From the category archives:

Videos

Benjamin Franklin – True American Geek

February 22, 2010
Benjamin Franklin

Our challenge: Do we remain in awe of his capacity and accomplishments or do we take on his mantle of “Doing the Best with what we have” and look at our issues and do something about them?
Health care, alternate energy, grass roots organizing, empowering small groups of people to do great things, advancing [...]

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How To Not Suck At Pinball – Greg Dunlap

February 16, 2010
Greg Dunlap

Pinball rules. Everyone loves to play. However everyone also loves to win, and the fact is pinball is hard. Luckily, getting better at pinball … not great but respectable … is actually pretty easy.
In this talk Greg Dunlap goes over the basics that will help you propel your game to the next level.

About Greg [...]

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Making Gov 2.0 Work for You – Sarah Schacht

February 16, 2010
Sarah Schacht

Doesn’t it seem like there’s a lot of “Gov 2.0″ stuff out there right now? What can you do, as an individual to make your voice heard in the lawmaking process and what tools do you use?
This Ignite talk focuses on how to overcome the bureaucratic and technology challenges to communicating effectively with your lawmakers. [...]

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An Astronomical Viewing Shelter on the Cheap – Jeremy Bingham

February 10, 2010
Jeremy Bingham

Using your telescope in the city can be frustrating with all the stray light all over the place. You can’t do much about the skyglow, but you can shield yourself from stray light sources nearby.
Rather than buying a pre-made shelter for hundreds of dollars, you can build one for about a hundred dollars. Jeremy [...]

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Inclusive Universe – Wendy Chisholm

February 10, 2010
Wendy Chisholm

Most designers are taught to design for the average user and as a society, we hold many assumptions about the characteristics of those users. However, products are used in unexpected ways and by unexpected audiences.
Challenging your assumptions and designing for non-average users can result in innovative products that can lead to a more inclusive, [...]

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Usability Beyond the Classroom – Jon Bell

February 3, 2010
Thumbnail image for Usability Beyond the Classroom – Jon Bell

It wasn’t until Jon Bell spent a year at Frog Design as a developer that he realized everything he learned in art school was either wrong, outdated, or only told half the story. Jon Bell condenses 10 years of design myth-busting into this action-packed talk.

About Jon Bell
During the day, you can find Jon Bell [...]

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Eugene Lin – iPhoning My Way to Retirement

January 18, 2010
Thumbnail image for Eugene Lin – iPhoning My Way to Retirement

I often rewrite someone’s pitch better fit the blog, but in Eugene’s case, I thought it best left intact. Here’s Eugene’s pitch for his highly entertaining, “iPhoning My Way to Retirement” talk.
I want to be rich. Steve Jobs promised it. App after app, the Apple gods got angry with me. Until finally, with nothing [...]

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Geek Generation – Lauren Bricker @brickware

November 30, 2009
Lauren Bricker

Don’t call Lauren Bricker a teacher, she’s more of a “Geek Generator.” For the last two years she’s been teaching computer science at a local private high school. It’s incredibly interesting, rewarding, and yes, a lot of work.
Lauren talks about her experiences teaching CS to high school kids and tells us how we [...]

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How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Counterfactuals – Daniel Westreich

November 30, 2009
Daniel Westreich

When looking at data regarding Web site user behavior or in Daniel Westreich’s case, epidemiology, we have to be remember that correlation does not imply causation. That is, just because two events were observed close together in time, it is false to assume that one caused the other. Causal inference is hard.
With great [...]

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Life’s Too Short To Eat Bad Food – Vanessa Fox

November 30, 2009
Thumbnail image for Life’s Too Short To Eat Bad Food – Vanessa Fox

Between working long hours, working on geek side projects (and at least in my case, raising kids), putting together a dinner party seems like a lot of work.
Coming from someone who spends more time on the road than in her house, search engine optimization expert, Vanessa Fox gives us her tips on throwing [...]

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Creating Communal Creative Space – Willow Brugh

November 29, 2009
willow brugh

The experience of building a maker space from scratch is certainly a project, Willow Brugh talks about her experience in doing so, what advice others have shared with her, and what spaces like this (Hackerbot, Saturday House are already available in Seattle.

About Willow Brugh
You can find Willow on her blog, on Twitter @willowbl00. [...]

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I Wish I Was Taller – Elan Lee

November 24, 2009
elan lee

Software and hardware developers spend a lot of time combing through the flaws and defects that their products have. But what about their own flaws and defects? Is it as simple as filing a bug?
Elan Lee had always wanted to be taller. Here’s his story of the attempts to fix his [...]

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Lies to Ignore – Jessica Hagy

November 12, 2009

With her familiar charts, graphs, diagrams and deadpan humor, Jessica Hagy indexes Ignite Seattle.

About Jessica Hagy
A recent transplant from Columbus, Ohio, Jessica Hagy writes (and draws) the popular blog, Indexed. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, the BBC Magazine and has won numerous awards. A collection of Indexed was [...]

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Addiction! Staying afloat in the stream – Mónica Guzmán

November 10, 2009
Mónica Guzmán

Glued to email, your RSS reader or Twitter? Has your hand grown by 133 grams — the approximate weight of an iPhone? The Web is a stream, and it’s easy to drown. Mónica Guzmán returns to the Ignite stage to offer tips, tricks and cautionary tales to guide you through the perils of an [...]

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What Makes the Greenest Cab? – Gregory Heller

November 2, 2009
gregory heller

Green transportation is all the rage these days, especially hybrid and electric vehicles. Popular wisdom may lead some, including civic leaders and politicians to believe that the greenest vehicle is a hybrid. NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg has been fighting to “Green” the Yellow Cab fleet in that city by forcing all new cabs to [...]

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60 Minutes in Whale (and How I Learned to Use a Machete!) – Mandy Sorensen

October 29, 2009
Mandy Sorenson

Ever wondered what to do with a half-alive beached whale on a remote island in the Pacific? Veterinarian Mandy Sorenson recounts her experience of dealing with this very problem while visiting the Pacific island of Rarotonga in 2006.
After a remarkable and significant attempt to keep a beached juvenile beak nosed whale alive, Mandy was [...]

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