irc – Jupiter Broadcasting

A minority of bitcoin community are forking to create a new version of bitcoin, called Bitcoin Cash (BCC) on August 1 that splits blockchain in two. It will have no impact on bitcoin balances, just will create a new token. That community miners and developers plan to create an alternative network to increate network capacity. Bitcoin Cash (BCC) will fork bitcoin’s existing software and transaction history. It brings new cryptocurrency tokens on a new blockchain with different rules. Anyone who has already bitcoins will have coins in both BCC and BTC after the fork.

First Blocks of the new Chain

After running into roadblocks this morning, miners were able to successfully create a block on a new blockchain, called Bitcoin Cash, at roughly 2:14 p.m. ET today.

Bitcoin Splits in Two Amid Feud t

Bitcoin Cash launches Tuesday in what is known as a “hard fork” from bitcoin, a virtual currency based on peer-to-peer transactions without any central authority or bank behind it. The new offshoot is a response to the increasing popularity of bitcoin, which is struggling to deal with massive numbers of transactions with its underpinning technology. The main bitcoin currency is adopting a system called Segwit2x that moves transactions out of the current blockchain, while bitcoin Cash will use bigger blocks within the blockchain.

Arguments against increasing the block size?

What exactly are the arguments against increasing the block size?

Gnome Lookin at GitLab

For a long time, GNOME has been using cgit for code hosting and Bugzilla for issue tracking. Over the years, these tools have become increasingly antiquated

Is Google Working on a JPEG Killer?

Pik is a new lossy image format for the internet. This directory contains an encoder and a decoder for the format.

Apache License

Windows Subsystem for Linux out of Beta

This will be great news for those who’ve held-back from employing WSL as a mainline toolset: You’ll now be able to leverage WSL as a day-to-day developer toolset, and become ever more productive when building, testing, deploying, and managing your apps and systems on Windows 10.

Linux Academy

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Meet Nitrux: The Most Beautiful Linux Distribution Ever

Nitrux is a new Linux distribution with focus on design. It introduces Nomad desktop which is built on top of KDE Plasma 5 and Qt.

Though Nitrux is based on Ubuntu, it is slightly different from other Ubuntu based distributions because it uses the unstable dev branch. So, the present release Nitrux 1.0 is based on still under development Ubuntu 17.10. Nitrux devs think that “this is close enough to a rolling release model”.

Krita Foundation in Trouble

In other words, because we’re mostly not a company, we should not have claimed back the VAT we paid; but we’re also considered fully a company, so we should have paid VAT in the Netherlands over Dmitry’s work, which we could not have claimed back because the Foundation is mostly not a company.

Firefox Test Pilot

Firefox Test Pilot – ⁨Send⁩

Send lets you upload and encrypt large files (up to 1GB) to share online. When you upload a file, Send creates a link to pass along to whoever you want. Each link created by Send will expire after 1 download or 24 hours, and all sent files will be automatically deleted from the Send server.

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Now that I really need it, Linux voice control is a nightmare.

I recently injured my hands and wrists and typing gets painful fast. Mouse use is not so bad but still sore. Need voice control and/or transcription software. Dictation (for writing) main need but voice control would be helpful too – I’d be glad of either.

Have tried 3: Simon, PocketSphinx, FreeSpeech. On Ubuntu 17.04. None work out of box. All may work with time & configuration but that hurts! I spent about 3 hours on each and needed a day’s break after each attempt. Usually like messing with command line etc but not right now.
It might work as a cool gimmick. But I think this prevents it helping those with disabilities. I am the only Linux user I know so can’t get help.

Hell. If any program needs to have simple (typing-minimal) setup/install it is a voice control program. I haven’t used Windows for years but may have to soon. So far all attempts to use Linux to ease my pain have hurt like balls.

Trying out Discord JupiterColony

Would like to test it as a feedback consolidator
Lets test out the HairCare channel.

TING

Ting – mobile that makes sense

Kicking off the Slackware Challenge

The Slackware Linux Project: Get Slack

The post The Stallman Line | LINUX Unplugged 208 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Uncontained Human Error | LINUX Unplugged 171

chris — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 21:04:34 +0000

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Follow Up / Catch Up

Signal Messenger is Secure

They conclude that it is impossible to say if Signal meets its goals, as there are none stated, but say their analysis proves it satisfies security standards adding “we have found no major flaws in its design, which is very encouraging”.

New MacBook Doesn’t Run Linux

The three primary issues here are:
1) The input devices are on SPI, not USB. Apple’s ACPI tables don’t provide the GPIO mappings for these things via the standard mechanisms, so the chipset driver won’t bind. You then still need another driver for the SPI controller, and there’s an out of tree one at https://github.com/cb22/macbook12-spi-driver/ . Longer term, the kernel needs to be able to parse Apple’s ACPI tables and that driver needs merging.

2) Apple’s NVME hardware uses the wrong PCI device class, possibly because it’s not entirely NVME compatible (trying to read 64 bits of mmio register space in one go will fail, for instance). Linux has a specific entry for the older Apple NVME devices, and that may need to be broadened.

3) Having source ID checking enabled when doing IRQ remapping results in the system hanging on boot. It’s unclear what the underlying problem is.
– mjg59 @ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12924051

LinuxFest Northwest founder honored with Cascadia Community Builder Award

In 1968, The Great Northern Railroad hired Bill, then a student at Western Washington University, because of his computer experience, which at that time consisted of using punched cards and perforated paper tapes. Bill became interested in Linux and the open source community in the late 1990s. With a few other computer nerds, he helped start the Bellingham Linux User Group in 1998 and its first LinuxFest in 2000. As BLUG and LFNW’s Treasurer, Bill has been involved with organizing and community outreach ever since.

“Linuxfest Northwest reaches a huge number of people,” said Emily Dunham, who serves on the award committee. “Bill is a great example of what the award is about.” The award committee hopes that Bill Wright’s tireless work will continue to inspire other free software activists in the Cascadia region.

Budgie withdrawn from Open Build Service

Please note that as of Budgie 11, support will be withdrawn for the OBS repositories for the Budgie Desktop for openSUSE and Fedora.

This will ensure that the Solus project is no longer maintaining external repositories for Budgie Desktop. As a desktop environment, it is vital that it is well tested, and well integrated, into other distributions.

Unfortunately, in the 3 years that the OBS repo has been maintained by the Solus team (Ikey, personally), nobody has stepped forward to maintain the repos, and we’ve seen no news of remaining downstreams trying to integrate Budgie into their parent repos (Budgie Desktop wiki in openSUSE says to use the OBS repo)

The Linux Foundation’s Core Infrastructure Initiative Renews Funding for Reproducible Builds Project

The grant extends the contribution to include Debian developers Chris Lamb, Mattia Rizzolo, Ximin Luo and Vagrant Cascadian, as well as extending funding for Holger Levsen. Furthermore, this contribution adds support for Ed Maste, working with FreeBSD.

While anyone can inspect the source code of free software for malicious flaws, most Linux distributions provide binary (or compiled) packages to end users. The motivation behind “reproducible” builds is to allow verification that no flaws have been introduced during the compilation process by endeavouring that identical binary packages are generated from a given source. This prevents the installation of backdoor-introducing malware on developers’ machines as an attacker would need to simultaneously infect all developers attempting to reproduce the build.

“Ensuring that no flaws are introduced during the build process greatly improves software security and control,” said Lamb. “Our work has already made significant progress in Debian GNU/Linux, and we are making our tools available for Fedora, Guix, Ubuntu, OpenWrt and other distributions.

Linux Desktop 0-day from a NES emulator?

A vulnerability and a separate logic error exist in the gstreamer 0.10.x player for NSF music files. Combined, they allow for very reliable exploitation and the bypass of 64-bit ASLR, DEP, etc. The reliability is provided by the presence of a turing complete “scripting” inside a music player. NSF files are music files from the Nintendo Entertainment System

This exploit abuses a vulnerability in the gstreamer-0.10 plug-in for playing NSF music files. These music files are not like most other music files that your desktop can play. Typical music files are based on compressed samples and are decoded with a bunch of math. NSF music files, on the other hands, are played by actually emulating the NES CPU and sound hardware in real time. Is that cool or what? The gstreamer plug-in creates a virtual 6502 CPU hardware environment and then plays the music by running a bit of 6502 code for a little while and then looking at the resulting values in the virtualized sound hardware registers and then rendering some sound samples based on that.

NES Classic joins the “can it run Linux” club

TING

Ting – mobile that makes sense

PSA: KDE Neon users are requested to perform a full reinstall

The package archive used by KDE neon was incorrectly configured allowing anyone to upload packages to it. There is no reason to think that anyone actually did so but as a precaution we have emptied the archives and removed ISOs built before this date. The archive is being rebuilt and ISOs regenerated.

Solution:
Upgrade to the latest packages once rebuilt.

You can bypass linux disk encryption authentication by pressing the enter key for 70 seconds

An error in the implementation of the Cryptsetup utility used for encrypting hard drives allows an attacker to bypass the authentication procedures on some Linux systems just by pressing the Enter key for around 70 seconds. This results in the attacked system opening a shell with root privileges.

Encrypted data is safe, but attackers can get root privileges on targeted systems.

Major Linux security hole gapes open | ZDNet

Can Linux containers save IoT from a security meltdown?

Security is a selling point for these products, and for good reason. The Mirai botnet that recently attacked the Dyn service and blacked out much of the U.S. Internet for a day brought Linux-based IoT into the forefront — and not in a good way. Just as IoT devices can be turned to the dark side via DDoS, the devices and their owners can also be the victimized directly by malicious attacks.

In this final, future-looking segment of our IoT series, we look at two Linux-based, Docker-oriented container technologies that are being proposed as solutions to IoT security. Containers might also help solve the ongoing issues of development complexity and barriers to interoperability that we explored in our story on IoT frameworks.

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The End of the General Purpose Operating System

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Post Show

+ [fix-windows-privacy: new tool to automate getting your privacy back on Windows 10](https://modzero.github.io/fix-windows-privacy/)

The post Uncontained Human Error | LINUX Unplugged 171 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

The Internet is Dying | TechSNAP 279

chris — Thu, 11 Aug 2016 06:07:42 +0000

Why the Internet needs it’s own version of cancer researchers, bypassing chip and pin protections & the 2016 Pwnie Awards from Blackhat!

Plus your questions, our answers & much, much more!

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Fixing this Internet before it breaks again

“What we call the Internet, was not our first attempt at making a global data network that spanned the globe. It was just the first one that worked.”
“There is no guarantee that the internet will succeed. And if we aren’t careful we can really screw it up. It has happened before and we can do it again.”
“Kaminsky, who was delivering the keynote to over 6,000 Black Hat USA 2016 attendees, said problems that need to be addressed within the security community are political, technical and how the security community collaborates.”
“The internet doesn’t have the equivalent of ‘the guy’ that’s working on cancer. We need institutions and systems. We need to have something like NIH (National Institutes of Health) for cyber. It needs to have good and stable funding,” Kaminsky said. Research, problem solving and solutions are too often conducted in fiefdoms that seldom share the collective solutions needed to help fix the big security issues of the day. “I’m worried. I’m worried about our ability to innovate and our ability to create and I’m worried that we are not building the sort of infrastructure to make the internet a safe place.”
“By taking a NIH type of approach, Kaminsky argued, the internet would foster a large number of deeply committed security experts to work independently and away from commercial interest that push the security sector to come up with quick fixes to solve big security problems. “We need to make changes and we need to have studies about the way we program and the method that people use to build secure things”
“So what I’m looking to answer is – forget the layers of abstraction and the politics – how do we get 100 nerds working on a project for 10 years without interrupting them or harassing them and telling them to do different things. How do you make that happen? How you don’t make that happen is how we are doing that in InfoSec today – and that’s with the spare time of a small number of highly paid consultants. We can do better than that”
“Kaminsky doesn’t see the NIH approach as a panacea to all that ails the security world. In fact, in his talk he described a delicate balancing act where the security community derives the benefits of broader administration without being hamstrung by potential politics. Control, greed and companies driven by profits, he argue, killed the internet of the 1990s. He argues AOL tried to create a walled garden and control everything and make billions. But that internet failed”
“There are two models of an internet. There is the walled garden and freedom. The walled garden is, ‘okay here is your environment and go ahead and try to use it.’ The other model is that people can put stuff up and other people can use and abuse it. People don’t need to ask for permission they don’t need to beg. Maybe it works and maybe it doesn’t.”
Are Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, taking us towards their own versions of AOLs walled garden of the Internet?
How often does your family’s internet browsing actually leave Facebook?
He warns, the same way AOL’s walled garden threatened a free internet of the 1990s, government control over encryption could have the same stifling effects on innovation and cyber liberties. “Let’s stop the encryption debate. This is actually useless. It’s driving all the energy away from what are we need to fix,”
Topping Kaminsky’s fixit list was devising better ways for the security community to collectively move the security ball forward and not view security solutions as individual races to win. “Let’s take our obscure knowledge and real expertise and making it available the rest of the security community,” he said. By sharing knowledge and solutions it allows us to find flaws quicker and fix them even faster.”
It is not about the splashiest vuln with the coolest name, or having the fastest fix, it is about being in it for the long term, and actually fixing things.

Researchers bypass chip and pin protections by attacking the PoS terminals

“The payment industry is becoming more driven by security standards. However, the corner stones are still broken even with the latest implementations of these payments systems, mainly due to focusing on the standards rather than security.”
“Credit card companies for the most part have moved away from “swipe and signature” credit cards to chip and pin cards by this point; the technology known as EMV (Europay, MasterCard, and Visa) which is supposed to provide consumers with an added layer of security is beginning to see some wear, according to researchers.”
Except in the US
The chip card transition in the US has been a disaster
“Nir Valtman and Patrick Watson, researchers with NCR Corporation, staged a series of malicious transactions in a talk here at Black Hat on Wednesday, demonstrating how they could capture Track 2 data and bypass chip and pin protections.”
“Instead of attacking the operating system of the POI and POS devices, the researchers bypassed much of the built-in security. This includes integrated cryptographic security schemes. Breaking crypto, after all, is very hard. That’s because cryptography is just math, and math (for the most part) works. But the crypto is just part of the overall security system, the other pieces of which are vulnerable to attack. This was made even easier since much of the information the team sought in their attacks was not encrypted on the payment device.”
“In their first demonstration, the duo used a Raspberry Pi to capture Track 2 data packets in real time. Via a passive man-in-the-middle compromise, Wireshark picked up two interactions from data entered into a pinpad running flawed production software that’s currently in the wild. The two declined to specify the company’s name, but claimed they had spoken with the vendor and asked them to implement TLS connections, but said they couldn’t as they ran old hardware.”
“The garbled data can be transformed into readable bits, service code expiration data, discretionary data, and so on, data that can tip a hacker off whether the card is a chip card.”
The pair showed how easy it’d be to use a malicious form to trick a consumer into re-entering their PIN or a CVV on a card machine. “Consumers trust pinpads, they usually think they entered it wrong,”
“According to the two researchers, attackers could compromise a pinpad – by injecting a form, Malform.FRM in this instance, when no one’s in the store and quickly change it back to a customized “Welcome!” message. Both Valtman and Watson advocate that pin pads leverage strong crypto algorithms and allow only signed whitelist updates. Point of sale pin pads are usually PCI certified but the two pointed out PCI doesn’t require encryption over a local area network, which is how an attacker could carry out a MiTM attack.”
So they used the API of the payment terminal to trick the user into actually typing in the CVV, so they could capture it.
They also socially engineer the user into thinking they mistyped their PIN, and having them enter it a second time. One of which is not expected by the software, and is instead captured by the attackers software
“Consumers should never re-enter their PIN, as it’s a telltale giveaway that a pin pad may have been compromised, Valtman claimed, before adding that he usually frequents stores that allow him to pay with his Apple Watch, as he finds the technology more secure than EMV”
“It’s cool, but not a secure standard,” Nir said.
“As part of our demos, we will include EMV bypassing, avoiding PIN protections and scraping PANs from various channels.”
Slides
Additional Coverage

The 2016 Pwnie Awards!

The Pwnie Awards is an annual awards ceremony celebrating the achievements and failures of security researchers and the security community.
The awards are given out once an year. The tenth annual ceremony will take place on Aug 3rd, 2016 in Las Vegas at the BlackHat USA security conference.
Best Server-Side Bug: Cisco ASA IKEv1/IKEv2 Fragmentation Heap Buffer Overflow
Best Client-side bug: glibc getaddrinfo stack-based buffer overflow
Best Privilege Escalation Bug: Widevine QSEE TrustZone
Best Cryptographic Attack: SSLv2 Crypto Attack DROWN
Best Backdoor: Juniper ScreenOS
Best junk or stunt hack: remotely killing a jeep on the highway
Best Branding: Mousejack
Epic Achievement: Never giving up, and never letting us down: Travis Ormandy
Most Innovative Research: Dedup Est Machina Memory Deduplication as an Advanced Exploitation Vector
Lamest Vendor Response: Western Digital: MyPassword Drive
Most over hyped bug: Badlock
Best Song: Cyberlier
Most Epic FAIL: no one…!
Lifetime Achievement Award: Mudge — L0phtcrack, DARPA’s cyber security program
Epic 0wnage: The Juniper Backdoor
Honourable Mentions: ImageTragick, Stagefright, SETFKey (1999), BlueCoat getting an Intermediate CA, Insecurity of self-encrypting drives, 60 Minutes hacked phone, BACKRONYM

Feedback:

Round Up:

The post The Internet is Dying | TechSNAP 279 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

One NAT to Rule Them | LINUX Unplugged 153

chris — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 20:33:48 +0000

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Chris discovers he’s being snooped on by his ISP, we discuss some Linux friendly solutions solve the situation. Is Linux Mint 18 really the best Linux distro every? Or should Ubuntu 16.04 be getting more of the credit?

Plus our chat with a Matrix.org developer, Solus goes rolling, Unity on Windows & building a long-term financially sustainable open source product.

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Follow Up / Catch Up

Linux Mint 18: The best desktop — period | ZDNet

I’ve been using Linux desktops since the leading desktop front-end was Bash. Things have changed in those 25 years. Today, the best Linux desktop is the latest version of Linux Mint: Linux Mint 18 Sarah with the Cinnamon 3.0 interface.

Linux Mint 18 reviews roundup | InfoWorld

Latest Vivaldi Browser Snapshot Improves Tab Hibernation on GNU/Linux Distros

“Good news for Linux users! You can now hibernate tabs while the browser is running,” said Magnus Peter Langeland. “Choose Hibernate Tab to hibernate the selected tab or Hibernate Background Tabs to hibernate all other tabs in the window. Oh and remember, you cannot hibernate a tab while you are viewing its contents.”

ICSI Netalyzr — Command-line Client

Debug your Internet.

Any good Linux friendly VPN providers?

3G and 4G LTE Cell Coverage Map – OpenSignal

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You Can Now Run Ubuntu Linux with the Unity Desktop on Top of Windows 10 – Updated

After doing all sorts of tricks in the CompizConfig Settings Manager (CSSM) GUI configuration tool for Compiz, and using a combination of VcXsrv and XLaunch, two applications for configuring and setting up a Windows X server, he has managed to run Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS with the Unity desktop environment on top of Windows 10.

Linux’s AV Stack Adding Awesome Features

Beamforming in PulseAudio | Arun Raghavan

Beamforming as a concept is used in various aspects of signal processing including radio waves, but I’m going to be talking about it only as applied to audio. The basic idea is that if you have a number of microphones (a mic array) in some known arrangement, it is possible to “point” or steer the array in a particular direction, so sounds coming from that direction are made louder, while sounds from other directions are rendered softer (attenuated).

Practically speaking, it should be easy to see the value of this on a laptop, for example, where you might want to focus a mic array to point in front of the laptop, where the user probably is, and suppress sounds that might be coming from other locations. You can see an example of this in the webcam below. Notice the grilles on either side of the camera — there is a microphone behind each of these.

Introducing GStreamer VR Plug-ins and SPHVR – Lubosz’s Blog

Pronounced sphere, SPHVR is a python video player using gst-plugins-vr. Currently it is capable of opening a URL of an equirectangular mapped spherical video.

CopperheadOS – Secure Android

CopperheadOS currently supports the Nexus 5, Nexus 9, Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P.

TING

Ting – mobile that makes sense

Nylas N1

Nylas Pro

But right now, Nylas N1 is also free as in free beer, and that’s a problem. Due to its popularity, the API traffic for N1 users has dramatically eclipsed the combined volume of all other apps built on the Nylas Cloud APIs. We already sync several hundred terabytes of data for our users and are adding tens of thousands of new users each month. It’s costing us real dollars.

Does anyone here use Nylas?

Dekko Is Shaping Up Nicely for Desktop Convergence

Dekko developer Dan Chapman shared some images of a new, converged Dekko for the desktop on Google+, under the title “An all new Dekko is coming!”.

Linux Academy

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What’s Going on with Matrix.org?

Ruma – A Matrix homeserver written in Rust.

Matrix is an open specification for an online communication protocol. It includes all the features you’d expect from a modern chat platform including instant messaging, group chats, audio and video calls, searchable message history, synchronization across all your devices, and end-to-end encryption. Matrix is federated, so no single company controls the system or your data. You can use an existing server you trust or run your own, and the servers synchronize messages seamlessly. Learn more in the Introduction to Matrix.

Say Hello To Vector! — Medium

This week, we’re officially launching Vector, a forward-looking open source collaboration app, and the very first production-ready application built on top of the Matrix open standard. In fact Vector Web has been around for a bit, growing and being polished with the help of a passionate community of pioneers and they’ve done a great job of supporting us with useful feedback! And now the mobile apps are out! So today Vector is ready to be shared more widely as a proper beta.

Interview with Matrix Dev

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The post One NAT to Rule Them | LINUX Unplugged 153 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Bot Your Life | CR 200

chris — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 08:23:09 +0000

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Has the whole world gotten hot for bots? Slack’s recent $3.8B & Microsoft’s new Bot SDK suggests there is serious interest there. Mike and Chris share their thoughts & ask what makes a bot…. A bot?

Plus the surprising math that makes us shed a tear, feedback & more!

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— Show Notes: —

Hoopla

Mobile Games Still Dominated By VIPs: New Report Finds Over 48% Of All In-Game Revenues Are Generated By Only 0.19% of Players | Business Wire

Slack’s New Funding Garners Nearly $4B Post-Money Valuation | Re/code

The round values Slack at about $3.8 billion

I am so hot on this: https://t.co/T28OX7smSZ #Microsoft nice job @MSDN

cc @Xaccary @ChrisLAS #ai #bots

— Michael Dominick (@dominucco) April 2, 2016

Bot Framework

Build and connect intelligent bots to interact with your users naturally wherever they are, from text/sms to Skype, Slack, Office 365 mail and other popular services.

Microsoft Tay Lasts < 1 Day

Feedback

Mike Is Doing it Wrong re Swift

The post Bot Your Life | CR 200 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Garbled Transmission | TTT 235

chris — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 12:00:16 +0000

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Bittorrent client Transmission gets hit with Ransomware, Facebook pays out $15k to a hacker & Microsoft is bringing SQL to Linux. It’s a HUGE edition of Tech Talk Today!

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Kickstarter of the Week

The post Garbled Transmission | TTT 235 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

The Six Rings of Ubuntu | LINUX Unplugged 130

chris — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 18:46:13 +0000

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Why Linux Mint’s X-Apps are a bigger shakeup then you might realize, bricking your laptop with a Linux command & Dell’s new Linux distro.

Plus we celebrate 15 years of VLC, a quick look at Tails 2.0 & more!

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Pre-Show

Shout — The self-hosted web IRC client

The self-hosted web IRC client

Follow Up / Catch Up

15 years of VLC and VideoLAN

Pacman-5.0 Released | Allan McRae

As is becoming tradition, I need to make a blog post to accompany a pacman release! This is a big release with a long awaited feature so it needed a major version bump (and, most importantly, we now are back ahead of the Linux kernel in version numbers).

Here’s What’s New in Arch Linux’s Pacman 5.0 Package Manager

Tails – Tails 2.0 is out

We are especially proud to present you Tails 2.0, the first version of Tails
based on:

GNOME Shell, with lots of changes in the desktop environment.
Debian 8 (Jessie), which upgrades most included software and improves
many things under the hood.

TING

Ting – mobile that makes sense

Your laptop could be bricked with a single Linux command

The directory that destroyed the system, which is at __/sys/firmware/efi/efivars/__stores information and scripts that the computer uses to boot using the more _modern EFI standard, which is a replacement for the decades-old BIOS._

Canonical Is Looking for Participants to a “Ubuntu Apps in Unity 8” Research Study

The research study is lead by Ting-Ray Chang, a user experience researcher at Canonical, and it is targeted mainly at Ubuntu or Fedora user in the London (United Kingdom) area. Why Fedora? That we don’t know!

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X-Apps… The Hell?

Has Mint gone crazy with success?
Linux Mint Is Getting Its Own Apps Starting with the 18.x Branch

“X-Apps will be a collection of generic GTK3 applications using traditional interfaces which can be used as default desktop components in Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce. In Mint 18, the ‘X apps’ will allow us to maintain a native look and a good level of integration because they will be used in replacement of GNOME applications which now look foreign (using headerbars and a distinctive layout),” Clement Lefebvre, the leader or the Linux Mint project explained.

The Linux Mint Blog » Blog Archive » Monthly News – January 2016

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Dell serves up its own disaggregated OS

OS10 is based on a native, “unmodified” Linux kernel that can support a broad range of applications and services from the Linux ecosystem, Dell officials say. Dell claims this differentiates it from Cumulus Networks’ Cumulus Linux and HP’s OpenSwitch effort for disaggregated and “open” network operating systems.

Dell to ship XPS 13 Developer Edition Linux laptop with Skylake | Computerworld

The next XPS 13 Developer Edition is “closer” to shipping and so discounts are being offered on older models, George Barton, a senior technologist at Dell, said in a Google+ post. Older models are powered by Broadwell chips, which preceded Skylake.

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Post Show

What would you do if GitHub shut down tomorrow? | InfoWorld

what would you do if GitHub shut down tomorrow?

The post The Six Rings of Ubuntu | LINUX Unplugged 130 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Linux: Bug or Feature? | CR 188

chris — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 17:43:33 +0000

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Ang and Mike discuss business operational tools, practices & common issues, how Ang got her kids started on computers, good languages to get started with & she makes a pretty poignant comment about Linux. Mike discusses TarDisk & whether or not he recommends it & more!

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The post Linux: Bug or Feature? | CR 188 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Sharing with Intent | WTR 45

chris — Wed, 21 Oct 2015 14:40:26 +0000

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Angela is the Operations Manager of “ALL THE THINGS” at Jupiter Broadcasting but also a mother of three. She discusses her journey in tech as well as her kids’.

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Transcription:

ANGELA: This is Women’s Tech Radio.
PAIGE: A show on the Jupiter Broadcasting Network, interviewing interesting women in technology. Exploring their roles and how they’re successful in technology careers. I’m Paige.
ANGELA: And I’m Angela.
PAIGE: So, today, everybody, we put Angela on the hotseat, ask her a whole bunch of questions about Jupiter Broadcasting, about being a mom, about how technology has improved her life or changed her life, and a lot about sharing and connecting with other people. It’s a really good interview.
ANGELA: Well, I have to agree, if I say so myself. But, before we get into this interview about me, I’d like to mention that you can support the network and Women’s Tech Radio by going to Patreon.com/today. That is the Jupiter Broadcasting bucket. The main bucket where you can support pretty much any show on the network. And when you go there, specifically, you are supporting Women’s Tech Radio. Patreon.com//today.
PAIGE: And we get started with today’s interview by just chitchatting with Angela.
So, Angela, thank you for joining us on Women’s Tech Radio. It’s really fun to finally put you on the mic since you put me on the mic a while ago.
ANGELA: i know, like two months ago, at least.
PAIGE: Yeah, much longer, actually.
ANGELA: Really?
PAIGE: Yeah, it’s been quite a time.
ANGELA: Wow, time flies.
PAIGE: It does.
ANGELA: Oh my gosh, is it going to be a year in November?
PAIGE: I don’t know. We need-
ANGELA: I think we started in November.
PAIGE: We need what, eight more episodes after this to do 52.
ANGELA: Well, that’s if you count by episodes. But I mean, like time.
PAIGE: Well, yeah, time. It’s about November, yeah. That’s crazy.
ANGELA: Wow. Yay.
PAIGE: I love it. So, what people want to know, what I want to know, is kind of like what this journey has been like for you. And I think that we’ve heard some about how you got started in tech. How you, through the different interviews, and I guess I would like to know some of your story of like what it’s been like to really be immersed in tech, especially in this broadcasting end of things. Where we’re in this age of no gatekeepers, you know, you can just put things out on the interwebs, like we do with this show. What has that done to your life? How has it been interesting? How has it be, like kind of coming from a semi-technical background into this media that’s so richly technical on both sides; where the topics of Jupiter Broadcasting are technical and the work itself is technical. Talk to me about that.
ANGELA: Okay. So I think from that, I would like to talk about I have always been one that has wanted to help others and educate others, and that is kind of the foundation of anything I do. And the technology that has developed over the last 10 years just magnificently supports it. It just is. It’s completely natural and even in middle school when we first started using technology, you know, I have the LiveJournal account. You know, I was dabbling in the small parts of the internet, but then, well being with somebody that always wanted the latest technology really helped, you know. I started on a Mac and I really, for some reason, I guess it could have been anything. Actually, you know what, i didn’t start on a Mac, but once I started on a Mac, I guess is what I mean. I feel like it really opened up my opportunities. I started using Soundtrack. That was specifically the thing that I moved to Mac for.
PAIGE: So, for people who don’t know, what’s Soundtrack?
ANGELA: Soundtrack is recording and music compilation software and it, it was like some crazy amount of money, like $300 or $400 at the time. This would have been like 2002. I was writing songs and I was using software that ran on Linux before switching to Soundtrack. But when I went into that Apple store and they had Soundtrack on demo, I grabbed a couple tracks and I put something together and it was amazing. And then a couple weeks later I bought it and I tried it. And I assembled those same tracks and now I have a song that I made. It was really cool. So I am a very creative person and that is another way that the creativity and the educational or desire to educate aspect really do goh hand in hand. I was a mommy blogger. That’s kind of been on hiatus for a little while. I do the Fauxshow, which is really a show that is whatever I want to talk about, but I always to grab things that–like if I told you that I was going to do a show on a certain topic, you might be like eh, yeah. But once you were there, you would be interested in it, because it would be a lot of different sources. And whether they be right or not, that’s debatable, but it’s not a real show, you know.
PAIGE: Yeah, right. It’s a fake show, a faux show.
ANGELA: Yeah, so in terms of Jupiter Broadcasting, I was a lot of the backend behind the scene operational side. You know, the accounting, the, you know, all that behind the scenes stuff. But once we put up the green screen in our third bay garage and started doing show there, I started getting more interested in the chat room and would hang out after Jupiter At Night. And that’s kind of where the Fauxshow started. I started just talking to the audience and the audience talked back and it gave them a personal touch and also involvement. And I really think that it solidified a whole new community aspect of Jupiter Broadcasting. And just from there, I just started getting to know the community and being more active in the IRC, which automatically got me more involved with the technology stuff and then now here I am doing Women’s Tech Radio.
PAIGE: Right. Awesome. Yeah, I mean, I”ve always been really impressed by your ability to share across a lot of different platforms.
ANGELA: I think people would call me an oversharer.
PAIGE: Yeah. Well, I don’t know. I think that you have a great way, like in person you connect with people really well, and I get to witness that. But I think that you, and I feel like that’s kind of a feature for me as well. But you also have this awesome way of bridging that to a digital audience. Like to people, like, even before I met you, I kind of felt like I knew you, because I had seen the Fauxshow and I had seen your Twitter. I had been following you on Google+ for a couple years. And then I showed up and I met you and I’m like, this is totally the Angela that I expect. You have a great ability to bring yourself across. How do you do that? Is that natural?
ANGELA: I guess it must be.
PAIGE: Yeah.
ANGELA: Yeah.
PAIGE: Does it just like occur to you, hey this is a moment that I should share or do you have to actively think about it?
ANGELA: Well, a lot of things, when I, when I make the decision to share something, it’s because I think that it will, likely it will help somebody else. That’s why I started MomVault, my mommy blog. Because there are things–it’s kind of like, it’s not that I want to share the hard sides of parenting or anything, because there’s a lot of harder articles in there, like getting allergy testing and cosmetic surgery for Dylan and things that people don’t want to relive or share or whatever, but there are so many moms and dads out there that kind of rely on knowing that they aren’t the only person that has to hold down their son while their ear is sewn back on.
PAIGE: I mean, it’s it’s the reason we do this show.
ANGELA: Yeah.
PAIGE: It’s just to know that you’re not alone.
ANGELA: Yeah.
PAIGE: That this is possible. You can get through it. You’re not alone.
ANGELA: Yeah.
PAIGE: I think that’s a really important, that’s a really fascinating way. I’ve always struggled with sharing. Some of my friends have been like, you really shout tweet, and I’m like, I don’t know how to tweet. Well, I know physically how to tweet.
ANGELA: No, she doesn’t. I know her in person, she doesn’t.
PAIGE: It’s so true. I’ve had people, I’m as bad with Facebook too. Somebody was like, you need to change your profile picture on Facebook. It’s been there for a long time.
ANGELA: I was going to tell you that earlier.
PAIGE: Oh man, okay.
ANGELA: Oh my gosh.
PAIGE: I have to sit down and really, really dig around every time, because I just don’t do it. I’m just not a natural sharer. But I think, thinking about it as helping people, I like that.
ANGELA: Yeah, and I feel that due to my creativity and my directness, bluntness-
PAIGE: I like directness, that works.
ANGELA: And conciseness, or being concise, my articles aren’t, there’s not a lot of fluff and I’m not trying to make money. You know, like on MomVault, but it just, I just can, I don’t know. I do like helping people and I know that MomVault has helped a lot of people. I think Fauxshow has helped a lot of people.
PAIGE: Yeah. I think even your Instagram is helpful. I love seeing your Instagram stuff. It kind of, I’ll be like rolling along and then I’ll see this, you’re, they’re always so positive. You just have so much positivity in your photography.
ANGELA: Well, I try. There’s some negatives, but yeah.
PAIGE: Okay. Well they are by in large.
ANGELA: Yeah. The thing is, this is weird to say, but in the past somebody has asked me, oh my gosh, that’s a great picture, what camera did you use? And I kind of laugh. It’s not the camera, it’s the person.
PAIGE: Yeah.
ANGELA: It’s me. Like, yes, it took a good picture, but I framed it. I worked with the depth. I worked with the colors and the lighting and figured out how to capture the moment. And I choose only to share those pictures, because I do take a lot more pictures than I share.
PAIGE: Yeah, well.
ANGELA: As would anybody. I don’t keep all those pictures. You know, there’s a lot of photo 101 things that I think I could probably do a whole show about.
PAIGE: Could you do a Fauxshow about it?
ANGELA: Probably. I have done quite a few Fauxshows about the photos, but anybody can take pictures of their kids. But what really–who cares about my kids? You know? Like who cares. There are people that care and they care because of the thought and the time and effort behind the picture.
PAIGE: Yeah, you put intention into it.
ANGELA: Yeah.
PAIGE: Yeah.
ANGELA: And it’s not just, oh here they’re smiling again.
PAIGE: You made me care about a snail the other day. You had this picture of a snail and I was like, that is totally true.
ANGELA: Right. It was about the little things in life.
PAIGE: Yeah.
ANGELA: Yeah. And I just– I didn’t step on him on the way to or from the bus stop. On the way to the bus stop I thought, I’m going to take a picture of that snail on the way back. And I did. I got down on the sidewalk and I took a picture of the snail. I took one where it had just the pavement as the background, and then I took another one, because I was like, oh the sun is shining over there. Maybe I can get a glow on the snail. So I took two pictures and I chose that second one that you ended up seeing on Instagram.com/MomVault.
PAIGE: Nice plug.
ANGELA: I know, right? So, I think everything I do has meaning and I hope that it would help other people in any way. I know that there are a lot of viewers, listeners of Jupiter Broadcasting that see my pictures on G+, Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook that, not rely on it, but it’s very, very welcome.
PAIGE: It’s a value add to my day.
ANGELA: Yeah. Unlike maybe other people in their life that add pictures that don’t necessarily have the charm, the quality, or the focus. Which, I’m not trying to put people down, at all. I”m just-
PAIGE: No, you have a skill for that. It’s definitely there. And the intention, it means a lot. Like art without intention is just craft.
ANGELA: Yes. Yes.
PAIGE: I think.
ANGELA: Yes.
PAIGE: I think that’s the big differentiator between craft and art. Craft is something you can do; art is something with intention.
ANGELA: Yes.
PAIGE: And I realize that may be a really over simplification and some of my art major friends are going to be upset with me for saying that.
ANGELA: Right.
PAIGE: But that’s my take. And I love that about your work. It’s part of working with you. You always intention, which is great.
ANGELA: And attention to detail. That’s for sure.
PAIGE: Yeah. Yeah. Which is a nice add to me.
ANGELA: But I really like the social networking. I love the fact that people from around the world watch my show or listen or see my pictures and comment on it.
PAIGE: Yeah. The way technology has changed that is mind blowing.
ANGELA: Uh-huh.
PAIGE: I just can’t even really actually wrap my head around that.
ANGELA: Yeah. And honestly, it took me so long to get on instagram, and I was such a snob about it. I’m like, man, who wants all their pictures to be square. And now, like even though my phone has the square option, I still them full, but I, I’m like, okay, will that fit in a square.
PAIGE: You eye is automatically looking for a square.
ANGELA: Yeah, it kind of changes, it kind of changes how I take pictures.
PAIGE: I am going to call you out on something thought.
ANGELA: Okay.
PAIGE: You’ve got to fix the video thing. The portrait video has got to go, man.
ANGELA: Oh, that wasn’t me.
PAIGE: That wasn’t you? Okay. Good.
ANGELA: Yeah, that was, that was Jenny, yeah.
PAIGE: Okay. Good.
ANGELA: But yes, I am guilty of that though. And I am guilty of taking more portraits than landscape. I need to do more landscape.
PAIGE: Yeah. I’m a landscape junky, but that’s because I grew up–when I worked as a photographer for a while I was doing landscape photography and architecture photography, so it’s always landscape, especially for architecture.
ANGELA: Is landscape for landscape?
PAIGE: I know, shocking. Shocking.
ANGELA: It’s a lot easier to frame something square using portrait, to me. Even though, regardless, either way you know that-
PAIGE: How do you–so do you like still apply photography basics, like two thirds to square? Does that work?
ANGELA: I don’t know.
PAIGE: Do you know the two-thirds rule?
ANGELA: I don’t think so.
PAIGE: Oh, awesome.
ANGELA: I know, right?
PAIGE: The rule of thirds. So the idea is that if you break things up into three sections; one section, two sections, three sections. I’m using hand gestures which is super helpful for the radio. But that the, if you break a rectangle into three sections the focus of your photography should land on the separation between either section one and two or section two and three.
ANGELA: Oh, no. No. I don’t, I don’t use that. But, I’m not–okay, so a lot of people think a good picture is a centered picture.
PAIGE: No, that’s exactly what that’s fighting against.
ANGELA: No, I know. I know. And I do that. I do do centered sometimes. But there was a picture recently of Abby with a quote, and I intentionally had her off to the side so that I could put the quote there. So I don’t necessarily follow that rule, but I don’t stick to centering.
PAIGE: It’s internal, yeah.
ANGELA: Yes, correct.
PAIGE: Cool.
ANGELA: I have variety.
PAIGE: I believe that. I’ve seen it. So, a little talk, big switch here. I”m going to use some insider info. You’ve got three kids.
ANGELA: Oh man, now everybody knows.
PAIGE: No, that’s not the insider info.
ANGELA: Oh.
PAIGE: I know that they all use computers.
ANGELA: Yes.
PAIGE: And what do you think, like as a mom, how do you approach that? There’s a lot of information out there about-
ANGELA: Yes.
PAIGE: It’s good, it’s bad. How do you–and I know that because we’ve just talked about the fact that you’re always acting with intention, how do you do that intentionally with your kids.
ANGELA: Okay. That is a great question, Paige. So i–my first born is a son and I imagined him holding a mouse and keyboard at like a year.
PAIGE: Yeah, well with the house that he’s growing up in, right?
ANGELA: Right.
PAIGE: Yeah.
ANGELA: But was actually not until his fifth birthday, right? No, sixth birthday, just before his sixth birthday that I introduced him to the keyboard and mouse.
PAIGE: Oh wow.
ANGELA: On my computer.
PAIGE: So before that, was he still using tablets or something?
ANGELA: Yes. He was using iPads, yes.
PAIGE: Okay.
ANGELA: And he understands them freakishly well. All three of my kids do. But there was a little bit if a curveball with Dylan with the keyboard and mouse, but Minecraft is a good motivation.
PAIGE: He’s determined because of Minecraft. It’s a good motivator.
ANGELA: Yes. Yes. Perfect.
PAIGE: Had he done Minecraft, so jumping in, had he done it on the iPad first?
ANGELA: Yes. Pocket edition.
PAIGE: Okay.
ANGELA: Yeah. And I honestly cannot do it on the iPad, because it’s weird.
PAIGE: I haven’t tried.
ANGELA: You have to use both hands. Which, I know, it sounds like a really–it’s just so weird on a touch screen.
PAIGE: You’re old now.
ANGELA: I know. Yeah, he reminds me of that every day when he’s like, oh mom ,did you know about this in Minecraft. I’m like, yeah, I’m been playing Minecraft for four years, but no, I never knew that. Or that’s new. That’s an update since I’ve played. Just all three of the kids have done really well with learning on Ipads. Once Dylan started on his laptop, Abby expressed interest as well. And I wanted them to be able to play Minecraft together. So she actually started just after she turned four, or I guess, yeah, ish. She is four right now and she is playing Minecraft on the computer. I made it fun. I did L and R for left and right on her mouse. I did different stickers so she could learn WASD. And then also added stickers for esc and one other one that I can’t remember. But basically, it made it a lot easier for her to learn it.
PAIGE: Wow.
ANGELA: Yeah.
PAIGE: Full disclosure. I was hanging out with Abby and she was obsessed and asking all night last night if she could show me how to play Minecraft.
ANGELA: I know, yeah.
PAIGE: Which is hilarious, because she would actually have to show me how to play Minecraft, because I have not ever played. Well, I played for literally five minutes on a Raspberry Pie once, because it’s the one thing they include on the Raspberry Pie.
ANGELA: Oh, that’s funny.
PAIGE: Yeah, that’s it. At some point she will have to teach me how to play Minecraft.
ANGELA: Well, I ran into an issue where her iPad can no longer play Minecraft, because the OS is no longer updatabalbe.
PAIGE: Is iit a 2 or?
ANGELA: Yes. And I accidently did a Minecraft update just broke it. So she plays on her computer now. But that freed up her iPad so that Bella could play on it. And so there’s educational games on there. Learning her ABCs, learning how to count, just learning the whole touchscreen interface. And I rely on that heavily.
PAIGE: How old is Bella?
ANGELA: She’s two. She just turned two. I rely on that heavily in the morning when she gets up between 4:30 and 6:00. I leave the iPad on the beanbag in my room and she comes in on her own and sits down and plays it.
PAIGE: I’m really impressed. I have a nephew, he’s three, and he loves the iPad. It’s definitely a reward for him. It’s very careful, like when he can use the iPad and when he can’t. Especially because he’s a bit jack smash, so he likes to smash things. So, the iPad, of course, being a very expensive piece–and he hates the case–like we got one of the kid case things and that was good when he was two, but now it’s no, he won’t touch that one. He has to have the real iPad. But the amount that he has learned on the iPad is really impressive. I think the educational games have really stepped up their game from when I first looked at them. Do you think it’s like–do you worry about them spending too much time on these devices?
ANGELA: Yes and no. There’s something that I have done very right, and I can’t pinpoint what it is. But I can say that my kids have a really good balance of outdoor play, social play. And by social play I just mean like when we’re at parks they play with other kids. When we’re at the children’s museum they play with other kids. We’ve done a lot of play dates. I literally at one point would drive the kids to the park, let them out, let them play for two minutes, and then say okay let’s get in the car. Just to get them used to it. Because parks are fun and they want to stay there, but I needed them to get over the, I want to stay here. Why can’t-
PAIGE: This is going to sound terrible, especially to all the moms out there, but you worked on recall with your kids.
ANGELA: Yeah.
PAIGE: Yeah, that’s what we call it with dogs.
ANGELA: Okay. Yeah.
PAIGE: They’ll come when you call.
ANGELA: Same thing with technology.
PAIGE: Oh, okay.
ANGELA: They don’t freak out when I say no to TV. They don’t freak out when I turn off the TV.
PAIGE: I have noticed that.
ANGELA: Yeah, they know that it will still be there tomorrow or later, or whatever and that I’m redirecting them, or that I’m redirecting them to something that could be equally or more fun. Or feed themselves.
PAIGE: So did you do the same sort of thing where you kind of set small time limits for a while so they got used to that or was it just kind of more natural on that?
ANGELA: It was very organic. There’s never really been a time limit. There was a slight concern when Dylan developed a tick where he was squinting his eyes a lot and I thought, oh gosh, maybe it’s because he’s sitting too close to his iPad.
PAIGE: Yeah.
ANGELA: So I did limit it for two days as a temporary thing, but then he just got over it.
PAIGE: Okay.
ANGELA: I have never really done hard fast, but if in a pinch and I need to get work done and they can be–the older kids can be playing Minecraft and Bella can be on the iPad, yeah, we’ll do it.
PAIGE: And do you guys use the parental features on the iPad-
ANGELA: Yes.
PAIGE: Where you can lock down certain apps?
ANGELA: Absolutely. I also use it on Abby’s computer, though I recently had to take it off, because Minecraft runs a lot of websites in the background.
PAIGE: Huh.
ANGELA: Yeah, I don’t know what that is about, but every five seconds it was popping up with a parental control. You can’t access this website. Allow once or always. And then I’d have to type in my password. Then it would happen again next time. So it was really–in fact, I guess OS 10 switched away from using, well I don’t know if it was OS 10 of Mojang, but the Minecraft launcher no longer uses Java and so when I got the new launcher it couldn’t fully download the executable, because the websites websites were blocked.
PAIGE: Interesting.
ANGELA: I couldn’t figure out why the launcher wasn’t working and so I signed out and then, or signed in as an administrator.
PAIGE: I have to say, for as big a market as kids are, I used to work professionally as an in-home technician and I would go places. And one of the most requested things was parental setups, because it’s so confusing. It’s so not supported by so many things.
ANGELA: Have you looked in OS 10 parental controls? It’s fantastic.
PAIGE: No, they’re really good, but they’re complicated for non-technical people.
ANGELA: Well, maybe.
PAIGE: Maybe.
ANGELA: Because the default is, you can strap down, no websites for these educational ones, and they’re actually meant for kids. It’s perfect.
PAIGE: Right.
ANGELA: Then you can add websites that are okay. Which, obviously, there are a lot of websites so you would run into the constantly being limited.
PAIGE: Yeah.
ANGELA: But it has only allow the computer to be signed in during these times and after an hour, that was all very user friendly.
PAIGE: Oh, okay.
ANGELA: I haven’t used it yet, because Abby doesn’t really need it. They play Minecraft every once in awhile, but I was so impressed with that when I saw it. It would be, you could set it by day.
PAIGE: I actually used a parental control account when I first started working remotely to limit myself to only my work sites.
ANGELA: Ah, good for you.
PAIGE: Because I was having focus problems.
ANGELA: An you locked your phone, right?
PAIGE: I would log in-
ANGELA: You locked your phone away.
PAIGE: Well, at the time the phone was not great for that sort of thing. It was tiny. It was like iPhone 3 or whatever so it was a tiny, tiny screen. Not cool like they are now, but it’s really cool. So, you’ve kind of had this journey. You’re a mom, you’re working in a small business, it’s all in tech. Have you found that it just kind of flow together with your life? Do you feel like having a career that is technology based and kind of some of the, the freedom that we get because of that has worked well with being a mom? Has it been bad, because you can kind of–because you can work anywhere, do you work more? Like-
ANGELA: Right. Well, that is a very loaded question, because it’s not like working for a company remote, right? Like a different company.
PAIGE: Right.
ANGELA: When you work for yourself there, it’s really hard to limit yourself to 8:00 to 5:00 or whatever. I think it’s definitely been a struggle, because I had to adjust my perspective and expectations of working while having three kids. You know, getting mad at them because I can’t get a task done is just–it’s just not okay.
PAIGE: That’s just bad for everybody.
ANGELA: Yeah, and so, and because of that I decided that I needed solid blocks of time where I could focus and so about two years ago I hired a nanny that would come into the house a couple days a week, give me that ability to focus, and then the kids–I mean, I wasn’t neglecting the kids, but obviously, I can’t focus on them and the company at the same time.
PAIGE: Yeah, I mean, it’s not neglect. You’re setting up quality time for both, because it means that when your’e with the kids-
ANGELA: Exactly.
PAIGE: You’re with the kids. And when you’re with the company you’re with the company.
ANGELA: Right. Yes. Yeah. So it’s definitely a struggle and adjustment and I think it just varies, really from person to person and situation to situation, but you just have to–I’m of the mind–and this happened really early on when Dylan was an infant, or almost almost a year old, that really they are my life. They are the priority. They are the focus. And they will pretty much always come first.
PAIGE: Yeah.
ANGELA: And that’s pretty well, I think, relayed in, in my photography.
PAIGE: Yeah, i think in the way that you share.
ANGELA: Yeah.
PAIGE: Also in the way that you kind of–the way you move through life it’s very obvious that your kids are that level of importance to you. But it seems so healthy. I’ve very impressed by that.
ANGELA: Yeah.
PAIGE: I’m not going to lie. You really impress me as a mom and as a not mom. That’s kind of hard to do, because I don’t know a lot about momming.
ANGELA: Sure.
PAIGE: Is that a word? Momming.
ANGELA: Yeah, coined right here, Women’s Tech Radio.
PAIGE: There you go. I think mothering is the appropriate term.
ANGELA: Mothering, yep.
PAIGE: Yes. Which sounds like, I don’t know.
ANGELA: Don’t add an S, it’s not smothering.
PAIGE: Oh, that’s terrible. I love it. You’re so funny.
ANGELA: I know. No.
PAIGE: So what has been the hardest part about tech for you? Because I know we’ve talked some and you’ve been–like some of interviews that we’ve done-
ANGELA: Yes. Right.
PAIGE: You kind of get this glassy look where you’re like, I wish I understood. And it’s not just a glassy look. It’s like a look of, I wish I understood more of what you guys were talking about.
ANGELA: Yeah, well, you know, the inferior complex or whatever.
PAIGE: Imposter Syndrome?
ANGELA: That is exactly what I meant, yes. That definitely happens, but not like–I feel like if I just, if I just learned a little bit it would give me enough in to have a better perspective, but because I haven’t been able to take a class or a course or learn one language or any kind of programing or whatever. I know a little bit of HTML, but I just, yeah. I feel like if I learned one language it would help me kind of better understand other languages.
PAIGE: Yeah.
ANGELA: And other things.
PAIGE: Honestly, it’s the fundamentals help you, it’s vocabulary.
ANGELA: Exactly.
PAIGE: Most of learning programming is vocabulary.
ANGELA: Yes. Yes.
PAIGE: At the beginning at least. I mean later on there’s all sorts of other things.
ANGELA: Right. Right. And I haven’t exactly had the time to focus or–I’d really like to do Linux Academy.
PAIGE: Yeah.
ANGELA: Or some other kind of-
PAIGE: Codecademy or whatever.
ANGELA: Yeah. To get to learn stuff. But I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know, because I don’t know it. I don’t know if that’s a direction. I know that I like database. But I don’t know if I could do that on a daily basis. You know? Or if that would my passion or career. Right now, I’m pretty satisfied with the business operational side of things.
PAIGE: ANd you are very good at it.
ANGELA: And social networking. But I’m not opposed to learning more.
PAIGE: You know, I don’t even think necessarily I’m going to look at you and say, well you should be a programer, it’s an excellent career. Well, of course it’s an excellent career. I like it. I love it. But I think that, you know, I’m not quite on the everybody should learn to code train. I think anybody who has interest should try it. You know, like anything else. How do you know if you like ice cream if you don’t try it.
ANGELA: Right.
PAIGE: Trust me, you’ll probably like ice cream.
ANGELA: Right. Unless you’re my kids and you ask if it can be warm. Yeah.
PAIGE: Wow.
ANGELA: Yeah.
PAIGE: That’s a thing. So do they like bread pudding?
ANGELA: I’ve never fed them bread pudding.
PAIGE: It’s like warm ice cream. You should try.
ANGELA: Gross.
PAIGE: It’s an English thing.
ANGELA: Okay.
PAIGE: I’m super English. It happens. Well, I think that I would totally be happy to commit to, we should do a lesson on air.
ANGELA: I think so too.
PAIGE: Okay. We’ll look up some stuff. We’ll talk about some options. We could either do a stack talk where we talk about what actually makes all the stuff function or we could talk about a specific language or maybe both.
ANGELA: Now, keep in mind that I’m very, very direct. So, and I’m going to ask stupid questions.
PAIGE: There is no stupid questions.
ANGELA: Well, okay. I’m going to ask questions that will probably make you giggle.
PAIGE: You’d be surprised. I’ve taught hundreds of beginners at this point.
ANGELA: Okay. Okay.
PAIGE: So, I’m not worried about it.
ANGELA: Okay.
PAIGE: Yeah, I think that, as long as people are asking questions it means they’re engaging.
ANGELA: Right.
PAIGE: If you sit there and don’t ask question, that’s when I’m like, are you stupid or something son?
ANGELA: Wow.
PAIGE: Yeah, no, not quite.
ANGELA: Judgement.
PAIGE: Yeah, super judge. No, you know, I’m going to call you out. You should engage. Ask questions. Anybody who is out there trying to learn to code, don’t feel like it’s a stupid question. At some point somebody had to figure it out. And, you know, maybe you’re working with one of the savants who started coding when they were six, but the likelihood of that is rare.
ANGELA: Right.
PAIGE: I remember, I spent almost six months trying to just understand the very, very basic concept of object oriented programing. Just understanding what it was. I just couldn’t even get my head around like waht is this? Not even just how to do it. That was a whole separate journey. It was like, I don’t get it. I don’t get it. And it look going to four or five different meetups, asking a whole bunch of questions, finally finding a book that kind of filled in those gaps. If I hadn’t asked those questions, I’d still be stuck. And they felt like, of course they felt like dumb questions. I was years into my programming journey and I don’t get this really fundamental concept, like what the heck.
ANGELA: Yeah. I took an environmental class in college where I was the only person to ever ask questions.
PAIGE: Oh my goodness, that’s terrible.
ANGELA: Yeah.
PAIGE: I hope the rest of the class failed.
ANGELA: Well, I don’t know, but nobody really had very high grades. But I was complemented by other students about how I was able to ask questions regardless, you know, just because I wanted to know.
PAIGE: If you’ve got a question, especially if you’re sitting in a room full of people, likelihood is someone else has that same question.
ANGELA: I know.
PAIGE: And they’re just not willing to ask it.
ANGELA: Yep.
PAIGE: Yep. And it sucks. I’m totally that person. I step up and I ask questions, because I know that I can. I know that people need it, but I hope other people will do it too. The pivotal question, what are you the most excited about about technology?
ANGELA: I knew. I knew you were going to say that.
PAIGE: Well, then I’m going to ask you the stack question too, so.
ANGELA: Uh, I don’t know what that is.
PAIGE: That’s okay.
ANGELA: Okay. So, um, I don’t know anybody at st-, no that’s slack. Okay. Technology. I am really excited about user experience. Essentially one of the interviews that we did today. The Cornbread app has my mind blow. I really hope that we see more companies that provide something that creates an almost all inclusive personal touch experience built on a community. I’m really like the community oriented everything. That is just so cool to me.
PAIGE: What I said, technology for connection, not consumption.
ANGELA: Yes. Yes. Exactly. We can all be on the internet for hours consuming, but, well, I was going to say what is the value, but there is value in that. But I really like the connection.
PAIGE: Yeah. I do think that we’ve–you know, and I rail against this and a lot of my friends know I’m fairly anti-Facebook and even Twitter, I’m much more picky about things. Because I think that there’s a lot of this mindlessness that goes on now.
ANGELA: Yeah.
PAIGE: You know, it’s the same with where TV is or was. You know, at the same time, you can just kind of sit there and you aren’t getting anything out of it except distraction.
ANGELA: Right.
PAIGE: And distraction and escape can be really valuable. Like I don’t deny that. I definitely have my moments where I’m like, I’m just going to go look at Facebook for half an hour, because I just need to zone out. But that’s what I’m doing, I’m zoning out. I’m not adding to myself. I’m not adding to my community. And I think that being able to separate that and find the ways where we are providing value to ourselves and to each other is really important. I think that tech is, we’re on the verge of some of those breakthroughs again.
ANGELA: Yeah.
PAIGE: Like with Cornbread.
ANGELA: Also, i did a recent–well, I guess it’s probably been over a year now, but I did a Fauxshow on the Buy Nothing pay groups. The Buy Nothing groups on Facebook. It’s so amazing. In our city it was split into five different groups, because we’re big enough. And I am getting to know all of my neighbors. And so I posted on the Buy Nothing, where you can either give stuff away or accept things. You know, ask, hey I need this. I had put, you know, I am looking for anything owl related for my daughter’s birthday. She’s going to be two soon. You know, this was like in July. And one gal, she had an owl shirt that I could wear. And it was perfect. IT was one size too big, but, which is actually flattering, because, you know, so it was good. and it was black, which is perfect, with silver, and I love silver. It was just so perfect. And then as I was picking it up and meeting her she said, oh, do you have a cake being made yet? And I was like, well no. And she said, let me do her cake. And, you know, honestly the skeptic in me was like, I don’t know. I mean, I could see her living condition. It wasn’t horrible, but I’m like, I don’t know if I really want her, like can she ever make a cake. Is this one of those people that thinks they can do something.
PAIGE: You just never know.
ANGELA: But I’m not going to burst the bubble. I was like, yeah, sure.
PAIGE: Good. Yeah, step out in faith.
ANGELA: I’ll pick up and maybe, maybe it will go in the garbage and maybe it will be amazing. It was amazing. I was amazing.
PAIGE: I think it’s really, it’s sad awesome to me that we have to go out-
ANGELA: Yeah, I know.
PAIGE: We essentially have to send things into space and let them come back to connect us to the people right next to us. So, it’s sad and awesome. It’s like, oh man, I wish I could just go knock on my neighbor’s door, but at the same time-
ANGELA: Yeah, but we used to have to use horses.
PAIGE: Yeah. Yeah.
ANGELA: It’s not much different.
PAIGE: No, it’s not. And we’re definitely-
ANGELA: Like, there’s even more connectivity than back then.
PAIGE: Yeah. I agree with you. I love, as excited as I am about like wearables and internet of things and all these other interesting parts and smart homes, and some day I will build Jarvis. This is on my to-do list. The fact that I can start to use technology to connect with the people who are physically around me is so valuable to me. And especially someone who, I work remotely. I work by myself. Without things like meetup, I would be a really miserable person.
ANGELA: Yeah.
PAIGE: Meetup.com has changed my life.
ANGELA: Yeah, and really, the IRC changed my life. I’m like, wow there’s a whole community out there. There’s a lot of people. I don’t know. It really opens up possibilities. And then, since she made that cake–and she didn’t make it. She actually didn’t make it. She has a friend that works at a local grocery store that made it. She has since, she bought Bella and owl sweatshirt.
PAIGE: Aww.
ANGELA: Yeah, and it was so crazy. Yeah, I mean, it was just so cool that people can be so selfless. And that’s what I like to do. I like to give away things to the community. But I also buy, I also sell. I also use the buy/sell pages, which are also awesome.
PAIGE: No, there’s still value there. Like, I’m getting something cheaper than it would be in the store, for sure.
ANGELA: Right. Or getting rid of something.
PAIGE: Yeah, both sides of it are important. Yeah. I had this kind of pivotal experience, which I say a lot, but I traveled for two years in an RV all across the US and I loved it. It was really fascinating. But the thing that really impressed me, because I kind of always believed this, but didn’t really have proof, but people are good people. I think by in large anywhere you go, people want to do good things. We all, I think we’re wired for it. We get a lot of value out of providing for others. Out of helping out. It’s biogeochemical at this point.
ANGELA: Yeah.
PAIGE: You know, we get dopamine when we do good things for people.
ANGELA: Right. Yeah.
PAIGE: It’s legit. I don’t know if I believed it until I did this journey and it was, like I really do. Like random things, like you know coming up to Chris at OSCON for the first time and being like, hey. And then meeting you guys. And you’re like, yeah, let’s do this thing. There’s no–we’re not getting anything.
ANGELA: This thing being Women’s Tech Radio.
PAIGE: Women’s Tech Radio, yeah. We’re not–I don’t sound like Women’s Tech Radio is paying my bills or making me a fortune or anything-
ANGELA: Right.
PAIGE: I want to give back to the community and you wanted to too. And getting together and doing that is even more valuable.
ANGELA: Yep.
PAIGE: So, very cool. And I love that technology gives us space to do that.
ANGELA: Uh-huh. What’s your stack?
PAIGE: Okay. Stack question. So what are the tools that you use on a daily basis?
ANGELA: Oh, right. Yes.
PAIGE: What’s your stack is what we developers call it.
ANGELA: Whew, okay.
PAIGE: You got all like, flustered, possibly.
ANGELA: Yes. Here I go. Here I go. Um, wow. Okay. There’s a lot. So, Telegram for internal communication. We use Freshbooks for invoicing. Quickbooks for accounting. I use Google Docs. I use Excel. I use Pixelmator to do promotional artwork.
PAIGE: I love Pixelmator.
ANGELA: I use 99Designs, which I know isn’t an app you can go get.
PAIGE: No, it’s still something in your stack.
ANGELA: Yeah. I use 99Designs, in fact, one person in particular has designed all of our logo refresh that I started back in 2013, I think, ‘14. Yeah, the end of 2013. Let’s see, what else?
PAIGE: Instagram.
ANGELA: Yeah. Patreon, Instagram, Twitter, G+, Facebook, all of those. I’m trying to think. Reddit.
PAIGE: You really are like a social maven.
ANGELA: Yeah. I do a lot of social things here. Let me pull up my thing.
PAIGE: You mom frequent tabs?
ANGELA: Or just my Jupiter Broadcasting dropdown. So, I guess more Jupiter Broadcasting related, we have a lot of different subscriptions. A lot of people think I just start up a podcast. No, there’s a lot of backend subscriptions. We use Scale Engine. I’m not sure if BlipTV is still running. I don’t think it is. But we use Archive.org, Libsyn. There’s, we used to use Roku TV.
PAIGE: You guys use Dropbox too, right?
ANGELA: We definitely use Dropbox at the, where you have to pay a buttload now.
PAIGE: Yeah.
ANGELA: Yeah.
PAIGE: I pay for Dropbox, even personally.
ANGELA: Yeah.
PAIGE: It’s so good.
ANGELA: And we also rebranded email. And, of course, Colloquy for IRC.
PAIGE: Oh yeah.
ANGELA: I use Colloquy.. And sometimes LimeChat, but eh.
PAIGE: Yeah. I think the really impressive part about this stack is, like, barring a couple standouts, most of that is web apps.
ANGELA: Yes.
PAIGE: You can run almost your entire business from the browser.
ANGELA: Yes.
PAIGE: That’s very cool.
ANGELA: It is cool. It is.
PAIGE: That is a huge change in the world. If you think about business in the past couple years. It’s really been even in the past five years that can be true.
ANGELA: Yeah. I do very much dislike Google Docs.
PAIGE: Yeah.
ANGELA: A lot.
PAIGE: It’s getting better.
ANGELA: Specifically spreadsheets.
PAIGE: Google Sheets is weird, because they went with their formula setup instead of using Excel so a lot of people have trouble translating.
ANGELA: Yeah.
PAIGE: And then some of the major features that you’re used to in Excel-
ANGELA: Yeah.
PAIGE: Aren’t there or are really hidden.
ANGELA: Yes.
PAIGE: And I think Google Docs is going to have the same experience that Microsoft had going from Office 2003 to Office 2007, which the thing was that they did this interview where they were like, okay people want in the next version of office. And they did hundreds and hundreds of interviews and 99 percent of the request were features that were already in Office.
ANGELA: Yes. Right.
PAIGE: And they were just, people didn’t know how to get to them.
ANGELA: Sure.
PAIGE: So that’s why we had the huge facelift between 2003 and 2007.
ANGELA: Yeah. Well, the thing is, the reason why I use Google Sheets is because you just can’t beat accessing it anywhere online.
PAIGE: Yeah. And the share.
ANGELA: Yeah. And sharing is very easy. Yes. Right. Yeah, I do not like–I had a bad experience using Dropbox and people editing, multiple people editing the same doc. It just does not work. The collaboration was not there. I’m sure there’s collaboration tools out there that would be better, but I haven’t used them.
PAIGE: Yeah, well, I don’t know. i really think that, honestly, as picky as I am, Google kind of has the market on the collaboration. Although, EverNote is picking up.
ANGELA: I haven’t used it yet.
PAIGE: I love it. It’s my second brain.
ANGELA: Yeah.
PAIGE: Maybe it’s my first brain at this point.
ANGELA: And, and of course we use Bitly.
PAIGE: Bitly, yep.
ANGELA: Yeah, to shorten links.
PAIGE: Very cool.
ANGELA: Oh, and some Markdown. Markdown browser add-ons.
PAIGE: Yeah. I’m still trying to get my head around the Markdown thing.
ANGELA: Yeah?
PAIGE: Yeah.
ANGELA: I did a Fauxshow on it.
PAIGE: Really? Oh, I should check that one out.
ANGELA: I did.
PAIGE: I will admit, I don’t watch all of them.
ANGELA: But, honestly, I’ve pretty much forgotten everything. I just use the add-ons now. It’s so easy. I’ll show you after the show.
PAIGE: Cool.
ANGELA: It’s really cool.
PAIGE: Yeah, at this point I just write things and then edit it later. I just write in plain text and then make it fancy later.
ANGELA: Uh-huh. Okay.
PAIGE: We’ll figure it out. Well, this has been super fun. We’ll have to do some more later.
ANGELA: Uh-huh.
PAIGE: If you guys have questions for either of us, feel free to send them in. We are always listening to you on Twitter and we’re always interested in new guests that you’re like to hear about. Cool.
ANGELA: Yeah. Thanks for listening to this episode of Women’s Tech Radio.

Transcribed by Carrie Cotter | Transcription@cotterville.net

The post Sharing with Intent | WTR 45 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Keyboardio | WTR 44

chris — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 08:03:39 +0000

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Kaia is the CEO cofounder of keyboardio – premium ergonomic keyboard using open source and open hardware!

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ANGELA: PAIGE: ANGELA: PAIGE: ANGELA: PAIGE: KAIA: PAIGE: KAIA: ANGELA: KAIA: ANGELA: PAIGE: ANGELA: KAIA: ANGELA: KAIA: ANGELA: PAIGE: ANGELA: PAIGE: ANGELA: PAIGE: ANGELA: KAIA: PAIGE: ANGELA: PAIGE: KAIA: PAIGE: KAIA: PAIGE: KAIA: PAIGE: KAIA: PAIGE: KAIA: PAIGE: KAIA: PAIGE: KAIA: PAIGE: KAIA: ANGELA: KAIA: PAIGE: KAIA: PAIGE: KAIA: PAIGE: KAIA: PAIGE: KAIA: PAIGE: KAIA: ANGELA: PAIGE: ANGELA: PAIGE: KAIA: ANGELA: PAIGE: This is Women’s Tech Radio.
A show on the Jupiter Broadcasting Network, interviewing interesting women in technology. Exploring their roles and how they’re successful in technology careers. I’m Paige.
And I’m Angela.
So, Angela, today we’re interviewing Kaia, she is from Keyboardio, which is a badass software company that is trying to reinvent the way that we use keyboards, and we talked to her about the Kickstarter process, the open hardware process, the open software process, and how she got involved in all that, so it’s a really fascinating interview.
And before we get into that, I just want to mention that you can support Women’s Tech Radio and the Jupiter Broadcasting Network by going to Patreon.com/today. That is a general bucket of Jupiter Broadcasting support. We have a bunch of other shows, but specifically if you go there and you donate, it is also contributing to Women’s Tech Radio.
And we get started by asking Kaia what she’s up to in tech today.
I am Kaia Dekker and I’m currently the co-founder and CEO of a company called Keyboardio. We make premium ergonomic keyboards that are also open hardware, so they’re super hackable. We give you the firmware source, we give you schematics for the electronics, and still are selling it fully assembled as a finished product, but at the same time, it’s also open hardware. So if you want to open it up and hack it, you can.
So, an open hardware keyboard. How did you get there?
My co-founder who is also my husband had really bad wrists and cubital tunnel, like a repetitive stress injury from typing too much. He professionally had been a programmer for most of his life, and had tried out something like 20 or 30 different ergonomic keyboards, and none of them were really working for him. So he started out as sort of a hobby project trying to build his own that would be tailored specifically to him and have a working keyboard that wouldn’t make his wrists hurt too much. And he started sort of spending more time on this and I was just getting out of business school and was trying to kind of what I wanted to do next. I knew I didn’t want to go back to the companies that I had worked at before, but hey, we may be able to spin this into a business! And keyboards in particular were really interesting to me, mostly from a blank slate design perspective where it’s this thing that most of us are using for eight hours plus almost every day that we literally have our hands on every day. It’s a very intimate, long lasting relationship with an object, but it’s not something that had seen a lot of design or really thought put into the design. Innovation, the basic keyboard design, it’s based on what a typewriter looked like in the nineteenth century which was based on how you could build something in the nineteenth century. The technology has come a lot farther, the understanding of what makes for good design has come a lot farther, and there is no reason not to make something that would be better. So I was really attracted to the idea of being able to rethink this tool that we use all the time and what would it be like if you were to start over a little bit. We ended up with something, it’s a little weird, a little different. So the materials are different. We have an enclosure made out of wood as opposed to plastic or aluminum. The shape is really different. It’s based around originally research on different hand shapes and what keys people can reach easily, and iterated probably two dozen times before we ended up where we are today. It’s fully programmable, so it’s trying to be a little bit smarter as a piece of hardware as opposed to just sort of a dumb input device.
Right, and specifically one of the first things I pick up when I see your keyboard is that it’s the left and the right hand are separated. They’re broken in the middle if that makes sense. And we’ve seen Microsoft put out a keyboard like that, but what they did was they took a standard keyboard and just broke it in half essentially and moved it at an angle, whereas yours, the actual keys are placed differently with more focus on thumb work than any other keyboard that I’ve seen.
Yeah, so we’ve put the keys in columns because that’s the way, if you look at your hands and sort of bend your fingers, they move in a column. They don’t move in a sort of strange diagonal method, the staggered layout of a traditional keyboard. And we’ve actually somewhat subtly arched them to follow the actual arch that your fingers make. It takes a bit of retraining to follow an ergonomic layout, but once you do, it just feels a lot more natural, which makes sense. It’s building something designed around how your hands work as opposed to just following the sort of cargo culting the same thing that we’ve done for a very long time.
Now, I have a question. It is reprogrammable, but when I was taking typing classes back in seventh and eighth grade, I learned some history about keyboards, and that is that they used to be in alphabetical order, and this may or may not be accurate.
It’s accurate.
Okay. And that it was scrambled onto the keyboard because people were too fast. They learned it, they knew the prediction of where the letters would be based on the alphabet was too fast, so they scrambled them up to slow people down because the technology couldn’t keep up. Well, I think technology can keep up now, and I am wondering have you, well, because it’s reprogrammable, I think anybody can change how the letters are, but have you done any specific keyboards with it in alphabetical order instead of scrambled?
Yeah, so there are a lot of stories. It’s actually really fascinating the history of why people stuck with QWERTY when it isn’t a particularly good design. I still type QWERTY because I’ve been typing it for decades, and for me, learning a new layout wasn’t going to be enough faster, enough more efficient. For me the limiting factor isn’t usually how fast I can type, it’s how fast my brain goes. And so, until I learn how to think faster, I’m not going to worry too much about optimizing for speed. Definitely, some of the people we’ve had beta testing are people who used vorac or other alternative key layouts. There’s actually a very fascinating group of people who have a community online where they will basically track all of their key presses and then feed it into a program to figure out their own personal custom layout that minimizes finger movement. So you can have your own thing that’s completely different from anyone else’s. Otherwise, QWERTY is pretty standard. Vorac is pretty common, and then there is something sort of similar to vorac but based on a more recent and bigger purpose of data to figure out where to put the keys called culmac and that’s actually built into Mac OS and other things as well, so it’s pretty popular. Not as popular as vorac, and of course, not nearly as popular as qwerty, but those three plus one other alternative are built into the firmware by default, and then if you want to change what any particular key does, you are able to do that as well.
Now, if I go to keyboard.ao, there is a lot of information on here, and it shows the keyboard, but I’m wondering, what I don’t see is, and/or, are you planning to put out a ten key?
We’ve thought about it. Right now we are just about to ink a contract for manufacturing our first product, the model one, which is what’s called a 60 percent keyboard. It doesn’t have a separate tenkey pad, and I think once we’ve got that produced, or a little further down the line, we’re going to really kind of look at the product road map and figure out what comes next. Right now we’re a small company and we don’t quite have the resources.
Honestly, if the keyboard were better and more functional, easier to reach the numbers, maybe ten key, maybe it would eliminate that need which I think is what Paige was kind of snobbily implying with her–you didn’t even comment, but you said you and your tenkeys or whatever.
I have a lot of friends that I’ve gotten into this argument, because I have friends who won’t buy laptops that don’t have tenkeys.
Well, you could always get a USB tenkey.
How often do you actually use a ten key?
That’s the thing, if your work is in numbers, it is very handy.
If you’re an accountant or something.
Well, even some things I do, I would really prefer a ten key, so I was just curious.
We do have a numlock mode that turns kind of the right hand side into basically a ten key, which is definitely, I’m the one that gets stuck doing all of the accounting, and I switched to that for doing that. It’s easier.
That actually makes even more sense than a separate tenkey.
Yes, it does, you’re right.
So, you’ve been kind of on this journey. What was it like to go from kind of a business background kind of into this crazy tech world? You dove in deep. This is hardware, software, open source on both side, it’s a pretty complex crazy project.
Yeah, I’ve never been one for just sticking my toe in. I’m kind of a jump all the way in kind of girl. I’d always been interested in tech. I went to a technology magnet focused high school and then I went to MIT which has a very strong engineering culture and a lot of people building things for fun on the weekends and in the evenings, and I’ve always followed that and been interested in that. I ended up sort of in business almost somewhat accidentally. I had been a physics major and undergrad and thought that I’d been sort of pushed that way by teachers and so on, and I thought okay, this is what I’ll do as a career. And then I sort of realized junior year that I didn’t have, one the type of mind that works really well doing physics research, and two, I didn’t really have the temperament to live an academic type of life. You need to be a type of person who can work by themselves and be very driven and work in a very hardworking, but in many ways, a very slow paced environment. That just wasn’t, I realized by that time, that wasn’t the kind of environment where I did my best work or where I was happiest. I preferred working with other people, like things that are much more fast paced, even if you’re working on something that’s not as fundamental as understanding new things about the universe, I’m just happier when I’m working on fast paced things with a lot of different people to bounce ideas off of and to learn from. So I kind of pivoted I guess into doing then technology investment banking which has paid very well, but I sort of left as soon as I got my first bonus check, and I did managing consulting for a while, and then software marketing, then ended up doing this. It’s interesting. There is definitely things that you get used to when you’re working for large companies or on behalf of very large companies that just don’t apply in the startup world where you have to learn to get by with a lot fewer resources when you’re a startup, and there’s no one a lot of times where you can go out and find the person in such and such department who knows about something because you are the such and such department.
You’re every department.
Yeah, but it’s been great. We relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area which has been amazing just in terms of there is a community of hardware startups out here, and anything from you need to borrow a part last minute or getting someone to take a second look at your boards and trying to figure out why they’re not working or getting advice on how to choose a manufacturer, whether or not paying for a sourcing agent is worth it. Anything from the business end to a big architectural type decisions to just day to day prototyping help, like it’s been so amazing to be around so many really talented, really interesting people working on hardware. It’s really been amazing.
That’s really neat that the community would still play such a role. You would think hardware is so much more of a, I don’t know, a set thing, that there’s more like set ways to do it, but I think it’s just as mutable as software.
It’s much more so now than it was 20 years ago or even five or ten years ago and I think it’s still shaking out a little bit. Historically, at least, hardware was something that took huge investment and had very low returns and was something that you could only do if you were a big company or had a lot of money. The prototyping phase of things has gotten so much easier with it being very accessible to have rapid prototyping technologies like 3D printing or laser cutters and CNC mills and so on being much more accessible due to things like tech shop or Hackerspaces where they have these machines available and let people from the community access them, to things like Arduino or teensy or other microcontrollers or environments where the first embedded programming is done for you, so you don’t really have to start from scratch, you can hook together things and do a quick prototype without having to put in quite as much of an investment as you used to. And things like Digikey or Adafruit where being able to access, I need ten of a part is very easy and affordable now, and you don’t have to buy an entire real component to get it, you can find pretty much any component you want and order it in pretty much any quantity that you want. So the prototyping phase is a lot easier.
Yeah, it’s like we’re finally catching up with hardware where we’ve been with software for a long time. Like we’re building these hardware frameworks almost that kind of piece together in a way that makes things fast, easy, and accessible. I’ve seen so many things around Portland or other places where it’s like hey, come over and work on Arduino’s for the day, and just seeing like little kids up to big adults playing with hardware for the first time is really fascinating.
Yeah, it’s amazing. That’s one of the reasons we wanted to make our product open source was that getting people, like the moment, whenever you have a programming language that you’re learning and you get Hello World to work, and when it’s like your first time programming anything, it’s a really magical feeling that like I got the computer to do this thing, and when you do it in hardware, when you get a light pattern to flash up or do things like that, it’s even more magical. It’s a tangible piece of the world that you are controlling through the code that you’re writing and it’s a really, really awesome feeling.
Yeah, I totally agree. This winter I played with my Raspberry Pie and some relays for the first time and made some lights light up and it was like as inspiring as Hello World is. This was even more like woah!
Yeah, and I think the question for hardware is like the prototyping phase, we’re finally catching up, and it’s getting from your first working prototype into production which is obviously not something that every project wants, but if you’re trying to build a company and build products, you do eventually have to make the change away from 3D printing and hooking things together with cables and Arduino and so on. You have to make a fundamental shift in the technologies you’re using to move to even small scale mass production, and that’s something where there is a bunch of different people trying to figure out how to make it easier and make it better. But it’s still just very complicated that there is, not only do you have all of these systems where the changes you make to your electrical layout are going to make your actual physical hardware layout change, and that involves, you might need to get mechanical engineering skill and electrical engineering skill and industrial design type of skill all involved just to make what seems like it should be a really small change, which I mean, that’s a hard problem. And then figuring out what does that do when you take it into production, how does that change things, and very small changes can make very big changes and very big costs down the line.
Your margin for error is very small.
Yeah, and it’s something from software where I think people have gotten so used to Agile or other sort of sprints to make quick changes in small increments and keep building on that, and it’s not something that transfers over to hardware necessarily as well, which is frustrating to someone who likes being able to fool around and try different things and realizing that there is much more kind of top down planning you have to do is not necessarily how people have trained to do it.
Yeah, you have to give a pivot for polish.
Yeah that’s a great way of putting it.
So, in that vein, you guys ran an amazingly successful Kickstarter, originally reaching for $120,000.00 goal, you hit $650. What was that like to go through? What are some of the challenges you’ve had afterwards or during? Can you talk to us a little bit about that?
Sure. It was an amazing experience in Kickstarter. Especially as the person who ends up being in charge of the business stuff, there is always the primary question in my mind, and before we did the Kickstarter was like I think there is a market for this. We’ve got a bunch of people on our mailing list, people seem to think it’s really interesting, but does anyone actually want this? You don’t really trust that people will want a product until they put in their credit card number. So that was great and sort of took this thing that I’ve been worrying about for months and sort of just eliminated it really quickly. It’s like yeah, there are a lot of people who kind of get what we’re trying to do and see why we’re trying to do it that way. And yeah, the whole Kickstarter experience was really cool. We did a cross country road trip from Boston where we used to live to San Francisco and stopped at Makerspaces just about every day and did little meet ups talking about here is how you could build your own keyboard with the materials and tools that are in this Makerspace, and letting people put their hands on our product. It’s a somewhat weird and different product, and so being able to put your hands on it, actually see it, actually try it out is the time when a lot of people sort of get it for the first time, and it was also kind of a great way, like Kickstarter, or any crowdfunding is a lot of work where you have people writing you every day and you have to manage are you doing ads, and there is all this stuff you have to kind of manage and being able to have something that we were doing every day that took the focus away from–its hyper focused on this campaign, and let us look and see what people were doing at different Makerspaces was really cool. We were lucky that it was sort of something that was on grand for us that we are open hardware, we did come out of kind of a hobby maker type of place, but honestly, it’s always so cool to see like what people are making and what people are doing and talk to people who do cool things and put cool things together.
How big is your team? Is it just you and your husband and some 1099?
Yeah, we’ve floated up and down. We don’t have quite enough work in any one discipline to have another full time person coming on, but we have had in the past full time contractors from–currently we have a friend of mine who is working on EE, and she is, I don’t know, it will be a couple of weeks contract probably. We’re pretty close to being done with the electrical, and we’ve had people helping out with industrial design and mechanical as well at different points in the past, so I think peak size would be like five people and sometimes it’s just the two of us.
This is fascinating, a very cool story. I don’t know, I was wondering, so you said there is kind of embedded software for this. Do you guys actually run an embedded processor in the keyboard? Like is there something it’s actually running on like Arduino, Lennox, or whatever?
The chip is an Apple chip. It’s an 18 mega 30T4, which is the same thing that’s in an Arduino Leonardo, so it’s not technically an Arduino because we’re not buying a board from Arduino, but we’re what we call Arduino at heart where essentially what we’ve done is take the Arduino and squish it onto our own board and made a couple of little changes, but it’s compatible with the Arduino developer environment. So right now I can just pull up the Arduino ID, use it to make changes to the firmware and use that to flash the keyboard which is cool. When we were trying to decide which architecture to use, we had actually originally been using something else and ended up switching over to this branch of Arduino because you just, you’re going to have to have some kind of processor anyway, like why not pick one that has this huge ecosystem of other people writing code and making devices that are compatible with it.
That makes total sense. Making that approachable is huge. So just one final question for you before we get out of here. Oh, I have two actually. First, I would love to know what you work in day to day for tools. I love to know other people’s stacks like what kind of tools are you using. You mentioned the Arduino IDE. Is there anything else that kind of keeps you going day to day? Especially I’m always interested in the business stack because I don’t touch that most of the time.
We do sort of a mix of ad hoc tools and otherwise available tools. I would say the most important tool that we use is slack, which I’m sure you hear a lot is great for communication both within our team, with investors and contractors.
I think that might have actually been one of the first–you might be the first person to bring slack up on the show.
Okay. It’s a great tool. I’m happy to evangelize about it. it’s a team communication tool, and it’s an example of really good design where it sort of sets the norms for communication being friendly and kind of fun, but also very easy to–it’s designed by the team that had made flikr back in the day, or a lot of the same team anyway, and it’s really software sort of made with love.
It’s a fantastic tool. I’m in slack every day, and I agree. I think it’s interesting because in my mind, like as a super old nerd, it’s like IRC with user friendliness. But super useful.
We use hackpad for a lot of other things that don’t quite fit into slack in terms of communication, so daily to do lists, we’ve tried out probably most of the tools that are out there like Trello and so on for keeping track of thing and product management type tools, and every time we sort of just end up reverting back to Excel or Google Sheets in terms of they don’t add enough–the complexity that they add doesn’t add enough value to be worth it. And then some of the more mundane things like for payroll and accounting and stuff, I use Zero and Zenpayroll and all these SAS providers which are great and definitely much easier to use than some of the things that I had been using even a couple of years ago.
That’s a neat stack. I like that–slack is very cool. I definitely encourage people to check that out. I actually just signed up for the, there is a, I’m pretty sure it’s just Women in Tech Slack. It’s an invite only, but you can apply for an invitation and then you get invited and the community has been really great so far. They are very friendly and there is a lot of resource sharing and just general helping each other out which has been really cool. And my last question, before we ramble on any more is, looking at the future of kind of what’s happening in technology–be it hardware or software–what gets you the most excited?
I think the thing that excites me the most is the fact that there are companies out there that are taking things that we already have technologies for and really applying a lot of thought and design to them. I mean, slack is an example of that where Hipchat had been around there for a long time, IRC has been around for decades, but they aren’t adding a lot of new functionality, they’re just taking a user experience that hadn’t been very good and transforming it into something that’s awesome.
Sounds like Apple.
A lot of people make that argument for things like Airbnb. Really originally it was Craig’s List, but ten percent better.
And focused.
And focused, yeah, and Uber. Uber is just a cab service.
Yeah, and that’s a trend, as a user I completely appreciate and it’s starting to come into more enterprise tools as well. We just put in a preorder for a Glowforge which is a laser cutter which is something that is a great tool to have, but traditionally it costs $10,000.00 and you’ve ended up spending about a third to a half of your time with it trying to fix problems with different issues with it, and they’re coming out with a laser cutter at a lower price point that is also supported by software that takes away a lot of the pain points of using this tool. This is something that is a prototyping tool, it’s not used by consumers for the most part, but they’re still taking that philosophy and applying it to that. I think people’s expectations in terms of design have come up a lot, and that’s an amazing thing.
Thank you for listening to this episode of Women’s Tech Radio. Remember you can go to JupiterBroadcasting.com for the show notes as well as a full transcription, and you can find us on Twitter @heywtr.
We’d love to hear what you think about the show. If you’d like to tell us, you can use the contact form on the website or email us at wtr@jupiterbroadcasting.com. You can also follow us on Twitter @heywtr. Thanks for listening.

Transcribed by Carrie Cotter | Transcription@cotterville.net

The post Keyboardio | WTR 44 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

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Keyboardio | WTR 44

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