weekly Squeak - Headless CMS with Aurélien Georget of Strapi","url":"/podcast/the-weekly-squeak-headless-cms-with-aurelien-georget-of-strapi","summary":"I speak with with Aurélien Georget of Strapi, the leading open-source headless CMS, 100% Javascript, fully customizable and developer-first. I also cover substack, did 2020 get the startups it needed, and just how good is the new M1 chip for machine learning practitioners? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discu…","date":"2020-11-26","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-11-24-why-github-developer-platform","title":"Why GitHub built their own Internal Developer Platform","url":"/blog/2020/2020-11-24-why-github-developer-platform","summary":"An Internal Developer Platform (IDP) is an essential step for rapidly scaling companies to keep their developers working productively and happily. In this roundtable discussion we speak with Jason Warner, the current CTO of GitHub and previous VP of Engineering for Heroku about how IDPs help teams of that scale build efficiently.","date":"2020-11-24","tags":["Developer Experience","DevOps","GitHub"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://humanitec.com/blog/jason-warner-why-github-built-their-own-internal-developer-platform"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-11-23-why-sport1-developer-platform","title":"Why Sport1 built their Internal Developer Platform","url":"/blog/2020/2020-11-23-why-sport1-developer-platform","summary":"German broadcaster Sport1 realized they were spending too much time grappling with an outdated deployment process, they decided it was time to build their own flexible Internal Developer Platform. Find out how it changed their development process in our roundtable with Paolo Garri, the director of technology.","date":"2020-11-23","tags":["Developer Experience","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://humanitec.com/blog/why-sport1-built-their-internal-developer-platform"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"code-review-in-your-ide-with-codestream","title":"Code Review in your IDE with Codestream","url":"/podcast/code-review-in-your-ide-with-codestream","summary":"In this episode I speak with Peter Pezaris of Codestream about their IDE plugin that allows you to integrate code review, pull and merge requests, and issue trackers directly where you work. I also cover paying for podcasts, taxing working from home, tech acquisitions of 2020, and Big Sur. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you wo…","date":"2020-11-19","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"kubernetes-observability-with-pixie","title":"Kubernetes observability with Pixie","url":"/podcast/kubernetes-observability-with-pixie","summary":"This week I speak with the cofounders of Pixie labs, that helps you instantly troubleshoot your applications on Kubernetes. I also cover immutable operating systems, the ISS, real world quantum computing, the Lord of the Rings that never was, and more… --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other su…","date":"2020-11-11","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"graph-and-ai-with-gaurav-deshpande","title":"Graph and AI with Gaurav Deshpande","url":"/podcast/graph-and-ai-with-gaurav-deshpande","summary":"I have Gaurav Deshpande of TigerGraph back to talk about their recent conference covering the intersection of Graph and AI. I also cover Berlin airports, sci-fi recommendations, and bizarre operating systems. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, v…","date":"2020-11-05","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-11-04-testing-hotfixes","title":"Testing hotfixes to Production without rolling back Staging","url":"/blog/2020/2020-11-04-testing-hotfixes","summary":"A major bug urgently needs fixing in Production, but QA is impossible because Staging is ahead of Prod. This blog post will detail how to clone your Production environment to allow immediate testing before hot-fixing Production.","date":"2020-11-04","tags":["Developer Experience","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://humanitec.com/blog/testing-hotfixes-to-production-without-rolling-back-staging"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"automating-everything-with-linden-tibbets-of-ifttt","title":"Automating everything with Linden Tibbets of IFTTT","url":"/podcast/automating-everything-with-linden-tibbets-of-ifttt","summary":"In this episode I speak with Linden Tibbets of IFTTT about the past, present, and future of their automation platform. I also look at the history of markdown, and legal frameworks for AI. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueak…","date":"2020-10-28","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-10-23-amazon-elasticache-for-redis-polarsquad-hackathon","title":"How we created a Humanitec driver for Amazon ElastiCache for Redis - A hackathon with Polar Squad","url":"/blog/2020/2020-10-23-amazon-elasticache-for-redis-polarsquad-hackathon","summary":"At the end of September 2020, participants from Humanitec and Polar Squad met for a small hackathon to see how straightforward it was to create a resource driver for the Humanitec platform so that others can connect their custom infrastructure.","date":"2020-10-23","tags":["Developer Experience","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://humanitec.com/blog/amazon-elasticache-for-redis-polarsquad-hackathon"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-present-and-future-of-jamstack-with-matt-biilmann","title":"The present and future of Jamstack with Matt Biilmann","url":"/podcast/the-present-and-future-of-jamstack-with-matt-biilmann","summary":"This weekly squeak I talk with Matt Biilmann of Netlify about their recent announcements and the future of Jamstack presented at their recent Jamstackconf. I also cover the ownership of Berlin startups, crypto hype, the history of search, new zoom integrations, and much more. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to di…","date":"2020-10-21","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2020-10-18-write-the-docs-eu-2020","title":"Write the Docs EU","url":"/events","summary":"I'm back at Write the Docs EU again, but this time handling social media and the legendary writing day for the event.","date":"2020-10-18","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.writethedocs.org/conf/eu/2020"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-10-12-why-zalando-built-own-developer-platform","title":"Why Zalando built their Internal Developer Platform‍","url":"/blog/2020/2020-10-12-why-zalando-built-own-developer-platform","summary":"An internal developer platform (IDP) is an essential step for rapidly scaling companies to keep their developers working productively and happily. In this roundtable discussion we speak with Jan Löffler who helped build Zalando’s IDP about the problems they were trying to solve and the steps they took.","date":"2020-10-12","tags":["Developer Experience","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://humanitec.com/blog/why-zalando-builds-an-own-developer-platform"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-10-06-developer-experience","title":"An Introduction to Developer Experience (DevEx, DX)","url":"/blog/2020/2020-10-06-developer-experience","summary":"In this article I look mostly at improving the developer experience within a company, and touch upon other aspects where relevant, we have future articles planned to help you improve the DX of the projects you maintain. The goal of this article is to help those in charge of development teams understand what their developers struggle with and complain about and help them do something about it.","date":"2020-10-06","tags":["Developer Experience","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://humanitec.com/blog/developer-experience"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"iot-trends-and-the-future-of-conferences-with-cate-lawrence","title":"IoT trends and the future of conferences with Cate Lawrence","url":"/podcast/iot-trends-and-the-future-of-conferences-with-cate-lawrence","summary":"In this Weekly Squeak I have my old cohost back to discuss recent trends in IoT and her visit to IFA in Berlin, will the hybrid format be the future of conferences in the medium term? I also cover Goodreads, Flutter, Swift, Kubernetes, and famous historical deaths. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this…","date":"2020-10-01","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"scaling-mysql-with-planet-scale","title":"Scaling MySQL with Planet Scale","url":"/podcast/scaling-mysql-with-planet-scale","summary":"In this episode I speak with Jiten Vaidya and Sugu Sougoumarane of Planet Scale, a solution for scaling MySQL on Kubernetes. I also cover Mozilla, returning to the office, Canonical, and can open source be bought? https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subs…","date":"2020-09-23","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-09-23-the-weekly-squeak-tanmai-gopal-of-hasura","title":"The Weekly Squeak — Tanmai Gopal of Hasura","url":"/blog/2020/2020-09-23-the-weekly-squeak-tanmai-gopal-of-hasura","summary":"This Weekly Squeak, I speak with Tanmai Gopal about Hasura, an open source and hosted platform that brings instant GraphQL APIs to your data.","date":"2020-09-23","tags":["GraphQL","API","Hasura","Databases"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/the-weekly-squeak-tanmai-gopal-of-hasura"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-09-21-configuration-version-changes-kubernetes-apps","title":"Version changes to configurations for Kubernetes-ready applications","url":"/blog/2020/2020-09-21-configuration-version-changes-kubernetes-apps","summary":"Your Kubernetes configuration represents environments that are a fundamental part of your application, unyet we generally treat them as less important from our application code. In this post we look at best practices for managing changes to configuration, and how to treat it the way it deserves.","date":"2020-09-21","tags":["Developer Experience","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://humanitec.com/blog/configuration-version-changes-kubernetes-apps"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-09-20-creating-a-cross-platform-todo-aggregator-with-fl","title":"Creating a Cross-Platform Todo Aggregator with Flutter","url":"/blog/2020/2020-09-20-creating-a-cross-platform-todo-aggregator-with-fl","summary":"I wanted to create a cross-platform app to aggregate all my todos across various services. I turned to Flutter; was it a good idea? Read on to find out.","date":"2020-09-20","tags":["Flutter","Dart","iOS","Android","Mobile Development","Web Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/creating-a-cross-platform-todo-aggregator-with-flu"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"christian-nunciato-pulumi-in-action","title":"Christian Nunciato - Pulumi in Action","url":"/podcast/christian-nunciato-pulumi-in-action","summary":"In this episode I speak with Christian Nunciato, author of Pulumi in Action from Manning. Use podchinc19 for a 40% discount code, or andy of the codes below for a free eBook: piaccpr-6BF3 piaccpr-490B piaccpr-7008 piaccpr-1B50 piaccpr-E406 I also cover news from ARM, editing a robot, and more. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If yo…","date":"2020-09-16","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"contentful-with-paolo-negri","title":"Contentful with Paolo Negri","url":"/podcast/contentful-with-paolo-negri","summary":"In this episode I speak with Paolo Negri about their API-first content platform. Also features the story of Bullfrog, history books for roleplayers, judging an open source project, and more. Watch my DXpose livestream where I judge the developer experience of Contentful on Twitch [https://www.twitch.tv/videos/735089138]. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message Thi…","date":"2020-09-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"dd-and-teams-with-karthik-nagarajan","title":"D&D and Teams with Karthik Nagarajan","url":"/podcast/dd-and-teams-with-karthik-nagarajan","summary":"This episode I speak with Karthik Nagarajan about the advantages of running roleplaying games for teams, look at computer user groups, fraud, and a JavaScript version of Civilisation 6. https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bon…","date":"2020-09-03","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"kubecon-eu-2020","title":"KubeCon EU 2020","url":"/podcast/kubecon-eu-2020","summary":"In this episode I speak with Vijoy Pandey (Cisco), Amith Nair (HashiCorp), and Michael Friedrich (GitLab) about their announcements and highlights from KubeCon as well as my own personal highlights. chrischinchilla.com/podcasts [https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts/] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss thi…","date":"2020-08-27","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-08-26-reducing-support-overload-with-an-einstein-powere","title":"Reducing Support Overload with an Einstein-Powered Chatbot","url":"/blog/2020/2020-08-26-reducing-support-overload-with-an-einstein-powere","summary":"If you're looking to build a chatbot to support a customer base, Einstein from Salesforce might be an option to consider. Chris Ward dives in to see what's possible.","date":"2020-08-26","tags":["Chatbots","Nlp","Natural Language Processing","Salesforce","Heroku","Image Analysis","Text Processing","Voice Interfaces"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/reducing-support-overload-with-an-einstein-powered"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"robert-reeves-of-liquibase","title":"Robert Reeves of Liquibase","url":"/podcast/robert-reeves-of-liquibase","summary":"Robert Reeves joins me after a 2 year gap to discuss bringing DevOps practices to the database world. I also cover Zoom's amazing quarter, the end of PhoneGap, the end of the Beatles, and the end of WW2 (in Japan). liquibase.com [https://www.liquibase.com/hub] chrischinchilla.com/podcasts [https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts/] youtu.be/V8QTIAMTehk [https://youtu.be/V8QTIAMTehk] --- Send in a voi…","date":"2020-08-21","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2020-08-13-kubecon-eu-2020","title":"KubeCon and CloudNativeCon","url":"/events","summary":"I report on the latest updates and best practices for Kubernetes and Cloud-native computing.","date":"2020-08-17","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://events.linuxfoundation.org/kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"tanmai-gopal-of-hasura-instant-graphql-apis-for-your-data","title":"Tanmai Gopal of Hasura - Instant GraphQL APIs for your data","url":"/podcast/tanmai-gopal-of-hasura-instant-graphql-apis-for-your-data","summary":"I speak with Tanmai Gopal about Hasura, an open source and hosted platform that brings instant GraphQL APIs to your data. Also features my weekly round up of geeky news including the best game consoles ever, GPT-3, and more. https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts https://hasura.io [https://hasura.io/about/] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public ep…","date":"2020-08-12","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-08-06-sandbox-environments-for-testing","title":"Sandbox Environments for Testing","url":"/blog/2020/2020-08-06-sandbox-environments-for-testing","summary":"In this article by Nils Balkow Tychsen, Lead Q&A Engineer at Humanitec, you will learn some use cases for sandboxed environments such as parallel feature development, parallel testing of feature flags, and parallel testing of microservice versions in different combinations.","date":"2020-08-06","tags":["Developer Experience","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://humanitec.com/blog/sandbox-environments-for-testing"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-07-15-developer-experience-roundtable-continuous-improvement-nigel-simpson-erik-muttersbach","title":"Developer Experience Roundtable - Continuous Improvement","url":"/blog/2020/2020-07-15-developer-experience-roundtable-continuous-improvement-nigel-simpson-erik-muttersbach","summary":"A good developer experience is crucial to keep developer teams productive, happy, and focussed on work important to your business aims. In this first roundtable, we get the opinions and experiences from two experts in the field: Nigel Simpson, Director, Enterprise Tech Strategy at a Fortune 100 company, and Erik Muttersbach, CTO at forto (formerly FreightHub), a Berlin logistics startup.","date":"2020-07-15","tags":["Developer Experience","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://humanitec.com/blog/developer-experience-roundtable-continuous-improvement-nigel-simpson-erik-muttersbach"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-06-30-ephemeral-environments-for-testing","title":"Ephemeral Environments for Testing","url":"/blog/2020/2020-06-30-ephemeral-environments-for-testing","summary":"In this article, we look at ephemeral testing environments, small, discrete, and short-lived testing environments that reflect only the changes you are interested in testing.","date":"2020-06-30","tags":["Testing","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://humanitec.com/blog/ephemeral-environments-for-testing"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-06-23-create-a-random-board-game-generator-using-micros","title":"Create a Random Board Game Generator Using Microservices on Heroku","url":"/blog/2020/2020-06-23-create-a-random-board-game-generator-using-micros","summary":"Take a look at using Heroku to host the microservices behind a small bot project the author maintains.","date":"2020-06-23","tags":["Microservices","Heroku","Chatbots","API","Tutorials"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-create-a-random-board-game-generator-using-micros"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-06-19-continuous-integration-vs-continuous-delivery-vs-continuous-deployment","title":"Continuous Integration (CI) vs. Continuous Delivery (CD) vs. Continuous Deployment (CD)","url":"/blog/2020/2020-06-19-continuous-integration-vs-continuous-delivery-vs-continuous-deployment","summary":"Despite sounding similar, continuous integration, delivery, and deployment are subtly different from each other. While they have overlap, they are applicable and useful at different stages of the development process. In this post, we look at what the different terms mean, what benefits they bring to you and your team, and what you need to get started implementing the practice.","date":"2020-06-19","tags":["CD","CI","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://humanitec.com/blog/continuous-integration-vs-continuous-delivery-vs-continuous-deployment"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-06-16-benefits-and-best-practices-of-continuous-delivery","title":"The Benefits and Best Practices of Continuous Delivery","url":"/blog/2020/2020-06-16-benefits-and-best-practices-of-continuous-delivery","summary":"Continuous delivery helps software development teams get their code changes from development to testing, and into the hands of users more quickly. In this post, Chris Ward looks at the benefits and best practices for implementing this practice into your teams.","date":"2020-06-16","tags":["CD","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://humanitec.com/blog/benefits-and-best-practices-of-continuous-delivery"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"confluent-cloud-with-dan-rosanova","title":"Confluent Cloud with Dan Rosanova","url":"/podcast/confluent-cloud-with-dan-rosanova","summary":"In this episode I speak with Dan Rosanova from Confluent about Kafka, their cloud offering, and project Metamorphosis. I also cover news from the past week including Developer Experience 101, Google Docs as an act of resistance, news from the Linux Kernel, what happened next to the founder of Atari, and much more. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a…","date":"2020-06-10","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-06-05-handling-environment-variables-with-kubernetes","title":"Handling Environment Variables with Kubernetes","url":"/blog/2020/2020-06-05-handling-environment-variables-with-kubernetes","summary":"Environment variables are a common way for developers to move application and infrastructure configuration into an external source outside of application code. This post shows you the variety of ways Kuberentes helps you create and manage environment variables within kubernetes.","date":"2020-06-05","tags":["Environment Variables","DevOps","Kubernetes"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://humanitec.com/blog/handling-environment-variables-with-kubernetes"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"detecting-infections-from-x-rays-alexander-wong-of-covid-net","title":"Detecting infections from X-Rays - Alexander Wong of COVID-Net","url":"/podcast/detecting-infections-from-x-rays-alexander-wong-of-covid-net","summary":"This is a focussed episode, where I interview Alexander Wong of COVID-Net and DarwinAI about an open-source project last week to improve COVID-19 screening using artificial intelligence (AI). In news I recommend another podcast you should listen to in this turbulent week. chrischinchilla.com/podcasts [https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillas…","date":"2020-06-04","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"interchain-tech-privilege-and-inclusion-with-tess-rinearson","title":"Interchain, Tech privilege and inclusion with Tess Rinearson","url":"/podcast/interchain-tech-privilege-and-inclusion-with-tess-rinearson","summary":"This week I speak with Tess Rinearson about the Interchain foundation and her past thoughts on running inclusive hackathons, privilege, and much more. Also features news from Microsoft Build, Surveillance Capitalism, and the lost Sim games of Maxis. interchain.io [https://interchain.io/team/] chrischinchilla.com [https://chrischinchilla.com] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchil…","date":"2020-05-27","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2020-05-27-jamstack-london","title":"JAMStack London","url":"/events","summary":"A two day celebration of the next generation of web apps.","date":"2020-05-27","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://ti.to/netlify/jamstack-conf-london-2020/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"in-memory-computing-with-dale-kim-of-hazelcast","title":"In-memory computing with Dale Kim of Hazelcast","url":"/podcast/in-memory-computing-with-dale-kim-of-hazelcast","summary":"This week I speak about in-memory computing with Dale Kim of Hazelcast. I also look at the changing world of in-person trade shows, offices, and restaurants. https://hazelcast.com/ https://chrischinchilla.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes,…","date":"2020-05-20","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-05-19-three-git-pull-requests","title":"1 Dev, 3 Teams, 3 Git Pull Request Review Experiences","url":"/blog/2020/2020-05-19-three-git-pull-requests","summary":"Software developers submit a pull request (often abbreviated to PR) in their git system like GitHub, GitLab or BitBucket to signal to their teammates or manager that a branch or fork they have been working on is ready for review.","date":"2020-05-19","tags":["Git","GitHub","Communication","Collaboration"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://linearb.io/blog/three-git-pull-request-review-strategies/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-05-17-measuring-metrics-in-open-source-projects","title":"Measuring Metrics in Open-Source Projects","url":"/blog/2020/2020-05-17-measuring-metrics-in-open-source-projects","summary":"As open-source projects grow in use and popularity, many of their maintainers face a challenge to understand how and how many people use their tools.","date":"2020-05-17","tags":["Open Source","Metrics","Community","Analysis","Monitoring"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-measuring-metrics-in-open-source-projects"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-05-14-github-satellite-2020-gone-remote-but-not-forgott","title":"GitHub Satellite 2020- Gone Remote, but Not Forgotten","url":"/blog/2020/2020-05-14-github-satellite-2020-gone-remote-but-not-forgott","summary":"Another remote event for 2020, but GitHub Satellite still managed to pack some impressive feature announcements, and a good dose of humor in these trying times.","date":"2020-05-14","tags":["GitHub","Git","Visual Studio Code","Code Scanning","Security","Community","Secrets Management","IDE"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-github-satellite-2020-gone-remote-but-not-forgott"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-05-14-openstack-ussuri-intelligent-automation","title":"OpenStack Ussuri - Intelligent Automation","url":"/blog/2020/2020-05-14-openstack-ussuri-intelligent-automation","summary":"OpenStack has a new release and it's big. Let's take a look at what Ussuri, the 21st release, has to offer.","date":"2020-05-14","tags":["Openstack","Ussuri","Infrastructure","Cloud Computing"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-openstack-ussuri-intelligent-automation"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"kubernetes-as-a-service-with-spectro-cloud","title":"Kubernetes as a Service with Spectro Cloud","url":"/podcast/kubernetes-as-a-service-with-spectro-cloud","summary":"This week I speak with Spectro Cloud about their new Kubernetes as a service offering, and also take a look at operating system market share changes, Skype just isn't cool, Apple's T2 chip woes, gaming, and Stephen Wolfram's theory of everything. https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast https://www.spectrocloud.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a pub…","date":"2020-05-13","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-05-05-grafana-the-open-observability-platform","title":"Grafana- The Open Observability Platform","url":"/blog/2020/2020-05-05-grafana-the-open-observability-platform","summary":"Chris speaks with Raj Dutt, CEO, and co-founder of Grafana Labs, the company behind the Grafana open source project to find out more about the project and their plans.","date":"2020-05-05","tags":["Visualization","Monitoring","Grafana","Prometheus","Time-series Data"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-grafana-the-open-observability-platform"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-04-30-deploy-with-kubectl-hands-on-with-kubernetes","title":"Deploy with kubectl - Hands-on with Kubernetes","url":"/blog/2020/2020-04-30-deploy-with-kubectl-hands-on-with-kubernetes","summary":"Orchestrating an application in Kubernetes can be even in a simple setup pretty complex. In this post, you learn how to architect a Kubernetes-native application and create a first deployment using kubectl.","date":"2020-04-30","tags":["CD","CI","Kubernetes","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://humanitec.com/blog/deploy-with-kubectl-hands-on-with-kubernetes"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"scalable-graph-databases-with-tigergraph","title":"Scalable Graph databases with TigerGraph","url":"/podcast/scalable-graph-databases-with-tigergraph","summary":"I speak with Gaurav Deshpande of TigerGraph about their highly scalable graph database. Also features GDPR 2 years later, Flutter, JavaScript, grounded airplanes, cats, and more. https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts/ https://www.tigergraph.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscriber…","date":"2020-04-29","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-04-24-parent-child-pipelines","title":"How to get started with Parent-child pipelines","url":"/blog/2020/2020-04-24-parent-child-pipelines","summary":"We introduced improvements to pipelines to help scale applications and their repo structures more effectively. Here's how they work.","date":"2020-04-24","tags":["CI","Gitlab","DevOps","CD"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2020/04/24/parent-child-pipelines/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-04-22-benefits-of-containerization","title":"The Benefits of Containerization","url":"/blog/2020/2020-04-22-benefits-of-containerization","summary":"Breaking applications into smaller coupled components like microservices, and running each of those components in containers often go hand in hand. These modern application architecture principles have allowed many businesses and software projects to make regular and rapid changes to running software and scale them to suit changes in demand and approach. In this article, we breakdown what a container is, and the direct benefits they bring to your developer teams and business.","date":"2020-04-24","tags":["DevOps","Containers","Kubernetes","Docker"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://humanitec.com/blog/benefits-of-containerization"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"decentralized-entertainment-with-breakerio","title":"Decentralized entertainment with Breaker.io","url":"/podcast/decentralized-entertainment-with-breakerio","summary":"In this episode I speak with Troy Murray of breaker.io [http://breaker.io], a decentralized ecosystem that empowers creators and delivers fans classic and original content. Also features news items on technology in a time of crisis, self-editing, the bans before musicians were famous, and much more! chrischinchilla.com [https://chrischinchilla.com] breaker.io [https://breaker.io] --- Send in a vo…","date":"2020-04-23","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-04-22-ubuntu-20-04-lts-focal-fossa-enterprise-ready","title":"Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa)- Enterprise-Ready","url":"/blog/2020/2020-04-22-ubuntu-20-04-lts-focal-fossa-enterprise-ready","summary":"Canonical announced the latest Ubuntu release, and as an LTS, it's not packed with new features, but brings many usability, stability, and performance improvements to suit individuals and enterprises alike.","date":"2020-04-22","tags":["Ubuntu","Linux","Canonical","Kubernetes"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-ubuntu-2004-lts-focal-fossa-enterprise-ready"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-04-21-cybersecurity-during-a-pandemic-an-interview-with","title":"Cybersecurity During a Pandemic- An Interview With Critical Start","url":"/blog/2020/2020-04-21-cybersecurity-during-a-pandemic-an-interview-with","summary":"Chris speaks with Quentin Rhoads-Herrera of CRITICALSTART to discuss cybersecurity in a time of a pandemic.","date":"2020-04-21","tags":["Cybersecurity","Coronavirus","Covid-19","Phishing","Zero Day Vulnerability","Penetration Testing","Mdr"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-cybersecurity-during-a-pandemic-an-interview-with"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"augmented-ai-with-chris-longstaff-of-mindtech","title":"Augmented AI with Chris Longstaff of Mindtech","url":"/podcast/augmented-ai-with-chris-longstaff-of-mindtech","summary":"This week I speak with Chris Longstaff of Mindtech about their curious plan to help machine learning by augmenting datasets with synthetic data. I also cover alternative calendars, the woes of WeWork, robot writers and more. https://www.mindtech.global/ https://chrischinchilla.com/ Mindtech presentation [https://trello-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/54816a218d17b7dede6f1b16/5e72520122c13c1843b448bd…","date":"2020-04-16","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"universal-code-search-with-sourcegraph-civilization-lockdowns-and-amigaos","title":"Universal code search with Sourcegraph - Civilization, Lockdowns, and AmigaOS","url":"/podcast/universal-code-search-with-sourcegraph-civilization-lockdowns-and-amigaos","summary":"In this episode I speak with Quinn Slack of Sourcegraph about the universal code search tool. Also features news on AmigaOS, awesome repos for developers, the truths of lockdown, meetup spins out of WeWork, and early internet streamers. https://about.sourcegraph.com [https://about.sourcegraph.com/] https://chrischinchilla.com [https://chrischinchilla.com/] --- Send in a voice message: https://anc…","date":"2020-04-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"cybersecurity-during-a-pandemic-an-interview-with-critical-start","title":"Cybersecurity during a Pandemic - An interview with Critical Start","url":"/podcast/cybersecurity-during-a-pandemic-an-interview-with-critical-start","summary":"No links this week as I focus on an interview with Quentin Rhoads-Herrera of Critical Start where we talk about cyber security during a time of crisis. https://www.criticalstart.com chrischinchilla.com [https://chrischinchilla.com] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get acce…","date":"2020-04-01","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-04-01-learning-to-code-with-swift-playgrounds","title":"Learning to Code With Swift Playgrounds","url":"/blog/2020/2020-04-01-learning-to-code-with-swift-playgrounds","summary":"Swift Playgrounds from Apple is a slick integrated coding education tool — how far does go it to teach one of the hottest languages of the past 5 years?","date":"2020-04-01","tags":["Swift","Apple","Ipad","Education","Learning To Code","Kids","Programming"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-learning-to-code-with-swift-playgrounds"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-03-31-how-hedera-hashgraph-is-revolutionizing-distribut","title":"How Hedera Hashgraph Is Revolutionizing Distributed Ledgers","url":"/blog/2020/2020-03-31-how-hedera-hashgraph-is-revolutionizing-distribut","summary":"Many distributed ledgers claim to be better for performance and security. Chris Ward speaks with Hashgraph creator, Dr Leemon Baird, to see if the project holds up.","date":"2020-03-31","tags":["Blockchain","Distributed Ledger Technology","Distributed Systems","Cryptocurrency","Security","Distributed Ledger"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-how-hedera-hashgraph-is-revolutionizing-distribut"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"peter-suma-of-applied-brain-research-a-new-hello-world-and-how-games-influence-policy","title":"Peter Suma of Applied Brain Research, a new Hello World, and how games influence policy","url":"/podcast/peter-suma-of-applied-brain-research-a-new-hello-world-and-how-games-influence-policy","summary":"In this episode I speak with Peter Suma of Applied Brain Research about Nengo, a complete brain maker that allows you to develop and run models with deep learning, online learning, static weights, simple linear neurons, complex spiking neurons, and everything in-between. Also features content covering tools for working from home, two player games, a \"Hello World\" for the modern era, and much more…","date":"2020-03-25","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-03-23-6-interesting-trends-from-the-latest-cncf-survey","title":"6 Interesting Trends from the Latest CNCF Survey","url":"/blog/2020/2020-03-23-6-interesting-trends-from-the-latest-cncf-survey","summary":"The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) conducted another survey late last year and the results are now out. Here's what's popular in cloud native development.","date":"2020-03-23","tags":["Kubernetes","Service Mesh","Containers","Cncf","Cloud Native","Serverless"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-6-interesting-trends-from-the-latest-cncf-survey"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"mobile-engagement-with-mgage-why-you-should-use-brave-ditch-discord-and-what-actually-is-a-url","title":"Mobile engagement with mGage, why you should use Brave, ditch Discord and what actually is a URL","url":"/podcast/mobile-engagement-with-mgage-why-you-should-use-brave-ditch-discord-and-what-actually-is-a-url","summary":"In this episode I speak with Nick Millward of mGage about the past present and future of mobile engagement, especially RCS. I also cover the history of the URL, teaching an AI to play D&D, how to work from home, why Discord is bad, Brave is good, and so much more. mGage [https://mgage.com/] chrischinchilla.com [https://chrischinchilla.com/] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchill…","date":"2020-03-18","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-03-18-troubleshoot-delays-with-code-review-analytics","title":"Troubleshoot delays with our Code Review Analytics tool","url":"/blog/2020/2020-03-18-troubleshoot-delays-with-code-review-analytics","summary":"Introduced in GitLab 12.7, Code Review Analytics can help you dig deeper into slow-moving merge requests.","date":"2020-03-18","tags":["Code Review","Gitlab","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2020/03/18/troubleshoot-delays-with-code-review-analytics/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-03-11-make-tracking-agreements-simple-compliance-dashboard","title":"Make tracking agreements simple with our new Compliance Dashboard","url":"/blog/2020/2020-03-11-make-tracking-agreements-simple-compliance-dashboard","summary":"New in GitLab 12.8, this dashboard helps to simplify the complex process of compliance tracking, right inside GitLab.","date":"2020-03-11","tags":["Compliance","Gitlab","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2020/03/11/make-tracking-agreements-simple-compliance-dashboard/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-03-10-preaching-the-api-gospel-an-interview-with-the-ap","title":"Preaching the API Gospel- An Interview With the API Evangelist, Kin Lane of...","url":"/blog/2020/2020-03-10-preaching-the-api-gospel-an-interview-with-the-ap","summary":"See what API Evangelist, Kin Lane of Postman, has to say about the future of APIs as we continue into 2020.","date":"2020-03-10","tags":["API","Rest Api","Grpc","GraphQL","Postman","Http"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-preaching-the-api-gospel-an-interview-with-the-ap"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-03-10-the-future-of-tech-conferences-in-the-wake-of-cor","title":"The Future of Tech Conferences in the Wake of Coronavirus","url":"/blog/2020/2020-03-10-the-future-of-tech-conferences-in-the-wake-of-cor","summary":"In the wake of coronavirus — What will this mean for the future of tech conferences when the world goes back to normal?","date":"2020-03-10","tags":["Coronavirus","Conferences","Travel","Business","Agile"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/future-of-tech-conferences-coronavirus"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-03-09-preaching-the-api-gospel-an-interview-with-the-ap","title":"Preaching the API Gospel- An Interview With the API Evangelist, Kin Lane of...","url":"/blog/2020/2020-03-09-preaching-the-api-gospel-an-interview-with-the-ap","summary":"See what API Evangelist, Kin Lane of Postman, has to say about the future of APIs as we continue into 2020.","date":"2020-03-09","tags":["API","Rest Api","Grpc","GraphQL","Postman","Http"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-preaching-the-api-gospel-an-interview-with-the-ap"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-03-09-the-future-of-tech-conferences-in-the-wake-of-cor","title":"The Future of Tech Conferences in the Wake of Coronavirus","url":"/blog/2020/2020-03-09-the-future-of-tech-conferences-in-the-wake-of-cor","summary":"In the wake of coronavirus — What will this mean for the future of tech conferences when the world goes back to normal?","date":"2020-03-09","tags":["Coronavirus","Conferences","Travel","Business","Agile"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/future-of-tech-conferences-coronavirus"},{"type":"events","id":"2020-03-06-foss-backstage","title":"FOSS Backstage","url":"/events","summary":"The conference on everything related to governance, collaboration, legal and economics within the scope of FOSS.","date":"2020-03-06","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://20.foss-backstage.de/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"computing-history-with-sinclair-target-of-two-bit-history","title":"Computing history with Sinclair Target of two-bit history","url":"/podcast/computing-history-with-sinclair-target-of-two-bit-history","summary":"I'm taking a short break, so something from the archives this week of my ill-fated podcast from last year, \"The Enthusiastic Amateur\". This interview is reproduced in entirety to get the listeners it deserved. A great interview with Sinclair Target of two-bit history [https://twobithistory.org] about the hidden stories from computing history. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchi…","date":"2020-03-04","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2020-02-27-megacomm","title":"MEGAComm","url":"/events","summary":"A talk about approaches to automating documentation workflows and testing documentation quality.","date":"2020-02-27","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://megacomm.org/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-02-27-talking-uber-level-monitoring-with-martin-mao-of-","title":"Talking Uber-Level Monitoring With Martin Mao of M3 and Chronosphere","url":"/blog/2020/2020-02-27-talking-uber-level-monitoring-with-martin-mao-of-","summary":"Find out why Uber engineers decided to leave Uber and focus on building Chronosphere, the company that enables enterprises to take advantage of M3.","date":"2020-02-27","tags":["M3","Chronosphere","Uber","Time-series Data","Monitoring","Big Data","Monitoring And Alerting","Interview"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-talking-uber-level-monitoring-with-martin-mao-of"},{"type":"events","id":"2020-02-22-world-ia-day-2020","title":"World IA Day","url":"/events","summary":"I am attending World IA day in my home town of Berlin to dig more into creating inclusive information architecture.","date":"2020-02-22","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://worldiadayberlin2020.splashthat.com/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-02-19-automate-task-creation-with-the-todo-bot","title":"Automate Task Creation With the TODO Bot","url":"/blog/2020/2020-02-19-automate-task-creation-with-the-todo-bot","summary":"Do you litter your code with \"TODO\" keywords so you'll remember to come back to them? With this handy GitHub bot, you'll never have to remember again. Maybe.","date":"2020-02-19","tags":["Development","Task Automation","Project Management","GitHub","Automation","Bots"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-automate-task-creation-with-the-todo-bot"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"patrick-mcfadin-talks-datastax-and-cassandra-midi-20-and-how-do-planes-fly","title":"Patrick McFadin talks Datastax and Cassandra, MIDI 2.0 and how do planes fly?","url":"/podcast/patrick-mcfadin-talks-datastax-and-cassandra-midi-20-and-how-do-planes-fly","summary":"In this episode I speak with Patrick McFadin about Datastax and their plans with Apache Cassandra, ponder on the release of MIDI 2.0 after 37 years, plane security, what happened in Iowa, and more https://www.datastax.com/ https://cassandra.apache.org/ chrischinchilla.com [http://chrischinchilla.com] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode…","date":"2020-02-13","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"paul-kuijf-of-learnedio-wine-filter-bubbles-and-what-is-meat","title":"Paul Kuijf of learned.io, Wine, filter bubbles, and what is meat?","url":"/podcast/paul-kuijf-of-learnedio-wine-filter-bubbles-and-what-is-meat","summary":"In this episode I speak with Paul Kuijf of learned.io [http://learned.io], look at the new Lovecraft film, burst some bubbles, learn new languages, and much more. chrischinchilla.com/podcasts [http://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts] chrischinchilla.com/contact [http://chrischinchilla.com/contact] learned.io [http://learned.io] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message…","date":"2020-02-06","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-02-05-introducing-starlingx-3-0-for-edge-computing-and-","title":"Introducing StarlingX 3.0 For Edge Computing and IoT","url":"/blog/2020/2020-02-05-introducing-starlingx-3-0-for-edge-computing-and-","summary":"Take a look at how StarlingX as an edge computing platform provides support for multiple low-latency use cases as well as a number of useful features.","date":"2020-02-05","tags":["Openstack","Starling","Containers","Kubernetes","Hybrid Cloud","Cloud"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-introducing-starlingx-30-for-edge-computing-and-i"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-02-04-introducing-starlingx-3-0-for-edge-computing-and-","title":"Introducing StarlingX 3.0 For Edge Computing and IoT","url":"/blog/2020/2020-02-04-introducing-starlingx-3-0-for-edge-computing-and-","summary":"Take a look at how StarlingX as an edge computing platform provides support for multiple low-latency use cases as well as a number of useful features.","date":"2020-02-04","tags":["Openstack","Starling","Containers","Kubernetes","Hybrid Cloud","Cloud"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-introducing-starlingx-30-for-edge-computing-and-i"},{"type":"events","id":"2020-02-01-fosdem-2020","title":"Fosdem 2020","url":"/events","summary":"This year at Fosdem I'm just attending for fun 😄.","date":"2020-02-01","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://fosdem.org/2020/"},{"type":"events","id":"2020-01-30-sustain-summit","title":"Sustain Summit","url":"/events","summary":"As a lover of open source software and communities, Chris is attending this one day event to discuss how we keep our communities supplied with what they need.","date":"2020-01-30","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://sustainoss.org/summit-2020/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-01-27-kong-api-platform-for-multi-cloud-and-hybrid-orga","title":"Kong API Platform for Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Organizations","url":"/blog/2020/2020-01-27-kong-api-platform-for-multi-cloud-and-hybrid-orga","summary":"Kong has evolved significantly from an open-source API gateway, handling just north-south traffic, to a full cycle API management platform.","date":"2020-01-27","tags":["API","Microservices","Api Management","Developer Portal","Kubernetes","Kong","Kong Api","Multi-cloud"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-kong-api-platform-for-multi-cloud-and-hybrid-orga"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-tactigon-academic-scandal-and-gaming-colonialism","title":"The Tactigon, academic scandal, and gaming colonialism","url":"/podcast/the-tactigon-academic-scandal-and-gaming-colonialism","summary":"In this episode I speak with the makers of the Tactigon wearable gesture controller, look at scandal in Oxford, DLC in D&D, decolonialising gaming, and much more. www.thetactigon.com/ [http://www.thetactigon.com/] chrischinchilla.com/podcasts [http://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts] chrischinchilla.com/contact [http://chrischinchilla.com/contact] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinch…","date":"2020-01-22","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2020/2020-01-15-ces-2020-highlights-for-the-more-technically-mind","title":"CES 2020 — Highlights for the More Technically Minded","url":"/blog/2020/2020-01-15-ces-2020-highlights-for-the-more-technically-mind","summary":"Chris Ward is here (a week late) reporting on his favorite announcements from the Consumer electronics show.","date":"2020-01-15","tags":["Ces 2020","Ces","Techology News","Laptops","IoT","Arduino"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-ces-2020-highlights-for-the-more-technically-mind"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"responsible-ai-with-shlomi-hod-the-weird-web-and-fax-on-the-beach","title":"Responsible AI with Shlomi Hod, the weird web and fax on the beach","url":"/podcast/responsible-ai-with-shlomi-hod-the-weird-web-and-fax-on-the-beach","summary":"This episode I speak with Shlomi Hod about responsible AI, look at the worst D&D monster of all, hello world in assembly, and more. chrischinchilla.com/podcasts [https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts] chrischinchilla.com/contact [https://chrischinchilla.com/contact/] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this…","date":"2020-01-15","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"kin-lane-the-api-evangelist-linux-revisited-and-the-lost-story-of-wolfenstein","title":"Kin Lane the API evangelist, Linux revisited, and the lost story of Wolfenstein","url":"/podcast/kin-lane-the-api-evangelist-linux-revisited-and-the-lost-story-of-wolfenstein","summary":"In this episode I speak with the infamous Kin Lane, the API evangelist, now working with Postman. I also cover my new experiences with the Linux desktop, how \"the rise of skywalker\" has visions of our dystopian future, and more! chrischinchilla.com/contact [https://chrischinchilla.com/contact] kinlane.com [http://kinlane.com/] getpostman.com [https://www.getpostman.com/] --- Send in a voice messa…","date":"2020-01-07","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-12-30-what-to-expect-in-open-source-software-in-the-nex","title":"What to Expect in Open-Source Software in the Next 6-12 Months?","url":"/blog/2019/2019-12-30-what-to-expect-in-open-source-software-in-the-nex","summary":"As the year draws to a close, it’s time to gaze into the crystal command line and see what 2020 might hold.","date":"2019-12-30","tags":["Open Source","Docker","Containers","Linux","Git","GitHub","Gitlab","WASM","Web Assembly"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-what-do-you-predict-will-happen-in-open-source-so"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"5gtechritory-y2k-bittorrent-monopoly-and-future-gazing","title":"5GTechritory, Y2K, BitTorrent, Monopoly, and future gazing","url":"/podcast/5gtechritory-y2k-bittorrent-monopoly-and-future-gazing","summary":"In this episode I speak with Laszlo Toth, Nikolai Astrup, and Dr. Suncheol Gweon from the recent 5GTechritory about the current state, and future promise of 5G. Also in this episode, the Y2K panic, incentivising BitTorrent, Monopoly, tech sexism, and so much more. https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts https://chrischinchilla.com/contact/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqu…","date":"2019-12-18","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-12-16-revisiting-desktop-linux-drowning-in-the-deep-end","title":"Revisiting Desktop Linux- Drowning in the Deep End","url":"/blog/2019/2019-12-16-revisiting-desktop-linux-drowning-in-the-deep-end","summary":"Embark on the start of a new journey in Linux with our shiny new Dell XPS 13\". Let's get started.","date":"2019-12-16","tags":["macOS","Linux","Desktop","Operating Systems","Windows","Ubuntu","Manjaro","Elementary Os","Arch Linux"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-revisiting-desktop-linux-drowning-in-the-deep-end"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-12-10-devrelcon-2019","title":"DevRelCon London","url":"/events","summary":"Chris represents the Ethereum Foundation at DevRelCon to learn how to apply techniques from the broader tech ecosystem.","date":"2019-12-10","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://london-2019.devrel.net/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"chronosphere-and-fixing-the-internet-air-conditioning-and-calculators","title":"Chronosphere and fixing the internet, air conditioning and calculators","url":"/podcast/chronosphere-and-fixing-the-internet-air-conditioning-and-calculators","summary":"In this episode I speak with Martin Mao of Chronosphere about the massive scale monitoring platform. I also cover fixing the internet, fixing air conditioning, the problem with calculators, switching from macOS to Linux, the death of Lil Bub and more! facebook.com/chrischinchilla [https://facebook.com/chrischinchilla] twitter.com/ChrisChinch [https://twitter.com/ChrisChinch] chrischinchilla.com […","date":"2019-12-05","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-11-27-5g-techritory","title":"5G Techritory Conference","url":"/events","summary":"I'm back at this high-level business and political discussions on 5G global deployment, including on how to turn visions into real business models, as well as the four key vertical markets which could have the biggest benefits from the introduction of 5G Smart City, Smart Mobility, Smart Healthcare and Industry 4.0. The Forum will also include the latest 5G technology presentations. A two-day agenda at the heart of the Baltics will bring together up to 1000 attendees - European policymakers, government officials, business leaders, investors, industry experts, start-ups and academic representatives, including 60+ senior speakers from Europe, Asia, and the USA.","date":"2019-11-27","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.5gtechritory.com/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"raj-dutt-of-grafana-brave-wework-and-football-manager","title":"Raj Dutt of Grafana, Brave, WeWork, and Football manager","url":"/podcast/raj-dutt-of-grafana-brave-wework-and-football-manager","summary":"In this episode I speak with Raj Dutt of Grafana. I also cover the rise of the Brave browser, keep an eye on Softbank, question Apple's design, look at the new tabletop game, Tapestry, investigate the issues with coworking, and much more! facebook.com/chrischinchilla [https://facebook.com/chrischinchilla] twitter.com/chrischinch [https://twitter.com/chrischinch] chrischichilla.com/podcasts [https…","date":"2019-11-27","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-11-25-data-natives-2019","title":"Data Natives 2019","url":"/events","summary":"I am attending Data Natives in my home town of Berlin to dig more into the affects data science will have on our future society.","date":"2019-11-25","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://datanatives.io/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-11-25-iost-the-decentralized-internet-of-services","title":"IOST — The Decentralized Internet of Services","url":"/blog/2019/2019-11-25-iost-the-decentralized-internet-of-services","summary":"An interview with Terry Wang, co-founder and CEO, Ling from White Matrix who built a web-based IDE for IOST, and Aleksi of Attic labs who build games.","date":"2019-11-25","tags":["Blockchain","Iost","JavaScript","Consensus Algorithm","Go Lang","Agile","Interview"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-iost-the-decentralized-internet-of-services"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-11-20-multipass-and-microk8s-the-quickest-route-to-ubun","title":"Multipass and MicroK8s- the Quickest Route to Ubuntu and Kubernetes?","url":"/blog/2019/2019-11-20-multipass-and-microk8s-the-quickest-route-to-ubun","summary":"Would your Kubernetes-based workflows run better on Multipass and MicroK8s?","date":"2019-11-20","tags":["Ubuntu","Kubernetes","Multipass","MicroK8s","Cloud Computing","Vm","Canonical"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-multipass-and-microk8s-the-quickest-route-to-ubun"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-11-18-language-and-understandable-writing","title":"Language and understandable writing","url":"/blog/2019/2019-11-18-language-and-understandable-writing","summary":"I appreciate that not everyone who writes documentation is a native English speaker, or even if they are, may not understand the best way to write clearly and concisely. Many native English speakers had our last grammar lesson more than 20 years ago, and have learnt the tips and tricks we now use as professional writers recently. There are three important things to remember to justify the time and effort of making your writing more understandable:","date":"2019-11-18","tags":["Grammar","Languages","Documentation","Writing"],"categories":["tech","writing"],"externalUrl":"https://kauri.io/article/01db62a1bdf54c4b99a852fe9700e930"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"a-fantasy-greek-perfect-for-your-eyes","title":"A fantasy Greek perfect for your eyes","url":"/podcast/a-fantasy-greek-perfect-for-your-eyes","summary":"Fresh back from Tekom's TCWorld event, Chris covers the difference between different types of tech writers, fantasy maps, running D&D campaigns with inconsistent players, is dark mode a myth, and why do so many cultures think Greek is so complicated? Questions: 1. Would you watch live documenting / tech writing? 2. Have you ever run a West marches campaign? 3. Do you like dark mode? Why? Contact…","date":"2019-11-15","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-11-14-documentation-structure","title":"Documentation structure","url":"/blog/2019/2019-11-14-documentation-structure","summary":"Documentation structure applies to your documentation as a whole, and to each page. Let's start at the top and work down.","date":"2019-11-14","tags":["Writing","Documentation"],"categories":["tech","writing"],"externalUrl":"https://kauri.io/article/cb1cad8db083475389718cbea3217db2"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-11-14-why-write-documentation","title":"Why write documentation","url":"/blog/2019/2019-11-14-why-write-documentation","summary":"What's one of the first things you look at when you look at using a new project?","date":"2019-11-14","tags":["Documentation","Writing"],"categories":["tech","writing"],"externalUrl":"https://kauri.io/article/203c87d1ee4b4444b0139fe054f28607"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-11-12-tcworld-conference-2019","title":"tcworld conference 2019","url":"/events","summary":"I'm at TechKomm's main event for the year running two meetups for participants to discuss testing documentation, AI in documentation and more.","date":"2019-11-12","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://conferences.tekom.de/tcworld19/tcworld-conference-2019/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"weworld","title":"WeWorld","url":"/podcast/weworld","summary":"In this episode I cover the WeWork/Meetup/Softbank world domination saga, the sad state of affairs of online journalism, and has Apple had enough of Electron? https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts http://facebook.com/chrischinchilla Meetup interview [https://anchor.fm/theweeklysqueak/episodes/Scott-Heiferman---The-past--present-and-future-of-meeting-people-with-meetup-founder-e14p6r] One day the W…","date":"2019-11-08","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-11-05-oreilly-velocity-conference","title":"O'Reilly Velocity Conference","url":"/events","summary":"I'm attending my first O'Reilly event as they are in my home town! Yay.","date":"2019-11-05","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://conferences.oreilly.com/velocity/vl-eu"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-apache-software-foundation-unix-at-50-and-the-story-of-a-floating-hotel","title":"The Apache Software Foundation, UNIX at 50 and the story of a floating hotel","url":"/podcast/the-apache-software-foundation-unix-at-50-and-the-story-of-a-floating-hotel","summary":"In this episode I speak with David Nalley of the Apache Software Foundation about their roles in the projects they work with. Also features how an Australian floating hotel ended up in North Korea, D&D with sign language, long distance flights, and Happy birthday UNIX. https://www.facebook.com/chrischinchilla https://chrischinchilla.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasq…","date":"2019-10-31","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-10-22-apachecon","title":"ApacheCon","url":"/events","summary":"Join me to discover the latest innovations in containers, cloud, DevOps, IoT, servers, web frameworks, plus many other Apache projects and communities in a collaborative, vendor-neutral environment.","date":"2019-10-22","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://aceu19.apachecon.com"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-10-19-diffusion","title":"Diffusion","url":"/events","summary":"I am mentoring hackers at this cross-blockchain hackathon.","date":"2019-10-19","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://diffusion.events"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-10-17-a-fullstack-dapp-for-creating-unique-tradable-tok","title":"A fullstack dapp for creating unique tradable tokens","url":"/blog/2019/2019-10-17-a-fullstack-dapp-for-creating-unique-tradable-tok","summary":"This dapp implements is a Crypto-collectible game built on top of the ERC-721 standard for creating unique tokens.. This tutorial is intended to be followed using the online IDE available at studio.ethereum.org, and selecting the CryptoPizza template.","date":"2019-10-17","tags":["Smart Contracts","Cryptoeconomics","Erc-20","Token-Standard","Erc721","Tokens"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://kauri.io/article/2519d02a7a5244949dc12737817f5798"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"leemon-baird-of-hedera-hashgraph-wendys-horror-and-gnu-start","title":"Leemon Baird of Hedera Hashgraph, Wendys Horror, and GNU Start","url":"/podcast/leemon-baird-of-hedera-hashgraph-wendys-horror-and-gnu-start","summary":"In this episode I speak with Dr. Leemon Baird of Hedera Hashgraph about their DLT (not a Blockchain), plus the Saga of Richard Stallman continues, the history of Call of Cthulhu, and Wendys releases a RPG… facebook.com/chrischinchilla [https://facebook.com/chrischinchilla] chrischinchilla.com [https://chrischinchilla.com/] www.hedera.com/about [https://www.hedera.com/about] --- Send in a voice me…","date":"2019-10-15","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-10-12-a-fullstack-dapp-for-creating-tokens","title":"A fullstack dapp for creating tokens","url":"/blog/2019/2019-10-12-a-fullstack-dapp-for-creating-tokens","summary":"This dapp implements the simplest form of a cryptocurrency that uses the ERC-20 standard to define a token you can create and send to others. This tutorial is intended to be followed using the online IDE available at studio.ethereum.org, and selecting the Coin template.","date":"2019-10-12","tags":["Smart Contracts","Getting-Started","Dapp","Erc-20","Token-Standard","Solidity"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://kauri.io/article/bdd65d6155a74b8aa52672b46b7230a8"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-10-12-create-a-hello-world-fullstack-dapp","title":"Create a &quot;Hello World&quot; fullstack dapp","url":"/blog/2019/2019-10-12-create-a-hello-world-fullstack-dapp","summary":"This dapp implements a Hello World style application that echoes a message passed to the contract to the front end. This tutorial is intended to be followed using the online IDE available at studio.ethereum.org, and selecting the Hello World template.","date":"2019-10-12","tags":["Smart Contracts","Ethereum","Getting-Started","Dapp","Web3Js","On-Boarding","Solidity"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://kauri.io/article/68fca74301814d09bfcc35e07ff30fbc"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-10-08-devcon","title":"DevCon","url":"/events","summary":"I'm delivering a workshop with the Remix team about getting started with Solidity development, and will also be around to talk about Ethereum education.","date":"2019-10-08","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://devcon.org"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-10-03-multipass-and-microk8s-the-quickest-route-to-ubun","title":"Multipass and MicroK8s- the Quickest Route to Ubuntu and Kubernetes?","url":"/blog/2019/2019-10-03-multipass-and-microk8s-the-quickest-route-to-ubun","summary":"Would your Kubernetes-based workflows run better on Multipass and MicroK8s?","date":"2019-10-03","tags":["Ubuntu","Kubernetes","Multipass","MicroK8s","Cloud Computing","Vm","Canonical"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-multipass-and-microk8s-the-quickest-route-to-ubun"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-vermont-remote-workers-grant-docker-boeing-ice-and-thomas-jefferson","title":"The Vermont Remote Workers Grant, Docker, Boeing, ICE and Thomas Jefferson","url":"/podcast/the-vermont-remote-workers-grant-docker-boeing-ice-and-thomas-jefferson","summary":"In this episode I speak with Commissioner Goldstein of the Vermont State Government about the policy of paying remote workers to relocate to the state. I also cover Docker, the tech backlash against ICE, the Boeing 737 Max, and Thomas Jefferson's Bible… https://facebook.com/chrischinchilla https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts Transcript [http://chrischinchilla.com/chris/podcast/theweeklysqueak/20…","date":"2019-10-03","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-09-26-heapcon","title":"Heapcon","url":"/events","summary":"I'm back at one of my favourite events in the Balkans, this time just to sit back and listen to some talks.","date":"2019-09-26","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://heapcon.io"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-nerd-legacy","title":"The nerd legacy","url":"/podcast/the-nerd-legacy","summary":"In this episode I cover the resignation of Richard Stallman, historic installation windows, Apple and \"sherlocking\", COBOL, and the future of development. chrischinchilla.com/podcasts [https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts] www.facebook.com/chrischinchilla [https://www.facebook.com/chrischinchilla] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. I…","date":"2019-09-25","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-09-18-stories-from-kubecon-carmine-rimi-of-canonical","title":"Stories from KubeCon - Carmine Rimi of Canonical","url":"/blog/2019/2019-09-18-stories-from-kubecon-carmine-rimi-of-canonical","summary":"We're bringing you more from KubeCon with the Product Manager of Kubernetes and AI from Canonical.","date":"2019-09-18","tags":["Canonical","Ubuntu","Kubeflow","Micropass","MicroK8s","Kubernetes","Dzone","AI","Interview"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-stories-from-kubecon-carmine-rimi-of-canonical"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-09-14-write-the-docs-prague-2019","title":"Write the Docs EU","url":"/events","summary":"I'm back at Write the Docs in Prague again, but this time handling social media and the legendary writing day for the event.","date":"2019-09-14","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.writethedocs.org/conf/eu/2018"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"xinshu-dong-of-rockx-unix-the-history-of-commuting-and-words","title":"Xinshu Dong of RockX, Unix, the history of commuting and words","url":"/podcast/xinshu-dong-of-rockx-unix-the-history-of-commuting-and-words","summary":"In this episode I speak with Xinshu Dong of RockX about his new blockchain-based digital assets platform. Also features stories on the impact of our cities on commuting, products for the elderly, the power of words, the history of Unix and more. chrischinchilla.com [https://chrischinchilla.com/] facebook.com/chrischinchilla [https://www.facebook.com/chrischinchilla] --- Send in a voice message: h…","date":"2019-09-12","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-09-06-startupnight","title":"Startup night","url":"/events","summary":"The longest night of Startups in Berlin is back! I'll be wandering the streets to see what interesting ideas I can find.","date":"2019-09-06","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.startupnight.net/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-09-05-stories-from-kubecon-with-jason-mcgee-cto-ibm-clo","title":"Stories From KubeCon With Jason McGee, CTO, IBM Cloud Platform","url":"/blog/2019/2019-09-05-stories-from-kubecon-with-jason-mcgee-cto-ibm-clo","summary":"Get it first from IBM Cloud Platform CTO Jason McGee about what IBM Cloud is about, who it's for, and what it offers.","date":"2019-09-05","tags":["Kubernetes","Cloud Native","Hybrid Cloud","Cloud","Ibm","Enterprise Development","Ibm Cloud"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-stories-from-kubecon-jason-mcgee-cto-ibm-cloud-pl"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-09-03-stories-from-kubecon-ibm-announces-razee-a-multi-","title":"Stories From KubeCon- IBM announces Razee, a Multi-Cluster Continuous...","url":"/blog/2019/2019-09-03-stories-from-kubecon-ibm-announces-razee-a-multi-","summary":"Stop pushing and start pulling with this new continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes, straight from IBM at KubeCon.","date":"2019-09-03","tags":["Ibm","Kubernetes","Cloud Native","Continuous Delivery","Hybrid Cloud","Monitoring","Pull Oriented Model","Open Source","Cloud"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-stories-from-kubecon-ibm-announces-razee-a-multi"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-08-30-ethberlin-2019-decentralized-heatathon","title":"ETHBerlin 2019 - Decentralized Heatathon","url":"/blog/2019/2019-08-30-ethberlin-2019-decentralized-heatathon","summary":"I wasn't at Berlin Blockchain week in 2018, so can't directly compare the two events, but this year seemed busy to me, others mentioned they thought it was quieter. However, the venues used for the events were large and sprawling, so it was hard to get a complete picture of how many attendees there were, but the crowd felt enthusiastic to me. Especially considering the sweltering heat for most of the week.","date":"2019-08-30","tags":["Hackathons","Berlin","Events"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://kauri.io/article/09019039d2564449a129f7f415b79187"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"sky-guo-of-cypherium-loss-in-the-age-of-the-cloud-and-fantasy-islands","title":"Sky Guo of Cypherium, loss in the age of the cloud and fantasy islands","url":"/podcast/sky-guo-of-cypherium-loss-in-the-age-of-the-cloud-and-fantasy-islands","summary":"In this episode I speak with Sky Guo of Cypherium [https://cypherium.io/], cover data loss in the era of digital memories, fantasy islands, the history of JQuery, and when crowdfunding goes wrong. https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts https://facebook.com/chrischinchilla --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss…","date":"2019-08-29","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-08-23-ethberlin","title":"ETHBerlin","url":"/events","summary":"I am volunteering with ETHBerlin to create the knowledge base hackers use during the legendary hackathon to find the information they need to participate.","date":"2019-08-23","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://ethberlinzwei.com/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-08-23-top-5-resources-for-web-app-accessibility","title":"Top 5 Resources for Web App Accessibility","url":"/blog/2019/2019-08-23-top-5-resources-for-web-app-accessibility","summary":"Kickstart turning your web pages into accessible web pages. Here are our 5 favorite resources for learning what you need to change and how to implement those changes.","date":"2019-08-23","tags":["Accessibility","Web"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.telerik.com/blogs/top-5-resources-web-app-accessibility"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-08-20-7-ways-to-make-your-angular-app-more-accessible","title":"7 Ways to Make Your Angular App More Accessible","url":"/blog/2019/2019-08-20-7-ways-to-make-your-angular-app-more-accessible","summary":"Angular is a popular framework for creating powerful JavaScript applications quickly. However, it doesn’t always create the most accessible applications. In this post we look at ways that anyone can implement to make Angular based applications usable by all.","date":"2019-08-20","tags":["Angular","Accessibility"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.telerik.com/blogs/7-ways-to-make-your-angular-app-more-accessible"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"product-hunt-award-winner-krispai-ctrlaltdel-and-harmonyos","title":"Product Hunt award winner Krisp.ai, Ctrl+Alt+Del and HarmonyOS","url":"/podcast/product-hunt-award-winner-krispai-ctrlaltdel-and-harmonyos","summary":"In this episode I speak with Davit Baghdasaryan of Krisp.ai [http://krisp.ai] about their small Windows, macOS and (soon) iOS application that removes background noise from online conversations. Also features news on Huawei's new OS, the history of Ctrl+Alt+del, moderating hacker news and more. https://krisp.ai [https://krisp.ai/] https://chrischinchilla.com [https://chrischinchilla.com/] https:/…","date":"2019-08-15","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"putting-blockchain-in-hotel-rooms-with-reda-berrehili-of-the-ki-foundation","title":"Putting Blockchain in hotel rooms with Réda Berrehili of the Ki Foundation","url":"/podcast/putting-blockchain-in-hotel-rooms-with-reda-berrehili-of-the-ki-foundation","summary":"In this episode I speak with Réda Berrehili of the Ki Foundation [https://foundation.ki/team] about their plans to put blockchain-powered assistants into hotel rooms. I also cover the Linux desktop wars are over, the Nintendo power glove, and those pesky under water cables giving us all the internet we need (most of the time). https://chrischinchilla.com/ https://twitter.com/ChrisChinch http://fa…","date":"2019-08-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-08-01-accessibility-regulations-you-need-to-follow-section-508","title":"Accessibility Regulations You Need to Follow: Section 508","url":"/blog/2019/2019-08-01-accessibility-regulations-you-need-to-follow-section-508","summary":"What is Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and why should you adhere to it when developing your product or services? Learn what you need to know in this article.","date":"2019-08-01","tags":["Accessibility","Web Design"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.telerik.com/blogs/accessibility-regulations-you-need-to-follow-section-508"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"quantum-jerks-brilliant-puppies-pompeii-and-whats-so-good-about-medium","title":"Quantum Jerks - Brilliant Puppies, Pompeii, and what's so good about Medium?","url":"/podcast/quantum-jerks-brilliant-puppies-pompeii-and-whats-so-good-about-medium","summary":"In this Weekly Squeak I cover Quantum computing, removing brilliant jerks, the problems with Medium, the problems with office perks, arguments over Pompeii and more! https://www.facebook.com/chrischinchilla https://chrischinchilla.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get a…","date":"2019-08-01","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-07-30-motor-disabilities-and-what-you-need-for-accessibility","title":"Motor Disabilities and What You Need for Accessibility","url":"/blog/2019/2019-07-30-motor-disabilities-and-what-you-need-for-accessibility","summary":"Designing for accessibility can make your website better for everyone. In this article, we'll define motor disabilities and talk about web development strategies for improving accessibility for users with a motor disability.","date":"2019-07-30","tags":["Accessibility","Web"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.telerik.com/blogs/motor-disabilities-and-what-you-need-for-accessibility"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-07-29-auditory-disabilities-and-what-you-need-for-accessibility","title":"Auditory Disabilities and What You Need for Accessibility","url":"/blog/2019/2019-07-29-auditory-disabilities-and-what-you-need-for-accessibility","summary":"The web increasingly provides both a rich visual and audio experience. In this article, we'll define auditory disabilities and talk about web development strategies for improving accessibility for users with hearing impairment.","date":"2019-07-29","tags":["Accessibility","Web"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.telerik.com/blogs/auditory-disabilities-and-what-you-need-for-accessibility"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-07-23-vision-disabilities-and-what-you-need-for-accessibility","title":"Vision Disabilities and What You Need for Accessibility","url":"/blog/2019/2019-07-23-vision-disabilities-and-what-you-need-for-accessibility","summary":"In this article, we'll define vision disabilities and talk about web development strategies for improving accessibility for users with visual impairments.","date":"2019-07-23","tags":["Accessibility","Web"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.telerik.com/blogs/vision-disabilities-and-what-you-need-for-accessibility"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"apache-spark-with-jean-georges-perrin-twine-alexa-and-the-nhs","title":"Apache Spark with Jean Georges Perrin, Twine, Alexa and the NHS","url":"/podcast/apache-spark-with-jean-georges-perrin-twine-alexa-and-the-nhs","summary":"In this episode I speak with Jean Georges Perrin about his forthcoming book \"Spark in Action\", where we cover Apache Spark, writing books, and why many are wrong about IBM. I also cover Twine, Open Source and Alexa and the UK's health service. https://www.manning.com/books/spark-in-action-second-edition Discount code for any Manning books for you all: podchinc19 And 5 free eBook codes for Jean's…","date":"2019-07-19","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-07-19-bosque-microsoft-s-new-programming-language","title":"Bosque- Microsoft’s New Programming Language","url":"/blog/2019/2019-07-19-bosque-microsoft-s-new-programming-language","summary":"Check out this great introduction to Microsoft's open-source Bosque language as well as hear from its creator.","date":"2019-07-19","tags":["Programming Languages","Functional Programming","Structural Languages","Open Source","Microsoft Bosque"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-bosque-microsofts-new-programming-language"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-07-16-the-wcag-accessibility-regulations-you-need-to-know","title":"The WCAG: Accessibility Regulations You Need to Know","url":"/blog/2019/2019-07-16-the-wcag-accessibility-regulations-you-need-to-know","summary":"In this era ruled by digital information, it’s vital to make sure that the internet’s vast wealth of knowledge is accessible to as many people as possible. This article explains how adherence to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or WCAG, helps you get closer to that goal.","date":"2019-07-16","tags":["Accessibility","Web"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.telerik.com/blogs/the-wcag-accessibility-regulations-you-need-to-know"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"iost-blockchain-downplaying-air-travel-computer-sound-design-and-jpeg-joy","title":"IOST Blockchain, downplaying air travel, computer sound design and JPEG joy","url":"/podcast/iost-blockchain-downplaying-air-travel-computer-sound-design-and-jpeg-joy","summary":"In this episode I speak with some of the team behind the IOST Blockchain project, cover recent Zoom woes, wonder if air travel is all that's it's hyped to be, dig into JPEGs, and so much more! https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access…","date":"2019-07-12","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-07-11-the-international-accessibility-standards-you-need-to-follow","title":"The International Accessibility Standards You Need to Follow","url":"/blog/2019/2019-07-11-the-international-accessibility-standards-you-need-to-follow","summary":"American web accessibility standards are often top of mind for most developers, but the United Nations, European Union and many nations have their own laws and policies. Read more about how to develop international accessibility standards in this blog post.","date":"2019-07-11","tags":["Accessibility","Web"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.telerik.com/blogs/the-international-accessibility-standards-you-need-to-follow"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-07-07-netlify-dev-test-the-netlify-hosting-platform-loc","title":"Netlify Dev- Test the Netlify Hosting Platform Locally","url":"/blog/2019/2019-07-07-netlify-dev-test-the-netlify-hosting-platform-loc","summary":"A DZone Zone Leader shares a podcast where he interviews the founder of Netlify and then shows how to use this platform on you local machine.","date":"2019-07-07","tags":["Netlify","Serverless","Static Site Generator","Jekyll","Hugo","React","Web Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-netlify-dev-test-the-netlify-hosting-platform-loc"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"marco-palladino-of-kong-sugar-sobriety-and-vegetarian-tech","title":"Marco Palladino of Kong, Sugar, Sobriety and Vegetarian Tech","url":"/podcast/marco-palladino-of-kong-sugar-sobriety-and-vegetarian-tech","summary":"I speak with Marco Palladino of Kong about their API gateway, microservice mesh and smart docs generation. Also features content on North Korea, increased sobriety, Sugar and Vegetarian tech events. And I announce how you can get involved in my new show, \"The Enthusiastic Amateur\". https://konghq.com/kong/ https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinch…","date":"2019-07-04","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"games","id":"odtwe","title":"One Day the World Ended","url":"/games","summary":"An expanding universe used for short fiction, interactive fiction, a roleplay game, and a card game.","date":"2019-07-04","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.itch.io/one-day-the-world-ended"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-state-of-mobile-networks-with-opensignal","title":"The state of mobile networks with OpenSignal","url":"/podcast/the-state-of-mobile-networks-with-opensignal","summary":"In this episode I speak with Ian Fogg of OpenSignal about our current 4G network, and the future 5G one. Also featured is D&D for product teams, educating on the history of the British Empire, Visual Basic, Project Catalyst, Libra, escaping the smart city and more! https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts https://chrischinchilla.com/newsletters --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchill…","date":"2019-06-27","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-06-18-ethics-in-tech-a-practical-discussion-about-ai","title":"Ethics in Tech: a Practical Discussion about AI","url":"/events","summary":"I am appearing on a panel to discuss ethics in tech and what responsibilities developers have in the discussion.","date":"2019-06-20","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ethics-in-tech-a-practical-discussion-about-ai-tickets-62108922459"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"kubecon-soloio-digital-ocean-and-atlassian","title":"KubeCon - Solo.io, Digital Ocean and Atlassian","url":"/podcast/kubecon-soloio-digital-ocean-and-atlassian","summary":"In part 2 of interviews from KubeCon, I speak with the following people about developments in the world of Kubernetes: Idit Levine of Solo.io [http://solo.io] 24:48 - Shiv Ramji of Digital Ocean 50:05 - Matthew Whittington of Atlassian https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discus…","date":"2019-06-14","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-06-11-pengwin-linux-optimized-for-the-windows-subsystem","title":"Pengwin- Linux Optimized for the Windows Subsystem","url":"/blog/2019/2019-06-11-pengwin-linux-optimized-for-the-windows-subsystem","summary":"Here's a walkthrough of Pengwin, a custom Linux distro built specifically with Windows in mind.","date":"2019-06-11","tags":["Windows","Linux","Wsl","Open Source","Pengwin","Linux Subsystem For Windows"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-pengwin-linux-optimized-for-the-windows-subsystem"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-06-11-the-data-science-developer-experience","title":"The Data Science & Developer Experience","url":"/events","summary":"I am speaking about the responsibility of developers when it comes to the ethics of big data.","date":"2019-06-11","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.ibm.com/de-de/events/thinkatibm/events/datadev.html"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"kubecon-ibm-canonical-and-rancher","title":"KubeCon - IBM, Canonical and Rancher","url":"/podcast/kubecon-ibm-canonical-and-rancher","summary":"In part 1 of interviews from KubeCon, I speak with the following people about developments in the world of Kubernetes: 1:27 - Jason McGee of IBM 25:26 - Carmine Rimi of Canonical 48:16 - Sheng Liang of Rancher Labs https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other sub…","date":"2019-06-10","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-06-06-secureth-guidelines-getting-started","title":"SecurEth Guidelines - Getting Started","url":"/blog/2019/2019-06-06-secureth-guidelines-getting-started","summary":"Start with writing a System Description Document. The Development Plan and Preliminary Audit are optional components but quite valuable for new development teams.","date":"2019-06-06","tags":["Guidelines"],"categories":["writing"],"externalUrl":"https://kauri.io/article/791ef4c00e924247921e98c95efbdd73"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-06-05-ai-friend-or-foe","title":"Soap! Conf","url":"/events","summary":"Tech writers are increasingly reliant on linters, grammar checkers and other tools to help us write. Are they useful, or are they bending our writing to our robot overlords will?","date":"2019-06-05","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://soapconf.com"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-06-04-emerge","title":"Emerge","url":"/events","summary":"I head to Belarus to find out what the tech and startup scene has to offer.","date":"2019-06-04","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://emergeconf.io"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"mark-marron-of-bosque-microsofts-new-programming-language","title":"Mark Marron of Bosque, Microsoft's new programming language","url":"/podcast/mark-marron-of-bosque-microsofts-new-programming-language","summary":"I speak with Mark Marron of Microsoft about their new language that is simple, obvious, and easy to reason about for both humans and machines. I also cover Edge arriving on macOS, Android Q desktop mode, Vale for the desktop, and why no one builds underground lines anymore? https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/bosque-programming-language/ --- Send…","date":"2019-05-28","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-05-24-creating-a-serverless-application-with-kendoreact","title":"Creating a Serverless Application with KendoReact","url":"/blog/2019/2019-05-24-creating-a-serverless-application-with-kendoreact","summary":"In this article, we walk you through creating a serverless application with the Serverless Framework, deploying it to the cloud, and creating a user interface for it using KendoReact.","date":"2019-05-24","tags":["Kendo","React","Serverless"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.telerik.com/blogs/creating-a-serverless-application-with-kendoreact"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-05-22-explain-yourself","title":"Codegarden","url":"/events","summary":"I speak at the Umbraco official conference to give a 40 minute crash course in improving documentation.","date":"2019-05-22","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://codegarden19.com"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-05-21-fluree-blockchain-graphql-and-more-all-in-one-dat","title":"Fluree- Blockchain, GraphQL, and More- All in One Database","url":"/blog/2019/2019-05-21-fluree-blockchain-graphql-and-more-all-in-one-dat","summary":"Learn more about Fluree and listen to an interview one of our Zone Leaders had with Co-CEO Brian Platz.","date":"2019-05-21","tags":["Blockchain","GraphQL","Sparql","Databases","Relational Database","Distributed Database","Java","Fluree"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-fluree-blockchain-graphql-and-more-all-in-one-dat"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-05-21-revolutionizing-health-data-with-arkhn","title":"Revolutionizing Health Data With Arkhn","url":"/blog/2019/2019-05-21-revolutionizing-health-data-with-arkhn","summary":"A discussion of what the team at Arkhn is doing with health data and the impact they hope it will have.","date":"2019-05-21","tags":["API","Rest","Digital Transformation","Big Data","Open Data","Big Data Use Cases"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-revolutionizing-health-data-with-arkhn"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-05-20-kubecon-eu","title":"KubeCon and CloudNativeCon","url":"/events","summary":"I travel to Barcelona to report on the latest updates and best practices for Kubernetes and Clound-native computing.","date":"2019-05-20","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe-2019/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-05-20-q-and-a-making-open-source-more-accessible-to-ent","title":"Q and A- Making Open Source More Accessible to Enterprises","url":"/blog/2019/2019-05-20-q-and-a-making-open-source-more-accessible-to-ent","summary":"In this interview, see what one company's philosophy about open source products and development for enterprise apps holds.","date":"2019-05-20","tags":["Open Source","Enterprise","Security","Dependency Management","Compliance"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/making-open-source-more-accessible-to-enterprises"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-05-20-revolutionizing-health-data-with-arkhn","title":"Revolutionizing Health Data With Arkhn","url":"/blog/2019/2019-05-20-revolutionizing-health-data-with-arkhn","summary":"A discussion of what the team at Arkhn is doing with health data and the impact they hope it will have.","date":"2019-05-20","tags":["API","Rest","Digital Transformation","Big Data","Open Data","Big Data Use Cases"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-revolutionizing-health-data-with-arkhn"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-05-06-latitude59","title":"Latitude59","url":"/events","summary":"Chris represents the Ethereum Foundation at Latitude59 to discuss the future of work, the incentive economy, and more.","date":"2019-05-16","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://latitude59.ee"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"matt-billman-of-netlify-game-playing-ai-and-sim-city-hell","title":"Matt Billman of Netlify, game playing AI, and Sim City hell","url":"/podcast/matt-billman-of-netlify-game-playing-ai-and-sim-city-hell","summary":"In this episode Chris speaks with Matt Billman of Netlify, creating general game playing AI, browser wars past and present, and more! https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts https://chrischinchilla.com/newsletters https://www.netlify.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get a…","date":"2019-05-15","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-05-08-mojobot-the-world-s-first-tangible-coding-robot-a","title":"Mojobot- The World’s First Tangible Coding Robot and Board Game","url":"/blog/2019/2019-05-08-mojobot-the-world-s-first-tangible-coding-robot-a","summary":"Learning to code with a board game? Sounds too good to be true.","date":"2019-05-08","tags":["Coding","Education","Kids","Programming","Games","Board Games","Robotics","IoT"],"categories":["tech","games"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-mojobot-the-worlds-first-tangible-coding-robot-an"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"a-linux-for-windows-pengwin-polymaths-login-and-coffee-pods","title":"A Linux for Windows? Pengwin, Polymaths, Login and Coffee Pods","url":"/podcast/a-linux-for-windows-pengwin-polymaths-login-and-coffee-pods","summary":"In this episode Chris speaks with Hayden Barnes about the Pengwin project, an optimised Linux for the Windows Linux Subsystem. Also features articles on Coffee Pods, Polymaths, digital newspapers and more! https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts https://www.pengwin.dev --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this…","date":"2019-05-07","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-05-06-beyond-the-block--state-of-blockchain-adoption","title":"Beyond the Block – State of Blockchain Adoption","url":"/events","summary":"Chris talks about what Web3 can learn from \"traditional\" tech industries to improve how projects engage with developer communities.","date":"2019-05-06","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.eventbrite.com/e/beyond-the-block-state-of-blockchain-adoption-tickets-60922337351"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-05-06-crypto-oracle","title":"Crypto Oracle","url":"/events","summary":"Chris covers how to create an engaged developer community, specifically focussing on Crypto and Web3 projects, but with inspiration drawn from wider open source and tech ecosystems.","date":"2019-05-06","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://zoom.us/w/903412327?tk=KTI8g10ikihNvOxLWcHMzle-tZ5BrNS4OFW1y3tSzB0.DQEAAAAANdj6ZxZ6YV9mOVU1M1R5U2JwbHNyNnBuZVZRAA"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-04-26-april-25th-2019-newsletter","title":"April 25th 2019 Newsletter","url":"/blog/2019/2019-04-26-april-25th-2019-newsletter","summary":"Kauri aims to make building with Ethereum as straightforward as existing web 2.0 developer tools and frameworks. To help reach that goal, we are building a content platform for experts in the ecosystem to share their knowledge with those looking to grow theirs.","date":"2019-04-26","tags":["Newsletter","Kauri","Updates"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://kauri.io/article/81555225559743089665e46d2619037a"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"your-smart-essential-dungeon","title":"Your smart essential dungeon","url":"/podcast/your-smart-essential-dungeon","summary":"In this episode Chris covers why the Essential phone isn't as bad you might have thought, how smart speakers are changing music, new programming languages, and is D&D becoming too mainstream? Also features an interview with Pooh from Mojobot, a cool new coding board game that's on kickstarter right now! https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/projectlab/mojobot-t…","date":"2019-04-25","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-04-24-will-the-opera-web3-wallet-drive-adoption","title":"Will the Opera web3 wallet drive adoption?","url":"/blog/2019/2019-04-24-will-the-opera-web3-wallet-drive-adoption","summary":"A year or so ago I wanted to replace Google Chrome as my main browser. Why? First I was unsure and uncomfortable with the potential amount of data shared with Google. Second Chrome now reminds me too much of Internet Explorer in the 90s and early 2000s, where certain websites and features would only work in one browser, going against the entire concept of an open internet.","date":"2019-04-24","tags":["Opera","Ux","Wallet","UI","Browsers","Web3"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://kauri.io/article/2cfdfa427d324b57b2afd034f3cfb145"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-04-23-google-s-season-of-docs-fostering-open-source-col","title":"Google&#39;s Season of Docs - Fostering open source collaboration with technical writers","url":"/blog/2019/2019-04-23-google-s-season-of-docs-fostering-open-source-col","summary":"Kauri is passionate about improving developer documentation and experience. At the moment we are working to do this in the Ethereum and Web3 space, in the longer term future we hope to do the same with other open source technologies. We do this with our content platform and helping fund and mentor project documentation improvements. For example, until April 30th we are helping fund documentation improvements to ENS and Plasma Group (components) as part of the Ethereal hackathon.","date":"2019-04-23","tags":["Documentation","Hackathons","Community"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://kauri.io/article/b2c15b0fc0ef49dfa4f4656590398d55"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-04-23-openstack-stein-kubernetes-and-bare-metal","title":"OpenStack Stein- Kubernetes and Bare Metal","url":"/blog/2019/2019-04-23-openstack-stein-kubernetes-and-bare-metal","summary":"The 19th release brings improved Kubernetes support, plus enhanced bare metal & network management.","date":"2019-04-23","tags":["Openstack","Kubernetes","Bare Metal","Containers"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/-openstack-stein-kubernetes-and-bare-metal"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-04-18-removing-the-lid-on-kata-containers","title":"Removing the Lid on Kata Containers","url":"/blog/2019/2019-04-18-removing-the-lid-on-kata-containers","summary":"To find out more about the Kata Containers project, including how they compare to other solutions, and recent developments, I spoke with the team.","date":"2019-04-18","tags":["Runc","Runv","Hyper.Sh","Kubernetes","Cloud","Kata Containers"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/removing-the-lid-on-kata-containers"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-caffeinated-cthulhu-desktop","title":"The Caffeinated Cthulhu Desktop","url":"/podcast/the-caffeinated-cthulhu-desktop","summary":"In this episode I look at advice on writing weird fiction, the future of Linux, the latest version of Opera, wether Google cloud offers an open source friendly alternative to AWS, and more! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasque…","date":"2019-04-17","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-04-12-kauri-celebrates-500th-post","title":"Kauri celebrates 500th post","url":"/blog/2019/2019-04-12-kauri-celebrates-500th-post","summary":"Ten days ago Kevin Small posted Visualizing Bitcoin Transactions in 3D and Virtual Reality, making it the 500th post submitted to Kauri. We thought this was a great time to recap and recount some of our and your favorite posts from the past year since Kauri began.","date":"2019-04-12","tags":["Kauri","Writing","Community"],"categories":["tech","writing"],"externalUrl":"https://kauri.io/article/de927174d7b54ac2a33d8a37c43f9797"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"robocall-hyphen-king","title":"Robocall hyphen king","url":"/podcast/robocall-hyphen-king","summary":"In this episode Chris covers the trail of the robocall king, programmer's obsession with efficiency, prisoners training AI, all you wanted to know about hyphenation, and much more. https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus ep…","date":"2019-04-04","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-03-28-reading-on-kauri","title":"Reading on Kauri","url":"/blog/2019/2019-03-28-reading-on-kauri","summary":"Reading articles on Kauri is straightforward, but here are a few features we hope make that experience better, and helps improve the reading experience for everyone.","date":"2019-03-28","tags":["Kauri","Reading","Share"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dev2.kauri.io/article/1c08250d4c4f4c4eb84d5c064541fd3c"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"ranking-full-stop","title":"Ranking full stop","url":"/podcast/ranking-full-stop","summary":"In this episode I cover old technologies and how to preserve them, the death of Childhood musicians and a little more. https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchil…","date":"2019-03-27","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-03-26-true-anonymity-privacy-and-snapps-with-simon-harm","title":"True Anonymity, Privacy, and SNApps With Simon Harman of Loki","url":"/blog/2019/2019-03-26-true-anonymity-privacy-and-snapps-with-simon-harm","summary":"Need to improve privacy and anonymity?","date":"2019-03-26","tags":["Tor","Privacy","Security","Decentralized","Blockchain","Encryption","Messaging"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/true-anonymity-privacy-and-snapps-with-simon-harma"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"tendermint-cosmos-and-developer-focused-blockchains","title":"Tendermint, Cosmos and developer-focused Blockchains","url":"/podcast/tendermint-cosmos-and-developer-focused-blockchains","summary":"Chris speaks with Jae Kwon of Tendermint about their Byzantine-fault tolerant state machine replication. Or blockchain, for short. Also in this episode Chris looks at the history of the Ottoman empire, ageing coders, the psychology of Magic the Gathering and more. https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode…","date":"2019-03-20","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-03-19-installing-ipfs","title":"Installing IPFS","url":"/blog/2019/2019-03-19-installing-ipfs","summary":"In this tutorial, we install IPFS and learn its basic commands.","date":"2019-03-19","tags":["Ipfs","Web","Installation","Peer2Peer"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dev2.kauri.io/article/b01b9b7bebcd4ebf80edf021bdd0e232"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-03-19-peer-to-peer-hypermedia-with-ipfs","title":"Peer-to-peer hypermedia with IPFS","url":"/blog/2019/2019-03-19-peer-to-peer-hypermedia-with-ipfs","summary":"InterPlanetary File System, also known as IPFS, is a peer to peer media protocol that means to make the web faster, safer, and open sourced. Right now we're in need of a system that has fast performance, continuous access to content, efficient data transfer, easy naming conventions, and low cost. Although IPFS is in its early stages, it can do all of these things.","date":"2019-03-19","tags":["Server","Ipfs","Web","Peer2Peer"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dev2.kauri.io/article/a6a0de7d0a914259a4613479f8f2d13f"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-03-14-march-13th-an-improved-reading-and-writing-experi","title":"March 13th - An improved reading and writing experience","url":"/blog/2019/2019-03-14-march-13th-an-improved-reading-and-writing-experi","summary":"Kauri aims to make building with Ethereum as straightforward as existing web 2.0 developer tools and frameworks. To help reach that goal, we are building a content platform for experts in the ecosystem to share their knowledge with those looking to grow theirs.","date":"2019-03-14","tags":["News","Collaboration","Kauri","Updates"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dev2.kauri.io/article/904ece2aaa764ccb8918c6c0199958cc"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"revolutionising-health-data-with-arkhn","title":"Revolutionising health data with Arkhn","url":"/podcast/revolutionising-health-data-with-arkhn","summary":"In this episode Chris speaks with Alexis of Arkhn about their plans to standardise medical data. Also featured are stories on D&D, the connections between crypto and gambling, the real intentions of Facebook and more. https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts https://arkhn.org/english.html --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would l…","date":"2019-03-14","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-03-12-developer-relations-and-tech-evangelism-with-rach","title":"Developer Relations and Tech Evangelism With Rachel Black of Lisk","url":"/blog/2019/2019-03-12-developer-relations-and-tech-evangelism-with-rach","summary":"Chris speaks with Lisk's new tech evangelist to find out what the developer experience focussed blockchain project has been up to since summer 2018.","date":"2019-03-12","tags":["Blockchain","Lisk","Developer Relations","Developer Evangelism","Web Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/developer-relations-and-tech-evangelism-with-rache"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-03-12-writing-on-kauri","title":"Writing on Kauri","url":"/blog/2019/2019-03-12-writing-on-kauri","summary":"Welcome to Kauri, we're excited to help you share your knowledge across the world via the Ethereum ecosystem.","date":"2019-03-12","tags":["Help","Kauri"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dev2.kauri.io/article/cc1cefd3523b4faeafc700a44698e43d"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"brian-platz-of-fluree-the-feature-packed-blockchain-based-database","title":"Brian Platz of Fluree, the Feature Packed Blockchain-based Database","url":"/podcast/brian-platz-of-fluree-the-feature-packed-blockchain-based-database","summary":"In this episode I speak with Brian Platz of Fluree, a database that packs Blockchain, GraphQL, change reversion and much more. I also cover my geeky squeaks for the week including cashless society, the number 3 mobile OS, mapping works of ancient history and more. https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts @chrischinch --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a p…","date":"2019-03-06","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-03-06-smart-contract-utilities-with-zeppelinos-deployin","title":"Smart Contract Utilities with ZeppelinOS - Deploying to Mainnet","url":"/blog/2019/2019-03-06-smart-contract-utilities-with-zeppelinos-deployin","summary":"In previous tutorials, we used our local development environment for testing. This tutorial describes how to change your code so that you can deploy to the Etehreum mainnet.","date":"2019-03-06","tags":["Smart Contracts","Zeppelinos","Zeppelin","Mainnet","Deploy"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dev2.kauri.io/article/c6aadc15a87b403ca428602f4d6ea30e"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"ethical-robot-love-hack","title":"Ethical Robot Love Hack","url":"/podcast/ethical-robot-love-hack","summary":"In this weekly geeky squeak I look at coworking, robot love, unhackability, CUPS, Docker, the male focussed world, article 13, and more. https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com…","date":"2019-02-28","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-02-14-embleema-the-blockchain-that-lets-you-own-your-he","title":"Embleema- The Blockchain That Lets You Own Your Health Data","url":"/blog/2019/2019-02-14-embleema-the-blockchain-that-lets-you-own-your-he","summary":"Healthcare generates a lot of data, but most of it isn't available to those generating the data: patients. Learn how one team is using blockchain to address this issue.","date":"2019-02-14","tags":["Blockchain","Big Data","Data Privacy","Big Data Sets"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/embleema-the-blockchain-that-lets-you-own-your-hea"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-02-14-ethdenver","title":"ETHDenver","url":"/events","summary":"Chris represents the Kauri project at ETHDenver to show enthusiastic developers and writers how to contribute their Ethereum knowledge to the platform.","date":"2019-02-14","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://ethdenver.com"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"decentralised-privacy-with-loki-network","title":"Decentralised Privacy with Loki Network","url":"/podcast/decentralised-privacy-with-loki-network","summary":"In this episode Chris covers links of the week including ancient relics, and toys old and new. Also features an interview with Simon Harman, the project lead at Loki, a decentralised privacy network. https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts https://chrischinchilla.com/support --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discus…","date":"2019-02-13","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-02-02-fosdem-2019","title":"Fosdem 2019","url":"/events","summary":"This year at Fosdem I'm helping organise the Documentation tooling developer room, so drop on by.","date":"2019-02-02","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://fosdem.org/2019/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"emulate-history","title":"Emulate History","url":"/podcast/emulate-history","summary":"In this short episode I look at computing history, privacy vs usability and more. https://chrischinchilla.com/podcasts --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmedium=podc…","date":"2019-01-31","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2019-02-01-dddeurope","title":"DDD Europe","url":"/events","summary":"Chris represents the Event Store at DDD Europe to show enthusiastic developers the concepts of event sourcing with Event Store.","date":"2019-01-30","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://dddeurope.com"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"monique-morrow-missing-aliens-and-the-death-of-rss","title":"Monique Morrow, missing aliens, and the death of RSS","url":"/podcast/monique-morrow-missing-aliens-and-the-death-of-rss","summary":"In this episode I speak with Monique Morrow about creating technology that people actually need. Also featured the death of RSS, is Bitcoin the new Oil, robots that can read instructions, did we miss alien contact, and much more… chrischinchilla.com/podcast [http://chrischinchilla.com/podcast] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If yo…","date":"2019-01-23","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"15th-january-rachel-black-of-lisk","title":"15th January - Rachel Black of Lisk","url":"/podcast/15th-january-rachel-black-of-lisk","summary":"In this first episode for 2019, Chris covers EU funding for open source, EU cyber security, accessibility, open source controversies and the apocalypse. Interview segment with Rachel Black, Technical Evangelist for Lisk, where we discuss the company and tech evangelism in the blockchain space. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If yo…","date":"2019-01-15","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2019/2019-01-05_2018-in-review","title":"2018 in review","url":"/blog/2019/2019-01-05_2018-in-review","summary":"Slightly late on my yearly roundup, which was the catchphrase of the","date":"2019-01-05","tags":["2018","Reviews"],"categories":["writing"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/@chrischinchilla/2018-in-review-9a05967f50cc"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"ben-goertzel-of-singularitynet-and-hanson-robotics","title":"Ben Goertzel of SingularityNET and Hanson Robotics","url":"/podcast/ben-goertzel-of-singularitynet-and-hanson-robotics","summary":"Cate and Chris speak to the infamous Ben Goertzel of SingularityNET and Hanson Robotics at Web Summit about Sophia the robot, SingularityNET, AI on the Blockchain, distributed computing, managing data state and so much more. https://gregariousmammal.com/podcast https://gregariousmammal.com/support https://facebook.com/gregariousmammal. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasque…","date":"2018-12-18","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-12-13-openstack-summit-berlin-2018-running-your-cloud","title":"OpenStack Summit Berlin 2018- Running Your Cloud","url":"/blog/2018/2018-12-13-openstack-summit-berlin-2018-running-your-cloud","summary":"The latest cloud and DevOps news from Berlin.","date":"2018-12-13","tags":["Openstack","Cloud","Kubernetes","Public Cloud","Private Cloud","Multi-cloud","Open Infrastructure","5G","Machine Learning","AI"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/openstack-summit-berlin-2018-running-your-cloud"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-12-11-a-year-in-review-blockchainops-entrepreneur","title":"A Year in Review - BlockchainOps Entrepreneur","url":"/blog/2018/2018-12-11-a-year-in-review-blockchainops-entrepreneur","summary":"What technologies were the most significant in 2018, and which will go to 2019.","date":"2018-12-11","tags":["Blockchain","Entrepreneur","Startups","Ops","DevOps","Docops","Security","Programming Languages"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/a-year-in-review-blockchainops-entrepreneur"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"chaos-engineering-with-kolton-andrus-of-gremlin","title":"Chaos Engineering with Kolton Andrus of Gremlin","url":"/podcast/chaos-engineering-with-kolton-andrus-of-gremlin","summary":"Cate and Chris speak with Kolton Andrus of Gremlin, about Chaos Engineering, ensuring reliability at scale and the plans the company has over the next few months. https://www.gremlin.com https://gregariousmammal.com/podcast https://gregariousmammal.com/support https://facebook.com/gregariousmammal. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode.…","date":"2018-12-06","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-12-03-thoughtworks-technology-radar-19-cloud-chaos-and-","title":"Thoughtworks Technology Radar 19 — Cloud, Chaos, and Cross-Platform","url":"/blog/2018/2018-12-03-thoughtworks-technology-radar-19-cloud-chaos-and-","summary":"Zone Leader Chris Ward discusses Thoughtworks technology trends and predictions.","date":"2018-12-03","tags":["Domain Driven Design","Chaos Engineering","Secrets Management","Docker","Cloud Computing","Quantum Computing","Databases","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/thoughtworks-technology-radar-19-cloud-chaos-and-c"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-11-27-5g-and-alibaba-cloud-with-tony-cheng","title":"5G and Alibaba Cloud With Tony Cheng","url":"/blog/2018/2018-11-27-5g-and-alibaba-cloud-with-tony-cheng","summary":"Let's take a look at Alibaba Cloud and their plans for growth in European markets and push towards 5G.","date":"2018-11-27","tags":["Alibaba Cloud","IoT","5G","Cloud Hosting","Cloud Computing","Containers","Docker","Kubernetes","Infrastructure As A Code"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/5g-and-alibaba-cloud-with-tony-cheng"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"monetising-health-data-on-the-blockchain-with-embleema","title":"Monetising Health Data on the Blockchain with Embleema","url":"/podcast/monetising-health-data-on-the-blockchain-with-embleema","summary":"Chris speaks with Robert Chu of Embleema, a company looking to help (US) patients monetise their health data. https://www.embleema.com https://gregariousmammal.com/podcast https://gregariousmammal.com/support --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, v…","date":"2018-11-27","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-11-20-codemotion-berlin","title":"Codemotion Berlin","url":"/events","summary":"Chris represents the Kauri project at Codemotion Berlin to show enthusiastic developers and writers how to contribute their Ethereum knowledge to the platform.","date":"2018-11-20","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://berlin2018.codemotionworld.com/location/"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-11-19-revision-berlin","title":"Revision","url":"/events","summary":"Chris represents the Kauri project at Revision Berlin to host a discussion on decentralised information for technology projects.","date":"2018-11-19","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://revision.io"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-future-of-5g-at-5gtechritory","title":"The Future of 5G at 5GTechritory","url":"/podcast/the-future-of-5g-at-5gtechritory","summary":"Chris and Cate recently attended 5GTechritory in Riga, Latvia to discover what business and government leaders are doing with 5G and what it will mean to us. https://www.gregariousmammal.com/podcast https://www.gregariousmammal.com/support www.facebook.com/gregariousmammal [http://www.facebook.com/gregariousmammal] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a…","date":"2018-11-19","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-11-13-openstack-summit-berlin","title":"OpenStack Summit Berlin","url":"/events","summary":"Chris joins the people building and operating open infrastructure at the OpenStack summit. With over 200 sessions and workshops on Container Infrastructure, CI/CD, Telecom + NFV, Public Cloud, Private & Hybrid Cloud and members of open source communities like Kubernetes, Docker, OPNFV, Ansible, Ceph, ONAP, Open vSwitch, and OpenStack.","date":"2018-11-13","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.openstack.org/summit/berlin-2018/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-11-12-our-5g-futures-at-5gtechritory","title":"Our 5G Futures at 5GTechritory","url":"/blog/2018/2018-11-12-our-5g-futures-at-5gtechritory","summary":"Click here to learn more on how 5G is changing the future of connectivity and mobile communication around the globe.","date":"2018-11-12","tags":["5G","5G Infrastructure","4G","Smart Cities","IoT","Baltics","Connectivity"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/our-5g-futures-at-5gtechritory"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-11-09-api-the-docs-london","title":"API the Docs","url":"/events","summary":"API The Docs is an event for tech writers, API developers, product owners and developer evangelists who embrace documentation as a crucial aspect of a great developer experience. The conference is a great opportunity to share and discuss the latest best practices, strategies and new trends relevant to API documentation and developer portals!","date":"2018-11-09","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://apithedocs.org/london2018"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-11-08-what-is-continuous-integration","title":"What is Continuous Integration?","url":"/blog/2018/2018-11-08-what-is-continuous-integration","summary":"It’s hard to find terms getting more attention in the software world in the last few years than the closely related practices of Continuous Integration(CI) andContinuous Delivery or Continuous Deployment(CD), often referred to in tandem as CI/CD. Organizations across the world, from one-person development shops to multinational corporations, are implementing CI and CD for their software products.","date":"2018-11-08","tags":["DevOps","Tutorials","CI","CD","Continuous Integration","Software Development","Deployment","Automation"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.exoscale.com/syslog/what-is-continuous-integration/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-google-walkout-is-tech-culture-to-blame","title":"The Google Walkout - Is Tech Culture to Blame?","url":"/podcast/the-google-walkout-is-tech-culture-to-blame","summary":"Live from a Lisbon hotel, Cate and Chris discuss the recent sexual harassment stories from Google and dig into the story and what aspects of tech and startup culture might have exacerbated the incidents. https://www.gregariousmammal.com/podcast https://www.gregariousmammal.com/support https://facebook.com/gregariousmammal. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message T…","date":"2018-11-06","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-11-05-web-summit","title":"Web Summit","url":"/events","summary":"Chris and Cate are back at Europe's pre-eminent event for Startups. We're keen to meet interesting products, projects and people.","date":"2018-11-05","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://websummit.com"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-11-02-blockwatch-the-aeternity-blockchain","title":"Blockwatch- The aeternity Blockchain","url":"/blog/2018/2018-11-02-blockwatch-the-aeternity-blockchain","summary":"For those who want to see an application of the still newly-emergent Blockchain technology, check out this review of the aeternity project.","date":"2018-11-02","tags":["Blockchain","Dns","Tokens","Oracles","State Channels","Erlang","Functional Programming"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/blockwatch-the-aeligternity-blockchain"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-11-01-malta-blockchain-summit","title":"Malta Blockchain Summit","url":"/events","summary":"Chris visits \"crypto island\" to discover more about Blockchain on this small European nation.","date":"2018-11-01","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://maltablockchainsummit.com"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"real-world-blockchain-use-with-anatoliy-lytovchenko","title":"Real World Blockchain Use with Anatoliy Lytovchenko","url":"/podcast/real-world-blockchain-use-with-anatoliy-lytovchenko","summary":"Chris speaks with Anatoliy Lytovchenko of Eleks at the recent IT Arena in Ukraine about real world Blockchain use cases he worked on with his clients. https://www.gregariousmammal.com/podcast https://www.gregariousmammal.com/support http://facebook.com/gregariousmammal/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss…","date":"2018-10-29","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-10-25-sustain-summit","title":"Sustain Summit","url":"/events","summary":"As a lover of open source software and communities, Chris is attending this one day event to discuss how we keep our communities supplied with what they need.","date":"2018-10-25","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://sustainoss.org/tickets/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-10-24-secure-yourself-for-national-cyber-security-aware","title":"Secure Yourself for National Cyber Security Awareness Month","url":"/blog/2018/2018-10-24-secure-yourself-for-national-cyber-security-aware","summary":"October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month. Check out this post to make sure you are practicing strong security habits.","date":"2018-10-24","tags":["Malware","Https","Vpn","Secrets Management","Tokens","Encryption","Privacy","Security"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/secure-yourself-for-national-cyber-security-awaren"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-10-19-github-universe-2018-enterprise-enterprise-enterp","title":"GitHub Universe 2018 - Enterprise, Enterprise, Enterprise","url":"/blog/2018/2018-10-19-github-universe-2018-enterprise-enterprise-enterp","summary":"A DZone Zone Leader heads to GitHub Universe and notes the heavy emphasis on enterprise from the speakers in the keynote address.","date":"2018-10-19","tags":["GitHub","Git","Continuous Integration","Continuous Deployment","Java",".NET","Microsoft"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/github-universe-2018-enterprise-enterprise-enterpr"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-10-18-best-tools-for-debugging-distributed-applications","title":"Best Tools for Debugging Distributed Applications","url":"/blog/2018/2018-10-18-best-tools-for-debugging-distributed-applications","summary":"Take a look at some of the best tools and methods for getting your distributed applications debugged and back in business.","date":"2018-10-18","tags":["Debugging Tools","Distributed Apps","Kubernetes","Tracing","Logging","Cloud"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/best-tools-for-debugging-distributed-applications"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-aeternity-blockchain-with-emil-wagner","title":"The Aeternity Blockchain with Emil Wagner","url":"/podcast/the-aeternity-blockchain-with-emil-wagner","summary":"Chris speaks with Emil Wagner of æternity, who aim to make blockchains more usable for developers and end users. https://aeternity.com https://www.gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ https://www.gregariousmammal.com/support http://facebook.com/gregariousmammal/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other…","date":"2018-10-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-10-03-explaining-the-unexplainable","title":"Hub 4.0","url":"/events","summary":"Chris delivers a workshop drawing from his experience as a technical writer to explain how to explain complex ideas clearly and effectively.","date":"2018-10-03","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://4hub.com.ua/pitch_IT"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-10-02-pitching-to-the-press","title":"Projector","url":"/events","summary":"Chris delivers a Q&A and workshop on pitching your ideas to the press.","date":"2018-10-02","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://prjctr.com.ua/events/pitching-startapov.html"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-09-28-it-arena-2018","title":"IT Arena","url":"/events","summary":"IT Arena takes place on 28-30 September in 2018 (2 conference days at the stadium and 1 day with meetups in the historical city center) and Chris is back to see what Ukranian entrepreneurs are working on.","date":"2018-09-28","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://itarena.ua"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-09-27-5g-techritory","title":"5G Techritory Conference","url":"/events","summary":"Chris and Cate attend high-level business and political discussions on 5G global deployment, including on how to turn visions into real business models, as well as the four key vertical markets which could have the biggest benefits from the introduction of 5G – Smart City, Smart Mobility, Smart Healthcare and Industry 4.0. The Forum will also include the latest 5G technology presentations. A two-day agenda at the heart of the Baltics will bring together up to 1000 attendees - European policymakers, government officials, business leaders, investors, industry experts, start-ups and academic representatives, including 60+ senior speakers from Europe, Asia, and the USA.","date":"2018-09-27","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.5gtechritory.com/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-09-27-creating-a-smart-home-with-conrad-connect","title":"Creating a Smart Home With Conrad Connect","url":"/blog/2018/2018-09-27-creating-a-smart-home-with-conrad-connect","summary":"Want to learn more about creating a smart home with Conrad Connect? Check out this review on using the Conrad Connect to see if you can use it for your next IoT project.","date":"2018-09-27","tags":["Smart Home","Connected Devices","Iot Platform","Security Camera","Smart Lighting"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/creating-a-smart-home-with-conrad-connect"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"ifa-interviews-eblocker-snips-and-conrad-connect","title":"IFA Interviews - eBlocker, Snips and Conrad Connect","url":"/podcast/ifa-interviews-eblocker-snips-and-conrad-connect","summary":"Cate and Chris speak with eBlocker (IoT security), Snips (Voice Assistant software and hardware) and Conrad Connect (Smart Home platform) at this years IFA in Berlin. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https…","date":"2018-09-19","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-09-15-ifalicious-europe-s-consumer-tech-fair-trends","title":"IFAlicious- Europe&#39;s Consumer Tech Fair Trends","url":"/blog/2018/2018-09-15-ifalicious-europe-s-consumer-tech-fair-trends","summary":"Want to hear what you missed at this yer's IFA event? Check out this post to learn more about Europe's consumer tech fair trends.","date":"2018-09-15","tags":["IFA","IoT","Smart Home","Robots","Computers","China","Consumer Electronics"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/ifalicious-europes-consumer-tech-fair-trends"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-09-13-what-apple-s-september-announcements-might-mean-f","title":"What Apple&#39;s September Announcements Might Mean for Developers","url":"/blog/2018/2018-09-13-what-apple-s-september-announcements-might-mean-f","summary":"While Apple announcements are exciting, they're more often user focused than dev focused. Still, we'll do our best to peel back that lid and find out what this means for developers.","date":"2018-09-13","tags":["Apple","iOS","Watchos","macOS","Iphone","Ipad","AR","Machine Learning","Augmented Reality"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/what-apples-september-announcements-might-mean-for"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"ifalicious","title":"IFAlicious","url":"/podcast/ifalicious","summary":"Chris and Cate talk about the European consumer electronics fair IFA. Expect dancing robots. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmedium=podcast&utmcampaign=CTA1]","date":"2018-09-12","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-09-09-building-chatbots-in-react-with-botonic","title":"Building Chatbots in React With Botonic","url":"/blog/2018/2018-09-09-building-chatbots-in-react-with-botonic","summary":"Learn how to use the open source and popular React.js framework to create your own chatbot for that app you're developing.","date":"2018-09-09","tags":["JavaScript","React","Chatbots","Web Development","Tutorials"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/building-chatbots-in-react-with-botonic"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-09-08-write-the-docs-eu-2018","title":"Write the Docs EU","url":"/events","summary":"I'm back at Write the Docs in Prague again, but this time handling social media for the event.","date":"2018-09-09","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.writethedocs.org/conf/eu/2018"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-09-06-dezentral","title":"Dezentral","url":"/events","summary":"Chris heads to Dezentral, which aims to be an inclusive blockchain conference by bringing newcomers, builders and longtime hodlers from all over the world together to Berlin for a day full of immersion.","date":"2018-09-06","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dezentral.io/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-09-05-afrolynk-african-tech-and-entrepreneurship","title":"Afrolynk- African Tech and Entrepreneurship","url":"/blog/2018/2018-09-05-afrolynk-african-tech-and-entrepreneurship","summary":"Take a look at this developer's reflection on African involvement in technology and the challenges that African entrepreneurs and technologists face.","date":"2018-09-05","tags":["Africa","Startups","Entrepreneur","Conferences","Events","Cloud","AI","Fintech"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/afrolynk-african-tech-and-entrepreneurship"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-08-20-afrolynk","title":"Afrolynk","url":"/events","summary":"Chris investigates the wonderful world of African tech at Afrolynk 2018\\. A conference where entrepreneurs, accelerators, policy makers, chambers of commerce, and VCs within the African /European tech ecosystems have the opportunity to get valuable insights from each other!","date":"2018-08-31","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://afrolynk.com/"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-08-31-ifa-berlin","title":"IFA","url":"/events","summary":"Chris and cate are back at IFA, the world largest consumer electronics show to see what crazy ideas the world is working on.","date":"2018-08-31","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://b2b.ifa-berlin.com/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-08-30-eyeo-adblocker-plus-and-the-future-of-funding","title":"eyeo, Adblocker plus and the future of funding","url":"/blog/2018/2018-08-30-eyeo-adblocker-plus-and-the-future-of-funding","summary":"Since content has been created, companies have been attempting to monetize it. Read about this new way that one ad blocking companie is making money.","date":"2018-08-30","tags":["Advertising","Open Source","Funding","Adblocker","Eyeo","Flattr","Micropayments","Adblock Plus"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/eyeo-adblocker-plus-and-the-future-of-funding"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"rebroadcast-scott-heiferman-founder-of-meetupcom","title":"Rebroadcast: Scott Heiferman - founder of meetup.com","url":"/podcast/rebroadcast-scott-heiferman-founder-of-meetupcom","summary":"There's a high chance that if you have attended an event in a city in recent years, it was arranged through meetup.com [http://meetup.com]. The site now has over 32 million members, over a quarter of a million meetup groups and over half a million meetups happening in 182 countries every month. Aside from being a keen and regular user, meetup has always fascinated me, as it's a tech company with…","date":"2018-08-24","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-08-20-blockwatch-ripple-coil-codius-and-malta-summit","title":"Blockwatch- Ripple, Coil, Codius, and Malta Summit","url":"/blog/2018/2018-08-20-blockwatch-ripple-coil-codius-and-malta-summit","summary":"In this installment of Blockwatch, check out this latest news on Ripple, Coil, Codius and the Malta Summit. There's a lot happening in blockchain! Click here for more!","date":"2018-08-20","tags":["Blockchain","Malta","Ripple","Interledger","Docker","Distributed","Decentralized","Payments","Cryptocurrencies","Security"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/blockwatch-ripple-coil-codius-and-malta-summit"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"eyeo-adblock-plus-and-flattr-with-rachel-brochado","title":"Eyeo, Adblock Plus and Flattr with Rachel Brochado","url":"/podcast/eyeo-adblock-plus-and-flattr-with-rachel-brochado","summary":"Chris speaks with Rachel Brochado about Eyeo and their products, Adblock Plus, Flattr, and the Acceptable Ads program. We also discuss the future of funding creative activities. http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ http://gregariousmammal.com/support/ http://facebook.com/gregariousmammal/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you wou…","date":"2018-08-16","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-08-14-vale-for-spelling-grammar-style-and-readability-l","title":"Vale for Spelling, Grammar, Style and Readability Linting","url":"/blog/2018/2018-08-14-vale-for-spelling-grammar-style-and-readability-l","summary":"If you've wanted a spell checker or autocorrect that simply does more, check out how this tool is bein used to check for tense and syle as well.","date":"2018-08-14","tags":["Linting","Writing","Technical Writing","Best Practices","Vale","Textlint","Documentation","Agile","Tutorials"],"categories":["tech","writing"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/vale-for-spelling-grammar-style-and-readability-li"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"stefan-thomas-ripple-and-malta-blockchain-summit","title":"Stefan Thomas, ripple and Malta blockchain summit","url":"/podcast/stefan-thomas-ripple-and-malta-blockchain-summit","summary":"Chris speaks with Stefan Thomas, ex CTO of ripple about his past and new projects. Also, featured is the Malta blockchain summit, happening in November. https://gregariousmammal.com/podcast https://gregariousmammal.com/support https://facebook.com/gregariousmammal --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this w…","date":"2018-08-08","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"tales-from-lithuania-connected-fishing-with-deeper","title":"Tales from Lithuania - Connected fishing with Deeper","url":"/podcast/tales-from-lithuania-connected-fishing-with-deeper","summary":"We speak with Donatas Malinauskas of deeper, a smart device for anglers to find the fish they are looking for. http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ http://gregariousmammal.com/support http://facebook.com/gregariousmammal/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonu…","date":"2018-08-02","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-07-31-what-smart-home-iot-platform-should-you-use","title":"What Smart Home IoT Platform Should You Use?","url":"/blog/2018/2018-07-31-what-smart-home-iot-platform-should-you-use","summary":"Wondering which IoT devices you need for your home? Check out this guide of the different types of IoT platforms to connect the devices in your home!","date":"2018-07-31","tags":["IoT","Smart Home","Automation","Sensors","Ifttt","Home Assistant","Raspberry Pi"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/what-smart-home-iot-platform-should-you-use"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-07-27-blockwatch-a-week-in-berlin-blockchain","title":"Blockwatch- A Week in Berlin Blockchain","url":"/blog/2018/2018-07-27-blockwatch-a-week-in-berlin-blockchain","summary":"In the past week, Berlin has hosted two high-profile blockchain conferences: DAppCon and the Blockchain Visionaries Summit. Click here for some of the highlights.","date":"2018-07-27","tags":["Blockchain","Ethereum","Solidity","Distributed Systems","Governance","Scalability","Development","Security"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/blockwatch-a-week-in-berlin-blockchain"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-07-27-building-a-career-as-a-freelance-writer","title":"Freelance Friday Berlin","url":"/events","summary":"At this one day event I'll give a short presentation on my advice for starting and maintaining a freelance career as a technical writer.","date":"2018-07-27","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.meetup.com/Freelance-Friday-Berlin/events/250840825/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"tales-from-lithuania-telesoftas-and-general-impressions","title":"Tales from Lithuania - Telesoftas and general impressions","url":"/podcast/tales-from-lithuania-telesoftas-and-general-impressions","summary":"In this episode Cate and Chris discuss more of their recent trip to Lithuania. This time about Telesoftas, an innovation house with an enigmatic leader, and their general impressions of the country and it's startup scene. The trip to Lithuania was sponsored by Telesoftas. http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ http://gregariousmammal.com/support http://facebook.com/gregariousmammal/ --- Send in a v…","date":"2018-07-26","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-07-23-blockchain-visionnaires-summit","title":"DAppCon","url":"/events","summary":"Discussions on various aspects of a decentralised future.","date":"2018-07-23","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://blockchainvis.co"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-07-20-embracing-the-chaos-of-chaos-engineering","title":"Embracing the Chaos of Chaos Engineering","url":"/blog/2018/2018-07-20-embracing-the-chaos-of-chaos-engineering","summary":"Learn how chaos engineering helps you find seemingly random errors in today's modern, increasingly complex applications.","date":"2018-07-20","tags":["DevOps","Automated Testing","Test Automation","Chaos Engineering","Tutorials"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/embracing-the-chaos-of-chaos-engineering"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-future-of-cities-and-frankenstein-ai","title":"The Future of Cities and Frankenstein AI","url":"/podcast/the-future-of-cities-and-frankenstein-ai","summary":"Chris speaks with URBAN-X's Managing Director Micah Kotch to speak about the startups they fund, and to Rachel Ginsberg about the Frankenstein AI project that challenges how we interact with AI, and how they interact with us. http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ http://gregariousmammal.com/support http://facebook.com/gregariousmammal/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasquea…","date":"2018-07-20","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-07-19-dappcon","title":"DAppCon","url":"/events","summary":"A blockchain conference purely for makers and creators, sounds intriguing!","date":"2018-07-19","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://dappcon.io"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-07-19-what-is-artificial-intelligence","title":"What is Artificial Intelligence?","url":"/blog/2018/2018-07-19-what-is-artificial-intelligence","summary":"Before we begin, let’s get definitions straight — what is artificial intelligence (AI)? Or more specifically, what isn’t it? As you might expect, ask any technical person for a definition of something, and you’ll get a dozen different responses, and at least half of them will be, “It depends.”","date":"2018-07-19","tags":["Industry"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/what-is-artificial-intelligence/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-07-18-how-to-market-blockchain-with-consensys-and-lisk","title":"How to Market Blockchain With Consensys and Lisk","url":"/blog/2018/2018-07-18-how-to-market-blockchain-with-consensys-and-lisk","summary":"Check out this post to learn more about working with Consensys and Lisk to improve blockchain marketing for new application paradigms.","date":"2018-07-18","tags":["Blockchain","Ethereum","Lisk","Sidechain","Distributed Ledger"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/marketing-blockchain-with-consensys-and-lisk"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-07-17-why-programmers-should-play-boardgames","title":"Why Programmers Should Play Boardgames","url":"/blog/2018/2018-07-17-why-programmers-should-play-boardgames","summary":"Close the laptop and break out the dice...after you read this post about how board games can help ease your troubled dev mind.","date":"2018-07-17","tags":["Programming","Teamwork","Board Games","Role Playing","Mental Health","Health","Relaxation","Experimentation","Memory","Soft Skills"],"categories":["tech","games"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/why-programmers-should-play-boardgames"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"marketing-blockchain-with-consensys-and-lisk","title":"Marketing Blockchain with Consensys and Lisk","url":"/podcast/marketing-blockchain-with-consensys-and-lisk","summary":"Chris speaks with Amanda Gutterman of Consensys and Thomas Schouten of Lisk about their projects and how to market something as complex as Blockchain. Previous episodes and show notes - http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast Support the show - http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ Facebook - http://facebook.com/gregariousmammal/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message…","date":"2018-07-10","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"courses","id":"css-in-depth","title":"CSS in Depth in Motion","url":"/courses","summary":"A practical video course exploring advanced CSS techniques through examples and projects.","date":"2018-07-01","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.manning.com/livevideo/css-in-depth-in-motion"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-06-29-creating-your-own-whimsical-twitter-bot-with-trac","title":"Creating Your Own Whimsical Twitter Bot With Tracery","url":"/blog/2018/2018-06-29-creating-your-own-whimsical-twitter-bot-with-trac","summary":"Read this fun article about how to create a Twitter bot with Tracery.","date":"2018-06-29","tags":["Twitter","Bots","Node","Random","JavaScript","Tracery","Fiction","Artificial Intelligence","AI","Bot Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/creating-your-own-whimsical-twitter-bot-with-trace"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"tales-from-lithuania-bitbyte-and-infobalt","title":"Tales from Lithuania - bit&byte and infobalt","url":"/podcast/tales-from-lithuania-bitbyte-and-infobalt","summary":"We begin our series of interviews from our recent trip to Lithuania. First a coding school for children and the trade association for ICT. Thanks to telesoftas for sponsoring the trip. http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ http://gregariousmammal.com/support http://facebook.com/gregariousmammal/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If y…","date":"2018-06-28","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-06-26-discovering-the-true-meaning-of-innovation-with-l","title":"Discovering the True Meaning of Innovation with Login Festival","url":"/blog/2018/2018-06-26-discovering-the-true-meaning-of-innovation-with-l","summary":"Check out what we can learn about creativity and innovation from some of the more unorthodox talks given at Login Festival.","date":"2018-06-26","tags":["Conferences","Lithuania","Vilnius","Big Data","Empathy","Robots","Futurism","Blockchain","Agile"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/discovering-the-true-meaning-of-innovation-with-lo"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-06-26-what-is-blockchain","title":"What Is Blockchain?","url":"/blog/2018/2018-06-26-what-is-blockchain","summary":"The world and its dog has gone crazy for blockchain (and related technologies, which is a whole other post). The past two years have been a hype roller coaster for the technology with stories of equally insane valuations, technical proposals, media exposure, regulatory nightmares, frauds, and unrealized dreams.","date":"2018-06-26","tags":["Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/what-is-blockchain/"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-06-25-documenting-projects-with-docfx","title":"Static sites Berlin","url":"/events","summary":"At this evening meetup I'll give a short presentation Docfx, a static site documentation tool from Microsoft.","date":"2018-06-25","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.meetup.com/Static-Sites-Berlin/events/250424554/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-06-19-fostering-open-source-at-foss-backstage","title":"Fostering Open Source at FOSS Backstage","url":"/blog/2018/2018-06-19-fostering-open-source-at-foss-backstage","summary":"Zone Leader Chris Ward give a recap on some of the highlights of the FOSS Backstage Conference, on security, cost, empathy, and more.","date":"2018-06-19","tags":["Foss","Open Source","Governance","Legal","Empathy","Contribute","Marketing","Oss","Foss Backstage"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/fostering-open-source-at-foss-backstage"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-06-19-toa-18","title":"Tech Open Air","url":"/events","summary":"This time around for Tech Open Air, Chris is flying solo to hear from a whole bunch of amazing ideas and of course attempt to attend as many side events as possible.","date":"2018-06-19","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://toa.berlin"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-06-14-computational-knowledge-with-stephen-wolfram","title":"Computational Knowledge With Stephen Wolfram","url":"/blog/2018/2018-06-14-computational-knowledge-with-stephen-wolfram","summary":"For decades Wolfram has created tools to help scientists, mathematicians, and programmers get answers. We speak with Stephen about his work and computational computing.","date":"2018-06-14","tags":["Wolfram Alpha","Jupyter Notebook","Data Science","Big Data"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/computational-knowledge-with-stephen-wolfram"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-06-14-foss-backstage","title":"FOSS Backstage","url":"/events","summary":"The conference on everything related to governance, collaboration, legal and economics within the scope of FOSS.","date":"2018-06-14","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.foss-backstage.de"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"computational-knowledge-with-stephen-wolfram","title":"Computational Knowledge with Stephen Wolfram","url":"/podcast/computational-knowledge-with-stephen-wolfram","summary":"Chris speaks with the venerable Stephen Wolfram about his career, company and the future of how we process data into something meaningful. http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ http://gregariousmammal.com/support http://facebook.com/gregariousmammal/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subsc…","date":"2018-06-13","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-06-12-a-guide-to-the-hybrid-cloud-networking-landscape","title":"A guide to the hybrid cloud networking landscape","url":"/blog/2018/2018-06-12-a-guide-to-the-hybrid-cloud-networking-landscape","summary":"If you are employing cross datacenter or ahybrid cloud infrastructure, then your containers, services, and endpoints need to be able to communicate with each other, preferably in the most straightforward and fastest ways possible. This post showcases some of the options available to you, and how they compare.","date":"2018-06-12","tags":["Cloud","Hybrid","Network","Performance","Services"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.exoscale.com/syslog/hybrid-cloud-networking/"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-06-08-login","title":"Login","url":"/events","summary":"We're finally visiting Login and Vilinus to see what the Lithuanian tech and startup scene has to offer. This trip is kindly supported by Telesoftas.","date":"2018-06-08","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://login.lt"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-06-06-what-can-software-foundations-bring-to-your-proje","title":"What Can Software Foundations Bring to Your Project?","url":"/blog/2018/2018-06-06-what-can-software-foundations-bring-to-your-proje","summary":"Find out the important roles that software foundations play in providing longevity and structural support for open source projects.","date":"2018-06-06","tags":["Open Source","Software Foundations","Foss","Governance","Community","JavaScript","Hyperledger","Apache"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/what-can-software-foundations-bring-to-your-projec"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-javascript-and-hyperledger-foundations","title":"The JavaScript and Hyperledger foundations","url":"/podcast/the-javascript-and-hyperledger-foundations","summary":"Chris speaks with the leads of two open source software foundations, Kris Borchers of the JavaScript Foundation, and Brian Behlendorf of the Hyperledge foundation at Collision conf. In the episode we speak about the progress of the foundations and open source software more broadly. http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ http://gregariousmammal.com/support http://facebook.com/gregariousmammal/ --- S…","date":"2018-06-05","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-06-05-building-a-career-as-a-freelance-writer","title":"Write the Docs London","url":"/events","summary":"At this one day event I'll give a short presentation on my advice for starting and maintaining a freelance career as a technical writer.","date":"2018-06-05","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.meetup.com/Write-The-Docs-London/?chapter_analytics_code=UA-101035316-1"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-06-02-ukge-18","title":"UK Games Expo 2018","url":"/events","summary":"This year I'll be at the UK games expo purely for fun, but always happy to talk games, technology, storytelling and play a game or two with you.","date":"2018-06-02","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-05-31-conversational-uis-for-writers","title":"Evolution of TC","url":"/events","summary":"Developers of voice and chat assistants are crying out for good writers to help them create the conversational interfaces of the present and future. In this talk, I will introduce what constitutes a 'good' conversational experience and how we, as writers, can benefit from this trend.","date":"2018-05-31","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://evolution-of-tc.com"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-future-of-big-data-with-datical-and-pepperdata","title":"The future of Big Data with Datical and Pepperdata","url":"/podcast/the-future-of-big-data-with-datical-and-pepperdata","summary":"Chris speaks with Sean Suchter of Pepperdata and Robert Reeves of Datical about the future of DevOp and deployment for Big Data applications. http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ http://gregariousmammal.com/support http://facebook.com/gregariousmammal --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other sub…","date":"2018-05-30","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-05-28-customizing-sublime-text-for-writers","title":"Customizing Sublime Text for Writers","url":"/blog/2018/2018-05-28-customizing-sublime-text-for-writers","summary":"Are you using the Sublime Text editor? If so, you may want to rethink this. One man gives his opinion on Sublime and gives several other options you can choose from.","date":"2018-05-28","tags":["Text Editors","Sublime Text","Technical Writing","Documentation","Linting","Markdown","Python"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/customizing-sublime-text-for-writers"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"a-fast-train-to-the-world","title":"A fast train to the World","url":"/podcast/a-fast-train-to-the-world","summary":"In this episode Cate and Chris discuss their extensive travels, public transport, the first victims of GDPR, should we be worried about China and more. Show notes - http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ Support - http://gregariousmammal.com/support Facebook - http://facebook.com/gregariousmammal/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If…","date":"2018-05-23","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-05-23-conversational-uis-for-writers","title":"Soap! Conf","url":"/events","summary":"Developers of voice and chat assistants are crying out for good writers to help them create the conversational interfaces of the present and future. In this talk, I will introduce what constitutes a 'good' conversational experience and how we, as writers, can benefit from this trend.","date":"2018-05-23","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://soapconf.com/schedule_2018/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-05-21-foss-backstage-for-everyone-in-open-source","title":"FOSS Backstage – For Everyone in Open Source","url":"/blog/2018/2018-05-21-foss-backstage-for-everyone-in-open-source","summary":"FOSS Backstage is a new conference for open source developers and managers. Find out more information about the conference here.","date":"2018-05-21","tags":["Berlin","Conferences","Open Source","Foss","Governance","Community","Licensing"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/foss-backstage-for-everyone-in-open-source"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-05-19-documenting-projects-with-docfx","title":"Mauritian Developer Conference","url":"/events","summary":"I'll be on the beautiful island of Mauritius to present on this new documentation tool I've been experimenting with and how you can use it for your projects.","date":"2018-05-19","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://conference.mscc.mu"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-05-19-whats-the-difference-between-eventstore-and-blockchain","title":"Mauritian Developer Conference","url":"/events","summary":"Both event stores and blockchain offer technology that creates a constantly appending log of immutable data, so how are they different? In this presentation I'll be on the beautiful island of Mauritius to take a look.","date":"2018-05-19","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://conference.mscc.mu"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-05-15-is-quitting-bad-software-as-hard-as-becoming-vega","title":"Is Quitting Bad Software as Hard as Becoming Vegan?","url":"/blog/2018/2018-05-15-is-quitting-bad-software-as-hard-as-becoming-vega","summary":"Just how far are you willing to go not to use software that you disagree with? Chris Ward takes a look down the rabbit hole.","date":"2018-05-15","tags":["Ethics","Technology","Artificial Intelligence","Malware","Open Source","Surveillance Capitalism"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/is-quitting-bad-software-as-hard-as-becoming-vegan"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-05-14-ethics-for-designers-and-developers-at-the-first-","title":"Ethics for Designers and Developers at The First Berlin Ethical Tech Meetup","url":"/blog/2018/2018-05-14-ethics-for-designers-and-developers-at-the-first-","summary":"Trade your developer hat for your philosopher's cap and take a look at the ethics of weaponized tech design and engineering.","date":"2018-05-14","tags":["Ethics","Design","Best Practices","Ux","Engineering","Good Technology","Agile"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/ethics-for-designers-and-developers-at-the-first-b"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-05-14-preventing-the-techpocalypse","title":"Katapult Future fest","url":"/events","summary":"I'll be attending the Katapult Future fest in Oslo to what we in the tech industry can do to help the public like and trust us again. I'll also appear on a panel or two.","date":"2018-05-14","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.katapult.tech"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-05-09_blueprint--transferring-customer-support-requests-between-facebook-pages","title":"Blueprint: Transferring Customer Support Requests Between Facebook Pages ","url":"/blog/2018/2018-05-09_blueprint--transferring-customer-support-requests-between-facebook-pages","summary":"Maintaining conversations between multiple channels is a difficult","date":"2018-05-09","tags":["Facebook","Messaging"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/@chrischinchilla/transferring-customer-support-requests-between-facebook-pages-241e23c7000c"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"marty-the-robot-and-robotical","title":"Marty the Robot and Robotical","url":"/podcast/marty-the-robot-and-robotical","summary":"Chris and Cate speak with Myles from Robotical about their all-singing-all-dancing Marty the robot for education. https://robotical.io http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com […","date":"2018-05-08","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-05-07-news-from-kubecon-and-cloud-native-con-2018","title":"News from KubeCon and Cloud Native Con 2018","url":"/blog/2018/2018-05-07-news-from-kubecon-and-cloud-native-con-2018","summary":"Straight from KubeCon and Cloud Native Con 2018, here are some of the most exciting announcements from Microsoft, Cloud 66, Bitnami, and others.","date":"2018-05-07","tags":["Kubernetes","Cloud Native","Serverless","Service Mesh","Containers","Dependency Management","Cloud","KubeCon","Cloud Native Con"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/news-from-kubecon-and-cloud-native-con-2018"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-05-06-write-the-docs-us-2018","title":"Write the Docs US","url":"/events","summary":"I'm attending the preeminent conference for documenentarians in the US, I hope meet you there and talk about all sorts of interesting topics.","date":"2018-05-06","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.writethedocs.org/conf/portland/2018/"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-05-02-collision-conf","title":"Collision Conf","url":"/events","summary":"I'm visiting wonderful New Orleans for the glorious Collision Conf, I'm sure there will be a lot of fun to be had and I hope to see you there.","date":"2018-05-02","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://collisionconf.com"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-05-02-the-promises-payoff-and-products-of-hybrid-clouds","title":"The Promises, Payoff, and Products of Hybrid Clouds","url":"/blog/2018/2018-05-02-the-promises-payoff-and-products-of-hybrid-clouds","summary":"With more complications than initially expected, public and private cloud infrastructures are quickly giving way to their combination: hybird clouds.","date":"2018-05-02","tags":["Cloud","Hybrid Cloud","Cloud Vendors","Hybrid Cloud Management Solutions","Cloud Considerations"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/the-promises-payoff-and-products-of-hybrid-clouds"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-weekly-squeak-team-assemble","title":"The Weekly Squeak - Team Assemble!","url":"/podcast/the-weekly-squeak-team-assemble","summary":"In this episode Cate discuss ChromeOS, Robots, GDPR, Bromads, games, and is Ready Player One really not a work of fiction, but a manifesto of what's wrong with the Tech Industry. 🤔 http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ http://gregariousmammal.com/support/ http://facebook.com/gregariousmammal --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you…","date":"2018-05-02","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-05-01-ready-for-bionic-beaver-what-s-new-in-ubuntu-18-0","title":"Ready for Bionic Beaver? What&#39;s New in Ubuntu 18.04","url":"/blog/2018/2018-05-01-ready-for-bionic-beaver-what-s-new-in-ubuntu-18-0","summary":"This week brought the release of the latest version of Ubuntu - 18.04 - so read up on the details about the newest LTS release.","date":"2018-05-01","tags":["Ubuntu","Linux","Gnome","Kubernetes","Snaps","Bare Metal","Hybrid Cloud","Cloud","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/ready-for-bionic-beaver-whats-new-in-ubuntu-1804"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-04-30-production-scale-deep-learning-with-skymind","title":"Production-Scale Deep Learning With Skymind","url":"/blog/2018/2018-04-30-production-scale-deep-learning-with-skymind","summary":"Skymind combines open-source and custom tooling to create two main toolchains that integrate well with other frequently used tools in the data science tool bag.","date":"2018-04-30","tags":["Deep Learning","Data Science","Model Training","Neural Nets","AI"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/production-scale-deep-learning-with-skymind"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-04-26-the-promises-payoff-and-products-of-hybrid-clouds","title":"The Promises, Payoff, and Products of Hybrid Clouds","url":"/blog/2018/2018-04-26-the-promises-payoff-and-products-of-hybrid-clouds","summary":"The cloud promised to provide us all flexibility. The opportunity to access infinite resources as and when we need them and pay accordingly. We would no longer have to spend time installing, configuring and maintaining servers; we were promised more time to “just code.”","date":"2018-04-26","tags":["DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/the-promises-payoff-and-products-of-hybrid-clouds/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"zilliqa-high-throughput-blockchain","title":"Zilliqa - High throughput Blockchain","url":"/podcast/zilliqa-high-throughput-blockchain","summary":"In this episode Chris speaks with Xinshu Dong of Zilliqa about their ideas on how to implement a high throughput blockchain output. https://www.zilliqa.com https://www.gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinch…","date":"2018-04-26","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"artificial-millennial-intelligence","title":"Artificial Millennial Intelligence","url":"/podcast/artificial-millennial-intelligence","summary":"In this episode, Cate and Chris talk about AI and the human machine era, the end of the 8 hour work day, when crypto conferences go wrong and more… --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueak…","date":"2018-04-18","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-04-13-will-linux-finally-win-the-desktop-war-because-no","title":"Will Linux (Finally) Win the Desktop War Because No One Else Cares?","url":"/blog/2018/2018-04-13-will-linux-finally-win-the-desktop-war-because-no","summary":"As Apple and Microsoft lose enthusiasm for their desktop operating systems, will it be time for Linux to shine? Or do Linux enthusiasts even care about winning the desktop war anymore?","date":"2018-04-13","tags":["Linux","Windows","macOS","Intel","Arm","Development","Agile"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/will-linux-finally-win-the-desktop-war-because-no"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"putting-your-brain-in-control-with-max-newton-of-brainco","title":"Putting your brain in control - With Max Newton of BrainCo","url":"/podcast/putting-your-brain-in-control-with-max-newton-of-brainco","summary":"Chris speaks with Max Newton of BrainCo about how their brain-interfacing devices help people focus better. http://www.brainco.tech//about Previous episodes: http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ Support the show: http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ Facebook: http://facebook.com/gregariousmammal --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If…","date":"2018-04-12","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-04-12-tokenize-all-the-things-and-what-happens-next","title":"Tokenize All the Things and What Happens Next?","url":"/blog/2018/2018-04-12-tokenize-all-the-things-and-what-happens-next","summary":"Communities and entrepreneurs are excitedly creating crypto-tokens for a wide variety of inane and practical purposes. We look at what this could mean for our future.","date":"2018-04-12","tags":["Blockchain","Cryptocurrencies","Security","Decentralized Exchange"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/tokenize-all-the-things-and-what-happens-next"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"open-source-deep-learning-with-skymind-chris-nicholson","title":"Open Source Deep Learning with Skymind - Chris Nicholson","url":"/podcast/open-source-deep-learning-with-skymind-chris-nicholson","summary":"Chris interviews Chris Nicholson, the CEO of Open Source Deep Learning platform, Skymind. https://skymind.ai https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisvnicholson/ Show notes: gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ [http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast/] Support the show: gregariousmammal.com/support [http://gregariousmammal.com/support] Facebook: facebook.com/gregariousmammal/ [http://facebook.com/gregariousmammal/…","date":"2018-04-06","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-04-03-the-international-crypto-community-comes-to-berli","title":"The International Crypto Community Comes to Berlin","url":"/blog/2018/2018-04-03-the-international-crypto-community-comes-to-berli","summary":"Zone Leader Chris Ward looks forward to upcoming C3 Crypto Conference in Berlin which offers keynotes, workshops, and exhibitions on the cryptocurrency ecosystem and underlying blockchain technology.","date":"2018-04-03","tags":["Blockchain","Cryptocurrencies","Berlin","Ico","Smart Contracts"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/the-international-crypto-community-comes-to-berlin"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-04-02-customizing-visual-studio-code-for-writing","title":"Customizing Visual Studio Code for Writing","url":"/blog/2018/2018-04-02-customizing-visual-studio-code-for-writing","summary":"Are you a technical writer or dev who needs to create documentation around your project? Check out these extensions you can integrate into VS Code that can help.","date":"2018-04-02","tags":["Technical Writing","Atom","Visual Studio Code","Markdown","Integration"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/customizing-visual-studio-code-for-writing"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-worlds-first-emotional-processing-unit","title":"The World's First Emotional Processing Unit","url":"/podcast/the-worlds-first-emotional-processing-unit","summary":"Do We Need the World's First Emotional Processing Unit? Chris interviews the founder of Emoshape, a company who thinks we do, and has created the first EPU, wether we need it or not. Show notes: gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ [http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast/] Support the show: gregariousmammal.com/support [http://gregariousmammal.com/support] Facebook: facebook.com/gregariousmammal/ [http://f…","date":"2018-04-02","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-03-28-do-we-need-the-world-s-first-emotional-processing","title":"Do We Need the World&#39;s First Emotional Processing Unit? [Audio]","url":"/blog/2018/2018-03-28-do-we-need-the-world-s-first-emotional-processing","summary":"Emoshape has created what they call the first emotional processing unit (EPU) dedicated to understanding and putting a value on human emotions.","date":"2018-03-28","tags":["AI","Emotions","Gpu","Machine Learning"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/do-we-need-the-worlds-first-emotional-processing-u"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-center-for-social-media-responsibility","title":"The Center for Social Media Responsibility","url":"/podcast/the-center-for-social-media-responsibility","summary":"Chris speaks with Garlin Gilchrist II and Aviv Ovadya at the Center for Social Media Responsibility at the University of Michigan about their mission. Show notes: gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ [http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast/] Support the show: gregariousmammal.com/support [http://gregariousmammal.com/support] Facebook: facebook.com/gregariousmammal/ [http://facebook.com/gregariousmammal/] -…","date":"2018-03-28","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-03-27-what-is-designops","title":"What Is DesignOps?","url":"/blog/2018/2018-03-27-what-is-designops","summary":"As a writer/tech writer/sometimes developer who dabbles in the odd bit of illustration and design, I have often wondered how teams of artists collaborate.","date":"2018-03-27","tags":["DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/what-is-designops/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-03-24-sxsw-part-2-fixing-tech-ai-and-startups","title":"SXSW Part 2- Fixing Tech, AI, and Startups","url":"/blog/2018/2018-03-24-sxsw-part-2-fixing-tech-ai-and-startups","summary":"In Part 2 of this round on SXSW, Chris looks at what people had to say about machine learning, artificial intelligence, and the problems with tech.","date":"2018-03-24","tags":["AI","Machine Learning","Ethics","Design Strategy"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/sxsw-part-2-fixing-tech-ai-and-startups"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"swsw-social-credit-and-the-right-to-be-forgotten","title":"SWSW, social credit, and the right to be forgotten","url":"/podcast/swsw-social-credit-and-the-right-to-be-forgotten","summary":"In our latest episode, Chris reports back from SXSW and we talk about interesting articles from the week including the creation of the internet, China's efforts at social credit, the 'right to be forgotten' and more. Show notes: gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ [http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast/] Support the show: gregariousmammal.com/support [http://gregariousmammal.com/support] Facebook: facebo…","date":"2018-03-23","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"creative-industries-on-the-blockchain-zach-lebeau-of-singulardtv","title":"Creative Industries on the Blockchain - Zach LeBeau of SingularDTV","url":"/podcast/creative-industries-on-the-blockchain-zach-lebeau-of-singulardtv","summary":"Chris speaks with Zach LeBeau of SingularDTV at SXSW about their ambitious plans to bring music and video production, distribution, rights management and monetisation to the Blockchain. https://singulardtv.com Previous episodes - http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast Support the show - http://gregariousmammal.com/support Facebook - http://facebook.com/gregariousmammal/ --- Send in a voice message:…","date":"2018-03-21","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-03-21-sxsw-part-1-blockchain-and-spacetech","title":"SXSW Part 1- Blockchain and SpaceTech","url":"/blog/2018/2018-03-21-sxsw-part-1-blockchain-and-spacetech","summary":"We hear promises of how blockchain will revolutionize tech, but most of its applications thus far seem rather mundane. Read on to see what devs are doing to change that.","date":"2018-03-21","tags":["Sxsw","Blockchain","AI","Chatbots","Security"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/sxsw-part-1-blockchain-and-spacetech"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-03-16-utorial-using-the-messenger-webview-to-create-richer-bot-to-user-interactions","title":"Tutorial: Using the Messenger Webview to create richer bot-to-user interactions","url":"/blog/2018/2018-03-16-utorial-using-the-messenger-webview-to-create-richer-bot-to-user-interactions","summary":"Developers are building many different types of experiences in","date":"2018-03-16","tags":["Tutorials","Messenger","Bots"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/@chrischinchilla/using-the-webview-to-create-richer-bot-to-user-interactions-ed8a789523c6"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"mobile-world-congress-2018","title":"Mobile World Congress 2018","url":"/podcast/mobile-world-congress-2018","summary":"Chris & Cate are back at Mobile World Congress and bring your their highlights from this whopper of a show. Show notes: gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ [http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast/] Support the show: gregariousmammal.com/support [http://gregariousmammal.com/support] Facebook: facebook.com/gregariousmammal/ [http://facebook.com/gregariousmammal/] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.…","date":"2018-03-15","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-03-11-docfx-the-next-documentation-tool-to-consider","title":"DocFX- The Next Documentation Tool to Consider?","url":"/blog/2018/2018-03-11-docfx-the-next-documentation-tool-to-consider","summary":"In this post, we take a look at a new version of Markdown, DocFX Flavored Markdown, and how it can be used to create documentation for REST APIs.","date":"2018-03-11","tags":["Documentation","Rest Api","Markdown","Integration"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/docfx-the-next-documentation-tool-to-consider"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-03-09-sxsw-interactive","title":"SXSW Interactive","url":"/events","summary":"My first ever SXSW! I am super excited and looking forward to hearing amazing presentations, enjoying warmer weather, and… BBQ 😋.","date":"2018-03-09","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.sxsw.com/festivals/interactive/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-03-07-an-interview-with-brian-gracely-on-red-hat-s-acqu","title":"An Interview With Brian Gracely on Red Hat&#39;s Acquisition of CoreOS...","url":"/blog/2018/2018-03-07-an-interview-with-brian-gracely-on-red-hat-s-acqu","summary":"Chris Ward interviews OpenShift's product strategy director Brian Gracely about Red Hat's recent announcement of their acquisition of CoreOS.","date":"2018-03-07","tags":["Red Hat","Coreos","Open Shift","Kubernetes","Containers","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/an-interview-with-brian-gracely-on-red-hats-acqu"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-03-06-mobile-world-congress-2018-consolidation-and-coll","title":"Mobile World Congress 2018 - Consolidation and Collaboration","url":"/blog/2018/2018-03-06-mobile-world-congress-2018-consolidation-and-coll","summary":"Read about the most exciting developments from this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, like IoT, Google assistant, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence.","date":"2018-03-06","tags":["Mobile World Congress","MWC","AI","Robots","Android","Mobile","Conferences","IoT"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/mobile-world-congress-2018-consolidation-and-colla"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-03-06-switchbot-a-smart-home-for-everyone","title":"SwitchBot- A Smart Home for Everyone?","url":"/blog/2018/2018-03-06-switchbot-a-smart-home-for-everyone","summary":"See how SwitchBot is attempting to alter the smart home market with a ready-made solution, and how their approach is working.","date":"2018-03-06","tags":["Smart Home"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-03-02-an-interview-with-brian-gracely-on-red-hat-s-acqu","title":"An Interview With Brian Gracely on Red Hat&#39;s Acquisition of CoreOS...","url":"/blog/2018/2018-03-02-an-interview-with-brian-gracely-on-red-hat-s-acqu","summary":"Chris Ward interviews OpenShift's product strategy director Brian Gracely about Red Hat's recent announcement of their acquisition of CoreOS.","date":"2018-03-02","tags":["Red Hat","Coreos","Open Shift","Kubernetes","Containers","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/an-interview-with-richard-gracely-on-red-hats-acqu"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"red-hat-acquires-coreos-an-interview-with-brian-gracely","title":"Red Hat acquires CoreOS, an interview with Brian Gracely","url":"/podcast/red-hat-acquires-coreos-an-interview-with-brian-gracely","summary":"Chris speaks with Brian Gracely, director, OpenShift product strategy about the container space more generally and how the acquisition might fit into it. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchilla…","date":"2018-02-28","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-02-26-mobile-world-congress-2018","title":"Mobile World Congress","url":"/events","summary":"We'll be in Barcelona from February 25 to January 1 and available for interviews, appointments, parties etc.","date":"2018-02-26","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.mobileworldcongress.com"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-02-24-world-ia-day-berlin","title":"World IA Day - Berlin","url":"/events","summary":"I will be discussing ethics in design. More to follow.","date":"2018-02-24","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://worldiadayberlin.strikingly.com"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-02-22-embracing-the-chaos-of-chaos-engineering","title":"Embracing the Chaos of Chaos Engineering","url":"/blog/2018/2018-02-22-embracing-the-chaos-of-chaos-engineering","summary":"Modern applications are increasingly growing in complexity. Adding a dizzying amount of moving parts, layers of abstraction, reliance on external systems and distribution that all result in a stack that few truly fully understand.","date":"2018-02-22","tags":["DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/embracing-the-chaos-of-chaos-engineering/"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-02-21-bosch-connected-world","title":"Bosch Connected World","url":"/events","summary":"Bosch ConnectedWorld's purpose is to provide the inspiration, education, and connections you need to thrive in IoT. This February, we will host more than 140 speakers on four stages presenting IoT trends and implementations in front of more than 3,500 conference and hackathon participants.","date":"2018-02-20","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://bcw.bosch-si.com/berlin/"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-02-20-investor-tea-time-pitch","title":"Investor Tea Time Pitch","url":"/events","summary":"Backend/frontend developers, product owners, product managers, UX experts in Germany! If you're planning to participate in the Bosch ConnectedExperience (BCX) two-day Internet of Things (IoT) hackathon, then also mark your calendar to attend the “Investor Tea Time Pitch” which will be hosted by Robert Bosch Venture Capital. You'll get to see selected IoT startups pitch their projects to invited investors and then you'll also be able to network with those investors and startups.","date":"2018-02-20","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.eventbrite.com/e/investor-tea-time-pitch-tickets-41621424802"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-02-19-write-the-docs-amsterdam","title":"Write the Docs - Amsterdam","url":"/events","summary":"I will be discussing linting your documentation. More to follow.","date":"2018-02-19","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.meetup.com/Write-The-Docs-Amsterdam/events/246609720/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-02-18-aiva-the-artificial-intelligence-composer","title":"AIVA- The Artificial Intelligence Composer","url":"/blog/2018/2018-02-18-aiva-the-artificial-intelligence-composer","summary":"If you are a dev and an artist, you might be interested to know there's an AI that could help you with your musician's block.","date":"2018-02-18","tags":["Music","Generative","AI","Artificial Intelligence","Nvidia"],"categories":["music","tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/aiva-the-artificial-intelligence-composer"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"aiva-the-ai-that-composes-music","title":"Aiva - The Ai that composes music","url":"/podcast/aiva-the-ai-that-composes-music","summary":"We speak with Pierre Barreau, CEO of Aiva who's AI has helped compose music for presentations, games, concerts, and even has its own album. http://aiva.ai/about http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ http://gregariousmammal.com/support --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get ac…","date":"2018-02-16","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-02-16-lint-lint-and-away-linters-for-the-english-langua","title":"Lint, Lint and Away! Linters for the English Language","url":"/blog/2018/2018-02-16-lint-lint-and-away-linters-for-the-english-langua","summary":"If you've used linters before for your code, then you know how useful they can be. This is where grammar meets technology.","date":"2018-02-16","tags":["Linting","Text","Text Analysis","Code Analysis","Text Editors","Atom","Sublime","Vim","Emacs","Visual Studio Code"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/lint-lint-and-away-linters-for-the-english-languag"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-big-data-bikocalypse","title":"The Big Data Bikocalypse","url":"/podcast/the-big-data-bikocalypse","summary":"In this episode Cate and Chris discuss the birthday of open source, big data, transportation and how to conduct yourself at networking events. Show notes - https://www.gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ Support the show - https://www.gregariousmammal.com/support --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with oth…","date":"2018-02-12","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-02-08-blockwatch-what-is-a-decentralized-exchange","title":"Blockwatch- What Is a Decentralized Exchange?","url":"/blog/2018/2018-02-08-blockwatch-what-is-a-decentralized-exchange","summary":"In this article, we tackle this question and take a look at some 'developer friendly' platforms that can be used to work with decentralized exchanges.","date":"2018-02-08","tags":["Blockchain","Cryptocurrencies","Security","Decentralized Exchange"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/blockwatch-what-is-a-decentralized-exchange"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-02-07-what-will-red-hat-acquiring-coreos-mean-for-the-k","title":"What Will Red Hat Acquiring CoreOS Mean for the Kubernetes Ecosystem?","url":"/blog/2018/2018-02-07-what-will-red-hat-acquiring-coreos-mean-for-the-k","summary":"Now that Red Hat has CoreOS, how will this affect Kubernetes and the rest of the cloud community?","date":"2018-02-07","tags":["Kubernetes","Coreos","Red Hat","Open Shift","Docker","Rkt","Containers"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/what-will-red-hat-acquiring-coreos-mean-for-the-ku"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"decentralised-exchanges-and-airswap","title":"Decentralised exchanges and AirSwap","url":"/podcast/decentralised-exchanges-and-airswap","summary":"Chris speaks with Sam Tabar, strategist at AirSwap about trading cryptocurrencies on decentralised exchanges and how we can solve the problems of VC backed startups. airswap.io [http://airswap.io] Show notes - www.gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ [http://www.gregariousmammal.com/podcast/] Support the show - www.gregariousmammal.com/support [http://www.gregariousmammal.com/support] --- Send in a voic…","date":"2018-02-03","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-02-03-fosdem-2018","title":"Fosdem 2018","url":"/events","summary":"This year at Fosdem I'm helping organise the Documentation tooling developer room, so drop on by.","date":"2018-02-03","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://fosdem.org/2018/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-02-01-a-roundup-of-managed-kubernetes-platforms","title":"A Roundup of Managed Kubernetes Platforms","url":"/blog/2018/2018-02-01-a-roundup-of-managed-kubernetes-platforms","summary":"In the race of container orchestrators, Kubernetes is surging ahead. But much like when I wrote my post on Docker hosting, people are often stuck on the step of getting their infrastructure to production. Unlike when I first wrote that, the industry has progressed massively, and as you will see, I found a lot of companies willing to offer you solutions for helping you get Kubernetes into production.","date":"2018-02-01","tags":["DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/a-roundup-of-managed-kubernetes-platforms/"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-01-30-api-days-paris","title":"API Days Paris","url":"/events","summary":"Are you into APIs? Then you should be at API Days Paris and I'd love to meet with you to talk about planning and documenting this glue of modern applications.","date":"2018-01-30","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.apidays.io/events/paris-2017"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-01-30-optimize-your-cloud-native-infrastructure-with-re","title":"Optimize Your Cloud Native Infrastructure with Replex.Io [Audio...","url":"/blog/2018/2018-01-30-optimize-your-cloud-native-infrastructure-with-re","summary":"I spoke with the three founders of replex.io who aim to help you identify infrastructure inefficiencies at every level of a stack.","date":"2018-01-30","tags":["Cloud","Cloud Native","DevOps","Containers","Kubernetes","Mesos","Virtual Machines","Data Center","Optimization"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/optimize-your-cloud-native-infrastructure-with-rep"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"optimize-your-cloud-native-infrastructure-with-replexio","title":"Optimize your cloud native infrastructure with Replex.io","url":"/podcast/optimize-your-cloud-native-infrastructure-with-replexio","summary":"Chris speaks with the three founders of replex.io [http://replex.io] who aim to help you identify inefficiencies at every level of a stack, from discrete hardware components all the way up to a holistic picture of your overall architecture. https://replex.io Show notes - www.gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ [http://www.gregariousmammal.com/podcast/] Support the show - www.gregariousmammal.com/suppor…","date":"2018-01-29","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2018-01-24-literally-speaking-dead-of-winter","title":"Literally Speaking - Dead of Winter","url":"/events","summary":"I will be reading a new piece of short fiction on the subject of 'Dead of Winter'.","date":"2018-01-24","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.facebook.com/events/147651469201544/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-01-23-managing-large-state-in-apache-flink-an-intro-to-checkpointing","title":"Managing Large State in Apache Flink - An Intro to Incremental Checkpointing","url":"/blog/2018/2018-01-23-managing-large-state-in-apache-flink-an-intro-to-checkpointing","summary":"The post Managing Large State in Apache Flink®: An Intro to Incremental Checkpointing appeared first on data Artisans.","date":"2018-01-23","tags":["Flink Features","Resources"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://data-artisans.com/blog/managing-large-state-apache-flink-incremental-checkpointing-overview"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"nuraphone-best-of-innovation-award-at-ces-2018","title":"Nuraphone - Best of Innovation award at CES 2018","url":"/podcast/nuraphone-best-of-innovation-award-at-ces-2018","summary":"Fresh from their Best of Innovation at CES Innovation Awards, we finally publish an interview with Nuraphone when Chris visited their office in Melbourne in December to discuss their unique headphones, and running a startup in Australia. https://eu.nuraphone.com Previous shows and show notes - https://www.gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ Support the show - https://www.gregariousmammal.com/support --…","date":"2018-01-23","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-01-18-container-and-serverless-predictions-for-2018-wit","title":"Container and Serverless Predictions for 2018 With Lucas Carlson [Audio]","url":"/blog/2018/2018-01-18-container-and-serverless-predictions-for-2018-wit","summary":"Check out this interview with Automic's Lucas Carlson about 2018 predictions for the container and serverless space, especially Docker.","date":"2018-01-18","tags":["Docker","Containers","Serverless","Faas","Saas","DevOps","Paas"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/container-and-serverless-predictions-for-2018-with"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"containers-and-serverless-predictions-with-lucas-carlson","title":"Containers and Serverless Predictions with Lucas Carlson","url":"/podcast/containers-and-serverless-predictions-with-lucas-carlson","summary":"Chris speaks with Lucas Carlson of Automic to discuss the current state of Containers and Serverless, plus predictions for 2018. Previous episodes & Show Notes - www.gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ [http://www.gregariousmammal.com/podcast/] Support the show - www.gregariousmammal.com/support [http://www.gregariousmammal.com/support] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/m…","date":"2018-01-17","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-01-16_blockwatch--berlin-blockchain-day-panel","title":"Berlin Blockchain Day Panel","url":"/blog/2018/2018-01-16_blockwatch--berlin-blockchain-day-panel","summary":"On a cold Friday December night, with a Christmas market buzzing","date":"2018-01-16","tags":["Blockchain","Computing","Events"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/@chrischinchilla/blockwatch-berlin-blockchain-day-panel-22528d94933c"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"ces-2018-the-woeful-and-the-wonderful","title":"CES 2018 - The woeful and the wonderful","url":"/podcast/ces-2018-the-woeful-and-the-wonderful","summary":"In this episode Cate and Chris tackle CES, a crazy show of more than 4,500 exhibitors spread over 11 official venues. It's an exercise in stamina as you traverse the crowds trying to find the gems among the generic. There's a lot more 'nice to have' than 'need it now' devices. But every year a few things stand out, but not always for the right reasons. Previous episodes & Show Notes - https://www…","date":"2018-01-15","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-01-14-create-cross-platform-voice-applications-with-jov","title":"Create Cross-Platform Voice Applications With Jovo","url":"/blog/2018/2018-01-14-create-cross-platform-voice-applications-with-jov","summary":"Jovo aims to create a development framework that allows you to write code once and deliver to multiple voice platforms, taking out a lot of the extra work.","date":"2018-01-14","tags":["Alexa","Google Assistant","Voice Interfaces","Vui","AI","Tutorials","Bot Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/create-cross-platform-voice-applications-with-jovo"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-01-11-how-to-size-your-apache-flink-cluster-a-back-of-t","title":"How To Size Your Apache Flink Cluster - A Back-of-the-Envelope Calculation","url":"/blog/2018/2018-01-11-how-to-size-your-apache-flink-cluster-a-back-of-t","summary":"&nbsp;Hypothetical Hardware Setup","date":"2018-01-11","tags":["Resources","Capacity Planning","Cluster Sizing","Resource Planning","Throughput"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://data-artisans.com/blog/how-to-size-your-apache-flink-cluster-general-guidelines"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"daniel-g-siegel-the-bullet-hole-misconception","title":"Daniel G. Siegel - the bullet hole misconception","url":"/podcast/daniel-g-siegel-the-bullet-hole-misconception","summary":"Chris speaks with Daniel G. Siegel about his talk \"the bullet hole misconception\" covering topics such as how developers should challenge themselves and preconceptions. The Future of Programming, Bret Victor http://worrydream.com/dbx/ The Mother of All Demos, Doug Engelbart http://www.dougengelbart.org/firsts/dougs-1968-demo.html Augmenting Human Intellect, Doug Engelbart http://www.dougengelbart…","date":"2018-01-08","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-01-06-distributing-operational-knowledge-across-a-team","title":"Distributing Operational Knowledge Across a Team","url":"/blog/2018/2018-01-06-distributing-operational-knowledge-across-a-team","summary":"If your company sounds like a sports arena or an echo chamber, chances are there is some room for efficiency improvement. Here are some tools to help.","date":"2018-01-06","tags":["Agile","Communication &Amp;Amp; Collaboration","Operational Agility","Knowledge Base","Tools And Techniques"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/distributing-operational-knowledge-across-a-team"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-01-04-adding-a-cms-to-your-static-site-with-netlify-cms","title":"Adding a CMS to Your Static Site With Netlify CMS","url":"/blog/2018/2018-01-04-adding-a-cms-to-your-static-site-with-netlify-cms","summary":"If you're looking for a developer-friendly CMS platform for creating static sites, check out this article on a CMS with a growing community of devs.","date":"2018-01-04","tags":["CMS","Content Management System","Static Site Generator","Git","Web Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/adding-a-cms-to-your-static-site-with-netlify-cms"},{"type":"blog","id":"2018/2018-01-04-apache-flink-in-2017-year-in-review","title":"Apache Flink in 2017 - Year in Review","url":"/blog/2018/2018-01-04-apache-flink-in-2017-year-in-review","summary":"If you take a look at&nbsp;the resolved issues and enhancements for 2017 on Jira&nbsp;you can see that the community resolved over 1,831 issues and feature additions.","date":"2018-01-04","tags":["Flink Community","Flink Features","Apache Flink","Year In Review"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://data-artisans.com/blog/apache-flink-in-2017-year-in-review"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-12-31-blockwatch-berlin-blockchain-day-panel-podcast","title":"Blockwatch- Berlin Blockchain Day Panel [Podcast]","url":"/blog/2017/2017-12-31-blockwatch-berlin-blockchain-day-panel-podcast","summary":"In this 25-minute podcast/panel discussion, four Blockchain luminaries talk about how to bring smart contract ideas to reality.","date":"2017-12-31","tags":["Blockchain","Ethereum","Smart Contracts","Bitcoin","IoT"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/blockwatch-berlin-blockchain-day-panel"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"ccc-recounting-2017-and-predictions-for-2018","title":"CCC, recounting 2017 and predictions for 2018","url":"/podcast/ccc-recounting-2017-and-predictions-for-2018","summary":"Chris and Cate recount the year that was, look forward to 2018 and discuss the recent CCC in Leipzig. Previous Episodes - gregariousmammal.com/podcast [http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast] Support the show - gregariousmammal.com/support [http://gregariousmammal.com/support] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to disc…","date":"2017-12-31","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"berlin-blockchain-day-panel","title":"Berlin Blockchain Day Panel","url":"/podcast/berlin-blockchain-day-panel","summary":"Chris hosts a panel at the recent Berlin Blockchain day with three blockchain luminaries: Dmitry Meshkov, Alexander Chepurnoy, Vlad Zamfir and Alexander Ivanov. https://binarydistrict.com/courses/berlin-blockchain-day/ Previous Episodes - http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ Support the show - http://gregariousmammal.com/support --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/mes…","date":"2017-12-28","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-12-28-distributing-operational-knowledge-across-a-team","title":"Distributing Operational Knowledge Across a Team","url":"/blog/2017/2017-12-28-distributing-operational-knowledge-across-a-team","summary":"I am sure we have all worked (or work) for companies, teams, or clients where communication of internal information is somewhere on the scale between nonexistent and abysmal. Despite constant advances in information storage and communication technology, I’m sure many of you would agree that we are still not any better at communicating with each other. In this post, I will discuss some tooling options to consider, but more important, cover when, why, and how to use them.","date":"2017-12-28","tags":["Industry"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/distributing-operational-knowledge-across-a-team/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-12-27-2017-in-review","title":"2017 in review","url":"/blog/2017/2017-12-27-2017-in-review","summary":"I began my round of 2016 with how eventful it was, and 2017 continued to deliver major world events that shook countries, cities and people. Despite this, I had a largely positive year, switching from an employee back to a contractor again, which was a largely positive move. I changed my major outlet from SitePoint to DZone, added a handful of others, wrote a lot of content marketing posts for tech companies, wrote a book and (nearly) finished a video course. On top of all that I travelled to many places, including cities and countries I had never been to before.","date":"2017-12-27","tags":["2017","Reviews"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"events","id":"2017-12-27-ccc-leipzig","title":"34th Chaos Communication Congress","url":"/events","summary":"I'll be at the venerable CCC this year, possibly running a documentation assembly, watch this space for details.","date":"2017-12-27","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://events.ccc.de"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-12-27-habitat-from-chef-build-deploy-and-manage-your-cl","title":"Habitat from Chef- Build, Deploy, and Manage Your Cloud Services","url":"/blog/2017/2017-12-27-habitat-from-chef-build-deploy-and-manage-your-cl","summary":"Chef recently introduced the Habitat tool, bringing Chef's advantages to automation and continuous integration. Learn about the suite of tools that make it possible.","date":"2017-12-27","tags":["Chef","Cloud","Deployment","Continuous Delivery","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/habitat-from-chef-build-deploy-and-manage-your-clo"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-12-26-an-overview-of-the-kontena-platform","title":"An Overview of the Kontena Platform","url":"/blog/2017/2017-12-26-an-overview-of-the-kontena-platform","summary":"The big question with any paid service is whether the cost justifies the features. Let's break down the Kontena SaaS platform so you can decide.","date":"2017-12-26","tags":["Cloud","Kontena","Docker Containers","Application Stack","Tutorials"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/an-overview-of-the-kontena-platform"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"dubai-startups-wrappup-a-meeting-ai","title":"Dubai Startups - Wrappup, a meeting AI","url":"/podcast/dubai-startups-wrappup-a-meeting-ai","summary":"Chris interviews Dubai startup Wrappup about their meeting AI bot and running a startup in Dubai. https://www.wrappup.co Previous episodes - gregariousmammal.com/podcast [http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast] Support the show - gregariousmammal.com/support [http://gregariousmammal.com/support] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you…","date":"2017-12-21","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-12-13-an-interview-with-circleci-cto-rob-zuber-audio","title":"An Interview With CircleCI CTO Rob Zuber [Audio]","url":"/blog/2017/2017-12-13-an-interview-with-circleci-cto-rob-zuber-audio","summary":"CircleCI is becoming the CI tool of choice for developers who want to spend more time coding than managing infrastructure. Listen to Chris Ward speak with the CTO.","date":"2017-12-13","tags":["Circleci","Testing","Deployment","CI","Continuous Integration","Continuous Deployment","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/an-interview-with-circleci-cto-rob-zuber"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"circleci-cto-rob-zuber-on-continuous-integration-that-just-works","title":"CircleCI CTO Rob Zuber on continuous integration that 'just works'","url":"/podcast/circleci-cto-rob-zuber-on-continuous-integration-that-just-works","summary":"Chris speaks with CircleCI CTO Rob Zuber about creating a continuous integration platform that gets out of the way of developers and just lets them work, test, build and deploy. Show notes - https://www.gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ Support the podcast - https://www.gregariousmammal.com/support/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If…","date":"2017-12-11","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-12-06-yow-conferences-for-australian-developers-by-deve","title":"Yow! Conferences, for Australian Developers by Developers","url":"/blog/2017/2017-12-06-yow-conferences-for-australian-developers-by-deve","summary":"Check out this software development conference that's currently catering to devs in Australia, but is soon expanding to Southeast Asia.","date":"2017-12-06","tags":["Conferences","Australia","Education","Learning","Presentations","Call For Proposal"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/yow-conferences-for-australian-developers-by-devel"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-12-05-going-serverless-compare-your-faas-options","title":"Going Serverless? Compare Your FaaS Options","url":"/blog/2017/2017-12-05-going-serverless-compare-your-faas-options","summary":"As serverless's popularity grows, so have the number of FaaS providers. Let's break down what's out there, how they work, and whether they're right for you.","date":"2017-12-05","tags":["Cloud","Serverless","Faas","Cloud Providers"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/going-serverless-compare-your-faas-options"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-12-04-creating-augmented-reality-and-iot-experiences-wi","title":"Creating Augmented Reality and IoT Experiences With Thingworx","url":"/blog/2017/2017-12-04-creating-augmented-reality-and-iot-experiences-wi","summary":"Thingworx is a comprehensive SaaS platform for creating AR experiences for Industry 4.0 and IoT-heavy workplaces. Here are some use cases to consider.","date":"2017-12-04","tags":["IoT","Augmented Reality","Thingworx","Industrial Iot"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/creating-augmented-reality-and-iot-experiences-wit"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-12-04-finovate-dubai","title":"Finovate Dubai","url":"/events","summary":"I'm back at Finovate for the first time in 3 years, and this time in Dubai. I'd love to hear about what you're working on.","date":"2017-12-04","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://finance.knect365.com/finovate-middle-east/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"love-in-the-time-of-artificial-intelligence","title":"Love in the time of artificial intelligence","url":"/podcast/love-in-the-time-of-artificial-intelligence","summary":"In this episode Cate and Chris tackle the rise of cryptocurrencies, love (past and present) in the time of artificial intelligence, the prevalence of software bugs, net neutrality from a non-American perspective, and more. Show notes - gregariousmammal.com/podcast [http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast] Support the show - gregariousmammal.com/support [http://gregariousmammal.com/support] --- Send i…","date":"2017-12-04","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"augmented-reality-and-iot-with-tanveer-saifee-of-thingworx","title":"Augmented reality and IoT with Tanveer Saifee of Thingworx","url":"/podcast/augmented-reality-and-iot-with-tanveer-saifee-of-thingworx","summary":"Chris speaks with Tanveer Saifee of Thingworx about creating interactive AR tools that help workers in modern industry understand and analyse the machinery and processes around them. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.sub…","date":"2017-11-30","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-11-29-going-serverless-compare-your-faas-options","title":"Going Serverless? Compare Your FaaS Options","url":"/blog/2017/2017-11-29-going-serverless-compare-your-faas-options","summary":"As is typical with new concepts and technologies, the absolute definition of “serverless” or FaaS (Functions as a Service) is broad and undefined. In essence, it is a concept that takes cloud computing and “convenience as a service” to the extreme, spinning up processing power when your application needs it and responding with data.","date":"2017-11-29","tags":["Industry"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/going-serverless-compare-your-faas-options/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-11-27-graphcool-the-graphql-backend-development-framewo","title":"Graphcool, the GraphQL Backend Development Framework","url":"/blog/2017/2017-11-27-graphcool-the-graphql-backend-development-framewo","summary":"GraphQL allows you to query data in the data-heavy age. It's backed and used by Facebook, but is new and still has tooling gaps. GraphCool aims to solve this.","date":"2017-11-27","tags":["GraphQL","Databases","Graph Query","Graphcool"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/graphcool-the-graphql-backend-development-framewor"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-11-24-write-the-docs-australia","title":"Write the Docs - Australia","url":"/events","summary":"Developers of voice and chat assistants are crying out for good writers to help them create the conversational interfaces of the present and future. In this talk, I will introduce what constitutes a 'good' conversational experience and how we, as writers, can benefit from this trend.","date":"2017-11-24","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WECIeLBqu8"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"johannes-schickling-of-graphcool-the-graphql-backend","title":"Johannes Schickling of Graphcool, The GraphQL Backend","url":"/podcast/johannes-schickling-of-graphcool-the-graphql-backend","summary":"Chris speaks with Johannes Schickling of Graphcool, The GraphQL Backend Framework. The interview covers their love of GraphQL, community and how they try to help developers understand and use the API framework. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes,…","date":"2017-11-21","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-11-18-blockwatch-tools-for-working-with-solidity","title":"Blockwatch- Tools for Working With Solidity","url":"/blog/2017/2017-11-18-blockwatch-tools-for-working-with-solidity","summary":"In this article, we look at languages, IDEs, Wallets, and several other tools that you'll need to work with Solidity and blockchain.","date":"2017-11-18","tags":["Ethereum","Solidity","Blockchain","Smart Contracts","Security"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/blockwatch-tools-for-working-with-solidity"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"are-coders-king","title":"Are Coders King?","url":"/podcast/are-coders-king","summary":"In this episode Cate and Chris tackle some difficult topics such as the backlash against tech, does the status quo even want to change, diversity, the naivety of engineers and much more. gregariousmammal.com/podcast [http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other s…","date":"2017-11-16","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-11-11-ruby-logging-best-practices-tips","title":"Ruby logging best practices and tips","url":"/blog/2017/2017-11-11-ruby-logging-best-practices-tips","summary":"Ruby is an opinionated language with inbuilt Ruby logging options that will serve the needs of small and basic applications. Whilst there are fewer alternatives to these than say, the JavaScript world, there are a handful, and in this post, I will highlight those that are active (based on age and commit activity) and help you figure out the options for logging your Ruby (and Rails applications).","date":"2017-11-11","tags":["Logging","Ruby","Rails"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://coralogix.com/log-analytics-blog/ruby-logging-best-practices-tips/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-11-10-a-writer-s-guide-to-conversational-interfaces","title":"A Writer&#39;s Guide to Conversational Interfaces","url":"/blog/2017/2017-11-10-a-writer-s-guide-to-conversational-interfaces","summary":"Design for people, but write for ears. Get this and more wisdom in this short writer's guide to creating conversational interfaces that use AI to communicate.","date":"2017-11-10","tags":["AI","Chatbots","Conversational Interfaces","Bot Development","Machine Learning"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/a-writers-guide-to-conversational-interfaces"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-11-10-what-can-musicians-and-programmers-learn-from-eac","title":"What Can Musicians and Programmers Learn From Each Other? [Audio]","url":"/blog/2017/2017-11-10-what-can-musicians-and-programmers-learn-from-eac","summary":"A DZone Zoner Leader and a fellow developer discuss the similarities between playing music and writing code. Listen in on this awesome conversation!","date":"2017-11-10","tags":["Agile","Devlife","Career Growth","Learning And Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/what-can-musicians-and-programmers-learn-from-each"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-11-08-complex-event-processing-with-flink-an-update-on-","title":"Complex Event Processing with Flink - An Update on the State of Flink CEP","url":"/blog/2017/2017-11-08-complex-event-processing-with-flink-an-update-on-","summary":"In the snippet above I named the individual patterns as:","date":"2017-11-08","tags":["Flink Features","Use Cases","Alerting","Cep","Complex Event Processing","Flinkcep","Pattern Matching"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://data-artisans.com/blog/complex-event-processing-flink-cep-update"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"what-can-musicians-and-programmers-learn-from-each-other-a-conversation-with-ryan-blunden","title":"What can musicians and programmers learn from each other? A conversation with Ryan Blunden","url":"/podcast/what-can-musicians-and-programmers-learn-from-each-other-a-conversation-with-ryan-blunden","summary":"Chris speaks with Ryan Blunden about what programmers and musicians can learn from each other, the affects of music on coding, what genres might be what programming language, computer generated music and much more. Show notes - https://www.gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ Support the show - https://www.gregariousmammal.com/support/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/mes…","date":"2017-11-07","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-11-06-are-we-all-doomed-your-role-in-the-ethics-of-tech","title":"Are We All Doomed? Your Role in the Ethics of Tech","url":"/blog/2017/2017-11-06-are-we-all-doomed-your-role-in-the-ethics-of-tech","summary":"Humans have always loved tech. But we're quite a ways from stone tools, and this new tech raises some interesting ethical conundrums for developers.","date":"2017-11-06","tags":["Machine Learning","AI","Agile","Development And Ethics"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/are-we-all-doomed-your-role-in-the-ethics-of-tech"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-11-01-ukraine--on-the-edge-of-something-and-somewhere-3068ec4db148","title":"Ukraine, on the edge of something and somewhere","url":"/blog/2017/2017-11-01-ukraine--on-the-edge-of-something-and-somewhere-3068ec4db148","summary":"I am standing inside the exhibitor room of (what claims to be) Eastern","date":"2017-11-01","tags":["Eastern Europe","Ukraine","Startups"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/@chrischinchilla/ukraine-on-the-edge-of-something-and-somewhere-3068ec4db148"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-ukrainian-startup-scene-with-anastasia-sleptsova","title":"The Ukrainian Startup scene with Anastasia Sleptsova","url":"/podcast/the-ukrainian-startup-scene-with-anastasia-sleptsova","summary":"As part of a forthcoming article on the Ukrainian tech/startup scene, I interview Anastasia Sleptsova Head of Ecosystem Partnerships at UNIT.City [http://unit.City]. gregariousmammal.com/podcast [http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get acc…","date":"2017-10-30","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-10-27-how-to-program-a-robot-interview","title":"How to Program a Robot [Interview]","url":"/blog/2017/2017-10-27-how-to-program-a-robot-interview","summary":"Anyone interested in getting started with programming robots should check out this interview. Learn what it takes to program a robot.","date":"2017-10-27","tags":["Robotics","AI","Natural Language Processing","Machine Learning"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/how-to-program-a-robot"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"how-to-program-a-robot-interview-with-gestalt-robotocs","title":"How to program a robot - Interview with Gestalt Robotocs","url":"/podcast/how-to-program-a-robot-interview-with-gestalt-robotocs","summary":"Robots are appearing everywhere in our lives and workplaces, but how does a developer actually program one? Chris spoke with Jans Lembrecht of Gestalt Robotics about his experience programming industrial robots designed for single purpose tasks that use their own programming languages to newer robots that use C++ or Python to handle broader tasks that humans throw at them. http://www.gestalt-robo…","date":"2017-10-26","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-10-24-managing-your-business-apps-with-apperian-an-inte","title":"Managing Your Business Apps With Apperian- An Interview With Mark Lorion...","url":"/blog/2017/2017-10-24-managing-your-business-apps-with-apperian-an-inte","summary":"This interview with Mark Lorion, President and General Manager at Apperian, discusses the company's offerings for business app management.","date":"2017-10-24","tags":["App Management","Enterprise","Mobile","Security"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/managing-your-business-apps-with-apperian-an-inter"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"managing-your-business-apps-with-apperian-an-interview-with-mark-lorion","title":"Managing Your Business Apps with Apperian, An Interview with Mark Lorion","url":"/podcast/managing-your-business-apps-with-apperian-an-interview-with-mark-lorion","summary":"To those of us addicted to our smartphones, the myriad of applications we can install and what we can achieve (or time waste) with them is astounding. But for those of us working in corporate or other industries that value business privacy and secrecy, the freedom that apps give us and that we give them, is a little too risky. Enter the role of mobile app management services that sit between a de…","date":"2017-10-23","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-10-23-human-side-ops","title":"The Human Side of Digital Operations","url":"/blog/2017/2017-10-23-human-side-ops","summary":"It’s the morning of February 28, 2017, and vast swathes of the internet are unavailable. From individual sites to services that thousands of others rely on — such as Slack, Quora, GitHub and Trello — many are unavailable. You probably remember the day that ‘human error‘ took down so much of the internet, with broad components of AWS that no longer worked. This isn’t the first time an outage has brought the internet to its knees — but the sheer scale of AWS always means that the impact is felt.","date":"2017-10-23","tags":["DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.pagerduty.com/blog/human-side-digital-operations/"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-10-21-changecon","title":"ChangeCon","url":"/events","summary":"As programmers, designers, writers and those who pursue 'creative' pursuits we consider ourselves mostly immune to the predicted forthcoming robot invasion of our jobs.","date":"2017-10-21","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://changecon.com/speakers/chris-ward/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-10-19-an-overview-of-the-kontena-platform","title":"An Overview of the Kontena Platform","url":"/blog/2017/2017-10-19-an-overview-of-the-kontena-platform","summary":"Back in my Docker hosting post, I noted that deploying and orchestrating containers live was still a missing step in the Docker workflow for many developers. A handful of complex orchestration tools entered to fill the void, with large cloud companies offering to host your setup for you. In that post, I intentionally avoided tools that sat in the middle of this process by helping you to deploy containers to cloud services, but there are plenty of them, including Docker’s own official cloud service. There is still plenty of opportunity for similar services and less than a month ago, I heard of a new option, Kontena.","date":"2017-10-19","tags":["Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/an-overview-of-the-kontena-platform/"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-10-19-voxxed-belgrade-2017","title":"Voxxed Days Belgrade","url":"/events","summary":"As programmers, designers, writers and those who pursue 'creative' pursuits we consider ourselves mostly immune to the predicted forthcoming robot invasion of our jobs.","date":"2017-10-19","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYoVkDbqCpk"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-10-16-github-universe-2017-collaboration-and-communicat","title":"GitHub Universe 2017 - Collaboration and Communication","url":"/blog/2017/2017-10-16-github-universe-2017-collaboration-and-communicat","summary":"See how GitHub became a leader in version control; learn about the Discovery tab, and how they help you not only code better, but collaborate and communicate.","date":"2017-10-16","tags":["Git","GitHub","Version Control","Collaboration","Integration"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/github-universe-2017-collaboration-and-communicati"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-10-13-blockwatch-the-9984-summit","title":"Blockwatch - The 9984 Summit","url":"/blog/2017/2017-10-13-blockwatch-the-9984-summit","summary":"Investing in a country, bringing blockchain to the developing world, and making smart contracts easier are just some of the topics covered today.","date":"2017-10-13","tags":["Blockchain","Ico","Bitcoin","Ethereum","Security"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/blockwatch-the-9984-summit"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-ethics-of-tech","title":"The Ethics of Tech","url":"/podcast/the-ethics-of-tech","summary":"This week Cate and Chris discuss smarter ways to hire developers, ethics in tech and more. Show notes at - gregariousmammal.com/podcast [http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com…","date":"2017-10-10","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-10-04_how-blockchain-will-disrupt-traditional-computing","title":"How blockchain will disrupt traditional computing","url":"/blog/2017/2017-10-04_how-blockchain-will-disrupt-traditional-computing","summary":"technologies](https://techbeacon.com/tags/blockchain){.markup--anchor","date":"2017-10-04","tags":["Blockchain","Computing"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://techbeacon.com/how-blockchain-will-disrupt-traditional-computing"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-10-03-a-guide-to-ubuntu-core-and-snaps","title":"A Guide to Ubuntu Core and Snaps","url":"/blog/2017/2017-10-03-a-guide-to-ubuntu-core-and-snaps","summary":"Learn about Ubuntu Core's role in IoT development and how Snaps, as a packaging system, augment Linux, containers, and IoT.","date":"2017-10-03","tags":["Ubuntu","Linux","IoT","Cloud Containers","Snaps","Tutorials"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/a-guide-to-ubuntu-core-and-snaps"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-10-02-thierry-carrez-on-the-release-of-openstack-pike-p","title":"Thierry Carrez on the Release of OpenStack Pike [Podcast]","url":"/blog/2017/2017-10-02-thierry-carrez-on-the-release-of-openstack-pike-p","summary":"Listen in on this half-hour podcast interview with OpenStack's release manager, covering how to manage projects with large numbers of contributors.","date":"2017-10-02","tags":["Sdn","Cloud","Openstack Pike","Cloud Storage"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/thierry-carrez-on-the-release-of-openstack-pike"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"ubuntu-core-and-snaps","title":"Ubuntu Core and Snaps","url":"/podcast/ubuntu-core-and-snaps","summary":"Chris spoke with Dustin Kirkland, VP of product development and Jamie Bennett, VP of Devices and IoT Engineering at Canonical to understand more the strategy behind Ubuntu Core and Snaps. Image from - https://medium.com/@penk/how-to-boot-the-raspberry-pi-3-from-usb-with-ubuntu-core-24df33b0fd60 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If y…","date":"2017-10-02","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-09-29-it-arena","title":"IT Arena","url":"/events","summary":"Attended IT Arena in Lviv to meet the technology community and discover new projects.","date":"2017-09-29","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://itarena.ua/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-09-28-blockwatch-cryptogovernment-and-blockchain-market","title":"Blockwatch- Cryptogovernment and Blockchain Marketing","url":"/blog/2017/2017-09-28-blockwatch-cryptogovernment-and-blockchain-market","summary":"We take a look at what some countries around the world are doing to promote cryptocurrency, as well as how some innovative companies are using blockchain.","date":"2017-09-28","tags":["Blockchain","Cryptocurrency","Digital Transformation","Security"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/blockwatch-cryptogovernment-and-blockchain-marketi"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-09-28-node-logging-best-practices-tips","title":"Node logging best practices and tips","url":"/blog/2017/2017-09-28-node-logging-best-practices-tips","summary":"As is traditional with the JavaScript world, there are a dizzying amount of options for node logging. In this article, I will dig into some of the better and lesser known options to see what’s on offer and help you log better in your Node applications.","date":"2017-09-28","tags":["Logging","Nodejs","JavaScript"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://coralogix.com/log-analytics-blog/node-logging-best-practices-tips/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"thierry-carrez-release-manager-for-the-openstack-project","title":"Thierry Carrez, release manager for the OpenStack project","url":"/podcast/thierry-carrez-release-manager-for-the-openstack-project","summary":"Chris interviews Thierry Carrez, release manager for the OpenStack project about how he coordinates a large amount of contributors to the project, balancing diverse commercial and cultural differences whilst still maintaining a regular release cycle. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subs…","date":"2017-09-28","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"interviews-from-ifa-2017-and-startup-night-berlin","title":"Interviews from IFA 2017 and Startup Night Berlin","url":"/podcast/interviews-from-ifa-2017-and-startup-night-berlin","summary":"Chris and Cate interview numerous people from IFA and Startup Night Berlin 2017. https://www.gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmedium=…","date":"2017-09-27","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-09-26-does-graphql-reduce-the-need-for-documentation","title":"Does GraphQL Reduce the Need for Documentation?","url":"/blog/2017/2017-09-26-does-graphql-reduce-the-need-for-documentation","summary":"With GraphQL and tools like it, do you still need to manually document anything? Or can you fire your tech writers right away? Let's check in a real codebase!","date":"2017-09-26","tags":["GraphQL","Rest Api","Api Documentation","Documentation","Integration"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/does-graphql-reduce-the-need-for-documentation"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"dataiku-interview","title":"Dataiku Interview","url":"/podcast/dataiku-interview","summary":"Dataiku Interview by Gregarious Mammal --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmedium=podcast&utmcampaign=CTA1]","date":"2017-09-22","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"ifa-iot-night-armenian-startups-and-startup-night-the-berlin-week-that-was","title":"IFA, IoT night, Armenian startups and Startup night - The Berlin week that was","url":"/podcast/ifa-iot-night-armenian-startups-and-startup-night-the-berlin-week-that-was","summary":"Chris and Cate recount one crazy week in Berlin covering IFA, the France vs Germany IoT battle, Armenian startups and the long night of Startups. gregariousmammal.com/podcast [http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episode…","date":"2017-09-22","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-09-21-ixds-ifa-pre-work-talk-munich","title":"IXDS IFA Pre-Work talk, Munich","url":"/events","summary":"Joined a Munich panel discussing trends and highlights from IFA.","date":"2017-09-21","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.ixds.com/events/pre-work-talk-munich-092017-IFA"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-09-19-does-graphql-reduce-the-need-for-documentation","title":"Does GraphQL Reduce the Need for Documentation?","url":"/blog/2017/2017-09-19-does-graphql-reduce-the-need-for-documentation","summary":"Before we begin, note that this post isn’t intended as an introduction to GraphQL. For a beginner’s guide, I suggest Derek Haynes’ Codeship post or howtographql.com.","date":"2017-09-19","tags":["Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/documenting-graphql/"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-09-19-ixds-ifa-pre-work-talk-berlin","title":"IXDS IFA Pre-Work talk, Berlin","url":"/events","summary":"Joined a Berlin panel discussing trends and highlights from IFA.","date":"2017-09-19","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.ixds.com/events/pre-work-talk-berlin-092017-IFA"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-09-18-sencha-releases-extreact-bringing-their-custom-co","title":"Sencha Releases ExtReact, Bringing Their Custom Components to the React...","url":"/blog/2017/2017-09-18-sencha-releases-extreact-bringing-their-custom-co","summary":"Learn about Sencha's ExtReact, making cross-platform desktop and mobile components available for the React framework, in this interview.","date":"2017-09-18","tags":["React","Ext Js","JavaScript","Cross-platform","Mobile","Mobile App Development","Web Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/sencha-releases-extreact-bringing-their-custom-com"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-09-15-ifa-berlin-2017-full-of-smarts","title":"IFA Berlin 2017- Full of Smarts","url":"/blog/2017/2017-09-15-ifa-berlin-2017-full-of-smarts","summary":"IFA Berlin was an assortment of connected products, robots, and personal assistants. See what the future looks like for development.","date":"2017-09-15","tags":["Robots","Voice Assistants","Virtual Reality","IoT","Connected Devices"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/ifa-berlin-2017-full-of-smarts"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"mark-brocato-of-sencha-bringing-cross-platform-components-to-react","title":"Mark Brocato of Sencha - Bringing cross platform components to React","url":"/podcast/mark-brocato-of-sencha-bringing-cross-platform-components-to-react","summary":"Chris speaks with Mark Brocato of Sencha about their new cross platform data-driven components for the React framework, and how the company made JavaScript more advanced years before anyone else. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchil…","date":"2017-09-14","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-09-10-write-the-docs-eu-2017","title":"Write the Docs EU","url":"/events","summary":"In this presentation I will explore other ways to communicate concepts beyond words to show that documentation needn't just be about technical writing.","date":"2017-09-10","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.writethedocs.org/conf/eu/2017/speakers/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-09-08-blockwatch-demystifying-the-ico","title":"Blockwatch- Demystifying the ICO","url":"/blog/2017/2017-09-08-blockwatch-demystifying-the-ico","summary":"We discuss Initial Coin Offerings, or ICOs, and the impact they're having on the blockchain and cryptocurrency world. Read on for more!","date":"2017-09-08","tags":["Blockchain","Cryptocurrency","Ico","Security"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/blockwatch-7th-september-demystifying-the-ico"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-09-08-startup-night","title":"Startup Night","url":"/events","summary":"Attended Startup Night in Berlin to meet founders and learn about new ideas and projects.","date":"2017-09-08","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.startupnight.net/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-09-06-data-science-in-a-box-with-dataiku","title":"Data Science in a Box With Dataiku","url":"/blog/2017/2017-09-06-data-science-in-a-box-with-dataiku","summary":"In this article, we explore a new application that makes it easy for devs to play the role of data scientist and interview a PM at the company.","date":"2017-09-06","tags":["Data Science","Data Analysis","Python","R","Big Data"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/data-science-in-a-box-with-dataiku"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"tech-in-board-games-an-interview-with-ben-maddox","title":"Tech in Board Games, an Interview with Ben Maddox","url":"/podcast/tech-in-board-games-an-interview-with-ben-maddox","summary":"Chris speaks with Ben Maddox of the Perfect Information podcast to talk about the past, present and future of technology in Board Games. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.…","date":"2017-09-06","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-09-05-berlin-podcasters","title":"Third one","url":"/events","summary":"Chris is talking about sound quality and editing out echoes. Especially useful in Berlin Altbaus!","date":"2017-09-05","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.meetup.com/preview/BerlinPodcasting/events/238800496"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-09-01-ifa-berlin","title":"IFA","url":"/events","summary":"Attended IFA Berlin to cover the latest consumer technology news and announcements.","date":"2017-09-01","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://b2b.ifa-berlin.com/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"love-life-leisure-and-technology","title":"Love, life, leisure and technology","url":"/podcast/love-life-leisure-and-technology","summary":"This week Cate and Chris discuss the intersections of journalism, immortality, music, romance and government with technology. Show notes at http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast Support the show at http://gregariousmammal.com/support --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get acce…","date":"2017-08-31","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-08-30-bringing-touch-bar-support-to-the-atom-text-edito","title":"Bringing Touch Bar Support to the Atom Text Editor","url":"/blog/2017/2017-08-30-bringing-touch-bar-support-to-the-atom-text-edito","summary":"The MacBook Touch Bar has been notoriously labelled as a useless feature... however, it may have found a home with the Atom Text Editor. Check out these different packages that extend touch bar functionality to Atom.","date":"2017-08-30","tags":["Atom.Io","Atom","Text Editors","Mac","Apple","Touch Bar","JavaScript","Coffeescript","Node Js","Electron"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/bringing-touch-bar-support-to-the-atom-text-editor"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-08-23-bringing-devops-practices-to-database-administrat","title":"Bringing DevOps Practices to Database Administrators [Audio]","url":"/blog/2017/2017-08-23-bringing-devops-practices-to-database-administrat","summary":"In this podcast interview, learn how Datical is bringing easy-to-use tools inspired by DevOps practices to the traditionally messy world of enterprise databases.","date":"2017-08-23","tags":["Data Science","DevOps","Database Administration","Databases","Data Analytics"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/datical-bringing-devops-practices-to-database-admi"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-08-23-tools-and-practices-for-documenting-microservices","title":"Tools and Practices for Documenting Microservices","url":"/blog/2017/2017-08-23-tools-and-practices-for-documenting-microservices","summary":"I will assume you are at least familiar with the concept of microservices — loosely coupled services that provide discrete solutions to business use cases that you can combine to solve current needs and demand. The architectural pattern has gained popularity over the past years, and although not everyone is completely sure what “doing it right” looks like, it’s a concept that suits modern needs and is here to stay for the foreseeable future.","date":"2017-08-23","tags":["Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/documenting-microservices/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"datical-bringing-devops-practices-to-database-administrators","title":"Datical - Bringing DevOps practices to Database Administrators","url":"/podcast/datical-bringing-devops-practices-to-database-administrators","summary":"I spoke with Robert Reeves, CTO and Co-founder of Datical, a company that aims to remove the pain that database administrators (DBAs) experience on a regular basis attempting to make changes to database heavy applications. They do this by bringing easy to use tools inspired by practices from the DevOps world to the traditionally messy world of enterprise databases, with change simulation, rollbac…","date":"2017-08-22","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-08-21-how-get-started-computer-science-course-roundup","title":"How to get started in computer science - A course roundup","url":"/blog/2017/2017-08-21-how-get-started-computer-science-course-roundup","summary":"On occasion, I have created content for and taught computing subjects to students, ranging from absolute newcomers to computers and coding to professionals wanting to top up their skills. When I first started, options for learning to code were limited, restricted to university and college courses that often assumed some prior knowledge and required commitment, time, and money.","date":"2017-08-21","tags":["Courses","University","Mooc","Learning","Education","Coding"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://techbeacon.com/how-get-started-computer-science-course-roundup"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-08-18-pepperdata-bringing-devops-practices-to-the-big-d","title":"Pepperdata- Bringing DevOps Practices to the Big Data World [Audio]","url":"/blog/2017/2017-08-18-pepperdata-bringing-devops-practices-to-the-big-d","summary":"I spoke with Pepperdata CEO Ash Munshi about what the company offers and how their customers save hours from running inefficient processing jobs.","date":"2017-08-18","tags":["Big Data","Data Analytics","Devops Adoption","Processing"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/pepperdata-bringing-devops-practices-to-the-big-da"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"pepperdata-bringing-devops-practices-to-the-big-data-world","title":"Pepperdata - Bringing DevOps Practices to the Big Data World","url":"/podcast/pepperdata-bringing-devops-practices-to-the-big-data-world","summary":"Big Data analysis generally involves piping large data sets into processing systems such as Apache Spark and Hadoop, walking away for a very long coffee and returning later to a hopefully successful result. The DevOps and continuous build ecosystem has long employed linters, code analyzers and application profilers to discern potential trouble and optimization points in code, and Pepperdata want…","date":"2017-08-16","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"generation-what-now","title":"Generation what now?","url":"/podcast/generation-what-now","summary":"This week Cate and Chris discuss how smart phones are destroying a generation, cybersecurity, documentation, tech diversity and more. Show notes - gregariousmammal.com/podcast [http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast] Support us - gregariousmammal.com/support [http://gregariousmammal.com/support] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you…","date":"2017-08-15","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-08-11-indiastack-disrupting-the-second-most-populous-na","title":"IndiaStack- Disrupting the Second Most Populous Nation in the World","url":"/blog/2017/2017-08-11-indiastack-disrupting-the-second-most-populous-na","summary":"While you may not have plans for creating data-driven applications that target the Indian market, the example of a large government creating this platform is interesting.","date":"2017-08-11","tags":["Big Data","Data Analytics","App Development","Indiastack","Data-Driven Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/india-stack-disrupting-the-second-most-populous-na"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-08-10-scrimba-a-new-way-to-teach-and-learn-code","title":"Scrimba- A New Way to Teach and Learn Code","url":"/blog/2017/2017-08-10-scrimba-a-new-way-to-teach-and-learn-code","summary":"We take a look at a new educational platform that allows beginning devs to sync up their GitHub accounts and practice their new found development skills.","date":"2017-08-10","tags":["Education","Coding","Learn To Code","Screencasts"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/scrimba-a-new-way-to-teach-and-learn-code"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-07-28-heroku-logging-coralogix","title":"Heroku Logging and Coralogix","url":"/blog/2017/2017-07-28-heroku-logging-coralogix","summary":"Coralogix released a new addon for Heroku. In this post we cover best Logging practices, how different cloud providers enable them, what makes Heroku logging special, and how Coralogix utilizes Heroku’s approach to provide it’s 3rd generation logging experience.","date":"2017-07-28","tags":["Logging","Heroku","Errors"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://coralogix.com/heroku-logging-coralogix/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-07-26-getting-started-podcasting-mac","title":"Podcasting 101 - What you need to get started on Mac","url":"/blog/2017/2017-07-26-getting-started-podcasting-mac","summary":"Podcasting is undergoing a renaissance with listeners consuming on-demand shows at unprecedented levels, and creators enjoying surprising levels of success with their work. One thing that sets apart the amateurs from the professionals is good content, but the other is production values. Here are some of the things I’ve learned, along with recommendations on the hardware, software and techniques to get you started podcasting using your Mac.","date":"2017-07-26","tags":["Mac","Audio","Podcasting"],"categories":["tech","music"],"externalUrl":"https://www.cultofmac.com/482571/getting-started-podcasting-mac/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-07-26-steadily-serving-the-web-for-12-years-liam-crilly","title":"Steadily Serving the Web for 12 Years, Liam Crilly From NGINX","url":"/blog/2017/2017-07-26-steadily-serving-the-web-for-12-years-liam-crilly","summary":"Learn about the history and product range of the popular NGINX web server in this interview with its product management director, Liam Crilly.","date":"2017-07-26","tags":["Apache","Web Servers","Nginx","DevOps"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/steadily-serving-the-web-for-12-years-liam-crilly"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"steadily-serving-the-web-for-12-years-liam-crilly-from-nginx","title":"Steadily Serving the Web for 12 years, Liam Crilly from NGINX","url":"/podcast/steadily-serving-the-web-for-12-years-liam-crilly-from-nginx","summary":"NGINX is one of the most popular web servers on the internet. Just a shade behind the market leader it emerged roughly ten years ago to provide an alternative to the venerable Apache, designed to suit modern traffic demands better and more appropriately. On a hot Friday afternoon I spoke with Liam Crilly, the director of product management at NGINX to discuss the history of the project, the diffe…","date":"2017-07-25","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"scott-heiferman-the-past-present-and-future-of-meeting-people-with-meetup-founder","title":"Scott Heiferman - The past, present and future of meeting people with meetup founder","url":"/podcast/scott-heiferman-the-past-present-and-future-of-meeting-people-with-meetup-founder","summary":"There's a high chance that if you have attended an event in a city in recent years, it was arranged through meetup.com [http://meetup.com]. The site now has over 32 million members, over a quarter of a million meetup groups and over half a million meetups happening in 182 countries every month. Aside from being a keen and regular user, meetup has always fascinated me, as it's a tech company with…","date":"2017-07-24","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-07-21-becoming-the-first-cyborgs-with-liviu-babitz","title":"Becoming the First Cyborgs With Liviu Babitz","url":"/blog/2017/2017-07-21-becoming-the-first-cyborgs-with-liviu-babitz","summary":"While sci-fi predicted sweeping changes in cyborgs, like limb replacement, the truth probably lies in a smaller start, like embedding sensors in our bodies. Liviu Babitz, Founder of Cyborg Nest, agrees, predicting that we will instead look to add new senses or enhance those we already have in small and subtle ways. Liviu began with a small sensor that vibrates when he is facing north, in itself not the most useful sense to possess, but a step in the right direction to show what could be possible.","date":"2017-07-21","tags":["Wearables","Cyborgs","Implants","Robots"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/becoming-the-first-cyborgs-with-liviu-babitz"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-07-21-affect-tech-society-interview-yael-eisenstat","title":"What affect is tech having on society? An interview with Yael Eisenstat","url":"/blog/2017/2017-07-21-affect-tech-society-interview-yael-eisenstat","summary":"Yael Eisenstat has an interesting past. She ‘came out’ as a long term CIA employee in January 2017 after Donald Trump delivered a poorly received speech in front of the C.I.A. Memorial Wall. She didn’t intend to be sensationalist or release state secrets like some previous ex-secret service employees who revealed their identity, rather she had had enough of Trumps stream of insults to her country and hoped that her actions could make a difference. She has advised vice-presidents and major corporate companies and now works at New York University as an adjunct professor. Whilst at the eccentric and eclectic Tech Open Air in Berlin, I spoke with Yael to discuss technology, its impact on society, and we, or tech companies can and should do about it.","date":"2017-07-21","tags":["Security","Politics","News","Technology","Society"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2017/07/20/affect-tech-society-interview-yael-eisenstat/#.tnw_XBsuxwMl"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"what-affect-is-tech-having-on-society-an-interview-with-yael-eisenstat","title":"What Affect Is Tech Having on Society? An Interview With Yael Eisenstat","url":"/podcast/what-affect-is-tech-having-on-society-an-interview-with-yael-eisenstat","summary":"Chris speaks to Yael Eisenstat about technology, how it can divide society into tribal bubbles and what we or tech companies can and should do about it. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillas…","date":"2017-07-20","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-07-19-a-comparison-of-docker-guis","title":"A Comparison of Docker GUIs","url":"/blog/2017/2017-07-19-a-comparison-of-docker-guis","summary":"These graphical user interfaces give you a bunch of different and useful ways to interact with Docker. Read on to learn what each one can do.","date":"2017-07-19","tags":["DevOps","Docker","Gui"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/a-comparison-of-docker-guis"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"becoming-the-first-cyborg-with-liviu-babitz","title":"Becoming the First Cyborg with Liviu Babitz","url":"/podcast/becoming-the-first-cyborg-with-liviu-babitz","summary":"Chris and Cate speak to Liviu Babitz from Cyborgs Nest about the past, present and future of Cyborgs.","date":"2017-07-19","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"jeff-luszcz-of-flexera-helping-make-open-source-secure-and-compliant","title":"Jeff Luszcz of Flexera - Helping make Open Source Secure and Compliant","url":"/podcast/jeff-luszcz-of-flexera-helping-make-open-source-secure-and-compliant","summary":"Chris speaks to Jeff Luszcz about how Flexera aims to make software that relies on open source components more secure, compliant and sustainable. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.…","date":"2017-07-19","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-07-19-postman-pro-features-now-free-for-smaller-project","title":"Postman Pro Features Now Free For Smaller Projects","url":"/blog/2017/2017-07-19-postman-pro-features-now-free-for-smaller-project","summary":"With the latest update, Postman now allows access to monitoring, documentation, mock servers, and other API features for users of its free version.","date":"2017-07-19","tags":["API","Postman","Mocking","Testing","Documentation","Integration"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/postman-pro-features-now-free-for-smaller-projects"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-07-18-helping-make-open-source-secure-compliant-and-sus","title":"Helping Make Open Source Secure, Compliant, and Sustainable With Jeff...","url":"/blog/2017/2017-07-18-helping-make-open-source-secure-compliant-and-sus","summary":"Flexera Software offers tools for producers and consumers of open source software to help ensure compliance and security of open source software in enterprise.","date":"2017-07-18","tags":["Open Source","Compliance","Security","IoT","Enterprise","Integration"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/helping-make-open-source-secure-compliant-and-sust"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-07-18-lucas-carlson-of-automic-taking-devops-beyond-dev","title":"Lucas Carlson of Automic - Taking DevOps Beyond Developers [Audio]","url":"/blog/2017/2017-07-18-lucas-carlson-of-automic-taking-devops-beyond-dev","summary":"Lucan Carlson talks about Automic's campaign to bring DevOps style automation and practices to everyone in a business, regardless of their role.","date":"2017-07-18","tags":["DevOps","Automation","AI","Business Inteligence"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/lucas-carlson-of-automic-taking-devops-beyond-deve"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"lucas-carlson-of-automic-taking-devops-beyond-developers","title":"Lucas Carlson of Automic - Taking DevOps beyond developers","url":"/podcast/lucas-carlson-of-automic-taking-devops-beyond-developers","summary":"Chris speaks with Lucas Carlson, novelist and strategist about Automic and how they are working to take DevOps beyond developers. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utm…","date":"2017-07-17","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-07-17-startupbootcamp-demo-day-transport-energy","title":"Startupbootcamp demo day on transport and energy","url":"/blog/2017/2017-07-17-startupbootcamp-demo-day-transport-energy","summary":"Around me are dozens of vintage cars in an old warehouse, tucked into a corner of Berlin’s north west. Those into cars are in heaven, dashing around the vast building, snapping photos of shiny vehicles as old as most attendees. I on the other hand head straight to the coffee and snacks.","date":"2017-07-17","tags":["Startups","Events","Pitching"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2017/07/17/startupbootcamp-demo-day-transport-energy/#.tnw_GC3oSW3u"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-07-12-a-comparison-of-docker-guis","title":"A Comparison of Docker GUIs","url":"/blog/2017/2017-07-12-a-comparison-of-docker-guis","summary":"The Docker API has allowed for a plethora of options for interfacing with Docker, your containers, and images to emerge from CLIs to desktop applications and web-based management tools. I am a fan of graphical user interfaces and thought it was time to survey the current landscape of GUIs for interacting with Docker.","date":"2017-07-12","tags":["Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/docker-guis/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-07-11-must-listen-software-engineering-podcast-episodes","title":"12 must-listen software engineering podcast episodes","url":"/blog/2017/2017-07-11-must-listen-software-engineering-podcast-episodes","summary":"I listen to hours of developer-focused podcasts each week covering tech, current affairs, board games, and general geekery. I even started my own podcast, which I have a lot of fun making. Hundreds of developers have written blog posts recommending thousands of different podcast series. There's no shortage of such recommendations for software engineers, so I won't subject you to another one of those lists. Instead, I'll idenfity specific podcast episodes that I think nailed a particular topic and were extremely engaging and fascinating from a developer's or technologist's perspective. For some of them, the interview subject or guest was especially interesting, or a discussion cropped up that was really compelling. For some reason, these episodes were very memorable, and that's why I think each one is worth your time.","date":"2017-07-11","tags":["Podcasts","Learning","Education","Coding"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://techbeacon.com/12-must-listen-software-engineering-podcast-episodes"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-07-07-hyperledger-s-brian-behlendorf-blockchain-for-bus","title":"Hyperledger&#39;s Brian Behlendorf- Blockchain for Business","url":"/blog/2017/2017-07-07-hyperledger-s-brian-behlendorf-blockchain-for-bus","summary":"Check out a key interview with one of the key developers behind the Apache Web Server about the Hyperledger Foundation, which aims to bring blockchain mainstream.","date":"2017-07-07","tags":["Blockchain","Hyperledger","Bitcoin","Distributed Systems","Business","Enterprise","Cloud"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/hyperledgers-brian-behlendorf-blockchain-for-busin"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"brian-behlendorf-of-hyperledger","title":"Brian Behlendorf of Hyperledger","url":"/podcast/brian-behlendorf-of-hyperledger","summary":"I speak with Brian Behlendorf, one of the key developers behind the Apache Web Server, a Mozilla and EFF board member, and Executive Director of the Hyperledger foundation, a project that aims to bring Blockchain mainstream. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to b…","date":"2017-07-06","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-07-06-pravin-halady-of-nodesource-enterprise-ready-nodejs","title":"Pravin Halady of NodeSource - Enterprise Ready Node.js","url":"/blog/2017/2017-07-06-pravin-halady-of-nodesource-enterprise-ready-nodejs","summary":"I sat down with Pravin Halady, product manager at NodeSource, to discuss why enterprise developers might need a safer and more secure version of Node.js and npm and what it's like running a business where your biggest competition is the creator of the product you sell.","date":"2017-07-06","tags":["Nodejs","Enterprise","JavaScript","Security"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/pravin-halady-of-nodesource-enterprise-ready-nodej"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-missing-links","title":"The Missing Link(s)","url":"/podcast/the-missing-links","summary":"Cate and Chris discuss the latest news, tech developments, and events from the past couple of days. Including Chat Bots, Ethereum, Petya and Cats writing Physics papers. More at gregariousmammal.com/podcast [http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscriber…","date":"2017-07-04","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"courses","id":"chrome-extensions","title":"From Chrome extensions to Chrome DevTools","url":"/courses","summary":"A four-part course on creating Chrome extensions and debugging them with Chrome DevTools.","date":"2017-07-01","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/premium/courses/expand-your-horizons-learn-to-work-with-chrome-extensions-2975/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-07-01-pioneering-education-biotech-and-blockchain-podca","title":"Pioneering Education, BioTech, and Blockchain [Podcast]","url":"/blog/2017/2017-07-01-pioneering-education-biotech-and-blockchain-podca","summary":"A DZone Zone Leader interviews several startups to see how their developers are shaping the future across several industries.","date":"2017-07-01","tags":["Internet Of Things","Biotech","Blockchain","Agile","Startups"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/pioneering-education-biotech-and-blockchain"},{"type":"courses","id":"bitbucket","title":"Which Continuous Integration Tools Support Bitbucket?","url":"/courses","summary":"A comparison of popular continuous integration tools that support Bitbucket.","date":"2017-07-01","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/premium/screencasts/which-continuous-integration-tools-support-bitbucket"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-06-30-pravin-halady-of-nodesource-enterprise-ready-node","title":"Pravin Halady of NodeSource- Enterprise Ready Node.js [Podcast]","url":"/blog/2017/2017-06-30-pravin-halady-of-nodesource-enterprise-ready-node","summary":"A DZone Zone Leader interviews a member of the project management team at NodeSource, and discusses the possibilities Node.js and npm bring to businesses.","date":"2017-06-30","tags":["Nodejs","JavaScript","Web Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/pravin-halady-of-nodesource-enterprise-ready-nodej"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"pravin-halady-of-nodesource","title":"Pravin Halady of NodeSource","url":"/podcast/pravin-halady-of-nodesource","summary":"I sat down with Pravin Halady, product manager at NodeSource to discuss why enterprise developers might need a safer and more secure version of Node.JS and NPM and what it's like running a business where your biggest competition is the creator of the product you sell. gregariousmammal.com/podcast [http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueak…","date":"2017-06-29","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-06-28-developer-week-2017","title":"Developer Week 2017, Nürnberg","url":"/events","summary":"I am back in beautiful Nürnberg and it's developer week to give another installment of my documentation for developers talk.","date":"2017-06-28","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.developer-week.de/Programm/Veranstaltung/(event)/21576"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-06-28-docker-monitoring-5-methods-for-monitoring-java-applications-in-docker","title":"Docker Monitoring - 5 Methods for Monitoring Java Applications in Docker","url":"/blog/2017/2017-06-28-docker-monitoring-5-methods-for-monitoring-java-applications-in-docker","summary":"Running applications in containers is an increasingly popular way of maintaining large, distributed stacks that change based on demand. The Java VM heritage makes it an ideal language for container-based infrastructures. With many moving parts and components, monitoring Java applications in containers requires planning and choosing the right tools to monitor the aspects that matter to you.","date":"2017-06-28","tags":["Docker","Java","Monitoring"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.takipi.com/docker-monitoring-5-methods-for-monitoring-java-applications-in-docker/"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-06-27-developer-week-community-night","title":"Developer Week Community Night 2017, Nürnberg","url":"/events","summary":"Whilst at Developer Week in Nürnberg I'll be at their \"Ask the Experts\" community night, helping you understand how to explain complex topics.","date":"2017-06-27","tags":[],"categories":[]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"pioneers-2017-interviews-part-2-blockchain-iot-and-education","title":"Pioneers 2017 interviews part 2 - Blockchain, IoT and Education","url":"/podcast/pioneers-2017-interviews-part-2-blockchain-iot-and-education","summary":"Chris speaks to dozens of interesting people at this years Pioneers conference in Vienna, in part 2 are: Salix - 00:00 ubirch - 09:02 Fable - 30:19 More details at gregariousmammal.com/podcast [http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get acces…","date":"2017-06-27","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-06-26-hashicorp-tools-useful-for-continuous-integration","title":"HashiCorp Tools Useful for Continuous Integration","url":"/blog/2017/2017-06-26-hashicorp-tools-useful-for-continuous-integration","summary":"HashiCorp tools have been around and are a standard for their contributions to continuous integration workflows. Learn the basics here.","date":"2017-06-26","tags":["Hashicorp","Continuous Integration","DevOps","Vagrant","Terraform","Vault","Consul","Nomad"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/hashicorp-tools-useful-for-continuous-integration"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-06-22-devoxx-poland","title":"Devoxx Poland","url":"/events","summary":"Documentation is essential for potential users to understand your awesome coding efforts.","date":"2017-06-22","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://cfp.devoxx.pl/2017/talk/SLJ-3392/Automate_your_docs,_automate_yourself"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-06-21-how-to-automatically-track-your-time-and-productivity-with-timing-app","title":"Time tracking is made painless and easy with Timing 2 app","url":"/blog/2017/2017-06-21-how-to-automatically-track-your-time-and-productivity-with-timing-app","summary":"I recently switched back to freelancing full-time, and whilst I am lucky enough to have clients who don’t ask for precise hourly breakdowns, I have always been intrigued to know how much time I was spending on work tasks, especially those tasks that I didn’t directly bill for.","date":"2017-06-21","tags":["Apple","Mac","Software"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.cultofmac.com/482549/how-to-automatically-track-your-time-and-productivity-with-timing-app/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-06-20-hashicorp-tools-useful-for-continuous-integration","title":"HashiCorp Tools Useful for Continuous Integration","url":"/blog/2017/2017-06-20-hashicorp-tools-useful-for-continuous-integration","summary":"HashiCorp is a company that feels like it’s always been around. Quietly plugging away just out of the limelight working on awesome products and every now and then releasing something groundbreaking that you wondered how you worked without it. I attended a couple of meetups recently that covered HashiCorp tools and felt the time was ripe I dug into all they have to offer a CI workflow.","date":"2017-06-20","tags":["Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/hashicorp-tools-useful-in-ci/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-06-19-chatting-with-chip-childers-cto-of-cloud-foundry","title":"Chatting With Chip Childers, CTO of Cloud Foundry","url":"/blog/2017/2017-06-19-chatting-with-chip-childers-cto-of-cloud-foundry","summary":"This talk with Cloud Foundry's Chip Childers covers the company's history, its tools, and how organizations are using them in production environments.","date":"2017-06-19","tags":["Cloud Foundry","Cloud","Containers","Use Cases"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/chip-childers-cto-of-cloud-foundry"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-06-19-chip-childers-cto-of-cloud-foundry","title":"Chatting With Chip Childers, CTO of Cloud Foundry","url":"/blog/2017/2017-06-19-chip-childers-cto-of-cloud-foundry","summary":"This talk with Cloud Foundry's Chip Childers covers the company's history, its tools, and how organizations are using them in production environments.","date":"2017-06-19","tags":["DevOps","Infrastructure","Cloud"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/chip-childers-cto-of-cloud-foundry"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"how-do-techies-and-creatives-learn-best-with-jessica-lovegood","title":"How do techies and creatives learn best with Jessica Lovegood","url":"/podcast/how-do-techies-and-creatives-learn-best-with-jessica-lovegood","summary":"In this episode Cate and Chris talk with Jessica Lovegood, a UX designer with a passion for understanding how people in the tech industry learn. gregariousmammal.com/podcast [http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast] for show notes --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to…","date":"2017-06-19","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-06-18-screeps-the-mmo-sandbox-game-for-programmers","title":"Screeps: The MMO Sandbox Game for Programmers","url":"/blog/2017/2017-06-18-screeps-the-mmo-sandbox-game-for-programmers","summary":"In this article, we explore a video game that requires players to code in JavaScript in order to make any progress in the game and interact with other players.","date":"2017-06-18","tags":["JavaScript","Coding Challenges","Web Development","Coding Exercise"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/screeps-the-mmo-sandbox-game-for-programmers"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"pioneers-2017-interviews-part-1-biotech-and-education","title":"Pioneers 2017 interviews part 1 - BioTech and Education","url":"/podcast/pioneers-2017-interviews-part-1-biotech-and-education","summary":"Chris speaks to dozens of interesting people at this years Pioneers conference in Vienna, in part 1 are: Oculyze - 00:00 Pepticom - 16:43 Robowunderkind - 33:40 More details at gregariousmammal.com/podcast [http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers…","date":"2017-06-15","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-06-12-huwawei-p10-a-powerful-small-package","title":"The Huawei P10, a Powerfully Small Package","url":"/blog/2017/2017-06-12-huwawei-p10-a-powerful-small-package","summary":"Like any modern citizen, I love my smartphone, but I wouldn't describe myself as a power user, my phone is supplemental to my computer, not a replacement for it.","date":"2017-06-12","tags":["Android","Devices","Reviews Phones"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"chip-childers-cto-of-cloud-foundry","title":"Chip Childers, CTO of Cloud Foundry","url":"/podcast/chip-childers-cto-of-cloud-foundry","summary":"Chris speaks with Chip Childers about the history, use cases and components of Cloud Foundry. https://www.linkedin.com/in/chipchilders/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.c…","date":"2017-06-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"europe-unites-startup-homogeneity-and-getting-older-in-tech","title":"Europe unites, startup homogeneity and getting older in tech","url":"/podcast/europe-unites-startup-homogeneity-and-getting-older-in-tech","summary":"In this episode Cate and Chris discuss European startups uniting, startup homogeneity and getting older in tech. More at gregariousmammal.com/podcast [http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueak…","date":"2017-06-05","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-06-04-founder-of-opera-and-vivaldi-jon-stephenson-von-t","title":"Founder of Opera and Vivaldi, Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner [Interview]","url":"/blog/2017/2017-06-04-founder-of-opera-and-vivaldi-jon-stephenson-von-t","summary":"The internet pioneer sits down with a DZone Zone Leader and MVB to discuss the process of creating a browser, and why he loves designing browsers.","date":"2017-06-04","tags":["Browsers","Opera","Vivaldi","Web Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/founder-of-opera-and-vivaldi-jon-stephenson-von-te"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"founder-of-opera-and-vivaldi-jon-stephenson-von-tetzchner","title":"Founder of Opera and Vivaldi, Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner","url":"/podcast/founder-of-opera-and-vivaldi-jon-stephenson-von-tetzchner","summary":"Chris speaks with Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner, founder of Opera and Vivaldi about browsers, web history and making the web personal without invading privacy. Image By VlastaW, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4378798 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscrib…","date":"2017-06-02","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-06-01-pioneers-festival2017","title":"Pioneers Festival 2017","url":"/events","summary":"If you're at the Pioneers festival in wonderful Vienna, I want to hear from you! Let's share a coffee and a slice of strudel and tell me what you're working on.","date":"2017-06-01","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://pioneers.io/festival2017/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-05-31-pilosa-a-new-kind-of-database-index-interview","title":"Pilosa: A New Kind of Database Index [Interview]","url":"/blog/2017/2017-05-31-pilosa-a-new-kind-of-database-index-interview","summary":"The open-source Pilosa includes production-tested features, including single and multi-node index support, replication, algorithm plugins, a data importer, and more.","date":"2017-05-31","tags":["Databases","Database Indexes","Pilosa","Bitmap Index"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/pilosa-a-new-kind-of-database-index"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-05-29-paddle-merges-with-devmate","title":"Paddle Merges With DevMate to Offer macOS Developers a Consolidated Distribution Solution","url":"/blog/2017/2017-05-29-paddle-merges-with-devmate","summary":"DevMate has announced a merger with Paddle, bringing macOS developers a way to manage in-app payments and subscriptions, and more.","date":"2017-05-29","tags":["macOS","Developers","Saas","Payments"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/paddle-merges-with-devmate-offering-macos-develope"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"pilosa-creating-a-new-kind-of-database-index","title":"Pilosa - Creating a new kind of database index","url":"/podcast/pilosa-creating-a-new-kind-of-database-index","summary":"Chris speaks with H.O. Maycotte and Troy Lanier of Pilosa, a new kind of index, a distributed bitmap index, that aims to solve a major problem for everyone who works with data sets of 1TB or more. pilosa.com [http://pilosa.com] gregariousmammal.com/podcast [http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If yo…","date":"2017-05-28","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-05-27-interview-with-manish-gupta-of-redis-labs","title":"Interview With Manish Gupta of Redis Labs","url":"/blog/2017/2017-05-27-interview-with-manish-gupta-of-redis-labs","summary":"Check out an interview with Manish Gupta, Chief Marketing Officer of Redis Labs, about data stores, open source, and more.","date":"2017-05-27","tags":["Redis","Databases","Storage","Nosql"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/interview-with-manish-gupta-of-redis-labs"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-05-24-ci-workflows-and-bots","title":"CI Workflows and Bots","url":"/blog/2017/2017-05-24-ci-workflows-and-bots","summary":"Chat bots are everywhere. Suddenly our messaging services are inundated with small automated systems inhabiting spaces in the domain of human-to-human communication. We can now have conversations with bots that help us buy products, book travel, make meetings, solve customer service issues, and much more.","date":"2017-05-24","tags":["Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/ci-workflows-and-bots/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"manish-gupta-of-redis-labs","title":"Manish Gupta of Redis Labs","url":"/podcast/manish-gupta-of-redis-labs","summary":"Chris speaks with Manish Gupta of Redis Labs about how redis became one of the most popular data stores for developers. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmedium=pod…","date":"2017-05-24","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-05-21-mobile-and-web-app-testing-with-sauce-labs","title":"Mobile and Web App Testing with Sauce Labs","url":"/blog/2017/2017-05-21-mobile-and-web-app-testing-with-sauce-labs","summary":"Chris Ward's interview with Sauce Labs takes a look at the acquisition of TestObject automated app testing service, SauceCon, and how to test the Internet of Things.","date":"2017-05-21","tags":["Testing","Mobile","Web","Selenium","Appium"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/mobile-and-web-app-testing-with-sauce-labs"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-05-19-feeling-fabulous-with-queer-tech","title":"Feeling Fabulous With Queer Tech at #UNIT Berlin","url":"/blog/2017/2017-05-19-feeling-fabulous-with-queer-tech","summary":"\\UNIT runs regular meetups in Berlin aimed at those working in tech who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LBGTI), but with an overarching message of providing a space for speakers who you might not always see at more mainstream events. I personally don’t identify as any of these, but I always enjoy the diverse messages and fun atmosphere I hear at the meetups, and this was my second time attending the yearly conference.","date":"2017-05-19","tags":["Unit2017","Events","Technology","Culture","History"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://hackernoon.com/feeling-fabulous-with-queer-tech-at-unit-berlin-8b60b09800e0"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"mobile-and-web-app-testing-with-sauce-labs","title":"Mobile and Web App testing with Sauce Labs","url":"/podcast/mobile-and-web-app-testing-with-sauce-labs","summary":"Chris speaks with Jonathan Lipps and Ken Drachnik about Sauce Labs, Selenium, Appuim and testing the internet of things. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmedium=po…","date":"2017-05-19","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-05-18-the-next-web","title":"The Next Web 2017","url":"/events","summary":"If you're at the Next Web festival in cheerful Amsterdam, I want to hear from you! Let's share a coffee and a slice of cake and tell me what you're working on.","date":"2017-05-18","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://thenextweb.com/conference"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-05-17-bucharest-a-crash-course-in-software-craftsm","title":"iTake, Bucharest: A Crash Course in Software Craftsmanship","url":"/blog/2017/2017-05-17-bucharest-a-crash-course-in-software-craftsm","summary":"Read on to see what one DZone Zone Leader learned at the iTake conference, including new perspectives on testing, BDD, security, and mob programming.","date":"2017-05-17","tags":["Bucharest","Conferences","Testing","Documentation","Programming"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/itake-bucharest-a-crash-course-in-software-craftsm"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"matthew-setter-owncloud-php-technical-writing-and-more","title":"Matthew Setter - ownCloud, PHP, Technical Writing and more","url":"/podcast/matthew-setter-owncloud-php-technical-writing-and-more","summary":"In this episode Cate and Chris speak with Matthew Setter about ownCloud, PHP, Technical Writing and more. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmedium=podcast&utmcampai…","date":"2017-05-15","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-05-11-a-documentation-crash-course-for-developers","title":"I T.A.K.E. Unconference","url":"/events","summary":"Explain Yourself! Documentation for Better Code (Chris Ward) - How many times have you come across an awesome looking library or tool that you're keen to work with in your own project but can't even begin to understand how to use it?","date":"2017-05-11","tags":[],"categories":[]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"overops-interview-the-future-of-online-learning-ex-military-in-tech-and-much-more","title":"OverOps interview, The future of online learning, ex-military in tech and much more","url":"/podcast/overops-interview-the-future-of-online-learning-ex-military-in-tech-and-much-more","summary":"In this episode Cate and Chris speak with Tal Weiss from OverOps, discuss the future of education, ex-military in tech, standing desks and more. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.s…","date":"2017-05-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-05-06-sex-tech","title":"UNIT","url":"/events","summary":"Cate will be speaking about how technology is increasingly impinging on every corner of our lives, including our sex lives.","date":"2017-05-06","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://connecting-unicorns.com/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-04-05-about-ship-at-docker","title":"About Ship at Docker","url":"/blog/2017/2017-04-05-about-ship-at-docker","summary":"I have been a Docker fan since almost day 1, working for a company that packaged its project to work in containers early-on, writing many blog posts on usage and related tooling, attending meetups here in Berlin and contributing to two code sprints as a mentor. Late last year I gave a talk at LinuxCon in Berlin to see Solomon Hykes (Founder) sat in the front row, a nerve-racking delight.","date":"2017-05-04","tags":["Docker","Containers"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/about-ship-at-docker"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-04-29-a-developers-guide-to-better-presentations-part-1-stage-craft","title":"A Developers Guide to Better Presentations — Part 1, Stage Craft","url":"/blog/2017/2017-04-29-a-developers-guide-to-better-presentations-part-1-stage-craft","summary":"I am not the best public speaker or presenter, but I give lots and enjoy giving them. I also attend many meetups and conferences and so have built a good repertoire of what works and what doesn’t. I have been planning this post for a while, but after a particularly poor presentation last week from a major technical project disappointed me, I felt motivated to get off my backside and write it. Part 1 (of an undecided number) covers stagecraft and vocal techniques.","date":"2017-04-29","tags":["Public Speaking","Presentations"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://hackernoon.com/a-developers-guide-to-better-presentations-part-1-stage-craft-36e75853656c"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-04-28-smarter-app-notifications-with-openback","title":"Smarter App Notifications With OpenBack","url":"/blog/2017/2017-04-28-smarter-app-notifications-with-openback","summary":"Notifications: you probably love them or hate them. I like them when they are useful to me, and this is something that the OpenBack SDK attempts to solve. It offers a framework for you to make your in-app notifications more than annoying notices, but tailoring them to users contexts and allowing them to do more with notifications.","date":"2017-04-28","tags":["Openback","SDK","App","Tutorials","Notifications"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/smarter-app-notifications-with-openback"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-04-25-the-future-of-cardboard","title":"Quo Vadis","url":"/events","summary":"Games have been with us for centuries, from those that emulate battles like Chess and Risk, to the intricate mysteries of Go.","date":"2017-04-25","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://qvconf.com/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-future-of-work-interview-with-postman-and-skilled-migrants","title":"The future of work, Interview with Postman, and Skilled Migrants","url":"/podcast/the-future-of-work-interview-with-postman-and-skilled-migrants","summary":"In this episode Cate and Chris speak with Abhinav Asthana from Postman, discuss the future of work, and skilled migrant visas. gregariousmammal.com/podcast [http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchilla…","date":"2017-04-25","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-04-21-an-introduction-to-speech-synthesis-markup-language","title":"An Introduction to Speech Synthesis Markup Language","url":"/blog/2017/2017-04-21-an-introduction-to-speech-synthesis-markup-language","summary":"Speech synthesis is a not a new technology — computers have been attempting to speak to us for decades — but with the recent rise of voice-activated appliances, speech synthesis is undergoing a renaissance. At more than one meetup I heard Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) mentioned for modeling computerized speech and thought it warranted further investigation.","date":"2017-04-21","tags":["Speech","Synthesis","Ssml","Tutorials"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/an-introduction-to-speech-synthesis-markup-languag"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"gregarious-mammal-18-04-17-what-is-biohacking","title":"Gregarious Mammal 18/04/17 - What is Biohacking?","url":"/podcast/gregarious-mammal-18-04-17-what-is-biohacking","summary":"In this episode Cate and Chris speak with Paul Laeuner from BioMonkey about BioHacking to improve your physical and mental self and what (if anything) it has to do with embedding microchips in your body. Find more at gregariousmammal.com/podcast [http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would lik…","date":"2017-04-19","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-04-18-docker-for-windows-linux-and-mac","title":"Docker for Windows, Linux, and Mac","url":"/blog/2017/2017-04-18-docker-for-windows-linux-and-mac","summary":"Released earlier in 2017, Docker’s new native applications for Windows and Mac replaced the older methods for running Docker on Windows and Mac and created a better experience for developers using those platforms.","date":"2017-04-18","tags":["Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/docker-for-windows-linux-and-mac/"},{"type":"books","id":"jumpstart-responsive-design","title":"Jump Start Responsive Web Design, 2nd Edition","url":"/books/jumpstart-responsive-design","summary":"An introduction to the building blocks of responsive web design, covering grid systems, media queries, responsive text, images, and video.","date":"2017-04-18","tags":[],"categories":["tech","writing"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/premium/books/jump-start-responsive-web-design-2nd-edition/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-04-17-real-time-ocr-for-mobile-apps-with-rtr-sdk","title":"Real-Time OCR for Mobile Apps With RTR SDK","url":"/blog/2017/2017-04-17-real-time-ocr-for-mobile-apps-with-rtr-sdk","summary":"I remember the first time I tried the image recognition technology in the Google translate app, snapping a poster to instantly translate what it said into a language I understood. It was far from perfect, but it was cool, and it showed the potential of what more traditional optical character recognition could be used for.","date":"2017-04-17","tags":["Ocr","iOS","Android","Mobile"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/real-time-ocr-for-mobile-apps-with-rtr-sdk"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-04-14-preventing-sql-injections-in-ruby","title":"Preventing SQL injections in Ruby (and other vulnerabilities)","url":"/blog/2017/2017-04-14-preventing-sql-injections-in-ruby","summary":"Ruby is a wonderful language for beginner coders to start with and scale to large, distributed Web and Desktop applications. It has an accepting and helpful community and strives to keep itself up to date to match the needs of developers.","date":"2017-04-14","tags":["Sql","Ruby","Security","Rails"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.sqreen.io/preventing-sql-injections-in-ruby/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-04-11-jvm-free-kotlin-with-kotlinnative","title":"JVM-Free Kotlin With Kotlin/Native","url":"/blog/2017/2017-04-11-jvm-free-kotlin-with-kotlinnative","summary":"I would never call myself a real programmer, but I have a healthy obsession with studying new languages that emerge, especially those that arrive with little baggage and attempt to solve current problems and new use cases. This brought about my explorations in recent years of Swift and Kotlin, both initially aimed to fix issues with the languages traditionally used in their worlds, but rapidly became used in more widespread contexts, and generally, have enthusiastic communities.","date":"2017-04-11","tags":["Kotlin","Programming","JetBrains","Java"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/jvm-free-kotlin-with-kotlinnative"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"logzio-israel-robots-for-seniors-and-is-the-laptop-dead","title":"Logz.io, Israel, Robots for Seniors and is the Laptop Dead?","url":"/podcast/logzio-israel-robots-for-seniors-and-is-the-laptop-dead","summary":"Cate and Chris the latest news, tech developments, and events from the past couple of days. Logz.io [http://logz.io], Israel, Robots for Seniors and is the Laptop Dead? www.gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ [http://www.gregariousmammal.com/podcast/] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribe…","date":"2017-04-11","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-04-11-realities-challenges-digital-nomad","title":"The realities and challenges of being a digital nomad","url":"/blog/2017/2017-04-11-realities-challenges-digital-nomad","summary":"You jet around the world, a road and sky warrior armed with a laptop in search of a power socket and decent WiFi. No ties, no responsibilities; work when you need it and when you’re bored, you move on. Sounds perfect, doesn’t it?","date":"2017-04-11","tags":["Digital Nomad","Freelance","Expat","Travel","Pension","Health Insurance"],"categories":["writing"],"externalUrl":"https://envato.com/blog/realities-challenges-digital-nomad/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-04-04-enterprising-israel","title":"Enterprising Israel","url":"/blog/2017/2017-04-04-enterprising-israel","summary":"Much has been written already about Israel’s incredibly successful and mature tech startup scene, but I was lucky enough to be asked to speak at Codemotion in Israel, so thought I would line up interviews with local entrepreneurs, catch some sun, and enjoy the food that Tel Aviv is famous for (and I wasn’t disappointed on that front). I barely scratched the surface of what the city (and country) has to offer, but I hope you will find those I spoke to interesting and useful.","date":"2017-04-04","tags":["Israel","Tel Aviv","Startups","Conferences"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/enterprising-israel"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-04-04-tech-salary-trends-2017","title":"Tech Salary Trends in 2017","url":"/blog/2017/2017-04-04-tech-salary-trends-2017","summary":"Stack Overflow's 2017 developer survey crossed my desk at the same time as a report on tech wage trends from Dice.com, who I’d never heard of before, but the report echoed many of my own observations, so I read further. It’s only from US data, but again, I have seen similar trends in other countries, so thought I’d share insights with you, in case, you know, you’re looking for a change, or are inquisitive about your worth.","date":"2017-04-04","tags":["Salaries","Jobs","Tech"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/tech-salary-trends-in-2017"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-03-30-a-hackers-guide-to-the-atom-editor","title":"Codemotion Tel Aviv","url":"/events","summary":"Atom is the hackable text editor begun by GitHub, it was also the first application to use the Electron framework for creating native applications in JavaScript. Thanks to it's underpinnings, customising the editor and creating your own packages to extend functionality is relatively simple. In this presentation I will show how to change and extend Atom with configuration, themes and creating your own package with the Atom API, showing practical examples with the packages I have created.","date":"2017-03-30","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://telaviv2017.codemotionworld.com/agenda/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-03-28-cebit-2017-business-as-usual","title":"CeBIT 2017 - Business as Usual","url":"/blog/2017/2017-03-28-cebit-2017-business-as-usual","summary":"I’ve never been to CeBit before, but it’s reasonably well-known on the tech conference circuit for announcements, and as it’s only a two-hour train ride from home, I jumped on a Deutsche Bahn and headed to the Worlds largest fairground in Hannover.","date":"2017-03-28","tags":["IoT","Industrial","Cebit","Conferences","Enterprise"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/cebit-2017-business-as-usual"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-03-21-cebit","title":"CeBIT","url":"/events","summary":"I'll be attending Europe's pre-eminent event for digital business. I'll be keen to meet interesting products, projects and people.","date":"2017-03-21","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.cebit.de/en/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-03-21-the-internet-of-industrial-things","title":"The Internet of Industrial Things","url":"/blog/2017/2017-03-21-the-internet-of-industrial-things","summary":"When most people think about the Internet of Things (IoT), it likely conjures ideas of activity-monitoring wearables like Fitbit or home devices for home security (iSmart), lighting (Hue), and coffee makers (Nespresso Prodigio). It’s a mixed opinion on the success of consumer IoT devices, but IoT is making its biggest impact in the industrial realm, where it’s used to reconcile problems that have plagued workplaces for centuries. Industry can use sensor technology to increase efficiency, improve supply chains, reduce waste and increase safety and speed. Last week, I attended the Connected World event from Bosch and bring a selection of companies and activities in what I will term, “The Internet of Industrial Things” (IoIT).","date":"2017-03-21","tags":["Iiot","IoT","Industrial","Maintenance"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/the-internet-of-industrial-things"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-03-19-berlin-the-blockchain-capital-of-the-world","title":"Berlin-the blockchain capital of the world?","url":"/blog/2017/2017-03-19-berlin-the-blockchain-capital-of-the-world","summary":"With the UK exiting the European Union, Germany is jostling to become the new FinTech capital of the EU. Frankfurt has the history and established finance industry, but Berlin is more affordable, is larger, and has a more diverse population, looking at challenges from different perspectives. With at least six regular blockchain and cryptocurrency related meetups, founding members of Ethereum and Monax present in the city, and countless cryptocurrency related projects, analysts are beginning to call Berlin “the blockchain capital of the world.” As this year’s FinTech Safary threw the doors of organization and co-working spaces open, I met with a small selection of people involved in the scene to see how true this claim is.","date":"2017-03-19","tags":["Berlin","Blockchain","Cryptocurrency"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/berlin-the-blockchain-capital-of-the-world"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"blockchain-music-and-tech-cooperatives-with-resonate","title":"Blockchain music and tech cooperatives with Resonate","url":"/podcast/blockchain-music-and-tech-cooperatives-with-resonate","summary":"Chris talks with Peter Harris from resonate about music streaming on the blockchain, tech cooperatives and much more. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmedium=podca…","date":"2017-03-19","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-03-14-docker-secrets-management","title":"Docker Secrets Management","url":"/blog/2017/2017-03-14-docker-secrets-management","summary":"I’m sure we’ve all been there. That moment when you realize that important and sensitive access details have leaked online into a public space and potentially rendered your services to unrequited access. With the ever-growing amount of services we depend on for our development stack, the number of sensitive details to remember and track has also increased. To cope with this problem, tools have emerged in the field of “secrets management.” In this post, I am going to look at Docker Secrets, the new secrets management feature available in Docker 1.13 and higher.","date":"2017-03-14","tags":["Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/docker-secrets-management/"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-03-12-a-documentation-crash-course-for-developers","title":"PyCon Slovakia","url":"/events","summary":"Explain Yourself! Documentation for Better Code (Chris Ward) - How many times have you come across an awesome looking library or tool that you're keen to work with in your own project but can't even begin to understand how to use it?","date":"2017-03-12","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.pycon.sk/2017/speakers/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-03-10-whats-next-google-announces-new-features-for-its-cloud","title":"What's Next? Google Announces New Features for its Cloud","url":"/blog/2017/2017-03-10-whats-next-google-announces-new-features-for-its-cloud","summary":"Cloud Next is Google’s regular conference that covers all their cloud-related products. That’s something of a vague and overarching classification, but I squeezed into the Google office in Berlin to watch a live stream of the event and will get you all up to speed.","date":"2017-03-10","tags":["Google","Cloud","Events"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/whats-next-google-announces-new-features-for-its-c"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-03-09-teaching-children-to-code","title":"Teaching Children to Code","url":"/blog/2017/2017-03-09-teaching-children-to-code","summary":"Two experiences in my life have shaped the way I try to talk about technology. One was over ten years ago when I taught a room full of retirees, long-term unemployed, and recent immigrants basic computer skills. I realized that I could throw many of the subjects I had studied out of the window and that the best way to teach people was to give them a reason to learn. Fast forward to last year (and a subject I wrote previously on SitePoint) when I taught programming to a group of recent Syrian refugees. Again, I had to throw away much of my own learning and preconceptions and think afresh.","date":"2017-03-09","tags":["Education","Children","Coding"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/teaching-children-to-code"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"gregarious-mammal-at-mobile-world-congress","title":"Gregarious Mammal at Mobile World Congress","url":"/podcast/gregarious-mammal-at-mobile-world-congress","summary":"In this episode Chris and Cate report back from Mobile World Congress about IoT, robots and much more. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmedium=podcast&utmcampaign=…","date":"2017-03-06","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-03-04-the-highlights-of-mobile-world-congress-2017","title":"The Highlights of Mobile World Congress 2017","url":"/blog/2017/2017-03-04-the-highlights-of-mobile-world-congress-2017","summary":"There is a lot to see, hear, and discover at Mobile World Congress (MWC) and its many side events. From helping the developing world, to brain imaging, and sensors on seals, these are some of my highlights.","date":"2017-03-04","tags":["Events","Conferences","Mobile","IoT","MWC","Mwc2017"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/the-highlights-of-mobile-world-congress-2017"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-03-02-mobile-world-congress-2017","title":"Mobile World Congress 2017","url":"/blog/2017/2017-03-02-mobile-world-congress-2017","summary":"2016 was quite a year for technology and its impact on the world. Subconsciously or not, nestled amongst the booths of generic Chinese handsets and app marketing companies were many projects and people at MWC that sought to accomplish something more meaningful. Here are some of the themes and concepts I feel will shape 2017 and 2018.","date":"2017-03-02","tags":["Events","Conferences","Mobile","IoT","MWC","Mwc2017"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://dzone.com/articles/mobile-world-congress-2017"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-02-28-preventing-sql-injections-and-other-vulnerabilities-in-python","title":"Preventing SQL injections in Python (and other vulnerabilities)","url":"/blog/2017/2017-02-28-preventing-sql-injections-and-other-vulnerabilities-in-python","summary":"Python is a wonderful language, ideal for beginners, and easy to scale up from starter projects to complex applications for data processing and serving dynamic web pages. As you increase complexity in your applications, it can be easy to inadvertently introduce potential problems and vulnerabilities. In this article, I will highlight the easiest to miss that can cause the biggest problems, how to avoid them and tools and services that help you save time doing so.","date":"2017-02-28","tags":["Programming","Python","Security"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.sqreen.io/preventing-sql-injections-in-python/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-02-23-setapp-aims-to-solve-the-app-problem-for-macs","title":"Setapp aims to solve the App problem for Macs","url":"/blog/2017/2017-02-23-setapp-aims-to-solve-the-app-problem-for-macs","summary":"There are currently two major issues and trends with application development. One is users finding your efforts, and the other is then making money when they do.","date":"2017-02-23","tags":["Apple","Mac","Software"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.cultofmac.com/467861/setapp-aims-solve-mac-apps-problem/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-02-07-a-switchers-tale-my-weeks-with-linux","title":"A switchers tale - My week(s) with Linux","url":"/blog/2017/2017-02-07-a-switchers-tale-my-weeks-with-linux","summary":"After using macOS for over 20 years I was interested to get new perspectives and try other operating systems in my daily work. In this second part, I spend a month with Linux.","date":"2017-02-19","tags":["Tech","Reviews","Linux","macOS"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://hackernoon.com/a-switchers-tale-my-weeks-with-linux-deededb3b635#.l8uob6tn4"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"gregarious-mammal-13-02-17","title":"Gregarious Mammal 13/02/17","url":"/podcast/gregarious-mammal-13-02-17","summary":"Cate and Chris the latest news, tech developments, and events from the past couple of days. Failure, diabetes wearables, lady problems and potatoes. www.gregariousmammal.com/podcast/ [http://www.gregariousmammal.com/podcast/] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to…","date":"2017-02-13","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-02-05-automating-docs","title":"Fosdem 2017","url":"/events","summary":"I'm back at the infamous FOSDEM, this time to talk about making your documentation polished by automating spelling, grammar, testing, screenshots and so much more.","date":"2017-02-05","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.slideshare.net/chrischinchilla/automate-your-docs-automate-yourself"},{"type":"events","id":"2017-02-05-electron-solving-our-cross-platform-dreams","title":"Fosdem 2017","url":"/events","summary":"I'm back at the infamous FOSDEM, this time to talk about how the Electron framework may or may not help our cross-platform dreams.","date":"2017-02-05","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.slideshare.net/chrischinchilla/electron-solving-our-cross-platform-dreams"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-01-31-automating-screenshots-in-documentation","title":"Automating Screenshots in Documentation","url":"/blog/2017/2017-01-31-automating-screenshots-in-documentation","summary":"Drawing my short series to a close (we’ve talked about testing code examples in documentation and automating spelling and grammar checks in documentation), let’s cover one of the hardest elements of documentation to create and keep up to publishDate: screenshots.","date":"2017-01-31","tags":["Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/automating-screenshots-in-documentation/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-01-20-build-native-apps-in-the-browser-with-configure-it","title":"Build Native Apps in the Browser with Configure.IT","url":"/blog/2017/2017-01-20-build-native-apps-in-the-browser-with-configure-it","summary":"Creating a modern and feature-rich mobile app has never been a simple task, but is now more complex than ever. There are a plethora of platforms, programming languages and strategies to consider, and knowing where to start and what path to follow involves understanding and appreciating a lot of interconnected components.","date":"2017-01-17","tags":["Events","Startups","Technology"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/build-native-apps-in-the-browser-with-configure-it/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-01-17-java-free-android","title":"Java-Free Android","url":"/blog/2017/2017-01-17-java-free-android","summary":"Android finds itself in interesting times. Google has begun creating it’s own ‘premium’ versions of the operating system (OS), Cyanogen have ceased development, and many feel that Android will change name or shape in the near future.","date":"2017-01-17","tags":["Events","Tech","Java","Android"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/java-free-android/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-01-13-a-switchers-tale-my-week-with-windows","title":"A switchers tale - My week with Windows","url":"/blog/2017/2017-01-13-a-switchers-tale-my-week-with-windows","summary":"After using macOS for over 20 years I was interested to get new perspectives and try other operating systems in my daily work. In this first part, I spend a month with Windows.","date":"2017-01-13","tags":["Tech","Reviews","Windows","macOS"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://hackernoon.com/a-switchers-tale-my-week-with-windows-612ea605291#.o4g70gtyi"},{"type":"blog","id":"2017/2017-01-05-build-and-program-with-sam-labs-curious-cars","title":"Build and program with Sam labs Curious Cars","url":"/blog/2017/2017-01-05-build-and-program-with-sam-labs-curious-cars","summary":"Last year at IFA I came across a small stall lurking within a gathering of startups. The booth was full of blinking small blocks, motors and switches that aimed to help children learn to code.","date":"2017-01-05","tags":["Tech","Reviews","Coding","Children"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-12-29-2016-in-review","title":"2016 in review","url":"/blog/2016/2016-12-29-2016-in-review","summary":"2016 has been an eventful year in many, many ways. I don't want to dwell on big global topics in this post, but review what I got up to.","date":"2016-12-29","tags":["2016","Reviews"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"picking-over-2016","title":"Picking over 2016","url":"/podcast/picking-over-2016","summary":"In this episode, Chris and Cate discuss 2016 and look forward (maybe) to 2017. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmedium=podcast&utmcampaign=CTA1]","date":"2016-12-21","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-12-21-testing-code-examples-in-documentation","title":"Testing Code Examples in Documentation","url":"/blog/2016/2016-12-21-testing-code-examples-in-documentation","summary":"In my last post, I covered how to improve the written component of your documentation with automated spell-checking and suggestions for better writing. In this post, I’ll cover the code component of good documentation; trying an example and finding it doesn’t work is a sure-fire way to annoy a reader.","date":"2016-12-21","tags":["Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/testing-code-examples-in-documentation/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-12-20-tech-your-privilege-at-the-door","title":"Tech your privilege at the door","url":"/blog/2016/2016-12-20-tech-your-privilege-at-the-door","summary":"I am a thirty-something white, English speaking male working in tech. I feel like this simultaneously gives me every right and no right to discuss privilege.","date":"2016-12-20","tags":["Tech","Opinion"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://hackernoon.com/tech-your-privilege-at-the-door-5d8da0c41c6b#.c32ghdfne"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-12-11-my-problems-with-this-time-of-year","title":"My problems with this time of year","url":"/blog/2016/2016-12-11-my-problems-with-this-time-of-year","summary":"That time of year is upon us, whether it be Christmas, 'The Holidays', Festivus, or whatever else you decide to call it. It's here, loud, everywhere and in your face.","date":"2016-12-11","tags":["Opinion","Life","Christmas","Holidays","Family"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"events","id":"2016-12-05-agile-the-docs","title":"Agile the Docs","url":"/events","summary":"A whole day meetup, organised in collaboration with GDS, to explore the tools, processes and methodologies that teams use to write documentation in an agile environment.","date":"2016-12-05","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.meetup.com/Write-The-Docs-London/events/234913157/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-11-23-improve-documentation-by-automating-spelling-and-","title":"Improve Documentation by Automating Spelling and Grammar Checks","url":"/blog/2016/2016-11-23-improve-documentation-by-automating-spelling-and-","summary":"What’s one of the first things you look at when trying a new piece of software? Or after you’ve hit that tempting Download button, what’s your usual next step? I will take a bet that for at least 70 percent of you, it’s the documentation that you check out next.","date":"2016-11-23","tags":["Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/improve-documentation-by-automating-spelling-and-grammar-checks/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"web-summit-trump-tech-news-opinions-and-solutions","title":"Web Summit, Trump, tech, news, opinions and solutions","url":"/podcast/web-summit-trump-tech-news-opinions-and-solutions","summary":"In this solo episode Chris gives a brain dump on his thoughts from the news of the past weeks to try and make a semblance of sense from it all. Find show notes at http://gregariousmammal.com/podcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinc…","date":"2016-11-21","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-11-16-web-summit-2016-iot-learning-chatbots-biohacking","title":"Web Summit 2016 - IoT, Learning, Chatbots, Biohacking & More","url":"/blog/2016/2016-11-16-web-summit-2016-iot-learning-chatbots-biohacking","summary":"53,056 people from 166 countries descended on Lisbon for this year’s Web Summit. I’m not sure if this makes it the world’s largest startup event, but it’s damn big. I have attended startup events around the world and have often found them obsessed with nothing but raising money. Whilst the topic was in abundance at Web Summit, it also had enough of something for everyone, with discussions on technology, design, ethics, futurism, and more. If you’re not interested in discussion, but would rather just network and party, you will also have a full schedule.","date":"2016-11-16","tags":["Events","Startups","Technology"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/web-summit-2016-iot-learning-chatbots-biohacking-more/"},{"type":"events","id":"2016-11-07-web-summit","title":"Web Summit","url":"/events","summary":"I'll be attending Europe's pre-eminent event for Startups. I'll be keen to meet interesting products, projects and people.","date":"2016-11-07","tags":[],"categories":[]},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-weekly-squeak-our-robot-overlords-death-or-desperation","title":"The Weekly Squeak: Our Robot Overlords - Death or Desperation","url":"/podcast/the-weekly-squeak-our-robot-overlords-death-or-desperation","summary":"In this episode we discuss what our robot overloads even are and wonder if they will kill us all, ruin our relationships, or just take our jobs… --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.s…","date":"2016-11-02","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-10-27-hello-again-from-apple","title":"Live Blogging Hello Again from Apple","url":"/blog/2016/2016-10-27-hello-again-from-apple","summary":"I'm sat at an Apple event in Berlin and there's not many people here, which says something about what people feel about Macs vs iPhones, or something. In a week when IBM became one of Apple's biggest clients and Microsoft announced more interesting products. It feels like there is growing disappointment and boredom in what Apple is offering.","date":"2016-10-27","tags":["Apple","Berlin","Mac","Events"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-10-25-hands-on-with-the-yoga-book","title":"Hands on with the Lenovo Yoga Book","url":"/blog/2016/2016-10-25-hands-on-with-the-yoga-book","summary":"When I saw the announcement of the Yoga Book at IFA I was fascinated. A tablet with a proper keyboard, and a graphics tablet that I could doodle and even write on. Sign me up!","date":"2016-10-25","tags":["Android","Devices","Reviews"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"events","id":"2016-10-21-software-freedom-kosovo","title":"Software Freedom Kosovo","url":"/events","summary":"In this presentation I'll examine how various diverse sources have taught me how to write better technical documentation.","date":"2016-10-21","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://sfk.flossk.org/sfk16/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-10-18-how-i-wrote-the-atom-medium-exporter-and-how-you-can-help-make-it-better","title":"How I Wrote the Atom Medium Exporter and How You Can Help Make It Better","url":"/blog/2016/2016-10-18-how-i-wrote-the-atom-medium-exporter-and-how-you-can-help-make-it-better","summary":"I recently created a package for the Atom text editor that exports your markdown files to Medium. Find out how I wrote it and how you can help me improve it.","date":"2016-10-18","tags":["Writing","Technical Writing","medium","Atom"],"categories":["tech","writing"],"externalUrl":"https://hackernoon.com/how-i-wrote-the-atom-medium-exporter-and-how-you-can-help-make-it-better-9e9e4c401da1#.1d09ezkoj"},{"type":"events","id":"2016-10-13-spiel-16","title":"Spiel 2016","url":"/events","summary":"I will be play testing and promoting my board game Chip Shop at the infamous Spiel messe in Essen. Drop by stall A109 in hall 4 and say hello!","date":"2016-10-13","tags":[],"categories":[]},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-10-11-a-documentation-crash-course","title":"A documentation crash course for developers","url":"/blog/2016/2016-10-11-a-documentation-crash-course","summary":"When you've spent a lot of time working on the latest great project, library, service or platform you generally would like people to use it. Whether people find out about you from a presentation, the media, internet search or word of mouth, what's the first aspect of your project that people usually encounter?","date":"2016-10-11","tags":["Writing","Technical Writing"],"categories":["tech","writing"],"externalUrl":"https://hackernoon.com/a-documentation-crash-course-45006a85c15c#.8kqz1lau4"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-10-08-from-belgrade-to-berlin","title":"Belgrade to Berlin, it's tech conference season","url":"/blog/2016/2016-10-08-from-belgrade-to-berlin","summary":"I haven't been to many meetups the past weeks as the beginning of October is traditionally conference season in tech, and as I look back through my Timehop for the past years, pretty much every year around this time I am at a conference.","date":"2016-10-08","tags":["Tech","Conferences","Links","History"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-10-07-developing-add-ons-for-enterprise-apps-like-jira","title":"Developing Add-ons for Enterprise Apps like JIRA","url":"/blog/2016/2016-10-07-developing-add-ons-for-enterprise-apps-like-jira","summary":"Since 2008, many developers have focused on building, distributing and selling (or hoping to sell) their efforts in two curated, walled garden stores. The Apple App store and Google Play (and related) stores have helped developers find audiences of billions around the world. It hasn’t all been smooth sailing. Some say the “app store” model has forced a race to the bottom, with prices and developer revenue share reduced, despite such large audiences.","date":"2016-10-07","tags":["Developing","Enterprise"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/developing-add-ons-for-enterprise-apps-like-jira"},{"type":"events","id":"2016-10-04-a-documentation-crash-course-for-developers","title":"LinuxCon Europe","url":"/events","summary":"Explain Yourself! Documentation for Better Code (Chris Ward) - How many times have you come across an awesome looking library or tool that you're keen to work with in your own project but can't even begin to understand how to use it?","date":"2016-10-04","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.slideshare.net/chrischinchilla/a-documentation-crash-course-linuxcon-2016"},{"type":"events","id":"2016-09-29-your-favourite-new-language-the-future-of-swift","title":"Voxxed Days Belgrade","url":"/events","summary":"Whilst open sourcing a language is nothing new, Apple's unprecedented step has caused massive excitement and activity for this new language, with a flurry of development and contributions.","date":"2016-09-29","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.slideshare.net/chrischinchilla/the-past-present-and-future-of-swift-voxxed-belgrade-2016"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"tech-community-imposter-syndrome-and-more-with-jessica-rose","title":"Tech Community, Imposter syndrome and more with Jessica Rose","url":"/podcast/tech-community-imposter-syndrome-and-more-with-jessica-rose","summary":"In this Episode we discuss many topics with the infamous Jessica Rose. Technical communities, imposter syndrome, public speaking and more. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substac…","date":"2016-09-28","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-09-22-an-introduction-to-coreos","title":"An Introduction to CoreOS","url":"/blog/2016/2016-09-22-an-introduction-to-coreos","summary":"If you’re reading this blog, then you have a rough idea of what containers are and why you want to use them. Docker has made it easy to experiment with containers, and is slowly making it easier to deploy and manage them in production environments. However, there are a still a lot of gaps in what Docker offers (for free), and others have stepped up to fill them.","date":"2016-09-22","tags":["Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/an-introduction-to-coreos/"},{"type":"events","id":"2016-09-19-beyond-software-learning-from-other-technical-writers","title":"Write The Docs EU","url":"/events","summary":"Outside of my technical writing work for software projects I have been creating a board game. A board game also requires mechanics to function and players to clearly understand how these mechanics work to use and appreciate fully.","date":"2016-09-19","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.writethedocs.org/conf/eu/2016/speakers/#speaker-chris-ward"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-09-18-the-weekly-squeak-18th-september","title":"Weekly Squeak, 18th September - Maximum Linkage","url":"/blog/2016/2016-09-18-the-weekly-squeak-18th-september","summary":"This has been a week of me appearing at meetups rather than attending, and I must admit, when I present, I tend to forget what else happened. More of an adrenaline rush than egotism. I hope.","date":"2016-09-18","tags":["Politics","Tech","Berlin","Meetups"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/@ChrisChinchilla/weekly-squeak-18th-september-maximum-linkage-396799deae1c#.uhv5n7a1s"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-09-16-from-ukge-to-essen","title":"From the UK Games Expo to Essen","url":"/blog/2016/2016-09-16-from-ukge-to-essen","summary":"It's been a while since my last update pertaining to the Chip Shop board game. After realising that board games isn't that lucrative of a business, it slipped down my priority list somewhat. I also had a lot of feedback from the UK Games Expo (thanks to Carrie and Tyler for running the booth for me) to process and that took time...","date":"2016-09-16","tags":["Games","Playtesting"],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-09-12-exploring-the-evive","title":"Exploring the Evive - A Book-Sized IoT Device","url":"/blog/2016/2016-09-12-exploring-the-evive","summary":"The evive aims to reduce the complex tangles of sensors, circuit boards and cables you have covering your workbench. It's a compact, all-in-one small book-sized device capable of reading and outputting a variety of sensor and trigger data. Built in includes power sensors, multiple motor channels, voltmeter probes, and two analog to digital converters. If that's not enough for you, at the heart of the evive is an Arduino Mega offering large expansion possibilities with a mini breadboard, communication module (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and XBee), IC, SPI and Serial pins.","date":"2016-09-12","tags":["Arduino","IoT"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/building-an-all-in-one-book-sized-iot-device-with-evive/"},{"type":"events","id":"2016-09-12-the-future-of-cardboard","title":"Ignite Berlin","url":"/events","summary":"Games have been with us for centuries, from those that emulate battles like Chess and Risk, to the intricate mysteries of Go.","date":"2016-09-12","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://igniteberlin.com/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-09-06-the-weekly-squeak-9th-september","title":"Weekly Squeak, 9th September - Apple vs the Prosumer","url":"/blog/2016/2016-09-06-the-weekly-squeak-9th-september","summary":"In this Weekly Squeak I cover another week in Berlin meetups and after Apples September product announcements, do they no longer like the prosumer?","date":"2016-09-10","tags":["Apple","Tech","Berlin","Meetups"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/@ChrisChinchilla/-b2a90319090f#.2w0ctuqzj"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-weekly-squeak-5th-september-ifa-and-the-long-night-of-startups","title":"The Weekly Squeak, 5th September - IFA and The Long Night of Startups","url":"/podcast/the-weekly-squeak-5th-september-ifa-and-the-long-night-of-startups","summary":"In this episode we discuss companies and people we met at IFA and the Long night of Startups here in Berlin. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmedium=podcast&utmcam…","date":"2016-09-04","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-08-31-making-atom-awesome-my-setup","title":"Making Atom (even more) awesome — My Setup","url":"/blog/2016/2016-08-31-making-atom-awesome-my-setup","summary":"I spent a long time researching, trying and tweaking text editors. As a cross-platform developer and technical writer (mostly writer these days) I work with different programming languages, document formats and want an editor with particular features, but that is also easy on the eye. Ideally I wanted all the functionality I was looking for in one application, not split between 5.","date":"2016-08-31","tags":["Atom","Writing","Technical Writing","Text Editors"],"categories":["tech","writing"],"externalUrl":"https://hackernoon.com/making-atom-even-more-awesome-my-setup-e7a89969a876#.7okd9lrnn"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-08-29-building-your-first-blockchain-app-with-eris","title":"Building Your First Blockchain App with Eris","url":"/blog/2016/2016-08-29-building-your-first-blockchain-app-with-eris","summary":"A few months ago I was at the Berlin Blockchain awards, and it appears that 'blockchain' is the new buzzword that startups and tech-folk like to throw into everything, without completely understanding the concepts behind it. Whether you believe that blockchain is just a new buzzword for the industry or a truly revolutionary technology, developers are often uncertain of how they can use the blockchain concept in their applications. Eris Industries' solution might make this a bit easier.","date":"2016-08-29","tags":["Blockchain"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/getting-into-blockchain-with-eris/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-08-24-a-beginner-s-guide-to-the-dockerfile","title":"A Beginner’s Guide to the Dockerfile","url":"/blog/2016/2016-08-24-a-beginner-s-guide-to-the-dockerfile","summary":"The humble but powerful Dockerfile is the building block of Docker images and containers. In essence, it’s a list of commands the Docker engine runs to assemble the image, and thus instances of images as containers.","date":"2016-08-24","tags":["Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/a-beginners-guide-to-the-dockerfile/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-08-24-medium-exporter-for-atom","title":"Medium Exporter for Atom","url":"/blog/2016/2016-08-24-medium-exporter-for-atom","summary":"I love Markdown and I love editing Markdown in Atom. But I also love the exposure that Medium offers, and whilst I admit it has a great editor, I like to be able to write offline and I like having a central repository (i.e. Git) of my work for collaboration, consolidation and other purposes.","date":"2016-08-24","tags":["Atom","medium","export","Markdown"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-08-22-editors-friend-for-atom","title":"Editors Friend for Atom","url":"/blog/2016/2016-08-22-editors-friend-for-atom","summary":"As a (very) frequent writer and editor I often find myself writing and correcting the same words over and over again. Or in preparation for publishing I have to repeatedly undertake the same steps, such as adding short codes or formatting links.","date":"2016-08-22","tags":["Atom","Editing","Writing"],"categories":["tech","writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-08-20-communist-and-cultural-effects-on-tech--communities","title":"Communist and cultural effects on tech communities","url":"/blog/2016/2016-08-20-communist-and-cultural-effects-on-tech--communities","summary":"This is my second visit to Tirana for the OSCAL conference, an annual celebration of open source technology in Albania's capital. Aside from excellent content, the conference stands out for a couple of reasons. Most attendees and organizers are under 30, and the gender divide is pretty much an even split. Anyone who attends tech-related events in other countries know that this is (sadly) unusual, and I was interested in digging beneath the surface to find out more.","date":"2016-08-20","tags":["Albania","Kosovo","Tech","Startups"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2016/08/19/how-communism-still-affects-some-tech-spaces"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-08-02-whats-new-in-appcode","title":"Video - What’s New in AppCode 2016.2","url":"/blog/2016/2016-08-02-whats-new-in-appcode","summary":"A video about new features and improvements in AppCode 2016.2 is here!","date":"2016-08-02","tags":["Video","Objective-C","Swift","IDE"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.jetbrains.com/objc/2016/07/new-video-whats-new-in-appcode-2016-2/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-07-21-an-introduction-to-docker-for-mac","title":"An Introduction to Docker for Mac","url":"/blog/2016/2016-07-21-an-introduction-to-docker-for-mac","summary":"Recently out of private beta, Docker’s new native applications aim to replace the current methods for running Docker on Windows and Mac, creating a better experience for developers using those platforms.","date":"2016-07-21","tags":["Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/docker-for-mac/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-07-21-introduction-to-docker-for-mac","title":"An Introduction to Docker for Mac","url":"/blog/2016/2016-07-21-introduction-to-docker-for-mac","summary":"Recently out of private beta, Docker's new native applications aim to replace the current methods for running Docker on Windows and Mac, creating a better experience for developers using those platforms. For the previous solution, Docker Toolbox used VirtualBox to create a small Linux virtual machine that hosted your images and containers. It worked pretty well but could be unreliable at times and required workarounds that sometimes resulted in unexpected outcomes or not working at all.","date":"2016-07-21","tags":["Docker","DevOps","Mac"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/docker-for-mac/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"brexit-the-australian-election-greece-international-events-and-iot-in-football","title":"Brexit, The Australian Election, Greece, International events and IoT in Football","url":"/podcast/brexit-the-australian-election-greece-international-events-and-iot-in-football","summary":"In this episode of the increasingly inaccurately titled 'Weekly Squeak' we discuss Brexit, The Australian Election, DroidCon in Greece, Greece in General, international conferences, IoT in sports and much more… --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes,…","date":"2016-07-16","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2016-07-08-android-programming-without-java","title":"DroidCon Greece","url":"/events","summary":"The battle between Google and Oracle may finally be over, but let's face it, the relationship between Android developers and Java is still a rocky one.","date":"2016-07-08","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.slideshare.net/chrischinchilla/android-programming-without-java"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-07-06-rapid-iot-development-with-the-relayr-android-app-and-sdk","title":"Rapid IoT Development with the relayr Android App and SDK","url":"/blog/2016/2016-07-06-rapid-iot-development-with-the-relayr-android-app-and-sdk","summary":"relayr is an IoT platform as a service, aiming to help IoT developers centralize and aggregate the data generated by IoT connected devices. By installing their hardware and software SDKs you don't need to worry about specific SDKs and data types generated by various devices, but instead code against the relayr APIs.","date":"2016-07-06","tags":["IoT","Startups"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/rapid-iot-development-with-the-relayr-android-app-and-sdk/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-weekly-squeak-6th-august-pitching-your-idea-to-the-press","title":"The Weekly Squeak, 6th August - Pitching your Idea to the Press","url":"/podcast/the-weekly-squeak-6th-august-pitching-your-idea-to-the-press","summary":"In this Weekly Squeak we discuss how to effectively pitch your technical idea to the press. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmedium=podcast&utmcampaign=CTA1]","date":"2016-07-06","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-07-01-which-continuous-integration-tools-support-bitbucket","title":"Video - Which Continuous Integration Tools Support Bitbucket?","url":"/blog/2016/2016-07-01-which-continuous-integration-tools-support-bitbucket","summary":"Automate your tools with Bitbucket","date":"2016-07-01","tags":["Git","Bitbucket","Video"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/premium/screencasts/which-continuous-integration-tools-support-bitbucket"},{"type":"events","id":"2016-06-29-cross-platform-apps-with-electron","title":"Vienna.JS","url":"/events","summary":"Electron is a fantastic tool for creating cross-platform apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that look and feel relatively native to the hosted Platform. In this presentation I'll give a quick overview of what's possible.","date":"2016-06-29","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.slideshare.net/chrischinchilla/building-cross-platform-apps-with-electron"},{"type":"events","id":"2016-06-28-chip-shop-case-study","title":"Vienna.html","url":"/events","summary":"An insight look on how to build a print-at-home Chip Shop (offline) board game with printed paper cards (72 products, 76 events and 36 personalities) that let you run a computer company in the 80's to build your silicon empire. Learn how to turn cards in markdown files as used on the game website into high-quality printable PDFs for a premium pre-boxed or print-yourself card deck version and much more.","date":"2016-06-28","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://viennahtml.github.io/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-06-25-wwhat-a-fortnight","title":"WWhat a Fortnight","url":"/blog/2016/2016-06-25-wwhat-a-fortnight","summary":"This is the latest editorial from my newsletter, [subscribe","date":"2016-06-25","tags":["Apple","Events","Wwdc"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/@chrischinchilla/wwhat-a-fortnight-4e6608939452"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-06-22-otto-the-next-generation-of-vagrant","title":"Otto - The Next Generation of Vagrant","url":"/blog/2016/2016-06-22-otto-the-next-generation-of-vagrant","summary":"Note that Otto has been decommissioned as of August 19, 2016.","date":"2016-06-22","tags":["Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/otto-next-generation-vagrant/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-06-22-otto-next-generation-vagrant","title":"Otto: The Next Generation of Vagrant","url":"/blog/2016/2016-06-22-otto-next-generation-vagrant","summary":"Not so long ago, Vagrant was the prime tool that attempted to solve that time-immemorial problem of \"it works on my machine.\" Developers could create shareable Vagrant files to allow coworkers to spin up replica machines for testing code and the interconnecting parts of a typical modern project. Vagrant is far from dead, but it suffers from a couple of long-lasting issues, including the resource footprint of virtual machines created, the speed of sharing files between the host and virtual machine, and the speed of making configuration changes to virtual machines.","date":"2016-06-22","tags":["Otto","DevOps","Vagrant"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/otto-next-generation-vagrant/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-06-11-bitspiration-in-warsaw-and-brexit","title":"Bitspiration in Warsaw and Brexit {#bitspiration-in-warsaw-and-brexit","url":"/blog/2016/2016-06-11-bitspiration-in-warsaw-and-brexit","summary":"I'm leaving most of this post to the podcast version as I had a co-host","date":"2016-06-11","tags":["Otto","DevOps","Vagrant"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/@chrischinchilla/bitspiration-in-warsaw-and-brexit-7236bd7793c6"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-weekly-squeak-11th-june-2016","title":"The Weekly Squeak - 11th June 2016","url":"/podcast/the-weekly-squeak-11th-june-2016","summary":"The Weekly squeak has a co-host this week. Cate Lawrence joins me as we discuss our trip to Bitspiration and Warsaw, Brexit and other miscellaneous topics. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchil…","date":"2016-06-10","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-06-09-what-do-apples-app-store-changes-mean-for-developers","title":"What Do Apple’s App Store Changes Mean for Developers?","url":"/blog/2016/2016-06-09-what-do-apples-app-store-changes-mean-for-developers","summary":"It's a sobering time to be a mobile developer, with both app and device sales down. Personally, I feel this is just the maturation of a new(ish) industry, and everything will work out eventually. But, noticing major dents in their revenue, the major players are clearly worried.","date":"2016-06-09","tags":["Apple","Marketing","iOS"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/apples-app-store-changes-developers/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-05-30-generation-xbox-how-videogames-invaded-hollywood-by-jamie-russell","title":"Generation Xbox: How Videogames Invaded Hollywood, by Jamie Russell","url":"/blog/2016/2016-05-30-generation-xbox-how-videogames-invaded-hollywood-by-jamie-russell","summary":"I loved this book and couldn't stop reading it, which was a pain as I mostly read before going to sleep. The book takes an era by era look at how the video games and movie industries have tried to collaborate together, and largely failed.","date":"2016-05-30","tags":["Books","Reviews","Languages","History"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-05-30-the-offline-coding-challenge","title":"The Offline Coding Challenge, Theoretical Concepts in Videos, and Beginner Coders Wanted","url":"/blog/2016/2016-05-30-the-offline-coding-challenge","summary":"I recently read about a Developer's workflow before the proliferation of the internet, search engines and developer websites. It reminded me of an idea I had wanted to write about for a while and this blog post prompted me to drag it off my todo list.","date":"2016-05-30","tags":["Coding","Programming","Education"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://hackernoon.com/the-offline-coding-challenge-theoretical-concepts-in-videos-and-beginner-coders-wanted-626674c3fbc9#.25lbm2hfk"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-05-30-the-story-of-english-by-robert-mccrum-robert-macneil","title":"The Story of English by Robert McCrum, Robert MacNeil","url":"/blog/2016/2016-05-30-the-story-of-english-by-robert-mccrum-robert-macneil","summary":"It's taken moving to a non-English speaking country to realize how wide spread and common place the English languages is in the World. This has piqued my interest in learning about the origins of our bastard tongue and how it got to this position.","date":"2016-05-30","tags":["Books","Reviews","Languages","History"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-05-25-an-introduction-to-the-docker-trusted-registry","title":"An Introduction to the Docker Trusted Registry","url":"/blog/2016/2016-05-25-an-introduction-to-the-docker-trusted-registry","summary":"Many of us start our Docker journey pulling images from the Docker Hub with the time-honored docker pull command.","date":"2016-05-25","tags":["Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/docker-trusted-registry/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-05-25-teaching-programming","title":"Teaching Programming: What’s the Best Language for Beginners?","url":"/blog/2016/2016-05-25-teaching-programming","summary":"Like many of my age and generation, I started learning to program with BASIC. These were the days when you bought magazines full of pages and pages of code for games or basic applications. You spent hours with your friends painstakingly typing these programs into a computer to find there was a typo, or the game didn’t work, and then giving up. It was more about hanging out with your friends, whilst your parents felt like you were learning something.","date":"2016-05-25","tags":["Education","Learning","Programming"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/teaching-programming-whats-the-best-language-for-beginners/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-05-24-8-key-announcements-for-android","title":"8 Key Announcements for Android Developers at Google IO","url":"/blog/2016/2016-05-24-8-key-announcements-for-android","summary":"Another year, another IO. Google made a slew of announcements, from their own foray into the assistant arena, to several curious devices and apps. Few of these have details or any API access for developers, so SitePoint will cover those at a later date. If you’re interested in reading more, I recommend Google’s official IO blog post.","date":"2016-05-24","tags":["Google","Android"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/8-key-announcements-for-android-developers-at-google-io/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-05-23-desktop-node-apps-with-electronm","title":"Create Cross-Platform Desktop Apps with Electron","url":"/blog/2016/2016-05-23-desktop-node-apps-with-electronm","summary":"Call me old-fashioned, but I have always preferred using a desktop app suited to each purpose. I feel that if all I'm going to use is a browser for everything I do, then why have a 'proper' computer? On a practical level, I travel frequently and am generally 'between' internet connectivity or using unstable internet connections, and 'real' applications are typically far better at allowing effective offline working.","date":"2016-05-23","tags":["JavaScript","Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/desktop-node-apps-with-electron/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-05-20-observations-on-albania-and-australia-in-eurovision","title":"Observations on Albania and Australia in Eurovision","url":"/blog/2016/2016-05-20-observations-on-albania-and-australia-in-eurovision","summary":"Last weekend I was back in Tirana for my second OSCAL, an awesome little open source conference that has a massively diverse audience and punches well above it's weight. Whilst in Albania I was conducting some interviews and research for a forthcoming article on the Albanian (likely also including Kosovo) startup and tech scene(s), but more of that later. When I visited Albania last year it was my first trip to a Balkan country and since then I have visited Serbia (twice) and Croatia. Last year, everything was new and novel, this trip I was seeing beyond that into things I might have missed.","date":"2016-05-20","tags":["Australia","Europe","Travel"],"categories":["writing"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/@ChrisChinchilla/observations-on-albania-and-australia-in-eurovision-b09be9e1c9b9#.pgltgcs8z"},{"type":"events","id":"2016-05-15-latex-css-for-print","title":"Oscal 16","url":"/events","summary":"In this presentation I'll be dragging LaTeX out of the past kicking and screaming and be showing that it's actually kinda cool.","date":"2016-05-15","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://oscal.openlabs.cc/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-weekly-squeak-9th-may-2016","title":"The Weekly Squeak - 9th May 2016","url":"/podcast/the-weekly-squeak-9th-may-2016","summary":"In this episode I discuss teaching beginners to program and how maybe we're all doing it wrong. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmedium=podcast&utmcampaign=CTA1]","date":"2016-05-09","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"events","id":"2016-05-05-better-documentation","title":"OpenTech Summit","url":"/events","summary":"We spend countless hours creating technically amazing projects built upon awesome, cutting edge code. We then promote our project through newsletters, events and social media and await certain success. But nothing happens. Why? Whoops, we forgot to tell anyone how to effectively use our project, all that time waisted. In this presentation I want to draw upon my experience in writing tutorials and technical documentation to help you write clear, concise and usable documentation for your own projects.","date":"2016-05-05","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://opentechsummit.net/programm/#OT2-10"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-05-03-teaching-people-to-code","title":"Teaching People to Code — Part 1, Talking to Beginners","url":"/blog/2016/2016-05-03-teaching-people-to-code","summary":"Like many of my age and generation, I started learning to program with BASIC. These were the days when you bought magazines full of pages and pages of code for games or basic applications. You spent hours with your friends painstakingly typing these programs in to a computer to find there was a typo, or the game didn't work, and then giving up. It was more about hanging out with your friends, whilst your parents felt like you were learning something.","date":"2016-05-03","tags":["Coding","Education"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/@ChrisChinchilla/teaching-people-to-code-part-1-talking-to-beginners-ff47c44a01f0#.z8v3cc2xc/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-04-29-a-week-in-berlin-meetups","title":"A week in Berlin Meetups 29 April","url":"/blog/2016/2016-04-29-a-week-in-berlin-meetups","summary":"Silicon Allee asked me if I would like to contribute some posts to their Medium publication and I thought what better to write than resurrect something I used to do back when I was living in Melbourne. I go to a lot of meetups. I enjoy meeting people, hearing what they're working on and being exposed to new ideas. Writing something about every talk I see each week would take a long time, so instead I will just tell you who I saw, what they spoke about and what you can do to find out more.","date":"2016-04-29","tags":["Berlin","Meetups","Events"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/@ChrisChinchilla/a-week-in-berlin-meetups-29th-april-d392b505a75a#.sgy49u2qy"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-04-27-dependency-management-with-the-swift-package-manager","title":"Dependency Management with the Swift Package Manager","url":"/blog/2016/2016-04-27-dependency-management-with-the-swift-package-manager","summary":"Chris Ward looks at the Swift Package Manager, an early-days dependency management utility for Swift.","date":"2016-04-27","tags":["iOS","Swift"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/introducing-the-swift-package-manager/"},{"type":"events","id":"2016-04-21-back-to-the-future-with-static-sites","title":"DevWeek London","url":"/events","summary":"If you remember when web sites were all created with plain HTML pages, then you'll know that CMSs and dynamic web frameworks saved us and solved all our problems. Or did they? In fact, we instead spend a lot of time customising existing code to meet our requirements, grappling with deployments and then whacking caching on top of over-powered servers to get an ounce of speed.","date":"2016-04-21","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.slideshare.net/chrischinchilla/back-to-the-future-with-static-site-generators"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-04-17-a-1001-crate-cluster-with-microsoft-azure","title":"A 1001 Crate Cluster with Microsoft Azure","url":"/blog/2016/2016-04-17-a-1001-crate-cluster-with-microsoft-azure","summary":"Crate.io focuses on database simplicity and horizontal scalability. We aim to make scaling your data from millions to billions of records and beyond as simple as possible.","date":"2016-04-17","tags":["Azure","Cloud"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://crate.io/a/1001-node-crate-cluster-with-microsoft-azure/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-04-14-the-shortlist-of-docker-hosting","title":"The Shortlist of Docker Hosting","url":"/blog/2016/2016-04-14-the-shortlist-of-docker-hosting","summary":"Note that this post has been updated as of October 20, 2016.","date":"2016-04-14","tags":["Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/the-shortlist-of-docker-hosting/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-04-13-real-world-use-cases-of-nosql-databases","title":"Video - Real World Use Cases of NoSQL Databases","url":"/blog/2016/2016-04-13-real-world-use-cases-of-nosql-databases","summary":"A modern and flexible alternative to databases","date":"2016-04-13","tags":["Nosql","Databases"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/premium/screencasts/real-world-use-cases-of-nosql-databases"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-04-06-a-tourist-in-your-own-city-and-handling-national-shame","title":"A Tourist in Your Own City and Handling National Shame","url":"/blog/2016/2016-04-06-a-tourist-in-your-own-city-and-handling-national-shame","summary":"I was on holiday last week, so of course have been busy. People staying,","date":"2016-04-06","tags":["iOS","Swift"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/@chrischinchilla/a-tourist-in-your-own-city-and-handling-national-shame-86c84bb3277c"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-04-06-managing-data-storage-with-blockchain-and-bigchaindb","title":"Managing data storage with block chain and big chain DB","url":"/blog/2016/2016-04-06-managing-data-storage-with-blockchain-and-bigchaindb","summary":"There's no denying that whilst Bitcoin's future may be hazy right now, the underlying technology it relies upon -- the Blockchain -- has revolutionized many industries and projects, with more to come.","date":"2016-04-06","tags":["Blockchain","Databases"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/managing-data-storage-with-blockchain-and-bigchaindb/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"the-weekly-squeak-28th-march-2016","title":"The Weekly Squeak - 28th March 2016","url":"/podcast/the-weekly-squeak-28th-march-2016","summary":"In this episode I speak to Steve Tauber and Marin Todorov about Developer Health --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmedium=podcast&utmcampaign=CTA1]","date":"2016-03-28","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-03-25-past-present-future-swift","title":"The Past, Present and Future of Swift","url":"/blog/2016/2016-03-25-past-present-future-swift","summary":"I'm excited about Swift for reasons I will expand upon later, but it's mostly the enthusiasm it has attracted. In less than six months, here are the project's GitHub stats.","date":"2016-03-25","tags":["iOS","Swift"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/the-past-present-and-future-of-swift/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-03-22-understanding-the-docker-ecosystem","title":"Understanding the Docker Ecosystem","url":"/blog/2016/2016-03-22-understanding-the-docker-ecosystem","summary":"Attend any tech-related event or read any tech-related article over the past 18 months, and you will likely have heard of Docker and have an inkling of what it is and does.","date":"2016-03-22","tags":["Development","Industry"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/understanding-the-docker-ecosystem/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-03-21-physical-and-mental-health-for-developers","title":"Physical and Mental Health for Developers","url":"/blog/2016/2016-03-21-physical-and-mental-health-for-developers","summary":"OK, I'm late again, but this time I have a decent excuse. My Wife has been in Hospital the past week and it has thrown my planning and timing. By pure coincidence, it leads me nicely to the topic I wanted to discuss this installment based on a presentation I have given twice. The topic is physical and mental health for developers.","date":"2016-03-21","tags":["Health"],"categories":["writing"],"externalUrl":"https://hackernoon.com/physical-and-mental-health-for-developers-4706217c7839#.l0vus45n4"},{"type":"events","id":"2016-03-17-the-past-present-and-future-of-swift","title":"MDevCon","url":"/events","summary":"Whilst open sourcing a language is nothing new, there is no denying the popularity of Apple's new language and this has solidified with their recent move.","date":"2016-03-18","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.github.io/Presentations/future_swift/mdevcon.html"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-03-16-displaying-images-on-your-android-interface","title":"Video - Loading and Displaying Images on your Android Interface","url":"/blog/2016/2016-03-16-displaying-images-on-your-android-interface","summary":"Images enhance any interface and can help engagement and interaction with your users. In this video we will look at how to load and display images from a remote location via an API and the Volley library. We will look at two methods for loading images and how to layout and format images in an interface.","date":"2016-03-13","tags":["Android","UI"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/premium/tutorials/displaying-images-on-your-android-interface"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-03-06-print-at-home-chip-shop-released","title":"Print at Home Chip Shop is Released!","url":"/blog/2016/2016-03-06-print-at-home-chip-shop-released","summary":"Chip Shop has been a labour of love for me over the past two years. It has been through many changes and revisions and isn't yet 100%, but I have always needed to get something live before it becomes a never ending process of 'polishing'.","date":"2016-03-07","tags":["Games"],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-03-01-are-you-really-a-tech-company","title":"Are you really a tech company?","url":"/blog/2016/2016-03-01-are-you-really-a-tech-company","summary":"I go to a lot of events. Firstly because I get bored easily, but mainly because I like hearing what people are working on and their ideas. I have noticed an increasing amount of companies and events that label themselves as 'tech', and I challenge if they actually are. To me it feels like some older phrases that are slowly dying and losing their meaning.","date":"2016-03-01","tags":["Tech","Events","Meetups","Startups"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/@ChrisChinchilla/are-you-really-a-tech-company-63e7b4ed54d4#.x547tw4zr"},{"type":"events","id":"2016-02-29-voxxed-vienna","title":"Voxxed Days Vienna","url":"/events","summary":"We keep up to date with the latest developments in technologies and tools. We make sure to post pull requests to fix bugs we found in projects. We offer helpful advice in forums to people with coding questions. We propose talks for meetups and conferences to provide insight and inspiration.","date":"2016-02-29","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.github.io/Presentations/geek_health/voxxed_days.html"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-02-24-migrating-your-android-or-ios-app-from-parse","title":"Migrating Your Android or iOS App from Parse","url":"/blog/2016/2016-02-24-migrating-your-android-or-ios-app-from-parse","summary":"Not since the shuttering of Google Reader has there been quite so many outcries of surprise and annoyance amongst tech fans. Facebook's announcement that their popular developer service platform, Parse, will shut in a years time caused ripples of panic amongst developers who rely on it. It's always been a bad idea to be too reliant on a centralized, commercial service as it may not always last for ever. Parse wont be the first or the last to close and it's a good lesson to us all to be flexible.","date":"2016-02-24","tags":["Android","iOS","Parse"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/migrating-your-android-or-ios-app-from-parse/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-02-22-tech-tribes-and-being-an-outsider-amongst-outsiders","title":"Tech Tribes and Being an Outsider Amongst Outsiders","url":"/blog/2016/2016-02-22-tech-tribes-and-being-an-outsider-amongst-outsiders","summary":"I make no pretense that I am a generalist and get bored quickly. I have written before about how this sometimes makes you feel left out, or worse, an idiot who has wasted their life. I want to explore this topic in more detail, and that of 'tech tribes', that I feel it relates to.","date":"2016-02-22","tags":["Tech","Events","Conferences","Community"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://hackernoon.com/tech-tribes-and-being-an-outsider-amongst-outsiders-16acef958f7#.5ouxsl6h4"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"tech-tribes-and-being-an-outsider-amongst-outsiders","title":"Tech Tribes and Being an Outsider Amongst Outsiders","url":"/podcast/tech-tribes-and-being-an-outsider-amongst-outsiders","summary":"In this episode I discuss being an outsider in a group of outsiders. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmedium=podcast&utmcampaign=CTA1]","date":"2016-02-21","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-02-21-preparing-your-android-app-for-release","title":"Video - Preparing Your Android App for Release","url":"/blog/2016/2016-02-21-preparing-your-android-app-for-release","summary":"Your app is ready, the next steps are to get it into the Google Play Store for people to download and use. In this video we look at preparing your application for release and creating a listings page for your creation.","date":"2016-02-21","tags":["Android","Tutorials"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/premium/screencasts/preparing-your-app-for-the-google-play-store"},{"type":"events","id":"2016-02-20-poor-and-literate-short-stories","title":"Poor and Literate Short Stories","url":"/events","summary":"I will be reading the intro from my 'One Day the World Ended' project at this cosy little bookshop.","date":"2016-02-20","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.facebook.com/events/498210087018059/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-02-14-healthy-travel-working-on-the-road-and-the-inefficiency-of-travel","title":"Healthy Travel, Working on the Road and the Inefficiency of Travel","url":"/blog/2016/2016-02-14-healthy-travel-working-on-the-road-and-the-inefficiency-of-travel","summary":"I apologise for the delay in this installment of the Weekly Squeak, I let various things get the better of me in the past weeks and am annoyed that I did. First the madness of a series of events, conferences and travel and then I got hit by a crippling cold-flu thing that has made me struggle to get even the work I needed to get done complete, let alone the things I wanted to do. I had a topic I wanted to cover in this post, but I think I will save it for the future and instead talk about some of the questions and issues that have arisen as a consequence of these past weeks.","date":"2016-02-14","tags":["Tech","Events","Travel"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://hackernoon.com/healthy-travel-working-on-the-road-and-the-inefficiency-of-travel-ab40e43c9298"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-02-12-outputting-data-to-the-user-interface","title":"Video - Outputting Data to the User Interface","url":"/blog/2016/2016-02-12-outputting-data-to-the-user-interface","summary":"In this video you'll be building upon previously learned techniques by taking data imported via API and displaying it to the interface. We'll learn how to get into the API data, get it into a usable format, and then once it is properly formatted, attach that data to the interface to make a usable implementation of the API data that, in this example, you are fetching from the Marvel API.","date":"2016-02-12","tags":["Android","Tutorials"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/premium/screencasts/outputting-data-to-your-android-app-s-user-interface"},{"type":"events","id":"2016-02-10-talk-and-play","title":"Talk and Play no. 17","url":"/events","summary":"How digital games are influencing board games and vice versa. I will discuss the numerous ways that board games are joining the digital era.","date":"2016-02-10","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.github.io/Presentations/chip_shop/talk_play_17.html#/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-02-03-cr8-a-collection-of-utility-scripts-for-working-with-clusters","title":"CR8: A collection of utility scripts for working with Clusters ","url":"/blog/2016/2016-02-03-cr8-a-collection-of-utility-scripts-for-working-with-clusters","summary":"Meet Mathias Fußenegger, aka 'Jordi', one of Crate's core engineers and a massive Linux fan.","date":"2016-02-03","tags":["Cli","Tools"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://crate.io/a/cr8-utility-scripts/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-02-03-ctop-a-top-tool-for-crate-clusters","title":"CTop: A top tool for Crate Clusters","url":"/blog/2016/2016-02-03-ctop-a-top-tool-for-crate-clusters","summary":"Meet Christian Haudum, aka 'Haudi', one of Crate's integration engineers and a fan of vinyl and dub step.","date":"2016-02-03","tags":["Tools","Databases"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://crate.io/a/ctop-top-for-crate-cluster/"},{"type":"events","id":"2016-01-30-fosdem","title":"Fosdem 2016","url":"/events","summary":"Programming a Board game? Why would you want to do that?","date":"2016-01-30","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.github.io/Presentations/chip_shop/fosdem.html"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-01-28-playtesting-back-open","title":"Play Testing is Open Again","url":"/blog/2016/2016-01-28-playtesting-back-open","summary":"After making many changes, some of which I will get around to blogging about soon, play testing for Chip Shop is open again!","date":"2016-01-28","tags":["Games","Playtesting"],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-01-27-using-classy-to-create-style-sheets-for-hative-ios-apps","title":"Using Classy to Create Stylesheets for Native iOS Apps","url":"/blog/2016/2016-01-27-using-classy-to-create-style-sheets-for-hative-ios-apps","summary":"Classy is an intriguing project hoping to bridge some gaps between designers more used to web or front end projects and app developers. Classy allows for the use of 'CSS-esque' stylesheets to style native iOS app interface components.","date":"2016-01-27","tags":["iOS","Css"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/using-classy-to-create-stylesheets-for-native-ios-apps/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-01-24-meetup-and-conference-etiquette-revisited","title":"Meetup and Conference Etiquette Revisited","url":"/blog/2016/2016-01-24-meetup-and-conference-etiquette-revisited","summary":"I don't have an particular themes from the week I can remember in enough detail to discuss this week, so thought it time I dragged out one of my long term 'topics to discuss'.","date":"2016-01-24","tags":["Meetups","Conferences","Culture"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/@ChrisChinchilla/meetup-and-conference-etiquette-revisited-29de1686ec29#.yxd9a5t8s"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-01-21-display-data-sets-in-indesign-with-porky","title":"Display Data Sets in InDesign with Porky","url":"/blog/2016/2016-01-21-display-data-sets-in-indesign-with-porky","summary":"As a coder of many years, I am a keen believer in writing everything once and being able to use it in multiple places. In the coding world, thanks to open data formats and widely supported APIs we can generally have one central set of content and use it for different applications and use cases, all nicely in sync.","date":"2016-01-21","tags":["Indesign","Json","Xml"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/indesign-with-porky/"},{"type":"events","id":"2016-01-19-art-games","title":"Art Game meetup","url":"/events","summary":"This is a meet-up group for people interested in games as audio/visual interactive art, with less focus on mechanics or gamer culture.","date":"2016-01-19","tags":[],"categories":[]},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-01-18-celebrity-death-netflix-vs-digital-nomads-and-introducing-the-enthusiastic-amateur","title":"Celebrity Death, Netflix vs Digital Nomads and Introducing the Enthusiastic Amateur","url":"/blog/2016/2016-01-18-celebrity-death-netflix-vs-digital-nomads-and-introducing-the-enthusiastic-amateur","summary":"It's been quite a week (month, year) for celebrity death and I'm certainly not going to be the first or last to talk about the subject this week. I am going to mostly talk about Bowie, because I was a bigger fan of his work than say, Alan Rickman, but also for other reasons I will come to. Whilst we're here I should also briefly mention the death of John Bradbury, drummer with The Specials. He actually died on December 28th of 2015 and wasn't part of the new 69 club, but was 62\\.","date":"2016-01-18","tags":["Music","Culture","News"],"categories":["music","tech"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/@ChrisChinchilla/celebrity-death-netflix-vs-digital-nomads-and-introducing-the-enthusiastic-amateur-52f36fa0182c#.t1cjow8hj"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"celebrity-death-netflix-vs-digital-nomads-and-introducing-the-enthusiastic-amateur","title":"Celebrity Death, Netflix vs Digital Nomads and Introducing the Enthusiastic Amateur","url":"/podcast/celebrity-death-netflix-vs-digital-nomads-and-introducing-the-enthusiastic-amateur","summary":"In this episode I discuss celebrity death and Netflix vs the digital Nomad. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmedium=podcast&utmcampaign=CTA1]","date":"2016-01-18","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-01-15-how-to-auto-deploy-from-github-to-your-server","title":"How to auto deploy from GitHub to your server","url":"/blog/2016/2016-01-15-how-to-auto-deploy-from-github-to-your-server","summary":"GitHub, and the Git version control system it's based on, are fantastic tools for managing and collaborating on projects – code-based or otherwise.","date":"2016-01-15","tags":["Tutorials","GitHub"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/deploying-from-github-to-a-server/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-01-12-blink-a-programmable-indicator-for-developer-needs","title":"Blink(1), a Programmable Indicator for All Developer Needs","url":"/blog/2016/2016-01-12-blink-a-programmable-indicator-for-developer-needs","summary":"Late last summer someone handed me a curious USB device that I popped in my bag and then sat on my shelf until today when I thought it was about time I plugged it into my computer to see what it did.","date":"2016-01-12","tags":["Tutorials","DevOps","IoT"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/blink1-a-programmable-indicator-for-all-developer-needs/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-01-11-getting-to-know-volley","title":"Video - Getting to know Volley","url":"/blog/2016/2016-01-11-getting-to-know-volley","summary":"Volley, next generation network communications for Android","date":"2016-01-11","tags":["Android","Tutorials"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/premium/screencasts/using-volley-to-communicate-with-external-services-from-your-android-app"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"berlin-winter-art-exhibitions-and-submarine-cables","title":"Berlin Winter, Art Exhibitions and Submarine Cables","url":"/podcast/berlin-winter-art-exhibitions-and-submarine-cables","summary":"In this episode I discuss the coldest winter I have ever experienced, art exhibitions and submarine cables. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmedium=podcast&utmcamp…","date":"2016-01-10","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-01-09-turning-chip-shop-into-a-board-game","title":"Turning Chip Shop into a Board Game","url":"/blog/2016/2016-01-09-turning-chip-shop-into-a-board-game","summary":"I spent some time this week finishing off a lot of the changes from my last round of playtesting, most of these have resulted in changing Chip Shop from a somewhat random card game with a board (for no particular reason) into a more rounded actual board game.","date":"2016-01-09","tags":["Games","Playtesting"],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-01-08-estonia-between-eat-west-and-the-world","title":"Estonia-between East West and the World","url":"/blog/2016/2016-01-08-estonia-between-eat-west-and-the-world","summary":"It seems fitting that as I start piecing together the fragments of interviews and notes gathered over the past months that it has been just over a year since Estonia’s innovative e-Residency program began, which is where my fascination with Estonia began and this story starts.","date":"2016-01-08","tags":["Estonia","Tech","Startups"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-01-18-using-layout-managers-to-craft-awesome-android-interfaces","title":"Video - Using layout managers to craft awesome Android interfaces","url":"/blog/2016/2016-01-18-using-layout-managers-to-craft-awesome-android-interfaces","summary":"Using layout managers to craft awesome Android interfaces","date":"2016-01-08","tags":["Tutorials","Android","Video"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/premium/screencasts/layout-managers"},{"type":"events","id":"2016-01-07-rub-jan","title":"Ruby User Group Berlin","url":"/events","summary":"Jekyll is an awesome static site generator written in Ruby. It's designed with simplicity in mind, but can be made more extensive and powerful by creating plugins and leveraging existing ruby gems.","date":"2016-01-07","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.github.io/Presentations/jekyll_plugins/rub_jan.html"},{"type":"blog","id":"2016/2016-01-05-the-next-full-stack-language-server-side-swift-with-perfect","title":"The Next Full Stack Language? Server-side Swift with Perfect","url":"/blog/2016/2016-01-05-the-next-full-stack-language-server-side-swift-with-perfect","summary":"I will keep re-iterating (for the next 6 months at least) that whilst Swift is not the first language from a commercial company to be open-sourced, the enthusiasm and outcomes so far have been astounding.","date":"2016-01-05","tags":["Swift","Languages","Server"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/server-side-swift-with-perfect/"},{"type":"podcasts","id":"rounding-of-2015","title":"Rounding of 2015","url":"/podcast/rounding-of-2015","summary":"In this first episode I look back on 2015. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chinchillasqueaks/message This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com [https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com?utmmedium=podcast&utmcampaign=CTA1]","date":"2015-12-31","tags":[],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.com/podcast"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-12-29-beginning-the-weekly-squeak-wrapping-up-2015","title":"Beginning the Weekly Squeak — Wrapping Up 2015","url":"/blog/2015/2015-12-29-beginning-the-weekly-squeak-wrapping-up-2015","summary":"What better way to start my new blog post and podcast of semi-random uttering and opinions than with a round of the year and thoughts that have led me to starting it in the first place.","date":"2015-12-29","tags":["2015","Life","personal"],"categories":["writing"],"externalUrl":"https://medium.com/@ChrisChinchilla/beginning-the-weekly-squeak-wrapping-up-2015-7c3b09610ad2#.8get9lwmi"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-12-27-trello-shortcuts-dash","title":"Trello Shortcuts for Dash","url":"/blog/2015/2015-12-27-trello-shortcuts-dash","summary":"I have loved Kapeli's offline documentation browser, Dash for a while now and have been intending to start contributing to it for the best part of 2015.","date":"2015-12-27","tags":["dash","Documentation"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-12-26-a-mind-forever-voyaging","title":"A Mind Forever Voyaging: A History of Storytelling in Video Games by Dylan Holmes","url":"/blog/2015/2015-12-26-a-mind-forever-voyaging","summary":"As part of creating Chip Shop (and future game ideas) I read recommendations on reading about (and playing) various types of games, not just board games.","date":"2015-12-26","tags":["Books","Reviews"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-12-26-commodore-amiga-visual-companion","title":"Commodore Amiga: a visual Compendium by Sam Dyer","url":"/blog/2015/2015-12-26-commodore-amiga-visual-companion","summary":"First, let's get the disclaimers out of the way. I helped Kickstart this book, but that wouldn't necessarily make my review biased...","date":"2015-12-26","tags":["Books","Reviews"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-12-22-2015-in-review-new-languages-rising-frameworks-and-more","title":"2015 in Review, New Languages, Rising Frameworks and More","url":"/blog/2015/2015-12-22-2015-in-review-new-languages-rising-frameworks-and-more","summary":"Across the mobile channel in 2015 we had over 3 million views and published just over 160 posts.","date":"2015-12-22","tags":["Mobile","Android","iOS"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/2015-in-review-new-languages-rising-frameworks-and-more/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-12-21-submitting-to-the-chrome-store","title":"Video - Submitting to the Chrome Store","url":"/blog/2015/2015-12-21-submitting-to-the-chrome-store","summary":"There are quite a lot of specific images and text descriptions required to create a listing page for your app, we detail them here and provide some useful tools to help create them. In this final section we submit our application to the store. You're almost there!","date":"2015-12-21","tags":["Chrome","JavaScript","HTML"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/premium/screencasts/submitting-to-the-chrome-store"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-12-10-interacting-with-browser-content","title":"Video - Interacting with Browser Content","url":"/blog/2015/2015-12-10-interacting-with-browser-content","summary":"A Chrome extensions prime function is to interact and enhance a users' web pages and in this video we look at how to do this, building our first extension with a combination of HTML and JavaScript. This extension will replace all images in a SitePoint article with images of Super Heroes, bringing even more super powers to your browsing experience.","date":"2015-12-10","tags":["Video","Browsers","JavaScript","Web"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/premium/screencasts/interacting-with-browser-content-from-your-chrome-extension"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-12-09-ios-and-android-programming-with-go","title":"iOS and Android Programming with Go","url":"/blog/2015/2015-12-09-ios-and-android-programming-with-go","summary":"Whilst not a new language, Go has gained a lot of interest over the past two years and the number of bigger name projects utilizing the language is growing rapidly. I wrote an introductory article on the language for SitePoint and came across mentions of mobile support, so thought I’d take a look at the possibilities.","date":"2015-12-09","tags":["Android","Programming","iOS","Mobile"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/ios-and-android-programming-with-go/"},{"type":"events","id":"2015-12-08-upfront-dec","title":"up.front Berlin","url":"/events","summary":"(and how tools written in obscure programming languages helped)","date":"2015-12-08","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.github.io/Presentations/chip_shop/upfront_dec.html"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-12-01-further-changes-from-playtest","title":"Further Changes From Play Testing","url":"/blog/2015/2015-12-01-further-changes-from-playtest","summary":"A few more changes from my first play testing session.","date":"2015-12-06","tags":["Games","Playtesting"],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-11-30-backing-up-and-restoring-crate-databases","title":"Backing up and restoring Crate databases","url":"/blog/2015/2015-11-30-backing-up-and-restoring-crate-databases","summary":"Our databases contain valuable and business critical information and whilst there have always been manual ways to create restorable backups of Crate databases, as of version 0.53, we are pleased to announce the 'Snapshots' feature.","date":"2015-11-30","tags":["Databases"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://crate.io/a/backing-up-and-restoring-crate/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-11-25-changes-from-play-testing","title":"Changes From Play Testing","url":"/blog/2015/2015-11-25-changes-from-play-testing","summary":"After my first constructive play test session, here is the first wave of changes to the game.","date":"2015-11-25","tags":["Game Design","Games"],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-11-12-activities-and-intents-the-lego-blocks-of-android","title":"Video - Activities and Intents, the lego blocks of Android","url":"/blog/2015/2015-11-12-activities-and-intents-the-lego-blocks-of-android","summary":"Any Android app that requires even a basic interface will need the basic building blocks of activities and intents to manage interface screens and the flow between them. In this video we look at the different activity types available and how we connect them with intents.","date":"2015-11-12","tags":["Android","Video","App"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/premium/screencasts/managing-android-interfaces-with-activities-and-intents"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-11-11-simple-clutter-free-programming-with-go","title":"Simple, Clutter-free Programming with Go","url":"/blog/2015/2015-11-11-simple-clutter-free-programming-with-go","summary":"GoLang (generally shortened to Go) is the latest language-that-everyone-wants-to-learn-and-use. In this article, I'll provide an introduction to the language, its features, its potential, and whether you should care about Go or not.","date":"2015-11-11","tags":["Programming","Languages"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-11-10-the-manifest-to-manage-your-metadata","title":"Video - The Manifest to manage your metadata","url":"/blog/2015/2015-11-10-the-manifest-to-manage-your-metadata","summary":"A Chrome Extension Manifest file contains important metadata about your extension. From simple aspects like giving it a name and an author, to setting keyboard shortcuts and overriding browser settings. The Manifest file gives life to your code.","date":"2015-11-10","tags":["Video","Life","Browsers","Chrome"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/premium/screencasts/using-manifest-files-to-manage-your-chrome-extension-s-metadata"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-11-10-thoughts-on-play-testing","title":"Thoughts on (Play) Testing","url":"/blog/2015/2015-11-10-thoughts-on-play-testing","summary":"I just had my first play testing session for Chip Shop and returned with lots of feedback. The three players helped me identify a lot of small problems with the game as well as a couple of larger issues that need some refining to make the game work better. None of them so big to break the game, but some important ideas to ponder. Depending on the decisions I make, they may change move the game in a slightly different direction.","date":"2015-11-09","tags":["Board Games","Games"],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-12-01-super-powered-web-services","title":"Video - Super Powered Web Services","url":"/blog/2015/2015-12-01-super-powered-web-services","summary":"No application exists in isolation, in most cases it will frequently need to access external data and services to bring it to life. In this video we look at the principles of connecting to these services. We will cover the basics of APIs, REST and JSON in an Android app and play with some Marvel Super Heroes on the journey.","date":"2015-11-01","tags":["Web","Video","Services","Android"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/premium/screencasts/connecting-your-android-app-to-external-services"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-10-26-game-jam-tshirts-printing-and-more","title":"WikiMedia Game Jam, T-Shirts, Printing Experiments and so much more","url":"/blog/2015/2015-10-26-game-jam-tshirts-printing-and-more","summary":"Pushing forward to play testing (which has now begun, more on that later) I have been busy cleaning, tidying and streamlining game components after Essen. Here are some updates...","date":"2015-10-26","tags":["Game Design","Games"],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-10-23-watch-understanding-android-and-java","title":"Video - Understanding Java and Android","url":"/blog/2015/2015-10-23-watch-understanding-android-and-java","summary":"Android development uses the popular Java programming language. In this video we look at the basics of Java and the additions that Android brings to it.","date":"2015-10-23","tags":["Android","Video","Java","Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/watch-understanding-android-and-java/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-10-19-playtesting-chip-shop","title":"Playtesting Chip Shop","url":"/blog/2015/2015-10-19-playtesting-chip-shop","summary":"Chip Shop is ready for play testing! Find out how to get involved.","date":"2015-10-19","tags":["Playtesting","Game Design","Games"],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"events","id":"2015-10-07-understanding-distributeddatabases","title":"Coding Serbia","url":"/events","summary":"The single node backend is dying or dead. A single instance of a database is no longer sufficiently available, resilient or elastic to cope with the quantities and changing requirements of data that modern applications demand. A single point of failure is no longer an option.","date":"2015-10-07","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/vvrme35s872d1ez/Intro%20to%20DD.key?dl=0"},{"type":"events","id":"2015-10-05-understanding-distributed-databases","title":"CloudOpen Europe","url":"/events","summary":"Modern applications store a lot data and demand high availability of access to it. To cope with this increasing need, developers have long struggled with scaling, sharding and synchronizing multiple instances of traditional databases.","date":"2015-10-05","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/vvrme35s872d1ez/Intro%20to%20DD.key?dl=0"},{"type":"events","id":"2015-10-05-dublin-sql-md","title":"Dublin NoSQL with Crate.io","url":"/events","summary":"Using Crate a distributed database (Crate has a NoSQL base but is queried in SQL) as an explicit example Chris will show the theory and practice behind their component architecture, along with some basic but extremely cool queries to show what's possible with it. He will demonstrate the basic practicals of querying and coding for Crate using the gitHub archive.","date":"2015-10-05","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/363bds63f9ielg3/GitHub%20Presentation%20%28Draft%29.key?dl=0"},{"type":"events","id":"2015-10-03-introducing-distributed-databases","title":"WebCamp Zagreb","url":"/events","summary":"The single node backend is now dead or dying, let's look at the future.","date":"2015-10-03","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/vvrme35s872d1ez/Intro%20to%20DD.key?dl=0"},{"type":"events","id":"2015-10-01-introducing-distributed-databases","title":"Voxxed Days Belgrade","url":"/events","summary":"In this presentation we will look the fact that in large scale and complex web applications the single node backend is now dead or dying.","date":"2015-10-01","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/vvrme35s872d1ez/Intro%20to%20DD.key?dl=0"},{"type":"events","id":"2015-09-30-github-revisited-analyzing-100s-of-million-of-events-in-realtime","title":"Code.Talks Hamburg","url":"/events","summary":"In this presentation we revisit an infamous talk from Strata conference in 2012. We will look at importing, querying and analyzing the millions of events generated from one of the internet's most popular tools, GitHub.","date":"2015-09-30","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/363bds63f9ielg3/GitHub%20Presentation%20%28Draft%29.key?dl=0"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-09-30-creating-pdfs-from-markdown-with-pandoc-and-latex","title":"Creating PDFs from Markdown with Pandoc and LaTeX","url":"/blog/2015/2015-09-30-creating-pdfs-from-markdown-with-pandoc-and-latex","summary":"If you've read some of my previous posts on SitePoint or elsewhere, you may know that I'm working on a board game. In the game, called Chip Shop, you get to run a computer company in 1980s America.","date":"2015-09-30","tags":["Markdown","Pandoc","Latex"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/creating-pdfs-from-markdown-with-pandoc-and-latex/"},{"type":"events","id":"2015-09-28-managing-distributed-data-with-apache-mesos","title":"Apache Big Data Europe","url":"/events","summary":"Apache Mesos is a fantastic tool for abstracting CPU, memory, storage, and other compute resources away from machines (physical or virtual). Alongside these features is Mesos-DNS, which provides service discovery for all applications and services running in a Mesos cluster. These features combined lets you program against your datacenter like it's a single pool of resources, a useful tool when building highly scalable applications stacks.","date":"2015-09-28","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/js2j29krgrjf43s/Mesos%20Preso.key?dl=0"},{"type":"events","id":"2015-09-24-developer-health","title":"Reject.JS - Berlin","url":"/events","summary":"In this presentation I will look at quick tips to keep ourselves a little healthier whilst we do what we love. I'm not talking gruelling evenings huffing and puffing at the gym, but manageable and easy advice to whip you into shape.","date":"2015-09-24","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.github.io/Presentations/geek_health"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-09-21-watch-evolution-androids-ecosystem","title":"Video - The Evolution of Androids Ecosystem","url":"/blog/2015/2015-09-21-watch-evolution-androids-ecosystem","summary":"In this video I'll outline a history of Android versions, and explain whether we should still support them in our applications and, if so, how.","date":"2015-09-21","tags":["Video","Android","History"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/watch-evolution-androids-ecosystem/"},{"type":"events","id":"2015-09-17-understanding-databases-for-distributed-applications-md","title":"Berlin Expert Days 2015","url":"/events","summary":"The single node backend is dead. A single instance of a database is no longer sufficiently available, resilient or elastic to cope with the quantities and changing requirements of data that modern applications demand.","date":"2015-09-17","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/vvrme35s872d1ez/Intro%20to%20DD.key?dl=0"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-09-16-how-i-became-an-e-resident-ofestonia","title":"How I Became an e-Resident of Estonia","url":"/blog/2015/2015-09-16-how-i-became-an-e-resident-ofestonia","summary":"I've lived in three countries in my life, and I travel on a regular basis. I wouldn't go as far as to say that we should have global open borders, but there are ways that the life of the new breed of global entrepreneurs could be easier.","date":"2015-09-16","tags":["Estonia","Travel","Life","Business"],"categories":["writing"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/registering-a-business-globally-with-estonias-e-residency/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-09-11-versioning-large-files-with-git-lfs","title":"Versioning Large Files with git LFS","url":"/blog/2015/2015-09-11-versioning-large-files-with-git-lfs","summary":"Versioning large files can be problematic with distributed version control systems like Git. Git Large File Storage (or LFS) is a new, open-source extension to Git that aims to improve handling of large files.","date":"2015-09-11","tags":["Git"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/versioning-large-files-with-git-lfs/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-09-09-nfp-handbook","title":"Sustaining and Maintaining your Not-for-Profit","url":"/blog/2015/2015-09-09-nfp-handbook","summary":"You've had and developed an idea, got it started and hit the ground running with people involved, projects happening and hopefully some outcomes.","date":"2015-09-09","tags":["Not-For-Profit"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-09-09-watch-structuring-an-android-project","title":"Video - Structuring an Android Project","url":"/blog/2015/2015-09-09-watch-structuring-an-android-project","summary":"When a project is created in Android Studio it contains several auto-generated files containing skeleton code for our project. In this video we look at what function these files perform and when and why we would edit them.","date":"2015-09-09","tags":["Android"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/watch-structuring-an-android-project/"},{"type":"events","id":"2015-07-09-scale-your-database-like-your-application","title":"Docker Randstad","url":"/events","summary":"Crate is a distributed database that allows you to create a flexible and scalable backend suited to a wide variety of purposes. By deploying and managing your Crate Cluster using Docker, you benefit from simple scalable capacity, resilience and portability, no matter how complex or large your application becomes.","date":"2015-09-07","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/41b60ydc97rr8pi/Docker%20presentation%20%28Chris%20W%29.key?dl=0"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-09-04-watch-a-tour-of-android-studio","title":"Video - A Tour of Android Studio","url":"/blog/2015/2015-09-04-watch-a-tour-of-android-studio","summary":"Android Studio is now the official IDE for Android development. In this video we look at how to download and install it, tour the interface and look at some of the tools and features it offers.","date":"2015-09-04","tags":["Android","IDE","Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/watch-a-tour-of-android-studio/"},{"type":"events","id":"2015-08-31-documenting-your-story-crafting-a-good-presentation","title":"Write the docs, Prague","url":"/events","summary":"Whilst not a part of the core documentation of projects, presentations and delivering them to the public are an essential part of spreading the word about what you do.","date":"2015-08-31","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://chrischinchilla.github.io/Presentations/good_presentations/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-08-13-running-crate-on-linux-and-windows-with-azure","title":"Running Crate on Linux and Windows with Azure","url":"/blog/2015/2015-08-13-running-crate-on-linux-and-windows-with-azure","summary":"We have had requests from many of you about the potential of running Crate on Azure cloud hosting and/or Windows. Whilst this was always possible with some exploration, we now have official documentation.","date":"2015-08-13","tags":["Azure","Windows"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://crate.io/a/azure-documentation/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-08-11-creating-a-game-with-markdown-pandoc-latex-and-pdfjam","title":"Creating a Game with Markdown, Pandoc, Latex and PDFJam","url":"/blog/2015/2015-08-11-creating-a-game-with-markdown-pandoc-latex-and-pdfjam","summary":"The main reason for a lack of small posts on the progress of Chip Shop is that behind the scenes we have been working on some large stumbling blocks to push the game towards play testing. We wanted to focus on getting those completed over all else.","date":"2015-08-11","tags":["Markdown","Pandoc","Latex","Pdf"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-08-11-video-understanding-android-differences","title":"Video - Understanding Android Differences","url":"/blog/2015/2015-08-11-video-understanding-android-differences","summary":"In this video we'll look at understanding the differences between Android devices, system versions and the components that comprise the Android Operating System.","date":"2015-08-11","tags":["Android","IDE","Development"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/video-understanding-android-differences/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-07-29-open-source-presentation","title":"Open Source Presentation Tools - Are We There Yet?","url":"/blog/2015/2015-07-29-open-source-presentation","summary":"Powerpoint and Keynote are powerful, but also a dead-end for your data. I shows-off the growing power and flexibility of open source presentation tools.","date":"2015-07-29","tags":["Revealjs","Presentations - Open-Source"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/open-source-presentation/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-07-28-crate-adds-unicast-host-discovery-via-dns-and-the-aws-ec2-api","title":"Crate adds Unicast host discovery via DNS and the AWS EC2 API","url":"/blog/2015/2015-07-28-crate-adds-unicast-host-discovery-via-dns-and-the-aws-ec2-api","summary":"A well functioning Crate cluster relies on its nodes being able to utilize service discovery to become aware of each other.","date":"2015-07-28","tags":["API","Dns","Services"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://crate.io/blog/crate-unicast-host-discovery-dns-aws/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-07-09-goodbye-drupal-hello-jekyll","title":"Goodbye Drupal, Hello Jekyll","url":"/blog/2015/2015-07-09-goodbye-drupal-hello-jekyll","summary":"Sorry for the lack of updates in a while. There have been two main reasons for this, other commitments kept me busy and I've been reworking a lot of the technology stack that powers Chip Shop. I'd like to tell you more about updates to the later.","date":"2015-07-09","tags":["Jekyll","Drupal"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"events","id":"2015-07-08-orchestrating-databases-with-docker","title":"meetup","url":"/events","summary":"A presentation about orchestrating database services with Docker.","date":"2015-07-08","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMonkXC4hyk"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-07-02-crateio-a-born-global-champion","title":"Crate.IO - A born global champion","url":"/blog/2015/2015-07-02-crateio-a-born-global-champion","summary":"In June Crate.IO was chosen by the Austrian Federal Chamber of Commerce (WKO) to compete in the Born Global Champion challenge and received the reward. The Chamber of Commerce thereby officially recognizes Crate.IO for its","date":"2015-07-02","tags":["Life"],"categories":["writing"],"externalUrl":"https://crate.io/blog/born-global-champion/"},{"type":"events","id":"2015-06-21-advocate-bits","title":"Enthusiasticon","url":"/events","summary":"In this short presentation I gave an overview of what Developer Advocates are and what we do.","date":"2015-06-21","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://sourcecode.berlin/enthusiasticon/"},{"type":"events","id":"2015-06-21-printing-the-web","title":"Enthusiasticon","url":"/events","summary":"In this short presentation I gave an overview of the development and build process behind the Chip Shop boardgame.","date":"2015-06-21","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://sourcecode.berlin/enthusiasticon/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-06-19-crate-driver-available-for-laravel","title":"Crate drivers available for Laravel","url":"/blog/2015/2015-06-19-crate-driver-available-for-laravel","summary":"One of the best things about being an open source community is the unexpected contributions that appear.","date":"2015-06-19","tags":["Open Source","Community","PHP"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://crate.io/blog/crate-driver-available-for-laravel/"},{"type":"events","id":"2015-06-01-understanding-databases-for-distributed-docker-applications","title":"Berlin Buzzwords","url":"/events","summary":"In this talk we'll focus on the use of Crate alongside Weave in Docker containers, the technical challenges, best practices learned, and getting a simple web application running alongside it. You'll learn about the reasons why Crate.IO is building \"yet another NoSQL database\" and why it's unique and important when running containerized applications.","date":"2015-06-01","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gILCPu6lGZo"},{"type":"events","id":"2015-06-04-understanding-databases-for-distributed-docker-applications","title":"NoSQL Matters Dublin","url":"/events","summary":"In this talk we'll focus on the use of Crate alongside Weave in Docker containers, the technical challenges, best practices learned, and getting a big data application running alongside it.","date":"2015-06-01","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://de.slideshare.net/NoSQLmatters/chris-ward-understanding-databases-for-distributed-docker-applications-nosql-matters-dublin-2015"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-06-01-understanding-databases-for-distributd-docker-applicaitons","title":"Understanding databases for distributed Docker applications.","url":"/blog/2015/2015-06-01-understanding-databases-for-distributd-docker-applicaitons","summary":"Read more","date":"2015-06-01","tags":["Docker","Databases","Distributed"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"events","id":"2015-05-28-powering-the-internet-of-things-with-distributed-databases","title":"Internet of Things Meet up Helsinki","url":"/events","summary":"Crate.IO have made a fully open source distributed SQL database that offers a wide variety of features behind a standard SQL Interface. Perfect for the ever changing needs of IoT, Chris will show you why we decided to create the database, how it fits into the database landscape and how to use it.","date":"2015-05-28","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.meetup.com/Internet-of-Things-Helsinki/events/221317511/"},{"type":"events","id":"2015-05-21-idc-data-hub-vienna","title":"IDC Data hub conference Vienna","url":"/events","summary":"In this talk we'll focus on the use of Crate alongside Weave in Docker containers, the technical challenges, best practices learned, and getting a simple web application running alongside it. You'll learn about the reasons why Crate.IO is building \"yet another NoSQL database\" and why it's unique and important when running containerized applications.","date":"2015-05-21","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://idcdatahub.com/agenda/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-05-16-adding-accessories","title":"Adding Accessories","url":"/blog/2015/2015-05-16-adding-accessories","summary":"Sorry for the lack of updates, I have been traveling with work the past few weeks.","date":"2015-05-16","tags":["Game Design","Games"],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-05-16-review-of-the-circle-david-eggers","title":"Review of The Circle by David Eggers","url":"/blog/2015/2015-05-16-review-of-the-circle-david-eggers","summary":"I have been wanting to read this as part of my research into dystopian fiction for my One day the World Ended project and I have mixed opinions on this book.","date":"2015-05-16","tags":["Books","Reviews"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"events","id":"2015-05-14-oscal","title":"OSCAL Albania","url":"/events","summary":"What other creative endeavours use the concept of 'open source'?","date":"2015-05-14","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/0g4sjn82h03hfk5/OSCAL%20Presentation.key?dl=0"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-05-13-running-and-managing-crate-with-mesos","title":"Running and creating Crate databases with Mesos","url":"/blog/2015/2015-05-13-running-and-managing-crate-with-mesos","summary":"Apache Mesos is a fantastic tool for abstracting CPU, memory, storage, and other compute resources away from machines (physical or virtual). This lets you program against your datacenter like it's a single pool of resources.","date":"2015-05-13","tags":["Mesos","Containers"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://crate.io/blog/managing-crate-with-mesos/"},{"type":"events","id":"2015-04-28-scale-your-database-like-your-application","title":"Docker meetup Hamburg","url":"/events","summary":"Crate is a distributed database that allows you to create a flexible and scalable backend suited to a wide variety of purposes.","date":"2015-04-28","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.meetup.com/Docker-Hamburg/events/221545081/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-04-27-new-cards-berlin-computer-spiele-museum-and-representing-failure","title":"New Cards, the Berlin Computer Spiele Museum and representing Failure","url":"/blog/2015/2015-04-27-new-cards-berlin-computer-spiele-museum-and-representing-failure","summary":"Over the weekend thanks to Berlin Games Week I attended the Berlin Computer Spiele Museum for free. It was a small exhibition but great research for Chip Shop and the visit combined with several other events during the week inspired me to work on some of the product cards on Sunday.","date":"2015-04-27","tags":["Board Games","Game Design"],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"events","id":"2015-04-23-scalable-databases","title":"AWS User Group Meet up Berlin","url":"/events","summary":"How Crate integrates with Amazon Web Services","date":"2015-04-23","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/m64yrlzvgyxa3ty/AWS%20presentation%20%28Chris%20W%29.key?dl=0"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-04-21-first-outing-chip-shop-and-writing-about-jesus","title":"Adding Accessories","url":"/blog/2015/2015-04-21-first-outing-chip-shop-and-writing-about-jesus","summary":"Last week I presented Chip Shop at an event here in Berlin. I was woefully unprepared and just had my laptop, showing a few screens and telling people about the idea.","date":"2015-04-21","tags":["Game Design","Games"],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"events","id":"2015-04-13-crate-and-docker","title":"Docker Berlin","url":"/events","summary":"Scale Your Database like Your Application: Crate is a distributed database that allows you to create a flexible and scalable backend suited to a wide variety of purposes. Read more","date":"2015-04-13","tags":[],"categories":[]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-04-12-running-out-of-resources-defining-the-factory-and-accessories","title":"Running out of Resources, Defining the Factory and Accessories","url":"/blog/2015/2015-04-12-running-out-of-resources-defining-the-factory-and-accessories","summary":"This week I have added rules to the 'Playing the Game' section of the manual to cover the following:","date":"2015-04-12","tags":["Game Design","Games"],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-04-11-organise-your-browser-tabs-with-onetab","title":"Organise your Browser Tabs with OneTab","url":"/blog/2015/2015-04-11-organise-your-browser-tabs-with-onetab","summary":"One of the main perils of the modern world is there is far too much to distract us. So many interesting blog posts to read, events to attend, crap-we-don't-need to buy and other assorted diamonds from the internet. I'm sure several days into the working week we look at our browser and find 20+ tabs open, all eating up memory and so cluttered you can't even remember what is what anymore.","date":"2015-04-11","tags":["Browsers","Productivity"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-04-06-manual-organised-and-consolidated","title":"Manual organised and consolidated","url":"/blog/2015/2015-04-06-manual-organised-and-consolidated","summary":"I spent today drawing together the disparate parts of the game manual and concepts into something more cohesive and readable, it can be found here. I used the Drupal module Menu Block so that the manual can be organised as pages and sub pages (with associated menu links) and the structure then shows correctly. This will enable me to add and edit more in the future and everything will fit together nicely.","date":"2015-04-06","tags":["Game Design","Games"],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-03-27-how-voipstudio-searches-multiple-cloud-systems-with-crateio","title":"How Voipstudio searches Multiple Cloud Systems with Crate.IO","url":"/blog/2015/2015-03-27-how-voipstudio-searches-multiple-cloud-systems-with-crateio","summary":"The VoIPstudio Telecom system is a unique cloud system running on a large amount of servers in a wide variety of locations. Each data center has two basic roles: storing data in real-time and backup for other locations in the system.","date":"2015-03-27","tags":["Cloud","Data","Data Center","Backup"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://crate.io/blog/how-voipstudio-searches-multiple-cloud-systems-with-crate/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-03-24-dockers-2nd-holiday-in-berlin","title":"Dockers 2nd holiday in Berlin","url":"/blog/2015/2015-03-24-dockers-2nd-holiday-in-berlin","summary":"Docker is currently one of the most spoken about tech projects right now and it's hard to believe that it's only two years old. As part of the celebrations, the Docker team decided to host more than a dozen open-source-a-thon parties around the World. Not only to help people learn how to contribute to the project, but also donating $50 for every contribution to the Oceanic Society.","date":"2015-03-25","tags":["Docker"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://crate.io/a/docker-2nd-birthday-berlin/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-03-22-add-your-suggestions-to-what-came-next","title":"Add your suggestions to \"What Came Next\"","url":"/blog/2015/2015-03-22-add-your-suggestions-to-what-came-next","summary":"One Day the World Ended is designed to be an open source and collaborative work of fiction. Most of this will come later when I have more material ready, but the code of the website is on GitHub and you're more than free to issue pull requests if you want to.","date":"2015-03-22","tags":["Open Source","GitHub","Work","Fiction"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-03-22-confessions-of-the-game-doctor-bill-kunkell","title":"Confessions of the Game Doctor, Bill Kunkell","url":"/blog/2015/2015-03-22-confessions-of-the-game-doctor-bill-kunkell","summary":"Bill Kunkell helped create \"Electronic Games Magazine\" in 1981, the first magazine dedicated to video games. It seemed a great research resource for Chip Shop to get some anecdotes and atmosphere for the era.","date":"2015-03-22","tags":["Game Design","Games"],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-03-12-battle-royale-koushun-takami","title":"Battle Royale, Koushun Takami","url":"/blog/2015/2015-03-12-battle-royale-koushun-takami","summary":"In my continued efforts to read as mazy works of dystopian fiction as possible, next on my list was Battle Royale. On a side note, are there many works of purely utopian fiction? Or would that not sell? Back to the east Asian republic. Set in the non-too-distant future, a large Asian empire now rules over an undefined area, full of social control, aggression and suppression. Once a term a class of school children are chosen to compete in a battle to the death on an abandoned island with no hope of escape and only one survivor. It's never completely clear why this happens and what the government gets out of it, but that doesn't matter too much.","date":"2015-03-12","tags":["Reviews","Books"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-03-08-regional-focus-concepts-and-opening-up-to-you","title":"Regional Focus, 'Concepts' and opening up to you","url":"/blog/2015/2015-03-08-regional-focus-concepts-and-opening-up-to-you","summary":"A few small updates in this blog post, however, they have a large impact on the game.","date":"2015-03-08","tags":["Board Games","Playtesting","Game Design"],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-03-06-mobile-world-congress-2015-roundup","title":"Mobile World Congress 2015","url":"/blog/2015/2015-03-06-mobile-world-congress-2015-roundup","summary":"The mobile monolith that is Mobile World Congress is over for another year. I was lucky enough to get hold of a press pass and decided to spend the week in Barcelona. Soaking up the warmer weather, joining the 90,000 other attendees and preparing for the bombardment of marketing mumbo jumbo to unearth some gems for developers.","date":"2015-03-06","tags":["Mobile","Analysis","Conferences"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/mobile-world-congress-2015-roundup/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-02-28-book-review-phoenix-the-fall-and-rise-of-videogames","title":"Book Review - Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Videogames by Leonard Herman","url":"/blog/2015/2015-02-28-book-review-phoenix-the-fall-and-rise-of-videogames","summary":"I picked this book up as part of a book bundle somewhere, but escapes me with one right now. It's timing was perfect as research for the development of Chip Shop as it covers the history of video games from 1970 up to the year 2000.","date":"2015-02-28","tags":["Books","Reviews"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-02-21-new-cards-the-benefits-of-reading-out-loud-switching-to-jekyll-and-more","title":"New Cards, The Benefits of Reading out Loud, Switching to Jekyll and more","url":"/blog/2015/2015-02-21-new-cards-the-benefits-of-reading-out-loud-switching-to-jekyll-and-more","summary":"This week has been a fervent flurry of activity as I prepare for starting my new job next week .","date":"2015-02-21","tags":["Jekyll","Reading","Writing","Design"],"categories":["tech","writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-02-17-finovate-2015-part-mobile-playing-fintech","title":"Finovate 2015, The Part Mobile is Playing in Fintech","url":"/blog/2015/2015-02-17-finovate-2015-part-mobile-playing-fintech","summary":"The financial sector is an industry ripe for technical disruption. It is well-financed, has many multifaceted requirements and the vast majority of us need its services on a regular basis. The last couple of years have created a plethora of startups and product offerings to service the financial sector and the financial needs of consumers. It even has its own buzzword, 'FinTech', to really prove it has arrived.","date":"2015-02-17","tags":["Fintech","Conferences","Startups"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/finovate-2015-part-mobile-playing-fintech/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-02-16-its-all-change-again","title":"It's all change, again","url":"/blog/2015/2015-02-16-its-all-change-again","summary":"My plan for 2015 was to spend another few months working on my various projects and then start looking for new full-time work opportunities. In the past month I made a few casual enquires to get an idea of what might be out there and ended up getting quite a few offers very quickly. Many of these I considered but weren&39;t compelling or different enough (from past work roles) to be worth putting a hold on my own projects.","date":"2015-02-16","tags":["Tech","Work","Berlin"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-02-14-payment-and-production-blocks-favicons-and-more","title":"Payment and Production blocks, Favicons and more","url":"/blog/2015/2015-02-14-payment-and-production-blocks-favicons-and-more","summary":"Quite a lot of small updates, tweaks and additions to the various Gregarious Mammal sites, here they are.","date":"2015-02-14","tags":["Updates"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-02-03-one-day-the-world-ended-intro-is-online","title":"One Day the World Ended intro is online","url":"/blog/2015/2015-02-03-one-day-the-world-ended-intro-is-online","summary":"After some polishing, planning and technical tweaking the text version of my work of fiction is now online.","date":"2015-02-03","tags":["Work","Fiction","Text"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-02-03-review-of-the-iron-heel-by-jack-london","title":"Review of The Iron Heel by Jack London","url":"/blog/2015/2015-02-03-review-of-the-iron-heel-by-jack-london","summary":"As part of my research in projects odtwe I have been reading some classics of utopian and dystopian fiction. Most recently I completed Jack London's The Iron Heel.","date":"2015-02-03","tags":["Reviews","Fiction","Reading"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-01-28-creating-the-perfect-tech-and-writing-stack","title":"Creating the 'Perfect' Tech and Writing Stack","url":"/blog/2015/2015-01-28-creating-the-perfect-tech-and-writing-stack","summary":"Yesterday I came up with the most phenomenal idea of how to get my writing workflow, ideas for ODTWE and tech stack in ‘perfect’ combination. Well, in theory (unsurprisingly).","date":"2015-01-28","tags":["Writing","Tech","Text"],"categories":["tech","writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-01-26-android-version-available-on-google-play","title":"Android version available on Google Play","url":"/blog/2015/2015-01-26-android-version-available-on-google-play","summary":"Somehow I forgot to post this here...","date":"2015-01-26","tags":["Android","Google"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-01-26-ios-version-on-github","title":"iOS Version on GitHub","url":"/blog/2015/2015-01-26-ios-version-on-github","summary":"I have completed the iOS version of Answers Against Humanity, it is currently in the App Store submission process, but I am thinking it might be rejected due to the content.","date":"2015-01-26","tags":["iOS","GitHub","Swift","App"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-01-26-production-updates-26th-january","title":"Production Updates 26th January","url":"/blog/2015/2015-01-26-production-updates-26th-january","summary":"Last week I spent time on creating some of the common elements that can be found across all of the Gregarious Mammal sites, this includes: Creative Commons notice Mailing List Financially contributing to projects Git and version information","date":"2015-01-26","tags":["Updates","Creative","Git","Drupal"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-01-26-review-of-triumph-of-the-nerds-and-kobold-guide-to-board-game-design","title":"Review of \"Triumph of the Nerds\" and \"Kobold Guide to Board Game Design\"","url":"/blog/2015/2015-01-26-review-of-triumph-of-the-nerds-and-kobold-guide-to-board-game-design","summary":"Continuing my reviews of research I have just finished the classic \"Kobold Guide to Board Game Design \" and can highly recommend it as a good overview of board game design advice. It is a collection of essays more than an end-to-end guide, so some essays will hold more relevance with you than others. However I picked up enough nuggets of advice to make it a worthwhile purchase and have a long list of 'todos. it includes essays from some stalwarts of the industry such as Richard Garfield and Steve Jackson (who created large parts of my childhood) and is divided into sections of the design process. One of the encouraging outcomes of reading the book was realising that I am currently on track and already doing a lot of what was recommended, but also realised I have a long way to go yet!","date":"2015-01-26","tags":["Design","Reviews","Industry"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-01-20-currently-looking-for-opportunities","title":"Currently Looking for Opportunities","url":"/blog/2015/2015-01-20-currently-looking-for-opportunities","summary":"I am currently open to opportunities for full-time and part-time work. Ideally with an enterprising startup or with a larger agency or internal development team.","date":"2015-01-20","tags":["Development","Work","Developers","Contribute"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-01-16-new-categories-added","title":"New Categories added","url":"/blog/2015/2015-01-16-new-categories-added","summary":"I added a set of new categories and related resources to the Lean Traveller site yesterday including Communication, travel and some resources under archiving.","date":"2015-01-16","tags":["Travel","Resources","Communication"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-01-14-illustrating-one-day-the-world-ended","title":"Illustrating One Day the World Ended","url":"/blog/2015/2015-01-14-illustrating-one-day-the-world-ended","summary":"After visiting the Tate Modern over Christmas and seeing these two images (I've forgotten the artist):","date":"2015-01-14","tags":["Christmas","Text"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-01-13-research-update","title":"Research Update","url":"/blog/2015/2015-01-13-research-update","summary":"I spent Christmas undertaking some more general board game theory and computer history research, this has been helped by a slew of book bundles over the last month covering the topic.","date":"2015-01-13","tags":["Board Games","Game Design","Games"],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-01-12-site-design-ideas","title":"Site Design Ideas","url":"/blog/2015/2015-01-12-site-design-ideas","summary":"I have started building the site for the \"One Day the World Ended\" project in Ruby on Rails and thus needed some designs. Here are my rough ones so far.","date":"2015-01-12","tags":["Design","Ruby","Rails"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-01-12-whats-it-all-about-inspirations-voice-style-and-structure","title":"What’s it all about - Inspirations, Voice, Style and Structure","url":"/blog/2015/2015-01-12-whats-it-all-about-inspirations-voice-style-and-structure","summary":"I guess most of its stylistic inspiration comes from Kurt Vonnegut and to a lesser extent surreal dark British comedy such as Douglas Adams. It is about the end of the world, but that isn't the point, it's just a vehicle. The fact that the world is ending isn't relevant, it's merely a surreal vehicle to explore elements of the human condition. Wow, that last sentence sounded pretentious!","date":"2015-01-12","tags":["Work"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-01-10-dec-19th-updates-refining-concepts","title":"Dec 19th Updates, refining concepts","url":"/blog/2015/2015-01-10-dec-19th-updates-refining-concepts","summary":"This update is more behind the scenes updates I'm afraid, I have been working on the product release and event cards, making very good progress. However I am currently using real names in the cards and I have no clearance for any of them, that will be a big task in the new year, but for now it's easier to just keep them private. Sorry, but the research has been a lot of fun, follow the twitter feed to see a few highlights.","date":"2015-01-10","tags":["Game Design","Games"],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-01-10-projects-site-redevelopment-complete","title":"Projects Site Redevelopment Complete","url":"/blog/2015/2015-01-10-projects-site-redevelopment-complete","summary":"I have just finished getting in place the basic structures behind the sites for my new projects and redeveloping my older sites accordingly.","date":"2015-01-10","tags":["JavaScript","Drupal","CMS"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-12-11-2014-review-niches-become-mainstream","title":"2014 Review, Niches-Become Mainstream","url":"/blog/2014/2014-12-11-2014-review-niches-become-mainstream","summary":"2014 was quite a year, especially for technology and how it affects everyone. Here are some of my highlights, lowlights and observations on the year and how it maybe affected developers.","date":"2014-12-11","tags":["Reviews","Technology"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/2014-review-niches-become-mainstream/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-12-10-7-crm-options-compatible-drupal","title":"7 CRM Options Compatible with Drupal","url":"/blog/2014/2014-12-10-7-crm-options-compatible-drupal","summary":"I love Drupal and end up undertaking most of my programming projects with it. I have been using it for so long that I find it far easier to push out projects with Drupal than with anything else, despite it's infamous learning curve.","date":"2014-12-10","tags":["Drupal","Crm","Programming","Learning"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/7-crm-options-compatible-drupal/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-12-05-dec-5th-updates-manual-concepts-design-and-more","title":"Dec 5th updates: Manual, concepts, design and more!","url":"/blog/2014/2014-12-05-dec-5th-updates-manual-concepts-design-and-more","summary":"Chip Shop has had quite a busy week and I have a few updates to tell you about.","date":"2014-12-05","tags":["Game Design","Games"],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-12-04-hands-on-with-lollipop","title":"Hands on with Lollipop","url":"/blog/2014/2014-12-04-hands-on-with-lollipop","summary":"I've had Lollipop (Android 5) on my phone for about ten days now, so it seemed like a good time to report back on my feelings and experiences with this new, 'material design' laden Operating System.","date":"2014-12-04","tags":["Android","Design","Notifications","Google"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-11-26-costs-and-card-concepts-refined","title":"Costs and Card concepts Refined","url":"/blog/2014/2014-11-26-costs-and-card-concepts-refined","summary":"Just a small update, with a much larger one coming next week.","date":"2014-11-26","tags":["Game Design"],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-11-20-answers-against-humanity","title":"Answers Against Humanity","url":"/blog/2014/2014-11-20-answers-against-humanity","summary":"Are you looking for smart answers to dumb questions? Then you might enjoy 'Answers Against Humanity', based on that 'award' winning game, Cards Against Humanity.","date":"2014-11-20","tags":["Aah","Games","Apps"],"categories":["tech","games"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-11-20-core-game-concepts-introduced","title":"Core game concepts introduced","url":"/blog/2014/2014-11-20-core-game-concepts-introduced","summary":"Along side getting the Chip Shop website online (needing a lot more work of course!) I have started defining the core game concepts, i.e. what you are aiming to do in the the game and what components will help you achieve this. I have also spent some time trawling through 80s US computer history pulling out products, personalities and events that will form the game cards.","date":"2014-11-20","tags":["Game Design","Games"],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-11-20-the-lean-traveller-alpha-launches","title":"The Lean Traveller alpha launches","url":"/blog/2014/2014-11-20-the-lean-traveller-alpha-launches","summary":"I have just rolled it the first incarnation of The Lean Traveller , with the first of the topics we will be covering, ' Money '.","date":"2014-11-20","tags":["Drupal","Services"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-11-17-documize","title":"Documize","url":"/blog/2014/2014-11-17-documize","summary":"With a variety of our projects we have been looking into methods of how to provide easy and open access to documents produced that most people could understand how to edit and contribute.","date":"2014-11-17","tags":["HTML","CMS","Contribute"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-11-17-wovn-io","title":"Wovn.io","url":"/blog/2014/2014-11-17-wovn-io","summary":"Now I live in a non-english speaking country, not only am I far more understanding of non-english speakers in English speaking countries, but I am also more conscious of providing content in multiple languages. The first point is something I would like to revisit in a future post, but for now lets look at a new option for providing content in different languages.","date":"2014-11-17","tags":["Languages"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"music","id":"yaya-brouhaha","title":"YaYa Brouhaha","url":"/music/yaya-brouhaha","summary":"The debut album from Melbourne garage-punk band Mesa Cosa — ten tracks of sonic snarls and sly smiles, from the upbeat \"Sydney\" to the harder \"Satanas\".","date":"2014-11-03","tags":[],"categories":["music"],"externalUrl":"https://mesacosa.bandcamp.com/album/yaya-brouhaha"},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-10-27-creating-your-first-site-with-drupal-8","title":"Creating Your First Site with Drupal 8","url":"/blog/2014/2014-10-27-creating-your-first-site-with-drupal-8","summary":"We have been hearing about Drupal 8 for quite a while now and it&rsquo;s sounding increasingly exciting and close. After DrupalCon Amsterdam I was keen to get my hands dirtier with Drupal 8 and try building a website with it.","date":"2014-10-27","tags":["Drupal","Installation"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-10-27-hands-on-with-yosemite","title":"Hands on With Yosemite","url":"/blog/2014/2014-10-27-hands-on-with-yosemite","summary":"I have been Macs for a very long time, since the dark days of the mid 90s and the days of Performas , System 7 and unremarkable CEOs. I have been through the massive change to OS X and processor changes from 68000 the series to PowerPC and then to Intel.","date":"2014-10-27","tags":["Mac","Intel","90S"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-10-24-techcrunch-disrupt-2014","title":"Techcrunch Disrupt 2014","url":"/blog/2014/2014-10-24-techcrunch-disrupt-2014","summary":"Before spending seven years in Melbourne and then moving to Germany, I lived and grew up in London. I am one of London's rarities, a real, born-and-bred, bona fide Londoner. In fact I am actually a Cockney -- and one of the last!","date":"2014-10-24","tags":["Melbourne"],"categories":["writing"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/techcrunch-disrupt-2014/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-10-14-setting-up-your-mac-with-vagrant-and-puphpet-for-drupal-development","title":"Setting up your Mac with Vagrant and Puphpet for Drupal Development","url":"/blog/2014/2014-10-14-setting-up-your-mac-with-vagrant-and-puphpet-for-drupal-development","summary":"I&39;m always a bit behind with development trends, mainly because working for yourself or small businesses, you rarely have the luxury of spare time to experiment and tend to &nbsp; stick with what you have to get the job done.","date":"2014-10-14","tags":["Development","Mac","Drupal","Vagrant"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-10-11-drupalcon-amsterdam-2014-report","title":"DrupalCon Amsterdam Report","url":"/blog/2014/2014-10-11-drupalcon-amsterdam-2014-report","summary":"As has been the pattern of many recent DrupalCons and Camps, DrupalCon Amsterdam 2014 was all about Drupal 8 and the changes that it's bringing to the platform and community.","date":"2014-10-11","tags":["Community","Drupal"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/drupalcon-amsterdam-2014-report/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-09-09-apples-special-event-new-iphones","title":"Apple's Special Event - New iPhones","url":"/blog/2014/2014-09-09-apples-special-event-new-iphones","summary":"Today Apple held one of its signature events in its home town of Cupertino, California, announcing a new range of iPhones, a long-awaited wearable device, and a new payment system.","date":"2014-09-09","tags":["Apple","Events"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/apples-special-event-new-iphones/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-09-07-degrowth-2014-cultural-agency-potentials-and-limits-of-current-civic-movement","title":"Degrowth 2014 - Cultural Agency, potentials and limits of current civic movement","url":"/blog/2014/2014-09-07-degrowth-2014-cultural-agency-potentials-and-limits-of-current-civic-movement","summary":"A valid discussion, but what will the limitations and potentials be.","date":"2014-09-07","tags":["Politics","Degrowth","Activism"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-09-07-degrowth-2014-degrowth-and-history-economics-sustainability-power","title":"Degrowth 2014 - Degrowth and history, Economics, sustainability, power","url":"/blog/2014/2014-09-07-degrowth-2014-degrowth-and-history-economics-sustainability-power","summary":"Growth is always a goal in many countries, statistics appear everywhere and it's always discussed. Even small reductions in GDP are met with bitter disappointment, it's become one of the most important measures in the modern era.","date":"2014-09-07","tags":["Politics","Degrowth","Activism"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-09-07-degrowth-2014-friday-keynotes","title":"Degrowth 2014 - Friday Keynotes","url":"/blog/2014/2014-09-07-degrowth-2014-friday-keynotes","summary":"Michelle Bauens, the P2P Foundation The Nutrient dense project is a global community of farmers and civic scientists who believe that putting nutrients into the soil it will improve food growth rates. These projects will often receive no funding, so they have mutualised their research and practices. This knowledge and information is shareable and escapes the commodity model. This is the production of commons, not capital.","date":"2014-09-07","tags":["Politics","Degrowth","Activism"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-09-07-degrowth-2014-shareeconomy-p2p-transition-town-what-do-they-share","title":"Degrowth 2014 - ShareEconomy, P2P, Transition Town - What do they share?","url":"/blog/2014/2014-09-07-degrowth-2014-shareeconomy-p2p-transition-town-what-do-they-share","summary":"We are looking at what these models and projects share in common and what is different between them and why.","date":"2014-09-07","tags":["Politics","Degrowth","Activism"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-09-07-degrowth-2014-technological-solutions-for-a-degrowth-society","title":"Degrowth 2014 - Technological solutions for a degrowth society","url":"/blog/2014/2014-09-07-degrowth-2014-technological-solutions-for-a-degrowth-society","summary":"It's refreshing to hear someone (unsurprisingly an engineer) mention that the Degrowth movement could do with more practical projects and methodologies to run alongside the theoretical discussions.","date":"2014-09-07","tags":["Politics","Degrowth","Activism"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-09-07-degrowth-2014-wednesday-keynotes","title":"Degrowth 2014 - Wednesday Keynotes","url":"/blog/2014/2014-09-07-degrowth-2014-wednesday-keynotes","summary":"Konstantatos Haris of the Harokopio University of Athens is a member of Syriza and Political scientist in the department of Geography. He states that Geography and History are also factors as well as different political and socio-economic structures. There are commonalities amongst many Southern European countries that need to be addressed today.","date":"2014-09-07","tags":["Politics","Degrowth","Activism"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-09-07-degrowth-2014-what-an-introduction","title":"Degrowth 2014 - What?! An introduction","url":"/blog/2014/2014-09-07-degrowth-2014-what-an-introduction","summary":"Despite attending the conference, not everyone will fully understand what 'Degrowth' is, or the multitude of related terms that will be mentioned during the conference. Thankfully the first session on the schedule is ideally suited for getting your knowledge up to scratch.","date":"2014-09-07","tags":["Politics","Degrowth","Activism"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-09-01-toastmastering-php-and-bike-riding-in-leipzig","title":"Toast(mastering), PHP and Bike Riding in Leipzig","url":"/blog/2014/2014-09-01-toastmastering-php-and-bike-riding-in-leipzig","summary":"Phew, quite a week! I started throwing myself into a few meetups in Leipzig and learnt a great many things about the event culture here (and other things) that I would like to share with you&hellip; Toastmasters, Leipzig Chapter I have never been to a Toastmasters event before, mainly because I&rsquo;ve never been invited, but also because I had always assumed it wouldn&rsquo;t quite suit me.&nbsp; Leipzig has two chapters , one German and one English, unsurprisingly I went to the English one and they were pleased to have a native speaker to lend a hand. Toastmasters in an International organisation that through its network of clubs helps develop people&rsquo;s presentation and public speaking skills. I&rsquo;ve always been slightly suspicious of these &lsquo;chapter&rsquo; type organisations, mainly because they&rsquo;re quite American in style and that always rubs an Englishman the wrong way. But also because I&rsquo;ve have often felt uncomfortable with bureaucracy and extraneous formality. However as the evening progressed I started to realise the benefits of some of these formalities and started to like them. I have plenty of public speaking experience and whilst I&rsquo;m not always great at it, I have the confidence to just do it without much thought. Not everyone does though and the enforced formalities about how proceedings should run, constructive feedback and a course structure (optional) help encourage and develop those who lack confidence to just plunge in the deep end. I don&rsquo;t know enough about how German associations are legally run, but it seems to me that Toastmasters chapters are run on very US/UK lines so it was also an interesting insight into the inner workings of an organisation. Leipzig PHP User Group One of my general observations about events here is how late they start, I wonder if that in Melbourne meet up groups where what people did between work and others things and that here they are people&rsquo;s main event of the evening. So often an event wont start until 8/8:30 which is taking a slight adjustment for me. The group was a little different from a group meet up in Melbourne, smaller (of course) but more casual. There were no formal talks but more of a casual discussion around PHP news and then the topic of the month, Project Management. Keeping up with the discussion was a lot of work for me, but I quite enjoyed it and people made me feel welcome. phpugl.de BUND Harvest bike ride The BUND is the German branch of Friends of the Earth and in Leipzig runs a lot of land protection programs. I went on a fairly epic bike ride with them around some of their sites which also had lots and lots of fruit (mainly Apple and Plum) trees. Even better, we were invited to take as much fruit as we liked from them. Interestingly, several of these cites were owned by the city so were public access for people to pick fruit to. Again I had a couple of interesting broken German discussions learning about the first day of school, Allotments (Small gardens) and much more. See photos of the ride here .","date":"2014-09-01","tags":["PHP","Events","Meetups","Melbourne"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-08-29-update-on-the-lean-and-agile-nonprofit","title":"Update on The Lean and Agile Nonprofit","url":"/blog/2014/2014-08-29-update-on-the-lean-and-agile-nonprofit","summary":"A little while back I announced my intention to write a book on some techniques and ideas incorporating Lean and Agile methodologies into the&nbsp;not-for-profit&nbsp;sector. I made some good headway but it became fairly apparent to me quite quickly that maybe I didn&39;t have quite enough material (right now) to produce a complete book. Well as luck would have it I met up with highly experienced not-for-profit consultant, Donnie Maclurcan and he mentioned his &39;Not-for-Profit Handbook&39; project that he was struggling to find the time to finish.","date":"2014-08-29","tags":["Agile","Not-For-Profit"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-08-27-subtle-signs-youre-not-from-round-here","title":"Subtle signs you're not from round here","url":"/blog/2014/2014-08-27-subtle-signs-youre-not-from-round-here","summary":"I've been in Germany for a couple of months now and of course there the obvious signs you're not a local when you open your mouth.","date":"2014-08-27","tags":["Life"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-08-13-us-small-city-travels","title":"US Small city travels","url":"/blog/2014/2014-08-13-us-small-city-travels","summary":"The more I come to USA, the less I understand it, in fact I could say, the less I like it. Before we explore that further, I had to leave Germany first&hellip;Leipzig airport has a couple of positives and negatives being a small airport&hellip;The main negative is you can&rsquo;t seem to online check-in to international flights that originate from there, but on the flip side, check in and security takes about ten minutes.I&rsquo;ve been in Australia so long that I had forgotten (or it&rsquo;s changed?) that Europe to America flights don&rsquo;t server free alcohol, ah well&hellip;&nbsp;Sadly in Chicago I didn&rsquo;t have quite enough time to get into the city so stayed in the airport which was an extremely busty and stressful airport. It also had atrocious wifi, no shops before checkin and confirmed the typical American stereotype of having no phone stores.&nbsp;Still, got my first beer and burger in :)Back to America&hellip;I guess this was my first trip where I left the major cities (ignoring Portland last year) behind and you fast realise that smaller town America is a whole different world. I&rsquo;m about to make some general sweeping statements that are based on my experience, they may be right or wrong, but they&rsquo;re based on my experiences.Firstly is the massive noticeable difference between the &lsquo;haves&rsquo; and the &lsquo;have-nots&rsquo;. This is not an original observation but it&rsquo;s increasingly noticeable and very confronting to outsiders. Especially in downtown areas and &lsquo;ghettos&rsquo;, there are frequent groups of people who really look like they need help and aren&rsquo;t receiving any (as far as one can tell). Then a block away you will find expensive restaurants, shops or homes that flaunt their exclusivity. Of course you will find these extremes in every country, but it is especially noticeable and when you are aware of America&rsquo;s social security system and attitudes towards private enterprise it&rsquo;s repercussions are very clear.Secondly is the assumption that you drive. Again, this is not unique to America, but much more of an issue. In both Minneapolis and Providence I struggled to find any decent (or affordable) supermarkets in the central areas, they were all in the suburbs in giant malls. This continues into general life where riding on public transport or not having a car available for other trips is considered very odd, even for tourists. Take Providence, I know it&rsquo;s a small city, but there was one grocery and liquor store in the entire downtown area, which were both overpriced.It also seems that visiting America&rsquo;s smaller cities in August (much like many other cities in the world) is a bad idea as they&rsquo;re half empty and lots is closed.Now to get more specific&hellip;&nbsp;&nbsp; Minneapolis","date":"2014-08-13","tags":["Security","Australia","Europe","Help"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-07-29-initial-impressions-of-leipzig-and-germany","title":"Initial impressions of Leipzig and Germany","url":"/blog/2014/2014-07-29-initial-impressions-of-leipzig-and-germany","summary":"So, we're coming up to our first month living in Leipzig (and Germany), so I think I can now start to give some initial impressions. Especially as now we are moving out of 'Holiday' mode and into 'Work' mode.","date":"2014-07-29","tags":["Tech","Melbourne","Work"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-07-20-user-experience-behind-always-listening-devices","title":"The User Experience behind always listening devices","url":"/blog/2014/2014-07-20-user-experience-behind-always-listening-devices","summary":"A couple of months ago I watched the movies 'Her' and 'Computer Chess'.","date":"2014-07-20","tags":["Devices","Computers"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/user-experience-behind-always-listening-devices/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-07-12-bye-bye-melbourne-hallo-leipzig","title":"Bye bye Melbourne. Hallo Leipzig.","url":"/blog/2014/2014-07-12-bye-bye-melbourne-hallo-leipzig","summary":"In the past ten days I finally made the second overseas move of my life. This time from Melbourne to Leipzig.","date":"2014-07-12","tags":["Melbourne","Australia","Life"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-07-12-global-space-odyssey-leipzig-2014","title":"Global Space Odyssey, Leipzig 2014","url":"/blog/2014/2014-07-12-global-space-odyssey-leipzig-2014","summary":"I just took part in my first rally in Leipzig (and Germany), The ' Global Space Odyssey ', representing refugee rights this year. I'm not sure if this is how every rally in Germany happens, I doubt it is, I think this was something special that happens on a yearly basis as local news and social media was awash with reports on the event.","date":"2014-07-12","tags":["News","Events"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"events","id":"2014-06-22-what-does-always-listening-mean-to-your-ux","title":"Internet of Things Meet up","url":"/events","summary":"What are the new paradigms for User Experience with the new wave of always listening devices such as Siri and Google now?","date":"2014-06-22","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/sh/82ati79vv9h42gj/AABQ68-sbPhuwWJpFWKWznRja?dl=0"},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-06-14-leads-musicians-gear-and-technical-gubbins-for-sale-free","title":"Leads, musicians gear and technical gubbins for sale / free","url":"/blog/2014/2014-06-14-leads-musicians-gear-and-technical-gubbins-for-sale-free","summary":"Not a post I would usually share, but it seemed the easiest way of getting everything in one place. A bunch of stuff that might appeal to musicians, technical people etc etc&hellip;","date":"2014-06-14","tags":["Apple","Guitar","Share"],"categories":["tech","music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-05-18-public-records-mvp-drupal-in-india-and-mobile-entrepreneurs","title":"Public records, MVP, Drupal in India and mobile entrepreneurs","url":"/blog/2014/2014-05-18-public-records-mvp-drupal-in-india-and-mobile-entrepreneurs","summary":"It&rsquo;s been a busy week and I haven&rsquo;t quite found the time for a daily blog, so instead, lets have a quick weekly round up&hellip; On Monday I went to Mobile Mondays, a session on entrepreneurs and startups . It was the usual slightly random feel that MoMoMelb often has. I found most of the speakers a little too forthright, telling you how good they all were rather than what they offered. Most interesting of the night was Brad Birchall of Seera (a competency framework for recruitment), but generally I couldn&rsquo;t quite figure what a lot of them actually did and why mobile was relevant. Tuesday was Drupal Melbourne. Stuart Clarke gave a talk on maintaining a Drupal distribution which is worth a read if you do that sort of thing. Our main speaker of the night was a visitor from India, Anoop John, who I also met up with later in the week. His presentation on Drupal in India &nbsp;was a fascinating insight into an emerging country in the Drupal ecosystem as well as the world generally. I was also given a present for my help with the meet ups over the past years, which was very nice. :) Wednesday was a special session for the typically intimate Product Anonymous , with a very large turnout, different venue and sponsorship. The subject was &lsquo;Minimum Viable Product&rsquo; (MVP) with speakers from Adioso, Seek, 99 Designs, Geoplex and hosted (admirably) by Jock Busuttil, Founder of Product People. It was a great session and I picked up some great advice that I will be applying to the Lean and Agile nonprofit project. At a slight tangent, on Saturday I went to the Public Records of Victoria (PROV) open day and feel it&rsquo;s worth mentioning here. I found it fascinating that we still have so many paper records, in fact just 1% of Victoria&rsquo;s records have been digitised. So my fears of losing all of our records and output due to a lack of a compatible reading device in the distant future are far from being realised. Amongst many other things, I also learnt that PROV is a world leader in electronic record management and has advised the world through the VERS &nbsp;standard. Finally I learnt about the Genealogical Society of Utah &nbsp;who are a branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and perform a massive amount of support&nbsp; for records offices all around the world through their FamilySearch brand.","date":"2014-05-17","tags":["Mobile","Drupal","Startups","Melbourne"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-04-30-launch-of-startup-victoria","title":"Launch of Startup Victoria","url":"/blog/2014/2014-04-30-launch-of-startup-victoria","summary":"There was a panel discussion at tonight's launch but it was really all about launching Victoria's peak body for startups, entrepreneurs and founders tonight and the packed room was very much in drinking and talking mode.","date":"2014-04-29","tags":["Startups"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-04-29-the-mobile-platforms-to-watch-2014","title":"The mobile platforms to watch in 2014","url":"/blog/2014/2014-04-29-the-mobile-platforms-to-watch-2014","summary":"With an average global combined market share of 85-95%, iOS and Android are by far the dominant players in the mobile operating system space. So why bother looking into or developing on any other platforms?","date":"2014-04-29","tags":["Mobile","Android","iOS","Developing"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/mobile-platforms-watch-2014/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-04-17-startup-health-tech-april-2014","title":"Startup Health Tech - April 2014","url":"/blog/2014/2014-04-17-startup-health-tech-april-2014","summary":"I have dabbled with a little bit of work in the tech/health scene and always knew that Melbourne generally had a large and healthy medical ‘industry’, but I had no idea that the Startup space was so large! Tonight’s event was held at the brand new Royal Children’s Hospital, which was very shiny, new and welcoming. The crowd was a good mix of clinicians, technical folk and business folk and there were quite a few speakers, so I’ll get on with telling you about them all in my usual very brief manner.","date":"2014-04-17","tags":["Tech","Health","Melbourne","Industry"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-04-07-what-do-you-know-april-2014","title":"What do you know - April 2014","url":"/blog/2014/2014-04-07-what-do-you-know-april-2014","summary":"Another great 'What do you know' session from Web Directions , lots of short talks, lots of short descriptions...","date":"2014-04-07","tags":["Web"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-03-22-win-a-ticket-to-civicon-san-francisco-2014","title":"Win a ticket to CiviCon San Francisco 2014","url":"/blog/2014/2014-03-22-win-a-ticket-to-civicon-san-francisco-2014","summary":"My new tech collective, Gregarious Mammal is a proud sponsor of the next CivCon in San Francisco &nbsp;on the 24-25th April&nbsp;and as a sponsor we have a free ticket that we wont be able to utilise, so we&39;re giving it away!","date":"2014-03-22","tags":["Tech"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-03-19-melbourne-mobile-march-2014","title":"Melbourne Mobile March 2014","url":"/blog/2014/2014-03-19-melbourne-mobile-march-2014","summary":"We had two local and two international speakers this month&hellip;","date":"2014-03-19","tags":["Mobile","Melbourne","Ubuntu","Apps"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-03-17-evolve-sms","title":"Evolve SMS","url":"/blog/2014/2014-03-17-evolve-sms","summary":"One of the peculiar aspects of Android is that theoretically, everything is replaceable. This includes phone features, which initially seems odd, the fact that you can replace your phone dialler with something else.","date":"2014-03-17","tags":["Android","App","Apps"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-03-10-cloud-ux-dude-wheres-my-file","title":"Cloud UX - Dude where's my file?","url":"/blog/2014/2014-03-10-cloud-ux-dude-wheres-my-file","summary":"The old paradigms in software design have been on life support for a long time.","date":"2014-03-10","tags":["Cloud","Life","Software","Design"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/cloud-ux/"},{"type":"events","id":"2014-02-20-cosmic-horror-and-hp-lovecraft","title":"Laneway Learning","url":"/events","summary":"I love the works and worlds of HP Lovecraft, here's a talk I have done occasionally, it's usually followed by a reading.","date":"2014-03-05","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/q9ttt0ljseb1ck2/HP%20Lovecraft%2C%20Laneway%20Learning%20v2.pptx?dl=0"},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-03-03-dash-documentation-browser-for-mac","title":"Dash - documentation browser for Mac","url":"/blog/2014/2014-03-03-dash-documentation-browser-for-mac","summary":"Every now and then along comes a piece of software that just does pretty much everything right, one of these is Dash.","date":"2014-03-03","tags":["Documentation","Mac","dash","Browsers"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-02-27-melbourne-kmlf-feb-2014","title":"Melbourne KMLF Feb 2014","url":"/blog/2014/2014-02-27-melbourne-kmlf-feb-2014","summary":"I&rsquo;ve been attending the Knowledge Management Melbourne sessions without still being entirely clear what a Knowledge manager actually is, but I find the topics they present interesting and relevant, so&hellip;","date":"2014-02-27","tags":["Melbourne"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-02-20-lovecraft-and-john-harrison-return","title":"Lovecraft and John Harrison return","url":"/blog/2014/2014-02-20-lovecraft-and-john-harrison-return","summary":"I have the fantastic opportunity to represent two of my favourite non-tech talks from last year, I&39;m back at Laneway Learning to present my &quot; Cosmic Horror &amp; HP Lovecraft talk &quot; on March 5th, you can book in at the Laneway Learning website . I&39;m also presenting a segment of my &quot; Mapping and why your view of the world is wrong &quot; talk at The Laborastory about John Harrison on the 1st April.","date":"2014-02-20","tags":["Tech","Learning"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-02-21-product-anonymous-feb-2014-api-management","title":"Product Anonymous Feb 2014 - API management","url":"/blog/2014/2014-02-21-product-anonymous-feb-2014-api-management","summary":"This was a great Product Anonymous session with Jason Corimor of Mashery that covered the business and commercialisation of using APIs, I intend to expand on a few of these topics in the future, so will touch upon them here.","date":"2014-02-20","tags":["API","Api Management","Business"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-02-18-melbourne-mobile-february-2014","title":"Melbourne Mobile February 2014","url":"/blog/2014/2014-02-18-melbourne-mobile-february-2014","summary":"A strange session tonight as we had a last minute cancellation, this coupled with the typical business session audience, i.e. High RSVP, high no-show, meant it was a quiet and quick evening. Andrew Skinner confessed to not being a confident public speaker, however this didn&39;t detract from his high quality, high content presentation. The presentation covered getting client / internal team buy in for developing apps and Andrew drew from his years of experience working with some high profile clients and projects. His practical take homes was an explanation of Business canvases for developing business models and how to use them. Connect with Andrew via LinkedIn - https://au.linkedin.com/in/andy2307 Cameron Burns took a very different approach, being from a marketing background, throwing away his planned talk and just seeing what the audience were interested in. He covered sources of funding, choices of development stacks, using remote development teams, marketing plans for your apps and much much more in a quick fire sequence of tips and advice. Connect with Cameron via LinkedIn - https://au.linkedin.com/pub/cameron-burns/21/71/629","date":"2014-02-18","tags":["Mobile","Melbourne","Development","Business"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"events","id":"2014-02-14-jms-cms-untangle-the-mess","title":"Melbourne JS 2014","url":"/events","summary":"My MelbJS Feb 2014 talk on how CMSs (Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal and Expression Engine) use JavaScript.","date":"2014-02-14","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/sh/uf0vzc50sosn7oo/AADjPG5a1wxtufLKa3jh5UERa?dl=0"},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-02-01-elance-big-idea-melbourne","title":"eLance big idea Melbourne","url":"/blog/2014/2014-02-01-elance-big-idea-melbourne","summary":"This was a strange event for a couple of reasons, firstly it didn't run very smoothly with lots of minor technical issues and delays that made the event run very long and late, with the main event not really starting until 8pm after a 6:30 start. Secondly the pitches (I saw, see later) were generally a little unsure and not in the traditional pitch style, I spent a lot of time thinking 'and...?', it was never very clear why the pitchers were pitching, what did they want to win for, what did they need the money for? A lot of the pitches had references to 'how awesome' eLance was, feeling more like a pitch for eLance than their own products some of the time.","date":"2014-02-01","tags":["Melbourne","Events","Pitching"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-01-29-lean-startup-melbourne-jan-2014","title":"Lean Startup Melbourne Jan 2014","url":"/blog/2014/2014-01-29-lean-startup-melbourne-jan-2014","summary":"This was a great session with a myriad of conflicting opinions and points of few, that always sparks a good debate :) &nbsp; First up a great set of introductory resources for startup founders from Scott Handsaker, with a lot of new initiatives arriving in Melbourne. His slides will be available on the event&39;s meetup page . &nbsp; Secondly was a very constructive talk on outsourcing that actually gave some great constructive advice on best practise in this sometimes thorny field. Advice covered finding, briefing and using outsourced workers as well as more details on creating a brief, making sure they follow it and how to evaluate their work coping with time differences and other infrastructure and culture differences. Finally, in a nice positive twist, the speaker recommend being generous and encourage to your workers.&nbsp; &nbsp; Final came a panel with a mixed bag of local and international entrepreneurs, Susan Wu, Leni Mayo and Brendan Lewis. They discussed the Melbourne startup ecosystem and how it compares with others around the world, especially in the UK and US. Here&rsquo;s a few tidbits I garnered and remembered to write down. &nbsp; People only look for success, not necessarily actions when weighing up the impact of startups and/or a city. Connections and support for these startups are equally as important. Those individuals and organisations who are successful should give back. London had been a recent case study of government encouraging growth through backing and legislation, but London scale is vastly larger than Melbourne. Melbourne&39;s lack of size and geography makes us look more outward, also our lack of plan B if you fail, there are no massive employers Like Google or Apple who will value you. Australia is too full of safe investors, non risky investing. Lean and tech startups aren&39;t the only startups in Melbourne, there are many others participating in different scenes such as medical.&nbsp;","date":"2014-01-29","tags":["Melbourne","Startups","Events","Work"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-01-23-featurezilla-will-featureful-kill-usable-on-the-web","title":"Feature-zilla! Will Featureful Kill Usable on the Web?","url":"/blog/2014/2014-01-23-featurezilla-will-featureful-kill-usable-on-the-web","summary":"When did you last use the references feature in Microsoft Word?","date":"2014-01-23","tags":["Web","Microsoft"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/featureful-vs-usable/"},{"type":"events","id":"2014-01-19-why-you-should-come-to-drupal-south","title":"Drupal Melbourne 2014","url":"/events","summary":"Why Melbournians should come to DrupalSouth.","date":"2014-01-19","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fx8hs4uycaq1g0q/AABeyGXylwKq1DIaV5PrSSF4a?dl=0"},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-01-14-computer-human-interaction","title":"Computer Human Interaction","url":"/blog/2014/2014-01-14-computer-human-interaction","summary":"Over the weekend I saw Her &nbsp;and Computer chess , very different films about technology that were delivered in very different ways, but there were several similar threads running in them that got me thinking, these similarities were&hellip; They ended up not being about what I was expecting and (more seriously), they were about the interactions of computers with humans, albeit at very different ends of the spectrum. At one end, the amateur made Computer Chess dealt with the early days of computers interacting with humans (taking place in the 70s), in the film the programers are seen playing out the moves that the computer programs suggested, with the computers effectively playing &lsquo;each other&rsquo;. The concept of the computer playing a human is still seen as a crazy idea and the computer winning, even crazier. In fact, one of the plot twists is that a particular chess program, actually performs better against an &lsquo;unpredictable&rsquo; human instead of a &39;predictable&39; computer. At the complete other end of this is Her, a film that I equally loved and/or hated depending if it was satirical or not. In Her, most are seen in almost completely subversive relationships with their technology, entrusting just about everything to them. It was a reality that wasn&rsquo;t too far in the future from our own, but the scariest thing about it was how self absorbed everyone was, even away from their technology, all they did was talk about themselves and their problems. Again, I&rsquo;m not sure if this was intentional satire or just an americanisation, but it showed just how comfortable people were with having their technology interact with them. This got me thinking about &lsquo;Computer Human Interaction&rsquo; as opposed to the more traditional &lsquo;Human Computer Interaction&rsquo;. Of course, for as long as we&rsquo;ve been interacting with computers they&rsquo;ve been interacting with us,&nbsp; but as we have more services and products like Siri or Google now that pre-empt us and often are the initiator of an interaction, we need to think about new paradigms for those interactions that are helpful, but not creepy. Interesting times.","date":"2014-01-14","tags":["Technology","Computers","Film"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2014/2014-01-01-2013-in-review","title":"2013 in review","url":"/blog/2014/2014-01-01-2013-in-review","summary":"For many, 2013 has been an intense and not always good year, but personally it&39;s been pretty good and I&39;m looking forward to building upon the foundations from this year into 2014. Here&39;s some reflections and highlights for you all to enjoy/endure.","date":"2014-01-01","tags":["Reviews"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-12-15-meet-the-data-owners-vicroads","title":"Meet the data owners: VicRoads","url":"/blog/2013/2013-12-15-meet-the-data-owners-vicroads","summary":"I've been learning to drive (again) recently, with an aim to finally actually take my driving test, I'm also a keen (legal) cyclist… None of this has any real bearing on me deciding to attend tonight's event, that was more to do with my fascination in knowing about and understanding the various data sets that are available from our government agencies.","date":"2013-12-15","tags":["Opendata"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-12-10-joomla-day-polo-shirt","title":"Joomla! Day Polo shirt","url":"/blog/2013/2013-12-10-joomla-day-polo-shirt","summary":"Joomla! Day Melbourne 2013 polo shirt, very nice but a little large for me.","date":"2013-12-10","tags":["Merchandise","Conferences"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-12-10-kendoui-t-shirt","title":"KendoUI T-Shirt","url":"/blog/2013/2013-12-10-kendoui-t-shirt","summary":"Pretty cool logo :)","date":"2013-12-10","tags":["Merchandise","Conferences"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-12-10-osdc-towel","title":"OSDC Towel","url":"/blog/2013/2013-12-10-osdc-towel","summary":"I love this towel, but being white it gets dirty very quickly, so not really sure what to do with it...","date":"2013-12-10","tags":["Merchandise","Conferences"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-12-05-what-people-want-from-websites","title":"What people want from websites","url":"/blog/2013/2013-12-05-what-people-want-from-websites","summary":"I've been sitting on the post for a while, a series of (comical) screen shots on what different people want from a website during it's design process. You may recognise some...","date":"2013-12-05","tags":["websites","Design"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-11-25-lean-startup-melbourne-future-trends-and-innovation-in-melbourne-startups","title":"Lean Startup Melbourne - Future Trends and Innovation in Melbourne Startups","url":"/blog/2013/2013-11-25-lean-startup-melbourne-future-trends-and-innovation-in-melbourne-startups","summary":"November has been a great month for meet-ups, perhaps everyone wrapping up for the year is making organisers up the ante.","date":"2013-11-25","tags":["Startups","Melbourne","Trends","Monitoring"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-11-25-creative-vs-commons","title":"Creative vs Commons","url":"/blog/2013/2013-11-25-creative-vs-commons","summary":"With&hellip;&nbsp;Cory Doctorow, Melbourne Writers Festival Director Lisa Dempster and Peter Williams of the Deloitte Centre for the Edge. A main presentation, followed by a panel discussion, which I haven&39;t really covered here and got interesting just as it was ending.","date":"2013-11-24","tags":["Creative","Melbourne"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-11-21-melbourne-geek-night-nov-2013","title":"Melbourne Geek night Nov 2013","url":"/blog/2013/2013-11-21-melbourne-geek-night-nov-2013","summary":"It seems as the year draws to an end, we&39;re having some of the best talks! Damn Christmas&hellip;","date":"2013-11-21","tags":["Melbourne","Web","Design","Devices"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-11-20-drupal-melbourne-meetup-nov-2013","title":"Drupal Melbourne Meetup Nov 2013","url":"/blog/2013/2013-11-20-drupal-melbourne-meetup-nov-2013","summary":"A great session tonight with two case studies from local Drupal shops...","date":"2013-11-20","tags":["Drupal","Melbourne"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-11-20-granite-leadership-breakfast-vendor-management-and-quality-of-delivery","title":"Granite Leadership breakfast - Vendor Management & Quality of Delivery","url":"/blog/2013/2013-11-20-granite-leadership-breakfast-vendor-management-and-quality-of-delivery","summary":"First up, I find it strange how different sectors describe the same things with different names and have the same problems. It&39;s simultaneously refreshing and depressing that small and large organisations have exactly the same problems with their projects.","date":"2013-11-20","tags":["Writing","Agile"],"categories":["tech","writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-11-15-so-i-quit-my-job-whats-next","title":"So, I quit my job. What's next?","url":"/blog/2013/2013-11-15-so-i-quit-my-job-whats-next","summary":"A few weeks ago I quit my job, I&rsquo;d been there for two years but it was no longer right for me anymore. I&rsquo;m not one to rest on my laurels, so what&rsquo;s next? After a process of figuring out who I am and what I want to do, quite a lot is on the horizon, allow me to introduce you to some of the potentials&hellip; Wrapping up my involvement in Green Renters This has been something that Cate and I have been trying to do for a while and we realised it needed more focussed work than we initially thought and we&rsquo;re weighing up quite what shape this will take, if you&rsquo;re interested in knowing more about that, read this blog post . Starting a new cooperative organisation The shape that this will (possibly) completely take is yet to be decided, but I&rsquo;m resurrecting and changing an old tag line from my past and starting a new Community development and Technology co-operative business called &ldquo;Large Gregarious Mammal&rdquo;, if you&rsquo;re interested in that or want in, see this blog post . Writing more Wether it be on the very blog or on other more established publications, I want to write more&hellip; About technology, ideas, other people&rsquo;s ideas and&hellip; My book&hellip; The Lean Agile nonprofit I&rsquo;ve mentioned this before, but I&rsquo;m stepping up working on my timely and needed (at this time) volume (but also consultancy, blog etc&hellip;) on applying lean and agile methodology to the non profit world. Follow those exploits here . Tools for Changemakers Inspired by the reception from my sessions as part of the Chagnemakers Festival I have decided to turn it into an ongoing project, not only more such sessions, but also a website resource that will weigh up and review tools suitable for Changemakers. toolsforchangemakers.com Or I might just get a job&hellip;","date":"2013-11-15","tags":["Development","Writing","Agile","Tools"],"categories":["tech","writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-11-01-lean-startup-melbourne-jon-teo","title":"Lean Startup Melbourne - Jon Teo","url":"/blog/2013/2013-11-01-lean-startup-melbourne-jon-teo","summary":"Jonathan Teo (originally from Sydney) from General Catalyst Partners, a leading VC firm in Silicon Valley. Jonathan has personally led early-stage investments in 3 of the hottest companies of recent years including Twitter, Instagram and SnapChat, so a body of great knowledge.","date":"2013-11-01","tags":["Melbourne","Tech","Australia","Funding"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-10-30-healthhack-melbourne-2013","title":"HealthHack Melbourne 2013","url":"/blog/2013/2013-10-30-healthhack-melbourne-2013","summary":"I feel slightly cheeky writing much about the event as I didn&rsquo;t really end up doing very much and felt somewhat humbled and embarrassed by the other attendees. Anyway, to start at the beginning. HealthHack 2013 was a weekend hackfest solving problems that medical researchers face. HealthHack brought together medical researchers, bioinformaticians, software developers, data analysts, data visualisers and designers. Together, they created new software tools to analyse, visualise and communicate data. Organised by a great team in a very welcoming atmosphere it was a surprisingly well attended event considering the niche topic.&nbsp;Read about the weekend and the winners here - healthhackmelb.com I turned up on Friday night and enjoyed being very well fed and watered and finally got to meet @FCTweedie in the flesh after much mutual twitter stalking. I listened to the problem statements and must admit it was all a little over my head. I come from a technical background and despite having studied &lsquo;proper programming&rsquo; at University it has been a very long time since I really did any and I realise my web work is very light really. Also the technical scientific nature of the problems was a little out of my depth, I vaguely understand what things like DNA are, but when it comes to reporting, analysing and visualising them, way out of my comfort zone. Still, I found one talk spoke to me at a level I could understand, which was about visualising the quality of academic papers on particular subjects. Working a lot within content management systems, this seemed like an ideal fit to my skills, so I joined the team. However, mixing with a bunch of far superior programmers to me, it was immediately obvious that they had far more complex (and probably more appropriate) solutions in mind and I was a little lost again&hellip; I meandered around for a bit watching what people where up to and went to see if the organisers needed any help, they didn&rsquo;t, but were incredibly nice to me about everything and we had a very interesting chat about Hack events in general, but I think that&rsquo;s a discussion for another blog post. Great stuff and congratulations to all involved.","date":"2013-10-30","tags":["Melbourne","Writing","Programming","Web"],"categories":["tech","writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-10-30-publishing-the-open-access-way","title":"Publishing the Open Access Way","url":"/blog/2013/2013-10-30-publishing-the-open-access-way","summary":"As part of RMIT&rsquo;s sessions in Open Access week I toddled down to &ldquo;Publishing the Open Access Way: The Change in Business Thinking Towards Open Access&rdquo; and a slightly small crowd&hellip; I&rsquo;m a little behind with blog posts, so this will again, be a little bit of a collection of items with some opinions and thoughts. The speakers and talks were Dr Adrian Danks - Senses of cinema A quarterly academic journal around cinema culture and commentary. To me it&rsquo;s approach seemed fairly conventional. Their open nature means not Peer reviewed. Their 4th largest&nbsp; audience is Australia, which seems to be a constant, many Australian creative organisations have to be successful overseas to make it at home. Dependent on funding bodies, how does this affect the open nature? Is it any better than an advertiser really? Philip Dearman - Communication, Politics &amp; Culture An open access journal, I think the title pretty much tells you what the content is. Seems like some publications just become free because they have no other options or are forced to. Again, the journal is backed by Academia anyway, so it doesn&rsquo;t have quite the same restraints others may have.&nbsp; Debbie Dickinson - The conversation &nbsp; The Conversation is fairly well known, again with some academic backing, but seemingly looking into wider sustainable sources of funding and life. Some of the Conversations interesting features and approaches are republishing their content,&nbsp; sharing is positively encouraged leading to strong worldwide access. www.rmit.edu.au/library/oaw","date":"2013-10-30","tags":["Creative","Politics","Australia","Culture"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-10-21-submit-your-site-building-session-ideas-for-drupalsouth","title":"Submit your site building session ideas for DrupalSouth","url":"/blog/2013/2013-10-21-submit-your-site-building-session-ideas-for-drupalsouth","summary":"I am excited to be the track chair for site building at DrupalSouth in Wellington next year and it&39;s time to get your session proposals in!","date":"2013-10-21","tags":["Drupal","Tools"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-10-17-travel-tips","title":"Travel tips","url":"/blog/2013/2013-10-17-travel-tips","summary":"An ever growing miscellaneous list of travel tips and thoughts that occur to me. These are about travel itself, not my actual travels. After flying international, getting low cost flights for remainder of the journey isn&39;t worth it. Don&39;t always go for the cheapest option for transfers etc, often not worth it the long run. British airports suck and so do most of the associated services, they have some of the worst customer service around. Going off the beaten track is worthwhile. Hotels are the past, airbnb is the future. Being an English speaker is an amazing luxury when traveling. There is a gap in the market for a decent travelers sim card with good data. Lebra , and Uros come close, but still not quite, please let me know if you know of anything better available in Australia. Is it me or do airlines not want to give away add much alcohol as they used to? One travel power adapter is rarely enough.&nbsp;","date":"2013-10-16","tags":["Travel","Australia","Data","Services"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-09-20-melbourne-geek-night-september-2013","title":"Melbourne Geek night, September 2013","url":"/blog/2013/2013-09-20-melbourne-geek-night-september-2013","summary":"The speaker line ups and topics keep getting better for the Melbourne geek nights and tonight is no expection. Ophelie Lechat from Flippa talking about &quot;Tackling the scary content marketing beast&quot; I&39;ve been doing some of this myself recently, so it was interesting to hear some more in depth on te topic from a commercial perpective, here&rsquo;s what I got out of the session: Content isn&rsquo;t just a blog Have editorial calendars Content strategy and marketing are best friends as the discipline helps attract seo and web traffic, this in turn reduces demand on customer support and partnerships. good for engagement. Assess what content you already have. If it&39;s not content it may be existing skills or assets. Writing for your site can be empowering for team members Don&rsquo;t be afraid of ghost and hired writers. Decide what will you talk about and don&39;t just talk to and about yourself. Identify what others don&39;t do or do badly. ebooks of collections of posts are a great marketing idea. What to write about - questions that need answering, searches on your site. What conversations are people having elsewhere? If you get stuck, write an outline first. Keep your content as short as possible, focus, end with engagement, what do users/readers want?","date":"2013-09-20","tags":["Melbourne","Writing","Web","Marketing"],"categories":["tech","writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-09-21-today-google-told-me-my-flight-was-delayed-before-my-airline","title":"Today Google told me my flight was delayed before my airline.","url":"/blog/2013/2013-09-21-today-google-told-me-my-flight-was-delayed-before-my-airline","summary":"I am travelling on a three stage international flight today, it has a few hours stopover in each transit location, but that&39;s little enough time that on upset can throw the whole flight out of whack. I woke up this morning to see Google Now telling me that my first flight from Melbourne to Sydney had been delayed (I love big data and personally don&39;t rely mind what services now about me, as long as I am aware) by two hours, which would mean I would miss my second and longest flight leg. I checked my emails, nothing from Virgin, no SMSs either. I checked the flight statuses on their website, which confirmed that my flight had been delayed (I&39;m intrigued to know how you know a flight is going to be delayed in advance, but that&39;s another discussion), so rang their customer service line to see what was going on. After a bit of fathing about, which I always seem to get with Virgin customer service, it often takes three explanations to make them understand what you&39;re talking about, I was informed that I had been moved to a flight an hour earlier. Still no emails or SMS regarding this, so what if I hadn&39;t had rung? I was still a little unsure about the change, but I figured there&39;s certainly no harm in getting to the airport early, so left aiming for the earlier flight anyway. Finally at a little over 2.5 hours before my new (unconfirmed) flight I finally received a phone call telling me to call Virgin about a flight change, so after ringing their customer services line and more fathing about, it was confirmed again that I had had my flight changed. I am lucky to live close to the airport and I am also lucky that I have technology telling me my every move before I even know it myself, but what if I had been living a fair way out and wasn&39;t so connected? Is three hours notice really enough time to get to the airport and checkin to an international flight on time? I guess this is a sign of when automated internal systems can fail.","date":"2013-09-20","tags":["Google","Big Data","Technology","Melbourne"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-09-15-bitcoin-melbourne-meetup-sep-2013","title":"BitCoin Melbourne meetup Sep 2013","url":"/blog/2013/2013-09-15-bitcoin-melbourne-meetup-sep-2013","summary":"There was a slightly strange feeling to this meet up, in some ways it felt a little insular (I guess those who are actively involved with BitCoin are a small and intriguing community), but it could also just be because it was for once a crowd of folks I didn't recognise. There was an underlying feeling of \"Everything old is bad\" and \"Everything new is good\", which isn't always completely true or as black and white as that. I find Bitcoin interesting technically and as a concept, if you think about the history of money, then bitcoin is no different really, it's an agreement to trust that a concept has a mutual value between people. The money we use everyday is no different from BitCoin really, it's just decentralised. This could be an entire post in itself, so take a read of Wikipedia's History of Money article . Back to tonight, which contained several interesting discussions: BitCoin Point of sale units - These are emerging in a couple of places, such as pubs in the UK , but also soon to arrive here thanks to Mikey Nelson. How useful BitCoin could be for foreign travel and exchange A Bitcoin association is being founded in Australia The BitCoin ATM, a Lamasu If you want BitCoins to be accepted in certain stores, then ask for it, if more ask, the more chance it will happen. Apparently Elsternwick high st may be attempting a street wide acceptance of BitCoin. Interested in knowing more, then join the Melbourne BitCoin meet up - meetup.com/BitcoinMelbourne","date":"2013-09-15","tags":["Events","Bitcoin"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-09-11-agile-yow-night-melbourne-dave-thomas-sept-2013","title":"Agile YOW! Night Melbourne - Dave Thomas - Sept 2013","url":"/blog/2013/2013-09-11-agile-yow-night-melbourne-dave-thomas-sept-2013","summary":"There seem to be more events not running free catering, is this due to a lack of sponsors or a change to methodology? A thought to ponder on…","date":"2013-09-11","tags":["Events"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-09-11-drupal-melbourne-meetup-sep-2013","title":"Drupal Melbourne meetup, Sep 2013","url":"/blog/2013/2013-09-11-drupal-melbourne-meetup-sep-2013","summary":"Drupal 8 won't kill your kittens - Lee Rowland There have been a lot of discussions around changes in the Drupal core team and that many old names are leaving for a variety of reasons, however there have been many new people coming on board and any community should be able to move on from it's originators. I'm currently going through the same process myself right now with Green Renters and it can be a difficult but worthwhile process. This was a great oversight of what is new in D8, watch presentation Remember Lee's final words… \"We will accept any help\" See the presentation here","date":"2013-09-11","tags":["Events","Drupal"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-09-11-mobile-mondays-melbourne-sept-2013","title":"Mobile Mondays Melbourne Sept 2013","url":"/blog/2013/2013-09-11-mobile-mondays-melbourne-sept-2013","summary":"Mobile Mondays Melbourne has been running for 8 years, which in the tech event space makes it something of an elderly character and with the plethora of new events happening around town all the time, I have had the increasing feeling that some of these older events are wondering how to keep themselves relevant.","date":"2013-09-11","tags":["Mobile","Events"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-09-05-what-do-you-know-sep-2013","title":"What do you know Sep 2013","url":"/blog/2013/2013-09-05-what-do-you-know-sep-2013","summary":"The Web Directions - What do you know events are always a fun night and tonight was no exception with many running 'jokes' about some of the appalling policy decisions just announced by the coalition that will affect our industry, one which has been a boom area for Australia, but largely unrecognised on the larger national scale. Anyway, enough of Politics, what were the talks? Bear in mind there were 10, so this will be very brief...","date":"2013-09-05","tags":["Events","Startups","Programming","Design"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-08-30-drupal-for-education-and-elearning-book-review","title":"Drupal for Education and elearning, book review","url":"/blog/2013/2013-08-30-drupal-for-education-and-elearning-book-review","summary":"Drupal for Education and elearning by James G Robertson and Bill Fitzgerald","date":"2013-08-30","tags":["Drupal","Books","Reviews"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-08-30-netsquared-meetup-aug-2013","title":"NetSquared meetup Aug 2013","url":"/blog/2013/2013-08-30-netsquared-meetup-aug-2013","summary":"One of the things that frustrates me the most in the non profit sector is the lack of collaboration between organisations and the duplication that often occurs instead.","date":"2013-08-29","tags":["Events"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-08-28-tedxunimelb-28th-aug-2013","title":"TedxUniMelb 28th Aug 2013","url":"/blog/2013/2013-08-28-tedxunimelb-28th-aug-2013","summary":"The tedx model is a slightly strange one, fraught with as many positives as negatives for organisers, however it does create a fascinating ecosystem around the world. Tonight had a packed room, but was unfortunately fraught with technical issues and joins several other local tedx events around Melbourne.","date":"2013-08-28","tags":["Events"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-08-28-security-and-design-thinking","title":"Security and design thinking","url":"/blog/2013/2013-08-28-security-and-design-thinking","summary":"Tuesday was a productive day capped by two intriguing events. A stupendously early breakfast session with Granite consulting at their networking breakfasts, with Dan Weis of Kiandra IT covering 'Security and Real World Threats' and the UX Melbourne movie night covering 'Lean UX' with Jeff Gothelf.","date":"2013-08-27","tags":["Events","Ux","Security"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-08-25-drupalgov-2013-canberra","title":"DrupalGov and Canberra 2013","url":"/blog/2013/2013-08-25-drupalgov-2013-canberra","summary":"An event that can be as specific as an event for the use of Drupal within government demonstrates a growing interest in Drupal (and maybe openness generally) within government and its great that such an event can attract nearly 150 people.","date":"2013-08-25","tags":["Drupal","Crm","Conferences"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-08-15-silicon-beach-drinks-15th-august","title":"Silicon Beach drinks, 15th August","url":"/blog/2013/2013-08-15-silicon-beach-drinks-15th-august","summary":"One of the challenges of my new attempt to blog about all the events I attend is that some events are hard to write about there and then on the spot. Networking events being one of them, you can't keep whipping out a notebook/tablet to jot down conversations and, well, you may not find anything you want to write about.","date":"2013-08-15","tags":["Events","Social Media","Startups"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-08-14-drupal-melbourne-meetup-aug-13th-2013","title":"Drupal Melbourne meetup, Aug 13th 2013","url":"/blog/2013/2013-08-14-drupal-melbourne-meetup-aug-13th-2013","summary":"Three presentations tonight, followed by usual natters at the lovely Last Jar afterwards.","date":"2013-08-14","tags":["Drupal","Melbourne","Tools","Work"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-08-13-angelcube-pitch-night-aug-12th-2013","title":"Angelcube pitch night, Aug 12th 2013","url":"/blog/2013/2013-08-13-angelcube-pitch-night-aug-12th-2013","summary":"I love pitch events, I love hearing ideas good and bad and watching people's passion in what they do… This will be the first I attempt to summarise and my first attempt at live blogging, of sorts.","date":"2013-08-13","tags":["Startups","Events"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-08-03-avoiding-problems-with-your-drupal-project","title":"Avoiding problems with your Drupal project","url":"/blog/2013/2013-08-03-avoiding-problems-with-your-drupal-project","summary":"Over the past year I've been slowly building a list of gotchas, mistaken assumptions and potential slip ups that have hit projects I've been involved with several times, or seemed so blindingly obvious after the moment that they just had to be documented. This is one of the many articles I have that may grow over time as I discover more useful tidbits.","date":"2013-08-03","tags":["Drupal","Development","Web","Business"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"events","id":"2013-07-23-drupal-devops-decoupling-demystifying-and-decomplicating","title":"Melbourne DevOps","url":"/events","summary":"What's the workflow for DevOps in Drupal? We look at tools, tips and examples.","date":"2013-07-23","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/31kqaxrmryinkm2/Melbourne%20Devops.pptx?dl=0"},{"type":"events","id":"2013-07-17-removing-barriers-in-engagement","title":"Melbourne Geek Night","url":"/events","summary":"When running an organisation or service that is reliant on the efforts of volunteers, members or a community to run and sustain itself, it can be hard to attract recruits and really tell them what you need help with. Many make it difficult to access information and get involved, with technology making accessing this information easier and easier, why not take advantage of it.","date":"2013-07-17","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/evtq6c76hpw6892/Geek%20Night%20v1.pptx?dl=0"},{"type":"events","id":"2013-07-17-power-your-mobile-presence-with-drupal","title":"Melbourne Mobile","url":"/events","summary":"Learn how to utilise Drupal to power your mobile app or website.","date":"2013-07-17","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/7uvunyzavwdufk2/Melbourne%20Mobile.pptx?dl=0"},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-07-12-power-your-mobile-presence-with-drupal","title":"Power your mobile presence with Drupal","url":"/blog/2013/2013-07-12-power-your-mobile-presence-with-drupal","summary":"Drupal has a plethora of ways to power your mobile apps and websites, including: Responsive design Offline storage Integration with frameworks such as PhoneGap and Titanium Appcelerator Utilising services to feed apps data And much more This session will touch upon these various options, looking at when they are relevant, their complexity, their advantages and disadvantages, arming you with a toolbox for the next time a client asks for a mobile site or app.","date":"2013-07-12","tags":["Mobile","Drupal","Integration","Melbourne"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-07-04-the-lean-and-agile-non-profit","title":"The lean and agile non profit","url":"/blog/2013/2013-07-04-the-lean-and-agile-non-profit","summary":"I&39;m working on a book/presentation/series of workshops/who knows what covering integrating lean and agile practices into a non-profit or social enterprise. As a sub set of that will also be &quot;What the non-profit world can learn from the tech world and vice versa&quot;.","date":"2013-07-04","tags":["Agile","Tech","Enterprise"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-07-02-clarity-context-and-how-to-understand-each-other-better","title":"clarity, context and how to understand each other better","url":"/blog/2013/2013-07-02-clarity-context-and-how-to-understand-each-other-better","summary":"Developer says to designer &quot;blah blah blah&quot; Client says to developer &quot;blah blah blah&quot; Project manager says to developer and designer &quot;blah blah blah&quot; &nbsp; And so it goes. &nbsp; A lot of the time we don&39;t understand each other in our projects due to a lack of clarity, explanations, context and assumptions on all sides that go continually unchecked. &nbsp; How can we all understand each other much better, reducing heart ache, money wasted, time spent, mental and physical violence? &nbsp; Let&39;s figure it out and end the session much happier.","date":"2013-07-02","tags":["Developers"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-06-21-civicrm-cookbook-tony-horrocks","title":"CiviCRM Cookbook, Tony Horrocks","url":"/blog/2013/2013-06-21-civicrm-cookbook-tony-horrocks","summary":"CiviCRM like many open source tools is a blank canvas and a set of paints that different implementers will take in many different ways based on their myriad uses and requirements.","date":"2013-06-21","tags":["Reviews","Books","CiviCRM"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-05-13-the-lean-and-agile-non-profit","title":"The lean and agile non profit","url":"/blog/2013/2013-05-13-the-lean-and-agile-non-profit","summary":"&nbsp; What can the non-profit sector learn from from the tech sector and vice versa? Two sectors that are traditionally diametrically diverse, one moves slowly and is resistant to change, the other moves quickly, keeping up with trends and developments, constantly evolving to meet new needs and requirements. However in the changing global landscape, both need to be more efficient, different, offer extra value and change their ways of working. What can each sector learn from the other? What are some work practices that could benefit each? We look at some practical examples of each sector to lead a valuable discussion.","date":"2013-05-13","tags":["Agile","Tech","Work","Trends"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"events","id":"2013-05-07-tweak-test-and-debug-your-mobile-apps","title":"Web directions Code 13","url":"/events","summary":"Advice, tools and tips for tweaking, testing and debuging your mobile apps.","date":"2013-05-07","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/0dsohid75kd0igy/Web%20Directions%20Code.pptx?dl=0"},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-05-04-featurefull-vs-usable","title":"Featurefull vs Usable","url":"/blog/2013/2013-05-04-featurefull-vs-usable","summary":"I've been having some thoughts recently on the paths that many open source projects seem to follow and who they are really designed for, the developer or the users?","date":"2013-05-04","tags":["Open Source","Work","Developers"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-05-04-my-new-housemate","title":"My New housemate","url":"/blog/2013/2013-05-04-my-new-housemate","summary":"He must works nights as I rarely see him, we've never spent a night together, just watching TV or anything like that, but he must have a set in his room, and a penchant for cheesy old horror films, because sometimes in the middle of the night I hear odd muffled shrieks and yells coming from his room.","date":"2013-05-04","tags":["Creative"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-05-04-price-on-application-with-ubercart-3-and-views","title":"Price on Application with Ubercart 3 and Views","url":"/blog/2013/2013-05-04-price-on-application-with-ubercart-3-and-views","summary":"A few weeks back I needed to create an ability for certain products in Ubercart to be available for 'price on application', there were a few modules floating around that pertained to do this, but none seemed to work in Drupal 7, so I racked my brain on how to accomplish this as simply as possible and came up with something quite tidy...","date":"2013-05-04","tags":["Drupal","PHP"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-04-28-nexus-4-the-android-iphone-and-thats-ok","title":"Nexus 4 – The Android iPhone and that's ok","url":"/blog/2013/2013-04-28-nexus-4-the-android-iphone-and-thats-ok","summary":"I decided to upgrade my Samsung S2 to a Nexus 4, there were several reasons for this... I dropped the S2 on a rock and it had a large hairline crack in the screen, not that bad but noticeable. I rooted the phone and installed Cyanogen Mod, it ran really well until recently, and a stable version of 4.2 looks like it was never gong to happen. I came into some money and thought I'd treat myself","date":"2013-04-28","tags":["Android","nexus","phones"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-04-20-talking-at-web-directions-code","title":"Talking at Web Directions Code","url":"/blog/2013/2013-04-20-talking-at-web-directions-code","summary":"I am honoured, happy and excited to have been asked to speak at a Web Directions event, Web Directions Code , here in Melbourne on the 2nd and 3rd of May.","date":"2013-04-19","tags":["Web","Melbourne","Events"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"events","id":"2013-03-12-why-your-image-of-the-world-could-be-wrong","title":"Laneway learning, Melbourne","url":"/events","summary":"Your view of the world is wrong. In this session we learn how and why many conventional maps are incorrect and why it may or may not matter. We also look at some of the sad, gory and checkered stories that have lead to what we know about the world. Or think we know...","date":"2013-03-12","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/s6aiwxpc4pr5y5f/Mapping%20Presentation.pptx?dl=0"},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-03-12-take-your-drupal-sites-offline","title":"Take your drupal sites offline","url":"/blog/2013/2013-03-12-take-your-drupal-sites-offline","summary":"Take your Drupal sites offline with HTML 5 AppCache and turn it into a webapp, perhaps with something like PhoneGap.","date":"2013-03-12","tags":["Drupal","HTML"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-01-21-how-long-did-that-website-really-take-to-make","title":"How long did that website really take to make?","url":"/blog/2013/2013-01-21-how-long-did-that-website-really-take-to-make","summary":"That snazzy website your looking at took a while to make didn't it? What do you reckon? Maybe it took the developers a few months to make. Perhaps its taken them a few years of iterative development to create and perfect something more complex.","date":"2013-01-21","tags":["Web","HTML","internet"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-01-13-insync","title":"InSync","url":"/blog/2013/2013-01-13-insync","summary":"Someone recently put me on to insync , a new way to use Google drive . I've had two main issues with Google's drive application: That it will only work with one Google account (with three active ones, that's not very helpful). That when you open a file in finder/explorer it opens up a browser, which seems a rather pointless user of a desktop application.","date":"2013-01-13","tags":["Great Idea","Cloud"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-01-14-talking-civicrm-at-joomladay-melbourne-20th-jan","title":"Talking CiviCRM at Joomla!Day Melbourne, 20th Jan","url":"/blog/2013/2013-01-14-talking-civicrm-at-joomladay-melbourne-20th-jan","summary":"Completing the tricefta of talking about CiviCRM at every user group for every platform it&39;s available on in Melbourne, I&39;m talking about CiviCRM and Joomla! at this weekend&39;s Joomla!Day .","date":"2013-01-13","tags":["CiviCRM","Melbourne","Joomla"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-01-06-buffer-social-sharing","title":"Buffer - Social sharing","url":"/blog/2013/2013-01-06-buffer-social-sharing","summary":"I've been using buffer for ages, but not got around to writing anything about it, so now I met appear to be following the pack somewhat.","date":"2013-01-06","tags":["Great Idea","Social Media"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-01-04-extending-drupal-with-a-crm-talk-at-drupal-melbourne-meetup-8th-jan","title":"Extending Drupal with a CRM talk at Drupal Melbourne meetup 8th Jan","url":"/blog/2013/2013-01-04-extending-drupal-with-a-crm-talk-at-drupal-melbourne-meetup-8th-jan","summary":"I&39;ll be delivering the new improved version 2 of my &39; Extending Drupal with a CRM &39; talk at Drupal Melbourne&39;s inaugural meetup for 2013 on the 8th Jan . It will be new and improved with a tour through integrating external commercial CRMs with Drupal, Drupal native CRM tools and more pictures of cats.","date":"2013-01-03","tags":["Drupal","Crm","Melbourne","Tools"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-01-02-creating-campaigns-with-drupal-and-civicrm","title":"Creating campaigns with Drupal and CiviCRM","url":"/blog/2013/2013-01-02-creating-campaigns-with-drupal-and-civicrm","summary":"In this sessions we look at utilising a variety of Drupal modules, tools and techniques to create standalone campaigns for your non-profits (or company&39;s) site. These could be sub sites, micro-sites or pages with a different look and feel.","date":"2013-01-02","tags":["Drupal","CiviCRM","Tools","Tools And Techniques"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-01-02-extending-drupal-with-a-crm","title":"Extending Drupal with a CRM","url":"/blog/2013/2013-01-02-extending-drupal-with-a-crm","summary":"A CRM (Contact Relationship Manager or Constituent Relationship Manager depending on your sector) is a fantastic way to take your Drupal installation further and streamline your business practises.","date":"2013-01-02","tags":["Drupal","Crm","Business","Installation"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2013/2013-01-01-2013-new-years-resolutions","title":"2013 New Years resolutions","url":"/blog/2013/2013-01-01-2013-new-years-resolutions","summary":"2012 has been a big year, equal good and bad, extremely busy moments and dull moments to. I&39;ve been to umpteen conferences, meetups and worked on about a dozen projects. Green renters stated the year really well, but dropped off massively after July, as did many other sustainability organisations and that was a hard hit for us.","date":"2013-01-01","tags":["Conferences","Meetups","Sustainability","personal"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"events","id":"2012-10-29-customising-civicrm-md","title":"CiviCRM Melbourne","url":"/events","summary":"The various methods to customise a CiviCRM installation to meet your needs and requirements.","date":"2012-10-29","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/1tlem5pwxloeaae/Customising%20CiviCRM.pptx?dl=0"},{"type":"events","id":"2012-10-27-drupal","title":"Cryptoparty Melbourne","url":"/events","summary":"How Drupal handles security and privacy.","date":"2012-10-27","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/2fvrmato5k8t112/Drupal%20Cryptoparty.pptx?dl=0"},{"type":"events","id":"2012-09-05-hp-lovecraft-father-of-gothic-horror","title":"Laneway Learning, Melbourne","url":"/events","summary":"A history and analysis of the Godfather of cosmic horror, HP Lovecraft.","date":"2012-09-05","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/q9ttt0ljseb1ck2/HP%20Lovecraft%2C%20Laneway%20Learning%20v2.pptx?dl=0"},{"type":"events","id":"2012-09-04-cosmic-horror-and-hp-lovecraft","title":"Laneway Learning","url":"/events","summary":"I love the works and worlds of HP Lovecraft, here's a talk I have done occasionally, it's usually followed by a reading.","date":"2012-09-04","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/xhvsk3m3jabvwdi/HP%20Lovecraft%2C%20Laneway%20Learning.pptx?dl=0"},{"type":"blog","id":"2012/2012-08-09-drupal-7-webform-cookbook","title":"Drupal 7 webform cookbook","url":"/blog/2012/2012-08-09-drupal-7-webform-cookbook","summary":"Webform is a module that has equal parts lovers and haters... On one hand it makes creating complex forms with no technical knowledge extremely easy. On the other a lot of it's functionality is handled in a 'non-Drupal' way, although this has got somewhat better recently.","date":"2012-08-08","tags":["Drupal"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"events","id":"2012-08-08-civicrm-and-wordpress","title":"Melbourne Wordpress Meetup","url":"/events","summary":"An overview of how to use CiviCRM with Wordpress.","date":"2012-08-08","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/v9skjeitzn3ncd9/CiviCRM%20Wordpress.pptx?dl=0"},{"type":"events","id":"2012-07-24-blogging-with-drupal","title":"Drupal Melbourne","url":"/events","summary":"An overview of blogging with Drupal and moving from other platforms.","date":"2012-07-24","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/ijrd9h231bf1rei/Blogging%20with%20Drupal.pptx?dl=0"},{"type":"events","id":"2012-07-22-building-mobile-phone-apps-with-phonegap-and-titanium-accelerator","title":"Melbourne Geek Night","url":"/events","summary":"A basic intro to PhoneGap and Titanium Appcelerator for web developers.","date":"2012-07-22","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/nk3flrh849tt7r9/Melbourne%20Geek%20night%2023rd%20July.pptx?dl=0"},{"type":"events","id":"2012-07-09-jquery-mobile","title":"Mobile Melbourne","url":"/events","summary":"A basic intro to JQuery Mobile for Cross Platform developers.","date":"2012-07-09","tags":[],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.dropbox.com/s/pgsrda4jp1h205y/Jquery%20mobile.pptx?dl=0"},{"type":"blog","id":"2012/2012-06-25-drupal-7-multi-sites-configuration-from-packt-publishing","title":"Drupal 7 Multi-sites configuration - Matt Butcher","url":"/blog/2012/2012-06-25-drupal-7-multi-sites-configuration-from-packt-publishing","summary":"Part of Packt publishing's new Mini Drupal series","date":"2012-06-25","tags":["Drupal"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2012/2012-06-03-mysamaris-flyer","title":"MySamaris flyer","url":"/blog/2012/2012-06-03-mysamaris-flyer","summary":"I know it's kind of tacky, but this flyer attracted my attention at NTC12 and I thought it was kind of clever... If a waist of dimes that I'm sure the homeless folks of San Francisco would have appreciated...","date":"2012-06-03","tags":["Merchandise","Conferences"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"books","id":"wrapped-in-pastry","title":"Wrapped in Pastry","url":"/books/wrapped-in-pastry","summary":"20 vegan pie, tart, and roll recipes for a crowd, including soy-free and gluten-free dishes, with photos and clear instructions.","date":"2012-05-02","tags":[],"categories":["writing"],"externalUrl":"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23394592-wrapped-in-pastry"},{"type":"blog","id":"2012/2012-04-09-thoughts-from-the-ntc-2012-san-francisco","title":"Thoughts from the NTC 2012 / San Francisco","url":"/blog/2012/2012-04-09-thoughts-from-the-ntc-2012-san-francisco","summary":"As is usual from my blog posts, this may or may not grow as I remember things&hellip; The visual discrepancy between rich and poor in San Francisco is extremely stark Add to that, the gap between white/Asian and black/Latino is even more noticeable. A lot of the Not-For-Profit sector seems obsessed with money and how to make it. The tipping culture is weird&hellip; In that people don&39;t tip because they want to, but because they feel obliged to. Which makes tipping and the divvying up of bills an awkward and bizarrely scientific process to watch. Americans table manners, especially the way they treat servers, are peculiar&hellip; Perhaps related to above. Sales people very open and friendly, I assume because they want to sell you something. On the other hand, Customer service, especially civil service, quite unforgiving and unhelpful. A lot of things in Australia aren&39;t as expensive as people think. Especially food and fuel. Conferences in Australia are a lot more multi-cultural, with more people from overseas and we&39;re more interested in those from overseas.","date":"2012-04-09","tags":["Conferences","Australia","Services","Culture"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2012/2012-04-08-my-social-media-strategy-advice","title":"My Social Media strategy advice","url":"/blog/2012/2012-04-08-my-social-media-strategy-advice","summary":"Here's a quote/analogy I've been using for a while to overarchingly describe a strategy for engaging on social media that I've found helpful and descriptive.","date":"2012-04-08","tags":["Creative"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2012/2012-03-15-evernote","title":"Evernote","url":"/blog/2012/2012-03-15-evernote","summary":"It's simple, updates regularly, synchronises between devices almost seamlessly and for the most part it's free! www.evernote.com","date":"2012-03-15","tags":["Great Idea","Productivity"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"music","id":"infernal-cakewalk-ep","title":"Infernal Cakewalk EP","url":"/music/infernal-cakewalk-ep","summary":"Mesa Cosa's debut EP — seven tracks capturing the band's \"the Stooges walk into a tequila bar\" live attitude, released ahead of their debut album.","date":"2012-03-01","tags":[],"categories":["music"],"externalUrl":"https://mesacosa.bandcamp.com/album/infernal-cakewalk-ep"},{"type":"blog","id":"2011/2011-12-04-making-the-civievent-ical-feed-show-all-events","title":"Making the CiviEvent iCal feed show all events","url":"/blog/2011/2011-12-04-making-the-civievent-ical-feed-show-all-events","summary":"With Green Renters we find the iCal feed from CiviEvent (part of CiviCRM) invaluable to keep track of events and workshops we have coming up, generally we use the feed pulled into our personal iCal and Google calendars for internal organising, currently the feeds aren't available to anyone outside of staff.","date":"2011-12-04","tags":["CiviCRM","PHP"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2011/2011-09-28-hands-on-with-lion-10-7-installing","title":"Hands on with Lion, 10.7 - Installing","url":"/blog/2011/2011-09-28-hands-on-with-lion-10-7-installing","summary":"I love living on the cutting edge, many times to my detriment, but it never ceases to dissuade me. So after a brief delay due to being away from home and nowhere near a backup drive (which, of course, is essential before a major system upgrade!) it was time to get my hands dirty.","date":"2011-09-28","tags":["Apple Reviews"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2011/2011-08-26-london-civicon-2011","title":"London Civicon 2011","url":"/blog/2011/2011-08-26-london-civicon-2011","summary":"At the time of writing this website isn't quite finished and maybe you can't quite tell that I love civicrm . I won't go into too much detail of why and what it is now, best you do a bit of searching and find that out for yourself.","date":"2011-08-26","tags":["CiviCRM","Crm"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2011/2011-08-15-drinking-control-ad","title":"Drinking control ad","url":"/blog/2011/2011-08-15-drinking-control-ad","summary":"I've sometimes been critical of drinking control ads in the past, generally wondering how effective they really are, but I really liked this one I found in a London toilet.","date":"2011-08-15","tags":["Great Idea"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2011/2011-08-15-norwich","title":"Norwich","url":"/blog/2011/2011-08-15-norwich","summary":"After two weeks with staying with family, we were pretty desperate to get to Norwich and hang out with friends and kick back for a few days. Hence our enthusiasm on the journey there, punctuated by the discovery of a ridiculously cheap pub whilst transferring in Peterborough, that turned from a relaxing drink to a last minute mad dash to catch a train.","date":"2011-08-15","tags":["Travel","Uk","Europe"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2011/2011-08-11-skegness-wind-farm","title":"Skegness wind farm","url":"/blog/2011/2011-08-11-skegness-wind-farm","summary":"The Skegness Wind farm as you can see from the photos, they've located a wind farm in the sea, a great way to reduce NIMBYism.","date":"2011-08-11","tags":["Travel","Uk","Great Idea"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2011/2011-08-10-joomla-to-drupal-import","title":"Joomla to Drupal import","url":"/blog/2011/2011-08-10-joomla-to-drupal-import","summary":"I generally find that in the process of migrating a website to a new system or framework, importing and moving data is the most fraught, frustrating and troublesome part of the process. If you're moving content from a vanilla installation to another vanilla installation you might be in luck, but really, what are the chances of that?","date":"2011-08-10","tags":["Drupal","Joomla"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2011/2011-08-01-lincolnshire","title":"Lincolnshire","url":"/blog/2011/2011-08-01-lincolnshire","summary":"It's amazing what you can find in the country with a little digging...","date":"2011-08-01","tags":["Travel","Uk"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2011/2011-07-25-beijing","title":"Beijing","url":"/blog/2011/2011-07-25-beijing","summary":"China is one crazy country. Even before we left Australia, air china gave us a taste of the break neck speed 'efficiency' some of the Chinese like to operate on.","date":"2011-07-25","tags":["Travel","China"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2011/2011-07-25-chinese-receipts","title":"Chinese receipts","url":"/blog/2011/2011-07-25-chinese-receipts","summary":"I kept noticing these silver scratch panels on some receipts in china and assumed they were just some form of official symbol but it turns out there actually a cunning behavioural change policy on behalf of the Chinese government.","date":"2011-07-25","tags":["China"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2010/2010-12-13-doug-and-julie","title":"Doug and Julie","url":"/blog/2010/2010-12-13-doug-and-julie","summary":"Take a listen (or read) to a light hearted and 'cheesy' romantic (and slightly explicit) short story I recently wrote about Doug, who bored in his office cubicle, fantasies about Julie...","date":"2010-12-13","tags":["Creative"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"books","id":"australian-veg-food-guide","title":"The Australian Veg Food Guide 2011","url":"/books/australian-veg-food-guide","summary":"A rewritten and redesigned nationwide edition featuring over 200 reviews and listings of vegan, vegetarian, and veg-friendly restaurants from around Australia, with an accompanying website, mobile app, and ratings.","date":"2010-10-21","tags":[],"categories":["writing"],"externalUrl":"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11039527-the-australian-veg-food-guide-2011?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=8ERNfmU3Sq&rank=1"},{"type":"blog","id":"2010/2010-09-14-how-much-milk-is-too-much","title":"How Much Milk is too Much?","url":"/blog/2010/2010-09-14-how-much-milk-is-too-much","summary":"Coffee is a very personal business.","date":"2010-09-14","tags":["Opinion","Coffee"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2010/2010-09-14-one-and-me","title":"One and Me","url":"/blog/2010/2010-09-14-one-and-me","summary":"According to a list I read some years ago, I regularly use several words in my lexicon that are considered 'old fashioned'. As that list was published nearly ten years ago and I'm still using most of those words, my language must be increasingly old fashioned.","date":"2010-09-14","tags":["Creative"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"books","id":"surveying-the-wreckage","title":"Surveying the Wreckage - The New Matilda Columns 2008-2010","url":"/books/surveying-the-wreckage","summary":"Ben Pobjie, one of New Matilda's most infamous columnists, surveys the wreckage and reassembles his columns into something insightful, biting, and humorous.","date":"2010-03-01","tags":[],"categories":["writing"],"externalUrl":"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77180248-surveying-the-wreckage-the-new-matilda-columns-2008-2010"},{"type":"blog","id":"2010/2010-01-03-bones-damn-terran-will-stoker-and-the-embers-the-tote","title":"Bones, Damn Terran, Will Stoker and the Embers - The Tote","url":"/blog/2010/2010-01-03-bones-damn-terran-will-stoker-and-the-embers-the-tote","summary":"Bones are an archetypal Melbourne band, all skinny men, tight trousers, cool looking guitars and discordant noise. There's dozens of them out there pounding the boards at Inner city venues night in and night out, but Bones posses a little extra 'Je ne sais quoi' to raise them above the rest of the throng. In amongst the messy noise and jagged edges are some amazing harmonies and crazy off beat guitar riffs that are so surprising they make you sit up, take notice and even start to smile.Damn Terrain are a man down, their bass player 'sucks√Æ (according to the band's singer and guitarist) and despite their best efforts it notices. Both remaining members are putting in 110% to fill in the gaps but it still doesn't quite grab the crowd who begin drifting out to smoke and hang around the Tote's (now saved!) jukebox.There's something about bands from Western Australia, whether due to geographical frustrations or the lack of anything better to do, WA bands are typically extremely proficient, tight, professional and possess amazing stage presences, Will Stoker and the Embers do nothing to dispel this stereotype. The band have a strange dynamic, Will Stoker looking like a cross between Jeff Buckley and David Boreanaz but with crazier hair, eccentrically dressed he is the classic image of an Art school student. The rest of the band however are all out hard rockers through and through, long hair, amp stacks, black clothes and lumberjack shirts. You can imagine the band starting out, meeting this enigmatic front man and all saying, 'he's crazy but it might just work'. The gamble was a good one because Will Stoker & the Embers are an extremely unique act, the combination of hard rock and eccentricity creating an awesome and entrancing bravado as Will flings himself around the venue through a sequence of bizarre dance moves, leg wobbling and posing, backed by a band as solid and loud as they come. The crowd is mesmerised, they barely move, captivated by the spectacle before them, a show possessing quality that usually has come a long way.","date":"2010-01-03","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2010/2010-01-03-diamond-sea-fire-santa-rosa-fire-i-heart-hiroshima-the-northcote-social-club","title":"Diamond Sea, Fire Santa Rosa Fire, I Heart Hiroshima - The Northcote Social Club","url":"/blog/2010/2010-01-03-diamond-sea-fire-santa-rosa-fire-i-heart-hiroshima-the-northcote-social-club","summary":"A lot is being said about the Diamond Sea around Melbourne and a lot is being whispered about them in front of the stage tonight. What's wrong with them? Is it the bad and overly loud mix, their seeming lack of acknowledgement of the audience or something else that is reducing their usually sparkling and lively show into a rather dull and listless experience with every song melding into the next with very little dynamics.","date":"2010-01-03","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2010/2010-01-03-does-it-offend-you-yeah-billboard","title":"Does it offend you, yeah? - Billboard","url":"/blog/2010/2010-01-03-does-it-offend-you-yeah-billboard","summary":"'Does it Offend you, yeah?' lively blend of electro Indie rock bombards Billboard and the tightly packed boisterous Wednesday night crowd, not letting up for one minute or allowing a second of breathing space for the crowd or the band.","date":"2010-01-03","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2010/2010-01-03-ember-swift-the-new-project","title":"Ember Swift - The New project","url":"/blog/2010/2010-01-03-ember-swift-the-new-project","summary":"'Concept albums' generally raise the heckles of most rock music reviewers, and an album that contains an 'artistic statement' emblazoned on it's inside front cover in two different languages even more so. It seems that Ember Swift travelled to China in 2007 and felt an unnerving feeling of having been there before, of deja vu and of an unusual one-ness and comfortable familiarity, thus creating the urge and need to write an album about her experiences.","date":"2010-01-03","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2010/2010-01-03-grafton-primary-the-east-brunswick-club","title":"Grafton Primary - The East Brunswick Club","url":"/blog/2010/2010-01-03-grafton-primary-the-east-brunswick-club","summary":"Grafton Primary possesses an eclectic fan base, drawing in an increasing amount of musical sub genres, uniting them for fleeting moments in one room. Taking up centre ground are the chattering fashionistas, eyeing each other up and comparing clothing brands. Bang in front of the stage are an unruly bunch of mainstream-esque dance fans, jostling for space, hassling photographers and generally annoying most around them. Hanging around at the back are groups of lesbian punks and lurking in dark corners are gaggles of old school 80's Goths, the breadth and contradictory nature of the bands fan base also sums up the band and their music. An equally strange combination of retro electro, dark layered moods and modern rhythmic aggression is executed with flawless precision, perfectly suiting our era's obsession of regurgitating the past into gleaned pastiches.","date":"2010-01-03","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2010/2010-01-03-jamie-t-hifi","title":"Jamie T - HiFi","url":"/blog/2010/2010-01-03-jamie-t-hifi","summary":"Somewhere along the way in the past few years of his rapid rise, Jamie T has transformed from a charming cheeky London chappy playing anywhere that would take him with only his trusty acoustic bass as company into a cockier (but still fairly charming) world travelling, eternally casual superstar. His past awkward and apologetic inter song banter replaced with the trusty How are you doing insert town name? and I'm going to need help on the next one, you guys ready?.His wordy chatty, monologue, cockney, dylanesque songs are now packed out by a full and loud band that look like they were found ablimg South London streets, the key and complex lyrics sometimes getting somewhat lost in the noise. His newer material which is less original but more suited to a band follows a current trend in British music, attempting to make every song a jagged youth anthem.","date":"2010-01-03","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2010/2010-01-03-lightning-bolt-thornbury-theatre","title":"Lightning Bolt - Thornbury Theatre","url":"/blog/2010/2010-01-03-lightning-bolt-thornbury-theatre","summary":"The Thornbury Theatre is one of a growing number of old community centres and theatres around Melbourne that are being turned over from their traditional purpose into the hands of the youth to do what they will with, usually using their opulent interiors to host events that the original attendees would probably greatly object to.","date":"2010-01-03","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2010/2010-01-03-los-valentines-cities-of-gold","title":"Los Valentines - Cities of Gold","url":"/blog/2010/2010-01-03-los-valentines-cities-of-gold","summary":"What's going on in Sydney? Are there copious amounts of young men mating with drum machines, synthesizers and 80's dropouts? The city seems to be spawning a lot of electro bands recently that generally favour epic, fantastical sounding names and presentation.","date":"2010-01-03","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2010/2010-01-03-mammal-vol2-systematic-automatic","title":"Mammal - Vol2 Systematic / Automatic","url":"/blog/2010/2010-01-03-mammal-vol2-systematic-automatic","summary":"Live albums are always a dangerous affair, many will question releasing one at all, why not a proper studio album, is it a stop gap, a lack of interest or commitment from band or label? Quite often it's more because live albums simply don't sound very good, the quality is shoddy, the playing lax and the whole atmosphere is lost when listening on your home stereo. Fortunately for a hardcore-punk / Metal-ish band like Mammal with an infamously high quality live show, they're usually so damn tight and technically skilled that at least two of the concerns voiced are met, the sound quality is better than some studio based recordings, whoever captured the performance deserves congratulations. The audience sounds large-ish and seems to be enjoying themselves, screaming between and during songs, however some of the inter song introductions from front man Ezekiel Ox should have possibly been left out, being cringely cheesy in places, e.g. 'Sometimes you look around yourself and all is not to your liking, Mammal does this to√Æ, said in a strong Australian accent loses some of it's bite when heard on record, that live, in the midst of a sweaty, raucous show would have been an awesome call to arms.The album also comes with a live DVD which, whilst the technical quality of the video doesn't match the quality of the live audio, goes some way to improving the atmosphere, actually seeing limbs flailing around on and off stage giving a little more atmosphere, though a lingering taste of cheese does unfortunately still hang slightly in the air, which is often a potential problem with a band that takes themselves seriously, it may not always come off that way post event.As a release, 'Vol2 Systematic / Automatic' is a gamble, will it connect with their fan base as the band's press realise so confidently claims? Are fans willing to buy something that they attended anyway, or will they consider it a somewhat flagrant attempt to make money out of them? Mammal like breaking rules, doing things their own way and taking a chance, so from their perspective, it will be a gamble worth taking.","date":"2010-01-03","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2010/2010-01-03-the-currency-the-currency","title":"The Currency - The Currency","url":"/blog/2010/2010-01-03-the-currency-the-currency","summary":"Unless listless inmates around the world have been ganging together and forming bands, 'Convict-Core' could only really come from Australia and it would be safe to assume that it would sound like something of a mish-mash of the influences upon Australia's history. With these assumptions in hand The Currency's mix of high octane Celtic folk blended with Anglo Punk will come as no surprise. The Currency's live shows are legendary, it takes very little time for crowds to be pulled into the melodic maelstrom, grabbing friends and strangers and pulling them into a frenzied mosh pit of flailing limbs and hair, booze flowing freely in all directions. Whilst this debut album lacks the pure energy of the band's awesome live shows, the inter-twinning battling flutes, fiddles, mandolins and a plethora of other instruments will cause embarrassing toe-tapping, head jiggling and humming on public transport or at your workplace. The energy of the music aside, the stories contained within the songs are enticing and compelling, whilst there may not always be a conventional narrative, you pay attention to and follow the lyrics. By sticking to edgier themes of Australian life such as drought, workers rights, colonialism, the struggles of a young nation and tales of woe and regret The Currency manage to inject just enough 'Australiana' into their lyrics without sounding cringworthy or potentially alienating a global audience, maintaining an edgy, dangerous, dark and brooding brand of folk music to drown your sorrows to with beer, whisky and dancing until the early hours of the morning. Don't buy one copy, buy several and send one to anyone you know overseas and hopefully we'll inform the rest of the world that we're not just a nation of bleached-blonde surfers.","date":"2010-01-03","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2010/2010-01-03-the-rip-i-heart-hiroshima","title":"The Rip - I Heart Hiroshima","url":"/blog/2010/2010-01-03-the-rip-i-heart-hiroshima","summary":"Some of the best musical dynamics are created by three-pieces, anyone with half an ounce of musical talent can add sound to the silences with a lot of overdriven noise. Creating a full and interesting sound with the amount of instruments a three piece can potentially play, now that's a real challenge, especially when you stick to pretty much one guitar sound and use overdubs sparingly.It's a talent that a lot of bands from Brisbane seem to possess and have formed into a sound that 'I heart Hiroshima' were one of the first to perfect and popularise in recent times, so it's refreshing to see and hear that several years, one album and extensive touring later, they're still doing it exceedingly well. 'The Rip' is their second album, clocking in at just under 45 minutes, it's a concise, snappy and 'agitated', a wonderfully descriptive description of the album taken from their own press release (a rarity indeed) that sums up the up-and-down dynamics of the songs, like a complex cocktail with many subtle undercurrents that needs a good 'agitating' before serving. A well planned and arranged blend of precise percussion that forms the core of what gives 'I Heart Hiroshima' their sparkling dynamic, no straight and simple rock beats plodding along for three minutes. Layered on top are chugging fuzzy rhythm guitars, chiming, almost keyboard like lead guitars, alternated lead vocal duties, each band member adding their own personality to each track and any vocalist who can make 'yup' contain (seemingly) so much frustrated meaning in 'Got Out' deserves special mention. 'The Rip' is not-so-much beautifully, but appropriately produced in glorious lo-fi by none other than Andy Gill (formerly Gang of Four) who were one of the principal bands to hone this sparse, stripped back genre of music the first time around, so an almost ideal pairing of past and present to create an almost flawless alternative-pop record.","date":"2010-01-03","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2010/2010-01-03-the-spoils-toff-in-town","title":"The Spoils - Toff in Town","url":"/blog/2010/2010-01-03-the-spoils-toff-in-town","summary":"Someone once said that the reason Melbourne produces so many dark, melancholic and moody bands is due to being 'stranded in a paradise at the end of the Earth, isolated from the rest of the world'. Which is possibly why so many musicians, the Spoils included, run off to seek fame and fortune elsewhere, but does gallivanting off in far-flung shores, acquiring fame and fortune change their music at all?The musicians, and they are real and proper skilful musicians capable of playing just about anything and making it seem astonishingly simple, that make up the Spoils are as varied and diverse as their audience, young, old(er), dressed like 19th Century gentlemen, dressed like American cowboys (and looking a little like Earl Hickey) and a little of everything in between. The Toff is a perfect venue for tonight's show, the venue is quiet, not empty, but full of an appreciative and attentative audience, the high-fidelity sound system installed allowing everyone to concentrate on all the nuances, subtleties and weaving melodies in the music. During the faster and more abrasive songs, the crowd begins to move and sway, but generally they are relaxed, leaning, crouching or seated, eyes fixed firmly forward, taking it all in and enjoying the skills and talents of the band to construct such absorbing melodies and rhythms.Tonight's show is a mixture of celebration and commiserations; it is the launch of their third album ('The Crook, the cloak and the maiden'), the final show with their saxophonist and two weeks before the band depart for another lengthy European jaunt, including their seemingly second home of France. A band like the Spoils are an epitome of Melbourne (and Australian) bands, astounding musicians, hard working, professional, productive and full of universal appeal unyet in their home town they are playing a venue the size of the Toff (i.e. small) and have to constantly embark on lengthy and expensive tours to amass any kind of fan base or money. Bearing that in mind, looks like the melancholic, downbeat music of frustrated Melbourne musicians sunning themselves in the glorious summer heat wont be changing any time soon.","date":"2010-01-03","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2009/2009-12-27-covers-of-the-future","title":"Covers of the Future","url":"/blog/2009/2009-12-27-covers-of-the-future","summary":"I'm old enough to remember the great laments aired when vinyl started to die it's still ensuing slow death, how would musicians and their artists still be able to shrink their exquisite works of art down from a whopping 12\" to XX CD inlays. Well, unsurprisingly they coped, they managed, they learnt new tricks and still created a mixed bag of wondrous masterpieces and piles of crap. There have been some classic Album covers that I feel wouldn't have even worked on vinyl. Radioheads' 'OK Computer' is one example, pop out the CD holder and you find a wealth of extra art lurking beneath the surface. Not forgetting cardboard covers, flexipacks and a wealth of DIY efforts that were far simplified by the smaller size of a CD. CD bodies themselves also offer an extra surface for artwork that previously never existed, not to mention those more adventurous musicians who add bonus material through the extended CD format.","date":"2009-12-27","tags":["Music","Design"],"categories":["music","tech"]},{"type":"books","id":"neon-pilgrim","title":"Neon Pilgrim","url":"/books/neon-pilgrim","summary":"Lisa Dempster's account of hiking the 1,200km Henro Michi Buddhist pilgrimage through Japan, a witty and fascinating insight into the 88 Temple Pilgrimage.","date":"2009-10-01","tags":[],"categories":["writing"],"externalUrl":"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7106492-neon-pilgrim"},{"type":"blog","id":"2009/2009-04-28-a-short-history-of-byzantium-john-julius-norwich","title":"A Short History of Byzantium - John Julius Norwich","url":"/blog/2009/2009-04-28-a-short-history-of-byzantium-john-julius-norwich","summary":"The Byzantine Empire was a long forgot segment of Mediterranean History that seems to be undergoing something of a rediscovery recently. I'm unsure why it's history seemed to slip down the back of the rhetorical sofa as it's certainly a most tumultuous and colourful history full of victory, disaster, insane characters, powerful characters and the usual battles, religious turmoil and tales that accompany any medieval history. This is a summarised version of John Julius Norwich's three volume Byzantine history and he does a remarkable job of covering a thousand years of history in a clear, concise and engaging manner, never dull, never losing momentum and with a pace almost worthy of fiction as you look forward to reading further to see what happens next.","date":"2009-04-28","tags":["Books","Reviews"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2009/2009-04-28-apocalypse-ish","title":"Apocalypse-ish","url":"/blog/2009/2009-04-28-apocalypse-ish","summary":"I&39;ve been intending to write this for months, but never quite got around to it, a theme that will run through this article? I was also quite proud of the piece and was hoping I might be able to get it published, but alas, no joy in that area and as I say above, it&39;s content is long overdue.","date":"2009-04-28","tags":["History","Life"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2009/2009-04-28-australian-festivals","title":"Australian Festivals","url":"/blog/2009/2009-04-28-australian-festivals","summary":"I finally got my fist experience(s) of Australian festivals this summer, albeit a gentle one-day only festival introduction and I hate to say I wasn't greatly impressed.","date":"2009-04-28","tags":["Music","Opinion","Australia"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2009/2009-04-28-derelict-london-paul-talling","title":"Derelict London - Paul Talling","url":"/blog/2009/2009-04-28-derelict-london-paul-talling","summary":"I find this small collection of images documenting London's derelict underbelly appealing for two reasons. I know the author from his days as an Indie label 'boss' and the fact that he turned to a successful sideline in snapping pictures of abandoned buildings is fascinating. Secondly a lot of the subjects within the book are familiar to me, sometimes in the same state as within the book and sometimes in their previous non-dilapidated state.","date":"2009-04-28","tags":["Books","Reviews"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2009/2009-04-28-jesus-is-coming","title":"Jesus is Coming","url":"/blog/2009/2009-04-28-jesus-is-coming","summary":"So I guess you'll just have to wait","date":"2009-04-28","tags":["Creative"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2009/2009-04-28-michael-franti-the-prince-of-wales","title":"Michael Franti - The Prince of Wales","url":"/blog/2009/2009-04-28-michael-franti-the-prince-of-wales","summary":"Michael Franti appears to be something of an institution in Australia, possessing a modicum of popularity in most of the world but verging on something else on our far flung shores, acting like a shaman and appointed leader for the current or reformed hippies, crusties and ferrals. It takes a rare talent and presence to grasp the crowd in the palm of your hand and inspire them into singing along with every word you utter, to have them clapping and dancing to every beat from the opening notes and first word of your first song, and appropriately, that first word was 'hello' in several languages. To then keep the vast majority of the crowd hanging on to every word you say, responding to every local reference, dancing and screaming on demand and spontaneously for the entire set in some kind of cult-like fervor with hidden subconscious messages flowing through the crowd is an even larger achievement, Michael Franti manages it with the greatest of ease and this is only an acoustic set!The set is bursting with simple and effective songs about peace, love and understanding, covering politics, community and harmony, no-one is left out, every race and subculture is mentioned for good measure in Franti's rapid fire lyrics, perfect topics for a full-to-the-brim venue on the seaside with the evening feeling a little like a holiday camp with Michael Franti as chief red coat leading proceedings.Some would accuse Michael Franti of verging on the cheesy side and of producing the occasional cringe on the more discerning music fan's face. Cast your aspersions and cynicisms aside, for a performer who produces such warm fuzzy feel good feelings, for a performer that creates music that makes everyone feel good and leave their problems aside, Michael Franti can't be faulted.","date":"2009-04-28","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2009/2009-04-28-richard-dawkins-the-god-delusion","title":"Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion","url":"/blog/2009/2009-04-28-richard-dawkins-the-god-delusion","summary":"Whilst I do not believe in God by any means and would certainly describe myself as an Atheist, my biggest issue with 'The God Delusion' is what Richard Dawkins would describe as his 'Devout Atheism'. The fervour and passion he writes with is almost on a par with that of a religion devotees and thus at times is equally as awkward to digest. Perhaps it could also be due to a conditioning of our modern world he describes, in that we feel awkward discussing religious topics in public, in case we offend someone around us, even when reading the book I found myself occasionally hiding the title in front of possible 'religious types' in case I offended them. The book is generally easy to read and full of intriguing, interesting and thought provoking topics and nuggets of information only occasionally wandering into intellectual territory that may be lost on some readers.","date":"2009-04-28","tags":["Books","Reviews Religion"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2009/2009-04-28-rules-of-the-road-null","title":"Rules of the Road","url":"/blog/2009/2009-04-28-rules-of-the-road-null","summary":"A license is not required to ride a bike on Melbourne's (and most other cities in the world as far as I know) streets and sometimes knowing quite what you are allowed and not allowed to do or indeed what others should be doing around you is difficult to ascertain.","date":"2009-04-28","tags":["Cycling","Opinion"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2009/2009-04-28-the-hives-the-forum","title":"The Hives - The Forum","url":"/blog/2009/2009-04-28-the-hives-the-forum","summary":"The Hives are past masters at staging a rock show, working their way through all of the tricks in 'Rock Live shows for beginners', the vast majority of 'Rock live shows for intermediates' and making fair headway into the advanced volume. Even before the band take to the stage we have subdued red lighting, a vast backdrop and a tremendous amount of 'milking it' as the crowd gets rowdier awaiting the band's emergence.","date":"2009-04-28","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2009/2009-04-28-the-slow-guide-to-melbourne-null","title":"The Slow Guide to Melbourne","url":"/blog/2009/2009-04-28-the-slow-guide-to-melbourne-null","summary":"www.slowguides.com.au","date":"2009-04-28","tags":["Books","Reviews"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2009/2009-04-28-the-stranglers-the-palace","title":"The Stranglers - The Palace","url":"/blog/2009/2009-04-28-the-stranglers-the-palace","summary":"For a band with a career that has spanned nearly 30 years, The Stranglers look in remarkably good shape. Despite the drugs, the changes in musical direction, losing their original singer, losing their original singer's replacement, the good albums and the frankly abysmal albums, the band are still standing strong with some of their original line up and a back catalogue full of catchy and familiar songs. Most importantly, the band looks damn good on stage, resplendent in uniform black. Bassist JJ Burnell is built like a tank, the veins on his neck showing above a tight muscle hugging t-shirt as he pumps out his familiar 'barracuda bass' sound. 'New' recruit Baz Warne on guitar and vocals provides more than enough spit and bile necessary to deliver the songs of the Stranglers, whilst, cool as ever, Dave Greenfield delivers some of the most memorable and recognisable keyboard lines from the 70's and 80's one handed as he sups his way through the contents of a personal bar. Most notably, The Stranglers stage show is so un-complicated for a band of their size, no road crew constantly adjusting things, no constant swapping of guitars, no fathing about, just tune after tune delivered with a consistent high energy and professionalism.","date":"2009-04-28","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2009/2009-04-28-umberto-eco-the-island-of-the-day-before","title":"Umberto Eco - The Island of the Day Before","url":"/blog/2009/2009-04-28-umberto-eco-the-island-of-the-day-before","summary":"Umberto Eco is often a difficult read, he has a tendency to take a really good (semi-fictional) plot and wrap in a lot of intellectual posturing that can become annoying and fundamentally far too distracting to continue reading. I am well aware of his vices and whilst I frequently have no idea what he is talking about I still really enjoying reading his books and would even list him as one of my favourite authors. The Island of the Day before is perhaps one of Umberto Eco's easiest reads with a fairly simple plot by his standards and enough beautifully written descriptions and prose to cope with a relatively small amount of intellectual discussion. The story tells of a young noble in the 17th century who gets abandoned on a mysterious ship in an unknown location and his (and the western world's) coming to grips with discovering new worlds, sciences and cultures whilst attempting to cling on to the familiar, mystical and old world. A wonderful read with a lead character that you will love, despise, support and become frustrated with throughout the book.","date":"2009-04-28","tags":["Books","Reviews"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2009/2009-02-08-on-death","title":"On Death","url":"/blog/2009/2009-02-08-on-death","summary":"My Nan died recently so for obvious reasons I've been thinking about Death a fair bit. Death in the family has never been something that has emotionally bothered me a great deal, probably due to me having a small family, my Mum dying at a young age and being brought up to celebrate life, not spen time mourning things that cannot be changed. The things that do bother me about death is the vulture like swooping of various parties after the event and the sudden deconstruction of someone's life. I feel very awkward discussing estates, possessions, value and legalities, to me it feels disrespectful. One of my earliest memories of this is after the funeral of my Mum's Dad when all the family descended on his house to divvy up the possessions with gleams in their eyes. I know all these things have to be discussed and sorted out, but everyone seems to so keen to bring the issue up whilst assuring you they're very sorry about what happened, much like in the antiques roadshow when you know all everyone is waiting to find out from the experts is an items 'insurance value'.","date":"2009-02-08","tags":["Life Death Opinion"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2009/2009-01-26-the-rules-of-the-road-cycling-article","title":"The rules of the road - Cycling article","url":"/blog/2009/2009-01-26-the-rules-of-the-road-cycling-article","summary":"Rules of the road Chris Chinchilla A license is not required to ride a bike on Melbourne's (and most other cities in the world as far as I know) streets and sometimes knowing quite what you are allowed and not allowed to do or indeed what others should be doing around you is difficult to ascertain. The fact is that when you are on a bike you should be obeying the rules of the road, but a lot of rules and regulations are squarely aimed at car drivers and if you haven't taken a license test, how are you supposed to know what they are anyway? Here are a few rules and regulations that directly affect cyclists, so you can be aware of your rights and responsibilities. Keep to the left You should keep to the left of the lane, if the road is too narrow or clogged with traffic then you are perfectly within your rights to take the lane completely, a generally touted figure is to keep a metre from the curbside. Cyclists are also allowed to overtake on the left of a vehicle, but not if the vehicle is indicating or turning left. Riding together Often a subject of confusion, you are allowed to ride two abreast and a third cyclist is even allowed to overtake, so car drivers put away those horns. Bike lanes and paths Another common grey area, this one even surprised me. If there is a bike path or lane present, you are obliged to use it if practical. Cars are also obliged to give way to cyclists in lanes and paths. Hook turns Whilst not completely required for cyclists, at major intersections where trams are present it will assist your safety and visibility if you take a hook turn instead of a 'normal' one. Traffic signs Cyclists are required to obey traffic lights, stop signs and give way signs, failing to do so is an infringement and could result in a fine. Opening Doors? Speaking from experience, being hit by a car door is unpleasant, opening a car door into traffic is also illegal. The law states 'A person must not cause a hazard to any person or vehicle by opening the door of a vehicle?' a fact that will surprise many cyclists and car drivers alike. However, it does mean that if you are hit, you are well within your rights to take down details, claim any damages and if necessary, report the incident to the Police. Compulsory accessories A warning device such as a bell or horn. An approved helmet. At night a white front light and red back light. Traffic Fines Disobeying traffic lights : $220 No Helmet : $55 No Lights : $55 Riding on a footpath or other non-approved path : $55 In fact, cyclists are subject to the same fines as car drivers, so if you're very unlucky or not careful you could find yourself hit with a very unusual fine. So bearing all of this in mind, why do so many cyclists seem to break these rules, putting themselves into danger, trouble and giving so many of us law abiding cyclists a bad name? I thought I'd do a little probing and try to understand why so many carry a chip on their shoulders about sharing the road and don't try to ride harmoniously with every other user of our public roads and footpaths. A common reason for jumping red lights given by many cyclists is momentum. Unlike a car, it's is human endeavour and effort that propels your vehicle, stopping at red lights reverses all of the momentum you've just built up, starting up again can be a lot of effort. This is a fair point, but in my personal opinion, not completely valid and generally bought up by those who like to travel particularly fast or who have fixed wheel (i.e. one gear) bikes, utilising gears properly (as with a car) makes stopping and starting a fairly simple process. Yes, traffic lights are damned annoying, but they generally exist for a good reason and not obeying them could endanger you and others, ignoring the recurring issue that you will also potentially infuriate other road users, increasing cyclist animosity. Of course there are also those lights that simply don't trigger for cyclists, in those cases then you really have no option than to jump them or cross on the pedestrian crossing. It does sadly seem that many cyclists suffer something of a superiority complex, taking the fact that they're 'doing their bit for the planet' as a carte blanche do what they like on the roads. Then there's the rebellious attitude that accompanies a lot of cyclists, the attitude that initially drives you to rebuke the four-wheeled majority and take to two wheels carries on into just doing what you damn like. Whatever your opinion or attitude, there are rules in place for a reason, if you don't agree with that reason or feel you are inappropriately represented or covered by regulations and rules then flaunting them isn't necessarily the best approach. One person breaking a rule because they feel justified or safer (which may have unforseen repercussions) in doing so achieves nothing, taking your complaints through official channels and making more intelligent larger scale protests through lobby groups (some listed below) or attending related public events can achieve better results. www.bv.com.au www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/Home/BicyclesPedestrians www.austroads.com.au/abc www.melbournecyclist.com/forum/topics/rule-breaking-cyclists","date":"2009-01-26","tags":["Cycling","Opinion","Melbourne"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2009/2009-01-26-the-slow-guide-to-melbourne-book-review","title":"The Slow Guide to Melbourne - Book review","url":"/blog/2009/2009-01-26-the-slow-guide-to-melbourne-book-review","summary":"'Slow' is an increasingly popular worldwide movement encouraging us to all, well, slow down. To take time out from our increasingly (and frequently self inflicted) hectic lives to appreciate what is around us, to take time to notice little things that were previously unnoticed, investigate places un-investigated, try new experiences and treat the world in a different, more relaxed and inquisitive manner.","date":"2009-01-26","tags":["Books","Reviews"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-12-30-look-whos-toxic-the-amazing-phillipss-sisters-tucker-bs-spod-the-northcote-social-club","title":"Look who's Toxic, The Amazing Phillips's Sisters / Tucker B's, Spod - The Northcote Social Club","url":"/blog/2008/2008-12-30-look-whos-toxic-the-amazing-phillipss-sisters-tucker-bs-spod-the-northcote-social-club","summary":"Friday night gigs need to start earlier to pull in the punters and keep them awake, bar a few overly enthusiastic members of the crowd, most of those hanging around the Northcote Social Club band room are looking like they'd rather be in bed and the support band's job is a tough one to extract any sort of enthusiasm or energy.","date":"2008-12-30","tags":["Reviews","Music"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-12-30-random-sunday-creative-writing-poem","title":"Random Sunday - Creative Writing (poem)","url":"/blog/2008/2008-12-30-random-sunday-creative-writing-poem","summary":"Let down the wall, try not to use a piano, you'll amaze yourself.","date":"2008-12-30","tags":["Poetry","Creative"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-12-30-text-talk-one-creative-writing-poem","title":"Text Talk one","url":"/blog/2008/2008-12-30-text-talk-one-creative-writing-poem","summary":"A poem written completely in predictive text","date":"2008-12-30","tags":["Poetry","Creative"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-12-29-city-life-creative-writing-prose","title":"City Life - Creative writing (Prose)","url":"/blog/2008/2008-12-29-city-life-creative-writing-prose","summary":"Applecore Broken Door Commercial crap Cat flap High crime Sign of the times Night clubs Seedy pubs Rubbish bin Collecting tin Bus stop Bent cop Run down school Drunken fool Paedophile Give us a smile Traffic jam Bang bang Road work Office jerk Broken homes Millennium dome Drug dealer Office cleaner Broken bottle Full throttle Boarded up shops Office blocks Social life Beaten up wife Dodgy bloke Being broke Sick on the ground Too much sound Political shit Hypocrite City life, don't you just love it","date":"2008-12-29","tags":["Creative","Writing","Life","Work"],"categories":["tech","writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-12-30-human-powered-cycles-cycling-article","title":"Human Powered Cycles - Cycling article","url":"/blog/2008/2008-12-30-human-powered-cycles-cycling-article","summary":"As a cyclist you encounter so much stress, grief and abuse you at least hope that when you enter a bike shop you will be greeted by a friendly and supportive face. However even this isn't always the case as some cycle shop staff can be rude, patronising and unfriendly, especially to new and keen cyclists. So what a refreshing change it was when I set foot into Human Powered Cycles in Brunswick, not only friendly and approachable, but also passionate and with a big heart, lets have a few words with them. Top Maintenance Tips Keep your bike regularly maintained, oil the chain and wheels, keep all moving parts clean and basically just keep an eye on everything. Make sure your light's batteries are not running out, especially on your back light as you may not always notice it's strength. On a related issue, don't buy two back lights to save money, this will confuse other traffic and could endanger you. When adjusting gears don't rely on playing with the High and Low adjusters on the gear cluster, try adjusting the gear wire instead. If you want to learn more about cycle maintenance then conveniently Human Powered offer some very competitively priced classes and rates for their own work, even providing courtesy bikes whilst yours is being fixed. Top Riding Tips Get a bike that fits you properly! Don't hug the kerb and keep weaving in and out between packed cars, stay out in the road and stick to the same spot. Don't ride timidly, assert yourself and be confident. Obey the rules of the road, if you don't know them, learn them. Human Powered's business has been sufficiently successful over the past seven years that they have been able to fund a program for recent Immigrants, providing bikes and cycling lessons, a quite unique scheme that you can help with by donating any old bikes you no longer require. I asked the guys what they thought of some of the current issues that affect cyclists in Melbourne. Why do you think that so many motorists in Melbourne are so 'bad' and have so little respect for Cyclists? I feel that unlike many European cities motorists in Australia have priority, if they hit a non-motor vehicle then the victim is in the wrong. Perhaps this leads the attitude of motorists here, they feel they are always in the right. Generally most motorists get annoyed with pedestrians and cyclists because they slow them down. At the same time I dislike certain cyclists who abuse the rules of the road, annoying other users doesn't help, it will simply lead to more motorists disliking cyclists and treating us all with disdain and mistrust. Do you think that if Cyclists paid a road tax we would be treated with more respect and get better facilities? This is actually somewhat of a myth, the tax that motorists pay mainly goes into accident prevention / cure and then general administration costs of the tax. Cyclists have very little impact on council property and we pay for this with rates anyway. In fact, encouraging cyclists is in the interests of councils it leads to less wear and tear and increased health benefits. What would help the future of cycling? More education for all road users and more promotion of cycling as a viable and positive method of transport, both of these would hopefully lead to a change in attitudes. Human Powered is a great self sufficient operation like so many in the inner suburbs, right down to their wonderfully informative website, their workshop computers running Linux and Bees in the backyard on the banks of the Merri. They are soon moving to commercial prosperity, hopefully it wont change the nature of the business. 38 Harrison St Brunswick East 90296504 Soon moving to : 563 High Street Thornbury On the 1st December, drop by for opening specials! www.humanpowered.com.au The guys at Human Powered Cycles are so nice they've also offered anyone who mentioned Aduki a 10% discount.<","date":"2008-12-29","tags":["Cycling","Melbourne","Business","Work"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-12-29-steph-brett-miss-little-howl-at-the-moon-the-empress","title":"Steph Brett, Miss Little, Howl at the Moon  - The Empress","url":"/blog/2008/2008-12-29-steph-brett-miss-little-howl-at-the-moon-the-empress","summary":"Steph Brett possesses a peculiar quality rarely found in singer-songwriters but one that delights and ensures an audience firmly on your side. Technically she is not brilliant, she fumbles chords, awkwardly plays with the microphone and even manages to pull the jack plate out of her guitar towards the end of her set. Un yet there is a vibrancy and character in her silky, caramel voice and personality, an understated charm that wins through every problem and technical hitch, as an example, to counter the lack of electrics in her guitar, the last song becomes acapella, with most of the audience providing hand claps for the duration.","date":"2008-12-29","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-12-30-the-jacks-assassination-collective-actor-model-shooting-at-unarmed-men-pony","title":"The Jacks, Assassination Collective, Actor/Model, Shooting at Unarmed Men - Pony","url":"/blog/2008/2008-12-30-the-jacks-assassination-collective-actor-model-shooting-at-unarmed-men-pony","summary":"Cup eve is a strange night of the year, everyone feels obliged to go out and enjoy themselves but haven't quite got over the weekend yet. The Jacks play an uncomplicated rock-a-billy punk crossover and certainly look the part, resplendent in turned up jeans, shirts, t-shirts, low-slung guitars and tattoos aplenty. The music's not complicated, there's no messing around, no confusion over what to expect and an awesome start to the night. Assassination Collective take to the stage in their usual shambolic glory, trying to fit 7 members on any stage is hard, nigh on impossible at a venue like Pony. The band compromise by bringing their awesome loud and raucous sound into the audience, the rotating vocalists bounding around the venue shaking everyone out of their holiday lethargy. Actor / Model are an odd choice on the bill, their mellower sound sandwiched between several louder and more frantic bands. A couple of songs in the set drag a little, wandering into meandering instrumentals that feel extraneous to what are generally catchy and interesting numbers. Shooting at Unarmed Men's gig schedule has been somewhat sporadic and random over the past year, a situation that beautifully summarises the band's music. One of the tightest three-pieces in Melbourne the songs are definitely punchy, catchy and well crafted, but full to the brim of tangents, suddenly flying from one random part to another without notice or prediction, a refreshing change from a sea of predictable bands. The audience tonight are just as unpredictable with some of the most bizarre heckles anyone (including front man John Chaplet who's probably experienced a fair few) has heard in a long time being shouted, screamed, sung and hollered throughout the entire set. Despite this Shooting at Unarmed Men pull off a brilliant set, somewhat enhanced by the situation, airing new songs, playing some old favourites and reminding Melbourne that despite their absence, they are still a musical force to be reckoned with.","date":"2008-12-29","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-10-27-1421-gavin-menzies","title":"1421 - Gavin Menzies","url":"/blog/2008/2008-10-27-1421-gavin-menzies","summary":"Living within the European focussed world view that many of us have had instilled into us from an early age it is often hard to forget that there are and were highly developed civilisations besides the Europeans, and the Europeans weren't necessarily always the first to achieve or discover things. In 1421 Gavin Menzies sets out a believable hypothesis that the first nation to 'discover' and 'chart' the rest of the world outside of their own locality was the Chinese and not those who we're led to believe such as Columbus and Magellan. He also sets out many pieces of evidence to show that China had a tremendous level of contact and influence on many nations around the world including the Aboriginals, Maori, Native Americans, African nations and more. The final strand of his hypothesis goes on to show that the European explorers were actually in possession of Chinese maps before they set out into the 'unknown'. Perhaps the most fascinating elements of the book is realising how advanced the Chinese were, long before the rest of the world, in terms of technology, trade and attitude (there are no cases of Chinese slaughtering native races for no reason) and the shear scale of their operations, showing that the Chinese wielding massive power and potential is nothing new. The fact that China has only recently come out of the self imposed insularity it commenced in 1421 (thus drawing to a close it's exploration and trading empires) makes this a very current and apt book. Gavin Menzies style is extremely enthusiastic, he is clearly passionate about his subject, he repeats himself a lot and his somewhat amateurish writing style sometimes grates, some waffling aside though, this is a truly fascinating read that makes you question a lot of what we believe and hold true in European society.","date":"2008-10-27","tags":["Reviews","Books","History"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-10-27-are-we-valued","title":"Are We Valued","url":"/blog/2008/2008-10-27-are-we-valued","summary":"Cycling is experiencing a worldwide renaissance and Melbourne is no exception with sales of bikes out stripping cars by a scale of six. Wether it be environmental, health or practical reasons, cyclists are rapidly becoming a consumer and user group large enough to start making some demands. So here's a short wish list to make any keen Melbourne cyclists life a little better, and frankly, in these days of environmental crisis, a little more valued in the part we play in doing the world a favour.","date":"2008-10-27","tags":["Opinion","Cycling"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-10-27-dr-invisiablo-assassination-collective-the-old-bar","title":"Dr Invisiablo, Assassination Collective - The Old Bar","url":"/blog/2008/2008-10-27-dr-invisiablo-assassination-collective-the-old-bar","summary":"Dr Invisiablo either play incredibly complex music and make it look ridiculously simple or they play incredibly simple music and give the impression that it's incredibly complex. Either way their blend of highly arranged Punk-Pop-Hard-Rock is highly effective with all members firing on full cylinders, drummer Adam Pedretti particularly intimidating the audience with his ability to let rip insanely amazing drum patterns with ease. Tonight is only a two band bill so Dr Invisiablo have plenty of time to show us what their made of and at no time during their set (not even with an Elvis cover) do they detour into dullsville, supplying this quiet Wednesday night with a band worth keeping an eye on. The Assassination Collective remain one of the nosiest, shambolic and chaotic bands in Melbourne but have been uncharacteristically quiet of late, presumably with a raft of 'other commitments' getting in the way of shows. Or perhaps taking time out to observe the new government in order to craft a fresh batch of charged political anthems regarding the 'change'. This month long residency gives the band an opportunity to showcase a handful of new numbers as well as let rip with a few old favourites. The 'Collective' in the bands name is appropriately descriptive of what to expect at a show, all members (Excluding Simon on Bass) swapping and interchanging instruments every few songs, injecting an element of differing character into each line up and song. It also leads to a slightly messy set as booze and confusion reigns supreme, resulting in the impression that no one is really sure what is supposed to happen next and equally that no one really cares as long as there's some noise and alcohol involved. The most enjoyable thing about an Assassination collective show is that for a most random looking bunch of individuals, for the amount of noise they make, for the amount of screaming and shouting, for the amount of gear and band members, for the amount of Politics and social commentary in their songs, is that they manage to get any gigs at all, but thank God they do, Melbourne needs them.","date":"2008-10-27","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-10-27-jpod-douglas-coupland","title":"JPod - Douglas Coupland","url":"/blog/2008/2008-10-27-jpod-douglas-coupland","summary":"Perhaps the closest reference point to Douglas Coupland for those of you unfamiliar with his work is Kurt Vonnegut, a reference point that I'm sure Douglas Coupland hears frequently. If you're unfamiliar with either's work then I guess the best description would be, 'different' or maybe 'hyper real', characters sort of shamble through in a state of confusion that no one else suffers from with odd occurrences happening to them that no one else considers odd. JPod is a book about and aimed at Geeks, there are a lot of references in the text to computers, Geek culture and attitudes that may be lost on those unfamiliar with them, whilst this wont detract from the plot, Jokes will certainly be missed. JPod also makes a habit of inserting lots of random pages into the book, some relevant, some a complete waste of tree, for example over 60 pages filled with numbers involved in games that the characters play with each other whilst at work, a nice character building device, but a waste of paper. A funny and easy read (this took me a week and I don't have a lot of time to read in my life) full of accurate and amusing observations, but one that will be lost on many people.","date":"2008-10-27","tags":["Books","Reviews"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-10-27-mark-steiner-rowland-s-howard-the-toff-in-town","title":"Mark Steiner, Rowland S Howard - The Toff in Town","url":"/blog/2008/2008-10-27-mark-steiner-rowland-s-howard-the-toff-in-town","summary":"Its always amazing to see the backing bands of jet setting solo artists, a group of musicians who at the drop of a hat can just pick up a set of songs and play them like they've been playing them all their lives. Most of Mark's set tonight is of fairly melancholic plodding numbers with an alt-country twinge, all reverb laden guitars and low booming vocals, very reminiscent of the headliners former outfit. The skill of the musicians around him brings out Mark's songs, lifting them from a middle of the road rut they could easily fall into. Towards the end of the set Mark takes a strange change in direction and adds in some 'novelty' songs that don't sit well in the mix, like someone trying to tell jokes who just isn't funny, it makes the audience squirm and exchange awkward glances, they weren't necessary and Mark loses a little kudos for doing it.","date":"2008-10-27","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-10-27-psychopaths-and-cyclepaths","title":"Psychopaths and Cyclepaths","url":"/blog/2008/2008-10-27-psychopaths-and-cyclepaths","summary":"One bright sunny day I stepped out on to Sydney rd in Brunswick to be greeted by a surprising and pleasurable sight, no cars! It was Moreland Council's first Cyclovia, with one of Melbourne's busiest, cramped and most hectic roads open only to bikes, pedestrians and public transport for several hours.","date":"2008-10-27","tags":["Cycling","Opinion"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-10-27-rome-and-jerusalem-the-clash-of-ancient-civilisations-martin-goodman","title":"Rome & Jerusalem, The Clash of ancient Civilisations - Martin Goodman","url":"/blog/2008/2008-10-27-rome-and-jerusalem-the-clash-of-ancient-civilisations-martin-goodman","summary":"This book took me a very long time to read, months in fact, the topic is a weighty one, not hard to understand or absorb, just one that can only be digested in short sittings. It deals with the long running conflict between Rome and Jerusalem, dating back to the latter years of BC and effectively (through recurring anti Semitism) running until now. However this book deals with events primarily up to 4th Century AD and the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, including the fascinating reign of Constantine who took the Roman Empire from abusing Christians, to spreading their word and simultaneously alienating even more in the Jewish world.A fascinating read, but not for the faint hearted or those expecting to learn more on the subject any time soon.","date":"2008-10-27","tags":["Books","Reviews History"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-10-27-rubber-records-20th-birthday-northcote-town-hall","title":"Rubber Records 20th Birthday - Northcote Town Hall","url":"/blog/2008/2008-10-27-rubber-records-20th-birthday-northcote-town-hall","summary":"Entering a gig and feeling young compared to the majority of the audience is an increasingly rare experience for some reviewers and tonight's Rubber Records 20th Birthday Party ranks highly in one of those experiences. Most of the acts on tonight's impressive bill had their heydays in the 90's, so again, if you weren't in Australia in the 90's a lot of the cultural reference points may be somewhat lost on you. With nearly twenty bands across two rooms there's a lot to pack in and as almost expected at such ambitious affairs, everything's running late. The Grapes play a set of nice melodic tunes with Sherry Rich on acoustic guitar proving smooth vocals with a hint of living and Ashley Naylor on electric guitar adding a little too much fret board noddling to the point of distraction. Heading into the main room The Casanovas are on earlier than expected and thus playing to less people than expected, their old school Oz-Rock landing upon the ears of a half full room, new songs are aired and go down well, but the audience isn't quite ready to commit to any of the crowd surfing or head banging that perhaps the band needs to be fully appreciated. Hot Little hands are by far the youngest and (perhaps because of their youth) most vibrant band on tonight's bill, the band and their fans looking completely out of place amongst the throngs of aging rockers. Their music is fresh, different and the highlight of the night. Even take to the stage looking like a bunch of everyone's favourite ('cool') uncles, the purveyors of highly successful alternative rock in the 90's; it takes the band a little while to warm up. Their music lacks the edge it used to possess but most of the rapidly filling room are enjoying reliving their youth and when the band are joined by Vince from the Underground Lovers proceedings really move up a notch, once a few special guests are reeled out it really feels like a party! Codrazine end the night, the entire band resplendent in a highly appropriate uniform of black, the band are a more downbeat end to the night, but were something of a labour of love for the owners of Rubber Records and with the band recently announcing something of a reunion planned, an upbeat joining of past and future for the label.","date":"2008-10-27","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-10-27-the-zombie-state-melbourne-university","title":"The Zombie State - Melbourne University","url":"/blog/2008/2008-10-27-the-zombie-state-melbourne-university","summary":"The Zombie State's tagline is 'Melbourne finds itself in the grip of the vengeful dead. Who will stand and fight?. Not wanting to give too much away, this is somewhat misleading and doesn't quite allude to what the play is really 'about'. For student theatre this is a big budget production, a high quality nightmare corridor with two plastic booths stage front form the set for most of the production, with many door ways providing ample opportunity for the cast to appear from in a disconcerting way.Technically the production is ambitious. When action is taking place in either of the booths the sound quality takes on a shrill, claustrophobic character. Some scenes also happen backstage with video cameras streaming footage onto two large screens at the front of the stage, an interesting and novel method that causes a few (apparent) technical problems with microphones malfunctioning causing sections of dialogue to be inaudible.","date":"2008-10-27","tags":["Reviews","Theatre"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-10-27-where-to-ride-book-review","title":"Where to Ride - Book Review","url":"/blog/2008/2008-10-27-where-to-ride-book-review","summary":"It's hard to effectively review a guide to cycle paths in South East Queensland when you're stuck in Melbourne with no chance of attempting them anytime soon. The guide produced by Bicycling Australia is exceptionally well produced and thought out with ring bound easy to clean laminated pages for those journeys where your hands spend more time fiddling with oily parts than on the handlebars. There are 47 rides spread across Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast to keep you busy for many months to come, all with detailed guides to road surfaces, terrain types, distances and a difficulty rating.","date":"2008-10-27","tags":["Reviews","Books","Cycling"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-01-10-chris-tt-interview","title":"Chris TT - Interview","url":"/blog/2008/2008-01-10-chris-tt-interview","summary":"Hey Mr C, how you? Yes, it's been too long, I'm very well thank-you. I've Mainly been finishing Capital, releasing the 'This Gun' EP and trying to get my live gigging self shipshape for next year. Had a struggle with lineups and lack of rehearsal time but it's coming together now and it'll be an ace year.","date":"2008-10-01","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-08-25-kisschasey-the-palace","title":"Kisschasey - The Palace","url":"/blog/2008/2008-08-25-kisschasey-the-palace","summary":"Kids are looking younger, reviewers are feeling older, fake ID's are getting better or a combination of all of the above, but the extremely enthusiastic crowd at The Palace tonight looks exceedingly youthful and full of vim, vigour and exuberance. The Getaway Plan's guitarist has an uncanny and highly skilled knack of playing his guitar extraordinarily frantically whilst giving the impression that it's stuck to him, his black plank barely moving a millimetre from his body. The band are obviously flavour of the month amongst the kids as for a first on band they have an impressively large and receptive crowd for their contemporary blend of Pop, Rock and 'Metal-lite', arms are in the air, bodies are pulsating and it's not even 9pm. The Donnas are the odd band out on tonight's bill, the most experienced and proficient band of the night, they describe themselves as stuck in the middle of a (pleasant) 'Man Sandwich'. However they are also completely different musically from the rest of the line up, their American style Pop-Punk-Rock standing starkly aside from The Getaway Plan and Kisschassy, an odd choice of support, they are also the only non-local band and it shows. The crowd like them, but don't love them, enthusiasm wanes and their American sheen and excessively flattering inter song patter jars with a fair few in the crowd, it feels a little forced and possibly even somewhat fake. The sceptical in the crowd are equally matched by the faithful and as the set reaches its close a random pair of knickers finds its way onto the stage, bemusing the band and confusing the crowd as everyone ponders that near impossible process once more. On the other side of the Melbourne man sandwich comes Kisschassy, and boy do they put on a good show. The lights are in full swing, the band sound and look great, everyone's into the music and emotions are running high. Whether the band would describe themselves or their music as 'Emo' or whatever that cursed word even means is unsure, but we have a room brimming with youthful abandon, everywhere you look lyrics are being mouthed along with, lyrics chock full of connotations from across the emotional spectrum, song after song of angst ridden rock charges these kids full of hormones and adrenalin, kids who feel they or the world around them has issues that are being ignored, a generation sold, sold to, given everything, given nothing, tested, restricted, tossed around and emotionally neglected, this is their music and they show it.","date":"2008-08-25","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-08-25-melbournes-2am-lockout-null","title":"Melbourne's 2am Lockout","url":"/blog/2008/2008-08-25-melbournes-2am-lockout-null","summary":"In another example of Western governments unable to comprehend why their populations are dead set on destroying themselves in a wave of hedonism or violence, and instead of attempting to understand the motivations behind this they instead restrict them every way possible with an ever increasing amount of legislation. In its infinite wisdom the Victorian state government has decided to follow Queensland and introduce a 2am lockout in the CBD in an effort to curb late night violence.","date":"2008-08-25","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-08-25-pikelet-manchester-lane","title":"Pikelet - Manchester Lane","url":"/blog/2008/2008-08-25-pikelet-manchester-lane","summary":"A bitterly cold winter's Sunday is a hard night to stage a gig and expect a crowd to venture out into the wild winds. However Manchester Lane seems to be everyone's perfect choice to evade the inclement weather outside, there is a constant to-ing and fro-ing of waiting staff from the Kitchen, the bar is busy with clanking glasses and the venue is nigh on full with an enthusiastic and appreciative audience chatting in these highly civilised surrounds. Laura Jean and the Eden Land Band more appear on stage quietly and collectively than take to it, a motley collective of bass, drums, violin, clarinet and a pair of legs dangling behind the stage's vast grand piano. Despite Laura's protestations to life being hard as a 'Folk' musician and quips about confidence issues, (apparently unbeknown to her) she has the room in the palm of her hands, with all sat staring at her attentively, hanging on to every breathy vocal, every luscious intertwining melody and haunting hook. The set is a hypnotic series of beautiful arrangements, crescendos rising, harmonies building and falling, a seemingly complex patchwork of brilliantly played instruments by permanently bemused but skilled musicians. Pikelet is and has always been hard to place, her solo shows can take some getting used to, as she sets up songs and builds to sometimes ear splittingly layered musical peaks through an ingenious combination of gadgets and dusty old instruments. The thought of her with a backing band is a tempting one, an opportunity to take her involved arrangements and spread them out between other musicians, leading to more spacious and fluid songs. However her backing band tonight is not the anticipated stage full of people with a plethora of instruments but two lanky fellows, one on a drum kit of sorts and the other behind an increasing array of gizmos, instruments and sounds. When the 'band' takes the opportunity to really kick in suddenly Pikelet's songs come vibrantly alive with a renewed groove and freshness that can only be added by a gang of musicians gelling toether. These opportunities are few with the majority of the set simply Pikelet, her intriguing methods of accompanying herself and her strange stage manner. The moments when she is most engaging and her talent for witty melodies really shines through are when it really is just her, a powerful solo voice, a solo instrument, her unique phrasing and her eccentrically haunting songs.","date":"2008-08-25","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-08-25-sebastien-bach-the-palace","title":"Sebastien Bach - The Palace","url":"/blog/2008/2008-08-25-sebastien-bach-the-palace","summary":"Sebastian Bach represents everything good and / or bad about heavy rock depending on your point of view. He and his band tick all the anticipated and expected boxes, long flowing curly locks, tight (and for some members, stripy) jeans, sleeveless vests, stupendous Marshall stacks and some on stage moves straight out of 'Rock moves 101'. The crowd is equally suited to the band, resplendent in a sea of metal band T-Shirts, VB cans, Devil hands and increasingly drunken swaying.","date":"2008-08-25","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-08-25-the-fratellis-hi-fi-bar","title":"The Fratellis - Hi Fi Bar","url":"/blog/2008/2008-08-25-the-fratellis-hi-fi-bar","summary":"Whilst descending the Hifi's mysterious winding staircase The Shake up grab you with an immeasurable charm, a distant beat and melody that draws the listener in, causing an urge to push to the front of the milling crowds and discover the band who are creating such a loud, catchy and cohesive sound. The big surprise is that the band are only a three piece, the bigger and more pleasant surprise is that the venue is nigh on full, appreciating the band's efforts and not just idly killing time before the headline act take to the stage. After the ubiquitous fiddling and fathing from an international band's road crew (how many times do you need to tune the same guitar?) the Fratellis suddenly appear on stage and bask in an instant wave of admiration from a highly enthusiastic audience who have obviously been waiting a long time for the band to finally get here. The first striking thing about the band is how much heavier they sound live than on their albums. Live renditions of tracks from 'Costello Music' have gained an extra depth and grunt that was never present on the recorded versions. Newer material from 'Here we Stand' pushes the band further into epic rock territory with more sweeping chord changes, guitar solos and sing-a-long choruses. The second striking thing about the Fratellis is how well known their material is, it even surprises the band, giving special mention to the fact that they have never encountered an audience that knows the words to all of their songs, old and new. Looking around the venue, at least 50% of the venue is mouthing along to nearly every word of nearly every song. The entire gig is an enjoyable and pleasurable experience, the crowd are here to appreciate the music not fling themselves about the venue in the direction of the stage, no one is pissed off, no one is angry, there are no conflicts, no run ins with security, just a great night of music from a band proving themselves to be a lot greater and possesing more longevity than anyone ever expected.","date":"2008-08-25","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-05-27-rocket-science-the-east-brunswick-club","title":"Rocket Science - The East Brunswick Club","url":"/blog/2008/2008-05-27-rocket-science-the-east-brunswick-club","summary":"Sailors and Swines show little care that they are first act on the bill tonight, playing to a half full room of waifs and strays. Their blend of edgy, disjointed, noisy angst ridden rock grabs your attention and hits you right between the eyes like a brightly coloured brick. Some of the band's material is a little samey but they are young, new, fresh, exciting and perform the audience wake up role admirably.I Heart Hiroshima posses that care free attitude so common in bands from Queensland, they saunter on to stage, fiddle around a bit, start with no sort of introductions and progress through their set like they were just hanging out in your front room on a summer evening. The songs are bright, generally cheery and brimming with sparse arrangements of catchy melodies and deliciously captivating contrasting harmonies. A fair chunk of the crowd have turned up for I Heart Hiroshima and are joyfully jumping in front of the stage, shouting eager calls of support and praise for a band they all embrace with wide open arms.The problem for any older, mature and well-established band in booking such young and vibrant supports is then living up to the standard and energy just set. Rocket Science, recently received back into the Melbourne Music scene with a welcoming smile and a firm handshake, give it a good go, but don't quite make it. Maybe it's tiredness after a nationwide tour, maybe it's complacency after such an easy career reestablishment, or maybe it's just because their fans are now teetering on the edge of an age where they don't dance anymore. Whatever it is, something doesn't feel quite right, it feels as if the infamously boisterous front man, Roman, is going through the motions somewhat and not quite feeling the motivation behind what he's doing, whilst the rest of the band barely move, rooted to the spot for most of the set. Presence aside the band still firmly retain the solid and fat Rock sound they are renowned for, pushing out countless and relentless riffs, licks and slick chords. It's unclear from the audience response and overheard comments if the crowd are glad the band are back and a going concern, or are just pleased to hear a few old favourites they grew up with, but we all hope that Rocket Science keep packing out venues around the land whilst fans make their minds up.","date":"2008-05-27","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-05-26-city-life-creative-writing","title":"City Life - Creative Writing","url":"/blog/2008/2008-05-26-city-life-creative-writing","summary":"- City life, don't you just love it","date":"2008-05-26","tags":["Creative"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-05-26-dancing-on-the-edge-creative-writing","title":"Dancing on the Edge - Creative Writing","url":"/blog/2008/2008-05-26-dancing-on-the-edge-creative-writing","summary":"I'm dancing on the edge of normality, waggling my arse at the people inside and loving every minute.","date":"2008-05-25","tags":["Creative"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-05-26-dream-creative-writing-dream","title":"Dream - Creative Writing / Dream","url":"/blog/2008/2008-05-26-dream-creative-writing-dream","summary":"Cate and I got a bus, the 160 that used to run from Catford to Sidcup, we got off the bus near where I used to live, on the south circular, which was near where it used to go, but slightly off route. We got off the bus and all the shops were exactly as I remembered, as we walked down the road (which was a major street for traffic) we came across a fruit orchard, trees of apples, plums, gooseberries and more, I kept trying to take photos of the fruit and Cate kept getting in the way saying 'stop that! Take a picture of me!√Æ As we wandered through the forest we came across a normal looking house, although there was no indication of being so, we instantly knew it was a tourist attraction and went inside.","date":"2008-05-25","tags":["Creative"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-05-25-let-it-out-creative-writing","title":"Let it Out - Creative Writing","url":"/blog/2008/2008-05-25-let-it-out-creative-writing","summary":"Tell me what the matter is, I really want to know.","date":"2008-05-25","tags":["Creative"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-05-26-long-distance-call-creative-writing-sketch","title":"Long Distance Call - Creative Writing (Sketch)","url":"/blog/2008/2008-05-26-long-distance-call-creative-writing-sketch","summary":"Phone on table, centre stage. Phone rings.","date":"2008-05-25","tags":["Creative"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-05-26-text-talk-one-creative-writing","title":"Text Talk one - Creative Writing","url":"/blog/2008/2008-05-26-text-talk-one-creative-writing","summary":"Fancied damaged boy any box or coy Cox kiss lips as they lisp.","date":"2008-05-25","tags":["Creative"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-05-26-touche-creative-writing","title":"Touche - Creative Writing","url":"/blog/2008/2008-05-26-touche-creative-writing","summary":"Megalomaniac had death at the press of a button, he'd declared war on the rest of the world and he wasn't backing down now. The world hadn't taken him seriously, hadn't met his demands, he'd have to show the world fear and harm.","date":"2008-05-25","tags":["Creative"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-04-29-actor-model-bachelor-of-arts-die-die-die-revolver","title":"Actor/Model, Bachelor of Arts, Die Die Die! - Revolver","url":"/blog/2008/2008-04-29-actor-model-bachelor-of-arts-die-die-die-revolver","summary":"There's an odd and intriguing dynamic within Actor/Model, Karen on guitar and keyboards and Phil on drums seem to spend a vast proportion of the set staring at Ricky on guitar and vocals, giving the general impression that he's the only one who has any idea what's going on. The band have a foot firmly planted in early to mid 90's Indie but are unashamed to admit to it, hammering through a set of meandering guitar noises underpinned by awesome fat and fuzzy keyboard sounds.Bachelor of Arts are on fire tonight and have been steadily improving over the past few months transforming from an interesting three piece into a devastatingly tight unit that now seem to have really found their motivation and sound. Every member of the band seems to play just the right thing in the right place, wonderfully complementing each other and creating spectacular sparse works of musical art.","date":"2008-04-29","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-04-29-the-prester-quest-nicholas-jubber","title":"The Prester Quest - Nicholas Jubber","url":"/blog/2008/2008-04-29-the-prester-quest-nicholas-jubber","summary":"The prester quest is a story of two men's present day retracing of a journey from Italy to Ethiopia made by a Papal Emissary in 1177. His mission to deliver a letter to a supposedly (and widely believed to be) real King of a fantastical Christian land in the heart of Islamic lands. I read a similar 'retracing the steps' book (Victoria Clarks, The Wayfarers) about a year ago, which was an amazing read, so this book had a lot to live up to. It starts slowly and doesn't really get going until about a quarter of a way through the book, the author's slightly facetious tone initially rather annoying and patronizing. However once the plot and journey kicks in the book is a gripping read full of interesting facts, observations and experiences from History and their eventful journey across several countries, continents and cultures.","date":"2008-04-29","tags":["Reviews","Books","History"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-04-28-baseball-missing-link","title":"Baseball - Missing Link","url":"/blog/2008/2008-04-28-baseball-missing-link","summary":"Allow me the indulgence of stepping outside the traditional third person / present tense to make an observation on context, situation and assumption. Once I saw Cameron (lead singer of Baseball) sat at a tram stop, his usual crazy haired self, decked in the un official uniform of Melbourne musicians, tight jeans, singlet and Dunlop volleys. Outside of his element people were avoiding him, labelling him as one those 'crazies' and best ignored or stared at. In his element fronting a rock band all eyes are upon him again but this time there is no doubt about what this crazy haired man is here for.","date":"2008-04-28","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-04-28-henry-rollins-comedy-theatre","title":"Henry Rollins - Comedy Theatre","url":"/blog/2008/2008-04-28-henry-rollins-comedy-theatre","summary":"One man talking solidly for three hours with no breaks and only taking one drink the entire time is a pretty intense experience for all involved, especially when one of those is Henry Rollins. He stands rigid in one spot, legs arched, tense, constantly looking as if he's about to leap into a fight. He covers topics from war and politics to loving music and sex, never elitist and never patronising. He tries hard to remain down to Earth and on the side of the common man, at times I find this hard to believe, for example he continually mentions his 'Utilitarian hovel' unyet lets slip that it has 3 bathrooms. Also whilst I whole heartedly support his 'Live every day as your last' attitude and his encouragement to seek, accept and grasp all opportunities, he is Henry Rollins and in a lot better place to be offered and act upon opportunities than many. Don't let me paint the show in a bad light however as this is a truly informative and inspiring show full of observations, anecdotes and intelligent witticisms on the state of the world. He is engaging, never wandering even slightly close to boredom and maintains an equal level of passion and energy throughout his entire set. I know little of Henry Rollins career but after discovering such a like minded soul who shares so many similar beliefs and motivations I shall be digging more into his past, present and future, hoping to be further roused and renewed in my own ventures.","date":"2008-04-28","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-04-28-the-knockouts-gentle-ben-and-his-sensitive-side-6ft-hick-ding-dong-lounge","title":"The Knockouts, Gentle Ben and his Sensitive side, 6ft Hick - Ding Dong Lounge","url":"/blog/2008/2008-04-28-the-knockouts-gentle-ben-and-his-sensitive-side-6ft-hick-ding-dong-lounge","summary":"The Knockouts are straight ahead psychobilly rock and roll, feeling slightly stifled but warming up towards the end of the set. Strangely similar in delivery to old Ska band, the Selecter, their material is fairly paint by numbers, simple and uncomplicated conjuring images of Smokey bars in the American deep south, surrounded by far too much leather and cigarette smoke if it hasn't been banned yet?","date":"2008-04-28","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-04-28-tv-for-cats-skull-squadron-radiant-city-the-tote","title":"TV for Cats, Skull Squadron, Radiant City - The Tote","url":"/blog/2008/2008-04-28-tv-for-cats-skull-squadron-radiant-city-the-tote","summary":"Playing Rock & Roll with a drum machine is a tough task, trying to maintain passion, emotion and flexibility within the confines of a machines rigid confine. Whilst TV for Cats aren't the most engaging band to watch, their lack of human backline doesn't notice and musically they are as flexible and fluid as any band with a sweaty skin pounder in the back row. The tunes are bright, edgy and catchy, with ingenious arrangements and musical tricks scattered throughout their set.","date":"2008-04-28","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-04-28-young-and-restless-dardanelles-the-galvatrons-cassette-kids-flamingo-crash-reptiles-the-corner","title":"Young & Restless, Dardanelles, The Galvatrons, Cassette Kids, Flamingo Crash, Reptiles - The Corner","url":"/blog/2008/2008-04-28-young-and-restless-dardanelles-the-galvatrons-cassette-kids-flamingo-crash-reptiles-the-corner","summary":"Whoever named tonight's event 'Uh Huh' should be given a gentle slap round the face for concocting such an uninspiring name for such an inspiring line up. The Corner is sadly sparser than expected tonight but those of us present are up for a full on (especially with no mind numbingly annoying and boring lengthy sound checks) night of cutting edge Rock and Roll in the company of some of the hottest and most vibrant bands in the Country.","date":"2008-04-28","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-04-09-image-man-creative-writing","title":"Image Man - Creative Writing","url":"/blog/2008/2008-04-09-image-man-creative-writing","summary":"An image man does what his image can","date":"2008-04-09","tags":["Creative"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-04-09-random-sunday-creative-writing","title":"Random Sunday - Creative Writing","url":"/blog/2008/2008-04-09-random-sunday-creative-writing","summary":"Let down the wall, try not to use a piano, you'll amaze yourself.","date":"2008-04-09","tags":["Creative"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-03-17-bill-bryson-a-short-history-of-nearly-everything","title":"Bill Bryson - A Short History of nearly everything","url":"/blog/2008/2008-03-17-bill-bryson-a-short-history-of-nearly-everything","summary":"I have a recently rediscovered passion and interest for History, absorbing many tomes over the past few months, my favourite being brief surmises of 'all of History'.","date":"2008-03-17","tags":["Reviews","Books","History"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-03-17-kamikaze-trio-group-seizure-talk-show-boy-shark-in-the-dark-tetrode-kink-the-noise-bar","title":"Kamikaze Trio, Group Seizure, Talk show Boy, Shark In The Dark, Tetrode Kink - The Noise Bar","url":"/blog/2008/2008-03-17-kamikaze-trio-group-seizure-talk-show-boy-shark-in-the-dark-tetrode-kink-the-noise-bar","summary":"Putting on gigs in venues that are a little outside of the normal circuit is always a challenge, you pick a good night of the week, get a good line up together and promote the hell out of it unyet attendance is still not what it could and should be. Such is the lot of the Noise Bar tonight, a buzzing and eclectic line up but just because it's that little bit further from Coolsville the 40 or so people here are the only ones privileged and smart enough to realise a good deal when they see one.","date":"2008-03-17","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-03-13-from-the-jam-prince-of-wales","title":"From The Jam - Prince of Wales","url":"/blog/2008/2008-03-13-from-the-jam-prince-of-wales","summary":"I am a big fan of the Jam; they rate in my top three bands and depending on what mood I'm in, they are my favourite band. Not only that, they are a big influence on my music and a motivation to get into music in the first place. I had always resigned the band to the 'bands I'd love to have seen but know I never will' list stored away at the back of my mind, so imagine my surprise when nestled amongst the plethora of reformations recently I noticed that they were reforming, well, sort of. From the Jam (I assume the name is due to legal reasons) are two thirds of the Jam, Bruce Foxton (Bass) and Rick Buckler (Drums), without songwriter, guitarist, vocalist, front man and (lets be blunt) the most famous Paul Weller. I have always thought that the story of The Jam's rhythm section is one of the saddest in Rock&Roll history, from being in one of the most successful bands of the late 70's / early 80's they were royally (or should we say royalty) shafted by Weller and their manager (Weller's father) almost immediately ending up back in crappy jobs or on the dole, I believe that they were a competent three piece, not just a talented songwriter with two other guys and that Weller's treatment of them was inexcusable. When the reunion was announced Paul Weller was approached but apparently his reaction was 'Over my dead body', so I was intrigued to know how the band would replace him. Well, they replaced him with two people, in the form of Russell Hastings (Guitar and Vocals) and Dave Moore (Guitar and keyboards) from Jam tribute band, the Gift, whom Rick Buckler actually played with for a period of time. There is a hint of sadness to the whole idea but it would be as close as I ever got to the real thing so I donned my best mod suit and headed off to St Kilda. Firstly I was struck by the encouraging range of ages in the crowd; there were a fair amount of beefy and balding middle-aged men, but also a smattering of youthful faces (including me!) enjoying songs as old as them. More encouraging was the quality of the band, the four-piece line up creates a bigger sound more reminiscent of the Jam's recorded output than their live sound, you lose the original feel but hear the famous songs recreated faithfully. Russell Hastings does an amazing Paul Weller impression, his accent is impeccable, possessing the same spitting and arrogant attitude as the 20-year-old Modfather, he is either an astonishing actor or is another son of Woking (Weller's home town). The remainder of band are still full of vim and vigour, Bruce Foxton pulls off leaps and scissor kicks still as lithe as he ever was, Rick Buckler looks as mean as in his youth, barely lifting his glare from behind his drum kit. After 90 minutes of still fresh and relevant songs the band leave the stage to rapturous applause and serve a reminder that if you've still got it then why not flaunt it, even if you are missing a seemingly essential member.","date":"2008-03-12","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-01-10-josh-pyke-interview","title":"Josh Pyke - Interview","url":"/blog/2008/2008-01-10-josh-pyke-interview","summary":"You started playing and writing music from a young age (12 - 14), why so young? What motivated you to do it?","date":"2008-01-10","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-01-10-oocon-creative-writing","title":"OOCON","url":"/blog/2008/2008-01-10-oocon-creative-writing","summary":"Isn't it funny how people's legs move in harmony with each other when they walk together,","date":"2008-01-10","tags":["Creative"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-01-10-sore-thumb-creative-writing","title":"Sore Thumb","url":"/blog/2008/2008-01-10-sore-thumb-creative-writing","summary":"When you feel like the odd one out, like a fish whose water's run out.","date":"2008-01-10","tags":["Creative"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2008/2008-01-10-unkle-interview","title":"UNKLE - Interview","url":"/blog/2008/2008-01-10-unkle-interview","summary":"How did everything begin, why did you want to get into music in the first place?","date":"2008-01-10","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"music","id":"aaa","title":"AAA","url":"/music/aaa","summary":"The sole album from Macaca Mulatta — the post-Art Brut band Chris Chinchilla started in London before it settled in Melbourne. Scrappy, melodic British indie-punk in the spirit of The Jam, The Clash and Billy Bragg.","date":"2008-01-01","tags":[],"categories":["music"],"externalUrl":"https://music.apple.com/album/aaa/277649978"},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-12-20-bright-yellow-british-india-the-evelyn","title":"Bright Yellow, British India - The Evelyn","url":"/blog/2007/2007-12-20-bright-yellow-british-india-the-evelyn","summary":"Bright Yellow are floppy. Floppy hair, floppy shirts and floppy rock. Their smooth, loose and laid back rock infused with psychedelic overtones is an odd and possibly bad choice for a support band and their set doesn't quite seem to be hitting the spot with the crowd at the Evelyn tonight. However the band admirably and competently press on, ignoring heckles such as 'Play a song we know√Æ at the very least gaining respect from those in the audience paying them any attention. At the complete opposite end of the spectrum British India are so full of energy and dynamism it feels that they may literally 'blow the roof off'. Declan Melia on vocals is so full of passion, enthusiasm and charm you can't take your eyes off him as he bounds around the stage, his battered and tramp like shoes surely a testament to the grim reality of life as a professional musician when the lights are off and the crowd's gone home. Will Drummond on bass is the epitome of cool, polo neck collar up, dressed in black and catching the eyes of many a girl in the audience even if he wont acknowledge it. Nic Wilson provides a set full of blistering solos that lift the crowd in all the right places and Matt O'Gorman on drums never lets up for one second, pounding away profusely for the set's entire duration. The band are young, and have thus far seemingly crafted an entire set of epic anthems, which may bore the pants of some older and more jaded punters but for their fans, they can do no wrong. The songs could occasionally be deemed to be verging into that dreaded 'emo' territory, but very occasionally and very slightly, so lets let them off that hook. Cast aside aspersions of age, experience and song writing maturity, the songs may all be a little similar at this point, and all be based around the same sorts of themes, but these kids know how to rock a damn sight better than some twice their age and put on an astounding show. From the second the band takes to the stage until they leave after an encore that could have quite easily lasted all night there is an electric atmosphere that few bands have the ability to generate.","date":"2007-12-20","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-12-20-children-collide-interview","title":"Children Collide - Interview","url":"/blog/2007/2007-12-20-children-collide-interview","summary":"Children Collide are part of plethora of Melbourne bands successfully achieving the one aim of many Australian acts, that of international success. After storming shows at SXSW, across the US and the UK the band is now stopping briefly to finally solidly their line up, management team and to record a debut album. During possibly one of the most technically plagued interviews I've ever conducted in which a passing thunderstorm continually disconnected us, I managed to glean a few words from guitarist / singer, Johnny. How, when and why did you decide to start the band? I used to live with our current bass player (Heath) and our first drummer, I was writing heaps of songs, the drummer bought a kit and we just started jamming and getting trashed in the lounge. We got offered a gig, then another, then another and it kept snowballing from there. Nothing premeditated, it just happened from getting trashed together. There are quite a few that start like that! Yeah. You formed on Halloween, so it was the band's Birthday yesterday, how do you feel about the bands life so far and where it will go from here? Yes indeed, Happy Birthday to us! We've been on a pretty solid upward trajectory since we started and it can only get better. We've got to travel, we've been around the world twice, we're recording our album in LA in February and we're getting to do what we want to do. You've been going for two years, doing pretty well and so far without an album, why has it take so long to get round to recording an album? I guess because we've changed management and labels a few times and it often comes down to those people to help you plan such things, so every time our plans have changed to. Now we're with a label we really want to do our album with and a management team that we're confident in, so feel we can do it properly and make the best album we can. If someone had approached us in the first year we would have probably jumped at the opportunity to make an album but it wouldn't have been right, now it will be the best album we can make. Despite not having that crucial album that a lot of industry people are always after, you've still managed to attract industry interested in working with you, how have you managed to do that? It hasn't always been roses, we have missed out on a few things, for example until recently we've missed out on national tours and festivals like Splendour in the Grass because we didn't have that album. We've just been at it hard, rehearsing a hell of a lot, always putting on a good live show and that impresses people and that keeps the ball rolling. You've also had a lot of drummers haven't you? We're up to our forth drummer, we figure it's the same as changing labels or management, when people are focusing on an aim or a goal, and you don't share the same goals with other members of the band, then you have to change and find someone who does share a similar outlook. I'm afraid there's no gardening accidents or spontaneous combustions, just artistic differences. You've been playing in a lot of countries, what's been your favourite show so far? We spent a lot of time in the UK, I loved hanging out in London, but probably some of our best shows have been in the States, the first show at SXSW was one of our best ever and the crowds were enthusiastic and appreciative which is all you ever want in a show really.","date":"2007-12-20","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-12-20-clutch-interview","title":"Clutch - Interview","url":"/blog/2007/2007-12-20-clutch-interview","summary":"For those of us in the Southern Hemisphere summer has just reared it's hot and sweaty head, and with summer comes festivals and international artists! So suddenly Australia is awash with bands from across the globe playing what are affectionately termed 'Sideshows', it's good news and bad news as everyone struggles with time and money to catch all the acts they want to see who will probably never return to these shores any time soon.","date":"2007-12-20","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-12-20-embers-interview","title":"Embers - Interview","url":"/blog/2007/2007-12-20-embers-interview","summary":"Embers are an experimental four piece consisting of two saxophones, bass and drums who make an extraordinary amount of noise, conjuring incredible and unbelievable sounds from their instruments. I spoke to Adam Simmons and Kris Wanders of the band, their answers are shown in normal text and italics respectively, and their answers just goes to show the differences between band members?","date":"2007-12-20","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-12-20-ernest-ranglin-the-trojan-horns-the-espy","title":"Ernest Ranglin, The Trojan Horns - The Espy","url":"/blog/2007/2007-12-20-ernest-ranglin-the-trojan-horns-the-espy","summary":"This is the Trojan Horses first gig in two years and the rapidly filling Gershwin room at the Espy is enjoying the warm Summer evening that is the perfect accompaniment to the band's lilting Ska beats. Most of the band members take turns on lead vocals, injecting their own unique styles into each track, they're sharp, tight and from the crowd's reaction, obviously sorely missed in their absence.","date":"2007-12-20","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-12-20-goofang-spun-rivals-worlds-end-press-ding-dong-melbourne","title":"Goofang, Spun Rivals, Worlds End Press - Ding Dong, Melbourne","url":"/blog/2007/2007-12-20-goofang-spun-rivals-worlds-end-press-ding-dong-melbourne","summary":"Ding Dong is sadly a little empty tonight, maybe everyone is at home performing some last minute research into the capabilities of their local party candidates. We hope.","date":"2007-12-20","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-12-20-plastic-palace-alice-the-spiegel-tent","title":"Plastic Palace Alice - The Spiegel Tent","url":"/blog/2007/2007-12-20-plastic-palace-alice-the-spiegel-tent","summary":"It's very disorientating to enter a venue previously visited on the other side of the world in a completely different place, but that's the wonder of the Speigel Tent.","date":"2007-12-20","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-12-14-interview-with-embers","title":"Interview with Embers","url":"/blog/2007/2007-12-14-interview-with-embers","summary":"My latest column is an interview with Experimental noise four piece 'Embers'.","date":"2007-12-14","tags":["Interview","Music"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-12-06-children-collide-and-clutch-reviews","title":"Children Collide and Clutch Reviews","url":"/blog/2007/2007-12-06-children-collide-and-clutch-reviews","summary":"The past 10 days I've been stupidly busy with some freelance work editing videos for a State government project, ohh the glamour!","date":"2007-12-06","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-11-26-politics-in-music-melbourne","title":"Politics in Music - Melbourne","url":"/blog/2007/2007-11-26-politics-in-music-melbourne","summary":"My latest column is a brief foray into the Politics of Music in Melbourne, and poses a few questions, some of which I may be wrong on, and some I may be right on...","date":"2007-11-26","tags":["Music","Politics"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-11-15-bellaruche-fat-freddys-drop-metro","title":"Bellaruche, Fat Freddy's Drop - Metro","url":"/blog/2007/2007-11-15-bellaruche-fat-freddys-drop-metro","summary":"Kathrin deBoer of Bellaruche has a star quality, an ability to captivate and draw in a crowd, no matter how large. She fills the vast stage at the regal Metro nightclub with a stunning appearance and presence, her delicate and kookily sensuous dancing keeping all eyes firmly planted on her. This is before even mentioning her silky smooth voice that effortlessly floats above Bellaruche's chilled and mellow tunes, with guitar provided by the infinitely smiley Rickey Fabulous and scratches and beats provided by a last minute substitute (due to a plethora of immigration problems) in the form of Brisbane's DJ Thief. The band set the mood admirably and the sold out crowd are starting to slowly bob and move their feet to music provided by DJ Thief, the mood is electric, friendly and up for a long night. The air starts to fill with the smell of Marijuana, and whilst this flaunting of the smoking ban annoys some of the crowd it wouldn't feel like a Reggae/Dub/Hip-Hop gig without that fragrance hanging in the air. There's something to be said for making occasionally forays into less familiar genres, to witness the talent and technical ability that some musicians posses, and to see how some crowds actually show their appreciation for the music they are watching, rather than attempting to look fashionable the entire set. Perhaps the best and most fascinating thing about Fat Freddy's Drop is the individuality of all the members, Joe Dukie is the epitome of cool, pristine attire and seemingly the most controlled and effortless voice in the business. Warryn, Tony and Ho on horns each posses their own comically differing traits, Tony is sharp and restrained, looking like a cooler English Public School boy, and Ho has no shame, stripping off throughout the gig and treating the crowd to some of the most outrageous and embarrassing dancing. The band plays so well together, and put on such a professional, tight and enjoyable show it's hard to resist the throbbing beats and seductive melodies. It's clear that a lot of the set is improvised, with basic song structures in place for the feel of the evening to take hold, but the band are such a tight and close unit that it only takes a slight wink or nod for everyone to know what's going on and what's happening next. It means that no two shows are the same, but any crowd lucky enough to be witnessing Fat Freddy's Drop is guaranteed to be part of one of the most vibrant and dynamic shows in town.","date":"2007-11-15","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-11-15-dardanelles-interview","title":"Dardanelles - Interview","url":"/blog/2007/2007-11-15-dardanelles-interview","summary":"Why did you guys decide to get together and form a band? When we first met each other 18 months ago we were pretty disillusioned with other things in our lives, University wasn't quite what we expected it to be. We saw like-minded people in each other and decided to do something together.","date":"2007-11-15","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-11-15-dr-dog-we-all-belong","title":"Dr Dog - We all Belong","url":"/blog/2007/2007-11-15-dr-dog-we-all-belong","summary":"I reviewed one of Dr Dog 's past albums, though now looking back through their productive back catalogue, with an album every year, I'm not entirely sure I remember which one it was. The band subscribe to the pack them in and out quickly approach, We all belong is 38 minutes long and not exactly over produced. It is eleven tracks of laid back bluesy, maybe 'swampy' multi-instrumental rock, chocker-block with slick harmonies and chunky riffs, all skilfully played by a bunch of mysterious Americans who's names all begin with the letter 'T'. It's simple, straightforward, uncomplicated and succinct. Just like this review.","date":"2007-11-15","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-11-15-john-cage-prepared-piano","title":"John Cage - Prepared Piano","url":"/blog/2007/2007-11-15-john-cage-prepared-piano","summary":"And now for something completely different","date":"2007-11-15","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-11-15-ned-colette-interview","title":"Ned Colette - Interview","url":"/blog/2007/2007-11-15-ned-colette-interview","summary":"When, why and how did you get into music? My Dad is almost wholly responsible, he always had music on. Saturday mornings are filled with Sun and Music in my memories. He bought me a guitar for my 11th birthday and I never really looked back. I had older sisters who got me into everything that was terrible about the 80's, but also some gems. Lloyd Cole for example. The Beatles were an incredible learning experience for me too - I learnt all the little parts and sang along. I also got into hip-hop and then blues, which led to jazz and improvised and experimental music. Now I guess I'm back to rock n roll and folk which is kinda where I began.","date":"2007-11-15","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-11-15-sir-sly-hats-guy-blackman-northcote-social-club","title":"Sir, Sly Hats, Guy Blackman - Northcote Social Club","url":"/blog/2007/2007-11-15-sir-sly-hats-guy-blackman-northcote-social-club","summary":"It's a lazy Sunday afternoon after a seemingly long weekend as music fans slowly start to emerge in the fineries of summer, T-shirts, Thongs and a slight glow as the days get warmer and the nights get longer. No one wants to stand tonight, rather lounge around The Northcote Social Club's floor and Sir aren't going to force them to commit to anything as they ease out the weekend with their sullen blend of sordid sexiness, love laments and brooding ballads. Jesse Jackson, the bands' male vocalist gloriously underplays his role as 'front man' and band leader, eyes rarely meeting the audience, his baritone voice wooing the crowd despite his tales of sadness and betrayal. Guest vocalist Jane Badler purrs through songs, her lips pouting, her eyes alluring, she posses that perfect 'Holywood' blend of glitzy glamour and restraint, giving you just enough to be lured into her trap, but no more. The band provides a near perfect bed of backing music to proceedings, creating and maintaining just the right moods for each song. Much like the subjects of several of their songs, the band leave to soon, the crowd wants them to spend more time, but it's not to be.Guy Blackman and Sly Hats have just returned from a two month world tour, and tonight is their homecoming show. The guys look tired so they've got a backing band together for the occasion and take it in turns to play each others material. The songs deal with subjects common to artists of this ilk with both artists sitting at opposite ends of the spectrum, Sly Hats leans to the side of romanticised and fantastic tales of life and Guy Blackman weaves narrative lyrics around tales from his life, moving into a new area, his Mum, things like that. The music is 'nice'; a horrible word to use, but it's the best description that will gain instant understanding. The tunes trip along in a happy-go-lucky manner, ending slightly prematurely, but never challenging or demanding too much from the audience. These two songwriters are almost brotherly in appearance and their songs share an equal degree of similarity, a fine pair of musicians who produce great music apart and even better results together.","date":"2007-11-15","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-11-15-sly-hats-interview","title":"Sly Hats - Interview","url":"/blog/2007/2007-11-15-sly-hats-interview","summary":"Geoff O'Conner is one of a multitude of Melbournian musicians with a penchant for side projects, his band 'Crayon Fields' already has several tours and releases under his belt, and now his solo persona 'Sly Hats' is rapidly catching up recently returning from a two month world tour with fellow songwriter 'Guy Blackman'. I caught up with a nervous Geoff and over cups of herbal tea we discussed Music, Melbourne (and sadly after the recorder was switched off and he finally relaxed) and the ways of the World.","date":"2007-11-15","tags":["Interview","Music","Australia","Melbourne"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-11-15-snowman-the-drones-the-corner","title":"Snowman, The Drones - The Corner","url":"/blog/2007/2007-11-15-snowman-the-drones-the-corner","summary":"The Drones are something of an enigma, they posses an extremely loyal and fairly large fan base throughout the world, but outside of their followers, they remain largely unknown. As an illustrative point, The Doorman of the Corner is heard to say in response to a passer by, 'The Drones are playing tonight, never heard of them, must be popular though, it's sold out.√Æ","date":"2007-11-15","tags":["Guitar"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-11-15-the-drones-interview","title":"The Drones - Interview","url":"/blog/2007/2007-11-15-the-drones-interview","summary":"The Drones are an Australian Indie institution, but largely unknown outside of their growing and loyal fanbase. Yet another interview I entered without knowing a great deal about the subjects, however, after hearing so much about them from friends, I was eager to learn more. I spoke to Mike Noga (Drums) about the bands busy history and how he celebrated his 29th Birthday by being mugged in London, life on the road!","date":"2007-11-15","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-11-15-various-out-of-the-woods-and-trees","title":"Various - Out of the woods and trees","url":"/blog/2007/2007-11-15-various-out-of-the-woods-and-trees","summary":"It can't have escaped many people in the world's attention that the North of England has been producing a tremendous amount of popular and fashionable music over the past two years. Led by the success of bands like Kaiser Chiefs and Maximo Park , a lot of sound-a-likes spawned, creating a glut of poor imitators and glory chasers and often those who didn't sound anything like any of the glory stories were left by the wayside. The Dance to The Radio label led by Forward Russia and The Pigeon Detectives has been a mainstay of the 'Northern music scene', showcasing some of the smaller acts from the region and Out of the Woods and Trees is the labels fourth compilation, weighing in at 20 tracks. Some do sound a lot like what's come before, and sadly, what you almost expect from Northern England (Angular guitars and disco beats), but there are a few gems lurking on the compilation including the likes of The Taste, You Slut! and Grammatics . Possibly the 'scene's' time is now over, but judging by this compilation there's still the usual amount of great bands plying their trade, and undoubtedly they couldn't care less if anyone's paying any attention.","date":"2007-11-15","tags":["Music","Angular"],"categories":["music","tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-11-13-debut-albums-and-snail-racing","title":"Debut Albums and Snail Racing","url":"/blog/2007/2007-11-13-debut-albums-and-snail-racing","summary":"(I wrote a whole long and detailed post, then lost it... So now I'm just going to a brief summary!)","date":"2007-11-13","tags":["Music","Holidays"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-11-08-interview-with-the-dardanelles","title":"Interview with The Dardanelles","url":"/blog/2007/2007-11-08-interview-with-the-dardanelles","summary":"My latest Indieoma.com post is an interview with Melbourne hipsters (or are they?) Dardanelles...","date":"2007-11-08","tags":["Interview","Melbourne","Music"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-11-06-films-tv-and-warehouse-parties","title":"Films, TV and Warehouse Parties","url":"/blog/2007/2007-11-06-films-tv-and-warehouse-parties","summary":"Once again, I've let personal posts lapse to the point where I've forgotten when I last posted one and what I said...","date":"2007-11-06","tags":["Tv","Film","Music"],"categories":["tech","music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-11-01-john-cage-prepared-piano-and-the-election-colouring-book","title":"John Cage's Prepared Piano and the Election Colouring Book","url":"/blog/2007/2007-11-01-john-cage-prepared-piano-and-the-election-colouring-book","summary":"This week my column is something a little different, I've moved out of Indie Rock and it's a description of a demonstration of John Cage's Prepared Piano I saw during the Melbourne International Arts Festival, read it here.","date":"2007-11-01","tags":["Music","Politics","Creative"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-10-12-international-students-and-capitalism","title":"International Students and Capitalism","url":"/blog/2007/2007-10-12-international-students-and-capitalism","summary":"Firstly I wanted to share with you a recent experience of editing...","date":"2007-10-12","tags":["Students","Australia","Politics"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-10-12-ned-collette-interview","title":"Ned Collette Interview","url":"/blog/2007/2007-10-12-ned-collette-interview","summary":"A short and sweet interview with Ned Collette can be found here.","date":"2007-10-12","tags":["Interview","Music"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-10-08-job-interviews-and-playing-in-geelong","title":"Job Interviews and Playing in Geelong","url":"/blog/2007/2007-10-08-job-interviews-and-playing-in-geelong","summary":"This week was another week where various elements kept pointing me towards a certain way of thinking, again, I'll just go through the week and ramble a bit...","date":"2007-10-08","tags":["Music","Work"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-10-08-politics-in-music-folk","title":"Politics in Music - Folk","url":"/blog/2007/2007-10-08-politics-in-music-folk","summary":"The latest instalment of my series, featuring Folk Music from the 70's onwards can be found here","date":"2007-10-08","tags":["Music","Opinion"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-10-04-747s-interview","title":"747's - Interview","url":"/blog/2007/2007-10-04-747s-interview","summary":"pI&rsquo;m sure the booze and drug fuelled &ldquo;characters&rdquo; of Collingwood keep stealing CD&rsquo;s from my post box, as yet again I enter an interview with an artist who&rsquo;s album I never received. Never mind, it&rsquo;s making for interesting conversations as both parties struggle to make sense of each other and all the local Junkies are gaining a healthy and varied taste in music.","date":"2007-10-04","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-10-04-ben-birchall-and-the-corrections-last-ditch-brigade","title":"Ben Birchall & The Corrections - Last Ditch Brigade","url":"/blog/2007/2007-10-04-ben-birchall-and-the-corrections-last-ditch-brigade","summary":"It&39;s taken me a long time to get round to writing this review, I&39;ve kept putting it off, not due to a dislike of the album, but because for the first time since I&39;ve arrived on the shores of Australia I&39;ve found an artist who clicks with something inside of me and putting that into words is a tough and daunting prospect. I&39;ve not found an artist or album like this since Frank Turner&39;s &quot;Sleep is for the Week&quot;, an album full of disillusionment with life past, present and future, that lyrically and musically describe almost precisely how I felt at that exact moment. Ben&39;s mixture of troubadour-esque acoustic stories and laid back rock led by crunchy electric guitar and organ ring true in my ears, a sure sign of my ever maturing musical tastes, no longer impressed by loud guitars and shouting. It may not connect with me so much on a lyrical level, being primarily tales of lamented loves, but that same feeling of mistakes, possible regrets, lessons learned and a new optimistic outlook on life is as equally present as Frank Turner&39;s offering, perhaps I identify with that feeling and process in life, no matter if the situations or motivations differ. But enough of comparisons, what of &quot;Last Ditch Brigade&quot;? It&39;s an album full of finely crafted arrangements and instrumentation demonstrating a song writing ability far beyond Ben&39;s years, the songs would be equally at home on a fashionable Indie Kids&39; CD shelf as well as their parents&39;, successfully creating an album that manages to transcend genres, fashions and age groups, simply producing a damn fine album, no pretension, no filler, full to the seams with brilliant songs.","date":"2007-10-04","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-10-04-carus-and-the-true-believers-three-boxes","title":"Carus & The True Believers - Three Boxes","url":"/blog/2007/2007-10-04-carus-and-the-true-believers-three-boxes","summary":"A folk hero belonging truly to the old school, Carus has chalked up an average of 200 shows annually over the past few years and still found the time to release several albums, 'Three Boxes√Æ being his third. It's mellow and laid back but brimming with passion, dedication and earnest emotion, the lyrics are tales of his experiences and life on the road, containing equal elements of regret and happiness with his lifestyle, the excitement and the loneliness. A beautiful album that can be listened to time and time again, it doesn't drag, it doesn't need to be turned off halfway through, it sits in the background and makes your workplace peaceful and it sits in the foreground and inspires, a perfect album.","date":"2007-10-04","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-10-04-i-heart-hiroshima-interview","title":"I Heart Hiroshima - Interview","url":"/blog/2007/2007-10-04-i-heart-hiroshima-interview","summary":"I Heart Hiroshima are one of many Australian bands operating on independent labels who distribute through major companies (In their case MGM), funding releases from touring, merchandise and hopefully previous releases. It&rsquo;s a model that their label &lsquo;boss&rsquo; Paul Curtis believes is a template for the future, he&rsquo;s a man who&rsquo;s brain I intend to pick more of in the near future&hellip;","date":"2007-10-04","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-10-04-predicted-increase-in-international-students-news-feature","title":"Predicted Increase in International Students - News Feature","url":"/blog/2007/2007-10-04-predicted-increase-in-international-students-news-feature","summary":"According to a forthcoming research report to be issued by overseas student recruiter IDP Education, International Student demand in Australia will double in the next two decades with Universities struggling to meet the demand. Currently Overseas students comprise approximately 17% of the Australian student body with just over a quarter of those studying in Victoria, how much does and will this affect Victorian students?","date":"2007-10-04","tags":["Students","News","Education","Australia"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-10-04-the-exploders-easy-and-the-sun","title":"The Exploders - Easy & The Sun","url":"/blog/2007/2007-10-04-the-exploders-easy-and-the-sun","summary":"The biggest surprise is that The Exploders are a two-piece, how on earth do they recreate guitar, bass, drums, keys and vocals live? √¨Easy and the Sun√Æ starts very well, mellow Ozzie rock, well played and crafted, but a majority of the tracks are much too long for a commercially viable pop rock album and about half way through things start to drag somewhat, the guitar sound, vocal delivery and pace of songs falling into something of a rut, never changing or varying (apart from the final song, which is a beautiful acoustic ballad), leaving the listener yearning for a break, unless you're getting stoned, I should imagine this is the perfect sonic accompaniment for such an evening, nothing too shocking or surprising. That said the album is a cut above a lot of other √¨Australian Rock√Æ albums, there's not too much guitar wank, solos kept to a bluesy, basic and heartfelt minimum, it treads over familiar ground whilst keeping the path accessible and open to new wanderers. Perhaps this is the overall problem with The Exploders, possibly somewhere along the way the band decided to make their blend of rock lighter, becoming commercially more viable but losing their edge, ending up stuck in a rock limbo.","date":"2007-10-04","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-10-04-the-pictures-the-fantastic-sound-of-the-pictures","title":"The Pictures - The Fantastic Sound of the Pictures","url":"/blog/2007/2007-10-04-the-pictures-the-fantastic-sound-of-the-pictures","summary":"A compilation of rarities from a band I've never heard of, it seems one half of their permanent line up (Davey Lane) is something of an Australian institution, an institution that never made it past the Pacific Ocean, so I'm off the hook. The problem with rarities albums is that they will often only appeal to hardcore fans, generally being full of slightly dodgy tracks, cover versions and poor recordings, 'The Fantastic sound of the Pictures√Æ contains examples of all of those (A Particular highlight is a cover of 'Maps√Æ by Yeah yeah yeahs that sounds like Primal Scream have replaced the band). It's a schizophrenic collection of songs, despite only spanning 5 years it sounds like a different band on each track, but I guess the rarities and b-sides of an artists are traditionally where they experiment and try something a little different. The sleeve notes accompanying the album are a fantastic insight into the songs and the band (especially for someone who knows nothing about them), demonstrating a warm and down to earth attitude with comments like '? We think it sucks to√Æ and tales of financial woes, beer and recording session snacks. As the band would be more than likely to admit the album is not a fantastic collection of songs, more a mix of rough and smooth, a disc of memories and stories, but if you're a fan an invaluable and worthy addition to your collection.","date":"2007-10-04","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-10-02-elevn-plus-one-makes-a-great-team","title":"Eleven plus one is a great team","url":"/blog/2007/2007-10-02-elevn-plus-one-makes-a-great-team","summary":"This could be a long post...","date":"2007-10-02","tags":["Life Music"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-09-17-a-death-in-the-family-cockfight-shootout-young-and-restless-magic-dirt-collingwood-town-hall","title":"A Death in the family, Cockfight shootout, Young & Restless, Magic Dirt - Collingwood Town Hall","url":"/blog/2007/2007-09-17-a-death-in-the-family-cockfight-shootout-young-and-restless-magic-dirt-collingwood-town-hall","summary":"All Ages gigs are tough; everyone claims there are not enough taking place and not enough opportunities for under 18's to attend live music. Unyet when an organisation goes to lengths to organise an all ages show with a strong line up at a prestigious and large venue, attendance is a little disappointing. Why is this? Perhaps running an all ages show in the evening is too late for some parents to allow their children to attend. Perhaps the lack of alcohol dissuades over eighteens attending, which if true, is a sad fact, that a vast majority of people are only attending gigs to get drunk, not for the music. Whatever the reasons, the audience is small tonight, slowly building but never filling the large, spacious and regal Collingwood Town Hall.","date":"2007-09-17","tags":["Family","Death","Music","Children"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-09-17-bachelor-of-arts-interview","title":"Bachelor of Arts - Interview","url":"/blog/2007/2007-09-17-bachelor-of-arts-interview","summary":"Angus Tarnawsky and Bill Forshaw, the drums and guitar of Bachelor of Arts respectively are leading me down successive Laneways in search of dinner. Angus, tall, assuming and confident hasn't stopped talking to me and the random strangers who approach us since meeting in the venue ten minutes ago. Bill, quiet, shy and unassuming, looks bewildered by the situation, like he's more than used to it happening, but that it never ceases to amaze him. Settling on Thai, we discussed Australia, music and life whilst a waiter kept informing us of the 'rules√Æ of ordering like we were ensconced in an Orwellian nightmare. So did how the band form and why? 'We didn't have Girlfriends!√Æ Bill quips. Angus continues, 'We were in High School in tiny Launceston, where there's not a lot else to do, we had access to a studio, so just recorded things. As a drummer, there wasn't much melodic stuff I could write except overly melodramatic material, Bill ended up writing songs that I really liked, more than mine. We played a few short sets locally, and then it came to our first proper gig in town at a local pub that had an originals night one night a week?√Æ 'Hey Bill you recap the 'Irish Murphy's story'√Æ 'We turned up and tried to work the PA, we couldn't hear anything, so kept turning it up. At the time we were only a two-piece, using computers and samplers. The venue kept complaining, there are too many beats, we don't understand the lyrics, this isn't generic rock! The crowd didn't get it and the venue asked us to stop playing, informing us that we wouldn't be paid as people left during the set and they actually lost money√Æ After moving to Melbourne the band expanded to a three piece about a year ago adding Kevin McDowell on Bass and the band attempted to recreate and adapt their electro sound with the new three-piece line up. Some old songs were dropped and new ones written, parts were dropped and arrangements changed, i.e. swirling synths replaced with vocal harmonies. As we are hit by a rogue grain of rice flying through the air from the direction of a gang of drunken revellers, Bachelor of Arts explain to me how the music scene in Australia works and how they fit into it. 'It's all about friends, you make friends, you get onto the right bills at the right venues (for you) by getting to know people and setting up networks around the country. We've made some horrendous errors in judgement over the past few months, but now we're getting to know who to trust. When we were younger we thought you could only book shows only in venues, but we've realised that it's about the people involved with things, not necessarily the place, so sometimes gigs in Art spaces, galleries, Warehouses and the like can be more enjoyable and beneficial. Sometime bands in smaller venues can end up paying to play, as they have to cover costs (Soundmen etc.), you play a gig and you're $50 down.√Æ I'm sure you've been asked this many times, but where does the name come from? 'Ah, well, there's a variety of reasons, I'm Bill, he's Angus, B and A.√Æ What about the 'O', your bassist is called Kevin. 'Hmm, well it's also because we realised we were destined to become Bachelors of Arts.√Æ 'We just discovered a plethora of wonderful conspiracy theories that related back to the same name, I just can't quite remember what that all were.√Æ It's Saturday night; there are 101 bands out in Melbourne playing tonight, why should someone part with their hard earned cash to see Bachelor of Arts? Well, we don't really have a solid reason, we'd rather people came and saw us because they want to. In fact, it's a great line up tonight, come for the other bands instead!","date":"2007-09-17","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-09-17-batrider-manchester-lane-melbourne","title":"Batrider - Manchester Lane, Melbourne","url":"/blog/2007/2007-09-17-batrider-manchester-lane-melbourne","summary":"Let's talk about loop pedals. These little boxes of tricks are popping up everywhere at the moment, giving musicians the capability of layering tracks of instrument loops to produce a texture of complex harmonies, great in theory, but becoming a little tired. Pikelet is the Mistress of such gadgets, not only layering sounds but manipulating them on the fly, speeding them up, slowing them down, for example, using her voice to create a cello like sound. The problem is that due to the fundamental definition of a loop, i.e. something that repeats, songs end up all being rather similar, with no real structure, just building pieces that grow dynamically and then stop, with very few verses, choruses, key changes etc. Despite this Pikelet does a very good job of engaging the audience at Manchester Lane, her hypnotic compositions and lilting voice lulling everyone into her own little world and then bringing them screeching back into the real world with her rather dry and even mildly patronising inter song banter.","date":"2007-09-17","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-09-17-bitch-slap-pony-melbourne","title":"Bitch Slap - Pony, Melbourne","url":"/blog/2007/2007-09-17-bitch-slap-pony-melbourne","summary":"There are a lot of young bands like Karate Party, some nice songs, with a few interesting riffs and melodies lurking within them, but the two piece line up of keyboards and drums lacks the drive needed to get them across. Jo and Cat's intersong banter is also irritatingly fey, causing a few cringes, however as the set nears it's conclusion the girls seem to be getting it together and the songs are having more impact, perhaps a few more live shows and rehearsals are needed?Bitchslap and their fuzzy Grunge Punk on the other hand are as tight as Jon Bon Jovi's trousers. Wonderfully thick guitar tones, bass lines and drum beats coming through crisp and crystal clear. Jess Coram, resplendent in regulation black with a severe haircut that looks just so right for the night, delivers sullen lyrics with aggression and panache. She barely acknowledges the audience between songs but still possesses and emits a certain confidence and charm whilst spitting lyrics about misery and oppression. Equally competent on guitar she rips out simple but blistering lead lines as well as chunky rhythm, treating her guitar like an old friend that you're not quite sure if she still likes. Liz on bass constantly conjures the perfect accompaniment, expertly interplaying with the guitar; the arrangements of songs seemingly planned for maximum effectiveness, unyet making it all look so easy.Scott at the back on drums may look a little out of place (with the additional role tonight of being the sole male on the entire line up, a role he may be quite used to) but he doesn't show it, providing a similarly solid backing to the girls up front.The material and it's content is far from cheery and some might say it's even a little melodramatic at times, but it's heartfelt, the motivations and passions behind it are real and genuine. You may not sympathise, comprehend or understand the band or their aggravations, but if you're in the same room as Bitchslap, you will most certainly notice and hear them.","date":"2007-09-17","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-09-17-kaiser-chiefs-and-maximo-park-various","title":"Kaiser Chiefs & Maximo Park - Various","url":"/blog/2007/2007-09-17-kaiser-chiefs-and-maximo-park-various","summary":"It seemed appropriate to group these two shows together as my last experience of both bands was about two years ago as they were enjoying a rapid rise in popularity, success and hype. Two years ago both bands were still learning their craft, their showmanship and the ropes, so now after two years on the road and two albums each, how do they compare?","date":"2007-09-17","tags":["Learning"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-09-17-schvendes-ding-dong-melbourne","title":"Schvendes - Ding Dong, Melbourne","url":"/blog/2007/2007-09-17-schvendes-ding-dong-melbourne","summary":"Landing the opening slot is a daunting and unenviable task for any band, doubly so when you're an acoustic act at a rock gig, you have to work extremely hard to even get the audience to acknowledge your existence, let alone actually listen to you. Sacha Ion's unique voice with its equal measures of vibrato, warble, screech and heart-felt gentility performs a good job of gaining the interests of at least some of the small crowd slowly building at Ding Dong tonight; she earns respect and hopefully some fans.For a debut gig, Nights at the Abattoir are brimming with confidence, ability and great songs, their peculiar blend of Gothic Glam rapidly winning over the hearts and feet of the audience. Aside from the incredibly bubbly (and possibly drunk) keyboard player and the dapper vocalist, the bands guitarist seems to be in a world of his own, the stage lighting even marking him out differently. Discordantly soloing over everything or indulgently descending into messy sonic pools of layered effects, most of the time it doesn't really work or sit well over the good fun and straight forward gutsy stomp of the rest of the band, but at times he finds his own moments of genius, pulling out a solo or lick that compliments the song beautifully.Schvendes take to the stage ably assisted by a sound man who seems to accompany just about every medium sized WA band, and short of a few early technical problems work together to produce a set where you hear every breath, every cello string bowed, every delicate bass note and ringing guitar chord. A mesmerising set ensues, Schvendes are a band that doesn't have to do or say a lot between songs, and in fact they're best staying silent to savour the adoring silence of the audience as they are absorbed in the show. Perhaps an occasional change of pace would be welcome; emotional lifts are needed at some points in the set as the dour melancholic material can sometimes be a little too much. However the set ends on a high note, so just as it's time to leave the audience and send them home, the band ensure that your memory of the night is generally a happy one.","date":"2007-09-17","tags":["Melbourne","Work","medium","Rest"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-09-17-the-stabs-ninetynine-love-of-diagrams-my-disco-trades-hall","title":"The Stabs, NinetyNine, Love of Diagrams, My Disco - Trades Hall","url":"/blog/2007/2007-09-17-the-stabs-ninetynine-love-of-diagrams-my-disco-trades-hall","summary":"It's a busy weekend for all age's shows and there is something very strange about attending gigs where there's no alcohol, not even on stage. Tonight all the adults keep dashing to the pub over the road between bands bewildering and frustrating the sole bar man who seems annoyed that his (obviously) usual quiet Saturday night is being disturbed. Meanwhile the kids do what they always do on a Saturday night and illicitly sip cans of cheap booze on municipal steps and get in the way, oh happy days! The Stabs are in an odd mood tonight, jovial and even slightly cheeky. Offsetting their intense and discordant guitar duelling with some frankly bizarre and confusing dialogue in-between songs. It's hard to describe The Stabs music as tuneful or particularly catchy but it's certainly 'interesting'. NinetyNine are performing as a duo tonight, stripping down their usually complexly arranged songs to drums, vocals and a keyboard or guitar. Cameron Potts is his usual flamboyant and enthralling self on drums, rather dominating the set, vocals and other instruments struggling to be heard over the shear volume he produces. The other instruments normally present are missed, the songs work without them, but not as well, Laura Macfarlane even looks a little confused and overwhelmed at times, almost like the songs are new to her, perhaps in this format they are. Melbourne has a habit of producing many bands like Love of Diagrams, bands that seem to forsake performance, enjoyment and acknowledging the audience to produce the fussiest, most technical sound possible. The band are overly fussy tonight, complaining about sound and fiddling with pedals throughout most of the set, which (especially if this is the only audience interaction) is incredibly annoying. Maybe the band are having a bad gig, but everything's a bit flat, the band aren't especially tight and the audience are getting fidgety, with only a group of over zealous sixteen year olds seeming to get anything out of the music. Granted that this over technical style of rock is popular in Melbourne but if you're forsaking performance for tightness, then you have to be tight, and this is where My Disco and their greater experience of playing live come into play. They possess a similar angular sound, heavily influenced by New Wave but far more planned and thought out, counter rhythms and melodies carefully arranged and tested, but these guys actually put on a show, they acknowledge the audience, they talk to them, they thank them for coming along. They realise that it's an audience and a band's interaction with them that makes a night a good night, it's a fundamental, and lets not forget it.","date":"2007-09-17","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-09-12","title":"12th September 2007","url":"/blog/2007/2007-09-12","summary":"The feelings of frustration and slight depression abated this week, maybe it was a lunar thing, there was an eclipse here last week, and maybe a seasonal thing, who knows...","date":"2007-09-12","tags":["Music","Life Travel"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-09-01-new-work-new-amp","title":"New Work, New Amp","url":"/blog/2007/2007-09-01-new-work-new-amp","summary":"The gaps between my personal posts gets longer and longer, I'm going to try and take more time to do a few more things that I want to do over the coming weeks and months, been spending far too much time doing things for work or to achieve something, and not enough frivolous fun, so here's a blog post about not a lot in particular...","date":"2007-09-01","tags":["Music","Work"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-08-22-politics-in-music-folk","title":"Politics in Music - Folk","url":"/blog/2007/2007-08-22-politics-in-music-folk","summary":"Politics in Folk music, part 1...","date":"2007-08-22","tags":["Music","Politics","Folk"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-08-15-updates-from-melbourne","title":"Updates from Melbourne","url":"/blog/2007/2007-08-15-updates-from-melbourne","summary":"It's been a while, I've moved countries, got a new band together, got my feet under the table and now it's time to tell everyone what's been going on.","date":"2007-08-15","tags":["Music","Melbourne"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-08-14-eddie-current-suppression-ring-roxannes-parlour","title":"Eddie Current Suppression Ring - Roxanne's Parlour","url":"/blog/2007/2007-08-14-eddie-current-suppression-ring-roxannes-parlour","summary":"Eddie Current Suppression Ring (Henceforth ECSR or this review will go on for ever) do things their own way. Despite rising to the heady heights of 'buzz band' status, they book their own gigs, promote their own gigs, manage themselves and still find the time to write some damn good material. Roxanne's is packed tonight with a crowd biting at the bit and raring to go, Dead Farmers, resplendent in checked lumberjack shirts (Grunge dead? Never!) Don't quite seem to ever get going, stopping and starting and making adjustments to gear and when they're finally getting into the swing of things and the set is beginning to take form and take shape, they have to finish. However the crowd are up for anything that's thrown at them and love it. After a brief changeover with the room and the crowd bustling ECSR take to the stage with an unceremonious and unassuming manner, just sort of slowly appearing there and starting as opposed to any great entry. No sooner have they emitted the first note of the first song does the crowd starts jumping, dancing, smiling and flying about the room, eventually some security appear, and as usual for venues such as Roxanne's, don't really know what to do apart from stand there and look imposing, but no one cares anyway. Brendan Suppression (vocals) paces the stage in a pair of curious fingerless black gloves, looking almost awkward to be there, Eddy Current on guitar just sort of hovers on stage looking equally out of place thwacking out jangly, garage riffs over Rob Solid's massive bass sound and Danny Current's frantic drumming. It doesn't make any sense, ECSR are a great band, but the music isn't that fast and danceable, at times it's even a little slow, unyet the crowd go wild for the band's entire set, never relenting. The band look somewhat uncomfortable on stage, rarely making eye contact with the crowd and even discouraging them from becoming too raucous, but the crowd is hanging off their every word and action, ready to fly off into a frenzy at any given moment. How do the band do it? Do they even know themselves? ECSR are a band for the rejects and the outsiders of the music scene who have somehow managed to trick the cool kids into thinking that they're part of them, they don't look right, they shouldn't be, but are, the best sort of Rock stars.","date":"2007-08-14","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-08-14-gym-class-heroes-billboard","title":"Gym Class Heroes - Billboard","url":"/blog/2007/2007-08-14-gym-class-heroes-billboard","summary":"Gym Class Heroes are perhaps one of the oddest, biggest bundle of contradictions, confusions and concerns you may ever witness in a music venue, which is a bold statement considering how screwed up a lot of Hip Hop generally is. The 'backing band' is a bunch of highly proficient musicians with very decent equipment, which always smacks of 'manufactured' session musicians, despite what the bands biography might tell you. Travis on vocals bounds around the stage attempting to perfect a sort of cutesy little boy lost image, whilst simultaneously churning out lyrics about women and how much he wants to have 'relations' with them. This same desire also applies to the female members of the audience, bearing in mind that most of the audience are under 18, you can't help but feel that encouraging them to all make out with each other (and him) is slightly in bad taste. He also goes out of his way to inform the audience that a song containing the lyrics 'Glamorous White Girl√Æ and 'Razor√Æ is not about an (rumoured) addiction to Cocaine, but an addiction to music. Frankly the whole set up is all a little perverse, but the kids love the big marketing machine behind the band and aimed squarely at them, infiltrating their media sources and ways of thinking (i.e. MySpace, the band have a song called 'Friend Request√Æ), whooping in the right places, dancing throughout and playing along with all the bizarre and vaguely obscene games thrown at them, e.g. 'Hands up who's not here with their Boyfriends?√Æ receives a worrying response. The music is generally in the minor key so prevalent in modern Hip Hop, giving the songs that slightly sinister and ominous feel that again contrasts with the lyrical content, creating yet another concerning contradiction. However the music isn't bad, the songs are funky, tight and live which is a nice novelty in the genre, providing a good solid musical bed for the lyrical tomfoolery and for the kids in their best frocks and oversized tracksuits to shake their booties to, hopefully without quite thinking about why they are.","date":"2007-08-14","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-08-14-institut-polaire-city-walls-and-empires","title":"Institut Polaire - City Walls and Empires","url":"/blog/2007/2007-08-14-institut-polaire-city-walls-and-empires","summary":"It's always hard to review one track single samplers, especially if you like what you hear and want to hear more! 'City Walls and Empires√Æ is a jaunty and radio friendly ditty, the 9 members of the band creating a complex interweaving of melodies and counter melodies, complete with a rousing unison of vocals in the chorus. Radio friendly, upbeat, a good tune, what more could you want from a single?","date":"2007-08-14","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-08-14-jeff-strong-jeff-strong","title":"Jeff Strong - Jeff Strong","url":"/blog/2007/2007-08-14-jeff-strong-jeff-strong","summary":"Jeff describe his music as 'City and Western√Æ which is the best description for the genre of Americana tinged mellow rock that Jeff Strong purveys, so I'm going to stick with it and probably borrow the phrase, if he doesn't mind. The album is home recorded with a lovely warm and familiar feel, which suits Jeff's, comforting and gentle voice down to the ground. Some tracks are pure Jeff, strumming his acoustic guitar, others feature additional instrumentation, and all ten tracks are calming influences on a crazy modern world.","date":"2007-08-14","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-08-14-ninetynine-worlds-of-space-worlds-of-population-worlds-of-robots","title":"NinetyNine - Worlds Of Space, Worlds Of Population, Worlds Of Robots","url":"/blog/2007/2007-08-14-ninetynine-worlds-of-space-worlds-of-population-worlds-of-robots","summary":"Ninetynine's live show is a stupendous feat of intense musicianship and song writing craft, so how a band takes such a show, commit it to record and lose none of the live buzz is a challenge. 'Worlds Of Space, Worlds Of Population, Worlds Of Robots√Æ makes a determined effort, and is twelve tracks of finely constructed, arranged and played songs of epic proportions, some beautiful, some inspiring, some fast and frantic, others slower and brooding. The production of the album lacks some sparkle that would have really brought out the songs in their entirety, Laura MacFarlane's vocal sometimes not quite possessing the punch and clarity they deserve and a general desire for a little more 'oomph'. Slight niggles with production quality aside the band's energy and passion for what they play still shines through, with tracks like 'Monster√Æ grabbing you and hurling your ears against the wall and the sincere, heartfelt strains of 'At the Backdoor√Æ pulling you into a melancholic world and bringing the slightest tear to your eye. A fine album from a fine band, it sounds cheesy, but it's not just an album, it's an experience.","date":"2007-08-14","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-08-14-tilly-and-the-wall-toff-on-the-town","title":"Tilly & The Wall - Toff on the Town","url":"/blog/2007/2007-08-14-tilly-and-the-wall-toff-on-the-town","summary":"It's hard to mention Tilly and the Wall without mentioning Tap Dancing, they have no drummer, the tapping of toes and heels on a specially constructed 'Tap Board√Æ produces the only percussive rhythm, and generally only one pair of lithe and active ankles is doing all the work. The lack of solid beats reduces the potential drive and danceability of their songs, there are a lot of bad jokes about extraneous drummers, but as the adage goes, 'You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.√Æ However the missing skin basher at the back doesn't phase tonight's crowd and after a little encouragement the area in front of the stage is cleared of tables and chairs and a small but gentle group of dancers emerges, resulting in an ordered and well mannered stage invasion towards the end of the set. Tilly and the Wall's music is aimed squarely at the fey Indie kid, the bullied, struggling against oppression kid, who shyly stands in the corner turning the other cheek, either disappearing into the cracks of society or one day deciding that enough is enough, following their dream and becoming successful. Tilly and The Wall are trying to turn the former into the later; it's just a shame that for the most part their songs are rather bland, they even make a Rage Against the Machine cover (seriously!) sound like Bright Eyes with girls and Tap Dancing.Because beneath the swearing and the shouting and the rallying calls Tilly and the Wall are a band that America excels at producing, a Coffee House band. A band that sits nicely in the Background without being to intrusive whilst the cast of the OC or Buffy sit around with Cappuccinos or mysterious drinks in coloured plastic cups discussing their emotional and relationship problems. Of course to some people this kind of music is the idea of heaven, and it obviously is to the throng at the front of the stage, to the people in the room mouthing along to every word of every song. A lot of happy, smiling people leave the Toff tonight, it may not be your kind of music but you can't fault artists that have that effect on people.","date":"2007-08-14","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-08-14-voxtrot-voxtrot","title":"Voxtrot - Voxtrot","url":"/blog/2007/2007-08-14-voxtrot-voxtrot","summary":"I think my main problem with this release is it's press release, it's almost as if it's describing the wrong band, I find it very hard to hear a lot of the supposed comparisons and descriptions. I know it's the job of a PR to ensure a band sounds good, but this one makes them sound like the best band on the planet. It's a fine album and Voxtrot are a perfectly competent Indie-Rock band, but fairly generic jangly American Indie, the clean type, very sharp, clear and precise, full of carefully constructed and catchy melodies and hooks, the sort that would sound ideal on American College radio, and prove very popular on it, but personally the album floats somewhat into the background after a few tracks, good but not groundbreaking.","date":"2007-08-14","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-08-08-online-video-and-the-kaiser-chiefs","title":"Online Video and The Kaiser Chiefs","url":"/blog/2007/2007-08-08-online-video-and-the-kaiser-chiefs","summary":"Take a look at my latest Indieoma.com Post.","date":"2007-08-08","tags":["Music","Video"],"categories":["music","tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-07-24-antescene-on-3cr","title":"Antescene on 3CR","url":"/blog/2007/2007-07-24-antescene-on-3cr","summary":"I shall be on 3CR radio tomorrow afternoon to talk about my Antescene nights, it's the 'Activate' show and is on from 5.30 - 6pm...","date":"2007-07-24","tags":["Music","Events","Press"],"categories":["music","tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-07-11-my-first-melbourne-community-cup","title":"My First Melbourne Community Cup","url":"/blog/2007/2007-07-11-my-first-melbourne-community-cup","summary":"God knows when I last posted a personal post here, no reason why, just been stupidly busy, haven't been enough hours in the day...","date":"2007-07-11","tags":["Melbourne","Sports"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-07-07-art-brut-its-a-bit-complicated","title":"Art Brut - It's a bit Complicated","url":"/blog/2007/2007-07-07-art-brut-its-a-bit-complicated","summary":"Art Brut's frantic angular art-rock-pop, with it's lyrical tales to warm the hearts of all shy Indie Kids has been a surprising worldwide success, this is the bands second album, and their first without me. This was always going to be a hard review to write without being personal as the band were such a defining part of my life, I know the people involved, I know what they're like and, most crucially, I can hazard a fairly good guess at what and who most of the songs are about. Some of the reasons for me leaving the band in the first place (which, if you excuse the pun, are a bit complicated) are exacerbated on this album, the music taking something of a backseat to Eddie Argos's unique vocal delivery, so it's strange that the album's production pushes the vocals so low in the mix. There are fewer of the killer riffs, guitar solos or thundering bass lines that were found on 'Bang, bang rock & roll√Æ, and a lot of the biting excitement, enthusiasm and energy found on the first album is missing, but that's to be excepted after a few years spent on the road together and finally tackling that difficult second album, some of the initial vim and vigour will be diminished. 'It's a bit complicated√Æ is a good album and better than many released in the past few months, of course I prefer the first album, it's personal. However there are less stand out tracks, apart from the two I had some part in writing those that stick in my mind are the two singles, 'Direct Hit√Æ and 'Nag, nag, nag√Æ. The album is on more of an even keeling emotionally and musically, Lyrically it is more obsessed with women, still possessing an underdog's viewpoint and elements of awkward realism but not so na√îve. This is the sound of a band maturing and homogenising whilst attempting to grasp a hold onto the strains of what came before, it's the sound of growing up, following many of the bands' fans as they do just the same.","date":"2007-07-07","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-07-07-early-gray-wesley-anne","title":"Early Gray - Wesley Anne","url":"/blog/2007/2007-07-07-early-gray-wesley-anne","summary":"The Wesley Anne is a warm, snugly kind of place this evening, reminiscent of old European style pubs and bars with a roaring fire, long sofa benches full of the chattering classes sipping red wine, cosy and familiar smells wafting throughout the venue lulling everyone into a sedate sense of security on this bitter winter's evening. So how does a relatively inventive and upbeat artist such as Early Gray chip into such a crowd when they all seem happy and reluctant to experience any intrusions? His Pop / R&B / Hip-Hop / Folk hybrid is familiar yet challenging, full of commercial potential unyet equally at home in a small pub back room. Tonight's set is a solo one, the band has been left at home, with an acoustic guitar providing accompaniment, a quiet and restrained intro to The Earl's new material, reinforcing the laid back and lethargic feeling of the evening. Earl Gray adopts an equally non-confrontational attitude, gently progressing through a short set of mellow songs, resplendent in a hoodie, baseball cap and sneakers, his puppy dog eyes beneath his shaggy hair appealing to and twanging the heart strings of all in the audience. His music is simple and uncomplicated, accessible ballads with a few slightly subtle profundities thrown in for good measure. It's encouraging to know that some of those good looking pop artists who go on to massive commercial success do start somewhere, that they're not all manufactured by a Pop Factory and spat out across the land, that there are some Pop performers who can write a decent tune and string some intelligible lyrics together. Earl Gray will certainly not be to everyone's taste, his saccharin sensibilities do get repetitive and drag at times, but lower your reservations, sit back, relax and give the Earl a go.","date":"2007-07-07","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-07-07-hellyeah-mammal-billboard","title":"Hellyeah, Mammal - Billboard","url":"/blog/2007/2007-07-07-hellyeah-mammal-billboard","summary":"Catching the last few songs of Mammal's impressive and powerful set, it's easy to see, hear and feel the appeal of Metal even if the music isn't quite to your taste. The brutal, almost primeval beats stir something inside, the raw guitars, screaming vocals and awesome stage presence forcing attention to the stage and the vision of (frequently hairy) men flinging themselves around a stage and motivating the audience with consistent and unlevelled passion, aggression and dedication. Metal audiences are also some of the most enthusiastic and excitable audiences out there, it takes very little to get them warmed up and keep them active for an entire set, no appealing to crowds to come down the front and to stop standing with their arms folded and tapping their feet tonight! Hellyeah are loud, stacks of Marshall and Ampeg amplifier cabinets piled two high by three wide (despite only several being miked up, surely not for show?), Vinnie's excessive drum kit consists of a ridiculous amount of cymbals and of course two bass drums, there are wireless units in operation on all guitars and crowds of roadies and security are poised for this balls to the floor rock show. Bottles fly, beer spills, people surf, heads bang and everyone's having a great time, on and off stage, multiple tributes to Australia, Melbourne, the assembled masses, the crew and to Dimebag Darrell (formerly) of Pantera bond the band to the audience and Vinnie seems an especially popular man as every time he peeks out from behind his figure consuming drum kit, the crowd go wild.It's hard to figure out if Hellyeah are completely serious, and that's not supposed to imply that they're a joke, as they play hard, fast and competently. More that with song titles such as 'Goddamn√Æ and intersong banter about being guys on the road and about being 'in it' for the music they almost feel like a tribute show to Metal itself. The 'Supergroup√Æ line up and even the name, 'Hellyeah√Æ, don't exactly help to contradict that suspicion as the band work their way through an hour long set of rock clich√às that raise a smile but also raise the roof.","date":"2007-07-07","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-07-07-maximo-park-our-earthly-pleasures","title":"Maximo Park - Our Earthly Pleasures","url":"/blog/2007/2007-07-07-maximo-park-our-earthly-pleasures","summary":"2005 was a great year for British music, with several young and energetic acts releasing critically and commercially successful albums, since then some fell by the wayside and some became huge, whilst others remained at a constant level of success and musical ability. The latter applies for Maximo Park; they never quite enjoyed the massive success of bands such as The Kaiser Chiefs or Bloc Party, but have also so far escaped the constant criticisms and monitoring of their material or the trappings and traps of celebrity lifestyle. The band has remained consistent, slowly developing, bettering themselves and gaining experience, 'Our Earthly pleasures' is the culmination of the past few years of beavering away. There is no massive change in direction, fairly bare and sparse arrangements consisting of guitar, keyboards, bass, drums and vocals take us through an album that explores life, in all it's grime and all it's glory, tales of woe, tales of excess and tales of the world, all dealt with in a down to earth manner with little pretension or attitude. The album sparkles, clear and crunchy with pots of punch, dancibility, whistle ready tunes and lyrics to be sung at high volume on Friday nightclub floors. It's not the departure or massive development that the band likes to say it is, but a damn fine album that sets Maximo Park ahead of their competitors.","date":"2007-07-07","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-07-06-closing-party-the-spanish-club-melbourne","title":"Closing Party - The Spanish Club, Melbourne","url":"/blog/2007/2007-07-06-closing-party-the-spanish-club-melbourne","summary":"Melbourne is in the grips of a worrying and growing trend of Latte sipping trendies moving into exciting and vibrant areas, settling down nearby to long established music venues with a fine pedigree and a rich history, and then complaining about the noise. Why move into an area and then completely destroy what makes it just because you fancy a load of nice bars and cafes to ponce around in whilst you read trashy magazines secreted inside copies of Vogue? If you don't want to be disturbed by groups of dirty rock musicians and their fans, then you don't live near a venue, it's perfectly logical! Many venues have already lost their live licenses with others crippled and the Spanish club (combined with a couple of other reasons) is the latest victim of the fashionistas fancying a flirt with the inner suburbs. Enough of that, let's focus on the positive. Little Red appear on yet another bill, how they book and maintain their constant gigging schedule is a mystery and an impressive feat of endurance and energy, their slick sixties sounds have matured and honed by a slew of live shows, the songs and the band sound better than ever. Embers are perhaps one of the most experimental bands you'll ever see in Melbourne, four guys with very little hair between them produce something that resembles noise from industrial machinery from two saxophones, a bass and drums, it's the soundtrack to a headache, unyet strangely intriguing and enticing. Nation Blue are on top form tonight, the soundman has conjured balls and power from the infamously bad Spanish Club PA to match the bands blistering live performance as they scream, sweat and fling guitars about throughout their passion soaked set. The Meanies commence the final segue of fun bands to bounce around to tonight, with their old school rabble rousing Punk warming everyone up nicely whether they've just walked through the door or have been here since 2pm. What would posses a fairly talented bluegrass guitar player to one day think that donning a sparkling jump suit with modified helmet microphone would be a good idea. Judging by his slightly perverse stage repartee, probably a pursuit of women and alcohol as he encourages the audience to dip their breasts into his drink and sit on his knees whilst he plays, of course all of Bob Log 3rd's set is a carefully crafted show, but it's also damn good and a hell of a lot of fun!Finally Labjacd treat the crowd to a unique blend of Hispanic music, Jazz and Hip-Hop, everyone's dancing, everyone's melancholic and everyone's holding a finger aloof to the neighbours. The end of the night comes and we bid a fond farewell to those glorious red walls and vast chandeliers, as Bob Log 3rd put it so eloquently, 'What better way to celebrate the closing of the Spanish club than to sit on your favourite band?√Æ","date":"2007-07-06","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-06-27-interviewing-the-melbourne-zine-scene","title":"Interviewing the Melbourne Zine Scene","url":"/blog/2007/2007-06-27-interviewing-the-melbourne-zine-scene","summary":"Second interview with local zine dignitaries...","date":"2007-06-27","tags":["Zines","Creative","Melbourne"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-06-16-bit-by-bats-roxannes-parlour","title":"Bit by Bats - Roxanne's Parlour","url":"/blog/2007/2007-06-16-bit-by-bats-roxannes-parlour","summary":"Bit by Bats are a great band, in 'it' for all the right reasons, whilst a vast majority of bands in Melbourne posses some of the most fantastic and expensive equipment but don't do anything with it, Bit by Bats take their average guitars and amps and make some marvellous melodious music with it. No pretension, no fashionable prancing or posturing, just talent, tunes and exuberance. The music ticks all the right boxes to, solid rumbling bass lines and drumming countered with fuzzy guitar lines and Owen's unique fantastic barking vocal delivery, there's even some Theremin thrown in for good measure, even if it's barely audible most of the time. The crowd at Roxanne's are appreciative but not up for dancing, the holiday weekend doesn't seem to have encouraged that many partygoers out and those here are of the fashionable ilk that wouldn't do it anyway. Bit by Bats don't mind though, they're doing it because they love music and love playing their music, everything else is a bonus.","date":"2007-06-16","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-06-16-little-red-the-tote","title":"Little Red - The Tote","url":"/blog/2007/2007-06-16-little-red-the-tote","summary":"Kicking off Little Red's second Tote Residency night is 'Definite Article' with their first gig under a new name that is not much better than their old, 'Squeaks & Squeals'. Vocalist Mark wears a silly hat and the band have a drum machine so songs never quite get going, but contain enough pleasant harmonies and melodies to maintain interest. As the room fills 'Magnum Gumbo Detonator' take to the stage, vocalist Bernie's slightly inane grin seemingly happy with the crowd. They're a funk band without a lot of funk and a soul band without a lot of soul, unyet their pots of charm and sense of fun carry the show, captivating the crowd, a limbo contest during the last song winning all but the coldest of hearts.","date":"2007-06-16","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-06-16-operator-please-east-brunswick-club","title":"Operator Please - East Brunswick Club","url":"/blog/2007/2007-06-16-operator-please-east-brunswick-club","summary":"Operator Please tick all the right boxes, they're young, attractive and every member falls into one of several 'kooky kid' categories, something to appeal to everyone, they also appear to write very catchy songs. All of which begs the question if the band are manufactured, or at least some sort of stage school band. Their 'shtick' is very cutesy, toying with that confusing late teens state of mind where you still want sweets and concession fare on the bus, but you also want alcohol, parties and sex. The band's biography is very vague and convenient, with members just sort of coming together, new recruit Stephanie on Violin talks of getting 'The Call' to join the band, and then after some 'DIY promotion' and a trip to New York City (which of course every teenager can afford!) the band sign to EMI? Hmm, Is the smell of a Rat in the air? Or the smell of Big Management bucks? Probably, but for some reason and for once, it's hard to care because Operator Please are so much damn fun! For such a Buzz band The East Brunswick club is not particularly busy, possibly due to being over 18, and it looks like a few minors still managed to blag and bluff their way in. The night opens with Little Red, enough has been mentioned of them elsewhere, next are Treetops, a band who apparently have quite a varied and chequered History, despite possessing an amazing and youthful drummer the rest of the band seem rather tired and lacking, both supports a peculiar choice for the pure slice of saccharin soaked Pop rock to follow. These kids know how to play, the drums may be slightly weak but Timmy's only got little arms, so forgive him for now, Ashley's bass rumbles despite never seeing his face beneath an ample fringe, Sarah's keyboard bloops and fizzes in the modern way, and as well as producing a fine sound from her Rickenbacker / Vox combo, Amandah possesses a powerful and passionate voice, with range and depth. The songs are generally bouncy, upbeat and light in content, songs to scream along and dance to, not change the world with, perhaps 'Get What You Want' showing some hints of song writing maturity bubbling under the surface. Any self-respecting street press reading music fan just shouldn't like Operator Please, they smack of contrivance, of music career by numbers, of a fashionable gimmick. However with their charm, energetic stage show, apparent talent and irritatingly catchy tunes, the band will slowly be working their way on to many serious muso's list of guilty pleasures.","date":"2007-06-16","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-06-16-peabody-and-intercooler-the-east-brunswick-club","title":"Peabody & Intercooler - The East Brunswick Club","url":"/blog/2007/2007-06-16-peabody-and-intercooler-the-east-brunswick-club","summary":"The recently expanded and invigorated Peabody have an unhealthy obsession with their guitars. Swapping backwards and forwards after pretty much every song, the band have a guitar tech beside the stage who does nothing but tune their guitars for them, but the band still insist on double checking tuning before commencing each song, putting the dampeners on any inter song banter aside for the pleasantries. Initially it's amusing and charming, as the set continues the habit becomes somewhat annoying and the temptation to shout 'Get on with it!√Æ becomes very strong indeed. So it's a good job the band have a set chocker full of brilliant and finely crafted songs. Songs of incredible depth and texture, clever and carefully constructed layers of melodies, interesting unyet uplifting, deep unyet exciting and exhilarating. Full and rich guitars set over solid bass lines, powerful drums and Bruno Brayovic's heartfelt vocals searing through the mix. The band take the bold stance of playing an entire set of new songs from their forthcoming album that frustrates Peabody's old school fans in the crowd, but to new listeners it's an emotionally charged set, full of dynamics and solid delivery. It's been a tough year for the band, but they seem happy to be back and the crowd are happy to have them back. The East Brunswick club is fairly empty tonight, perhaps due to the Holiday weekend, perhaps due to other gigs and events and after Peabody's set the venue empties even further. Intercooler take to the stage looking like a generic Indie-Rock band, and unsurprisingly they sound like one to. You can tell where the songs are going from the second they start, there are no surprises; it's all been done before. There's nothing being said, no inventiveness, nothing new, the band don't even look that interested in what they're doing, relying on Rock charm to carry them through their set. Intercooler make little pretence at being anything more than a Pop Rock band and it's gained them much commercial success and recognition, it's just a shame that this style of bland rock with no presence or character is always so bloody popular, or is it? The venue is not exactly busy and as someone commented the day before the gig, 'Are they (Intercooler) still going?√Æ","date":"2007-06-16","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-06-12-politics-in-music-classical","title":"Politics in Music - Classical","url":"/blog/2007/2007-06-12-politics-in-music-classical","summary":"My latest Indieoma post is the second installment of my series of articles on Politics in Music, this time it's the turn of Classical music, read it here .","date":"2007-06-12","tags":["Music","Politics"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-06-08-world-environment-day-and-debut-gigs","title":"World Environment Day and Debut Gigs","url":"/blog/2007/2007-06-08-world-environment-day-and-debut-gigs","summary":"Tuesday was World Environment Day, I took part in a protest on excess logging, see some photos here www.flickr.com/photos/chrischinchilla/sets/72157600322402682","date":"2007-06-08","tags":["Australia","Environment"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-05-31-my-first-afl-game","title":"My First AFL Game","url":"/blog/2007/2007-05-31-my-first-afl-game","summary":"I Went to my first Footie game... Quite exciting!","date":"2007-05-31","tags":["Sports","Australia","Football"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-05-22-white-party-and-the-burning-of-the-cutty-sark","title":"White Party and the Burning of the Cutty Sark","url":"/blog/2007/2007-05-22-white-party-and-the-burning-of-the-cutty-sark","summary":"Had a great weekend, went to some gigs on Friday night, though one of those nights when you try to do too much and end up doing next to nothing and staying in one place, Cate got very merry, she was a happy drunk... :-)","date":"2007-05-22","tags":["Parties","Art"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-05-18-children-collide-ding-dong-lounge","title":"Children Collide - Ding Dong Lounge","url":"/blog/2007/2007-05-18-children-collide-ding-dong-lounge","summary":"A Guitarist / Vocalist, two drummers, a Tambourine / Trumpet player and a Tambourine player, initially 'Bang Bang Aids' line up seems extraneous, the drummers are just playing in unison and one of the Tambourine players doesn't actually seem to do anything. As the band progress through their set the songs start to take on a looser feel, the drummers counteracting each other, even the tambourine player's incessant chip eating and the band's banter adds an element of charm to the jagged and (I suspect) partly improvised noise. The band don't care the venue is half full and those fortunate enough to be present love them for it. Following in Melbourne's tradition of varied line-ups, 'Young Lovers' are a slick but ultimately uninspiring rock band combining a lot of generic fashionable rock tricks such as disco beats, synths and new wave style guitar and after several similar sounding songs I lose interest. After a lengthy stage set up filled by Streetparty DJ's, 'Children Collide' take to the stage resplendent in a sea of cacophony. Following in the footsteps of many classic Three-pieces the band create a tremendous amount of noise for their number, thrashing and crashing their way through a sucession of crowd favourites and into a series of well received new songs, the audience reaction surprising and delighting the band. 'Children Collide' are a delight and a thrill to watch, bass player Heath bounds around the stage pounding thumping licks and riffs, Johnny's guitar awash in waves of reverb and distortion, screeching and howling into the microphone, sometimes (and I suspect a trick he learnt recently) combining the two by screaming into his guitar pick up. As the set reaches it's all too soon and unwelcomingly premature end, Johnny announces 'Encores are stupid, so we're just going to play the songs now√Æ and crash into their sets conclusion even achieving the unattainable, a dancing Melbourne Audience.","date":"2007-05-18","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-05-18-ninetynine-the-northcote-social-club","title":"NinetyNine - The Northcote Social Club","url":"/blog/2007/2007-05-18-ninetynine-the-northcote-social-club","summary":"Any band who start their set with a ten minute under water puppet show earn Brownie points in my book. Also possessing a drummer who acts like a coiled spring the entire gig, sat staring intently on his drum stool watching everything on stage, exploding into fits of frantic drumming also earns points and I haven't even mentioned that NinetyNine write damn fine songs to. The set is schizophrenic with soft mellow soundscapes, loud raucous pop and even a track in Arabic. The songs are short, sparse and basic, simple but well complimenting melodies, haunting, alluring and completely captivating.","date":"2007-05-18","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-05-18-shooting-at-unarmed-men-baseball-exile","title":"Shooting at Unarmed Men, Baseball - Exile","url":"/blog/2007/2007-05-18-shooting-at-unarmed-men-baseball-exile","summary":"Shooting at Unarmed Men (SAUM) strike me as band that have good nights and bad nights that drastically effect their performance, the last gig of theirs I attended was lacklustre and neither the band nor the audience seemed to enjoy it. Tonight however is a completely different story, the band are as tight as a gnat's arse, delivering biting, sardonic lyrics with venom and gusto, rumbling bass lines locked into a booming kick drum, jagged guitar and discordant counter riffs, the chemistry shinning through as the bands' on stage banter revolves around in jokes about everyone's background, Welsh sheep, convict heritage and Gold rushes. The venue is now full (later confirmed as sold out) as Baseball take to the stage and little did I realise we revisit our friend the nuts drummer from NinetyNine, this time on vocals and violin. Once again it's hard to take your eyes off of him as he takes up most of the front of the stage, legs wide apart, feverishly fiddling and screeching incomprehensibly into the microphone. The music is frantic, messy, chaotic and exciting, fusing elements of Punk Rock, gypsy swing and even some hints of Middle Eastern scales and melodies creeping in. Someone has decided to dowse everything with swathes of reverb which makes discerning what's going on a challenge, perhaps the band wanted it, perhaps the soundman just thought it would be a good idea, however it turns a lot of the songs into big balls of noise, lacking in clarity from each other, so whereas SAUM held the audiences attention, aside from the dedicated front row, a few start to mention that band have been playing too long, turning to the bar, the impact poor sound can have.","date":"2007-05-18","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-05-18-teenager-damn-arms-bootleg","title":"Teenager, Damn Arms - Bootleg","url":"/blog/2007/2007-05-18-teenager-damn-arms-bootleg","summary":"There's something odd in the air tonight, or to be more precise, probably something odd up the nasal passage or in a pill, the atmosphere at Bootleg is intense and disconcerting, we seem to be the only lucid members of the audience and the only people who don't quite seem to understand what's going on. Style over content is my first impression of Teenager, none of the band seem to know what's going on throughout the set as singer 'Nick Littlemore' rides a lengthy ego trip that might make him look cool, but also a bit of a wanker, regularly insulting his brother handling the visual show and frequently refusing to play until certain conditions are met. The band has some good songs held together by a lot of filler, and even the band admits it. A lot of music press are raving about Teenager and whilst they certainly fit slap bang into the middle of what's currently trendy and fashionable, I'm clearly not sufficiently off my head or cool to understand why. Damn arms take to the stage looking like component parts of completely different bands, fey Indie, Garage Rockers and synth player 'Yama Indra' looks a little like he should be in Goldie Looking Chain. Initially plagued by technical problems and disagreements about what songs to play a solid set of electro rock gradually emerges with frantic drumming, screeching vocals and plenty of heavy riffs. Unfortunately whatever it is 'in the air' pervades throughout Damn Arms set and despite some good tunes, the stage show is flat and uninspiring, the band finish their set, no one seems to care a great deal, and normal nightclub activity is resumed.","date":"2007-05-18","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-05-18-the-kill-devil-hills-the-spanish-club","title":"The Kill Devil Hills - The Spanish Club","url":"/blog/2007/2007-05-18-the-kill-devil-hills-the-spanish-club","summary":"When I hear the phrase 'country music' I can't help but imagine either American cowboys scowling through tales of the dustbowl deep south, old English men supping real ale and singing in impenetrable accents or the new breed of wiry alt-country stars who never have a good word for anyone or anything, however it seems that Australian Country artists fall into their own unique sub-genre.","date":"2007-05-18","tags":["Music","Help"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-05-18-wa-music-showcase-the-spanish-club","title":"WA Music showcase - The Spanish Club","url":"/blog/2007/2007-05-18-wa-music-showcase-the-spanish-club","summary":"Western Australia has produced some of Australia's most talented and popular artists in recent times and it's not all Indie or Rock Riffage as tonight's WA showcase proved.","date":"2007-05-18","tags":["Music","Australia"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-05-16-gangster-parties-eurovision-and-fanzines","title":"Gangster Parties, Eurovision and Fanzines","url":"/blog/2007/2007-05-16-gangster-parties-eurovision-and-fanzines","summary":"After a surreal party on Saturday night... It had a Gangster theme, Gangster rap... All police tape, chalked murder scene markings, fake money and loud tracksuits.","date":"2007-05-16","tags":["Australia","Eurovision","Fanzine"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-05-12-im-playing-an-extra","title":"I'm playing an Extra","url":"/blog/2007/2007-05-12-im-playing-an-extra","summary":"When I was younger I did a lot of acting at school and at some youth drama groups, but that was nigh on 7 or 8 years ago...","date":"2007-05-12","tags":["Drama","Creative"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-05-11-music-diversity-from-down-under","title":"Musical Diversity from Down Under","url":"/blog/2007/2007-05-11-music-diversity-from-down-under","summary":"Lots of news and reviews to post here soon, but in the meantime here's my latest Indieoma.com post with all sorts of stuff in it...","date":"2007-05-11","tags":["Music","Australia"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-05-02-my-first-bike-accident","title":"My First Melbourne Bike Accident","url":"/blog/2007/2007-05-02-my-first-bike-accident","summary":"I suffered a uniquely Melbourne (and several other Cities) injury yesterday, I was cycling and my bike wheel got stuck in a tram line as I turned a corner, flipping me over the handle bars and into a (fortunately) grass verge, in rather comical stylings.","date":"2007-05-02","tags":["Cycling","Accident"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-04-28-an-australian-band-and-warehouse-parties","title":"An Australian Band and Warehouse Parties","url":"/blog/2007/2007-04-28-an-australian-band-and-warehouse-parties","summary":"I haven't made any personal posts for a while, not due to lack of anything to say or to talk about, just haven't got round to it, I've been quite busy, beavering away trying to sort a load of things with varying degrees of success. I wont bother getting everything up to date, just a few highlights from the past few weeks and I'll try to be more regular from now on.","date":"2007-04-28","tags":["Melbourne Music"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-04-14-glen-tilbrook-in-melbourne","title":"Glen Tilbrook - in Melbourne","url":"/blog/2007/2007-04-14-glen-tilbrook-in-melbourne","summary":"Glenn's old outfit, 'Squeeze' were a British new wave band hailing from SE London in the early eighties (from the same area as me! In fact several members sent their children to my school?) chalking up a string of hits such as 'Cool for Cats' and 'Labelled with Love'. A small but loyal fan base followed the band into their 'MOR years', but an ever fluctuating line up and a ubiquitous series of splits and reunions led to Squeeze's eventual demise. Now Glenn tours the world in an RV with family in tow bashing his way through a vast back catalogue adapted for acoustic guitar and solo delivery.I had the fortune of catching two shows whilst he was in town, and Glenn's shows are full of energy and enthusiasm with Glenn frequently abandoning the mic and wandering the stage. His songs of lamented love and forbidden fancies interspersed with anecdotes and musical tales of two decades on the road, well documented in Amy Pickard's film 'One for the road' which received it's debut showing prior to his first performance. The seated, older and more sedate audience at 'Don't Tell Tom' on Friday night were reluctant to fully immerse themselves in the many acts of participation that Glenn had planned, preferring instead to shout requests that are gleefully added to the set ad hoc. The younger, keener and more energetic audience at 'the Espy' on Wednesday night however were up for everything thrown at them, singing along without prompting in all the right places and gathered in a throng at the front of the stage for the entirety of the set.The second half of The Espy show Glenn was backed by the infamous Rockwiz orchestra with the intention of adding a little more 'Rock' to the show and I'm unsure if they really did Glenn any favours. All the songs were played too slowly, this coupled with Glenn's obvious nervousness at playing with an unfamiliar band drew away some of his earlier energy and presence, a friend at the show nicknamed them 'The Masters of Homogenisation√Æ which describes their effect on all they back beautifully.Life for the old stalwarts of Rock that refuse to quit touring must be an odd existence, over 20 years of material and all audiences primarily want to hear are your early 'hits'. At the very least frustrating, possibly even a little depressing, however Glenn certainly doesn't show it.","date":"2007-04-13","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-04-14-the-answer-the-evelyn-hotel-melbourne","title":"The Answer - The Evelyn Hotel, Melbourne","url":"/blog/2007/2007-04-14-the-answer-the-evelyn-hotel-melbourne","summary":"From The Answer's opening chords it's immediately obvious why the band are more popular in Australia than their homeland of Ireland, bearing more than a passing resemblance to a certain electrically themed Australian four piece, a member of the crowd even shouts, 'Welcome Home!√Æ Fortunately there's more to the band, they seemingly channel aspects of every major 'Rawk' band from the past four decades, and carry it off it extraordinarily well with a vast show of talent and tunes. The band are on fine form tonight with the crowd firmly in their hands, the singer croons, howls, swings his microphone stand and poses, the guitarist solos with a foot on the monitor and riffs hard, the drummer and the bass player keep it all going with some solid rock. There's a lot of hair, a lot of volume, a lot of ego and a lot of sweat, the perfect ingredients and dare I say it, the perfect answer(!) for any night of fully blown, seat of your pants' Rock.","date":"2007-04-13","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-04-14-the-regular-johns-mint-chicks-the-bronx-hifi-club-melbourne","title":"The Regular John's, Mint Chicks, The Bronx - HiFi Club, Melbourne","url":"/blog/2007/2007-04-14-the-regular-johns-mint-chicks-the-bronx-hifi-club-melbourne","summary":"The life of support acts to large touring artists is a tough one, playing early to half empty rooms for little money to people who are largely indifferent to your efforts and sadly tonight is no exception as a multitude of people seem happy to pay $30 to only watch one band. The Regular Johns kick off proceedings with a dangerous name for any rock band, as despite their high energy stage show, faultless playing and excellent stage presence, musically they are sadly no more than a fairly regular rock band. The Mint Chicks are up next, a band I've been wanting to see for a long time since they became a regular part of my DJ set in the UK and I hate to say, I was a little disappointed. Personally I get the feeling that the band's sound was set up for The Bronx as their usual clear punchy sound (on record) was just a big mushy mess with no clarity or distinction. Despite this, Kody, the band's singer is one the most acrobatic front men I've ever witnessed (second to the British Institution that is John Ottway!), flinging himself about left, right and centre, back flips and belly flops, sadly though the sound doesn't do the energy any justice and I'm left a little under whelmed. The Bronx on the other hand live up to all the hype my uber-fan companion gave them, my initial thought was that I'd be bored after 20 minutes of relentless, incessant hardcore, far from it, I was transfixed from start to finish. From the lead guitarist playing despite a shattered pelvis, the tank-like bass player and the shear passion and energy of singer Matt Caughthran as he crowd surfed around the venue whilst still 'singing' on full throttle and remaining vaguely in tune. Aside from the music the band love the crowd, flattering Melbourne and Australia, encoring with a cover of The Victims' song, 'Television Addict'. The Bronx rock, love what they do, love the crowd and the crowd love them, what more could you want?","date":"2007-04-13","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-03-14-the-melbourne-athiest-society","title":"The Melbourne Athiest Society","url":"/blog/2007/2007-03-14-the-melbourne-athiest-society","summary":"I've just returned from Attending the Melbourne Atheists society ( home.vicnet.net.au/~atheist ), I was intrigued to see what the topics of conversation might be, and tonight was the turn of agnosticism, hard work for the speaker, preaching to the (un)converted as it were. The first thing that struck me aside from the wonky OHPís and prevalence of socks and sandals, was the age of the audience; does Atheism hold the same appeal to the elderly as religion? Does the steadfast belief in Science and practicalism hold the same appeal as faith in the older echelons of society? As far as I could ascertain from the talk being an agnostic is being open minded about supernatural entities and the superiority of Science, whereas Atheists discount supernatural entities altogether, although the lengthy discussion that ensued after the talk gave the impression that perhaps the definitions are not as clear cut as that, and as usual with these things a battle of semantics raged. It reminded me of a passage (as many things do) from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy were the philosophers of a particular planet build a machine to tell them the answer to \"Life, the universe and everything\", when they get an unexpected answer it is made clear to them that they never really knew what the question was. If everyone has a differing opinion on what Atheism and Agnosticism mean then how can you have a balanced discussion on it? It's these sorts of arguments and discrepancies that have plagued the spiritual community for many years. If retaining an open mind on the origins of the world is Agnosticism, then I guess that's what I am, I wouldn't discount anyone's beliefs if I couldn't wholeheartedly disproved them myself. My final question is this, if we take Atheism as a negative, slightly pessimistic belief in nothing beyond the material world, and Agnosticism as a more optimistic, non-dismissive way of life, would Atheists still refuse to believe in a 'God' or a supernatural entity if it were proved without a shadow of a doubt by science that one existed?","date":"2007-03-14","tags":["Religion","Atheism","Melbourne"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-03-09-report-from-melbourne","title":"Report from Melbourne","url":"/blog/2007/2007-03-09-report-from-melbourne","summary":"Been a while, now seems a natural point to update you all on what I've been up to... As now I have a home, and not only a home, but my first permanent address for nearly a year, which I was quite excited about, but now I also feel a little down as I have commitments again for the first time in nearly a year, it feels like the end of the Holiday. This is compounded by the fact that I need a little more work, whilst the journo work I have is paying, and it covers rent and bills, it covers little else, I need some part time work, maybe 2 - 3 days a week, so I'm very paranoid about money... All that sort of negative stuff aside, everything else has been going pretty well, things with 'Australian Lady' (don't know if they want to be named in my public outpourings to the world, yet...) have been strangely easy, all things considered. I am enjoying Melbourne, it's a very vibrant city, full of life, variety, character, multiculturalism and culture. The size is still confusing me, one of the things getting me down about London was the nepotistic cliques I kept encountering, to be fair, they were nothing in comparison to here, everyone pretty much knows everyone else on the \\Rock\\\" circuit, or knows someone who knows someone else (if that makes sense), the degrees of separation are slight, I'm unsure yet as to whether that's a good thing or not. I'm attempting to cause a few crossovers of 'scenes', attending gigs and getting involved in quite a lot of social groups and alternative political activities. Likewise, I don't know if the move was necessarily the best to further my musical career, whilst it may be easier to be noticed, breaking out of that may be harder, we shall see. On that note I have now started forming a new band and have some solo shows in the pipeline, people are interested in hearing and helping me which is refreshing. After some technical hitches I have now nearly finished mixing the Macaca Mulatta demos, if anyone cares remains to be seen, but they're sounding good so far and that makes me happy. So, I miss people and things, but now the story really starts... Watch this space, will be a little more regular from now on. Chinch xx PS... My (now) multinational promotions and label has an event coming up... Here we go, PR is below Antescene Present a night of : Sick Country gypsy blues and perverts The Cuban Bar, Camden on 28/03/07 Stables Market, Chalk Farm Road, NW1 8AH, 0207 424 0692 Featuring : The Urban Voodoo Machine, Captain Blood Blood & The Sea Dogs, Lil lost Lou, Congregation Antescene promotes promising artists with something new to offer, artists who may not or donít want to belong to any particular genre or scene. From weird outsiders to promising ego maniacs, the decadent, the many and the few, all out there doing their own thing, making music for the sake of it, for the love of it. The event is in association with the ëNational Studentí newspaper, a free and independent newspaper for the UK student body, one of very few surviving in an increasingly commercial Student world (www.national-student.co.uk). Antescene believe that music can help raise awareness of real world issues so the event will be helping promote Friendís of The Earthís ëBig Askí Campaign (www.thebigask.com), the campaign was launched to lobby for new Climate Change laws, Following huge public support, the majority of UK MPs supported the campaign, and the Government announced it would introduce a Climate Change Bill. The challenge for 2007 is to ensure that this Bill is strong enough, including annual targets for the reduction of carbon-dioxide emissions, and enforcing these targets so they are actually met. Meet with Friends of the Earth on the night, and find out how you can put pressure on your MP to ensure the UK takes a lead in addressing the greatest challenge of our times. This is Antesceneís second event after a riotous squat party late in 2006 attended by hundreds of people with more events planned for the future as well as forthcoming releases. For March the 28th Antescene is promoting a night of bourbon soaked gypsy blues led by The Urban Voodoo Machine, a band becoming increasingly notorious for their bizarre audience - often including fire breathing dwarves and transvestites, as much as for their dark hypnotic and stomping rhythms played by an ever increasing number of band members. The Urban Voodoo Machine are suave and dress to impress, so get your glad rags on and bring enough money to buy some absinthe.","date":"2007-03-09","tags":["Life Melbourne"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-02-26-arcturian-demo","title":"Arcturian - Demo","url":"/blog/2007/2007-02-26-arcturian-demo","summary":"Proficient debut demo from London five piece for those who remember the sweeter and more melodious side of Britpop and have since got jobs, got lives and grown up? A bit.","date":"2007-02-26","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-02-26-big-strides-always-together","title":"Big Strides - Always Together","url":"/blog/2007/2007-02-26-big-strides-always-together","summary":"Despite my suspicions that Big Strides may have a lot of money behind them (headlining the Electric Ballroom already?) this is a brilliant single. Each track has a different style from bluesy-funk to mellow Ballad, un yet still possessing a similar feel and sound, all superbly captured and recorded. Three boys to watch out for.","date":"2007-02-26","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-02-26-iv-thieves-if-we-cant-escape-my-pretty","title":"IV Thieves - If we can't escape my pretty","url":"/blog/2007/2007-02-26-iv-thieves-if-we-cant-escape-my-pretty","summary":"IV Thieves last single, Day is a Downer received a fairly muted response from me and after listening to If We Can't Escape My Pretty it was a definite case of too few tracks to properly judge a band, the album is awesome, unrelenting, rock and riffs fill it from start to finish. Three of the Four Thieves take turns on lead vocals which leads to a variable if slightly schizophrenic feel to the album, albeit with a John Lennon-esque delivery at their core. Each vocal seems to be complimented perfectly by the musical backing, this isn't just a random allocation of duties, proceedings have been planned and thought out. It has a retro feel, I stick by my Britpop references and add a probable love of 60's music to the equation, but it's retro beefed up, revved up, brought slap bang into the modern age.","date":"2007-02-26","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-02-26-pocus-whiteface-demo","title":"Pocus Whiteface - Demo","url":"/blog/2007/2007-02-26-pocus-whiteface-demo","summary":"This is a demo, so I will treat it as such and offer Pocus Whiteface some constructive criticism, which I hope is what they want. There are some wonderful riffs here, some amazing crazy guitar noises, discordant chords, thundering bass lines (played by a brilliant bass player) and manic shouted vocals (though they could do with greater projection), all of which are good in my books. The bands' main flaws lie in their structure and arrangement, despite no song being longer than four and a half minutes at times they drag and feel a lot longer. The songs need more ups and downs, more hooks, better dynamics, bury yourselves in a studio for a bit, tear the songs apart, put them back together again and we'll have a mighty musical force on our hands.","date":"2007-02-26","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-02-26-spray-dog-karate-summer-camp","title":"Spray Dog - Karate Summer Camp","url":"/blog/2007/2007-02-26-spray-dog-karate-summer-camp","summary":"I wanted to review this fifth album from the Newcastle Lo-Fi stars as they reminded me of my fanzine writing days in the late 90's. Therein lies the problem, despite claiming to have influenced the current crop of highly successful bands from the North East of England (which I can't hear myself), the band remind me a little too much of the late 90's, they haven't really changed. If you're after a proficient slab of good old-fashioned Lo-Fi Indie then look no further, Spraydog are definitely the band for you, but personally I overdosed on it a long time ago. www.spraydog.co.uk","date":"2007-02-26","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-02-26-various-artists-fopp-award-for-new-music-2006","title":"Various Artists - FOPP Award for new Music 2006","url":"/blog/2007/2007-02-26-various-artists-fopp-award-for-new-music-2006","summary":"Whilst I'm all for supporting new music and anything that raises the profile of good new artists I'm not entirely sure what this fairly long running scheme in partnership with FOPP, The PRS Foundation for new music and Clear Sound and Vision is trying to achieve. Looking at the judging panel which includes staff from the NME as well as big wig A&R men and listening to the music on this sampler CD one can't help but wonder that the award is aiming to find new music with the biggest commercial potential not necessarily the most competent or interesting music. Olympus Mons sound like every other 'Libertines-Lite' band currently doing the rounds, Conrad Vague is a proficient but uninteresting singer-songwriter with only The Dials and Morton Valance doing something slightly more interesting, which is interesting as they're the only two artists on the CD that already had a profile before entering the competition. Proof perhaps that those deserving will win through and be noticed anyway or maybe a sign of conflicting opinions and motives in the Judging Panel.","date":"2007-02-26","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-02-24-the-twilight-singers-a-stitch-in-time-ep","title":"The Twilight Singers - A Stitch in Time EP","url":"/blog/2007/2007-02-24-the-twilight-singers-a-stitch-in-time-ep","summary":"Collaborations seem to be becoming increasingly popular, varying from perfect pairings to just plain embarrassing, this release is somewhere in-between. The first few tracks are brilliant; especially 'Live with me' that not only features Mark Lanegan on vocals sounding like the ghost of Johnny Cash, but is also a cover of a Massive Attack song. Tracks 2 and 3 are also wonderful dark laments, full of brooding bass lines and discordant chords, from here on the music remains fairly interesting and dark but the vocals become duller and more generic as we revert to the normal band line-up, which begs the question, who are the Twilight Singers?","date":"2007-02-24","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-02-24-the-vice-lovers-ep","title":"The Vice - Lovers EP","url":"/blog/2007/2007-02-24-the-vice-lovers-ep","summary":"I'm instantly suspicious of bands who try to make themselves sound a lot more interesting than they really are, if you've got nothing to say or it's too early in your career to have anything interesting to say on a press release, then just keep it simple, let the music talk for itself. Fortunately in the Vice's case the music does a fair job of this, despite being a low key and budget release. The band's sound is currently schizophrenic as they find their voice, fusing a few 'fashionable' styles and a few of their own ideas, thus they have the potential in sound, looks and attitude to be twisted into a marketing commodity, turned into whatever a label executive with a fat wallet desires them to become. At the moment the band's music has some honesty, rawness, some life, I hope it and they stay that way.","date":"2007-02-24","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-01-24-pop-levi-water-rats","title":"Pop Levi - Water Rats","url":"/blog/2007/2007-01-24-pop-levi-water-rats","summary":"10 minutes spent playing an E chord, ear splitting and ostentatious guitar solos and more posing than you care to shake a stick at are a few of the elements delighting a packed and buzzing Water Rats Tonight. Imagine part Led Zeppelin, part LSD from 'The Producers' (The original film) and part Menswe@r and you're half way to a rough idea of knowing what a night with Pop Levi is like.","date":"2007-01-24","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-01-23-orphan-boy-trophies-of-love","title":"Orphan Boy - Trophies of Love","url":"/blog/2007/2007-01-23-orphan-boy-trophies-of-love","summary":"Elements of Orphan Boy sound similar to many other bands currently on the bandwagon, some elements are even cringingly similar. Thankfully there seems to be a little more to the band. Firstly they poses an aggressive rawness presently lacking in so many bands, frantic, shouted lyrics on the Dull mundanity of life, great crashing guitar chords and driving instrumentals. If only more bands of this genre could be as imaginative.","date":"2007-01-23","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-01-23-rose-kemp-a-handfull-of-hurricanes","title":"Rose Kemp - A Handfull of Hurricanes","url":"/blog/2007/2007-01-23-rose-kemp-a-handfull-of-hurricanes","summary":"Rose Kemp's Live shows are phenomenal, such an expression filled and fuelled singer coupled with a tight proficient band make for a blistering combination. Rose Kemp's Debut single, Violence was a particular favourite of mine, a brooding builder it was one of my favourite singles of last year. Hand Full of Hurricane contains some incredible tracks; Rose Kemp's voice soars in Rock Majesty and drops into serene heart felt moments. The music cleverly arranged, played and produced with skill and thought. The songs are raw, open and honest, about feelings and emotions, good and bad, but deeply personal and every word meant. There is a but to this review, although it's a small one. A few tracks are a little self indulgent, in that the songs are too long and some unnecessary, they feel like padding, with Rose's vocal trickery rather overshadowing the feelings of the song. Overall an impressive debut from a talented artist who exceeds all expectations and assumptions.","date":"2007-01-23","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-01-20-holy-war-religion-and-violence","title":"Holy War, Religion and Violence","url":"/blog/2007/2007-01-20-holy-war-religion-and-violence","summary":"Went to a most inspiring talk last night entitled \"Holy War, Religion and Violence\" given by Keith Ward at Gresham College. I hope to get a copy of the transcript to post here but I learnt a lot and had a lot of thoughts implanted in my head including : The Byzantine Empire was a remnant of the Roman Empire (which I knew) but far from being the glorious, free civilised image it liked to portray, the empire was in fact a dictatorship and when the Turks (Muslims) attacked they were seen by many as liberators and welcomed.The supposed 'Dark Ages' were only really in the West; the Muslim world was full of advances and enlightenment at the time. The Arab world continued and kept alive the Greek traditions of philosophy and discovery, presumably from their Byzantine conquest, the west relearnt them from the Arab world. When the West had caught up after the Dark Ages it commenced a 'colonisation' (Christianisation?) of most of the world, the Europeans were seen as Barbarians by the Muslim world, but we ignored most of that and just drained and destroyed them, turning them into the 'Third World' they are now. The Qur'an is a set of principles or rules; there are no 'Clergy' in Islam, but a set of 'lawyers' if you like, who interpret the rules and pass those interpretations on to local followers, these 'rules' were written a long time ago for a nomadic society, so their interpretations have changed over the years. There is no supreme head of the Islamic Faith (The last Kalif was deposed in the 14th Century by Muslims) and there is only one Islamic State (Iran), compare that to Christianity. Mohammed was a political leader, so has influence on Politics, but Christianity was and still is tied in with politics.Most phrases taken from the Qur'an and used against it are taken out of context or presented in an edited form. The same applies with extremists; they even use elements of Lenin's teachings on Violent Revolution being the only solution against what they don't consider 'real' Islam, i.e. Democratic politicians in Islamic Countries. Islam is an inclusive religion, all prophets from all faiths are considered valid, as are all paths to Heaven, however Muslims do consider Islam the best route, two quotes that sum this attitude nicely :","date":"2007-01-20","tags":["Opinion","History"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-01-18-dartz-once-twice-again","title":"Dartz! - Once, Twice again","url":"/blog/2007/2007-01-18-dartz-once-twice-again","summary":"When I first listened to this CD I wanted to slate it completely, sounding like a horrendous hash of all my least favourite current musical genres, including Emo, disco-beat shit, Jingle-Jangle Indie Fop and obligatory Northern accents (not that there's anything wrong with that, it just seems that the Industry is almost looking for them!). Whilst there is a little too much of all of the aforementioned genres in Dartz!'s sound I'm glad I gave it a second listen as beneath all the spine chilling scene chasing are some good melodies, lyrics and musicmanship, boys, get original, you can do it!","date":"2007-01-18","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-01-18-dive-dive-revenge-of-the-mechanical-dogs","title":"Dive Dive - Revenge of the Mechanical Dogs","url":"/blog/2007/2007-01-18-dive-dive-revenge-of-the-mechanical-dogs","summary":"Despite a promising album name and some splendid song titles such as Let the Blind lead the Blind and Talentless Fuck this album on the whole pretty is terrible. There is too much Emo crap at the moment and far too much Disco beat nonsense (I keep saying this over and over again, I feel like I'm repeating myself far too much!) so why the hell combine the two! Commercial success I guess.","date":"2007-01-18","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-01-18-duke-garwood-emerald-palace","title":"Duke Garwood - Emerald Palace","url":"/blog/2007/2007-01-18-duke-garwood-emerald-palace","summary":"With a name like Duke Garwood I was hoping for some low down dirty blood, guts and spit blues, which this release is to a certain extent, but with an off-kilter, lo-fi edge. However too many times on the album you're left wanting tunes with direction and more of Duke's soulful, gritty voice and less meandering music that sounds mostly improvised, it all starts to drag after a few tracks","date":"2007-01-18","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-01-18-ellis-island-sound-the-good-seed","title":"Ellis Island Sound - The Good Seed","url":"/blog/2007/2007-01-18-ellis-island-sound-the-good-seed","summary":"I seem to have been sent an abundance of random noise albums recently, I don't quite understand the point of recording an album of meandering melodies that don't really go anywhere. All very nice and pleasant, and a smattering of pretty melodies, but all to no avail.","date":"2007-01-18","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-01-16-the-dykeenies-waiting-for-go-ep","title":"The Dykeenies - Waiting for Go EP","url":"/blog/2007/2007-01-16-the-dykeenies-waiting-for-go-ep","summary":"Despite a name influenced by wondrous family fantasy romp, Willow the band are yet another overproduced slab of boring American influenced trite. I barely noticed the tracks change from one to the other, I was just glad when it was all over.","date":"2007-01-16","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-01-16-the-maccabees-ulu","title":"The Maccabees - ULU","url":"/blog/2007/2007-01-16-the-maccabees-ulu","summary":"ULU is full of sweat, teenage hormones and casual day time radio listeners, Jingle jangle and the kids all dance, Uh Oh and the kids all chant, but there's something fundamentally important missing, where are the songs? The Maccabees set is like one long yawn, lots of nice sounding chords all strung together, where are the verses, the choruses, the hooks, the ups, the downs? Where's the stage show, the presence? Where's the Rock & Roll?","date":"2007-01-16","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-01-13-clayton-blizzard-the-notting-hill-arts-club","title":"Clayton Blizzard - The Notting Hill Arts Club","url":"/blog/2007/2007-01-13-clayton-blizzard-the-notting-hill-arts-club","summary":"Somewhere buried beneath all The Disco Beat crap and Indie-Fop rubbish that plagues the current music scene is an encouraging and burgeoning army of Singer-Songwriters with something to say. Clayton Blizzard is one of it's finest exponents, his lyrics are incredible, he raps, he sings, he improvises, but unlike some of his contemporaries, he can write original tunes, played with skill and ease on his acoustic guitar. He speaks the truth with a dose of un naive reality, the residents of Notting Hill aren't all up for hearing it, but this is what music should be about, Fusion is the future, Black meets White, genre meets genre, Folk and Phat, inspiring and pure genius.","date":"2007-01-13","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-01-12-mira-calix-eyes-set-against-the-sky","title":"Mira Calix - Eyes Set against the Sky","url":"/blog/2007/2007-01-12-mira-calix-eyes-set-against-the-sky","summary":"Mira Calix makes no excuse at this being an Art Installation of sorts, an experiment in musical boundaries rather than song writing. Whilst it's all very interesting, I hate to sound narrow minded but I'm old fashion, I like songs, verses, choruses and bits that you want to whistle, an hour of noise is not my idea of fun. There is the occasional beautiful moment, but there's too much fiddling around, too much indulgence and lack of structure for my tastes. www.miracalix.com","date":"2007-01-12","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-01-10-music-review-catch-up","title":"Music Review Catch Up","url":"/blog/2007/2007-01-10-music-review-catch-up","summary":"Been rather lame with blog posts recently, you see I'm know self-employed, so not only do I have work to do, but when I don't, I have to look for work... On top of all that I'm arranging my trip to Australia... Also, I haven't posted many articles or reviews recently, because I finally have a paid writing job which is taking up most of my time, now it's finally launched I'll start telling you about some of the stuff I'm posting there, more of that later... Firstly a few news titbits that caught my eye... New Chart Rules Armed Cop Challenge Dolphin Attack! And this is very interesting... I took a trip to the Museum of London and think I might have found the roots of the North / South divide in country and London Terms, I was going to post photos, but they didn't come out very well... In the museum is a map of Roman Briton, South England is called \"Britannia Superior\", North England \"Britannia Inferior\"... As for London, it seems that in times gone past the City, i.e. the North, built a wall round itself, to protect itself from invaders, no thought for the south though... Big Brother : Not something I'd often talk about, but I gather some fellah from The Towers of London is in it this time, I wonder if their career will experience the same turnaround the Ordinary Boys did? It may intrigue you to know that both bands share the same press company... And that some time ago I spoke to Preston, after the second album had been released but pre-BB, and he confided in me that he had no idea what was in store for them, the second album, not being that well received... Now, me and the Macaca Boys have been recording of late, we should have some results very soon... It was an odd process, a little bitty and isolated from each other, but that was the same way we did the Art Brut album and that came out OK... OK then, now it's finally sort of on the way... Well it's in Beta stages, but go and have a look and submit suggestions for improvements, here's the site I've been writing for of late : www.indieoma.com At the moment it just has articles from my Australia music special, but very soon it will have stuff on : Antifolk, The Hot Puppies, The Answer, Bass Clef, Billy Ruffian, Brinkman, Dead Disco, The Mighty Roars, The Pipettes, Simon Breed, Twisterbait, Nosferatu D2, Blah blah blah, Rose Kemp, 28 Costumes, Billy Brag, The Indelicates, Alpha Saloon, Ashok, The Hedrons, Passenger, Voicst, The Wednesday Society, Natsuo Chiyoda, Some Velvet Morning, Summer Holiday, Dan Sartain, Indigo Moss and more... Unfortunately I can't post the articles here, but I am slowly catching up with all the other reviews I've written, and will get them up soon... Chinch out xx","date":"2007-01-10","tags":["Music","Life Travel"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-01-05-festive-2007","title":"Festive 2007","url":"/blog/2007/2007-01-05-festive-2007","summary":"Well then, been a while since I last said something... Christmas was quiet, dull, so I guess that was a good Christmas, sat around a lot, watched telly, ate, argued with the family, typical stuff... Got back on the 28th and did a surreal gig with Jim, just the two of us, tried several new songs I'd written and then we did a few improvised songs together, it was most amusing and there was a fair audience to... We also had a great gig on the 30th at The Pop Art Birthday at Lark in the Park, you can see some great photos here taken by Paul Maps... As you can see we now have a new guitarist, welcome 'Dan Lobster'. Jim and I also sat on a Questions panel and took part in Indie win lose or draw, all great fun. New Years eve was an odd one, sat about most of the day, dropped by on Chez Fruitbat to visit Les & Crissi and watch Time Team with them, then off to a party of a guy I used to work with which was pretty cool and I met his three foot Marijuana plant called 'Nicky'. Then Arran and Lydia turned up and convinced me to go to another party, where I never quite felt happy, so left about 2ish but it took ages to get home and I saw so much obnoxious behaviour it really depressed me... New years day was pleasant, took a very long walk from Aldgate to Tooting to meet Jim and a few others for Dinner... Then today I started working my way through the list of places I want to visit before I leave with my old Flatmate Carrie, though Westminster Abbey and St Pauls were stupidly expensive so we only ended up going to The London Museum instead and then a quick wander round the National Gallery... I recorded a new track over Christmas to, at the request of a guy in Australia who wanted to remix it, it's a live favourite called 'AAA', take a listen at www.chinchilla-music.co.uk/music.php where you can hear both remixes, or at www.myspace.com/chrischinchilla . Overall though I've been feeling strange the past week, everything is in motion now for my return to Australia, booked the flight, visa is being processed and I can't wait to be there again, not least because I get to meet a lovely Lady again, but also because it has not taken me long at all to become fed up with London again, and be reminded of all the reasons behind this feeling, I'm just killing time at the moment, I can't wait until I can finally start something new and move on from a lot of past. I'm rambling slightly, it's hard to put some of the feelings I have on the subject into words without going into a lot of things from my past, I guess it basically boils down to \"That was me then this is me now\", I want to live a different life as a different sort of person, but when you're constantly surrounded by the trappings of old you, and some of those trappings refuse to give you a chance as the new you... If that makes any sense... Suffice it to say, I'm very excited, after a while of talking about it, I'm finally leaving the UK to pastures new...","date":"2007-01-05","tags":["Music","Life Travel"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-12-17-ilike-and-leaving-the-uk","title":"iLike and Leaving the UK","url":"/blog/2006/2006-12-17-ilike-and-leaving-the-uk","summary":"Firstly, a few more bits and pieces for you... I am such a geek... This will irritate some of you (not least because of his accent), but what the hell! Recently I've been investigating iLike , it's like a mix between Pandora and Last FM, and is very pretty, though the music database is a little lacking in places at the moment... It's been funny since I got back, because my initial plan was to just get back into work (which I have been, and very busy indeed, with all sorts of interesting work coming my way), get the band going (and we're recording next week!) and see what happened... But it's funny what life throws at you, as in Melbourne I met someone who I got on very well with, so instead will be heading back there soonish to embark on a new adventure instead... Oh well, who was I kidding that I could just come back to London and get on with life again? Too much out there to be experienced yet, and I've made no secret of the fact that I've wanted to leave the UK for ages anyway and have just been looking for the right place and set of circumstances (which sounds really sterile, I guess I just mean when it felt right.) Which has made the past week a little hectic as I try to organise all the paperwork (and get nowhere with it yet!), figure out when I'm actually going to go and sort everything out around that, keeping my fingers crossed that things will all just sort of come together beautifully as they always seem to when I stop worrying about things. (Apparently I have a guardian angel, but that's a whole other story!) Anyway, so at the moment, I'm a little worried, busy, but very happy and excited... Good times! Chinch out :-)","date":"2006-12-17","tags":["Music","Life"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-12-14-15th-december-2006","title":"15th December 2006","url":"/blog/2006/2006-12-14-15th-december-2006","summary":"Personally I think this is great... A few odd things seen the past few days... - Bacardi are advertising 0 sugar, isn&39;t Rum made from Sugar Cane? The new Burger King Angus is certified 100% Beef, do BK feel that their products are mistrusted so much they have to get them certified? And who does that? What a job... Saw a sign for a Family restaurant... That appealed to my sense of humour... &quot;How would you like your Grandmother sir? Roasted or Fried?&quot;","date":"2006-12-14","tags":["Family","Advertising"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-12-14-16th-dec-2006","title":"16th Dec 2006","url":"/blog/2006/2006-12-14-16th-dec-2006","summary":"Bah, my heads all of a muddle at the moment, trying to write songs, but busy sorting all sorts out and can&39;t quite get anything out, lots of bits and pieces of ideas...","date":"2006-12-14","tags":["Writing","Links"],"categories":["tech","writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-12-08-9th-dec-2006","title":"9th Dec 2006","url":"/blog/2006/2006-12-08-9th-dec-2006","summary":"This was written for www.mapsmagazine.co.uk so focuses on the playing side of things, might write something in more detail at some point, dunno... Had a lot of fun and some great times, met some great people...","date":"2006-12-08","tags":["Music","Work"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-12-08-9th-dec-2006-my-old-shoes","title":"9th Dec 2006 - My old shoes","url":"/blog/2006/2006-12-08-9th-dec-2006-my-old-shoes","summary":"Here are my old shoes...","date":"2006-12-08","tags":["Life"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-11-14-chapter-24-notting-hill-arts-club","title":"Chapter 24 - Notting Hill Arts Club","url":"/blog/2006/2006-11-14-chapter-24-notting-hill-arts-club","summary":"Chapter 24's intriguing mix of 60's beat combo, jazz and breakbeat drums is the perfect crazy emotional and musical rollercoaster soundtrack to a late Saturday afternoon. Bridging the gap between lethargically recovering from Friday's hangover to bracing yourself for doing it all over again. Raw and rough round the edges but with hearts and ideas in the right place.","date":"2006-11-14","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-11-14-delta-mainline-dublin-castle","title":"Delta Mainline - Dublin Castle","url":"/blog/2006/2006-11-14-delta-mainline-dublin-castle","summary":"A bubble machine is on stage pumping into the audience, a strobe flashing near the drum kit as the 7 members of Delta Mainline awkwardly squash onto the small stage in front of an already warmed up audience. The venue is too small for their big sound, occasionally hard to define and losing distinction when the whole band is in full swing. Delta Mainline create big epic slabs of noise, building multiple layers of melodies and noise and for the most part without becoming too self-indulgent. Vocally there's not a massive amount going on, enough to hold your interest and a few hooks here and there, but generally too soaked in reverb to pick much out which is probably for the best anyway.","date":"2006-11-14","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-11-14-murder-by-death-water-rats","title":"Murder by Death - Water Rats","url":"/blog/2006/2006-11-14-murder-by-death-water-rats","summary":"The front row is a mixed bag of hard rockers and country fans intently listening to the similar mix emitting from the stage. A constantly pulsating and alluring cellist, a rake-like singer who conjures an incredible voice from the depths of somewhere not pleasant, a pounding bass player built like a tank and the tallest drummer ever seen build a dark world around them, dragging the crowd in, willing or not.","date":"2006-11-14","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-11-14-nosferatu-d2-album-demos","title":"Nosferatu D2 - Album Demos","url":"/blog/2006/2006-11-14-nosferatu-d2-album-demos","summary":"I've been following the musical exploits of Ben and Chris for a fair few years as they morphed from their old band (Tempertwig) to this new two-piece. Unlike other two pieces Nosferatu D2 don't rely on heavy overdrive, effects or production to pad out the sound, just the same guitar sound all the way through, one vocal and some of the most amazing frantic drumming I've ever heard. Lyrically it's dark stuff, rejection, being let down, laments to lost youth and scathing commentaries on suburban life all delivered with a dry cynical wit. Not an album to listen to if you want cheering up, but for great musicianship and lyrical brilliance this is the place.","date":"2006-11-14","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-11-13-14th-nov-2006","title":"14th Nov 2006","url":"/blog/2006/2006-11-13-14th-nov-2006","summary":"Will be doing a proper tour diary at some point when I get back but in the meantime just checking in, saying hi...","date":"2006-11-13","tags":["Life"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-11-13-14th-nov-2006-leaving-the-uk","title":"14th Nov 2006 - Leaving the UK","url":"/blog/2006/2006-11-13-14th-nov-2006-leaving-the-uk","summary":"By the way, going to have a few last minute drinks tonight for those who couldn't make the party... 7.30pm at the Green Man in Berwick st...","date":"2006-11-13","tags":["Life"],"categories":["writing"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-10-19-the-hot-puppies-drill-hall-lincoln","title":"The Hot Puppies - Drill Hall, Lincoln","url":"/blog/2006/2006-10-19-the-hot-puppies-drill-hall-lincoln","summary":"The Drill Hall is more used to holding Jazz concerts, theatre and comedy performances, this is the first 'Indie' night to be held at the 600 capacity venue but the young crowd are more than making up for the small attendance, constantly dancing, singing along and shouting for more. The Hot Puppies also do an incredible job filling the hall with their grand sound, songs with big sweeping choruses, impassioned female led vocals (a crooner for the rock generation if you like), a pounding drummer and layers of synths and keyboards swooping and surging about. The band looks at home and comfortable on a big stage with the space to perform and show off, and why not.","date":"2006-10-19","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-10-11-bass-clef-a-smile-is-a-curve-that-straightens-most-things","title":"Bass Clef - A smile is a curve that straightens most things","url":"/blog/2006/2006-10-11-bass-clef-a-smile-is-a-curve-that-straightens-most-things","summary":"With a name like Bass Clef, it was never going to be Fay Indie rock was it? Marvellous dark dub with fat (phat?) synth bass lines, frantic beats and eerie vocal snippets, each track melding into the next in an hour long slab of inventive dance music, a little repetitive in places, but hey, that's the point.","date":"2006-10-11","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-10-11-holy-hail-county-fair","title":"Holy Hail - County Fair","url":"/blog/2006/2006-10-11-holy-hail-county-fair","summary":"Not a solo artist as the name may suggest, but a New Wave band hailing from New York, and damn it for one track samplers, I like what I hear, but it's not enough to get a fully fledged opinion. Some ubiquitous disco beats and funky bass lines but they simply can't be escaped at the moment, so might as well accept them. Clever dual boy / girl vocals and a great sparse sound filled out with some clever arrangements. Oh and of course they look great to, but that doesn't matter, does it.","date":"2006-10-11","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-10-11-iain-archer-magnetic-north","title":"Iain Archer - Magnetic North","url":"/blog/2006/2006-10-11-iain-archer-magnetic-north","summary":"A difficult album to review, it starts with a handful of beautifully crafted songs, resplendent in gentle guitar picking and breathy vocals. Then some rockier numbers with awesome jagged guitars, then it all gets a little dull and my attention is lost and distracted to other things. A great shame, it starts so well.","date":"2006-10-11","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-10-11-rose-kemp-violence","title":"Rose Kemp - Violence","url":"/blog/2006/2006-10-11-rose-kemp-violence","summary":"This is one of the best singles I've heard all year, from the quiet, delicate passages to the ear splittingly overdriven choruses of Violence, to the heartfelt orchestra backed Morning Music and the beautiful harmonies on Tiny Flower, an amazing single that shows the brilliant diverse talent of a promising artist.","date":"2006-10-11","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-10-11-the-hidden-cameras-awoo","title":"The Hidden Cameras - Awoo","url":"/blog/2006/2006-10-11-the-hidden-cameras-awoo","summary":"An eclectic and eccentric bunch, The Hidden Cameras are a bunch of ever evolving Canadians, doing crazy things and not really fitting in. Awoo possesses that clever feel a lot of Canadian music has, fast, frantic lyrics full of witticism and sung in a deep, throaty voice, twinkling, jangling guitars, keyboards and sparkling strings offsetting the vocal style beautifully. Personally though I prefer the B-side, Why I understand, it's more upbeat, more in your face, but does sound like it was made in the 80's.","date":"2006-10-11","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-10-11-the-pipettes-judy","title":"The Pipettes - Judy","url":"/blog/2006/2006-10-11-the-pipettes-judy","summary":"I've been familiar with the Pipettes for quite a while, watching their fluctuating line-ups and increasing fortunes, this is one of their older songs and the first time I've heard their material in new slicker recording form. It's lost the Punky-Girl-Pop edge they used to posses but lyrically is still of the bitchy, biting ilk the Pipettes do so well. It's a short song, a few verses, and a few choruses and then over, a sweet slice of Pop one which poses the question I constantly ask with the Pipettes, what next?","date":"2006-10-11","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-10-03-blah-blah-blah-93ft-east","title":"Blah blah blah - 93ft East","url":"/blog/2006/2006-10-03-blah-blah-blah-93ft-east","summary":"Very rarely does everything come together in a perfect compliment of personalities and musical abilities. Songs full of humour and razor sharp wit entices the audience and the brilliant harmonies, funky bass lines and drums keep them dancing and smiling for the sets' duration. The band leave the stage to rapturous applause and on comes another generic indie band, most of the crowd follow through the door.","date":"2006-10-03","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-09-26-bright-eyes-noise-floor","title":"Bright Eyes - Noise Floor","url":"/blog/2006/2006-09-26-bright-eyes-noise-floor","summary":"I've never really been a fan or understood the appeal of Bright Eyes, so a collection of rarities and unreleased tracks was never something I was going to be taken with. I don't like his funny warbling voice or his lyrics, the music's alright, but nothing special, to be short, I don't get it. The tracks on this album are probably for hardcore fans only, some being poorly recorded, whilst others are not going to be his best material, otherwise they would heave been released already. For a completei-st, an essential addition to your collection, but for enquiring, aspiring converts, best avoided.","date":"2006-09-26","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-09-26-brinkman-kirsten-dunst","title":"Brinkman - Kirsten Dunst","url":"/blog/2006/2006-09-26-brinkman-kirsten-dunst","summary":"I was expecting Brinkman to be heavier for some reason, maybe something to do with the name, the label, the song title, who knows why. The band is in fact a fairly laid back melodious three piece. The lead track a lamenting ode to the unrequited love of a Hollywood starlet a task the band manages to carry out without sounding like sordid stalkers. The B-side Harlesden is an equally harmonious ditty dedicated to life in one of London's less salubrious suburbs. I look forward to hearing more.","date":"2006-09-26","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-09-26-iv-thieves-the-day-is-a-downer","title":"IV Thieves - The Day is a Downer","url":"/blog/2006/2006-09-26-iv-thieves-the-day-is-a-downer","summary":"IV Thieves have been listening to too much Britpop, which isn't a bad thing, but last time I checked the Britpop revival hadn't arrived yet, so I'm not sure what the band are aiming for. Sounding like a big old mix up of the better and lesser known bands from the aforementioned era rolled into one, they produce a good mix of jangly guitar chords, appregiated breaks, a whining vocalist, and of course, tambourines.","date":"2006-09-26","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-09-26-mattafix-cool-down-the-place","title":"Mattafix - Cool Down the Place","url":"/blog/2006/2006-09-26-mattafix-cool-down-the-place","summary":"Mattafix sound like the prevalent Ragga/Reggae/Pop lite that used to bother the charts in the early 90's, I'm not entirely sure who this is aimed at these days. The CD has one A-side and then seven remixes of the same track which is a little self indulgent, some sound no different, whilst others sound nothing like the main track. I gather the band are popular in parts of Europe and amongst warmer climates such as South Africa and Australasia, but sadly in rainy Britain, they're not for me.","date":"2006-09-26","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-09-26-new-rhodes-history-of-britain","title":"New Rhodes - History of Britain","url":"/blog/2006/2006-09-26-new-rhodes-history-of-britain","summary":"New Rhodes have been floating around the peripherals of various music scenes for several years, always being associated with each one, but never quite part of any of them. Is the time right for them yet? This single isn't a marked change in direction or style for the band, the same melodious laid back jangly guitar rock, nice vocals, nice tunes, nice boys. It wont set the world alight, but New Rhodes till maintain their own little place in the UK music scene.","date":"2006-09-26","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-09-26-the-answer-under-the-sky","title":"The Answer - Under The Sky","url":"/blog/2006/2006-09-26-the-answer-under-the-sky","summary":"The Answer, for some reason, sounded like they were going to be a mod band, I should imagine that if the Answer ever met a Mod band, a fight would probably ensue, being a Heavy blues rock act of the finest order. Not usually my cup of tea, but they;re so damn good at it with poodle perms, riffs aplenty, reverb soaked vocals and solos all over the shop, in fact everything you could want out of a good old fashioned slice of Rock and Roll action.","date":"2006-09-26","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-09-26-zebrahead-postcards-from-hell","title":"Zebrahead - Postcards from Hell","url":"/blog/2006/2006-09-26-zebrahead-postcards-from-hell","summary":"Sorry, I really can't stand this overproduced US Punk Metal crap, that pretends to be from the street and honest, but sounds like it's produced with all the best equipment available, heavy computer processing and a multi thousand dollar budget. Oh, and it all sounds the same.","date":"2006-09-26","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-09-19-betty-curse-hear-lies","title":"Betty Curse - Hear Lies","url":"/blog/2006/2006-09-19-betty-curse-hear-lies","summary":"Betty Curse is one my guilty pleasure, I really shouldn't enjoy her music, she's obviously contrived, manufactured, she even admits it, maybe that's why I like her so much. There's something about the paint by numbers Glam-Pop-Rock that's just so damn appealing and fun. Something about the glammed up sense of pleasure, the ever so slightly silly and tongue in cheek lyrics so clearly written for Teenage Outsiders to sing along to. Maybe because it's not aimed at me and I can see the music for what it is that makes me like it so much, I've said it before and I'll say it again, in a few months Betty Curse will be everywhere, the kids will love her, the parents will hate her (well the dads will be intrigued) but they'll still have to chaperone.","date":"2006-09-19","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-09-19-camera-ashes-and-dim-light","title":"Camera - Ashes and Dim Light","url":"/blog/2006/2006-09-19-camera-ashes-and-dim-light","summary":"My first words on Camera were that they were a little too middle of the road for my tastes and that I looked forward to hearing more on any forthcoming albums. Sadly the album doesn't contain any more of the rock I was looking forward to but it is a pleasant enough album, and the first few tracks are uplifting and get the foot tapping, but slowly as the album progresses the songs tend to have the same feel and sound and disappear into the background, which is never a good thing. It needs a little more dynamic to keep the attention.","date":"2006-09-19","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-09-19-dan-sartain-join-dan-sartain","title":"Dan Sartain - Join Dan Sartain","url":"/blog/2006/2006-09-19-dan-sartain-join-dan-sartain","summary":"If you are, or have ever been a jilted lover, pinning after an ex flame, frustrated by your situation and difficulty in moving on, then Join Dan Sartain. Currently undergoing similar feelings the album strikes a deep chord with me. Dan's wonderful twanging accent spits bitter, lamenting lyrics over a bed of reverb soaked electric guitar and minimal bass and drums. The albums got death, love, pain and suffering, a must for all melancholics everywhere, embrace your new leader.","date":"2006-09-19","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-09-19-jay-bennett-the-magnificent-defeat","title":"Jay Bennett - The Magnificent Defeat","url":"/blog/2006/2006-09-19-jay-bennett-the-magnificent-defeat","summary":"Sounding equal parts new wave solo artists and post grunge acoustic artist (Think Nirvana's Unplugged in New York if that makes no sense) this is a riotous rollercoaster sort of an album. Some tracks big and wonderfully over produced with too many instruments crashing about and (unfortunately) Jay's voice incredibly badly EQ'd and swimming with effects whilst others are quiet, delicate and heartfelt, stripped down and bare. Thus the album is a little disjointed and schizophrenic, but also keeps the attention as you wonder what will be next.","date":"2006-09-19","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-09-19-kate-myers-the-blanket-sky","title":"Kate Myers - The Blanket Sky","url":"/blog/2006/2006-09-19-kate-myers-the-blanket-sky","summary":"On the few dates I caught Kate live I found her absolutely enchanting and I can't even say exactly why. I think I'm a sucker for that sort of artist who quietly slinks onto a stage with no sort of presence whatsoever, an almost apologetic charm, and as soon as they start to sing the room stops to watch what is going on. Her voice is smooth but with rough overtones, most likely a natural talent with no training and whilst her guitar lines are simple and fairly similar across songs they compliment her voice brilliantly and succinctly. On album you lose the presence that comes from seeing her in the flesh, but you can still hear the strength of the song writing and the inherent beauty of her music. It won't suit everybody, it's very American (something that normally puts me off) in style, sound and lyrical content, but give a few tracks a listen and try to catch Kate live, then maybe you might see what I mean.","date":"2006-09-19","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-09-19-the-album-leaf-into-the-blue-again","title":"The Album Leaf - Into the Blue again","url":"/blog/2006/2006-09-19-the-album-leaf-into-the-blue-again","summary":"There's something of a melodious beauty to the tracks on Into the blue again, so much so that a majority of the tracks are purely instrumentals. It?∆í√ôs laid back, the usual band line up supplemented with strings, vibes, keyboards, samples and multiple vocalists. The songs are slow building, with layers of instruments and harmony gradually added as opposed to straightforward verse, chorus, verse chorus. A calming and peaceful album full of inspiring melody, it's the sort to return to after a hard days work, put your feet up with a glass of wine and drift away into another world with.","date":"2006-09-19","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-09-19-various-artists-house-of-the-rising-rat-vol-1","title":"Various Artists - House of the Rising Rat vol 1","url":"/blog/2006/2006-09-19-various-artists-house-of-the-rising-rat-vol-1","summary":"I don't seem to the only one noticing that whilst the mainstream rock circles are getting progressively louder, fuzzier and dischordant, there's an increasing amount of fantastic mellower more subtle artists rapidly appearing on the scene. This is an excellently compiled album featuring tracks from the likes of Dan Sartain, Simon Breed and Gemma Ray that all contribute to creating a well balanced and superb compilation for those wanting something a little quieter, but by no means calmer, alternative to the noise that the kids are making.","date":"2006-09-19","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-08-16-and-what-will-be-left-of-them-wet-weekend-on-july","title":"And what will be left of them? - Wet Weekend on July","url":"/blog/2006/2006-08-16-and-what-will-be-left-of-them-wet-weekend-on-july","summary":"I love Awwblot? They're an excellent live band and their last EP had some of the best dance floor fillers I've heard for a while. Which is why I don't understand this release. There's one recorded track, which isn't one of their best, and two live tracks, which aren't some of their best either. The lyrics are repetitive and the music doesn't show off their incredibly tight, catchy and cleverly arranged pop tunes at all. Don.t lose your way so early boys and girls...","date":"2006-08-16","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-08-16-billy-ruffian-demo","title":"Billy Ruffian - Demo","url":"/blog/2006/2006-08-16-billy-ruffian-demo","summary":"This is good stuff, very rough, but very inventive and showing a lot of potential future promise. Songs that are self aware of the ridiculousness and trials and tribulations of the music business have always been a winner and this demo deals with this and other issues admirably, The Death of a band due to constant touring and lack of money, teen scenesters and troublesome girlfriends. Lyrical genius over a solid wall of music, it needs work but watch this space, as Billy Ruffian will be at the front of the ever-growing wave of anti-scene bands.","date":"2006-08-16","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-08-16-bonnie-prince-billy-the-letting-go","title":"Bonnie Prince Billy - The Letting Go","url":"/blog/2006/2006-08-16-bonnie-prince-billy-the-letting-go","summary":"Bonnie Prince Billy, William Higham, Palace Music... Is an artist who is something of a cult genius to has fans and admirers, but to outsiders, someone who's appeal has always been hard to fully understand and comprehend, this album has done something to address that opinion. The songs are all fairly similar, a country / folk crossover, sparse, usually just guitar and vocals, occasionally an accompanying percussionist, instrument or vocal. Lyrically Bonnie Prince Billy Is typically fairly downbeat, and if not, then he sings lamenting love songs, even though his delivery promises lyrical brilliance generally his lyrics are fairly uninspiring, non-sensical and whimsical. That said Letting Go is a calming album to listen to, filling you with an inner peace, an album to escape the world to. Bonnie Prince Billy, a genius? No, but this is a fine album.","date":"2006-08-16","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-08-16-doloroso-godless","title":"Doloroso - Godless","url":"/blog/2006/2006-08-16-doloroso-godless","summary":"An odd choice for a single, quite slow, dark and fairly bitter lyrics, not exactly something to set the dance floors across the land alight. The B-side is in a similar vein both tracks are awash with brooding, building melodies, always restricted, always maintaining tension that never quite releases, haunting harmonies and waves of reverb soaked instruments adding to the melancholic majesty of it all.","date":"2006-08-16","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-08-16-james-yorkston-the-year-of-the-leopard","title":"James Yorkston - The Year of the Leopard","url":"/blog/2006/2006-08-16-james-yorkston-the-year-of-the-leopard","summary":"I try to avoid mentioning other artist's names as much as possible in reviews, but after just reviewing the new Bonnie Prince Billie album the similarity in style is so close I had to check I was listening to the right CD on several occasions. To be fair James Yorkston's voice is different and there's less of a country influence on his music, but melodically the songs are in the same melancholic, downbeat, lamenting vein played over a bed of gentle acoustic guitar and occasional accompaniment. There's more of a British feel to this album, especially on Woozy with Cider, a spoken word track that sums up British life and a musicians life beautifully, not that you would want an entire album of tracks like this, but it shows a more interesting side to James's work and the promise of more to come.","date":"2006-08-16","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-08-16-the-beauty-room-holding-on","title":"The Beauty Room - Holding on","url":"/blog/2006/2006-08-16-the-beauty-room-holding-on","summary":"Yee Gods, why are people still making, releasing or most crucially sending people like me such middle of the road Funk-Soul Ballads?! To be more constructive, it's well played, catchy and well structured songs, but sounds like late 70's pop music. Chiming vibraphones, a singer who's probably clicking his fingers whilst singing, string backings and falsetto middle eights. If you like this sort of thing then I'm sure it's great, but sadly the Beauty room are not my musical cup of tea at all.","date":"2006-08-16","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-08-16-vwf-wont-do-you-any-harm","title":"VWF - Wont do you any harm","url":"/blog/2006/2006-08-16-vwf-wont-do-you-any-harm","summary":"It's always hard to judge a band on one track, but on the basis of this one I'd like to reiterate a statement to VWF and many, many other bands I have been making fairly frequently over the past few months... Please, please, please no more disco beats for the hell of it! Yes they make people dance, but there are other ways to do that. I say this in relation to VWF because they sound like a band who'd rather be playing some sort of ska/rock-riffage crossover, and whilst that might not be 100% original either, follow what is right for you, not what the scene is telling you to do.","date":"2006-08-16","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-07-29-winterkids-im-not-used-to-you","title":"Winterkids - I'm not used to you","url":"/blog/2006/2006-07-29-winterkids-im-not-used-to-you","summary":"There's an odd sound and feeling to Winterkids' single, track one seems to be veering dangerously to sounding like an early 90's baggy anthem, whilst the b-side is doing a very good impression of a pop-heavy-rock hit which would get the 13 year olds in baggy jeans and hoodies moshing like mad. Throughout both the tracks the vocal has some horrible production on it, it's so compressed and so saturated with reverb it's a real effort to listen to, this is what gives both the tracks the odd sound they have. I get the feeling a better opinion of the band could be formed by seeing them live.","date":"2006-07-29","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-07-12-the-needles-in-search-of-the-needles","title":"The Needles - In Search of The Needles","url":"/blog/2006/2006-07-12-the-needles-in-search-of-the-needles","summary":"I've been aware of the Needles for some time, this album has been a while in the making and it gives the feeling that the songs were possibly written over a long period of time; it's a schizophrenic sounding album. Some songs are straight ahead power rock songs, others reminiscent of 60's ballads whilst others are more contemporary sounding rock songs. Therein lies the problem, the more contemporary sounding and the fast, frantic rock songs are the highlights, things start to tire around the middle of the album where there are too many organ led slower songs, fortunately everything kicks back in for the last few tracks and the album ends on a high. Not the smoothest journey but fundamentally rewarding, much as (I hope) it has been for the band.","date":"2006-07-12","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-07-07-the-noisettes","title":"The Noisettes","url":"/blog/2006/2006-07-07-the-noisettes","summary":"The Noisettes formed as the band they are now in the wilds of South East London at the infamous Brits school in Croydon less than three years ago. Consisting of Shingai on vocals and bass, Dan on guitar and Jamie on drums, the band rapidly rehearsed and recorded their debut 4-track EP, Three moods of the Noisettes, releasing it in Summer 2004, the band then went on to receive critical acclaim and some lucrative support slots with the likes of Babyshambles and Mystery Jets.","date":"2006-07-07","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-06-29-the-immediate-scala","title":"The Immediate - Scala","url":"/blog/2006/2006-06-29-the-immediate-scala","summary":"The Immediate's careful and beautifully crafted melodies are somewhat lost in the echoes of a half empty Scala tonight. These are pop songs of the highest calibre, the kind that would be critically acclaimed and incredibly commercially successful if handled correctly. The band are already winning over the 7.30 crowd tonight, give them 6 months and the Immediate will be everywhere.","date":"2006-06-29","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-06-20-jeremy-warmsley-i-promise","title":"Jeremy Warmsley - I Promise","url":"/blog/2006/2006-06-20-jeremy-warmsley-i-promise","summary":"Every time Jeremy Warmsley releases something new his style seems to change, is he a creative genius full of thousands of ideas or just a little indecisive? I promise is a melancholic little ditty, gentle tip-tapping drums, acoustic guitars, plink-plonking melodies and wistful romantic lyrics. It wont set the world on fire but it could set a few romances alight.","date":"2006-06-20","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-06-14-snowfight-in-the-city-centre-demo","title":"Snowfight in the City Centre - Demo","url":"/blog/2006/2006-06-14-snowfight-in-the-city-centre-demo","summary":"Snowfight in the City Centre are yet another band who of late seem to be wearing the big sound shoes. Slow burning anthemic numbers, lots of instruments, probably a string section if they could afford one. A little outdated and not to everyone's taste, but not too overindulgent, which is a good thing.","date":"2006-06-14","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-06-13-findlay-brown-down-amongst-the-dead-men","title":"Findlay Brown - Down amongst the Dead men","url":"/blog/2006/2006-06-13-findlay-brown-down-amongst-the-dead-men","summary":"Not the most interesting of Findlay Brown's material, but this is a commercial single after all. This is sad stuff; a haunting beauty, subtle intertwining melodies, an amazing silky smooth voice, the makings of greatness, but not a storming chart success.","date":"2006-06-13","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-06-13-jim-noir-eany-meany","title":"Jim Noir - Eany Meany","url":"/blog/2006/2006-06-13-jim-noir-eany-meany","summary":"Apparently this song has appeared all over some sort of Football programming... Having no interest in Football, I cannot verify this. However the title track of this single is another mellow, slightly childish bouncy offering from Jim Noir, his unique lyrical style again fully evident and his wonderfully repetitive but never dull melodies in full flow. Not as inspiring as his last single outing, but still an artist doing completely his own thing and making a damn good go of it.","date":"2006-06-13","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-06-13-roland-shanks-tarantula","title":"Roland Shanks - Tarantula","url":"/blog/2006/2006-06-13-roland-shanks-tarantula","summary":"Sorry Roland Shanks, you've been around a while, maybe you were one of the first to do it, but if I hear another disco-beat-rumbling-bass-line-shouty-singer band, I'm going to scream very loudly. Maybe Roland Shanks have got more interesting songs, in fact the B-side even hints at that fact, and I know you're a bunch of down to earth guys, but don't just jump on the band wagon to try and get into the singles chart, or (possibly) to be more precise, don't let your label push you onto the band wagon.","date":"2006-06-13","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-06-10-larrikin-love-kings-college","title":"Larrikin Love - Kings College","url":"/blog/2006/2006-06-10-larrikin-love-kings-college","summary":"Somewhere in the recent months of the live music explosion, Indie music seems to have separated into two camps, thoughtful, clever, rocking music and music to bounce around to. Larrikin Love fall squarely into the later category, the kids love them, bounding and shouting around like idiots to pretty much every song, the band can do no wrong with their odd Indie-Ska-Gipsy crossover. However hooks and structure seem hard to find in their songs, everything rumbles along in the same vein with no real clarity or memorable moments, great fun but not built to last.","date":"2006-06-10","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-06-10-the-scare-the-buffalo-bar","title":"The Scare - The Buffalo Bar","url":"/blog/2006/2006-06-10-the-scare-the-buffalo-bar","summary":"The Scare look out of it tonight, perhaps they would be a tighter band if they weren't off their heads, but they wouldn't be the Scare if they were sober. A big, loud, sometimes wonderful mess of heavy rock, new wave and egotistical posturing, riffs that fly around like there's no tomorrow and a seething mass of sweaty bodies. This is pure rock and roll, it may not always be pretty, but who ever said it should be.","date":"2006-06-10","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-06-08-at-the-lake-promo","title":"At The Lake - Promo","url":"/blog/2006/2006-06-08-at-the-lake-promo","summary":"Thanks to bands like The Editors and the Departure there seems to an ever increasing amount of bands making effects laden, sound-like-they're-playing-in-a-cave albums, full of big guitars and echoing vocals. So whilst At the Lake may not be particularly original they have a damn good go at the sound, with some excellent guitar riffs, great choruses and oodles of reverb of course!","date":"2006-06-08","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-06-08-the-voices-the-voices","title":"The Voices - The Voices","url":"/blog/2006/2006-06-08-the-voices-the-voices","summary":"The Voices are not the sort of band I'd normally go for; I gather they call it Shoe-gazing, basically lots of noise, not much structure, just repeated, building patterns. However, there's something about The Voices that pulls me in, firstly I guess I'm impressed by the noise they make for a three piece, there's also something wonderfully calming and ethereal about the tracks on this album, they wash over you, enveloping your senses, and forcing you to just stop and listen. An excellent soothing antidote to the crazy and confused modern world.","date":"2006-06-08","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-06-07-camera-demo","title":"Camera - Demo","url":"/blog/2006/2006-06-07-camera-demo","summary":"Strange, the 4 tracks on this Camera sampler are a little MOR for my usual tastes, but I kind of like them, in a mellow, sitting back with a bottle of beer and gently sighing kind of way. Some nice harmonies and tunes trip away with nowhere special to go, along comes another song and so it goes. In their rockier moments, Camera start to get more interesting, bring on the rock boys!","date":"2006-06-07","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-06-07-televise-songs-to-sing-in-a-and-e","title":"Televise - Songs to sing in A&E","url":"/blog/2006/2006-06-07-televise-songs-to-sing-in-a-and-e","summary":"Great album title! Televise really aren't my thing, but I get the feeling that if shoe-gazing music is your thing, then they'd be pretty ace, so I'm not going to write a review of them, and just tell you to take a listen... If you want to.","date":"2006-06-07","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-05-31-jim-noir-kings-college","title":"Jim Noir - Kings College","url":"/blog/2006/2006-05-31-jim-noir-kings-college","summary":"These are songs for summer, beautiful close melodies, upbeat harmonies and wonderful lyrical couplets. But the weather outside is confused, and so seemingly is the band, the sound is not brilliant, everyone looks constantly surprised and lost. However it comes across as charming, complimenting the music well and Jim Noir get away with it.","date":"2006-05-31","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-05-31-scully-hoxton-bar-and-restaurant","title":"Scully - Hoxton Bar & Restaurant","url":"/blog/2006/2006-05-31-scully-hoxton-bar-and-restaurant","summary":"The ill informed might term Scully Ska, Lad Rock or some other such badge. Scully are the sound of frustration and displeasure with the arseholes and idiots that constantly ruin lives. They are the sound of celebrating the pleasures and excesses in life, and it all comes right in the end, usually in a big sing-a-long chorus. Scully are the sound of real life.","date":"2006-05-31","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-05-31-you-and-the-atom-bomb-demo","title":"You & The Atom Bomb - Demo","url":"/blog/2006/2006-05-31-you-and-the-atom-bomb-demo","summary":"The predominant problem for me (especially being a southerner) with jangly guitar bands singing with Northern accents, is that they all start to sound very similar, It's an unfair comment especially in You and the Atom Bomb's case. The two tracks on this single sound like different bands, which in my opinion, is a good thing. Track one is a fast-paced blistering riff led rant about and celebration of bad landlords and cheap rentals, track two a more laid back, melancholic affair about boy watching... I think. Overall, interesting, I'd like to hear more!","date":"2006-05-31","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-05-24-findlay-brown-the-social-london","title":"Findlay Brown - The Social, London","url":"/blog/2006/2006-05-24-findlay-brown-the-social-london","summary":"The show of a skilled solo artist is the ability to fill a room with your sound and presence, and whilst The Social is a small venue, Findlay fills all corners of the room admirably. His melodies and harmonies are haunting but beautiful, filling you with an enormous sense of calm and stillness. At the end of his set he quietly finishes and disappears into the room, his unassuming manner unaware of his effect on the audience. www.findlaybrown.com","date":"2006-05-24","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-05-24-pink-grease-ordinary-girl","title":"Pink Grease - Ordinary Girl","url":"/blog/2006/2006-05-24-pink-grease-ordinary-girl","summary":"The two tracks on Pink Grease's forthcoming offering has a wonderful tension throughout both tracks. The lyrics to Ordinary girl ooze with an impassioned plea, for what who don't know, but it's very effective! Hate has a similar feel, it's tension supplied by a confession of sorts, a claustrophobic outburst against the world or perhaps more personal. One thing's for sure, Pink Grease have thrown aside their lighter past for a new darker outlook on the world and a tighter sound to fulfil it, good luck to 'em.","date":"2006-05-24","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-05-23-marissa-nadler-diamond-heart","title":"Marissa Nadler - Diamond Heart","url":"/blog/2006/2006-05-23-marissa-nadler-diamond-heart","summary":"Marissa Nadler is an artist hard to judge on just two tracks. Marissa has an incredible voice, the sort of voice that could, with the right oppputunities and a lot of luck become a classic voice. Her range and emotion are incredible, sucking you right in to the beautiful melodies and this is why two tracks are not enough, I don't want it to end yet, I want more. www.marissanadler.com","date":"2006-05-23","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-05-23-winterkids-tape-it","title":"Winterkids - Tape it","url":"/blog/2006/2006-05-23-winterkids-tape-it","summary":"Sorry, this is horrible, bloody disco beats all over the place for no real reason, stupid inane lyrics about taping a TV program and irritating Xylophone plastered over the top of some horrendously recorded tinny guitars. It's not a bad song, it has a catchy chorus, I'd just like to take the band, rearrange the song, strip it down and rerecord the whole thing to make the hooks audible and less grating.","date":"2006-05-23","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-05-20-the-scare-vacuum-irony","title":"The Scare - Vacuum Irony","url":"/blog/2006/2006-05-20-the-scare-vacuum-irony","summary":"There's quite a lot of this shouty, shouty, fast guitars, pseudo-disco drums stuff about at the moment. All a bit manic, songs structures that never really have any choruses or middle eights, just 3 minutes of loudness, there's probably some sort of ridiculously named sub genre, but I don't know what it is. The Scare have a fair pop at it, the singer's voice is quite often more mental than most of his peers, at times descending into odd screeches and wails, but the problem is the lack of dynamics, every song is mad and fast, it becomes a little tiring after 4 songs, perhaps it's something to appreciate more live with a big sweaty crowd who are equally mental.","date":"2006-05-20","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-05-16-v-formation-little-heart","title":"V//Formation - Little Heart","url":"/blog/2006/2006-05-16-v-formation-little-heart","summary":"I always try very very hard not to reference other bands in reviews, but there is one so blindingly obvious reference point in V//Formations' sound that I have to use it. The Pixies, I'm not even sure that this will mean anything to the band, but there's the same caterwauling vocals, the same rolling bass lines and the same discordant guitars. However V//Formation are like the aforementioned band in (what I imagine they sounded like) their early days, darker, rougher, full of more spit and venom. There's a way to go, the songs don't tend to stick in my mind, but there's something hear to worth listening out for.","date":"2006-05-16","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-05-12-scully-whos-a-terrorist-now","title":"Scully - Who's a Terrorist Now?","url":"/blog/2006/2006-05-12-scully-whos-a-terrorist-now","summary":"Who's a Terrorist now? is one of the best tracks I heard this year, raucous, scathing, and teeming with aggression and hard-edged passion, everything a track should have in my opinion. The B-Side In Good Time isn't quite as raucous, and some of the lyrics are a little cheesy and cliched, but it's still an excellent track with an awesome guitar line and a glorious sing-a-long chorus. Definately a band to watch for, they will be big.","date":"2006-05-12","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-05-07-broken-family-band-balls","title":"Broken Family Band - Balls","url":"/blog/2006/2006-05-07-broken-family-band-balls","summary":"Balls is the BFB's third release, and usually by the third album bands are starting to mellow, The BFB seem to be going completely in reverse getting rockier as they release more, not that their going to be donning Leathers and playing the Download festival any time soon. Balls is more direct than previous releases, the tracks are shorter, they kick in quicker and are more danceable. However fear not, the same Alt-country roots are still there, the same Jet black dark and arrogant lyrics still spit and curse their way through the album and the same brilliantly crafted song writing still oozes from the songs. I've been a fan of BFB for sometime now, but I've always been of the opinion that their live show is consistently so much better than their recorded output, and whilst Balls is a competent release, this still remains the case.","date":"2006-05-07","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-05-07-jim-noir-my-patch","title":"Jim Noir - My Patch","url":"/blog/2006/2006-05-07-jim-noir-my-patch","summary":"I'm not sure quite why I like this, the lyrics are very repetitive, in fact even the same lyrics repeated over and over again, but it's simple and catchy, it sticks in your head in a nice mellow if slightly eccentric kind of way. What more could you want from a song?","date":"2006-05-07","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-05-07-sol-seppy-93ft-east","title":"Sol Seppy - 93ft East","url":"/blog/2006/2006-05-07-sol-seppy-93ft-east","summary":"Sol Seppy holds the stage like an entranced group of Children intrigued and delighted by their toys, their playmates and the noises they are making. The predominant lack of percussion in the intertwining melodies produces a cathartic dream like feeling, the crowed are invited and captivated, drawn into the bands' private world for half an hour, sharing the beautiful soundscapes produced. The band finish, the crowd cries for more, but we're back in the real world now and the night must carry on.","date":"2006-05-07","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-05-07-the-playwrights-english-self-storage","title":"The Playwrights - English Self storage","url":"/blog/2006/2006-05-07-the-playwrights-english-self-storage","summary":"This is The Playwrights first proper release, plagued by bad luck and misfortune, it's been a long time coming and the sense of dissatisfaction and listlessness is evident. Songs like Why We've become invisible, Fear of open spaces, Dislocated and Where the stress falls are full of lyrics brimming with frustration of provincial and everyday living, the draw and darkness of big towns. The music is incredibly frantic, complementing the lyrics perfectly, the drums rattle about, somehow holding it all together despite never really settling into any constant beats, the bass pulsates and rumbles just as manically with the two guitarists crashing about, seemingly doing their own thing, producing wonderfully discordant melodies and rhythms that are chaotic, but work. It?∆í√ôs taken a while for them to get here, but this album is testament to the fact that it was well worth the effort.","date":"2006-05-07","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-04-19-mc-lars-horris-93ft-east","title":"MC Lars Horris - 93ft East","url":"/blog/2006/2006-04-19-mc-lars-horris-93ft-east","summary":"The hoodie wearing kids are dancing and shouting, arms in the air as their self appointed spokesman for the night simultaneously castrates and celebrates the US pop and sub-pop cultures they embrace. The hecklers at the back are drowned out by his tight and hard rocking band and his witty hip-hop rhymes, we leave with a smile on our faces and sweat on our backs. In the words of the man himself, That's Fresh!","date":"2006-04-19","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-04-18-and-what-will-be-left-of-them-the-dance-damn-you-dance-ep","title":"And What will be left of them? - The Dance, damn you, dance EP","url":"/blog/2006/2006-04-18-and-what-will-be-left-of-them-the-dance-damn-you-dance-ep","summary":"Awwblot (for short) are an extremely competent and confident 5 piece from Worcester, who take the increasingly popular dual boy/girl vocals trick and fortunately aren't irritating. This 4 track EP has its ups and downs, the lead track, Dance, Damn you, dance is an anthem in the making showing off all the bands lyrical and musical talent in one convenient package. The problem with an outstanding track on a CD is that it makes the others, whilst perfectly fine in their own right, not seem so strong. Awwblot are a potential future hit band in the making, grab a copy of their early CD's before Paul Epworth gets his mitts on them and makes them all bloody disco.","date":"2006-04-18","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-04-18-betty-curse-god-this-hurts","title":"Betty Curse - God This Hurts","url":"/blog/2006/2006-04-18-betty-curse-god-this-hurts","summary":"I can't quite figure out if Betty Curse is the next (Glam Metal) Avril Lavigne or if she's doing this seriously, and with collaborations from 80's Matchbox B-Line Disaster and Little Hell I'm still not sure. Either way the album promises to be a great head banger of an album, loud powerful guitars, and lyrics about blood, relationships, being young and religion. All the Goth Kids in Camden Town now have a new figure head, I foresee a London Astoria all ages show within 6 months and Charing Cross road full of sweaty 14 year olds resplendent in black being picked up by their parents in four wheel drives by 11 pm. Seriously though this album is great, sickly slick, but masses of fun. www.bettycurse.co.uk","date":"2006-04-18","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-04-18-sandy-dillon-pull-the-strings","title":"Sandy Dillon - Pull The Strings","url":"/blog/2006/2006-04-18-sandy-dillon-pull-the-strings","summary":"She's had a strange life, and as would be expected has produced a strange album. Having worked with artists from diverse musical backgrounds from Country to Hip Hop and classical composers and a long term recovery from Illness has helped produce a dark and twisted but equally beautiful album. Sandy's voice is one of the strangest I've ever heard, it is almost childlike, the only comparison I can draw is to the female psychic investigator in Poltergeist(!), high pitched, but gravely and full of emotion. Some songs on Pull The Strings are a little self indulgent, but overall an incredible album for those up for something more challenging.","date":"2006-04-18","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-04-18-the-bishops-the-only-place-i-can-look-is-down","title":"The Bishops - The only place I can look is down","url":"/blog/2006/2006-04-18-the-bishops-the-only-place-i-can-look-is-down","summary":"Whilst I raved about The Bishops for some time, I've always written them off as being fairly light hearted and their lyrics straightforward. After listening to their forthcoming single my opinion has changed, their lyrics may be simple but are extremely dark, it's a very misleading combination of upbeat music and downbeat lyrics. The Bishops sound and style is unmistakably 60's influenced, but with a very modern twist, I'm not entirely sure what that twist is, but it makes the sound theirs, the songs are short, to the point and pure slices of Pop.","date":"2006-04-18","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-04-18-the-boyfriends-adult-acne","title":"The Boyfriends - Adult Acne","url":"/blog/2006/2006-04-18-the-boyfriends-adult-acne","summary":"The Boyfriends have never been know as the cheeriest of bands, and with their newly confirmed Morrissey support, they're not putting and end to that reputation. Adult Acne is in a similar vein to previous material, Martin Wallace's vocals floating above a wall of sometimes jangling, sometime crashing guitars, a slightly funkier than normal bass line and fairly unobtrusive drums. I couldn't quite catch all the lyrics, but I gather the songs probably about being ignored and overlooked, a good old slab of British gloom for spring.","date":"2006-04-18","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-04-18-the-lodger-let-her-go","title":"The Lodger - Let her go","url":"/blog/2006/2006-04-18-the-lodger-let-her-go","summary":"The Angular Recording corporation built it's reputation on doing what it felt like doing, and putting out bands who had a similar attitude, so it's a shame that this single from The Lodger is a little generic. The a-side is pleasant enough, a catchy tune and quite danceable, the b-side, sweet with some nice harmonies, but it doesn't grab me. Though admittedly the more I listen to the single, the more I like it, a grower.","date":"2006-04-18","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-03-24-the-television-personalities-the-barfly","title":"The Television personalities - The Barfly","url":"/blog/2006/2006-03-24-the-television-personalities-the-barfly","summary":"I have a rule, I always give bands 3 songs before I decide whether to stay or not, I have been to a lot of the gigs, and this was the first time I have ever walked out before the 3 song limit. I didn't get it, was I missing something? The band took ages to set up, then sounded like a 6th form Punk band learning to play with each other. As I left I heard people asking for their money back and others telling them 'Oh, give him (Dan Treacy) a chance, he's had a hard time… That may be true, but if you're going to be so bad, don't charge punters upwards of £6 for the privilege, and even the rest of the band were out of time with each other, no one looked like they knew what was going on, it was painful, embarrassing and uncomfortable.","date":"2006-03-24","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-03-22-jeff-klein-the-hustler","title":"Jeff Klein - The Hustler","url":"/blog/2006/2006-03-22-jeff-klein-the-hustler","summary":"'Hustle' Describes Jeff's voice very accurately, it gently ambles about, not looking like it's up to much, but generally seedy, occasionally sneaking up on you and taking you by surprise. The music fluctuates somewhere between laid back acoustic strumming to mellow soundscapes and even venturing into cool electronica at times, in another twist of synchronicity the album artwork of paisley patterns, cigarettes and out of focus women sums up the whole sound well, appealing, but leaves you feeling a little dirty.","date":"2006-03-22","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-03-16-ludes-barfly-london","title":"Ludes - Barfly, London","url":"/blog/2006/2006-03-16-ludes-barfly-london","summary":"Ludes sound messy and ear splittingly loud tonight, but with upbeat music comprising equal parts ska, strut, swing and old style dirty rock & roll, a full barfly is pulsating with sweaty bodies and beats. The singer's in the crowd, the guitarists are all over the place, the drummer's wild and the crowd are spilling pints on each other, any band who can get most of a London venue dancing on a Tuesday night deserves respect.","date":"2006-03-16","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-03-15-ladyfuzz-kerfuffle","title":"Ladyfuzz - Kerfuffle","url":"/blog/2006/2006-03-15-ladyfuzz-kerfuffle","summary":"Ladyfuzz's press releases don't say much, they let the music tell you everything you need to know. Kerfuffle sounds like the band listened to all the hip and cool music from the past year, rolled it all into one and made something that sounded a thousand times better than any of the sub standard, carbon copy angular guitars, pseudo disco beat claptrap rip off bands doing the rounds. Their beats are original and boom and throb, the guitars are sharp, the bass heavy and rumbling, the vocals in their clipped heavily accented English (and at times in Austrian / German) complimenting the music perfectly. At times the music is so tight and precise you wonder if it's all been programmed by computer, but you know what, who cares! Kerfuffle is an excellent album, an overdue breath of fresh air to blow out the dull and lifeless cobwebs.","date":"2006-03-15","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-03-07-these-new-puritans-brixton-windmill","title":"These New Puritans - Brixton Windmill","url":"/blog/2006/2006-03-07-these-new-puritans-brixton-windmill","summary":"3 skinny boys in black and a girl who resembles their teacher bash, screech and holler through a noisy bass led set. What a bass sound, (like an extreme Stranglers ?∆í√öBarracuda Bass?∆í√ô), blooping keyboards that occasionally emerge through the racket adding a perfect accompaniment to the chaos, bound by a tight but messy drummer and capped with inaudible vocals and guitar. It?∆í√ôs rough, they need another 6 months of rehearsals, but at the heart is genius waiting to be realised.","date":"2006-03-07","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2007/2007-02-26-low-vs-diamond-the-water-rats-london","title":"Low Vs Diamond - The Water Rats, London","url":"/blog/2007/2007-02-26-low-vs-diamond-the-water-rats-london","summary":"Why are so many recent bands from America so gangly? And why do they all seem to wear the same T-shirt's and shoes? And why do the drummers always have masses of curly hair? Anyway, after conjuring up images of generic American bands, Low vs. Diamond's sound is far from generic. A strangely enigmatic singer despite his odd dancing and slightly comedic sunglasses, big sweeping keyboards and guitars and a bass player who some how manages to stay in time whilst waving his bass about all over the place. The sound is a hard one to describe, melodious rock, nothing too full on, pleasant but not dull, engaging but not exhilarating, epic without being ostentatious, just good music.","date":"2006-02-26","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-02-11-28-costumes-dublin-castle","title":"28 Costumes - Dublin Castle","url":"/blog/2006/2006-02-11-28-costumes-dublin-castle","summary":"28 Costumes are awesome! Catchy songs, with choruses that leave you singing until you're tucked up in bed. So tight, I don't think there was a single note out of place, and full of humour, a song breakdown that involves snoring noises is a new one on me. Bursting to the seams with character and good songs, 28 Costumes are a kick in the face to the pussy footing of lots of bands in the current music scene, definitely one to watch if the scene has any sense. www.28costumes.co.uk","date":"2006-02-11","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-02-10-milk-kan-12-bar-club","title":"Milk Kan - 12 Bar Club","url":"/blog/2006/2006-02-10-milk-kan-12-bar-club","summary":"I love Milkkan. They're wonderfully rough, ramshackle at times, but write such catchy, upbeat and lyrically impressive songs that you can forgive them, in the same way that the Libertines used to, but with less pretension. Milkkan have a similar root to their music to, not in style but in attitude. That sort of lovable Londoner, knees up, rough diamond with a heart of gold kind of manner. Their songs vary from hatred of A&R men (a common theme in songs at the moment...) to childish love songs and laments to growing up. The bizarre blend of Chas & Dave, Hip-Hop and the Television Personalities may not suit everyone, but Milkkan will certainly bring a smile to your face. www.milkkan.com","date":"2006-02-10","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-02-07-yo-zushi-the-spitz-london","title":"Yo Zushi - The Spitz, London","url":"/blog/2006/2006-02-07-yo-zushi-the-spitz-london","summary":"Yo Zushi takes to the stage in a suit resembling a cross between an old school comedian and a golfer, producing a charming set of beautiful love songs and stories, Yo Zushi?∆í√ôs smooth voice floating above the finely crafted bed of music. The set is pleasant if a little samey, in fact all a bit too nice, no grit, no balls, like a middle class Leonard Cohen. More ?∆í√öJolly Good?∆í√ô than soul searching stories of suffering.","date":"2006-02-07","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2006/2006-01-29-the-fades-the-rhythm-factory","title":"The Fades - The Rhythm Factory","url":"/blog/2006/2006-01-29-the-fades-the-rhythm-factory","summary":"The Fades return after a 6-month hiatus, refreshed and rewritten, their Modish riffage doesn't fit into the modern scene but I doubt they care. They are also at a distinct advantage that their new material is as good if not better than their older material, leaving some of the old favourites sounding a little tired and getting better crowd reactions. The Fades are back, long live the Fades.","date":"2006-01-29","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2005/2005-10-19-aberfeldy-islington-bar-academy","title":"Aberfeldy - Islington Bar Academy","url":"/blog/2005/2005-10-19-aberfeldy-islington-bar-academy","summary":"I started Aberfeldy's set in a grumpy mood, intentionally not wanting to enjoy their Scottish tinged Americana. Predominately because at their worst Aberfeldy are twee and twodlesome with songs about 70's fashions and late night TV presenters, which grates with me, but after three songs I was drawn into their happy go lucky world. Because at their best Aberfeldy pen pure slabs of sugar soaked pop, catchy, full of hooks, superb musicianship and loveably lyrics that are just too damn sweet to resist. So I left the gig in a great mood, skipping on the tube and smiling at strangers.","date":"2005-10-19","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2005/2005-10-11-bearsuit-highbury-buffalo-bar","title":"Bearsuit - Highbury Buffalo Bar","url":"/blog/2005/2005-10-11-bearsuit-highbury-buffalo-bar","summary":"First piece of advice to Bearsuit, Buy at least one Tuner between you, second, Play in time. Work on that and your shouty girl, whiny boy vocals, bloopy keyboards, fuzzy guitars, fun lyrics and cute look will show of your catchy melodies 1000 times better. There are plenty of bands in the pop-punk genre (most 5 years ago) so stand out from the rest by buying gear that works and stop being so damn cute.","date":"2005-10-11","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"music","id":"good-weekend","title":"Good Weekend","url":"/music/good-weekend","summary":"The fourth single from Bang Bang Rock & Roll, an exuberant celebration of new love (\"I've seen her naked... twice!\").","date":"2005-09-26","tags":[],"categories":["music"],"externalUrl":"https://open.spotify.com/album/6NXmfJaoobwDcSDjkn2gOX"},{"type":"blog","id":"2005/2005-09-19-art-brut-battle-of-the-franchises-kilburn-luminaire","title":"Art Brut battle of the franchises - Kilburn Luminaire","url":"/blog/2005/2005-09-19-art-brut-battle-of-the-franchises-kilburn-luminaire","summary":"Tonight was going to be strange from the outset, attending a gig staged by kids because they were influenced to do so by my (ex) band. The minute I entered I felt awkward and proud simultaneously as I heard the excellent 'Criminal Housewives' and their Sham69 fused cover of 'My Little Brother'. Following them were 'LeboviciAB84', 'The Sam Assortment' and 'Space Peacocks' with their Glam fashions, bouncy tunes and intriguing fusion of 'Formed a Band' and 'Modern Art' resulting in a motley stage invasion. 'The Rocks' finished the night in inimitable style, but tonight was all about the kids, talking to the kids.","date":"2005-09-19","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2005/2005-09-19-simon-breed-camden-underworld","title":"Simon Breed - Camden Underworld","url":"/blog/2005/2005-09-19-simon-breed-camden-underworld","summary":"Nestled amongst the headliners gear Simon Breed (and the Birthmarks) makes a 3-piece sound like anything from a 5 piece with full brass section to a lone voice. Captivating songs including obscenities aimed at problem bosses to beautiful ditties about Brotherly Love, Simon Breed takes the image of a man with an acoustic guitar and fucks it right up.","date":"2005-09-19","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"music","id":"bang-bang-rock-and-roll","title":"Bang Bang Rock & Roll","url":"/music/bang-bang-rock-and-roll","summary":"The debut studio album by British rock band Art Brut, blending indie rock, art punk, and garage punk to universal acclaim.","date":"2005-05-30","tags":[],"categories":["music"],"externalUrl":"https://readyartbrut.bandcamp.com/album/bang-bang-rock-roll"},{"type":"music","id":"emily-kane","title":"Emily Kane","url":"/music/emily-kane","summary":"A lovelorn ode to a teenage sweetheart, and Art Brut's highest-charting single — it reached number 41, Fierce Panda's best-ever chart placing.","date":"2005-05-02","tags":[],"categories":["music"],"externalUrl":"https://open.spotify.com/album/6NXmfJaoobwDcSDjkn2gOX"},{"type":"blog","id":"2005/2005-01-14-the-specials","title":"The Specials","url":"/blog/2005/2005-01-14-the-specials","summary":"Despite only existing as a band (defacto line up) for 3 years The Specials remain one of the most important and influential acts of their period.Forming in 1977 as the 'Coventry Automatics' it took until late 1978 for the band to finally settle on a name, a musical direction, a line up (consisting : Roddy Byers - guitar, John Bradbury - drums, Terry Hall - vocals, Lynval Golding - guitar, Horace Panter - bass, Jerry Dammers - keyboards, Neville Staples - vocals) and most importantly an attitude and an image.","date":"2005-01-14","tags":["Music","Biography"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"music","id":"modern-art","title":"Modern Art / My Little Brother","url":"/music/modern-art","summary":"Art Brut's second single, a standalone double A-side for Fierce Panda, with both tracks re-recorded for Bang Bang Rock & Roll.","date":"2004-12-06","tags":[],"categories":["music"],"externalUrl":"https://open.spotify.com/album/6NXmfJaoobwDcSDjkn2gOX"},{"type":"music","id":"formed-a-band","title":"Formed a Band","url":"/music/formed-a-band","summary":"Art Brut's debut single — a gleefully self-referential anthem about the joy of starting a band — later re-recorded for Bang Bang Rock & Roll.","date":"2004-03-29","tags":[],"categories":["music"],"externalUrl":"https://open.spotify.com/album/6NXmfJaoobwDcSDjkn2gOX"},{"type":"blog","id":"2003/2003-10-04-louis-elliot","title":"Louis Elliot","url":"/blog/2003/2003-10-04-louis-elliot","summary":"Louis Eliot started his love affair with music at an early age, his influences spanning from the Wild Cornish countryside to the bohemia of Ladbroke grove with pretty much everything you could think of in-between.","date":"2003-10-04","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2003/2003-09-05-world-record-dj-attempt-and-rwanda-fund-appeal-null","title":"World record DJ attempt & Rwanda Fund Appeal","url":"/blog/2003/2003-09-05-world-record-dj-attempt-and-rwanda-fund-appeal-null","summary":"Rwanda is one of the many modern tragedies to have occurred in Africa, 1994 is a year that will permanently be etched into the memory of Rwandans, a year when within 3 moths over a million people were killed and the survivors left to fend for themselves despite their suffering and despair.","date":"2003-09-05","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2003/2003-03-17-pinski-zoo-the-lawn-lincoln","title":"Pinski Zoo - The Lawn, Lincoln","url":"/blog/2003/2003-03-17-pinski-zoo-the-lawn-lincoln","summary":"Pinski Zoo consists of Steve Harris on Drums, Steve Iliffe on Keyboards, Karl Bingham and Stefan Kopinski on bass and Jan Kopinski on Saxophones. The band is more or less Jan Kopinski's brainchild, born of Polish and Irish origins his career spans from teaching to film score writing. The band as a whole has been performing on and off for 20 years gaining awards, critical acclaim and international recognition along the way.","date":"2003-03-17","tags":["Music","Reviews"],"categories":["music"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2003/2003-01-04-thinkfree-office-review","title":"ThinkFree Office review","url":"/blog/2003/2003-01-04-thinkfree-office-review","summary":"To me Java is one of the most exciting and promising technologies of the past few years, but it's potential hasn't been reached in a lot of circles yet, especially in the consumer field. ThinkFree Office is an exceptional implementation of Java, being a multi platform MS Office compatible office suite. It runs on Windows Mac OS 9/X and varying flavours of UNIX, thus parts of the interface may seem a little un-Mac like but when you?re developing cross platform certain compromises must be taken. ThinkFree Office runs on a Java Virtual machine so is on occasions slower and more sluggish than other applications. The Microsoft Office compatibility is extremely well implemented, with the application not only reading / writing office files but even the layout and look & feel is similar, right down to dialogue boxes with similar appearances. There are of course some features missing and documents don't render exactly the same way as in Office, but for a reduction of £300 you can't really complain. For example the ThinkFree Show templates are different from PowerPoint templates, probably for legal reasons (!), meaning that some of you files will have to reedited to suit, complex tables look a little different, which may present problems for some users. On the plus side ThinkFree Writes web publishing tools are in my opinion better than MS Offices, it produces cleaner code and has the ability to insert more advanced objects such as image maps. The Excel beater, ThinkFree Calc has all that you would expect, a complex array of calculations and formulae, the ability to create a multitude of graphs (Though losing Excel v.X's support for transparency). The PowerPoint type module, ThinkFree Show is again more of what you would expect, Slide templates, animations, but no QuickTime support unfortunately.","date":"2003-01-04","tags":["Apple","Reviews","Software"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2003/2003-01-04-workswell-review","title":"Workswell review","url":"/blog/2003/2003-01-04-workswell-review","summary":"Drawwell is a stripped down version of Workswell, so lets take a quick look at it's feature first and then focus on the extras in Workswell. Drawwell is a vector based illustration and DTP application, providing a vast array of easy to create objects from squares to shape bursts and doughnuts. All are easily modifiable through an inspector panel where you can set position, size, colours and textual content. Drawwell is Cocoa based, so you get all the features associated with OS X native applications such as font and colour picker panels. Layers are available in Drawwell, as supposedly is transparency but I couldn't seem to find any in implementation of this. Workswell is fairly similar, but adds some extra merge features and drawing objects. The merging features are extensive to say the least, mainly offering integration with iApps such as iTunes and iPhoto (May be more support to come?). Within several clicks detailed documents can be created based on photo or music libraries including all information from EXIF and ID3 data such as contact sheets and CD inlays. Along with the support for iApp libraries logical comparisons, incremental values and sorting (among other things) can also be used in merge features. Support for iApps aside, there are other potential uses for Workswells feature set such as numbered tickets and graphs, all based around clear vector graphics.","date":"2003-01-04","tags":["Reviews","Apple","Software"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2002/2002-11-15-mac-expo-2002-london","title":"Mac Expo 2002 - London","url":"/blog/2002/2002-11-15-mac-expo-2002-london","summary":"There was excitement and enthusiasm in the air of MacExpo 2001, and there was a reason. Perhaps because Apple was exhibiting at a UK show for the first time in five years, or perhaps because Mac users currently have a lot to celebrate, there was one of the largest turnouts of visitors and exhibitors in the history of the show. In a time of economic downturn (especially in the computing market), Apple is one of the very few IT companies currently running at a profit. A major upgrade to an amazing new OS has been released, developers are flocking back to the Mac in droves, machines are increasing in power but decreasing in price, and now Apple has once again starting manufacturing non-Mac products. To top all that you can't move without seeing Macs featured in adverts, TV programs, or films, so there really is a lot to celebrate.","date":"2002-11-15","tags":["Reviews","Apple","Conferences"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2002/2002-10-04-apple-expo-2002-paris","title":"Apple Expo 2002 - Paris","url":"/blog/2002/2002-10-04-apple-expo-2002-paris","summary":"European Apple fans have been eagerly awaiting this year's Apple Expo. As last year's event was cancelled, and most could not really warrant the cost of travelling to America, this year's Expo was the first major Apple-related date for Europeans in two years. There were of course a lot of product releases and newsworthy events at the Expo this year but attempting to document them all would be nigh on impossible, so I will now try to present my own personal highlights.","date":"2002-10-04","tags":["Apple","Reviews","Conferences"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-01-12-do-you-need-an-api","title":"Do You Need an API","url":"/blog/2015/2015-01-12-do-you-need-an-api","summary":"API stands for 'Application Programming Interface' and as the name implies, creating one is a technical process. This article will talk very little about how to create an API as there are a myriad of methods to undertake that. This article aims to focus on the business side of APIs and supply advice for non-technical folk.","date":"1970-08-22","tags":["API","Programming","Business","Folk"],"categories":["tech","music"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/do-you-need-an-api"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-02-02-effective-pdf-generation-drupal","title":"Effective PDF Generation with Drupal","url":"/blog/2015/2015-02-02-effective-pdf-generation-drupal","summary":"A few months ago I had a client requirement for PDF generation, in this case to generate certificates that could be viewed online or printed. I spent some time looking into the best Drupal options available and picked up some advice along the way on how best to accomplish these aims. After mentioning my results to several people, it seemed that PDF generation was a common requirement and now I have the same need again on a personal project, so it seemed a good case study to walk you through what I found.","date":"1970-08-22","tags":["Drupal","Pdf","personal"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/effective-pdf-generation-drupal/"},{"type":"blog","id":"2015/2015-03-20-first-look-platform-sh-development-deployment-saas","title":"First Look at platform.sh, Development and Deployment SaaS","url":"/blog/2015/2015-03-20-first-look-platform-sh-development-deployment-saas","summary":"Not so long ago, many of us were satisfied handling deployment of our projects by uploading files via FTP to a web server. I was doing it myself until relatively recently and still do on occasion (don't tell anyone!). At some point in the past few years, demand for the services and features offered by web applications rose, team sizes grew and rapid iteration became the norm. The old methods for deploying became unstable, unreliable and (generally) untrusted. Read more","date":"1970-08-22","tags":["Development","Deployment","Saas","Web"],"categories":["tech"],"externalUrl":"https://www.sitepoint.com/first-look-platform-sh-development-deployment-saas/"},{"type":"gear","id":"adobe-audition","title":"Adobe Audition","url":"/gear/adobe-audition","summary":"The audio editor I use for podcasts, kept mainly thanks to a grandfathered education licence — though I'm weighing alternatives.","tags":["Software"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.adobe.com/products/audition.html"},{"type":"gear","id":"adobe-premiere-pro","title":"Adobe Premiere Pro","url":"/gear/adobe-premiere-pro","summary":"My main video editor for almost everything I produce, with text-based editing and AI sound enhancement now central to my workflow.","tags":["Software","Video"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.adobe.com/products/premiere.html"},{"type":"clients","id":"adocstudio","title":"adoc Studio","url":"/clients","summary":"Create technical documents in no time at all. Use the full range of AsciiDoc – wherever you are. I helped with product advisory and marketing.","tags":["Technical Writing","Documentation","AsciiDoc"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.adoc-studio.app"},{"type":"gear","id":"apple-mac-mini-m4-pro","title":"Apple Mac Mini M4 Pro","url":"/gear/apple-mac-mini-m4-pro","summary":"My main desktop machine, chosen to consolidate USB ports, external drives, and sample libraries in one always-connected setup.","tags":["Desk and Streaming Setup"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DLBVHSLD/?ref=as_li_ss_tl&ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=gregamamma-20"},{"type":"software","id":"apple-vale-style-guide","title":"Apple Style Guide (Vale)","url":"/software/apple-vale-style-guide","summary":"A Vale linter style I created that implements rules from Apple's style guide.","tags":["Vale","Software"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"gear","id":"arturia-minifuse-4","title":"Arturia MiniFuse 4","url":"/gear/arturia-minifuse-4","summary":"My audio interface for podcast recording and music work, chosen for the dual headphone outputs that suit collaborative sessions.","tags":["Desk and Streaming Setup"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BHC6V1KT/?ref=as_li_ss_tl&ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=gregamamma-20"},{"type":"clients","id":"aspect","title":"Aspect","url":"/clients","summary":"Aspect creates tools and hosts a platform for fast, scalable, developer workflows and infrastructure for Bazel. I help with documentation and the occasional technical blog post.","tags":["Developer Tools","Bazel","Build","Test","CI","CD"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.aspect.build"},{"type":"gear","id":"blue-yeti","title":"Blue Yeti","url":"/gear/blue-yeti","summary":"A trusty USB condenser I still use in a dedicated booth for voiceover and audiobook work, replaced on camera by the Shure MV7.","tags":["Microphone"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Microphones"},{"type":"clients","id":"caepe","title":"CAEPE","url":"/clients","summary":"CAEPE is a Comprehensive Control Plane for Kubernetes Application Deployments","tags":["Kubernetes","Containers"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://docker.com"},{"type":"games","id":"chipshop","title":"Chip Shop","url":"/games","summary":"A prototype board game where players run computer companies in the 1980s, playtested at two gaming conventions and currently on hiatus.","tags":[],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"clients","id":"chronosphere","title":"Chronosphere","url":"/clients","summary":"Chronosphere is the steward for M3, the highly available time series database, and its commercial offering. I was the sole tech writer for both projects, and my role included:","tags":["Kubernetes","Observability"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://chronosphere.io"},{"type":"clients","id":"codeship","title":"CodeShip","url":"/clients","summary":"Codeship is a fully customizable Continuous Integration service in the cloud and their blog is an industry respected leader for container and continuous integration content. I contributed an article on a monthly basis to the blog for two y…","tags":["Technology","Development","Containers","DevOps"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://blog.codeship.com/"},{"type":"clients","id":"consensys","title":"ConsenSys","url":"/clients","summary":"Kauri is a ConsenSys spoke focussed on building a technical knowledge resource for the Ethereum ecosystem. I helped source writers to contribute content, edited their work, offered documentation support to projects, created technical writi…","tags":["Technology","Ethereum","Blockchain","workshops"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://kauri.io"},{"type":"clients","id":"coralogix","title":"Coralogix","url":"/clients","summary":"Coralogix automatically clusters millions of log records back into their patterns and finds connections between those patterns to form the baseline flows of each software individually, thus helping companies to get a hold of their log data…","tags":["Technology","Development","Java","Logging"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://coralogix.com/blog/"},{"type":"clients","id":"data-artisans","title":"Data Artisans","url":"/clients","summary":"data Artisans was founded in 2014 by the original creators of Apache Flink, a scalable stream and batch data processing framework. I helped the company with documentation reviews and technical blog posts. data Artisans is now owned by Ali…","tags":["Big Data","Developer Tools","Data Streaming"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://data-artisans.com"},{"type":"gear","id":"dell-27-ultrasharp","title":"Dell 27\" UltraSharp","url":"/gear/dell-27-ultrasharp","summary":"Two 27-inch Dell UltraSharp displays that form my main monitor setup at the desk.","tags":["Monitors"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.amazon.de/s?k=Dell+27+UltraSharp"},{"type":"gear","id":"descript","title":"Descript","url":"/gear/descript","summary":"The pioneering text-based audio/video editor and Squadcast remote recorder I've subscribed to, cancelled, and reconsidered several times.","tags":["Software"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://go.chrischinchilla.com/descript"},{"type":"clients","id":"devspotlight","title":"Dev Spotlight","url":"/clients","summary":"I write posts for several Dev Spotlight clients including Kong, Salesforce, and others.","tags":["DevOps","Programming","JavaScript"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.devspotlight.com/"},{"type":"clients","id":"dgraph","title":"Dgraph","url":"/clients","summary":"I helped the Dgraph team with overhauling their Hugo-based documentation site.","tags":["Documentation","Databases","GraphQL"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"http://dgraph.io"},{"type":"clients","id":"docker","title":"Docker","url":"/clients","summary":"Docker Inc is a major contributor to many container-related technologies and its own commercial offerings. I was a staff technical writer on the documentation team and was attached to working on a number of commercial products. My responsi…","tags":["Docker","Containers"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://docker.com"},{"type":"clients","id":"dosu","title":"Dosu","url":"/clients","summary":"Stop wasting time with stale, static documentation. Dosu turns your codebase into a living knowledge base that every team member can understand—from engineering to operations. I helped with product advisory and marketing.","tags":["Technical Writing","Documentation","AI"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://dosu.dev"},{"type":"gear","id":"dt-770-pro","title":"DT 770 Pro","url":"/gear/dt-770-pro","summary":"My favourite editing headphones — comfortable for long sessions, especially if you wear glasses.","tags":["Audio"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006NL5SM/?ref=as_li_ss_tl&ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=gregamamma-20"},{"type":"gear","id":"dummy-battery","title":"Dummy camera battery","url":"/gear/dummy-battery","summary":"A dummy battery that lets you run a Lumix G7 (or similar) on mains power instead of draining a real battery during long recordings.","tags":["Camera Setup"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://amzn.to/4e2i3jw"},{"type":"clients","id":"ekline","title":"Ekline","url":"/clients","summary":"Effortlessly create and maintain high-quality docs, Ekline empower engineers, technical writers, and product managers with AI tools for seamless documentation. I helped with product advisory and marketing.","tags":["Technical Writing","Documentation"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://ekline.io"},{"type":"gear","id":"elgato-4k-capture-card","title":"Elgato Cam Link 4K","url":"/gear/elgato-4k-capture-card","summary":"The HDMI-to-USB capture device I use to bring my Lumix G7 into the computer as a high-quality camera source.","tags":["Camera Setup","Desk and Streaming Setup"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K3FN5MR/?ref=as_li_ss_tl&ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=gregamamma-20"},{"type":"gear","id":"elgato-green-screen","title":"Elgato Green Screen","url":"/gear/elgato-green-screen","summary":"A pull-up Elgato green screen — though my current lighting setup makes keying tricky.","tags":["Camera Setup"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://amzn.to/3V3Cfsw"},{"type":"gear","id":"elgato-key-light","title":"Elgato Key Light","url":"/gear/elgato-key-light","summary":"An app-controlled, colour-temperature-adjustable LED panel mounted on the camera's hot shoe — sadly now discontinued by Elgato.","tags":["Camera Setup"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.amazon.de/s?k=Elgato+Key+Light"},{"type":"gear","id":"elgato-stream-deck-plus","title":"Elgato Stream Deck +","url":"/gear/elgato-stream-deck-plus","summary":"My go-to control surface for audio, lights, and apps, with dials and an LED strip that increasingly replace dedicated controllers.","tags":["Desk and Streaming Setup"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BJL8SJ59/?ref=as_li_ss_tl&ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=gregamamma-20"},{"type":"gear","id":"elgato-xlr-dock-mk2","title":"Elgato XLR Dock Mk2","url":"/gear/elgato-xlr-dock-mk2","summary":"A hybrid USB/XLR broadcast mic I use as my main microphone on camera, balancing audio quality with on-screen visibility.","tags":["Microphone","Audio"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.amazon.com/Elgato-Dock-Stream-Audio-Interface/dp/B0GK6MJTG3?ref=as_li_ss_tl&ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=gregamamma-20&th=1"},{"type":"clients","id":"ethereum-foundation","title":"Ethereum Foundation","url":"/clients","summary":"I worked on documentation for the Solidity project, the programming language developers use to create application on the Ethereum Blockchain, relaunching the Ethereum wiki, and several other developer education projects.","tags":["Documentation","Blockchain","Ethereum"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.ethereum.org/"},{"type":"clients","id":"eventstore","title":"Event Store","url":"/clients","summary":"Event Store is an open-source, functional database with Complex Event Processing in C JavaScript. I maintained their documentation and technical blog posts.","tags":["Databases","Developer Tools","Event Sourcing"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://eventstore.org"},{"type":"clients","id":"exoscale","title":"Exoscale","url":"/clients","summary":"I helped this Swiss hosting company with technical blog content.","tags":["Cloud","Kubernetes"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.exoscale.com/"},{"type":"clients","id":"expanso","title":"Expanso","url":"/clients","summary":"Expanso is a distributed computing platform designed for cloud, on-prem, and edge environments. It simplifies data management, making it easy to schedule workloads & gain insights fast. I helped with technical blog posts and documentation.","tags":["Data","Distributed computing"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.expanso.io"},{"type":"games","id":"expedition","title":"Expedition roleplaying card game quests","url":"/games","summary":"Two quests created for the Expedition roleplaying card game as part of its regular writing competitions.","tags":[],"categories":["games"],"externalUrl":"https://app.expeditiongame.com/#1zVbhCh8byT7GP0c3vW0c3dHn7n-YDxSb"},{"type":"clients","id":"facebook-messenger","title":"Facebook Messenger","url":"/clients","summary":"I helped create tutorials and blueprints to help developers build bots for Facebook Messenger.","tags":["Bots","Writing"],"categories":["writing"],"externalUrl":"https://www.messenger.com/"},{"type":"clients","id":"faria","title":"Faria Education Group","url":"/clients","summary":"Faria was founded in 2006 to transition schools off paper onto a curriculum-focused learning platform. Today they serve over 2,200 schools and over 550,000 students in 120 countries with a distributed team of 76 spread across 10 cities. I…","tags":["API","Developers","Documentation"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.fariaedu.com/"},{"type":"gear","id":"fishman-tripleplay","title":"Fishman TriplePlay Express MIDI guitar pickup","url":"/gear/fishman-tripleplay","summary":"An affordable but usable MIDI guitar pickup","tags":["Music","Guitar","MIDI"],"categories":["music"],"externalUrl":"https://www.amazon.com/Fishman-TriplePlay-Express-Guitar-6-String/dp/B0CPVR5DDS?ref=as_li_ss_tl&ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=gregamamma-20&th=1"},{"type":"gear","id":"flexispot-desk","title":"Flexispot Desk","url":"/gear/flexispot-desk","summary":"A large Flexispot standing desk on wheels so I can roll it out and rewire gear easily.","tags":["Furniture"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.flexispot.nl/cat/bureaus?utm_source=Media&utm_medium=KOL&utm_campaign=The+Next+Web%2B%289th25%29"},{"type":"gear","id":"flexispot-lotus-chair","title":"Flexispot Lotus chair","url":"/gear/flexispot-lotus-chair","summary":"A fully-reclining lounge chair I use for breaks and power naps — folds back 180 degrees with a footrest.","tags":["Furniture"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.flexispot.nl/relaxfauteuil-lotus-xc6-xr6.html?utm_source=Media&utm_medium=KOL&utm_campaign=The+Next+Web%2B%289th25%29"},{"type":"clients","id":"gitlab","title":"GitLab","url":"/clients","summary":"GitLab is a complete CI/CD toolchain in a single application. One interface. One conversation. One permission model. I contributed technical articles to their blog.","tags":["Technology","Development","CI","CD","DevOps"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://about.gitlab.com/blog"},{"type":"clients","id":"glassfy","title":"Glassfy","url":"/clients","summary":"I helped the (now closed) mobile payments SDK overhaul their documentation.","tags":["Documentation","Mobile","SDK"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://github.com/glassfy"},{"type":"clients","id":"here","title":"here","url":"/clients","summary":"HERE provides mapping data and related services to individuals and companies. I helped their innovation team with documentation, examples and developer experience.","tags":["IoT","Visualization"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://here.com/"},{"type":"clients","id":"humanitec","title":"Humanitec","url":"/clients","summary":"Humanitec is building a platform to automate the continuous delivery process for Kubernetes-native applications. I contribute technical articles to their blog.","tags":["Technology","Development","CI","CD","DevOps","Containers"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://humanitec.com/"},{"type":"games","id":"humanity-in-flames","title":"Humanity in Flames - 3286","url":"/games","summary":"A tactical miniatures game - proofread and edited the manual.","tags":[],"categories":["games"]},{"type":"gear","id":"irig-mic-hd-2","title":"iRig Mic HD 2","url":"/gear/irig-mic-hd-2","summary":"A compact USB cardioid mic I used for years and still use for late-night home podcast interviews.","tags":["Audio","Microphone"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://amzn.to/3yMk033"},{"type":"gear","id":"keychron-mechanical-keyboard","title":"Keychron Mechanical Keyboard","url":"/gear/keychron-mechanical-keyboard","summary":"A wireless Keychron K-series mechanical keyboard, popular with writers and developers and a daily driver for me.","tags":["Desk and Streaming Setup"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://go.chrischinchilla.com/keychron"},{"type":"clients","id":"kilt","title":"KILT","url":"/clients","summary":"KILT provides secure, practical identity solutions for enterprises and consumers. I helped the team overhaul documentation and platform as well as documenting new features and creating video content.","tags":["identity","SDK","Blockchain"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.kilt.io"},{"type":"gear","id":"korg-nanokontrol-2","title":"Korg nanoKontrol 2","url":"/gear/korg-nanokontrol-2","summary":"A compact MIDI control surface I used for editing audio and video, now replaced by the Launchkey 49 and Stream Deck combo.","tags":["MIDI Controller"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://amzn.to/3yM5AA0"},{"type":"gear","id":"lamicall-phone-stand","title":"Lamicall Phone / Tablet Stand","url":"/gear/lamicall-phone-stand","summary":"A small adjustable Lamicall stand that keeps a phone or tablet upright at eye level on the desk.","tags":["Desk and Streaming Setup"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.amazon.de/s?k=Lamicall+phone+stand"},{"type":"clients","id":"libcamera","title":"libcamera","url":"/clients","summary":"I helped with documentation for this open source camera stack and framework for Linux, Android, and ChromeOS.","tags":["Linux","camera","C++"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"http://libcamera.org/index.html"},{"type":"gear","id":"lifx-smart-bulbs","title":"LifX Smart Bulbs","url":"/gear/lifx-smart-bulbs","summary":"App- and Stream-Deck-controlled smart bulbs I use to adjust desk and room lighting on the fly.","tags":["Lighting"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://amzn.to/3KleDKV"},{"type":"gear","id":"logitech-mx-master-3","title":"Logitech MX Master 3S for Mac","url":"/gear/logitech-mx-master-3","summary":"The Mac-tuned mouse I switched to from the Apple Magic Mouse and can no longer do without.","tags":["Desk and Streaming Setup"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09HMV6K1W/?ref=as_li_ss_tl&ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=gregamamma-20"},{"type":"gear","id":"monitor-mounted-camera-bracket","title":"Monitor-Mounted Camera Bracket","url":"/gear/monitor-mounted-camera-bracket","summary":"A metal clamp that slots between two monitors to position a camera at eye level — great for replacing a webcam with a proper camera.","tags":["Camera Setup"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.amazon.de/s?k=monitor+mount+camera+bracket+between+screens"},{"type":"clients","id":"n8n","title":"n8n","url":"/clients","summary":"I helped the n8n team with creating self-hosting guides for their automation platform.","tags":["Documentation","Automation","hosting","Containers"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://n8n.io"},{"type":"gear","id":"neewer-cm28","title":"Neewer CM 28","url":"/gear/neewer-cm28","summary":"A pair of wireless lavalier mics with onboard recording that I use for travel and field podcast interviews.","tags":["Microphone","Audio"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DS5NTXGL/?ref=as_li_ss_tl&ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=gregamamma-20"},{"type":"gear","id":"novation-launchkey-49","title":"Novation Launchkey 49","url":"/gear/novation-launchkey-49","summary":"A 49-key MIDI controller that replaced my Akai MPK Mini and Korg nanoKontrol 2 for music production and editing control.","tags":["MIDI Controller"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F43TMNK4/?ref=as_li_ss_tl&ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=gregamamma-20"},{"type":"gear","id":"obs","title":"OBS","url":"/gear/obs","summary":"The free, open-source software I use to record almost all my YouTube videos, mostly as a two-scene switcher capturing in ProRes.","tags":["Software"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://obsproject.com/"},{"type":"software","id":"obsidian-trello","title":"Obsidian Trello","url":"/software/obsidian-trello","summary":"An Obsidian plugin that connects Trello cards to Obsidian notes, which I contribute to.","tags":["Obsidian","Trello","Software"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"software","id":"obsidian-vale","title":"Obsidian Vale","url":"/software/obsidian-vale","summary":"A Vale client for Obsidian that I created, bringing prose linting into Obsidian notes.","tags":["Vale","Obsidian","Software"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"software","id":"openly-vale-style","title":"Openly","url":"/software/openly-vale-style","summary":"A Vale linter style I created that aims to replicate Grammarly's checks in an open-source, privacy-friendly way.","tags":["Vale","Software"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"clients","id":"pagerduty","title":"Pager Duty","url":"/clients","summary":"PagerDuty is the enterprise incident resolution service that integrates with ITOps and DevOps monitoring stacks to improve operational reliability and agility. I created articles for their new FAQ section and some blogs.","tags":["DevOps","IT","Communication"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.pagerduty.com/"},{"type":"gear","id":"panasonic-lumix-g","title":"Panasonic Lumix G7 Camera","url":"/gear/panasonic-lumix-g","summary":"A second-hand Panasonic Lumix G7 mirrorless that serves as my main camera, captured via an Elgato Cam Link 4K.","tags":["Camera Setup"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.amazon.de/s?k=Panasonic+Lumix+G85"},{"type":"software","id":"pandoc-vscode","title":"Pandoc VSCode","url":"/software/pandoc-vscode","summary":"A Visual Studio Code extension I created for rendering markdown to PDF, Word, or HTML using Pandoc, without leaving the editor.","tags":["VSCode","Markdown","Software"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"clients","id":"parseable","title":"Parseable","url":"/clients","summary":"Parseable is a big data database for logging and observability. I help with technical blog posts and videos.","tags":["Logging","Databases","Cloud Native","Kubernetes"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://parseable.com/"},{"type":"clients","id":"progress","title":"Progress","url":"/clients","summary":"Progress creates tooling and libraries for enterprise applications. I helped with blog posts.","tags":[".NET","SDK","Tooling"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.progress.com/"},{"type":"software","id":"raycast-trello","title":"Raycast Trello","url":"/software/raycast-trello","summary":"A Trello extension for Raycast that I contribute to, part of the raycast/extensions community repository.","tags":["Raycast","Trello","Software"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"clients","id":"revecom","title":"ReveCom","url":"/clients","summary":"I write and edit posts for several ReveCom clients including Cosmonic, Kasten, and Speedscale.","tags":["DevOps","WASM","Containers"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://revecom.io"},{"type":"clients","id":"sentry","title":"Sentry","url":"/clients","summary":"I wrote blog posts on how to debug with certain languages.","tags":["Security","debug","Programming"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://sentry.io/welcome/"},{"type":"gear","id":"shure-mv7","title":"Shure MV7","url":"/gear/shure-mv7","summary":"A hybrid USB/XLR broadcast mic I use as my main microphone on camera, balancing audio quality with on-screen visibility.","tags":["Microphone","Audio"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.amazon.de/dp/B08G7RG9ML?ref=as_li_ss_tl&ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=gregamamma-20&th=1"},{"type":"clients","id":"sitepoint","title":"Sitepoint","url":"/clients","summary":"SitePoint is a hub for web developers to share their passion for building incredible Internet things. Founded by Mark Harbottle and Matt Mickiewicz in 1999, SitePoint is for web professionals, by web professionals: developers, designers, p…","tags":["Mobile","Development"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://sitepoint.com/"},{"type":"clients","id":"slint","title":"Slint","url":"/clients","summary":"Slint is a cross-platform SDK for building UIs. I helped the team overhaul their documentation tooling and rewrote their quickstart guides.","tags":["Cross-platform","SDK","API"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://slint.dev"},{"type":"clients","id":"sqreen","title":"Sqreen","url":"/clients","summary":"Sqreen is a protection platform for web applications. Sqreen instantly detects and blocks malicious requests and identifies which user accounts are performing the attacks. I wrote tutorials and articles on security topics for the users of…","tags":["Security","Programming"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.sqreen.io/"},{"type":"gear","id":"squier-mustang","title":"Squier Mustang","url":"/gear/squier-mustang","summary":"A short-scale guitar with a unique pickup configuration","tags":["Music","Guitar"],"categories":["music"],"externalUrl":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GJ7CVR27/?ref=as_li_ss_tl&ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=gregamamma-20"},{"type":"clients","id":"takipi","title":"Takipi","url":"/clients","summary":"OverOps tells you when and why code breaks in production. Takipi is their blog covering Java, Containers and other technologies. I contributed articles to the blog on a regular basis.","tags":["Technology","Development","Java","Containers"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://blog.takipi.com/"},{"type":"software","id":"task-overboard","title":"Task Overboard","url":"/software/task-overboard","summary":"An early open-source project of mine for managing Trello-style boards outside the Trello web app.","tags":["Trello","Software"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"clients","id":"techbeacon","title":"Tech Beacon","url":"/clients","summary":"TechBeacon is an HPE Software initiative that focuses on information that really matters for competing effectively in business without compromising on editorial integrity. Their editorial mission is simple: to connect our readers to the le…","tags":["Technology","Development"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://techbeacon.com"},{"type":"clients","id":"unity","title":"Unity MARS","url":"/clients","summary":"I helped with documentation for this plugin for the Unity editor for AR development.","tags":["AR","gaming"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://unity.com/products/mars"},{"type":"software","id":"vale-vscode","title":"Vale VSCode","url":"/software/vale-vscode","summary":"A Visual Studio Code extension I created that integrates the Vale prose linter directly into the editor.","tags":["Vale","VSCode","Software"],"categories":["tech"]},{"type":"gear","id":"vesa-shelf","title":"Vesa Shelf","url":"/gear/vesa-shelf","summary":"A VESA-mounted shelf that fits between monitors, keeping the camera and other gear neatly out of the way.","tags":["Desk and Streaming Setup"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://amzn.to/4aDOwtp"},{"type":"clients","id":"weave","title":"Weave","url":"/clients","summary":"Weave creates software to help developers and DevOps professionals work with and manage their distributed applications. I helped with blog posts, landing pages and whitepapers.","tags":["Cloud","DevOps","Docker","Kubernetes"],"categories":[],"externalUrl":"https://www.weave.works/"},{"type":"gear","id":"yamaha-dtx-drums","title":"Yamaha DTX electronic drum kit","url":"/gear/yamaha-dtx-drums","summary":"An electronic drum kit ecosystem from Yamaha that is a great entry point for drummers of all levels","tags":["Music","Drums","MIDI"],"categories":["music"],"externalUrl":"https://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-DTX6-Electronic-Drum-DTX6K2-X/dp/B08NQZG977?ref=as_li_ss_tl&ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=gregamamma-20&th=1"}]}