Terence Eden’s Blog 2025-02-06 Talking Contact Tracing at FOSDEM https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/02/talking-contact-tracing-at-fosdem/ I was delighted to be invited to speak at FOSDEM. And I was not at all intimidated to be speaking on the cavernous Janson stage. The audience were lovely0, asked interesting questions1, and - most importantly - laughed in all the right places 😅. Regular readers will recognise this as being an updated2 version of the talk I gave at EMF 2024 - feel free to watch that one if you want to see if I've improved. Huge thanks to the AV team and the video-wizards behind the FOSDEM infrastructure. As I say in my introduction, these are my personal recollections. I no longer work for the Government, so feel free to send any complaints to the circular file. Feedback A few pieces of public feedback I got after the talk. [Image: ] @sxa@fosstodon.orgStewart X Addison[Image: Mastodon] There's nothing like #FOSDEM. Maybe if you're in a particular community that doesn't have a devroom so doesn't attract so many people it's not the same but finding people you know face to face and making new contacts is so valuable. But there's something for every open source developer. Talk highlight? I've got to go with @Edent on the UK COVID tracing app. Even if you're not UK based it was a lesson in how government works and dealing with the abuse on Twitter. Superbly presented too.❤️ 10💬 3🔁 522:46 - Sun 02 February 2025 [Image: ] @JimMadge@fosstodon.orgJim Madge[Image: Mastodon] This #FOSDEM I've learned that @Edent, who up to now I have known for @openbenches, championed making the NHS covid app open source 🤯🚀.Watch his excellent talk https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-4411-lessons-learned-open-sourcing-the-uk-s-covid-tracing-app/[Image: ] FOSDEM 2025 - Lessons learned Open Sourcing the UK's Covid Tracing App❤️ 4💬 0🔁 013:27 - Sun 02 February 2025 [Image: ] @johra@mastodon.socialJohra 🌈[Image: Mastodon] @Edent your talk was part of the wonderful things in this year’s FOSDEM. I look forward to more on health from the perspective of those who understand what’s behind the technology❤️ 1💬 1🔁 014:57 - Wed 05 February 2025 [Image: ] @rhazn@mas.tophilip[Image: Mastodon] That's a wrap of #FOSDEM for me, saw lots of great talks. If you have time to watch only two, consider https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-4411-lessons-learned-open-sourcing-the-uk-s-covid-tracing-app/ by @Edent and https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-4233-privacy-first-architecture-alternatives-to-gdpr-popup-and-local-first/ by @sitnik_en. I found them inspiring for being a good human and I learned something new in both 🤩.[Image: ] FOSDEM 2025 - Lessons learned Open Sourcing the UK's Covid Tracing App❤️ 2💬 0🔁 214:13 - Sun 02 February 2025 [Image: ] @simon_lucy@mastodon.socialSimon Lucy[Image: Mastodon] An excellent talk and performance by @Edent on open sourcing the NHS COVID app at #fosdem2025 #StreamingFosdem❤️ 1💬 0🔁 013:51 - Sun 02 February 2025 [Image: ] Diomidis Spinellis@CoolSWEng[Image: Twitter] Pragmatic insights (with which the audience's majority also agreed) by Terence Eden from open sourcing UK's COVID tracing app at #FOSDEM: Used MIT license because other departments already used it and it was short and easy for lawyers and the public to understand,❤️ 6💬 1🔁 013:53 - Sun 02 February 2025 [Image: ] Diomidis Spinellis@CoolSWEng[Image: Twitter] Replying to @CoolSWEngadopt Apple's contact tracing API, host on GitHub, squash individual commits between releases (security & privacy).Also: open source at the day of release rather than from the beginning (reduce noise).❤️ 2💬 0🔁 213:53 - Sun 02 February 2025[Image: ] Diomidis Spinellis@CoolSWEng[Image: Twitter] Replying to @CoolSWEngOther lessons: bring-in professional moderators for discussions, be careful about controversial code comments, create a foundation for closing-down the system, open source is about community.❤️ 2💬 0🔁 013:53 - Sun 02 February 2025 [Image: Best talk at #FOSDEM this year was from @edent.tel - I hadn’t realised quite how much shit was flung at the Covid Tracing App team. Really engaging talk with great use of slides and humour.] [Image: @edent.tel Loved your talk! Reading of the devs comment in the voice of conspi was brilliant 😂 One to recommend when the video is out.] Except for one weird heckler who shouted out something incomprehensible. ↩︎ Well, one guy came up afterwards and asked "What exactly is Covid? Can you explain?" I politely suggested he speak to a medical professional. ↩︎ But, yes, still wearing the same t-shirt! ↩︎ ------------------------------ 2025-02-05 FOSDEM - The Good Parts and the Not-So-Good Parts https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/02/fosdem-the-good-parts-and-the-not-so-good-parts/ I'm just back from my first ever FOSDEM - a megaconference dedicated to Free and Open Source technology and culture. It was epic. I'm still ruminating on the experience, but here are my first impressions of what did and didn't work. The Good Bits Really, it is a dozen conferences squeezed into one. Over a thousand talks, on a seemingly infinite array of subjects, about a million people crammed into one tram from Brussels city centre, and a panoply of wonderful humans with crazy ideas on how to change the world. Every single talk I went to was interesting, the conversations in the hallways were friendly and entertaining, the vegan food wasn't too overpriced, and I only met one crypto-bro. The speakers were reasonably diverse and - get this - young! It sometimes can seem like FOSS is dominated by greybeards but, so it appears, the future is in safe (albeit annoyingly youthful) hands. It is obvious that a great deal of care an attention has gone in to making it a welcoming and safe environment. Most rooms had information about the code of conduct. Old universities are hilariously inept at providing maps, so there were helpful signs up everywhere. Even the toilets had QR codes so you could let volunteers know if there was a critical shortage of paper! The volunteers make the event. Each one I spoke to was friendly, helpful, and knowledgable. The event (mostly) ran like clockwork and shows what a determined and well-directed team of people can do if given sufficient motivation and autonomy. (I did my volunteering before the event by fixing bits of the website.) Overall, an excellent experience. Mostly. The Not-So-Good Look, it's a volunteer run event which successfully handles ~9k attendees and > 1k talks. These are all fairly minor snags. But, as a first time attendee, there were a few things which rankled me a bit. Venue The biggest issue is Université libre de Bruxelles. The university is very dilapidated. The seats are uncomfortable, the toilets are grim, and many of the rooms are not accessible. Of course, it is a historic venue and there isn't much the FOSDEM team can do about some of the structural issues, but I think they should feed-back to the university where improvements are needed. Specifically: Water fountains. As far as I could tell, there was only one working fountain in the whole campus. Several seemed to have been deliberately closed off. Lifts / Elevators either not working or not available. For example, the community room was up five flights of stairs. That's a challenge for a lot of people, and an impossibility for some. Windows and ventilation. I appreciate not every room can have modern HVAC, but the CO2 monitors were frequently in the red. Some rooms had windows which were locked shut. Unacceptable given the risk of Covid and Flu. I accept that it is unlikely FOSDEM can fix all of these unilaterally. I don't think it is realistic to change location now that it is an established - and much loved - venue. But the ULB needs to be told that its facilities are inadequate and need urgent improvement. To be fair, it probably knows that it has some issues, but I think they are worth pointing out specifically. AV & Hosting For the most-part, the AV worked. Yes, people with Macs didn't know how to set up external screens, and HMDI connections occasionally freaked out, but those are all user error WONTFIX. Some sessions over-ran egregiously. That's disrespectful to the audience (who may need to get to a different session) and downright rude to the next presenter (who needs a few minutes to set up). While that's partly the fault of under-prepared presenters, it is the responsibility of the room host to be ruthless with the timekeeping. I did see a few speakers being told "your time is up, you have to stop" - but not enough. Some of the rooms didn't have heralds or timekeepers. I'm a bit old-fashioned and think it is nice to have someone say "And now, please welcome our next speaker…" so that the speaker can start with a round of applause. It lets everyone know the talk is starting and to pay attention. Audio in Janson. I was given contradictory information about whether the main stage would have audio but was then reassured that it would be fine. I then discovered the only way to have sound play from my slides was to hold the microphone to the speakers! I think that's a bit rubbish but it would have been fine if it was communicated to me in advance. In short, speakers need to be better prepared, volunteers need to be empowered to shut them up, and everyone needs to be told in advance what equipment will be available in their rooms. Matrix *sigh* FOSDEM must be full of Matrix's target audience. But the whole experience was underwhelming. The flagship ElementX app is buggy and missing several crucial features. It gives a bad impression of the service when basic functionality just doesn't work. There was a lot of confusion with how Rooms (or is it channels? Or spaces?) were set up. Speakers were told to go to one room, then redirected, then re-invited. Confusing and frustrating. No one was using it! Even in the main channels, there were only a few messages per hour. Nothing compared to Mastodon or Bluesky. There wasn't much pushing of Matrix, so maybe most people were in private Signal / Telegram / WhatsApp groups with friends (I know I was). Ultimately, Matrix needs to have a serious look at its quality issues otherwise it will become as irrelevant as IRC. Similarly, I think the organisers should decide whether Matrix meets the needs of attendees or if a different platform is more suitable. Verdict A simply wonderful event. I was thrilled to be selected to speak, and am incredibly grateful to FOSDEM for subsidising my trip with a hotel room. My brain is fizzing with new ideas and my laptop is groaning under the weight of new stickers. I would love to come again next year. Although speaking was great fun, it was exhausting doing two sessions. So I'll probably be a bit more of a tourist. I'm now off to sleep for a hundred years in an attempt to recover from the intensity! ------------------------------ 2020-03-15 It will cost you £500 not to attend this conference https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/03/it-will-cost-you-500-not-to-attend-this-conference/ A few weeks ago, I was asked if I wanted a free ticket to a conference about the health industry. The line-up of speakers looked pretty interesting, so I said yes. I speak at a lot of conferences, and sometimes it's nice to go as a guest. Even though I'd agreed, the conference organiser started with the hard sell. The location was at a famous sports club (yawn!) and we'd get a behind the scenes tour (errr... not for me) and there would be a free cocktail reception at the end (I can think of better ways to spend an evening). And then she slipped in "of course, if you can't attend, we'll need to charge you a cancellation fee." Hold up. What?! "Yeah, it will be £500 if you don't attend. Unless you can supply us with someone of a greater or equal seniority from your organisation." I'm not ashamed to say that I laughed in their face and told them that I'd never heard of anything quite so ridiculous. There was no way I was putting the NHS on the hook for £500 if I unexpectedly couldn't attend. I get that conferences have fixed costs - but that's why they over-sell tickets to account for drop-outs. If a speaker drops out, that can be disastrous for a conference. But it happens, and while a no-show doesn't get paid, I've never heard of them being charged. I've been a guest and speaker at literally hundreds of events over the years. And I've never heard of someone being penalised for not showing up. Apparently, this is rife in healthcare. Perturbed, I looked at the Terms and Conditions of all the other conferences that I was due to visit. I found another one where I'd inadvertently clicked through and agreed to a massive cancellation fee. Even worse, it had this clause: Delegates agree to attend one-on-one business meetings and other group activities. You must attend all pre-booked meetings and sign the meeting registers. Non attended meetings will be charged at the full cancellation rate of £495 + £195 per non attended meeting. WTAF?! [Image: Two pigs talking. "Isn't it great that we pay nothing for the barn?" The other says "Yeah and the food is free."] These conferences are - it seems - a paid opportunity for companies to connect with me. They pay heavily for a ticket and get to pick me out of a brochure for their sale-pitch pleasure. In return I sell myself for some canapés and a "glamorous" location. Yeuch! I asked my network if they'd experienced this sort of thing: [Image: ] Simon Eccles@DrSimonEccles[Image: ] One of the worst offenders runs residential events @HeythropPark Lots of NHS speakers.Transparency is key here. The cancellation fee is almost impossible to find on their website. I would love to know how many NHS staff have been caught out or charged.[Image: ] Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edent[Image: ] Well that was a weird experience…I've been invited to go to a conference as a guest - free ticket. I agreed, and was told that if I didn't show up, they'd charge me a £500 cancellation fee!Even wanted me to sign a contract.Is this normal? Was I a dick for refusing to sign?❤️ 47💬 0♻️ 909:15 - Sat 29 February 2020❤️ 12💬 5♻️ 008:06 - Sun 01 March 2020 [Image: ] Matt Stibbs@MattStibbs[Image: ] Replying to @edent@edent That’ll be the cost of re-printing their promotion materials to remove your name from the “people you’ll get to interact with” list.❤️ 1💬 0♻️ 015:51 - Sat 29 February 2020 [Image: ] Rosalie Marshall@RosalieMarshall[Image: ] Replying to @edent@edent Lots of event organisers have this in their t&cs. I spoke to govnet about it recently and they said they are never enforced but still, it’s something we are aware of when agreeing to sign up to speaking at events❤️ 0💬 1♻️ 010:16 - Sat 29 February 2020 [Image: ] jonodrew@mastodon.social@jonodrew[Image: ] Replying to @edent@edent I've seen this pattern before. It's because you're the product - the organisers will let sponsors pick the people they want 15m 1:1 with. Strongly recommend (with my CS hat on) that you run for the hills.❤️ 13💬 2♻️ 009:18 - Sat 29 February 2020 [Image: ] Sam Shah@healthyopinion[Image: ] Replying to @edent@edent I think you sent the right message. I remember some event in Oxfordshire where they fine hundreds of NHS workers every year for not attending even though they over subscribe, yet the same event uses free #NHS speakers. over time people will just pull out of this type of event❤️ 11💬 1♻️ 009:31 - Sat 29 February 2020 [Image: ] David Walliker@InsideHealthCIO[Image: ] Replying to @edent@edent I was signed up by someone for one of these once. Didn’t go because of family bereavement - emailed them to say wasn’t week in advance. They not only demanded £500 but said they would take a CCJ our against me, personally, and ended up getting a solicitor to call me.❤️ 4💬 3♻️ 009:29 - Sat 29 February 2020 [Image: ] Nick Hopkinson@nickex5[Image: ] Replying to @InsideHealthCIO@InsideHealthCIO @edent Spoke to someone who was chairing one of these events once and he was doing it to pay off his debt to them for not attending a previous conference!❤️ 3💬 1♻️ 011:58 - Sat 29 February 2020 [Image: ] Caroline Wright@Caroline_Symes[Image: ] Replying to @edent@edent Good move. It’s common sadly. At least you noticed the fee as many don’t. Key for me is transparency, so no one is caught out. To reassure you we are trying hard to stop these events being marketed to NHS staff.❤️ 6💬 1♻️ 010:23 - Sat 29 February 2020 [Image: ] Nikki@NikkiENHT[Image: ] Replying to @edent@edent I was approached last year and very keen to arrange attendance. However, it was only upon hearing , rumors,that I asked the question directly in regards to the fee. Transparency from the onset would be fair.❤️ 0💬 0♻️ 008:02 - Mon 02 March 2020 See also this enlightening blog post from Andy Callow about the Healthcare Strategy Forum. So, the next time you're invited to a "free" conference - make sure you understand what you're signing up to! Of course, COVID-19 has meant that these conferences have all been cancelled. I wonder if I can charge them a fee...? ------------------------------ 2017-11-29 Make your hackday vegan https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2017/11/make-your-hackday-vegan/ I go to lots of conferences, unconferences, hackdays, and tech events. As a vegetarian, I'm used to being relegated to second-class when it comes to event catering. If I'm lucky, I get some cheese sandwiches mingled with a plate of meaty snacks. That's why I was overjoyed at ODF Plugfest Rome when the organisers made this announcement: [Image: ] Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edent[Image: Twitter] "All lunch boxes will be vegan (so that everyone can eat everything)"THANK YOU! #LibOCon17 #odfplugfest Sensible inclusive policy. pic.x.com/zuqf0h14hx[Image: ] ❤️ 8💬 4🔁 008:20 - Wed 11 October 2017 It was such a thoughtful thing for the event to do. We each got some fresh pasta, some salad, fruit, biscuits. Lovely! (As an aside, yes, allergies and intolerances were catered for separately.) Everyone I spoke to at the event was happy with the food. I didn't notice anyone sneaking off to one of the hundreds of pizza restaurants in the vicinity. As someone who has run large scale events before, I think making an event mono-culinary is an excellent idea. Cheaper. Vegan / Veggie food is cheaper than meaty alternatives. A huge consideration when running a community event trying to cater for a few hundred people. Logistically easier. I've lost count of the number of events I've been to where organisers have misplaced the details of who has requested which meal, or where meat-eaters have accidentally polished off the food meant for veggies. Suitable for nearly all dietary preferences - vegetarian, Kosher, Halal, Hinduism, Buddhism. Means not having to quiz people on their ethical beliefs. Healthier. A typical hackathon just provides pizza and beer. That's fun, but not always the healthiest option available. If you're planning on catering for a mass event, have a think about whether only providing vegan food will be a sensible and inclusive way to feed your attendees. Here be dragons Lots of people are psychologically addicted to meat. When you politely suggest they skip meat for a single meal, they have an extreme reaction. A huge amount of marketing money has been spent on associating meat with masculinity. This causes a form of castration-anxiety when people are "threatened" with a salad. It's a little silly seeing grown adults tremble at the thought of vegetables, but that's the power of marketing! ------------------------------ 2016-11-12 Edible Logos https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2016/11/edible-logos/ Just a quick shout out to the wonderful people at Ink Edibles. I was heading to a bunch of conferences and was looking for a fun and quirky way to promote one of my websites. At some of the bigger conventions, I'd noticed people handing out branded confectionery. All the sites I went to would only take orders for several thousand units - which was far too expensive for me. I stumbled across a new Manchester based company which will print colour logos on to all sorts of sweets. [Image: ] Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edent[Image: Twitter] Take a selfie with my 💩 at #hf2016 and I'll give you an EXCLUSIVE fizzy-sherbert flying saucer! pic.x.com/wndfbqtspk[Image: ] ❤️ 2💬 1🔁 007:48 - Fri 21 October 2016 [Image: ] Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edent[Image: Twitter] Whoa! ♥ these custom printed fizzy flying saucers from @ink_edibles!I'll be handing them out at @hackferencebrum 😃 pic.x.com/lywxk9w03q[Image: ] ❤️ 3💬 0🔁 015:13 - Thu 06 October 2016 [Image: fizzy flying saucers with a logo printed on them] Delivery was quick, print quality was top-notch, and everyone at the conferences seemed to appreciate the sugary pick-me-up. If you're looking for a bunch of edible logos, I can recommend Ink Edibles. ------------------------------ 2016-11-05 Would anyone be interested in a retro-tech conference? https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2016/11/would-anyone-be-interested-in-a-retro-tech-conference/ The best ideas occur while drunk, don't you agree? Having just attended the blisteringly brilliant Hackference Brum, a bunch of us were drinking in a pub and chatting about how focused on the future most conference are. There's rarely any time to reflect on the past. That got me thinking... [Image: ] Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edent[Image: Twitter] GENIUS (drunk) idea. Retro conferences. Everyone turns up in 1970s clothes and we discuss Pascal, Dot Matrix printers, and ARPANET! #hf2016❤️ 40💬 13🔁 019:18 - Fri 21 October 2016 This... this idea seems to have some legs! Interesting talks! [Image: ] Ricardo Varela@phobeo[Image: Twitter] Replying to @edent@edent i still think gopher protocol and SS7 would make amazing topics for talks❤️ 1💬 0🔁 009:05 - Sat 22 October 2016 [Image: ] David Makogon@dmakogon[Image: Twitter] Replying to @edent@edent Ooh I wonder if I still have the dot-matrix "drum machine" code I wrote for my C.ito ProWriter in the 80's. That'd be the BEST talk.❤️ 0💬 0🔁 019:26 - Fri 21 October 2016 No PowerPoint! [Image: ] Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edent[Image: Twitter] I think we need a panel showdown with overhead projector slides! x.com/rcarmo/status/…❤️ 2💬 1🔁 020:17 - Fri 21 October 2016 Controversy! [Image: ] Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edent[Image: ] Please RSVP via telex. x.com/edent/status/7…[Image: ] Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edent[Image: ] GENIUS (drunk) idea. Retro conferences. Everyone turns up in 1970s clothes and we discuss Pascal, Dot Matrix printers, and ARPANET! #hf2016❤️ 40💬 0♻️ 1519:18 - Fri 21 October 2016❤️ 1💬 0♻️ 019:46 - Fri 21 October 2016[Image: ] Mark O'Neill@marxculture[Image: ] Replying to @edent@edent I can talk about the move from 110bps to 300bps was pointless as humans could only type so fast❤️ 1💬 0♻️ 019:54 - Fri 21 October 2016 [Image: ] Ye are many...@dug[Image: Twitter] Replying to @edent@edent Panel discussion: Pascal's missing output layer - an intentional design to promote educational benefits or simply a stupid oversight?❤️ 0💬 0🔁 020:15 - Fri 21 October 2016 Demonstrations These social media posts were deleted by their authors. What about catering? These social media posts were deleted by their authors. And other cool things? [Image: ] Neem Serra@TeamNeem[Image: Twitter] Circuit board nails for the @ghc conference! I have all the nail polish if you want to do your own!! 💅🏽 #GHC16 pic.x.com/8G8r9WMsQw[Image: ] ❤️ 329💬 15🔁 020:49 - Tue 18 October 2016 What about people who can't get there? These social media posts were deleted by their authors. Remember the dress code! [Image: ] Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edent[Image: Twitter] Naturally smoking pipes will be encouraged during Retro-Conf.And mandatory corduroy. x.com/edent/status/7…[Image: ] Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edent[Image: Twitter] GENIUS (drunk) idea. Retro conferences. Everyone turns up in 1970s clothes and we discuss Pascal, Dot Matrix printers, and ARPANET! #hf2016❤️ 40💬 0🔁 1519:18 - Fri 21 October 2016❤️ 3💬 0🔁 019:43 - Fri 21 October 2016[Image: ] Chris Thorpe@jaggeree[Image: Twitter] Replying to @edent@edent Open University lecturer style bushy beards?❤️ 1💬 0🔁 019:46 - Fri 21 October 2016 [Image: ] Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edent[Image: Twitter] Anyone who wishes to grow a beard (or strap on a falsie) will be most welcome.Refreshments will be Watney's Party Seven & cheese hedgehogs. x.com/jaggeree/statu…[Image: ] Chris Thorpe@jaggeree[Image: Twitter] Replying to @edent@edent Open University lecturer style bushy beards?❤️ 1💬 0🔁 019:46 - Fri 21 October 2016❤️ 2💬 1🔁 019:56 - Fri 21 October 2016 Wait a moment! Now, there are some inherent problems with revisiting the past. [Image: ] Rachel Clarke@rachelclarke[Image: Twitter] Replying to @edent@edent and no women..or is that a presumption? were there plenty of women at 70s conferences?❤️ 0💬 0🔁 019:45 - Fri 21 October 2016 That reminds me of the American company who held a corporate party in a plantation house and asked attendees to dress in period costume. Their lone black employee decided to attend while dressed as a slave. A salient reminder past isn't always a great place to visit. I rather drunkenly made light of the situation. [Image: ] Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edent[Image: Twitter] Women will be allowed if they cosplay A) Grace HopperB) Ada LovelaceC) Margaret HamiltonD) Any other woman they choose#RewriteHerstory x.com/rachelclarke/s…[Image: ] Rachel Clarke@rachelclarke[Image: Twitter] Replying to @edent@edent and no women..or is that a presumption? were there plenty of women at 70s conferences?❤️ 0💬 0🔁 019:45 - Fri 21 October 2016❤️ 1💬 1🔁 019:50 - Fri 21 October 2016 Which, on sober reflection, wasn't the right response. [Image: ] Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edent[Image: Twitter] This is a serious point which I trivialised last night.Any historic reenactment has to face down issues of representation. x.com/rachelclarke/s…[Image: ] Rachel Clarke@rachelclarke[Image: Twitter] Replying to @edent@edent and no women..or is that a presumption? were there plenty of women at 70s conferences?❤️ 0💬 0🔁 019:45 - Fri 21 October 2016❤️ 1💬 0🔁 006:55 - Sat 22 October 2016 We can celebrate the past without glorifying it. So, you want to attend? [Image: ] Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edent[Image: Twitter] Send an SAE to the address on CEEFAX page 823. x.com/follow_Reece/s…❤️ 2💬 0🔁 020:49 - Fri 21 October 2016 [Image: ] Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edent[Image: Twitter] Please RSVP via telex. x.com/edent/status/7…[Image: ] Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edent[Image: Twitter] GENIUS (drunk) idea. Retro conferences. Everyone turns up in 1970s clothes and we discuss Pascal, Dot Matrix printers, and ARPANET! #hf2016❤️ 40💬 0🔁 1519:18 - Fri 21 October 2016❤️ 1💬 1🔁 019:46 - Fri 21 October 2016 Is this a good idea? I've never organised a conference myself. The ones I've been involved in have been fiendishly complicated - corralling venues, sponsors, ticket sales, speakers, and catering is tough. And yet... people seem to like this idea. Perhaps it would be worth holding it as a track at an existing conference to see if people really want to spend 45 minutes learning about COBOL. If you've been to a similar event - or know of an upcoming one - please do let me know. Finally, here's what I'd like you to do. Find a conference and pitch them a retro-tech session. Do a talk on "classic" computing. Bring along old equipment to demonstrate. If there's enough interest, let me know and perhaps we can run a full-day event. ------------------------------ 2014-12-01 Episode 11 - Sketchnoting with @rohdesign https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2014/12/episode-11-sketchnoting-with-rohdesign/ Mike Rohde talks about his work teaching people to draw while the take notes. Join the fun at Sketchnote Army - and follow Mike on Twitter or his Blog. 🔊 Sketchnote with Mike Rohde🎤 Terence Eden 💾 Download this audio file. Buy Mike's books from Amazon: [Image: ] [Image: ] Get About A Minute as soon as each episode goes live. Stick this Podcast Feed into your podcatcher [Image: podcaster_small] Or you can Subscribe on iTunes Intro music "Gran Vals" performed by Brian Streckfus. Stopwatch Icon by Ilsur Aptukov from The Noun Project. [Image: Creative Commons Licence] This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. ------------------------------ 2012-06-03 Over The Air 2012 https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2012/06/over-the-air-2012/ Another brilliant event from Over The Air. The perfect mix of lectures, hacking, and relaxing in a country manor / museum. And, to top it off, my hack won a brace of prizes! The Wifi just about held up. Although I think it's fundamentally impossible to provide decent connectivity to 200+ people. Especially when they're geeks. [Image: ] Dan Benton@dogsbodyorg[Image: ] It's people like @edent that break conference Wi-Fi ;-) #ota12 pic.x.com/dl2fibfi[Image: ] ❤️ 0💬 0♻️ 015:43 - Fri 01 June 2012 [Image: ] Which, in turn, lead to this: [Image: ] Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edent[Image: ] My data usage at #ota12 may have been a bit excessive... twitpic.com/9s35rx❤️ 0💬 1♻️ 019:12 - Sat 02 June 2012 [Image: ] As per my post of two years ago, I tried to encourage people to record video or audio of the talks they were in. It was a reasonable success. We captured several great sessions, but others have been lost to the æther. I honestly believe that BarCamps, unconferences, and hack-days are part of our culture and should be preserved. There's a selfish element in that I want to see the talks that I missed - but more than that, I want to ensure that what we're doing isn't lost forever. So, here are my thoughts (and videos) of the day. Everything You Know About QR Codes is WRONG! 🔗 The devilishly handsome Terence Eden gave one of his excellent talks upon the subject of QR codes. I was really pleased with how this went, a packed room and lots of great questions. Thanks to Craig Heath for videoing it. Responsive Web Design - the Specs Behind the Sex 🔗 Bruce Lawson talked through some of the issues with RWD especially when it comes to adaptive images. My thoughts on the subject are still developing, but I think that it ought to be the server / CDN which adapts the images, rather than the handset relying on JavaScript and CSS. I've two primary reasons for this, There are billions of phones already on the market which don't support CSS or JS sufficiently to handle this. There's no realistic way to upgrade their browser. Programmers and web designers are lazy. I don't believe that the more complex mark-up will be used, nor that they will generate several different images. A Means to Interact: A Guided Tour of Arts Programming Platforms 🔗 I must confess, I misread the subject of this talk - I thought it would be about artistic APIs. Instead, it was a fascinating talk about different ways to create graphics programatically. Becky Stewart stepped us through the pros and cons of each platform and showed us how they worked. I love interactive sessions - so coding along was great fun. She wisely distributed Windows, Mac, and Linux versions of the SDKs on memory stick so we wouldn't spend half the session downloading them. Mobile Websites Can Have Nice Fonts Too 🔗 I'm a bit of a philistine when it comes to fonts. I have the vague feeling they're important, but I don't really know why - nor how to implement them on a website. Laura Kalbag to the rescue then! After the session, I was talking to my friend Saqib (who is blind) about fonts. He wanted a better understanding of how they affected the reading of text. I realised that fonts are like the background music in a film. It's the music which makes Star Wars as much as the dialogue and special effects. Imagine watching a Schindler's List with a jaunty comedy score - it would completely destroy the meaning of the film. As well as readability, picking a font changes the emotional engagement that a reader has with your text. TheLab: Demo Cool Things! 🔗 I say! Those chaps from O2's TheLab are rather clever, aren't they? Just goes to show what a bit of ingenuity can do when applied to a telco. We saw a demo which tracked which country people were in based on whether their phone was roaming, HashBlue which backs up your text messages and provides an API to access them, and O2 Connect which routes your calls over WiFi if you're out of signal. Evidently lots of smart thinking going on in Slough! Connecting Microcontrollers to the Cloud 🔗 The guys from Vodafone were showing off mbed. It's a micro-controller similar to the Arduino. The idea is that you can rapidly prototype sensor data, send it via a data or SMS connection and do other cool stuff with it. The session I attended went into the C code behind it (which was a little over my head) as well as demoing practical uses for it. It's great to see kit electronics like this and the Raspberry Pi become popular - hopefully it will make hardware more accessible. An Illustrated History of Computation 🔗 What a delightful session! Professor Bernie Cohen took us through a history of computing, mixed with personal anecdotes, and live algorithm solving. He seems to know a thing or two - I predict the lad'll go far! ePatient 101: An Introduction to the Asymmetrical World of Technology and Healthcare 🔗 Mark Kramer (AKA Mamk) joined us via a dodgy Skype connection from the US, where he has just finished being treated for cancer. [Image: ] Fuck cancer. Seriously, fuck it. Mark was talking about the disparity between the technology which the medical profession has access to versus that of their patients. Doctors may have MRI machines - but they're often stuck with handwritten notes, or ancient PCs. Patients have more CPU power in their phones than a whole office full of medical staff. Hacking Over The Air is where geeks come to play. Some of the inventions on display were simply marvellous. I think there were 39 hacks presented - I'm going to highlight the ones I thought were exceptional. Sam Machin built a tool to allow you to send tweets via a DNS lookup! As he said during his introduction: [Image: "There are some regimes which block access to Twitter: Iran, Syria and the Hilton Hotel Group" #ota12 — Olivia Solon (@olivia_solon) June 2, 2012] Without going into too much detail, you do a lookup on my-message-is-this.example.com, when the server receives the NS, it tweets on your behalf. So, as long as you can do a DNS request - even if the response is blocked - you can tweet. Amazing! 🔊 💾 Download this audio file. Tom Hume built an app which lets you post your call history on Facebook. It's not as creepy as it sounds! Remember "poking"? Well, a phone call is a private poke, in essence. So, your friends can see that you called X to wish them happy birthday. Jatrobot was the scariest looking hack I'd seen! [Image: Jatrobot] Herx The Vampire Slayer! The team had built a modern farming tool. It measured soil moisture, weather, gps, and a bunch of other stuff via mbed - then reported it all back via Android. Finally, my hack! This was the first time I'd entered a hack at OTA and I was unusually nervous! I took inspiration from Ariel Waldman's mesmerising keynote about creating accessible interfaces to science. I was reminded of the Music of the Spheres (not the Doctor Who episode!) - which is the idea that the movement of the planets and celestial bodies can be thought of as a musical arrangement. We can also tune in to the background radiation of the universe and turn that into music. My phone doesn't have a gamma ray detector - but it does have a solar radiation sensor - the Lux Meter! It also has a proximity sensor - so it can tell how far away my hand is from the screen. So, I created an ersatz Theremin! Having created a musical instrument (despite having no musical talent) I set about composing a work to be played via the medium of light. [Image: Terence Playing the Theremin at OTA12] [Image: Edent theremin ota12] I'm chuffed to say it worked really well and the crowd seemed to like it! [Image: ] Christian Payne@Documentally[Image: ] Still liking @edent’s ‘Music of the Geeks’ on his android theremin. Beautiful. :) #OTA12❤️ 1💬 0♻️ 015:32 - Sat 02 June 2012 [Image: ] Hadley Beeman@hadleybeeman[Image: ] Replying to @edent@edent got his Android to play music in response to hand waving & dancing in front of it. Great use of lux sensor & proximity sensor. #ota12❤️ 0💬 0♻️ 015:05 - Sat 02 June 2012 [Image: ] Grant Kemp@ukdatageek[Image: ] Replying to @edent@edent playing the music of the geeks. #ota12 pic.x.com/wos7nayj[Image: ] ❤️ 0💬 1♻️ 015:05 - Sat 02 June 2012 [Image: ] Craig Heath@heathcr[Image: ] #OTA12 @edent brings house down with smartphone music performance art :-)❤️ 0💬 0♻️ 015:04 - Sat 02 June 2012 [Image: ] Duncan Cragg@duncancragg[Image: ] Things I liked @overtheair: @edent's theremin app, @edent's QR code talk, Bernie Cohen's computing history, @emabolo's HTML5 & AppFire..❤️ 1💬 2♻️ 016:53 - Sat 02 June 2012 [Image: ] Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edent[Image: ] #OTA12 rather nervous about presenting my hack. Never performed music in public before.❤️ 0💬 0♻️ 014:05 - Sat 02 June 2012[Image: ] littlepurplegoth@HelenArmfield[Image: ] Replying to @edent@edent was fantastic... Want! (theremin 'proper' is my instrument on The List!)❤️ 0💬 1♻️ 015:09 - Sat 02 June 2012 [Image: @MrPJEvans .@edent just killed it at#ota12 - I want his app!] The app won one of the awards for Best Android App and was crowned Best In Show! Utterly gobsmacked, truly humbled, and over-excited to receive a Galaxy Nexus and a Raspberry Pi. You can download the theremin and read all about the technology behind it. Massive thanks to Dan, Maggie, Matt, and all the others involved in the highlight of the mobile geek calendar. I cannot wait for next year! ------------------------------ ␃␄