Blog - Brownie Group

Data Tech 2019

MinneAnalytics‘ Data Tech 2019 conference was held in Bloomington, MN on May 30 at Normandale Community College. The 16,000+ member local meetup group hosts free conferences for big data, data science and analytics, drawing participants from smaller meetups, such as the Twin Cities Python User Group (around 2,800 members). From my previous experience presenting at MinneAnalytics’ finance and retail analytics …

2019 Twin Cities Google DevFest

A few notes on the 2019 DevFest run by the Google Developer Group–Twin Cities on February 2. Venue — the venue moved across the street to the University of St. Thomas Law School building, with a huge atrium that served as the registration desk, keynote and closing address hall, lunch room, schmooze room and afterparty bar. This worked out better …

Let’s Encrypt with Free SSL

A new free tool allows practically any site owner to serve encrypted website and web app connections, and prove it with a green padlock validation icon in the browser address bar. What is SSL encryption? SSL represents the “s” in “https.” It stands for “Hyper Text Transfer Protocol” plus “Secured socket layer.” Web pages that use https are encrypted, those …

Finance and Retail Analytics Conference

FARCON 2016, a finance and retail analytics conference, will be held at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management on August 24. The conference organizer is MinneAnalytics, a Twin Cities user group focused on big data, data science, and the analytics community. As of this writing, the full schedule has not been published, but last year was packed with …

Minnesota’s Google DevFest App

Attendees of the 2015 Google DevFest received lots of freebies, including food, drinks, door prizes, stickers, and a t-shirt, but the Android app developed specifically for the conference struck me as unusual. Building an Android app for a small regional conference might be less daunting for this group, but not easy. Few volunteer-run organizations could complete such a task. The …

Google Developer Conference DevFestMN 2016 Coming Soon

DevFestMN 2016 is coming to Minneapolis on February 6. Google and the University of St. Thomas stepped in early to announce their support, along with Target, Agosto, MentorMate and Livefront. Expect to find: Sessions related to the Google ecosystem, including Android, Chrome, Cloud, IoT and Reach Networking and recruiting Meals, contests, door prizes, and an afterparty The Google Developer Conference …

Data Visualization and Python

A PyMNtos Special Event Starring Brian Lehman How does Twitter use Python to generate social media data visualizations? Twitter data scientist Brian Lehman took a break from the Minneapolis eyeo festival to address a PyMNtos special event hosted by SPS Commerce last night. Part of his talk focused on the development process, using the “Languages of Twitter” graphic as the …

Google Search Ranking Criteria Change Elevates Mobile-Friendly Sites

On April 21, 2015, websites that have not been optimized to work with mobile devices may find themselves in a lower position in Google’s search results than they were on April 20. Although Google’s ranking algorithm is not specified, the new criteria will include whether links are large enough to click when displayed on mobile devices, and whether elements can …