diff --git a/_posts/2014-08-04-eurucamp-2014.md b/_posts/2014-08-04-eurucamp-2014.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9c152d4 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2014-08-04-eurucamp-2014.md @@ -0,0 +1,166 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: eurucamp 2014 +date: 04.08.2014 14:15 +--- + +{::options parse_block_html="true" /} + +[![eurucamp chalk](//tmp.fnordig.de/eurucamp2014/th-2014-08-01_09.58.46.jpg)](//tmp.fnordig.de/eurucamp2014/2014-08-01_09.58.46.jpg) + +{::options parse_block_html="false" /} + +I'm just heading back to Aachen from [eurucamp 2014][eurucamp]. +And all I can say is: What an awesome conference! + +I met a lot of great people, had nice chats with a lot of new people, heard a lot of great and inspiring talks +and had a lot of fun. + +Besides the usual stuff you expected at a tech conference. there were also a lot activities happening. +It started with the [conference party][confparty] Friday evening. +Saturday noon was reserved for lots of activities, [kayaking on the Griebnitzsee][kayaking], with a jump into the sea afterwards of course, +a [slip'n'slide][slipnslide] on the venue's lawn and some [football][] there as well. + +During the talks I took some notes, just to remember things for myself, but I think it's also a good idea to write these down publicly. +There was also the [Camp Compressor][camp-compressor], the eurucamp's own podcast, with interviews of speakers and attendees. +Listen to it to get even more cool discussions and information. +_(Hint: I was interviewed for Episode 3 ;))_ + +### Workshop: How to do Static Analysis Driven Refactoring + +Friday afternoon I went to the Workshop [How to do Static Analysis Driven Refactoring][static-analysis]. +Christophe showed us how a few tools can help to improve and refactor your existing code base. The whole list of tools is listed [in a Gist][gist-static-analysis]. +He made it clear how these tools lead to better code quality, especially if you're a small team or even working alone. I will definitely try to use some of them. + +### Keynote + +In the evening the real conference began with [nusco's][nusco] keynote. +He told us about how to be a really great developer. There are 3 stages in most things: + +1. Simple, most of the time you can automate this away. +2. Complicated. You have to think about the problem, but if you're good you find a solution +3. Complex. These are the hard and most interesting problems. If you want to be a great developer you need to tackle these. For this you have to always learn. + +But it is especially important to don't just work on problems in one category. No one is a great developer from day one. +Learn everyday. Be a _great_ developer at the end of the day. + +### Culture Eats Products For Breakfast + +Saturday started early. [Laura](https://twitter.com/laura_nobilis) told us how Culture influences your product. +If you already have a project it's not that easy to get it into a new market in a new country with a complete different culture. +The audience for your product has completely different expectations, the country may have different laws. All these things need to be considered to be successfull. + + +{::options parse_block_html="true" /} + +[![rin live-coding a game](/th-2014-08-02_10.21.40.jpg)](/2014-08-02_10.21.40.jpg) + +{::options parse_block_html="false" /} + +### Let's build a game with Ruby + +Right after that, [Rin][] gave a short live coding session in which she created a +[small side-scroller game](https://github.com/rin/eurucamp) using Gosu, a 2D game development library. +Quite fun and easy it seems. + +### It Takes a Village to Make a Programmer + +After a short coffee break [Michele](https://twitter.com/sheley) told us her story. She attended eurucamp last year and +with the help of some great people from the community she managed to switch careers in less than a year. +She encouraged all of us to give back to the community, help other people, mentor people or help people in otherways. + +### Internet of Dusty Things + +[Daniel](http://twitter.com/bovensiepen) talked about his DIY air purifier. Unhappy with the available proprietary and expensive products he sat down, +purchased the necessary hardware and built a remote-controlled air purifier using +[mruby](http://www.mruby.org/), a lightweight implementation of the Ruby language and some stripped-down libaries. + +### RubyMotion and Accessibility + +One of the best talks for me was the one about Accessibility held by [Austin](https://github.com/austinseraphin), a blind developer. +He's using both an iPhone and a Mac, because all of these Apple systems have built-in accessibility features, like Voice Over, the screen reader in iOS and OS X. +He also wrote software for [RubyMotion](http://www.rubymotion.com/) to make accessibility-testing even easier and +showed how easy it is to make iPhone apps more accessible. It's build in by default anyway, +adding information and labels is already a great improvement for every app. Test these things! + +{::options parse_block_html="true" /} + +[![taking a brake in the shadow](//tmp.fnordig.de/eurucamp2014/th-2014-08-01_16.56.27.jpg)](//tmp.fnordig.de/eurucamp2014/2014-08-01_16.56.27.jpg) + +{::options parse_block_html="false" /} + + +{::options parse_block_html="true" /} + +[![Griebnitzsee](//tmp.fnordig.de/eurucamp2014/th-2014-08-02_15.23.05.jpg)](//tmp.fnordig.de/eurucamp2014/2014-08-02_15.23.05.jpg) + +{::options parse_block_html="false" /} + +### Refactoring Ruby with Monads (or, Monads: The Good Parts) + +[Tom](https://twitter.com/tomstuart) gave one of the funniest and simplest introduction to Monads I heard. +With just a few lines of Ruby code it's possible to implement Monads, which are just an "abstract data type". +The code is available as a [gem and on GitHub](https://github.com/tomstuart/monads). + +
+ +### Lightning Talks + +> @benlovell: Eurucamp is so awesome that actual lightning ended the lightning talks #ec14
+> _([Twitter, 10:52 PM - 2 Aug 2014](https://twitter.com/benlovell/status/495673640713977857))_ + +_(That's all it needs as a comment)_ + +{::options parse_block_html="true" /} + +[![Beautfiul sunset over the venue's lawn](//tmp.fnordig.de/eurucamp2014/th-2014-08-02_20.28.48.jpg)](//tmp.fnordig.de/eurucamp2014/2014-08-02_20.28.48.jpg) + +{::options parse_block_html="false" /} + +### Utils is a Junk Drawer! + +Day 2 once again started early. [Frank](https://twitter.com/franklinwebber) took a look at what's in the project's utils folder, often it's junk. +The speaker was interviewed in the Camp Compressor, Day One. As I heard that on the train ride to the venue I didn't listen too much in the talk, sorry! + +### The Scientific Method of Troubleshooting + +[Blithe](https://twitter.com/blithe) explained how the Scientific Method of Troubleshooting will help in software development as well. +When troubleshooting, sometimes take a step back. Solving each and every problem by googling or looking at StackOverflow won't help. +Instead think about the problem, try to understand why it happened, how it can be fixed correctly and how to avoid it to happen again. +Document your troubleshooting, improve the documentation of your project so problems that were fixed won't happen again. And get help! +If you can't solve the problem alone, talk to others. Sometimes that is all it needs. + +### Take note! + +[Såndra](https://twitter.com/pippidot) gave a short introduction how visual note taking can help to efficiently take notes and later also actually remember +what you meant. Now if I could just draw better, but maybe with some practice I can do this better. +[Oh, and she had the most awesome slides of all talks!](https://twitter.com/badboy_/status/495866118884827137) + +### Decentralize ALL THE THINGS + +The last talk I (really) heard was by [Jan](https://twitter.com/halfbyte). He talked about how all these centralized services are bad in nearly every aspect. +But it's not only about self-hosting all your stuff (because that's **not** an option ever), +it's also about decentralising our organisations and businesses to make the internet resilient against any kinds of threats again. + +## …and that's it. + +The whole weekend ended with some beers at the [eurucamp after party][pratergarten], again talking to a lot of different people, and a lot of different topics. +I hope there will be a eurucamp 2015, because we're already [planning things for next year](https://twitter.com/eurucampcamp). + +Thanks to the whole [eurucamp team](http://2014.eurucamp.org/team/), thanks to all [speakers](http://2014.eurucamp.org/speakers) +and thanks to all the great attendees! +Hope to see some of you at [RedFrog Conf](http://ruby.froscon.org/) in just 2 weeks or at [RailsCamp Germany](2014.railscamp.de) in September. + +[nusco]: http://twitter.com/nusco +[rin]: http://twitter.com/rinpaku +[eurucamp]: http://2014.eurucamp.org/ +[gist-static-analysis]: https://gist.github.com/toch/ac3ca5d7e565ee3dc375 +[static-analysis]: http://activities.eurucamp.org/activities/3 +[git-monads]: https://github.com/tomstuart/monads +[bovensiepen]: http://twitter.com/bovensiepen +[camp-compressor]: http://2014.eurucamp.org/podcast/ +[slipnslide]: http://activities.eurucamp.org/activities/13 +[confparty]: http://activities.eurucamp.org/activities/25 +[kayaking]: http://activities.eurucamp.org/activities/35 +[football]: http://activities.eurucamp.org/activities/39 +[pratergarten]: http://activities.eurucamp.org/activities/28