MiramarMike: Blog

ping, PING, flash, Notification, Icon, Bubble, PING ... who needs it during the holidays when we're away from the hustle and bustle of work life. So turn it all off! Android Open your device’s Settings app Tap Users & accounts . If you have more than one account on your device, tap the one you want. Tap Account sync . Turn off the apps you don't want to auto-sync. Note : Turning off auto-sync for an app doesn't remove the app. It only stops the app from automatically refreshing your data. iOS Open Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars . Under Accounts, tap on the account you want to disable. Toggle Mail OFF . (If you are disabling an IMAP or POP account, tap or slide Account to OFF.) Gmail 'Out Of Office' And let people know you'll not be talking with them until you feel the need to do work stuff again (if you ever have that need) On your computer, open Gmail. In the top right, click Settings       Settings . Scroll down to the &

So, we all know what "social media" is eh - you know, when you see headlines such as, " Putting social media training on your Christmas list ", " Former Facebook exec: Social media is ripping apart society ", " Argentina criticised for banning NGOs from conference over social media posts ", " Germany Names Chinese 'Spies' Hanging Out on Social Media " ... and the list goes on and on ... but we know what the "social media" that they refer is, don't we? Or maybe it's when your mate say, "God, I'm so over social media!", or perhaps, "I don't get social media, why do people bother?", or even, "Hey, I posted something on social media and it's really taking off" ... again, the "social media" in those sentences is clear, we know what it refers to ... don't we? Do you? This is what Wikipedia: social media says: Social media are computer-mediated te

Back in the day I worked at Fronde and I was also a very early user of Google Calendar which I found a lot easier to get access outside of the corporate network (these were days, hopefully, in the dim and distant past for Fronde employees now ... and for you?) Fronde had (and may still, who knows) on the last Friday of each month, drinks and a chance to let the hair down - you know, the standard IT company stuff. These were called "Friday 5's" A standing calendar invite was in everyone's calendars which I promptly included on my personal Google calendar by inviting myself. All of this was many many years ago ... hang on [checks LinkedIn ] ... I left Fronde in May 2008 so it's coming up for 10 years ago. And yet, in my personal Google Calendar there is the ghost of the invite. But the ghost can only be seen when I view my personal calendar via my work one (I've shared them across, saves me jumping in and out of accounts). Here it is: And yet, c

It's no use being called brave, as I was recently, unless I do things that make my breathing shallow, my chest tight and my heart race a little. As many of you will have seen on Facebook , and on Twitter and possibly many other on-line places, there is a LOT of "Me too" posts from women. These are women from all walks of life, all ages, all work types, all economic circumstances, in or out of relationships, and from all over the world. That's what I'm seeing from my friends on Facebook, so I know. In fact, as I look at that FB search, it's almost EVERY SINGLE WOMAN I am FB friends with. Every. Single. One. The "Me too" posts come in light of the amazing women who have recently called out a powerful movie producer for disgusting behaviour towards them and other women. It is not a one-off though. with previous reports of repulsive behaviour going back decades including people at the BBC, comedians on TV, US Presidents and I'm sure in the mu

Back in 2013 this question was posed on Twitter by @BR3NDA @MiramarMike @gnat would be interesting to see some stats. I look around myself right now and see very few NZ made. What's on your desk? — māmā of gadgets (@BR3NDA) February 18, 2013 And I thought I'd find out by popping up a quick Google Form. I created the form, started a blog and then wandered off to do other 2013 things. But the questions still stands ... so go on, have a quick look and let's see if we do buy NZ made or not ... Loading... source: Buy NZ made goods [1932] - Christchurch City Libraries

On the back of the highly successful NZ Rise TechWeek " Who Is IT Wellington " event, some internal discussion at NZ Rise and an ever increasing desire to bring together as many of the #WellyTech communities as possible I am going to propose that the following is put into everyone diary: Friday, 1st December, 2017, 4:30pm+ Venue: tbc, but will hold around 200 ... Cost: $20 / ticket (but wait, there will be ways to get free tickets) I am hoping that last year's amazing co-hosts are keen to continue to grow the wider community and will be looking to bring in more - reach out and make yourself/them known to me . BizDojo,  ColliderWgtn,  DevAcademy,  Geekzone,  NZ Rise,  Hack Miramar,  Open Data NZ,  and Rails Girls Wellington. And this year we will have a theme, "Connections" ...  Remember, there are only around 80-100k ICT workers in the whole of New Zealand. That includes everyone from the CEO's of software companies, CIO'

I love that you want to " Connect with me on LinkedIn " but there needs to be a bit more for me to accept. 1) Tell me why Simply asking to connect ain't enough - let me know why, is it for a particular job, because of my background, due to something of mine you read, looking to connect with someone I know or because you're playing the numbers game (don't use the last one). Giving me a reason is the simplest and easiest way for me to even bother opening up your connection request - for a start, it means LinkedIn makes it a little more prominent amongst the hundreds of notifications that are languishing there. 2) Give me a hint at how I might know you Have I already met you (I apologise, I can be quite shocking with names + faces), were we at the same event, did I do some work with you previously, am I in the same LinkedIn Group ... give me a clue. You don't need to be a close personal friend, or even to have met me in real life, but some sort of pr

I have been involved, in one way or another, with a number of "accelerators" both inside and outside of government. Most notably I was part of the inaugural contingent to the R9 Accelerator programme back in 2015 . The Result 9 ("R9") Accelerator is (ready for this?) ... it is: a project of the current government's "Better Public Services" programme of work within, the "Improving interaction with government" section, specifically, 'result area' number 9 (out of 10 in total ) titled, " Better For Business - Delivering Better Public Services To Business Customers " which is led by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment , and delivered in partnership with ACC, Callaghan Innovation, Inland Revenue, Ministry for Primary Industries, New Zealand Customs Service, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, New Zealand Transport Agency, Statistics New Zealand and WorkSafe.   So now you know! The project is del

I was asked two questions about the Access Granted road-trip we did for TechWeek 2017 - here's my responses (let me know if you spot them in the wild as well :) 1) What was one of the highlights of your road trip, in terms of the tech communities you met? All of the tech communities had their differences, their quirks and they all were passionate about the city or area they were based within. BUT, there was no community more passionate about learning about the coming age of tech and it's benefits to their community than that we met at the Silicon Mahia event (convened by the Poutama Trust). They brought together attributes of all of the places we visited - local people along to learn, involved kids, how they are solving the here and now using tech, national institutions looking to collaborate with start-ups, success stories, presentations that challenged the status quo AND each and everyone had their brains stretched with the what's rapidly approaching - it was

It's part of Hack Miramar to be open source, transparent and inclusive - that comes from who it is and the people that make up the community*. To that end I have always thought that we should share the "how" we do things - not thinking for one moment it is better than others, THE way or even the best way, but most certainly "a" way. I also have an experience in being parts of a few tech communities over the years, from agile, e-government, barcamps, open data, tech meetups and even the odd hackfest now-and-again. I've seen a trend in all of them. So how to share my thoughts alongside Hack Miramar's experience? Five ways: An open manual  (most definitely a WIP) A series of workshops A video An online course A book BUT why, what is the desired outcome from all of these things? Some background ... An attribute of all "movements" is that they are, initially, personality driven - there is a leader that stands up and proclaims a better

With Julian Carver's suicide after years of battling depression and alcoholism there has been much talk amongst many of us that suffer from "lack dog" about what can be done. In many circumstances, nothing could be done at that moment and the stark truth is the person intent upon killing themself is likely to do just that no matter what support or love is surrounding them - I have seen it too often, especially here in New Zealand. As Ben Kepes says in his article, Some open question about support within the technology industry…. , written after Juian's death: There have been, of course, social media outpourings of grief about his passing and assertions that we will all, collectively and individually, do better to support each other. While these are laudable statements, the reality is that outside of a few notable exceptions, our industry (and I write here about the tech industry in New Zealand specifically. But more generally it applies to the tech industry glob