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!
