All Friday classes were in a brief, 45-minute format. This was because the conf started at 1pm, and i think to encourage people to take a few classes and get a feel for the systems and teachers – very cool idea. I took 2 – a Biz Dev class and a hands-on “optimize your mac workflow”.

First off, both were good. The teachers are obviously experts in their field, so don’t fret fellas. There’s also reviews on Skillshare and star ratings and such.

The biz dev class was mostly the instructor talking through slides, good info but honestly, i don’t ever remember anything in particular that stood out to me and something that I didn’t quite know before. Maybe it was because of the compressed version of his 3-hour class, and I had to run to the next class before he was done.

The 2nd class was a complete opposite – none of theory, all hands-on tips taught by a developer. I instantly knew it was gonna be great, because of the no-nonsense, laid back manner that Jeff was using. Or I’m just partial to fellow developers :) And I’ve gained a lot from the class just by watching him demo his mac tips. Extra points for recommended apps to check out (byword for markdown writing, alfred for search – I do think that spotlight does this just fine though)

All in all, very positive experience with Skillshare, already signed up for another one of Jeff’s classes on responsive design/coding, and watching a few of other cool ones. The classes are very affordable too, I know a couple of peeps who are teaching at NYU and it costs thousands (given, they are longer courses). Skillshare ones are shorter commitment, cheaper and more focused.

And last neat thing about checking classes out: they were all taught at coworking spaces (wix lounge, grind, hive55) so you have a chance to see how they look and know where they are, in case you wanna work outside the house/regular office. That’s what I call a Friday morning well spent.

To follow: notes on Skillshare Penny conf.

1) Custom shard balancer from GameChanger
2) Mongolian – node.js driver for mongo by Marcello
3) Variety – schema analyzer for mongo by James Cropcho

I especially enjoyed Marcello’s and James’ presentations, because both of them are so passionate about what they do and defy the awesomeness of NYC tech scene today: take a NYC-made product and make it better, and open source too. I took James’ ruby class a couple of weeks ago and it was great as well, his easy and engaging manner of speaking and unusual fashion sense just draw attention – highly recommended.

Shard balancer demo was very cool as well, but seemed to solve kind of a custom problem, which wouldn’t apply to as many mongo users as the other two.

Shard balancer (python): https://github.com/gamechanger/presplit
Variety: https://github.com/JamesCropcho/variety
Mongolian:https://github.com/marcello3d/node-mongolian

Remember to include at the very top of the page. That’ll do it.

Excited to get this done, WordPress sites are now easy as cakes :)

So after I’ve removed all suspicious files and the script in question, everything came back to normal. Phew!

And it was a good time to tidy things up anyways, so all’s well that ends well!

So I spent the past 20-30 mins removing that junk, only to discover that shady redirects were still going on. Then I looked into the root web directory, and there I found a non-previously-existent master htaccess file with same traffic going to basooo dot ru. WTF! Not only existing files were compromised, but also a new files were inserted as well.

Moving off hostmonster ASAP. Screenshot of the shady stuff: http://tanyanam.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Screen-shot-2012-04-13-at-11.28.07-PM.png

Deck: http://speakerdeck.com/u/searls/p/the-mythical-team-month

Video: http://vimeo.com/38321427

I don’t necessarily want to become a Ruby developer, but I’ve always wanted to at least know the basics and how it works and if it’s really as easy as they say to get up and running with a ruby/rails powered web app.

So what’s the answer? The short answer is: it is fairly easy to get the gist of it and put together a quick prototype. Gotchas: lots of things to install, and with any language, you have to know what you’re doing (things such as MVC, database schema design, version control, etc.)

Overall, it was a great experience! I loved that the class was full (30 people), close to 1/3 of them were ladies, and the instructor (James Cropcho) gave us plenty of hands-on time and was available to answer all questions (and chewed like 25 pieces of gum during the course of the class).

Will definitely be checking out more Glasses at General Assembly – highly recommended.

Everyone and their grandma already knows what the conference is about. Some bits I’ve heard: “spring break for nerds”, “pure awesomeness”, “if you’re a somebody in tech industry you have to be there”. All of those are true. But the conference is VERY popular, so be prepared to navigate your way through crowds and have stamina for days of learning and socializing and nights of partying.

This is a view from a first-time attendee, so please be kind and don’t stone me for some missed facts and parties that I didn’t catch (“You didnt’ see Jay-Z?! You loser!”).

When to arrive and when to leave

I’ve arrived to the beautiful cold and rainy city of Austin on Friday afternoon. That turned out to be a good day to arrive (a lot of people did), since the evening events were starting on that day, and it preluded the fun-filled weekend. I would suggest spending 4 days (Fri – Mon), to accommodate your day job (you only need 2 days off) and also get the most out of the conference. I really wished I stayed through Monday, but damn this day job, it didn’t happen. I know people who stayed longer, 5 days to a week, and they were pretty burned out by the time they returned. You can only do so many late nights of drinking in a row (if you can do more than 3 in a row, consider yourself my new hero).

What to bring

Yourself, energetic, friendly and ready to have a great time. I was in a shitty mood when I got there (fk work), but arriving in a new place excites me beyond reason and I got over it. Austin is fun, so be ready to have fun!

Comfy shoes. A cool pair of sneaks will work just fine. Water bottle. Phone charger. I’d recommend a small camera other than the one on the phone, to save battery and get better pix. Sunscreen. 2012 attendees: an umbrella and rain poncho. Others – disregard. It never rained in Austin like it did this year and it never will.

What is not needed: tshirts and shades – plenty of that stuff going around, so if you plan to rock jeans+tshirt look, you can arrive with your toothbrush, underwear and phone charger and be all set.

What to do first

At the airport, do a quick look for sponsored free rides. Fluent had a party bus this year picking people up and driving them to downtown Austin in style, with drinks, in a comfy big coach. There’s also a $1 shuttle to the city, it runs every 30 minutes.

After arrival, leave your bags at a hotel and catch a quick break. You have an option to head to the convention center and pick up badges, but beware – due to tremendous crowds this process can take more than an hour. I recommend getting badges early in the morning instead, the lines were much much shorter on Sat morning. Rather find yourself a happy hour to go to (you should have had one lined up before you landed, if you’re a somebody). I regretfully missed a vendor event due to the badge lines. Call this an early night, grab yummy dinner and go rest and get ready for the long day tomorrow.

The best place to stay btw, is Hilton, as it’s right next to the convention center. Other good ones are Omni, W, Marriott courtyard.

Catch me if you can

Once you get your badge, you’ll also receive a handy tote bag for your swag, and a schedule with info on all panels and locations. I did not plan anything in advance, just kind of picked them the day before and circled them in the brochure. There is about 5 time slots every day, and multiple tracks. I’d say pick a 2-3 that are the most interesting, mix them up, and spend the rest of the day outdoors exploring. There is a ton of snacking, drinking and fun and play options outside of convention center.

Note: popular speaker events tend to fill up quickly, so get there early. Frank Abignale talk was all filled up, so many people were turned down and had to go to this other panel one next door and catch a quick nap.

If you are with buddies, it’s much easier to move around in small groups of 2 or 3, otherwise it’s too cumbersome, unless you have one clear leader in a bunch of followers. There are apps like Sonar and Highlight that let you stalk each other, but honestly I didn’t wanna spend precious battery juice and did not use any. Speaking of juice, there are many recharging stations around, so look out for those. I’m a big believer that by next year some genius will solve the whole battery life issue and have the phones charged by sheer brainpower. There’s plenty of that stuff at South By!

There are free shuttles going around the campus, and also some gratis rides, like Twilio did this year, in case you’re not from New York and your poor legs are tired after a couple of hours running up and down convention center and 6th street. New Yorkers – high five!

Parties

Parties are awesome. This pretty much sums it up. Go to as many as possible, drink somewhat responsibly

Highlights this year

• Running into Guy Kawasaki! Seeing Dwight from the Office!
• Squarespace food truck with no lines in the rain, and eating hot dogs with some cool people
• Google village, robots and schemers
• Power of habits talk (albeit short), the author was very engaging and entertaining
• Seeing a huge amount of work involved in attending the event as a company and sponsoring stuff and throwing parties. Parties are a lot of work – who knew?
• Talking to strangers is awesome
• Salt Lick BBQ shared with a stranger at the airport – good food, great conversation
• $1 airport rides – should be instituted everywhere
• Sunny day in Austin, after 2 days of pouring rain
• Half hour of shopping on 2nd street before leaving Austin

For a third year, I’m making my own unique costume out of easily-obtainable items.  Let’s get to it: how to make a MacBook Pro outfit!

You will need:

- Silver or gray outfit.  I did a short-sleeved sweater and a skirt.  You can do a top and a bottom or a dress.  Sweater-like material works best because you can poke the el wire right through it and it’s thick enough to not be too transparent.  Also don’t forget about tights, shoes, etc. so you have a full getup.

- El wire to make a logo.  You can buy it online.  Here’s the one that i got: 3-foot white el wire. It is connected to an AAA battery and has a switch – super cool!

- Silver/gray thread and a needle

-  Printer (optional).  It helps to print out the actual Apple logo and then trace it with the wire.

- Black masking tape.  I got one at the Paper Presentation store in NYC, but I’m sure craft or art stores have them too.  Mine is about 1.5-2 inch wide which is perfect.  We will make keys with it.

- Silver pen.  I got mine at Paper Presentation as well. That store is absolutely awesome – they have everything and some more.

- Mad skillz!  Which I’m going to teach you right now.  Ready?

How to put it together

Step 1:  Print logo (can be skipped if you have an awesome visual memory and can do it without the printout)

Print out the Apple logo of a decent size that will go on the back of your outfit.  Here’s a quick tip on how to make it: on your Mac, open up any text editor, and press Option-Shift-K.  It will make a nifty little icon like this: ?

You can blow it up to any size (I did 500 or 550) and printed it on a regular letter size paper.

Then cut out the template.  You don’t need to separate the apple and the leaf, keep them together.

Step 2: Sew the el-wire in the shape of the Apple logo to your outfit

Lay your outfit (top) on a flat surface.  I did mine on the floor.

Take some pins and stick your printout to the outfit, make sure it’s on the back and symmetrically placed.  Apple is known for great design after all!

Put the el wire inside your sweater, and poke a hole right through the part where leaf meets the apple.  That would be our starting point.

Pull out most of the wire and start shaping the leaf.  Be careful not to bend it too much.  Start sewing the wire into the outfit.

Continue shaping the wire along the logo outline and sewing it onto your sweater.

Once done, pull the remaining el wire from the inside, and attach loose ends with pins or sew them in so you can comfortably wear it.

The end result should look like this:

Way cool!!! Notice that the thicker sweater works best because it’s not too transparent.

Step 3:  Make keys

Take your masking tape and start cutting keys in the square shapes with slightly rounded corners.  If you look at your Mac you should be able to easily copy the shape.  Write letters in QWERTY order (or any order for that matter! you can spell your favorite band’s name if you want!)

As you go, arrange letters nicely and symmetrically. I only did 3 rows of letters, without any function keys.  It’s up to you how many you want to do (guess depends on how patient you are).

Here’s what it looks like:

And the full front and back of the finished sweater:

Ta da!  Here you have it!  An awesome unique outfit that’s super fun and easy to make!

All you need is your hubby/bf/guy friend to dress up as Steve Jobs and come along and tell everyone about your awesome “features” :)  Enjoy!