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Chip Shop has had quite a busy week and I have a few updates to tell you about.

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.

Just a small update, with a much larger one coming next week.

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.

I have just rolled it the first incarnation of <a href="https://theleantraveller.com/" target="_blank">The Lean Traveller</a>, with the first of the topics we will be covering, '<a href="https://theleantraveller.com/money" target="_blank">Money</a>'.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I have been Macs for a very long time, since the dark days of the mid 90s and the days of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Performa" target="_blank">Performas</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_7" target="_blank">System 7</a> and unremarkable CEOs. I have been through the massive change to OS X and processor changes from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_68000" target="_blank">68000</a> the series to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC" target="_blank">PowerPC</a> and then to Intel.

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!

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<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp; stick with what you have to get the job done.

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.

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.

A valid discussion, but what will the limitations and potentials be.

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.

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.

We are looking at what these models and projects share in common and what is different between them and why.

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.

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.

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.

<p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">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;<p class="p1"><strong><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Toastmasters, Leipzig Chapter</strong><br /><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">I have never been to a <a href="https://www.toastmasters.org/" target="_blank">Toastmasters</a> 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;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="https://reports.toastmasters.org/findaclub/searchresults.cfm?Country=Germany&amp;State=&amp;City=Leipzig" target="_blank">Leipzig has two chapters</a>, 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.<p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">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.<p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">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.<p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">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.<p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><strong>Leipzig PHP User Group</strong><br /><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">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.<p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">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.<p class="p1"><a href="https://phpugl.de" target="_blank"><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">phpugl.de</a><p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><strong>BUND Harvest bike ride</strong><br /><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">The <a href="https://www.bund.net/" target="_blank">BUND</a> 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.<p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrischinchilla/sets/72157646641788879/" target="_blank">See photos of the ride here</a>.

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.

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.

<p class="p1"><em>The more I come to USA, the less I understand it, in fact I could say, the less I like it.</em>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;<h2>Minneapolis</h2>

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.

A couple of months ago I watched the movies 'Her' and 'Computer Chess'.

I just took part in my first rally in Leipzig (and Germany), The '<a href="https://www.gso-le.de/" target="_blank">Global Space Odyssey</a>', 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.

In the past ten days I finally made the second overseas move of my life. This time from Melbourne to Leipzig.

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;