On AB Testing

Hector Zarate, SpotifyPart of DW16

AB Testing used to be complex experiments only companies like Amazon or Google used to run. The tools available now are simple and enable this strategy even for one-man apps.

But, what makes a meaningful experiment that can make your app better? how can failed experiments still bring value?

A talk about the science on AB tests in a way that everybody understands and enjoys, along with some case studies from Spotify to analyze and share.


Hector Zarate is Spotify’s own iOS cowboy. Besides working on exciting new features, he is also author of an internal framework in charge of rendering lots of Spotify in iOS.

On his spare time he occasionally develops his own apps, writes on iOSCowboy.com and tries to find the best milk chocolate bar in the world.



Open Source Mac Management Made Easy

John Rhoades, St Vincent’s InstitutePart of XW16

Open source Mac management tools are constantly improving, offering more capabilities, but are they getting easier to set up and administer?

This talk will review the latest updates to open source Mac toolsets and examine new ways to make it easier to manage your Macs more efficiently.

Whilst no prior knowledge of current tools is required, if you are unfamiliar with Munki/AutoDMG/Imagr you may benefit from watching last year’s talk where we go through the basics of Mac Management.

Please be aware this talk may include mild audience participation!



Jon is the IT Manager for St Vincent’s Institute, a major Medical Research Institute in Melbourne.



Swift from the Command Line

Tim NugentPart of XW16

Apple’s new programming language Swift came out of nowhere two years ago to become the most active programming language project on Github. Swift is designed not only to be a great language for writing iOS and macOS programs, but also a great language for server-side programs and scripts.

This workshop will introduce you to the essential features of the language, and demonstrate its use for basic scripting tasks. We’ll also talk about how the language is evolving, and is still very much a moving target.


Tim pretends to be a mobile app developer, game designer, PhD student and now he even pretends to be an author (he co-wrote the latest “Learning Swift” for O’Reilly). When he isn’t busy avoiding being found out as a fraud, he spends most of his time designing and creating little apps and games he won’t let anyone see. Tim spent a disproportionately long time writing this tiny little bio, most of which was trying to stick a witty sci-fi reference in, before he simply gave up.



/dev/world/ Registrations Open

/dev/world is back for its ninth year, from August 29 to August 31, once again in the heart of Melbourne at RMIT.

If you want to learn about iOS and OS X development, this is the one event in Australia you don’t want to miss. This year’s event will be our biggest yet with more than 35 sessions and workshops packed with great technical content on developing for Apple devices.

Early-bird sales close 5pm AEST, July 25, and all tickets sales close 5pm AEST August 22, 2016.

Learn more and register »


Don’t fsck up! or How to Avoid Embarrassment with One Simple Trick: Testing

John KitzmillerPart of XW16

“Oh no… nonononono!” We’ve all been there, deploying a workflow to production and suddenly realizing (often too late) that there are unexpected results. John will share stories of mistakes he made due to a lack of testing, and share some insight into the testing workflows he uses at Fastly.



John Kitzmiller is has helped organizations big and small deploy Apple devices all over the globe. As a Professional Services Engineer for JAMF Software, he deployed Apple devices on 5 continents in some of the largest and most complex environments. As a Senior IT Consultant for The Linde Group, John helped some of the San Francisco Bay Area’s largest and fastest growing companies design their Apple deployments.

John has now taken his skills in house at Fastly, a content delivery network in San Francisco. With some of the tightest security restrictions and privacy concerns he’s ever encountered, John has designed a deployment strategy to support a global user base based on his agile deployment manifesto.



Build your own cloud: How to host the JSS in AWS

John KitzmillerPart of XW16

What do you do when you need the reliability and availability of JAMF Cloud, but your Infosec policies require keeping sensitive data on servers that you control? Build your own cloud! Find out how Fastly built a secure, highly available JAMF Software Server in Amazon Web Services.



John Kitzmiller has helped organizations big and small deploy Apple devices all over the globe. As a Professional Services Engineer for JAMF Software, he deployed Apple devices on 5 continents in some of the largest and most complex environments. As a Senior IT Consultant for The Linde Group, John helped some of the San Francisco Bay Area’s largest and fastest growing companies design their Apple deployments.

John has now taken his skills in house at Fastly, a content delivery network in San Francisco. With some of the tightest security restrictions and privacy concerns he’s ever encountered, John has designed a deployment strategy to support a global user base based on his agile deployment manifesto.



OS X Security: Defense in Depth

Rich TroutonPart of XW16

OS X has a layered security model, based on the idea that one layer failing should not defeat all safeguards. With OS X El Capitan, there’s a new layer being added called System Integrity Protection (SIP).

This session will cover:

  • Apple’s security model as of OS X Yosemite
  • Discuss why SIP is being added to the model
  • How SIP works
  • Implications for managing Macs running OS X El Capitan
  • SIP management and reporting


Rich Trouton has been doing Macintosh system and server administration for over eighteen years and has supported Macs in a number of different environments, including university, government, medical research and advertising. His current position is providing support for Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia.



Documentation – Why All The Cool Kids Are Doing It

Rich TroutonPart of XW16

Documentation is many things: surrogate memory, teaching tool, an emergency tool, and vacation-saver. One thing it is not is spontaneously generated; somebody needs to write it! This session will cover why you should have documentation, when it needs to be created, and how to compose documentation to best address different potential audiences.

The session will also discuss tips and tools, with the goal of helping you quickly create documentation that answers others’ questions without their needing to interrupt your train of thought or your vacation.



Rich Trouton has been doing Macintosh system and server administration for over eighteen years and has supported Macs in a number of different environments, including university, government, medical research and advertising. His current position is providing support for Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia.



X World Registrations Open

Registrations have now closed.

Sessions details for some X World sessions have now been posted, with more to come soon, and registrations have opened for the event. Early-bird registrations close June 8 – be sure to register prior to then to obtain the best rate! If you’re interested in presenting, late submissions may still be considered if submitted via our CFP form.

We have a great X World program this year, and have once again partnered with JAMF Software to bring you the latest information on OS X and iOS deployment.  We hope to see you there!


Imaging is Dead – Long Live Imaging!

Marcus Ransom, RMIT UniversityPart of XW16

DEP has revolutionised the way we approach Mac OS X deployment, but there are scenarios when this workflow is not the best approach or we simply do not have access to the required tools or systems. This session will look at the different options we have to get our Macs into production and ready for use as well as some of the tools we can use to achieve this in the most efficient way possible.



Marcus has been integrating Apple devices into various enterprise environments for over a decade, from small design studios through to large one to one iPad programs. In his current role as the Lead Apple Technician at RMIT University, he is responsible for the integration and support of the Apple fleet into the wider University. Understanding the changing Apple ecosystem and developing a community amongst Apple system administrators are two objectives that motivate him to improve the way Apple devices are supported and perceived in the wider IT environment. Marcus co-ordinates Melbourne Apple Admins (http://melbourneappleadmins.org.au) and also co-presents the MacAdmins.org podcast (http://podcast.macadmins.org)