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A picture of Alice Bartlett

Alice Bartlett

Web developer (Financial Times), founder (Tampon Club)

in developer, mac

Who are you, and what do you do?

I'm Alice Bartlett. I've just left my job as a Senior Developer at the Government Digital Service in the UK, to start working for the Financial Times. Mostly I write HTML/CSS and JavaScript. I like the bit of the web where code meets humans.

I also sew my own clothes sometimes - results at sewing.butt.kitchen. I'm also the founder of lady-bung empowerment franchise Tampon Club.

What hardware do you use?

I use a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015). I have a blue iPhone 5c which I bought because I like the colour. I have a 7 year old 80GB iPod Classic with a photo of a dog in a wig stuck to the back of it. It has all the music I've owned since I was 17 on it, which is a crazy idea now I think about it. Just carrying 10 years worth of digital files around with you everywhere you go. I have a Kindle.

I use Bullet Journaling to keep track of stuff at work. I've been doing it for about 6 months and it's really helped me to focus on what I'm supposed to be doing and not do the other unimportant stuff.

My sewing machine is an E & R Classic which was a 21st birthday present from my best friend. It's old and clunky and I've lost the manual, so I'm rather winging it with keeping it working at this point.

There isn't a lot of hardware involved in Tampon Club, unless you count tampons.

And what software?

I use OS X. I use Atom for code editing. I'm not sure I love it, but it gets the job done. It's pretty wild that my code editor is written in JavaScript - I guess that just means I'm old.

I have very pedestrian tastes in software: Twitter for Mac, Chrome, and I love Instagram. It's the social network where people show their best selves. I get to see things my friends have made, places they're visiting, funny visual gags. I use Tumblr for sharing things I've sewn.

I'm still sad about Google Reader. I use The Old Reader to keep up with my friend's blog posts now, but it's not as good.

I wrote my personal site in Ruby using Sinatra. It's a very rudimentary blog.

What would be your dream setup?

I'd like a better phone camera. Not enough to buy a better phone, but if we're dreaming.

I'd like a Serger for sewing jersey. Although I sew a lot of clothes for myself, I am a terrible slob, and the kinds of slovenly clothes slobs like (stretchy) are actually difficult to sew at home on a normal sewing machine.

I'd like a better sewing machine. My E & R is a bit of a weakling, it can't sew denim or with thick threads, and it drops stitches a lot.