Hacking the Big Apple- YRS NYC!

After several successful years of running the Festival of Code every August in multiple centers across the UK, Young Rewired State decided it was time to expand our hack events to a new locale. Last month, YRS ran it's first event outside of the UK, we are officially international!

 The YRS Everywhere program had its debut in New York City. YRS NYC was a huge hit in the concrete jungle.

We had 52 kids and 15 mentors take part over the two day event at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens. Not to mention 100 donuts. Over the weekend, these brilliant kids hacked the government open data of the Big Apple.

The experience of the participants was as varied as their ages. Ranging from age 6-18, our participants were skilled from beginning level to Ruby pros. The participants researched potential themes for their projects using NYC open data. Open data is data that can be accessed freely and is published publicly. Some of the themes we saw during the weekend were curated from data based on rat sightings in the city, graffiti locations, restaurant violations, movie timings, SAT scores, and restaurants with wi-fi.

Our Best in Show winners were City Scenes, which is an app that allows a new and intuitive way to explore the city via bike. The members of this team will be flown out to the UK to present their app at our Show and Tell during the Festival of Code in August. Pretty sweet prize, eh? All of the hacks created during the weekend can be viewed here.

Our awesome mentors were a huge part of the success of the weekend. Their extensive technical knowledge, paired with their patience and passion for coding made them the perfect guides to our participants.

Team YRS NYC was composed of Young Rewired State staff, Museum of the Moving Image staff, and Mozilla Hive Learning staff. YRS NYC was made possible by the generous contributions of SAP, the New York Community Trust, and Twilio. Treehouse were also very kind and have given all participants access to a free account!

Our NYC YRS participants were also remotely mentored by YRS alumnae in the UK using our IRC chat room and by following #YRSNYC and @youngrewired on twitter. Our community is very helpful in assisting one another through peer to peer mentoring, regardless of the YRSer's location.

It's safe to say our pioneer event in the states was a huge success! The Big Apple better be ready for us in 2014!

Pressing info about WordPress

Web logs have been creeping up and have grown very popular over the past 10 years. Over time, the name was shortened from "web log" to "blog." Blogs are a great creative outlet. They are like the (public) diaries of the 21st century. Blogs give anyone the chance to have an online presence and voice. Why do you think I use it? Some people create blogs for entertainment, others do it to share important information, still others do it for commercial reasons.

Regardless of your reason for writing or reading blogs, they have become a huge part of our online culture.

Mike Little, one of the co-founders of WordPress(and a mentor for YRS's Festival of Code) was kind enough to answer some of my questions.

What is your background, Mike?

I am a long term software developer. I wrote my first program back in 1978 whilst still at School. I started learning programming in earnest round about 1982 on home computers. I started my first professional computing job in 1990 and have worked in software development ever since.

What inspired you to create WordPress?

WordPress was a fork of an older piece of software that had been practically been abandoned. Matt(the co-founder) and I took that code- because  of its open source and licensing, we were allowed to do that- and updated it, fixed bugs, and released it as WordPress.

What makes WordPress different than other blog template sites?

WordPress is now much, much more than blogging software- it is used on some very sophisticated complex sites. But what set it apart in its early days was its ease of use(something it still prides itself in) and the modern(at the time) standards compliant output.

What advice do you have for aspiring hackers?

Get involved in an Open Source project. If you are not confident with coding, start by testing bug fixes that other people have created(usually in the form of patches or pull requests from a git repository) and figure out if the fix works, and why. When you become more confident, try creating your own fixes to bugs and submit those patches. Expect to find you've not fixed all cases or missed some aspect. On a good project, someone will give you a constructive criticism about your patch. And telling you exactly what is wrong with it in detail *is* constructive- it just doesn't always feel like it!

What's the next project?

My day job is developing WordPress solutions for clients, consulting, and training in WordPress. There is no "project."

Favorite code language?

No real favorites; I've worked in more than 20 programming languages and a good few mark up languages(including some I created myself) I do have a soft spot for Perl though I don't use it often.

Read any good books or seen any good movies lately?

I am always reading good books! I recently read the Game of Thrones set, re-read both the Twilight and Harry Potter series, and am currently reading a fascinating book. It is called "The Introvert Advantage" by Marti Olsen Laney, which is giving me some helpful insights in to my own head.

Whilst I love movies, I don't seem to find the time to watch any at the moment.

Readers, f you've got something to say, or really just want to vent, I suggest you start your own blog! Perhaps Mike can give you some WordPress pointerS!!

Giphy- The One Stop Shop for GIFs

When I first discovered Memes, I thought that there would never be a greater thing to distract me from being productive. What great entertainment they provide! Comedic photos with captions, what could be better? Then I discovered GIFs, or Graphic Interchange Format. Photo videos with captions! Brilliant!

GIFs were introduced by CompuServe in 1987. Much like everything that was produced in the 80's original GIFs were a bit tacky and overdone. (Think big shoulder pads, huge hair, fluorescent makeup, and lots of sequins and spandex.)

I stumbled upon Giphy a few weeks back. As soon as I realized what it was, I tried to pull away, but it was too late and I was already sucked in. This genius website is a compilation of thousands of GIFs. It makes it very simple to find themed GIFs and is an amazing GIF search alternative to Google.

Basically any themed GIF can be found using the search bar on the site. I spent about an hour on the Mean Girls category pages, alone. The opportunities for distractions from work, school, or the gym are endless. Enter with caution, it is addictive, but amazing!



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One of the founders, Jace Cooke, was kind enough to answer some of my questions about Giphy.

1. What is the background of the creators?

 As you know, the founders are myself (Jace Cooke) and Alex Chung. We've been friends and collaborators for a few years.  My experience is in product design while Alex is a true hacker, working everywhere from MTV to Paul Allen's R&D team.  We also both have had previous companies acquired (Facebook and Google, respectively.)  

2. What inspired you to create Giphy?

Giphy started as fun side project based on conversations about how and why people communicate (or could communicate) with moving images.

3. What makes Giphy different than other search engines?

Well, I can't say definitively that we were the first animated GIF search engine, but I personally don't know of any other sites collecting hundreds of thousands of GIFs in one place, with robust tagging and links to every source.  Plus I don't think of Giphy so much as a search engine anymore, but rather a growing destination for discovering, hosting and creating GIFs.  

4. How long did it take to create the site?(From idea to tangible, working product)

The first version of the site took ~5 weekends to build.

5. What advice do you have for aspiring hackers?

Pick a small problem that irks you.  Try and solve it.  Share your solution.  Figure out everything you did wrong.  Repeat.  

6. What's the next project(if you can tell me!)?

Giphy has become our full-time project for the foreseeable future.

7. Favorite code language?

Whichever requires the least lines of code

8. Read any good books or seen any good movies lately?

I'm obsessed with every essay and talk Bret Victor puts out.

Thank you, Giphy, for this amazing site!
 
Go for it. Giphy if you dare!

Bringing Inanimate Objects to Life Through Mascots

People of all ages seem to connect better when a character is involved. This can be a mascot or a logo, and adds to branding efforts of an organization. These mascots bring life to an idea or a concept. Some of the most successful mascots include:

 Mickey Mouse- Walt Disney World Company

 The Charmin Bear- Charmin Toilet Tissue

 Bud the Dog- Bush's Baked Beans

Ronald McDonald- McDonalds

 Energizer Bunny- Energizer Batteries

 Geico Gecko- Geico

Coca-Cola Polar Bear- Coca-Cola

 Red and Yellow- M&M's

Chester the Cheetah- Cheetos

And most importantly....

Ruby Rewired - Young Rewired State

Just as logos help people recognize a brand, mascots can do the same, but they up the ante a bit. A logo is a symbol that represents the culture of a brand, but a mascot can take on a life of its own, and push the brand representation one step further. This is particularly evident in college and professional athletics.

Creating a character mascot is one of the best ways to gain community for your brand. Your mascot must be easily recognizable and relatable to your target audience. Once a mascot has been created, people don't just see your product as what it actually is (toilet tissue,or a soft drink.) Your community will see your product for the statement your mascot makes, or the vibe it gives off. 

Utilizing your mascot is especially important in advertising. Whether it is an online, television or print ad, exposure of your mascot is a must in order to ensure correlation between your product and the mascot!

Not only does having a mascot increase consumer community awareness, but it can also increase internal awareness and pride for the brand. When employees can relate to their company's brand through a mascot, it increases their loyalty to their company.

Our Ruby is a little computer bug that represents the fun-loving and whimsical attitude of Young Rewired State. Ruby has all sorts of adventures and even dresses up from time to time. You can be sure to find her on:

Twitter: #YRSRuby @youngrewired

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RubyRewired?fref=ts

Au Natural? When Barbie-bots rule the world...

Let's face it, it's a superficial world we live in these days. Especially for young girls. They are taught at a very young age that "perfection" is reflected in their Barbie Dolls, their Bratz Dollz, Glittered makeup lines for children, and the biggest abomination of them all, glamour and glitz child beauty pageants.

Don't get me wrong, I love Honey Boo Boo and her crazy family. As a grown woman, I already know who I am and know NEVER to mimic that crazy little girl's actions. I'm afraid that the number of little girls that are praised for what is inside their heads instead of what is on their heads is still very small.

Many games geared towards young boys revolve around strategy, athletic availability, and engineering. Take legos for example, many of these themed lego sets are created to appeal to young boys. Why are there no Easy-bake ovens with "boyish" themes, teaching them how to be amazing chefs? Why doesn't Hot Wheels make any pink or sparkly cars, girls do drive too. Some even may way to become auto engineers someday. The self-esteem and gender gap aspiration issues begin with early childhood.

My biggest concern is the self-image young girls are holding on to these days. It is hard enough being a young kid as it is, but when "beauty" is constantly shoved in these adolescent girl's faces, it makes it much harder than necessary.

A study on teen health by WebMD revealed that the number of kids 18 and under having plastic surgery rose from just under 60,000 in 1997 to nearly 225,000 in 2003, according to statistics compiled by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.

This report that looked at eight years' worth of data on teenagers found that the most common cosmetic procedures in teens are chemical peels and microdermabrasion to treat acne, laser hair removal, nose jobs, ear surgery, breast reduction, breast enlargement, chin augmentation, and liposuction to remove excess body fat.

Some of these teenagers are as young as 13 years old. They are not even done developing and growing yet, and are already jumping to the "solution" of cosmetic surgery. Once they are adults, it is up to them what they want to do with their bodies, but as children and teens they should still be enjoying their youth.

Now, I don't want to come across as a hypocrite and say that I am au natural all day,  everyday. It is very rare that I leave the house without some concealer and mascara, and I've even been known to wear a WonderBra a time or two. But there is a massive difference between enhancing what Mother Nature blessed you with, and completely changing your entire body.

While bored and surfing the internet, I recently came across the most frightening thing I have ever seen. After countless plastic surgeries(although she only admits to one,) and thousands of dollars spent, a Ukranian model, Valeria Lukyanova,  has transformed herself into the "Human Barbie Doll."





 If only she were the only one. Below are other crazily overdone examples of females trying to look their version of beautiful.

Toddlers and Tiaras Contestant

Before and After "Glamour Shots"

Valeria Lukyanova- "Real Life Barbie Girl

Anastasiya Shpagina- "Real Life Anime Girl"

However, it is fun to dress up sometimes, as long as no surgery is required, and you are not a 5 year old with dentures, fake eyelashes, spray tan, and a stuffed bra(Toddlers and Tiaras reference...)

Fergie as a child pageant girl

My friend and myself during Halloween, 
Ethnic Ken and  Toddlers and Tiaras contestant

  

Gwen Stefani as Cinderella

Unrealistic goals to look like these idols:

What these young girls need to realize, is that there is nothing wrong admiring these characters. But they need to understand that their character idols are fake and are cartoon-like, and not meant to reflect the dimensions or proportions of real people. Sure, it is fine to dress up every now and then, as long as you know that it is a costume, and it does not define who you are. The real you should always be underneath your makeup, wig, or costume.

This is enough to discourage anyone from going under the knife:

Shout out to Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty. If only more companies would embrace natural beauty like they do!

  Dove "Real" Women vs. Victoria's Secret Models

A few weeks ago, I attended WOWHack, an event organised by Rewired State in conjunction with Women of the World Festival. What an inspiring thing to attend! Held at London's Southbank Centre, the festival featured keynote talks, concerts, performances, gigs, debates, and talks. There was a marketplace to purchase memorabilia, as well as several exhibitions and workshops. This stellar event was open to both women and men, of all ages, and from all different backgrounds around the world.

The purpose of the event was to celebrate International Women's Day, which took place on the 8th of March. At the Festival, women's achievements were celebrated, and their struggles around the world were discussed. People were not only talking about these issues, they were actually doing something about them!

During the weekend, a 2 day coding event took place. Participants were male and female and were a range of all ages. Our coders built web and mobile apps to express their views, and to try to aid in solving some of the issues that women face today.

A few of my favorite hacks that were made was an app measuring the gender gap in the workplace, another was a social networking site providing mentoring for women of all ages.

This event was just further proof of the great things that can be made, and the inspiring ideas that can spawn when great people put their minds together!

Splish Splash! Ring Ring!

What do swimming pools, toilets, sinks, washing machines, and drinks all have in common. Yes, they do all have a correlation to liquids, but they also can lead to the death of your phone. Everyone knows that liquids are technology's kryptonite. If only there was a way to waterproof our favorite tech gadgets....Eureka! There is!

There are now several options on the market to waterproof your electronic devices. One is a service offered by Liquipel. This southern California based company has been researching and producing innovative waterproof coatings during the past 5 years. No case is required to make your device safe to water. When your device is treated by Liquipel, a self-sealing nanocoating is produced that provides electronics with protection from exposure to liquids  This nanocoating penetrates internal and external parts of the devices, allowing complete protection. For treatment of your phone, it will cost you about $60-$80, which is a bargain compared to replacing your phone for $500+ or paying your insurance deductible.

Sony has just released its Xperia Z phone in India last week. It will be released soon to other countries. What's unique about this mobile phone, is that one of its standard features is that it is waterproof. I wouldn't recommend letting your phone live with your fishes, as it is not permanently waterproof. This remarkable phone can be submerged in up to 1 meter of water for up to a half an hour with absolutely no damage. With this phone, you can text in the shower, make calls in the swimming pool, drop your phone in the toilet, and no harm will come out of it!

Another option is to purchase a waterproof case. Lifeproof is a great company that specialize in endurance cases. They have a range of produces from iPhone, iPad, and iPods.(Apple produce users only for now, a case for Samsung Galaxy will be released soon.) A Lifeproof case will protect your gadget from dirt, water, snow, and shock. Never again will you be worried about the wellbeing of your device while at the beach, skiing, or if you drop it on a messy night out. This product makes your all of your iProducts indestructible!

Come hell or high water(literally) may your gadgets persevere!

Who Wears the Pants(suit) Now?

I recently read a very insightful article on Bloomberg Businessweek, written by Karen E. Klein. Here are my thoughts...

Let't just come right out and acknowledge the ever present gender equality elephant in the room. Although it is the 21st century, and we like to consider our generation as being modern, there is still unequal pay amongst men and women. This is an unnecessary gender gap. It is also unwarranted and not reflective of the real facts.

Now, I must preface by stating I am not writing this while I am standing on my soapbox,  simultaneously burning my bras(I need my bras!) I am simply taking a closer look at the facts.

As far as private technology companies are concerned, those that are led by women earn 35% higher ROI. Also, when the VCs are brought into the equation, these women-led companies have a 12% higher revenue than tech companies owned by male counterparts. This new research was shared at a 
Women 2.0 conference hosted in San Francisco. So why do women's paychecks not reflect this?

However, Brava! It seems the ladies are catching up! These ladies aren't just successful, with expanding bank accounts, they are beginning their journeys to success younger. The average age of women entrepreneurs founding tech companies is now age 32, much lower than the previous average age of 41. This information is backed by the findings of research done by Credit Suisse Research Institute, and Down Jones VentureSource analysis.

Although women are now earning more than 50% of all bachelors and masters degrees, and nearly half of doctorate-level degrees, these same women are starting only 3% of technology companies.

The conference was led by Vivek Wadhwa. He believed that there were too many young men in the industry working on social apps with no greater good to come out of them than simple entertainment.(Although, who doesn't love Angry Birds, Instagram, and Fruit Ninja?!)  Wadhwa urged conference attendees to aim high, and to work towards solving bigger international problems like poverty, lack of clean water, health care, and harnessing internet data. These same women have now begun to do good, and make an impact on the world with their tech and business savvy skills.

I personally would have loved to hear Mr. Wadhwa speak. I am a big fan of the fact that he not only encourages women entrepreneurs, but is an advocate for inclusion as well as equality. It seems all too often, we revert back to the "separate but equal policy." It doesn't have to be that way. Men and women can work together to create a synergetic effect. After all, two heads are better than one, and what is preventing one of those heads from having super cute hair cut on top of her genius brain?

You mean, Raspberry Pi isn't a Dessert?

I don't think there is a single person on this earth that would classify me as a "technical" person. I am famous for not knowing how to reboot my laptop, or how to switch the TV setting from Output 1 to Output 2 to watch a DVD. So it is not surprising that news of my internship with a networking company for technology professionals came as a shock to my friends and family. Hell, it came as a shock to me. During my interview, I kept repeating "Are you sure I'm qualified for this? I do events, I'm not a tech person." Nonetheless, I was hired for the position. Last September, I packed both of my 50 pound suitcases that I was allotted for my international flight from Tampa, Florida to London. I found a new apartment, I made a new life for my self, etc.  During my 6 month internship I learned many things.

1.  Do not trust landlords in the city.

1.  API does not stand for the American Petroleum Institute.

1. Ruby on rails has nothing to do with jewels or trains.

1. Raspberry Pi is not edible.

1. Crowd funding has nothing to do with getting paid to crowd surf.

1.  If you hire a fake snow machine for the office holiday party, do not drop it from the ceiling, it will break, and there will be a large fine.

1.  It doesn't matter what industry you are now working in, if you have ever worked for Disney, this is the only information about you that people you meet will care about.

1.  At any tech event, you will most likely be the only female.

1.  At all tech events, ironically there will be some kind of technical issue with the projector, sound, or any other type of A/V equipment.

1.  "Startup" is a term you will hear all day, everyday.

1. Catering in the startup industry= chips and beer

1. Decor in the startup/tech industry= a paper with the name of the event and the venue's wifi info taped to a wall.

1.  Bootstrapping is another term that will become part of your everyday vocabulary.

1. The last train, really means the last train. They do not come back to recover you. You will be stuck at your location until 6am the next day.

1.  Deals are done at the pub, not in the boardroom.

1. You must fake it 'til you make it, if you can't dazzle them with grandeur, then baffle them with bullshit.

1.  In order to fit in, you must know about footy, know your lagers and your whiskey, and learn the buzzwords( startup, hack, HTML, CSS, API, VC, etc.)

1.  If it doesn't have an acronym, chances are it is off little importance.

After learning these invaluable lessons, and as the end of my internship in London drew to a close,  I prepared to return back to the states. Although I really wanted to stay on this side of the pond for a while longer, finding work as a foreigner is not an easy task. I spent hours on job sites, stalked employers on Linkedin,  and reached out to every single soul I knew that I thought might have a connection. It seems that just as I had come to terms with my failure to find work in the UK, the sun came out and shone a ray of light that became the silver lining to my grey cloud(which there is no lack of in London!) An amazing friend of mine came across a job posting for a vacancy. He thought that I fit the description, and sent me the link, and I applied. Then...HALLELUJAH! I was hired!

I am beyond thrilled to be able to officially announce that I am the new Project Coordinator for Young Rewired State! YRS is  network of software developers and designers aged 18 and under. It is the philanthropic arm of  Rewired State and its primary focus is to find and foster the young children and teenagers who are driven to teaching themselves how to code, how to program the world around them. The aim is to create a worldwide, independent, mentored network of young programmers supported and supporting through peer-to-peer learning. Ultimately solving real-world challenges.

In short, I will be working for the organization and planning events that will help youngsters develop their coding skills, as well as meet a group of kids with similar interests, leading to amazing lifelong friendships and unimaginable innovation. At Young Rewired State, we are coding a better future.

I couldn't be more excited to embark on this new career path!