Gather 2012: Morning

Automating things – Mal Curtis

babushka – http://babushka.me

  • nested dependencies.
  • useful to define what software you need on a system as well as configuration
  • similar to puppet and chef
  • each dependency has a url to grab it from and a .app which list install defaults, configs, dependencies,
  • server config just has a bunch of dependencies listed

Vagrant – vagrantup.com

  • Automate process of creating virtual machines
  • Runs program like babushka once machine is live

Capistrano

  • Code deployment

Jenkins

  • Continuous integration
  • hard to setup – look at “go ci” instead perhaps

 

Powering a Mt Eden Cafe – Nate Dunn

  • Tuihana Cafe in Mt Eden Rd
  • Runs 3bits design setup

Chellenges

  • Highly competative industry
  • Tight margins
  • Advertising doesn’t work very well

Get the basics right

  • Clean, bright warn environment
  • extraordinary staff and passionate staff
  • Great coffee and food with plenty of choices ( but not too many options )
  • Look after your regular customers

Clever Technology

  • eftpos over broadband, with nfc
  • naked DSL and VOIP – phone lines expensive, no need to dialup always on, have to have broadband for Free Wifi anyway, VOIP really cheap and works whereever you are
  • coffee ordering via sms, email, twitter. Twitter DM -> Custom Windows App, 2N cellular gateway on vodafone prepay -> nice printout + reply with confirmation of email/sms/twitter. SMS is most popular method. Inspired by subway’s system. Commercial SMS gateways too expensive at their scale just $10/month for prepay acct.
  • Learnt – word numbers not important, customers don’t read messages, some will register & never use, novelty for most, must-have for core group
  • NFC – visa paywave + mastercard paypass – quickest way to pay. Few people have cards or know how to use
  • Snapper not supported since they are with eftposnz and didn’t work with paymark eftpos provider
  • Free Wifi – expected by most customers, just works having codes too complicated, rate/protocol/time limited . Extremely rate limited on all ports except 80/443 , time limit to 1h. Seperate SSds for customers and staff. Powered by mikrotik
  • Google Alerts – looks for reviews anywhere, all sites. Put all reviews on our feedback page. Have a unique name so easy to find.
  • foursquare – not heavily used, has 2 offers but rarely redeemed
  • Only 150 followers, broadcast platform. DM ordering only used by a few
  • Facebook – most customers on it, best bang for a buck advertising, good analytics. Take the good and the bad facebook posts. More people will see facebook post and come in than will like.
  • custom facebook app checks twitter feed every 10 minutes and posts ( grabs photos off yfrog if linked ). People see posts of food and come in to buy
  • Blog – facebook don’t like pulling RSS feed so have custom app to pull facebook notes and post to blog

 

Official Information Act requests – fyi.org.nz

  • Need to be specific
  • Ombudsman office a bit slow. Some problems with lack of “case law” from them
  • Charges usually not a problem
  • Over 3000 government bodies listed, around 2000 of them schools
  • Bulk questions are discouraged, limits, has been abused overseas
  • Even the GCSB respond to OIA requests
  • Police and some govt departments require requests directly
  • Information include Police interrogation manuals!

 

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