Hello Glass Uh-oh Google - Picked up my First Glass When Gmail Was Down

Failed to Add to Glass and Voice Actions Malfunction in Google Glass

Friday, an exciting for my first pair of Google Glass. I am ready to be a Glass blogger and a developer. Wait a second not so soon... it wasn't working. Glass works closely with a web portal, which in turn is closely integrated with Google's social like Hangouts, Plus, Gmail,  Google Now... and the Chrome Pixel that every one was using at the "secretive" San Francisco office.

As a Glass Explorer on baby day 1, two consequences: MyGlass website keeps saying cannot add app to Glass, Path is temporarily over quota 500 server error, and Voice Actions (the Google voice search, likely Google Now also had trouble) just won't work.  You can say tons of "ok glass", but Google Glass voice actions or voice search wasn't working when Google social, email, and possibly voice search features down. Thanks to perfect integration with the Google suite, your Chromebooks and Chrome Pixel probably wouldn't have worked well Friday.

Supposedly the outage only last for short amount time, but was definitely experiencing trouble long after. Looks like the config error has caused rippling error report.

But this is not a rant. It's actually a part of the experience of trying a new technology. Some of the thoughts raced through my head: wow glass is cool but mine may have hardware problems, touchpad is cool but I wish the voice commands work, wait a second it worked intermittently maybe I just have bad accents! This interesting confusion leading me to think my English is broken was quite funny.

Unable to demo voice command also drove me to explore the MyGlass iOS app (read more below). Helped me found a helpful testing and demoing feature called screencast.

It was an insightful experience to understand the interconnection of Google services, and more importantly how the rest of the web use Goolge hosting (Path wouldn't work for a while, Premium Pixel download didn't work, not sure if also connected), and a rare experience using Glass without the voice commands.

This morning (Saturday), glass is working perfectly and responding very well to voice commands.

Picking Up Google Glass : Highlights

First Google Glass Picture is High Quality!

There are some awesome things to note though: the picture quality is high! Sharing is easy using the touch pad. Google Glass studio has gorgeous views, beer, and tentative staff who makes you feel like a VIP. Supposedly, there's phone support for Glass Explorers too. If voice actions continue to go on strike, I will have to give them a call.

Funny enough, putting a Google Glass on is excitingly disorienting. Having a "third eye" takes time to get used to, and made me do silly things like knocking things over and mistakenly miss my elevator stops. Because voice actions don't work, I had to use Wink to take a picture, and the touchpad extensively (which also takes time to get used to).

Titanium 4 eye rest rods with memory? Pretty cool. A twist on shade panel, and bone conduction technology (maybe I really didn't needed headphones at all). People have talked all about these experiences. The errors are new, as it's not every day that Google goes down. The iOS app is fairly new - MyGlass.

MyGlass iOS App Allows You to See What the Glass Explorer Sees!

MyGlass lets you access some myglass web portal options. Its coolest feature is the screencast which mirrors the glass view, so others can finally see what the Glass Explorer is seeing. And less passing around of let other people sweating on your precious glass ;-) I was able to demo the glass to my parents without them touching my glass. Pretty nifty for development testing too. On Quora, people asked what does a Glass Explorer see. Now you would know! 

UX Designer & Developer Tamara: Her Beautiful Transformation into a Maker [Guest Post][Learn-to-Code]

[Guest Post by Tamara] Biography: I studied Marketing at ITESM in Guadalajara, Mexico. I enjoy traveling and I have worked with tech companies in Mexico, China, India and US. I moved to Silicon Valley in 2012 and join Yogome, an educational gaming company, while they were participating at 500 Startups accelerator program. Then I went back to school for a UX design certificate program at UCSC-Extension. In 2013, I joined Coding Dojo’s first bootcamp and went fully into technology and development. Currently, I’m working as a UX designer and front-end developer.

‘Labeling’, the worst enemy of makers

Moving from being a “business person” to become a “technology person” has been harsh. Specially because of prejudices we have about people and careers. If you think that business people don’t like technology or that marketing people can’t understand technology, let me tell you: you are wrong.

I studied Marketing and my whole career I have been working with technology, developing technology products, comparing technical specifications and analyzing marketing strategies for them.

Making the decision to learn how to code and start building by my own was really difficult. I remember when I started my first coding class and the instructor asked me why I was there. I was really shy and I felt I didn’t belong there. Coding was for engineers, so I replied nervously: “I’m here just to try to understand technology, I want to make a landing page, that’s it.” I used to feel I was not good enough or smart enough to become an developer.

I started learning how to code about a year ago. By this time last year I was having headaches trying to make a simple app with PHP and it seems like it was a very long time ago. I have learned a lot and I’m still a beginner, but I now know that I’m capable of building stuff. I know I’m not an engineer, but I’m a maker.

Today, I still have doubts about what I will become at the end of this journey. Getting a job has been hard and I know finding the right position and the right company for me won’t be easy. But I’m happy and I’m learning new things everyday.

This is not the end of the story, I will continue searching for new challenges. But there are two things I have already learned in the past year and I want to share today.

The first one it’s that everyone can code. It doesn’t matter if you are a business person, a history major or an educator. Everyone can learn to code if they want to do it.

The second one, labels suck! I know it’s hard to stop labeling people by their career or education. But people shouldn’t discourage anyone to learn something new just because they are not from a technical career. So please stop doing it, specially to yourself. Throw away all the labels you have for yourself and go try something new.

Tamara Solorzano

@tamarha

Tamara's Portfolio

5 e-Commerce Lessons Learnt

My customers love me on ebay - certified

When not hacking, I run my one person, yet large-scale e-Commerce store, which is really a collection of store fronts. You name it: eBay, Shopify, Square Market, Magento, WeiDian ... I have done it all. For marketing, I have used Facebook advertisement, Twitter campaigns, MailChimp, eBay... and of course blogging. Here are top lessons learnt. As a hacker and a new generation of retailers, I use technology to run my business:

Never underestimate your reach

My business is "small", but I have a big vision: delivering creative, collectible gifts to all corners of America! In fact, I have sold to Switzerland, China, Australia, United Kingdoms, and Brazil.  And managed to sprinkle the US in the post holiday season too. 

December US sales Snapshot

Guerilla Marketing and Bootstrap minus Marketing Budget

My store has a one-person army. That means, I have no employee to do marketing nor the budget. Being a diligent armchair economist, I experimented with Facebook Advertisement. It can burn through $300 dollars a month without any conversions (to my shopify store), even though it gave me 300+ fans and likes on my page which never went away (surprisingly).

The key is to send jots of traffics to the website and waiting to generate viral content. Most of us, unfortunately do not have the talent nor the timing to crank out viral contents, so it is important to "espresso" your site traffic often. And twitter is perfect for that job.

Campaign like a Champion

This section is simple: be the champion of your product. For me it is so easy: I am selling only things that I would consume. They are all unique, creative gifts and gadgets, meaning they have niche consumers. Be able to explain to them the pluses and minuses in incredible details and showcase of knowledge have converted a lot of customers for me.

Gamify the Hell Out of This "Traditional" Realm

If you know me in person, you know that I love gamification. I record every milestone I hit and rejoice, and really take time to understand my achievements and celebrate them. 

I achieved ebay statuses in a very short cycle, compared to traditional sellers. Yet when I first started many friends jeered at my $5 dollar products, and possibly the least glamorous startup coming of a Stanford graduate. But I was having so much fun with the gamified system, selling products that I love and making a great "eBay come back" in the tech era. When eBay transformed into a new UI and design, I am right there.

Obtaining PowerSeller status

Becoming a top rated seller on ebay

Spread and Channel Like a Virus

Every channel has a "personality". eBay has a great customer base, people who like looking for deals, auctions, Amazonians look for books, electronics, Shopify people seek unique personalized experiences, and Square will go for indie, designer, modern touches ... a true e-Commerce guerrilla warrior like me will seek out the best channels for the products. For example, if you google "giant animal eraser" three of the top 5 images are mine : ) That's some great SEO from Shopify.com, despite that sales volume is very low. As a new e-commerce warrior, you may want to run some test about what sells in what channels. 

Learn Coding & Change Career : Ramon Porter's Amazing Journey, and You Can Help! [GUEST POST]

Ramon Porter made himself a promise to learn to code using Ruby on Rails. He has been working on it for 40+ months, building and refining projects. Team up with experts to level up. His amazing story continues and you can help! Ramon is looking for a full-time position as a web development. Think you have an amazing story? Message me.

Similar post Shannon's Learn to Code Story and Fundraising.

Ramon Happily Coding Away :)

Hello, my name is Ramon. And I’m 41 months into learning to reinvent myself as a web developer! You can follow my journey of this process at: http://www.projectramon.wordpress.com

It’s my belief that all a person needs to succeed at learning a new 

skill-set is a healthy dose of curiosity, a good attitude and the grit or perseverance to give you all at each step along the journey.

What I’ve Done So Far

Here are links to the two projects I’ve completed through AirPair so far. I am in the process of designing my third project as we speak.

Project #1: EventOrchid

Account Details

Username: test@example.com

Password: 12345678

Project #2: Sevendaysports 

Account Details

Username: test@example.com

Password: password

If you're looking for a resolute, good-natured, and hard working junior Ruby on Rails developer. Please check out my profiles!

• ·      Github
• ·      Linkedin
• ·      Twitter

How I Started

My journey into web development started with a 2,000 mile, one-way trip across the country! My girlfriend and I left warm and beautiful southern California for Michigan with one purpose; I needed to learn to program.

This wasn’t the quickest decision I’d ever made, but I clearly remember justifying to myself how moving back in with my mom and grandma would allow me the free time to focus on studying. There’s also the additionally obvious benefit of having my family close by after having been so far away for some time.

During my first couple of months back in Michigan, I built an office, setup the computer and got started in HTML and CSS.  Eventually, I read somewhere that the best way to learn was to have an idea/project in mind and just jump into building it. So that’s what I did.

What I’ve Learned So Far

Haha!

The first thing would be that I have ALOT to learn.  
I remember hearing James Edward Gray II once mention in one of the Ruby Rogue podcasts that programming has a plethora of topics to consider, each one containing an ocean of information in itself. To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

That being said, here are a few additional lessons I’ve learned over the past 3.5 years.

Learning with others beats solo coding in your mom’s basement.
This one is probably self-explanatory, but to be certain, it’s my opinion that it is much more fun learning from and interacting with other like-minded individuals.

For me personally, I’ve learned that maintaining a student mentality is more important than standing out. Excellence speaks for itself and occurs naturally over time with focused practice and proper attitude.

Writing blog posts will seriously help solidify concepts internally.
I remember the teachers at Dev Bootcamp encouraging us candidates to start and maintain a blog. At the time, it seemed like a lot of work that wasn’t directly related to programming, so I never kept up with one my first time around.

Boy was I completely wrong!

Not only is a blog a good resource to go over personally when attempting to remember implementation details or the like, but I have also received so much enlightenment and encouragement from many people just when I needed it most.  I certainly underestimated how powerful interacting with people in this fashion would provide a better well-being overall.

Prioritizing isn’t necessarily the same as limiting yourself.
When I started with AirPair, I had a pretty ambitious set of goals, one of which was to learn javascript and the Angular.js framework.  I learned that it was ok to not be able to juggle two languages at once, and instead I made a decision to focus on really understanding Ruby and Rails.

Is javascript and Angula.js still on my agenda? Most certainly, however, I’m learning to prioritize my educational focus out of necessity that stems from my current comprehension level.  There are many people who can do something like this, and I applaud them for it!

Lastly is to practice, and have some fun!
Enjoyment of the process will keep you going during those frustrating periods.

Useful Resources

Here is a list of resources that I’m still finding invaluable as I continue along this path towards a new career:

The Well Grounded Rubyist by: David A. Black – Takes a scientific approach in covering the ins and outs of the Ruby language.

Eloquent Ruby by: Russ Olsen – Russ demonstrates how to write code like a true Rubyist.

Apprenticeship Patterns by: Dave Hoover & Adewale Oshineye – Is a pattern book that’s focused on a new developer’s motivation and morale when considering the direction of their lives and careers in the software industry.

Want to hire Ramon or just chat with him for an inspiration story? You can find Ramon on Twitter 

Think you have a great story too? My blog is a free space for promoting beginners in coding, learning, hacking, and changing careers. I'd be glad to feature good stories, and mentor you to market your brand. It's a free pay-it-forward model. You help the next person in need.

2013-2014 A Year of Hack Schooling

14 days into the new year. Let’s imagine a brand new beginning. This is the year you become who you truly want to be : a full-time developer, a teacher, an entrepreneur, a writer, a maker … There’s a hack school (or an app) for each category, and 1000 other websites that promise to make us smarter. And you know the dojos of the new school generation: Udacity, Coursera, Codecademy, Khan Academy. Here are some trends and caveats to keep in mind, in my humble opinion. Let’s talk about the new comers.

Disclaimer: This isn’t just about coding

Hack school isn’t just for coding. And code schools, which are for coding, are no longer obscure. Recently news giants like Wall Street Journals and Fast Company have both covered Codecademy.com, San Francisco code schools and communities scored mentions too!

MOOC’s meh and massive dropout scenario

MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) have continued to moo for the past two years with student rosters in the multi-millions. Yet we can call it massive dropout classes. Even Udacity’s founder with his own pen and voice could not get a good completion rate. New courses are showing up with free coursework but premium certification / progress submissions. Coursera came up with authentications, aiming to provide credibility. Khan Academy expanded its computer curriculum. MOOC has been a bit meh in growth. Just not enough motivation, not enough discipline.

Y Combinator still hales this year as the year of education

Nevertheless, this is still truly the year of education. Second half of 2013, Startup School by Y Combinator took place. Paul Graham accepted CodeCombat on stage. Ron Conway confirmed in a later session: education would be a priority on the investment front. So indeed, there was CodeCombat, OneMonthRails, and AirPair (developer expertise knowledge transfer/education/training) all showed up in YC. So the rumor is true: education is a shiny star. Note each startup has a different model though. They are not your traditional education either.

How much is elite education worth in dollar amount per hour?

A brief talk about the traditional education: ivy league + Stanford are very expensive. They are elite not hack. One of our favorite calculations after sleeping in and missing class in the Stanford days: how much is each class worth? 45,000 a year, 3 quarters, say 2.5 months of 20 units, a typical economics class is 5 units, 5 hours per week. Say I am taking 4 classes x 5 hours/week = 20 hours/week, 20 hours/week x 2.5 months/quarter 4 weeks/months = 200 hours each quarter. $45,000 / 3 quarters = $15,000 per quarter. That’s about $75 per class. That’s a lot yet a small amount to pay for experts (it’s nice to have a class paying $75 a pop though, Stanford is happy). Udacity’s new class price is $150 a month. It’s definitely elite, considering that most internet subscriptions are well under $30. Even Salesforce.com for business is way less than $150/month. Still, for corporate training, $150/user/month, it is actually a great deal to take training out of house.

New gigs are just cooler than plain old training

Online schools, even in-person, intensive bootcamps cannot mimic the social bond, pressure, competition, motivation, and group mentality an university can provide. But for the corporate world where these bonds are not considered essential (compared to the alma mater of good memories), gamified, software as a service, MOOC, project-based content, learn by doing, or any other new gig is exciting! New offerings are so much more exciting, agile, and cool than the incumbents (thinking about the traditional corporate training seminars, click-through, quizzes at the end, and a generic certificate).

A plethora of skill shops

There’s Skillshare for just about learning anything bite-size and cool, like how to make a vine video. There’s Treehouse projects if you would like to make an app fast. There’s DIY.org for young adults and kids to become a maker and earn scout-like badges. There’s Tinkercad for 3D Printing. The possibility is truly endless. Let’s not forget Udemy which pretty much is Mooc that covers everything, but doesn’t have the heavy weight of university-level education like Coursera has.

Pursuit of happiness in education as … an after thought?

Young 11 yr old TEDxTalk speaker Logan mentioned a good point: what about pursuit of happiness. The dream that clings onto to so many Americans? Maybe the reason we love these newcomers is that they offer fun, excitement without the pressure of our parents’ school systems. All the badges and points, the user stories, projects and gadgets are really our new education as a lifestyle. It is our pursuit of knowledge and happiness.

Finally the ugly words: education as a business

It has always been since the day schools are privatized. We now have the traditional schools, community schools, government schools, trade schools … and the new bootcamp style code schools. With the promises of remaking careers, code school has attracted a high-paying pool of professionals-turned-student learnerpreneurs. Now publications caution against these 100% 100K promises. Code schools also scale back on their “guarantees”. However there will be super user stories and evangelists.

Each player in this hack schooling sphere is finding a way to potential glory. One thing for sure, it has never been so easy to learn just about everything. As someone who likes to read and learn, this is heavenly. Ultimately though, degrees, certificates or badges need to be put to work. I spend a lot of time think about how to be a productive hacker. My 2013 year of education continues to 2014, it’s all about productivity improvements. Now that I flexed my wings in unknown realms, time to talk some numbers.

Peer to Peer Coding Badges - a new pay-it-fwd personal project

CodeSumJewels Project Page

3:25a.m. couldn't sleep, has an epiphany: I finally know my No.1 personal project wish list item is building a peer-to-peer gamified developer support system. It's inspired by Mozilla P2PU open source P2P learning community! In fact this blog exists because of absurd yet awesome HTML tasks from a previous course. The procedure is simple: I make badges for beginners to earn, and eventually lead to advanced developer involvement through social interaction.

GOAL: badges are fun, getting recognized is fun, while people "watching" is more fun, get some feedback! Celebrate beginner coders and developers in training with CodeSumJewels

Badges for those who are badge-suckers just like me <3 

Here are some rules, but don't worry too much about them. The No.1 and 2 value adding thing will be getting that P2P interaction, and record evidence of your own accomplishment! These are great materials for personal blogs!

Peer-to-Peer Review Procedures

• Players: the submitter, the reviewer, the judge
• Items: badge, evidence, confirmation
• The submitter applies for a badge, with some rules
• The submitter provides evidence, e.g. screenshot / GitHub account, to the judge
• The judge / web agent helps find a reviewer
• The reviewer should be a holder of the badge at the time of the review
• Some badges allow reviewer to be nominated, can be a slightly more advanced user
• The reviewer spends 5 minutes review evidence, gives confirmation or rejects
• The reviewer should provide a reason in the case of rejection
• The reviewer earns invisible coder karma!
• The judge will award the badge to the submitter if application is successful
• The judge will provide reviewer feedback if application is rejected

It's still a peer-to-peer procedure because reviewer level doesn't always have to be greater than the submitter (in the case where the submitter is the first to earn the badge, she/he can also nominate a reasonably accredited peer to review the badge). Exceptions can be made when there's sufficient evidence supporting the achievement. For example, the submitter has a star jaded GitHub account, including a public repo of which she authored in Backbone.js, and the repo has been forked or starred, she should qualify for at least the basic badge for Backbone.js

NYTimes.com Redesign a changing navigation menu

The new website now has a dynamic top navigation menu. It changes as you scroll down. The comment section becomes a side overlay too, may be it helps encourage people to comment more as they read? No longer have to reach the abyss. Readers can comment as their thoughts spark.