If you’ve ever worked in a large company, you realize that your day to day isn’t spent in product development or even coding (if you’re a coder). Your day to day is spent trying to work out how to work with other people…to put it politely. The impolite way would be it’s spent in office politics.

This is why is so hard to explain to outsiders what it is that I actually do sometimes. Sure, everyone on my team designs and develops but at the core we are constantly persuading with varying degrees of success.

Most of the people who are in large companies will recognize that those who are successful…who gain in rank and position…who become career oriented…are primarily doing it because of their deep deep insight in the political organization, and that becomes overwhelming in terms on what “skill” is needed.

Horace describes the observable truth of “success” in a large corporation. Once you get to a certain level (as a software developer) you can no longer depend on your “raw talent”. You have to admit to yourself that you want power if your goal is to rise in an organization. Some people think that wanting power is wrong and are content with letting others decide their (and the product’s) fate. It’s survival of the fittest in corporate environments.

What intrigues me is can someone come on top of that and say “given the way humans behave can we organize them in a way that still allows great products to be built”?
[…]
That’s the magic of great organizations.

It’s an arduous journey to achieve this. So many organizations never reach their destination.

Sometime it’s appropriate to call people out on their shit, but most of the time I find it’s prudent to let them get the angst out their system. The times that I do want tho call people out of their shit are the trickiest.

I’ll share some recent examples of calling people out on their shit.

I missed by connecting flight in Chicago heading back to Seattle. After initially going at a re-booking kiosk I’m told I need to go to the gate of another airline to sort out my seating.

Keep in mind I’m not the only passenger who missed this connecting flight and must rebook at the alternative airline.

As I’m walking up to the gate desk I notice the that female airline agent has her arms folded across her chest and is looking me up and down. Immediately I start thinking she is going to give me some attitude.

Unfortunately, she fulfilled the archetype¹ of the black woman at your local DMV office.

I simply asked what seats were available and I sensed some surliness on her part. I couldn’t resist…so I called her out on it in front of her coworker and another customer heading to Seattle.

She was shocked but didn’t back down.

We were well past the egress of passive aggression and jetted the ingress of active aggression. I felt better, and have no regrets about that.

Eventually I got reseated but still went online after the exchange to reseat myself to a better seat. Ironically I guess that was a passive aggressive move on my part.²

What is Passive Aggression?

I just got done with a long winded story about passive aggression. Let’s re-visit examples of passive aggression so you can identifying it in yourself:

• Being intentionally late.
• Short and curt SMS responses. (e.g. “Ok”, “alrighty”)³.
• Extremely delayed responses to emails or SMS.
• At times: Ignorance to subjects.

Then there are the overt body language signals:

• Huffing and puffing.
• Anytime someone talks under their breath.
• Pacing while waiting for something.
• Squinty faces from older generation people (I get this a lot for a number of reasons…).

I’ll stress that not all passive aggression is done with intent to harm. Much of it is laziness.⁴

How I deal with it

Every since I was a kid a knew that stepping outside my home would invite people to treat me differently. Internalizing this reality has allowed me to focus on who I really am without worrying about the woman clutching her hand bag when I enter elevator with her.

This internalization has allowed me to see the behaviors of others whom try to hide it. It’s hard to hide forever. A person’s natural tendencies are oozing out. The body language wants to be seen and heard. It’s only so long one can hide their true thoughts and beliefs.

I suppose what I’m saying is that when you’re a target of passive aggression use a reversal stratagem. Turn your weakness into a strength.

Instinctively I figured that the best way to learn the language was to write some simple loops and conditionals. Consequently I wrote some simple algorithms.

I chose Applescript because I had never dabbled in the built-in scripting language Apple provides in OS X. Learning AppleScript is pretty simple. It only has 2 data structures it appears.

Scenario for the algorithm

A typical problem that I’ve used in junior level interviews is around finding the max sum of an integer subarray¹. The key rule is that the sub-array must be consecutive indices and an input to the function is the integer size of the sub-array.

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{9, 1, 7, 6, 4, 5}

For instance the above array input should return 17 for an input size of 3.

If you notice we have a special case where the frequency of the max sub array is greater than 1.

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{9, 1, 7}

Sums to 17.

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{7, 6, 4}

Also sums to 17.

To make things simple we will ignore the frequency for now.

What are some possible solutions?

There are several ways to solve this problem but the most efficient would yield a linear O(n) in Big O notation. We must scan the array once at least once in order to evaluate all the sums.

The trick is to maintain a sliding window and keep track of the maximum sum that has been solved. An additional integer variable can keep track of the current sum for clarity.

The Naive Approach

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on maxSubList(theList, length)
  
  #boundary checking
  if length > (count of theList) then return -1
  if length ≤ 0 then return -1
  
  set maxEndingHere to 0
  set maxSoFar to 0
  set refCount to 0
  repeat with i from 1 to count of theList
      --log "Outer Loop i: " & i
      repeat with j from i to i + length - 1
          set refCount to refCount + 1
          --log "j: " & j
          set currentValue to item j of theList
          --log "currentValue: " & currentValue
          set maxEndingHere to maxEndingHere + currentValue
          --log "maxEndingHere: " & maxEndingHere
          if j - i + length ≥ 1 then set maxSoFar to max(maxSoFar, maxEndingHere)
      end repeat
      set maxEndingHere to 0
      --log "maxSoFar: " & maxSoFar
      
      if j = (count of theList) then log "refCount:  " & refCount
      if j = (count of theList) then return maxSoFar
  end repeat
  --return maxSoFar
end maxSubList

In my attempt at getting something working I wrote the above after several trial and error compile/runs in the AppleScript Editor.

The name of the function on line 1 is maxSubList. It accepts two parameters which I called theList (array or collection) and length (window size).

At this point the signature of the function looks similar to Javascript and other scripting languages. I found it curious that the way to declare a function is with the keyword on.

Lines 4 & 5 cover some simple boundary and cases on the length and theList input variables. Notice that AppleScript doesn’t declare types in a function signature, similar to Javascript.

Lines 7 through 9 declare some variable I thought we might need. Lines 10 through 26 describe an iteration on our collection of integers. I like the use of the keyword repeat as a FOR loop descriptor. Maybe not as great as “ForEach” (in .NET/C#) but better than “For”. that AppleScript

The memento pattern’s undo/redo behaviors the MaxSum increment and decrement is the keeping things simple².

I timed this Naive approach on a large array…it took a whopping 11.1 seconds!

The Iterated Approach

The only way to get better at algorithms is to practice the problems. I prefer pen and paper. After a couple minutes of thought the solution was obvious.

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on maxContiguousSubListSum(theList, subListLength)
  
  if subListLength > (count of theList) then return -1
  if subListLength ≤ 0 then return -1
  
  set valueQueue to {}
  set currentMaxSum to 0
  set overallMaxSum to 0
  
  repeat with i from 1 to count of theList
      set currentValue to item i of theList
      
      set end of valueQueue to currentValue
      set currentMaxSum to currentMaxSum + currentValue
      
      if (count of valueQueue) > subListLength then
          set poppedOffItem to item 1 of valueQueue
          set currentMaxSum to currentMaxSum - poppedOffItem
          set valueQueue to rest of valueQueue
      end if
      
      if currentMaxSum > overallMaxSum then
          set overallMaxSum to currentMaxSum
      end if
  end repeat
  
  return overallMaxSum
end maxContiguousSubListSum

Off the bat I’ll just tell you that this implement ran in 0.88 seconds at O(n) complexity. Much better than 11 seconds.

In the end AppleScript is a bit cumbersome to seriously consider as a 1st or even 2nd choice language to develop with on the Mac. Any script that is longer that 50 lines can probably be don’t in another language. I’m sure that the intention of AppleScript isn’t to make super speedy algorithms. But you don’t have to take my word for it, try for yourself. I’ll see you next time.

Michael Mann’s 1995 film Heat is one of my favorites films. One of the many scenes that sticks out in my head is an exchange between Robert DeNiro’s character (McCauley) and Tom Noonan’s character (Kelso). Long story short, Kelso is wants a revenue sharing deal on a bank heist that McCauley’s crew will perform. McCauley is skeptical about the accuracy and source of the information Kelso is supplying him:

McCauley: How do you get this information?

Kelso: It just comes to you. This stuff just flies through the air. They send this information out, I mean it’s just beamed out all over the fuckin place. You just gotta know how to grab it. See I know how to grab it.

Recently I’ve been on a kick on create some data visualizations¹. After getting into Node.js I’ve been inspired to dabble in javascript more. I figure that the most interesting information is the data around me that I’m generating. Sometimes I feel as humans we are drawn to seeing patterns and outliers. There’s so much happening around us that never gets mentioned because much of it is inaccessible to us. There are things we can control and curate. I came up with a quick list of potential sources one can extract data from for some cursory analysis:

Music

Applications like iTunes contain a plethora of metrics like most and least played tracks. Categories by genre, artists, artist features, etc. Some options beyond the obvious could include discovering the most common words in song title, creating a histogram of track lengths. It doesn’t end there. These days’s one has access to lyrics online. Are there certain lyrics, phrases, or words that you may have an affinity or aversion to? Do a join on your local iTunes data with online lyric information. Perhaps there’s a formula to making a song that fits you?

Photos

If you’re using desktop software like iPhoto you ay be able to link the facial recognition database to your photos. One could determine if there is a high occurrence of certain people in a certain location time after time. Correlation like that may be a signal for some other type of task completion. Locations, time, people, and even colors are all rich data sets to play with.

Email

When are you most likely to receive email on any given day? Can we make our email polling interval adaptive to when you most actively receive email? So much information can be mined from your personal email accounts. One of the perennial examples of machine learning is spam classification in email. Brush up on your ML skill by trying to discover other tasks.

SMS

Who is most likely to respond to a text from you fastest and vice-versa? Use a burst detection algorithm to discover with whom you are most likely to get into a longer back and forth with. Is this driven by time of day? Who is most likely to send you late night texts on Friday and Saturday evenings? Pulling text message data is tricky. If you use iMessage you could probably pull it from chat logs on your Mac.

Wearables

Honestly I think the consumer “wearables” data that is available right now is to be taken with a grain of salt. Measures such as steps and calories can vary a lot by device/people. Use this data to compliment other data sets.

Weather

By itself weather data isn’t that interesting. Again there are many companies that provide the stand alone data. It would be interesting to see if the people use SMS more on or preceding a sunny day. This is certainly an area where the composition of data from other fields makes it intriguing.

Movies

Have a favorite movie? Scripts are available online. Parse it, create taxonomies from from characters. Establish family trees. May you like films about loner protagonists in the 80’s who are estranged from their families. I guess this is essentially what Netflix is doing.

When trying to get inspired for some data analysis task one shouldn’t have to worry about a lack of data. The focus should be knowing your approach and having a clear idea of your goals. The worst part of data analysis is getting answers that just lead to more questions. Much like a recursive loop you have to find your base case to know when to exit.

Create and fill out your an SX Social profile

This is key. Reach out to panelists and others who have the same tagged interested. Set up meetings. Hustle.

Business Cards

You will need them. Interactions will happen swiftly. Exchanging emails addresses , phone numbers or enough twitter handles is too time consuming. If you haven’t ordered them yet try Moo for rush delivery at SXSW. Embrace the tangible for your connections.

Comfortable shoes.

You will do a lot of walking. According to my Nike Fuel Band last March was one my best months.

An ergonomic bag.

Back packs work best. Over the shoulder stuff can get tiring as you accumulate swag. You will be walking all day. Leave your hotel in the morning and don’t return until you need to sleep or shower. Keep an extra shirt or socks in the backpack. Laptop too (of course!).

Network.

Do it early and often. Start with the cab ride to the airport. Talk to people. Get comfortable. When you reach Austin try to share a cab with someone into town. End the conversation by getting their contact info. Be interested in learning from other². Remember you have to give before you take.

Utilize your current affiliations.

Does the company you work for have a party or event? Invite others to it. Reach to people within your company and social networks like LinkedIn.

Know when to cut the conversation.

Don’t feel obligated to stay in an hour long conversation with someone selling their big data/gamification/messaging mashup. Try to talk to everyone in the room.

Don’t stay at a session that sucks.

There is too much knowledge to be obtained at the conference. Have 2 or 3 backups for every session you attend. Get their early for sessions that you suspect may be full.

Explore

There are many other things going on besides SXSW Interactive. Check out SXCreate or SXEco. Stumble into a free breakfast or lunch. Invite others to explore with you. Build a tribe, be fearless!

See you in Austin!

One study referred to this process as “social investigation.” We developed particular behaviors to avoid creating suspicion: do not “like” anything by the object of a stalking session, or if we do like it, don’t “like” too quickly; be careful not to type a name we want to search into the status field by accident; set an object of monitoring as a “close friend,” even if they aren’t, so their updates show up without fail; friend their friends; surreptitiously visit profile pages multiple times a day in case we missed anything.

This passive monitoring is one of the more utilitarian uses of Facebook. It’s also one of the most addictive. […] Facebook did away with the necessity of keeping tabs on anyone. You simply had all of the tabs, all of the time, with the most recent information whenever you wanted to look at them.

And

The novelty of Facebook was bound to wear off. For my part, I rarely post on friends’ walls except to wish them happy birthday; I stay the heck away from saying anything substantive in comments on other people’s posts; I don’t post anything myself.

One of the reasons I try to avoid Facebook. People tend to read too much into simple likes and friend connections. It gets worse when one naively attempts to connect the dots of online activity to real life.

Sure, Facebook provides privacy controls but they are a moving target. Also who wants spend time managing that? I prefer the Twitter approach. Either everything is public or not.

I didn’t really beta test…instead I was just excited that I was having free games (on CD-ROMS!) mailed to me over the new fangled Internet. Back in 1995 I was experiencing what people experience via Amazon today in a sense. Of course I never looked at the bigger picture back then.

A task that wholly leans on the research side can seem boring, even uncomfortable when you’re used to designing and writing software.

The typical software development feedback loop isn’t there. How do I know when I’m done? Is this the right direction? How do I make sure I’m not duplicating my effort?

For some this can lead to existential questions around their project, job, then expanding out to interpersonal relationships and eventually what is the meaning of all this?

What ever your task is you most likely have to complete it. As with most things in life, it’s about finding a reversal, or the pleasure in the pain.

In my case it was about finding the opportunity to learn.

I realized I was getting the opportunity to work with a high level developer who is the guru of his area. I thought to myself: “It would be great to have the knowledge this guys has.” First I would have to admit that I don’t know everything.

Moreover I realized my boredom was coming from a place of fearing the unknown and not taking the time to orient myself with concepts outside of my usual areas.

Sometimes labels, titles, and status can make us lazy. They make us separate ourselves from the realities of life.

At the beginning of my career I realized was that one must see learning as an apprenticeship is the truest sense.

For instance if you’re an unpaid intern (this is anti-“Lean In” btw) who is working towards the uncertainty of a paid position you are exercising your survival skills in a literal sense.

As in the intern you’re in the position because other people think you don’t know shit. That’s okay though. You’re being given room to experiment and get feedback but the end could near. You can be cut at any moment. You have to have several back up plans.

We live a culture of overnight celebrities. People are jumpstarting modeling/escorting careers via Instagram and 23 year olds getting lucky and creating naively fawned over applications like SnapChat. Everyone thinks they are an expert.

Coming from the point of view that you don’t know shit can sometimes be the supremely better option.

Background

After looking at the Octopress source code I found that a gem named RDiscount that seemed to perform the interpretation of Markdown syntax. In Ruby packages are called gems.

I simply needed a more up-to-date version of RDiscount that supported footnotes. My first thought was to use git to pull a new version of the package and update the dependency graph.

Octopress uses a gem called Bundler which provides an encapsulation for the dependency of gems among other things. I had already known of Jekyll and Sass but it was refreshing to see just how declarative the the dependencies were. When I first set up this blog I didn’t really take the time to understand all the components Octopress leans on.

Here’s a snippet of what the dependency tree looks like:

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jekyll (0.12.1)
      classifier (~> 1.3)
      directory_watcher (~> 1.1)
      kramdown (~> 0.14)
      liquid (~> 2.3)
      maruku (~> 0.5)
      pygments.rb (~> 0.3.2)
    kramdown (0.14.2)
    liquid (2.3.0)
    maruku (0.7.0)
    posix-spawn (0.3.8)
    pygments.rb (0.3.7)
      posix-spawn (~> 0.3.6)
      yajl-ruby (~> 1.1.0)
    rack (1.5.2)
    rack-protection (1.5.1)
      rack
    rake (0.9.6)
    rb-fsevent (0.9.4)
    rdiscount (2.0.7.3)

I had originally set up Octopress over a year ago any hadn’t touched any of the source code outside of customizations. The project was woefully out of date. I used the command

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gem install rdiscount -v '2.1.7'

to update. Of course it failed citing dependency issues. Updating those dependencies failed with cryptic error messages so I said “fuck it, let me update Ruby to 2.*!”.

Upgrading

Looking over the Octopress instructions I attempted to use the command

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rvm install 2.0.0.

to get a later version of Ruby. That failed. I got here error similar to what is described here. BTW RVM is the Ruby Version Manager.

At this point I really thought I had the latest version of Xcode. The OS X AppStore said I had didn’t have any updates. Moreover I have automatic updates enabled. I logged into the Apple Developer site and saw that there is indeed a later version of Xcode so updated to 5.0.2.

I tried again now to update the Ruby but instead got a new error. This time it was something about “Can’t find Tcl configuration definitions”. After some searching I discovered that I needed to update MacPorts which I had never heard of up until that point. I read that I needed to update the package to be compatible with Mavericks.

Ok, whatever, I won’t ask why a 3rd party open source project is needed for this. Perhaps Apple doesn’t want to focus any resources on creating an “easy-to-use system for compiling, installing, and upgrading either command-line, X11 or Aqua based” software for OS X. Fair enough.

At this point things seemed to work with the rvm command. From there I basically reinstalled Octopress and finally got an updated version of RDiscount.

Further notes.

To trim down the length of this post I skipped some of the small issues that I also encountered such as:

• Unhelpful error messages really slow down the feedback loop.
• GCC 4.2 didn’t exist on my machine, I had to create a symbolic link to another GCC.
• The AppStore didn’t notify me that I didn’t have the absolutely latest version of Xcode.
• Some Ruby gems having generic error messages.
• I now have multiple versions of Ruby on my machine. I need to uninstall the old version.

Good luck!

Usually around this time of the year I reflect of the state of Hip-Hop music and the best releases. These days more of my enthusiasm is oriented around technology this is a natural progression.

I have an iPhone, but have spent good time with Android (and Windows Phone of course). I see no reason to switch to the other platforms. In no particular order here I the apps I found myself using the most :

• Foursquare
• VSCOcam¹
• OneBusAway
• SportsCenter
• Snapchat
• Safari
• Simplenote
• Nike FuelBand
• Twitterrific²
• Reminders³
• Messages⁴
• Mail
• Music⁵
• Remote
• Instagram⁶
• Photos
• Uber
• Maps⁷
• Vine
• iBooks
• iPhoto

Thoughts and Comments

• I tried using Day One consistently but the workflow was simply too many steps. Moreover the initial load up time is poor.

• When possible, I would route every event (flights, meet ups, etc) through Passbook. It works well but I wish vendors would utilize it more.

• I used FaceTime a lot this past year. I rarely use Skype. Again 1st party wins here.

• One thing I’ll mention is that iOS7’s “Today View” is pretty neat. Weather, Calendar, and Location (via Frequent Locations) are available here at a glance. I hope to see more intelligent behaviors of the Today View in the future.

• I only used Facebook when absolutely necessary but only through Safari.

• I’ve certainly taken the most photos this year than ever before. It’s coming to a point where I need to simply store everything in separate iCloud Photostreams. Hopefully Apple will bring more flexibility to this area.

I like going to airports. When waiting for a plane I’m isolated. I have limited battery life on my gadgets. I have time to think without having obligations to other people or things. I catch up on reading, work emails, and general thoughts about life.

Airports are the ultimate people watching location. I get to see people I admire, people I don’t want to be, the type of people I desire to be with. All of this is a catalyst for me to take action in my life. What is it that I really want? How do I get there? What do I need to do right now to make a quick fix?

Google started out as part of Californian graduate student culture around San Francisco’s Bay Area. But as Google grew it encountered the big bad world. It encountered barriers to its expansion in the form of complex political networks and foreign regulations. So it started doing what big bad American companies do, from Coca Cola to Northrop Grumman. It started leaning heavily on the State Department for support, and by doing so it entered into the Washington DC system.

The thing I wonder is if Larry Page and Eric Schmidt see eye to eye on ingratiating Google with the government or is Schmidt just that smarmy? Schmidt has a laundry list of perverse quotes around user privacy meanwhile Page is a little quieter.

…will discuss key solutions to get African and Latino Americans in more notables positions within the technology world without segregating them from the conversation: breaking out of your ethnic comfort zone, dismantling ideas about democratization, playing a rigged game, and identifying patterns from successful minorities in STEM fields.

Consider this proposal a solution getting more minorities involved in technology before the minority/majority inflection point. We’ll be frank and to the point.

The voting period for SXSW 2014 Panel Picker is from August 19th to September 6th.

Below I’ve included some detail on the the involved speakers and examples of public speaking.

UPDATE (January 2014): Our panel has been selected to present our ideas at SXSW Interactive 2014. Moreover we have a change to our panelist line up. Laura Weidman Powers will be replaced by Amy Schapiro. Added a new speaker profile below.

Speakers

Laura Weidman Powers

Laura has a background in entrepreneurship, nonprofit management, youth development, and technology. She has started two organizations in the education space, one nonprofit arts education organization in West Philadelphia that is now in its eighth year, and one for-profit tutoring company that gave rise to a book. Laura first explored the tech space as a project manager in a small web development shop and, most recently before CODE2040, she served as VP of Product at a consumer web startup based in Los Angeles, redesigning the product development process to be inclusive of engineers. Laura is a 2013 Echoing Green and Open Society Black Male Achievement Fellow and a 2013 Stanford Social Innovation Fellow. She has an AB cum laude from Harvard College and a JD and an MBA from Stanford University.

Ryan Stoner

Ryan is currently the marketing & business development arm for Switchcam and previously the co-founder of 100 Urban Entrepreneurs, a non-profit organization with over 1 million under management dedicated to helping provide a meaningful, long-term economic boost to urban communities throughout the United States. As a serial entrepreneur and experienced strategist, he brings extensive knowledge across media & technology to table. Through his involvement in 100 Urban Entrepreneurs, he’s applied the same business-building tenets to companies at the other end of the commercial spectrum: tiny startups whose founders have limited experience, few connections and little money. He has mentored more than 100 promising urban entrepreneurs and developed strategic partnerships with organizations including the White House, Black Enterprise, and various HBCUs.

Jason Smikle

Jason Smikle is the fMainstream Creative Director and head of research, development and marketing. He worked at CBS and MTV before co­founding TUV Mediaworks, a youth ­focused video production and research company, in college with Ebele Mora. As CEO of TUV Mediaworks, he developed a prolific online content production operation ­­ producing over 500 web shorts in three years. He also produced video­ based research and video content creation projects for large brands, advertising agencies and media companies, including Adidas, AT&T, Campbell’s Soup, Foot Locker, NBC, BET Networks and the Interpublic Group of Advertising Agencies.

Amy Schapiro

Amy Schapiro manages CODE2040 program operations, student and company recruitment, and other strategic pipeline partnerships. She has worked in capacity building and organizational management for organizations throughout the US and abroad. Amy earned her BA from Emory where she studied Political Science and Spanish and her MSW at Columbia. Before she moved back to her native San Francisco to help start CODE2040, she worked at EARTH University in Costa Rica leading an impact assessment study. Amy designed workforce development programs and worked in grant making in New York while at Columbia, focusing on social enterprise management. She was also the Academic Director for a Boys and Girls Club for the Bay Area and went on to lead the community management of a Nike national digital corporate responsibility campaign at YouthNoise. She also worked as an English educator at an elementary school in Spain for the Madrid Department of Education. Amy is fluent in Spanish, passionate about providing awareness and access to life-changing professional and educational opportunities for marginalized communities, and excited about cultivating an inclusive, data-driven and high-impact workforce. She has spoken at multiple conferences on STEM diversity, including the 2014 Lean Startup Conference among others.

Andre Briggs (Organizer)

Andre is a Senior Software Development Engineer at Microsoft Corporation. He has worked in the online advertising space for over 5 years focusing on knowledge discovery in large scale data. Andre has a background in Computer Science and Business.

Video & Talks

CLICK HERE TO VOTE

Let the music play

In no way do I claim to be well versed in Feminist theory but it’s clear that the mainstream online feminism movement is a cafeteria style agenda that has historically ignored instances of exclusion and imperialism. Groups like FEMEN (of #FreePussyRiot fame) take a paternalistic maternalistic approach to imposing their views on so called victims of oppression. This means that that on one hand wearing burqa is being oppressed, but walking around topless is liberating. I get it….I really do, however they lack the interpersonal and intercultural awareness to realize that not every woman in the world has their views.

The mainstream online feminism seems to believe the TV show Girls is the answers to all problems:

How the shuffling happened

• Feminism as a whole is failing since WOC don’t feel included in the agenda.
• Rogue African-American Twitter “feminists” have commandeered the message and are tweeting brain farts of personal issues they have with African-American men.

It’s a shame, as soon as WOC as a whole were getting the attention of White feminists, the messaged turned into a derogatory bashing of Black men from a subgroup. Cliched ramblings from many black “feminists” without reasoning skills soured the atmosphere. It reminds me of the fragmented Occupy Movement. When ever there is a platform someone is sure to abuse it. It really diminishes the impact that #solidarityisforwhitewomen had in my mind.

I’ll go one step further and say that African American males are the easiest target to pick on. I can’t give #blackpowerisforblackmen more than a few seconds of thought without attributing idiocy to the creators of this hashtag “movement”.

There can only be one chair left

I asked what is the next step now that WOC have the attention of White feminists. Turning to attack African-American men was the wrong move for the fraction of WOC who decided to engage in it. African American feminists in particular have lost the advantage in the conversation due to this.

Do non-black WOC Feminist need to disassociate themselves from Black Feminists? Perhaps…but then these particular Black Feminists would be back where they started a few days ago. Being sidelined from the conversation…asking themselves what did they do wrong, and starting a new hashtag to comfort their ego. The cycle will continue until they focus on the real problems.

Complaining about some Black guy dumping you isn’t Black Feminism.

Jay’s latest album effort, Magna Carter Holy Grail (MCHG) is a terribly weak album. Lyrically Jay seem incapable of delivering anything meaning outside of his new fascination with esoteric fashion labels and well known artists. Some of the beats are alright but as a whole the album falls into the underwhelming categories like Jay’s last 3 or 4 albums.

Before we talk about the Picasso Baby video I need to vent about Jay Z’s Dualities commercial that aired during the NBA playoffs this past year for a full minute. It was an entire 60 seconds filled with the most nonsensical word soup I’ve heard in years.

I get it, you want to release an album guerrilla style to attempt to endear yourself with underground Hip-Hop fans and generate buzz.

So let’s get to the critique of the student art project of a video:

“HBO paid me to be here. I don’t even like rap.”

Maybe my dislike of the version of NYC that the TV show Girls presents makes me loathe the fact that this woman is in the music video. When I think about it, Brooklyn hipsters are probably one of Jay Z’s biggest fan bases.

“I’m only here because when you say “Picasso” 200 times in 4 mins I get to make an appearance. It’s part of my contract.”

Ok, Sean Carter. You’re rich and you can convince a Picasso descendant to co-sign your video.

“I’ve never seen a rapper before!”

I have no idea who this woman so I Googled Binged her. Turns out her art isn’t that bad at all but her work can go for about 14,000 Euros. That’s One Percenter Hip-Hop right there.

“Blah blah blah, he made himself into art…..profound”

So does the unfortunate homeless that walks downtown Bellevue with a sign on his back claiming to be art. I’m not an art critic but this sort of nonsense is one of the many things that steers the common person away from art. The idea that your wet fart stain imprint is something to laud.

“Jay Z only brought me here to appeal to 40 year old suburbans.”

Maybe I just don’t like that fact that this guy makes the same movie with the same cast over and over that appeals to a certain demographic. After listening to Jay Z’s discography I know Jay is an insecure artist who is feels the need to ingratiate himself with this type.

“Wow, I’ve being performing this song 30 times in a row…”

Is this not the fakest smile ever?

“I can’t wait to get back to the Hamptons and tell the club about this!”

Art Dealer? I guess Jay is showing his “dualities” of hanging out with dealers on both sides of the law. Maybe I’m just a salty hip-hop fan but all I see is Jay expressing his current decadent life style.

“I’m drunk and photobombing this video”

Gotta throw in that illuminati imagery to stir the pot!

“I never stuck my cock into Fox’s box but…” - Jay Z

WTF Jay? 15 years after the fact you want to deny having sex with an underage Foxy Brown? This is so cringeworthy that mother had to protect her poor child’s ears. Jay is into some weird stuff.

“This is a powerful Hip-Hop moment.”

Mr. Knowles has a striking resemblance to Bill Cosby here. Eskimo kissing Marina Abramovic is your legacy.

If your going to hype up a music video with the subtitle of “Performance Art Film” you have to take the criticism from armchair film critics like me. I get it, you’re Pablo Picasso and Kanye West is Steve Jobs…Please retire until you’re ready to be serious about Hip-Hop, Sean.

Salut.

What’s in an Infusion?

There are 3 parts to every drink:

• Alcohol
• Citrus
• Flavor

When I think of how to model a drink the same strategies apply as designing any system. You want extensibility in the sense of having room for more flavor. You want polymorphism: one ingredient may light up different tastes at different times. Encapsulation is present in the form of using an air tight container. With these building blocks in place any thing should be possible.

Palates & Taste Evolution

A person’s taste palate change every few years. For instance I began as a gin & tonic person then vodka & soda. The past year I’ve been a Moscow Mule person, but I’ve been edging towards bourbons and rye whiskeys recently.

“Infusing is like cooking, you can’t go wrong.”

Rules of Thumb

1. Don’t infuse anything for more than 2 weeks.
2. Let is sit for a few days and constantly taste.
3. Citrus should be in every drink.

Ideas

• Peppercorn
• Yerba Matte or Earl Grey teas
• Jalapenos
• Frozen berries (Probably good with gin or vodka)
• Cinnamon Cloves (Create your own version of Fireball)
• Maple Syrup
• Pears
• Figs

Fin.

Welcome to Austin

Designing Habits: From Big Data to Small Changes

The premise of this talk was to recognize the democratization of health data via wearable computing. There were many conversation about being able to help users make big changes in their health based on upon seemingly small changes to their lifestyle. These small changes are recommended by looking at crowd sourced self-collected data. Apparently sensors to track movement are pretty cheap these days and there are several start-ups attempting to capitalize on the personal health industry. The commercial successes of the Nike FuelBand and Fit Bit products are seen as indicators of the demand. The panel included the CEO of an online health tracker service called Basis Science Inc. and a Stanford University Healthcare Design Strategist. Personally I find this field and the use of data very promising.

On the other hand I did feel that this session abused the buzzword “Big Data” to garner interest. The panelist with the Healthcare design strategist title didn’t add anything to the talk. The VC dude was just talking for the sake of talking. Since SXSW has many would be entrepreneurs attending I guess you always get interest in your panel if there is someone there who may be willing to fund your idea….

Is Your Digital Ready for the Minority Majority?

This session was led by Google’s Head of Industry, Kevin Hartman. The session brought awareness to the cultural shift that has been building in the US for several decades. Hartman’s point was that several forward-thinking companies and the advertisers that represent them fail to account the new reality. This can limit their ability to genuinely connect with contemporary American consumers. I was thinking if this could be measured in some way or if Google has don’t some work to see how this effects online campaigns. Unfortunately this was not shared.

After contemplating this talk since I was in Austin I do wonder how advertising will change when the demographics of the US noticeably change. Will we continue to see Caucasians in certain roles. Will there be a non European Uncle Sam (link****)? Is there a model based on context, age, gender, and ethnic background that will only show consumers ads with people that represent their own race? Does this yield more conversions? So many questions, so few answers.  

Elon Musk Keynote

Elon Musk is the cofounder of PayPal, CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, and Chairman of Solar City. The keynote had much talk about this company SpaceX. Musk made the compelling point that all other forms of transportation we have are re-usable (i.e. cars, trains, airplanes, etc) yet rockets for space travel are one time use. His company is trying to change that. Right now NASA is largest client and they have dozens of successful launches right now. Just about all the software in SpaceX is Linux based. This was a great listen.

Since Austin TSLA is trading at record levels and has announced profitability. SpaceX’s Grasshopper has reached new heights. Musk might be the most interesting entrepreneur right now.  

The Future of Location: From Social to Utility

This was a Q&A where tech blogger Anil Dash questioned Foursquare CEO/Founder Dennis Crowley. If you haven’t heard of Foursquare, it’s a social app that is becoming increasingly important in the context of location. Crowley wants to position Foursquare between the map tiles and the users to create a personal map for every user. Right now Foursquare’s API is used by tens of thousands of 3rd party services, not limited to Instagram and Twitter. Foursquare wants to be the location layer of the internet. By the end of the session I was convinced that location should be thought of during any internet activity. P.S. I had a chance to speak with the CEO/founder Dennis Crowley for 2 minutes later in the day at another event. He stated that of his 150 person company and there are three times as many data scientists than software developers.  

Julie Uhrman & Josh Topolsky Keynote

Ouya is a Kickstarter financed Android OS based video game system that plans to ship later this year. Much of this talk was simply and Q & A between Topolsky and the Ouya CEO, Julie Uhrman. It’s interesting to see how popular Android has become. Unfortunately we all now know that Ouya is a flop.

How AI Is Enhancing the User Experience

This talk had members and former members of SRI (Stanford Research Institute) International. SRI is the organization that created the original Siri app that Apple later bought and integrated into iOS. The panelists included Nadav Gur, a co-founder & CEO of Desti travel search and planning app. Raj Singh the founder of Tempo AI, a smart calendar app was also present. Both companies are offshoots of SRI. This was quite an interesting talk. All the panelists had some inside knowledge on Siri and the challenges to create these knowledge verticals. The reason both of the offshoot apps focus on specific areas (calendar and travel) is because “AI” works in a model that is too constrained to be everything to everyone. There was talk of pull based (open intent) versus push based assistance and the complexities involved. The push model can be too noisy. How can one balance the context versus the noise? The session began with the answering the question of “What is AI?”  

Big Data Meet Up

The description of this event claimed it was a get together “with other Big Data professionals for an hour of brainstorming, idea-building, networking, friend-making and career-enhancement.” Unfortunately I didn’t find this too useful. It was poorly organized. I met some people from Rdio (music streaming service), Apple, Google, and several smaller companies. The attendees broke themselves into groups by topic. The “Marketing” group was the largest by far.  

The End of Reality: The New Augmented Reality

This session was presented by Alex Olwal, a researcher from the MIT Media Lab and a MIT Media Lab alumni named Jamie Zigelbaum. This sessions covered some exciting use cases of augmented reality. For instance in industrial hardware design and medical devices. The ethics of augmented reality were also discussed with the rising popularity of devices like Google Glass. Here is a link to the slide presentation that was used during the session.  

Other Events:

Viceland DRONES

Vice Magazine put on a multi-day event to promote the Tom Cruise movie Oblivion and to raise awareness of drones. It was kinda of a brilliant cross marketing effort that was relevant to SWSXi goers.

SXCreate

There were many examples of 3D Printing here. It seems like 3D printers are becoming cheap enough for small creative firms to invest into. I think it will be a while before you see any of this in people’s homes.

The MIT Media Lab also a handful of sessions here. All around there were handfuls of gadgets and strange products that were built by self-titled “hackers”.

General Thoughts

• There was a Health data track. Since the Healthcare industry isn’t the most welcoming, start-ups are taking matters into their own hands and making the Healthcare industry come to them.
• There was a lot of excitement about Google Glass and developing applications for it. Wearable computing is a hot topic.
• Big data had its own track as well but I got the sense that people still don’t understand what it is. Everyone seems to have their own definition. I’ve realized how’s much online advertising has pushed the big data stuff forward though. Much of what gets talked about we are already doing.
• SXSW needs to do a better job at anticipating popular sessions. I really wanted to go to Big Data Democracy: The Rise of Analytics but the session announced that there was no more space 20 min before it started. Perhaps I should have found the optimal session schedule that took into account all the serendipitous events that occur at SSXSWi but that takes the fun out of it.
• The SXSW Panel Picker process has been gamed. The process is basically similar to Bruce Feirstein’s TED-O-MATIC (http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/04/ted-conference-talks-humor). Perhaps panels should submit a trailer or something to to give a taste of what the discussion will be about beyond the text description.
• In an effort to appeal to a broad range of people there are hardly any sessions that take deep dives into a topic. Panels usually have a several non-technical people consisting of tech bloggers, VC’s and “researchers”. The panels that did have the technical people who actually create the shit were much more useful to me.

Worst Session Award

The most useful session I attended was How to Be Interesting by cartoonist & claptrappist Jessica Hagy. Her talk was literally 5 mins then she open the rest of the time up to questions. In those 5 minutes absolutely nothing that was talk about had anything to do with the title of the session. I stood on the outside of the packed conference room feeling completely hoodwinked. I turned to the guy next to me and said “Is that it?” he chuckled and I left. Maybe I just had too high hopes for this. If you’re going to have a click bait title for your session at least try to live up to it. This was 10 mins of my life I can’t get back. Shame on you Jessica Hagy, shame on you!

My Personal Do Better Next Time

Business cards. This year I did better than last with the business cards. I probably was able to add over %60 of the business cards I got to LinkedIn. I still haven’t really converted this things into actionable things yet. Note to self: Create personal business cards not affiliated to the company you work for.

Conclusion

This was my 2nd time at SXSW Interactive. It’s an amazing place with many like-minded people. My advice is to research the panels and talks that sounds interesting before going. On the other hand I found many interesting talks by simply conversing with other SXSW goers. If there is a session that is particularly interesting to you make sure to arrive early. Especially if the panel is not held in the Austin Convention Center. There were a few sessions I missed out on due to being at maximum venue capacity.

This year I felt I met less developers. Anything tech event that is greater than 20 people gets taken over by marketing people using the event as a vacation or dating pool.

Sometimes the topics are so dumbed down that you read one article about the subject on a blog you would leave with more knowledge. The expectation to set at SXSW Interactive is the priceless networking opportunities.

Now this doesn’t mean SXSWi is devoid of truly technical sessions. There are hackathons but I wouldn’t spend my time in a room off site of downtown Austin all day just to get your programming rocks off. Such activities defeat the purpose of networking.  

If you are dumb enough to believe that a Prince in a Zamunda wants to split his fortune with you if you simply send him some bank notes first then you are simply gullible and greedy. The Darwinian description of Natural Selection is certainly being re-enforced.

I’m not the only internet joker who has attempted to apply some logic to this trope. Someone at MS Research produced an overly wordy white paper on why attackers claim to be form Nigeria. In the end, the paper doesn’t really seem to answer the question.

“There are really people out there like this”

The funny thing is that years ago when I was looking for roommate on Craigslist I received a response from an eager solicitor. Being desperate at the time I lowered my roommate standards for my month to month offer. After a few email exchanges from the seemingly domestic patron I received some travelers cheques. Immediately my suspicions were confirmed. From then on I continued to toy with the grifter in a curious cat like manner. “There are really people out there attempting to swindle people” I thought to myself.

…some people are have unconsciously incorporated a sense of superiority over other cultures.

I have my own theory. People fear the unknown. They fear what’s not in front of them. It’s easier to lay blame on someone “over in Africa” then take responsibility for your own actions. Moreover Americans are so far removed from the realities of developing regions such as West Africa that it’s easy to project the stereotypes and motifs of failed Colonialism. What I’m getting at is that some people are have unconsciously incorporated a sense of superiority over other cultures. The 419 suckers feel they are getting such a good deal and that they are entitled to free money. It’s a strangely perverse outlook. Maybe the narrative of a generation?

Nigerians are far from the only ethic group who have fallen victim to ethnically based clichés. Jewish greed stereotypes are rightfully seen as distasteful theses days. You won’t read such epithets in any corporate email distribution lists. Maybe one day Americans will grant Nigerians the same privilege.

In Nigerian there are music videos from pop artists with hooks like “419 is just a game…” and several back up dancers in choreographed movement. When I saw those videos I had to chuckle to myself. It’s truly entertainment to them.

UPDATE: Apparently I’m ahead of the curve. Vice just posted a short film titled Internet Scamming in West Africa. Another interesting perspective.

Since the about 1999 the Hip-Hop taxonomy has expanded and splintered several times over. There’s a huge difference between “Trap Music”, West Cost Indie, and NYC borough specific music. I even have some French, British, and Spanish hip-hop in my library. In my opinion the big bang like expansion has slowed down considerably in the past few years. What’s left are unexplored fringe areas of Hipster Rap like Macklemore, Asher Roth and Lil’ B. It’s a shame really…

The criteria I’ve used to determine my choices are based on several objective and subjective attributes such as:

• iTunes library play count
• Released in the year 2012
• Production quality
• Lyricism
• Artist flow and presence
• Project consistency

Let get on with it:

Best Tracks

Fizzyology – Lil Fame & Termanology

“Whips so hot looks like a convertible sauna” — Term Beat is dark, feelings like a cypher around a trashcan bonfire when it’s 20 degrees Fahrenheit.

Strictly Business (Pt. 1 & 2) Action Bronson & Statik Selektah

Statik stitches together a handful of 90’s classic hip-hop/rnb beats and breaks interloped bridged with New Jack City dialog. I first heard Action Bronson in 2011. Since then he has been one of my favorite rappers. Out of all the tracks he released in 2012 this is my favorite.

Mercy – Big Sean, Pusha T, Kanye West, & 2 Chainz

The version I have has doesn’t include Big Sean simply because I think he is terrible artist. The stand outs on this track and Pusha T & 2 Chainz verses. It’s a booming track in an era where most singles are afraid to combine bass and lyrics.

My Favorite Song

Wiz Khalifa is an artist that perplexes me. This is what I would like to him from him. The Taylor Allderdice project was much better than his studio album ONIFC.

Livers for Sale

This is a brilliant track. The intro voice sample sounds like Vincent Price from Thriller fame. I love the laughing sample too. The track’s theme stays true the title of stealing livers from dead bodies. Grotesque but how many artists take hip-hop back to horrorcore?

Gladiator Music

Another Gangrene track. This is a hard ass beat. This would be great to hear at a live show.

Six Directions Of Boxing

These days the Wu-Tang Clan doesn’t release much material as a group, but when they do it’s usually awesome. The soulful drums and guitar strings match the seasoned flows of the Clan. This track is from The Man With The Iron Fists Soundtrack and doesn’t disappoint.

Stay Schemin

The beat is pretty awesome and as usual Drakes verse is the one to check for. The hook is homage to an old Nas track by the same name.

Notable Tracks:

• “Where’s The Love” – Nas
• “WOH”/“Chandelier”/“Showroom” – Curren$y
• “Triple Beam Dreams” – Rick Ross & Nas
• “New Jack” – Smoke DZA
• “Gateway To Wizardry” – Action Bronson & Styles P

Best Albums

Blue Chips – Action Bronson & Parry Supplies

Best Track: Tapas

The is the album I wish I made. Simple beats and and rhymes, but the fusion is marvelous.

Life Is Good – Nas

Best Track: Black Bond

It’s amazing for an artist to have this much longevity.

Vodka & Ayahuasca – Gangrene

Best Verse: Alchemist on “Due Work”

This album is much for consistent than Oh No & Alchemist’s first effort.

Taylor Allderdice – Wiz Khalifa

Best Track: The Cruise (ft. Frank Ocean)

This is simply an album with many good songs.

Notable Albums:

• “Respect The Fly Shit” – Meyem Lauren
• “The Murder Murder Kill Kill Double” – Necro
• “WRKING.” – Chuck Inglish