Monthly Archives: April 2014

[first] chairman’s chat

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Chairman’s chat

For other posts about the 2014 FIRST conference, see the index page.  (written on my iPad; please excuse typos)

On stage were mostly coaches and mentors. There were also a few students and a 14 year Chairman.s judge. It makes sense to be mostly adults since they were with the team when they won. The format was all Q&A. Here are the points I found most interesting.

General

  • Become a better team by submitting because causes reflection on team culture. The process is the key.
  • Make sure everyone on the team knows what is in your written submission
  • how can make the world a better place. Globally, not just in community?
  • Try crazy ideas. Some work, some don’t

What were your presentation styles

  • created theme and used posters during presentation to give structure to presentation
  • miss daisy spent a lot of time on vidego, showed video during presentation after intro and then verbally highlighted some parts, then q and a. Made it like video w as a fourth person in the room
  • tell story so emotional connection
  • be memorable – used recipe listing what did and dressed as chef – onem inute for intro, one minute to describe each bowl and one minute to conclude
  • judge noted what seen: no single right way. What matters is what you did for the 12 things asked. Theme based on teams skills; doe sn ot have to relate to team name. How you can best tell your story
  • might need different presentation at regional vs championships. There gional judeges may already know story from being in commmunity or having heard it before

How convey community outreach and showing chairman’s worthy (vs engineering inspiration)
[A lot of silence]

  •  don’t look at it that way. Are you trying to change team, school, community,etc
  • about sustained excellence. Focus on different things each year and eventually have enough

Video

  • See what your story is
  • Watch old winning videos to get ideas
  • used to be professionally made, no longer allowed to be. But still helps create a concise, coherent story
  • Paul Lazarus has tips on creating video

What do to get judges to remember yourself

  • what you say matters more than how look . Need to tell in a way that isn’t the same as everyone else. Everyone created FLL teams. How did you do it? How did it benefit others?
  • numbers still matter
  • handouts. Leave something with the judges. Fun swag plus something informative about what done
  • practice your presentation, be good at it

Can you re-use the theme?

  • yes. Technotics did dance every year. Judges remembered brand from repetition as well
  • know your material in case get asked about it

How respond to cookie cutter approach to chairman’s (start x teams, do y hours of community service)

  •   one of the questions is about how innovative/creative. Another isa bout how many teams started. Both parts are important. You need the numbers and to be special
  • it is like cooking. How beat serve your community and cook for them
  • never say no when asked for help or someone has an idea

Do chairman’s and engineering inspiration judges talk to each other?

  • separate deliberation. Talk at end about top few for all awards to get more input.
  • does team act they way describe it?

Essay more factual or emotional

  • need to find a balance
  • picture your team when announced at an event if win. What would be said about it. Daisy submitted a booklyet “daisy by the nubmers” to show calculationsa bout where numbers come from.
  • tell it from the point of view of a person so have perosn behind numbers
  • numbers come first. Teams dont make upth ings but do exagarate. judges notice and reject team
  • who is best to present,. Think about who conveys passion when speak

How balance past vs current activities.

  • both matter. Here is what we are doing
  • chairman’s is about sustained excellence. Emphasize last five years. Judges repeat for a long time. If you say you plan to do the same thing every year and dont get to it, looks bad. More emphasis on what actually did vs what plan to do
  • facts can be both quantitative and qualitative
  • the internet is a great tool. Google yourself and see how many hits. Shows how w ell message spread
  • numbers addup. If on the local news, how many people see it?
  • knocked down numbers ten percent so didnt over estimate

How much do judges look at supplemental materials?

  •  helps to go back to written material within panel
  • there are multiple judging panels helps when discusss with other panels so they can see

How best answer questions in interview

  • no one best way
  • be concise, factual, passsionate
  • nice when can point to answer on posterboard

On use of visuals

  •  a few presentations were good without visuals
  • visuals generally help
  • visuals are a problem if waste time
  • not good if standing in front of judges not sure who would say what
  • photos are good. Don’t just repeat what you are saying

My impressions:
Despite mentoring a team for 5 years (that has won regional Chairman’s several times), I didn’t really know what the Chairman’s award was about. I think that is because a lot of things “just happen.” Which is good – the point of Chairman’s is to have that culture. I think it would be useful for everyone on the team to read the 12 questions (in the manual) that go into Chairman’s.

using spring RestTemplate and 2 factor authenication to add issues to github

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Last month, I figured out how to use Spring’s RestTemplate to add issues to github programmatically figuring it would save me time in the future.  Well, the future is here.  I needed to add 16 issues (one per milestone.)  I run my program and get a 401.  In particular, I got

Apr 20, 2014 6:42:18 PM org.springframework.web.client.RestTemplate handleResponseError

WARNING: GET request for "https://api.github.com/repos/boyarsky/repoName/issues" resulted in 401 (Unauthorized); invoking error handler

Exception in thread "main" org.springframework.web.client.HttpClientErrorException: 401 Unauthorized

at org.springframework.web.client.DefaultResponseErrorHandler.handleError(DefaultResponseErrorHandler.java:91)

at org.springframework.web.client.RestTemplate.handleResponseError(RestTemplate.java:588)

at org.springframework.web.client.RestTemplate.doExecute(RestTemplate.java:546)

at org.springframework.web.client.RestTemplate.execute(RestTemplate.java:502)

at org.springframework.web.client.RestTemplate.exchange(RestTemplate.java:444)

at jb.Trial2.main(Trial2.java:29)

Right.  I’ve changed my password AND enabled two factor authentication on github in the past month.  Luckily, it was easy to switch my program to two factor.  Here’s what I did.

Create personal use token

I created a second personal use token just like I did for for my git commmand line use by going to the applications page and clicking “generate new token”.  I chose to create a separate token so I could revoke access as soon as I’m done running the web service.

Testing the token

Per the getting started with oauth doc, I ran a command line to test the token:

curl -i -H 'Authorization: token notMy40CharToken' \

https://api.github.com/user

 Wrote another trial program

I adapted my second trial program from the initial iterations to test out two factor.

package jb;

import org.springframework.http.*;
import org.springframework.web.client.*;

/**
 * Call a web service that uses authenticated user to test passing credentials
 *
 * @author jeanne
 *
 */
public class Trial3 {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		String url = "https://api.github.com/repos/boyarsky/oca-ocp-book/issues";

		HttpHeaders headers = new HttpHeaders();

		String personalToken = "notMy40CharToken";
		headers.add("Authorization", "token " + personalToken);

		// ignore result because just testing connectivity
		HttpEntity<String> request = new HttpEntity<String>(headers);
		RestTemplate template = new RestTemplate();
		template.exchange(url, HttpMethod.GET, request, Object[].class);
		System.out.println("success");
	}

}

I then replaced the authentication part of my real program and it worked like a charm.  Even with the changes to the program, it was faster than creating 16 issues by hand with the proper text/assignee/milestone.

Delete the personal token

I deleted the token to ensure it never gets used again.  I don’t want to run the program by accident with my credentials.  Or accidentally post the token here.

2-factor authentication and twitter

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I’ve had two factor for gmail enabled for two years.  This morning, I set up two factor for github and some others due to Heartbleed (check if sites you use are affected), Then there was Twitter.  After the other sites being straightforward, I expected the same from Twitter.  Twitter did not deliver.  I had to turn off two factor.  I’m left with secure my password and hope I notice if someone logs into my account.  (I think my friends would tell me about bad direct messages)

How to enable on a mobile device

  1. Install the official twitter app on my iPad
  2. Follow the menus described here
  3. Write down the backup code
  4. I logged off in a browser and re-logged in.
  5. Then I went to the twitter app and approved my login under settings.

And if it ended here, all would be fine.

Adding a phone number

I thought about adding a phone number as another option.  Don’t bother.  They are mutually exclusive.

Apparently they are mutually exclusive.  I cancelled the phone number sign up process part way through due to usability issues.  (Twitter wants you to text GO to 40404.  I don’t know how to do that on my BlackBerry.  I know how to reply to texts and text real numbers.  And I don’t want to lookup how to do it since I likely never will again.)

Anyway, when I clicked cancel on the process, it had already turned off my iPad option so I had to set it up again.  Grumble.

The BlackBerry app

Once I had two factor turned on, I was no longer able to logon to Twitter using the BlackBerry app.  A quick search online says I’m not the only one with this problem and the BlackBerry app just plain doesn’t support it.  Which means I can’t use two factor for Twitter.