This blog post is co-written with Alexandra White and Matthias Rohmer
In our experience, working in many different companies and contexts, there are – very broadly speaking and quite simplified – four types of people you will come across during your working life. For me, at least, being able to identify these archetypes has helped in understanding people and situations better. It’s given me leads for seeing what I can try to improve, but also to avoid particular situations before they become worse.
After over 4 years at Google, I’m now a Developer Advocate! “Wait, I thought you already were that?” is the most common reaction. Allow me to tell my story.
I’ve worked with Developer Relations for many years now, and I think it’s a fascinating topic with many takes on what it is and how to do it! I wanted to share my view on it here, and what I think it encompasses.
When I was a kid, back in the time when there were announcers telling you which the next program on TV would be, you knew it would be good if they said: "We'd like to warn sensitive viewers that next program might upset you". So, with that in mind, I need to start this blog post with saying that it doesn't reflect the opinions of my employer, Google, but are all my own.
When I got started with blogging back in 2005, I had been an interface developer for the web since 1999. The big challenges back in 2005 were convincing developers and companies to make sure that things worked in more than one web browser, and that JavaScript wasn't evil and actually pretty competent. And now, in 2018, it's back to the cross-browser support story again (JavaScript seems to be doing fine).
Having spent almost 20 years working on the web, it is something I strongly believe and am invested in. Therefore, when I see or am part of initiatives that I think will help developers and the web platform out there, it makes me very excited! And last week I got very reminded about how good that thing can be.
For a good and secure web – and also for faster performance, new APIs on the web such as Service Workers, better search ranking and more – using HTTPS for your web site is key. I’ll walk you through how to easily get started with that here.
I’m not a security expert or server guy, so this was both an interesting exercise for me, as well as documenting it so anyone else can quickly do it as well. Including some hiccups, it only took me 20-30 minutes in total.
I’ve taken a little hiatus from writing here, so here goes with the first post of the year! From Gmail reaching 1 billion users to the web, VR and Android Studio.
A ton of things have been happening the last week, including many announcements, both Chrome and Android Summits and much more! I’ve split this post up in main categories – Google, Android, Chrome & Slush – with news for each area.
Lots of new releases, both in the form of software like Android 6.0 Marshmallow and hardware, in the form of two new Nexus phones, 2 Chromecast devices and the Pixel C. Also Google Cardboard success and news about Nest.
It’s been a busy last 2 weeks and a ton of things I want to cover: from work with startups through developer content on YouTube to the Google OnHub router and Android Wear working on iOS. Here we go!
Last week was a week where Google got a lot of focus, especially for Alphabet & Google. But we also have some news about Android Experiments, Google Cloud Platform & Project Sunroof.
Summer has come here to the northern hemisphere and the world keeps on spinning with interesting things. 🙂
I’ve spent my last time organizing a week for mentors and startups this fall in Finland for the Google Developers Launchpad program, which is outlined below, and we also have news on handling Revenge Porn in Search, real-time data in Trends, a peak into Google’s networks and more!
Lots of things happening both in the world of Google and in the technology sector as well – and that goes especially for the Nordics region! In this blog posts I outline a few of the events, and at the end I always have a quick list of interesting things – basically, scroll down fast if you just want links right away. Otherwise, you are more than welcome to read the entire thing. 🙂
In the world of Google, a lot of last week was focused on Google I/O, and I’d like to outline all the important announcements here! We also had a GDG (Google Developer Group) Summit in Mountain View.
Last week Google I/O took place and there were a lot of exciting announcements, ideas and releases! I’d like to shine some light on two of the most visionary ones from Google’s ATAP (Advanced Technology and Projects) group: Project Jacquard and Project Soli.
In my role at Google, I met a ton of people interested in what we are working at, what’s happening, how to get involved and learn more etc. Therefore, with this as the first post, I’ll be blogging about things that happened last week at Google.
I’ve been running Geek Meet since 2006, and I felt it was time for a little upgrade in the way I handle registrations. Which means Geek Meet is now on Meetup.com!
Meeting people in person is a fantastic thing! To broaden one’s horizons, to learn things you never expected and to get friends for life. It was also one of the reasons I started Geek Meet back in 2006 and now I have an additional event!
Knowing your editor is important, and if it’s open source and you can add functionality, even better! Therefore, I dug into Atom from GitHub (which is open source!) to add something I like: a Hyperlink Helper.
About a week and a half ago I was happy to get an invite to Google’s new take on e-mail: Google Inbox. The idea is to make it much simpler for users to deal and bundle e-mails they get.
Being a developer and having used a lot of code editors over the years, I think it’s a very interesting area both when it comes to efficiently but also in the program we spend many many hours in. At the moment, I’m back with Vim (more specifically, MacVim).
For many years I’ve constantly been receiving hundreds of e-mails every day. A lot of them work-related, a number of them personal. And I’ve never seen this is an issue, since I have an approach that works for me.
All seats have been taken. Please write a comment to be put on a waiting list, there are always a number of cancellations, so there’s still a chance.
With people working with developer relations, leading busy lives, it can sometimes be hard to find a good time for a meetup, syncing schedules and more. That’s why I’m glad we finally managed to find a date for the speaker of this upcoming Geek Meet!
We would like to, in a factual manner, break down what the possible outcomes of having a majority of web browsers based on WebKit are, for web browser vendors and developers alike.
As most people, I guess, I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. It’s great for staying in touch with people, share funny stories, pics etc; however, it is not the platform I want to use for all kinds of connections with people.
I take turns using a few different mobile phones, which is quite interesting to the see pros and cons of each platform. I’ve had a few experiences with Android lately, so I thought I’d share a couple of tips: apps failing to update, and using any music file for ringtones and notifications.
People are always on the hunt for efficiency and control over the massive information flow they’re facing, and the latest fix for actually getting things done. Amidst all techniques and approaches, I thought I’d outline what at least works for me.
Having learned HTML in the 1990s, I’ve always felt very comfortable with it and I’ve used plain text or HTML in text editors for as long as I can remember when I’ve been writing something. However, I’ve finally taken the plunge into Markdown now.
All seats have been taken. Please write a comment to be put on a waiting list, there are always a number of cancellations, so there’s still a chance.
New date
Geek Meet has been moved to January 16th.
Time to announce the first Geek Meet of 2013! I had plans on doing it at the end of this year, but with Christmas and surrounding activities for a lot of people, I decided to have it early next year instead.
Reading the heading, you’re probably thinking: “It’s a typo, it should be ‘Mobile and Social'”. But no. What I wanted to talk about is the behavior, the phenomenon, if you will, of the complete dependency people seem to have developed for their mobile phones, and how it affects their social behavior.
I’ve always loved blogging, writing about things I’m interested in and then sharing and discussing it with like-minded people! Sometimes passionately agreeing, sometimes not so much. 🙂 But I believe the discussion has always been good, and as long as it’s respectful, it’s quite constructive and an excellent base for building relations and bonds with people.
Last week I went to Moscow, Russia, for the .toster conference, that is being arranged several times per year but with different topics. This time one around, it was JavaScript.
One thing which has been very important when it comes to creating special end user experiences have been the ability to show something fullscreen, effectively hiding all the other content etc.
