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lindner
 

BayXP next Wednesday

2 min read

Been pretty busy lately.  However I did manage to get Hi5 to host a meeting of BayXP. So come on down and enjoy some pizza, learn something about Agile methodologies and see where Hi5 lives and breathes!


February 28: Slava Imeshev, Continuous Integration: Benefits, Challenges, and Best Practices, at Hi5 Networks6

Slava Imeshev is the founder and CTO of Viewtier Systems, the software build management company. Slava has over 15 years of experience as a software engineer, an architect and a technology executive. Being an XP adept since its inception, Slava promotes practices of Continuous Integration and Agile software build management. You can reach Slava at vimeshev@viewtier.com.

When:
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
7:00pm to 9:00pm
(pizza and socializing at 6:30pm)

Where:
Hi5 Networks
455 Market Street, Suite 910
San Francisco, CA 94105

http://www.hi5networks.com/contact.html


Abstract:
Software is a risky business. Most of the software projects fail because they miss deadlines, cannot stay in budget, or are unable to meet the requirements. Breakage of the code base cause delays and overspending that increases risks of project failure.

Continuous integration helps reduce risks of such project failures. In this talk we'll understand importance of a software build, introduce Continuous Integration and benefits it provides, discuss ways to avoid challenges associated with bringing it into a software organization and give tips on how to get most from this useful practice.


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lindner
 

Life At Hi5

2 min read

Felix da Housecat
Felix da Housecat

So far so good. On the right you'll find a leftover from the previous occupant of my space. It's been over 2 years since my last job change, so I forgot about how much work it is to get integrated into a new environment.  Adding 30+ IM contacts, updating the address book, setting up the laptop, getting e-mail just so, etc. 

Adding to that is jumping into a very different environment.  There's lots to like and lots to learn.  So far I'm getting up to speed on:

  • Perforce (instead of subversion, cvs, etc.) -- looks powerful and clunky at the same time.
  • Jira - this is very cool.  It combines bug tracking, agile sprints, and a wiki all in one.  It's mediawiki, trac, RT, and FogBugz all in one.
  • SuSE SLES 9 - With the infamous ReiserFS filesystem.  Give me yum over YaST anyday...
  • Hyperic HQ - Nagios+Cacti+much more.  Includes autodiscovery and can automatically restart services when they fail.  So very nice.
  • Zeus as a frontend to redundant memcaches.
  • Java Resin/JSP/JDBC/Eclipse/...  less said the better.


There's lots more going on here than you'd think.  A bit strapped for time at the moment -- will blog more soon...


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lindner
 

Bay XP Meeting Roundup 8/23/2006

2 min read

BayXP (The Bay Area Extreme Programming Group) had a small meeting at the offices of ThoughtWorks here in San Francisco.  The topic was interesting things learned at the Agile 2006 conference.

I found a number of items to add to my reading list, Including Refactoring Databases and Working Effectively with Legacy Code.  (See Links below)

Topics of discussion from the meeting included

  • Coding Dojo - how to get hang of test-first development and Pair programming.
  • A lot of talk about how Rails stacks up against upteen different Java Frameworks.
  • The TDD Pair Programming Game is an interesting way of pairing that seems to make sense.  It's like a dance.  I write a failing test, you implement, then I refactor, then you write a test, etc.
  • The best name for a talk that I've seen in a long time was Crushing Fear Under the Iron Heel of Action.  It explored how to deal with team dynamics in an Agile environment, mostly by saying "What's the worst thing that can happen". 
  • Found out about a web site called Developer Testing.  Another thing to add to the RSS reader...
  • There was a short talk about Code Debt.  Some people are surmising that Code Debt should be publicly disclosed in a companies SEC S4 forms via Sarbanes-Oxley.  One interesting quote was that code is an asset and you should maintain that asset properly because assets "increase the means of production".  If you don't maintain code properly and use correct process your software becomes a liability.  (Or course that begs the question of who defines the Generally Acceptable Coding Practices (GACP!)


Working Effectively with Legacy Code
Working Effectively with Legacy Code

Refactoring Databases: Evolutionary Database Design (Addison Wesley Signature Series)
Refactoring Databases: Evolutionary Database Design (Addison Wesley Signature Series)


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