Read iAlja's writing - page 7

The ABC of promoting your programming workshops in a woman aka human friendly way

You might have noticed that I’m getting increasingly fed up with the lack of women in IT. It’s a fun, exciting, creative and increasingly influential industry, so why does the majority of my half of the population still feel like they don’t belong in this world?

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Entering the digital playing field as one, big European team

The past few months have been a crazy roller coaster ride for me. A new job at a cool hardware startup that is trying to improve indoor living (on top of my usual blogging about mobile tech, encouraging Rails Girls, running and what not), and I’ve just returned from the amazing Dublin, where I’ve...

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500 days of writing 750 words each day

I already blogged about why I write at least 750 words each day when I reached one straight year of regular writing. Today I’m celebrating another milestone: 500 days of interrupted writing. In other words: I’ve just added a Space Bird, the ultimate streak badge you can earn, to my collection!

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I'm in love with Markdown

I just want to go on the record for saying that I really, really love Markdown:

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Goodbye Blogger, Hello Octopress!

The recent Google Reader fiasco reminded me of something I’ve been too lazy to take care of for too long: my blog, which I started back in 2006, was still being hosted on Google’s Blogger. Now here’s a question for you: how long before Google decides all blogging should be done on Google+? Ridicu...

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How a Lego dragon helped me explain programming in 15 minutes

Another Rails Girls Ljubljana workshop also meant another lecture on how the internet works and the basics of programming. The goal was to ease in the participants, this time mostly high school girls, into the practical workshop that consisted of creating a web app for collecting ideas in Rails....

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Lessons learned from Rails Girls and why we really do need more women in tech

It can be surprisingly easy to not notice things because "that's just the way it is". I have to admit I used to feel that way about the lack of women in tech. Just as a lot of women in the industry, I quickly started to think of myself as on of the guys and not even notice that I'm consistently ...

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How I found great chocolate in Brussels and glimpsed the flame of hope

I found myself in a bit of an awkward situation when I had to explain to my friends why I would be flying to Brussels this week. Sure, I knew the official answer. I have been selected as one of the 25 members of the "Young Advisors Expert Group on implementation of the Digital Agenda for Europe"...

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I quit Evernote: why a company shouldn't choose good looks over their core functionality

I used to love Evernote. "Remember everything" is their headline. People talk about "outsourcing your memory" with Evernote. And I did. I made Evernote the hub for most of my work that didn't require documents. I stored everything, from meeting notes and blog post drafts to notes about our cats'...

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When magic happens at Rails Girls Ljubljana

What happens when you fill 2 classrooms and 1 big conference room at Telekom Slovenije with over 70 girls of all ages, who want to build their own web app, and 30 coaches, experienced web developers? No, it's not a rhetorical question, it's a real challenge!Over a hundred people at the first Rai...

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Explaining the web and web programming with Octocat, sushi and fish

One of challenges of organizing Rails Girls Ljubljana was coming up with short lectures that would prepare the girls, absolute beginners, to understand the basic terminology of the web and what they would be working on.Sure, there are some existing presentations online about what programming is ...

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Why I write at least 750 words a day

One year ago I first came across this strange website, 750words.com (thanks, Swizec!). Simple concept, simple instructions. Write 750 words. And come back again tomorrow, write at least 750 more. Rinse and repeat. 750 words. Each and every day in the past year. Now a total of 356,548 words, 367 ...

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