barcampdesmoines

 

Retrospective

Page history last edited by James 1 yr ago

At Bar Camp 2007, we met and discussed several topics.

 

Linux Paradigms

  • Presentation available here

 

Rules Engine (Drools)

  • When should you use a rules engine - no conclusion drawn
  • Consultant writing software for another company (sans IT) can use a rules engine to defray support costs
  • If you work inside IT, use conditionals
  • Using a scripting language in your app can be more flexible, but less secure
  • Workflow vs Rules

 

Asterisk / Callweaver

  • What asterisk is
  • Politics with telephone providers
  • 911 issues
  • Requirements to run
  • Service providers and TSPs (cheaper than phone)

 

Builds / Continuous Integration

  • Tools for building your project
    • Maven vs Ant
  • Environmental dependencies
  • Tools for Continious Integration: LuntBuild; CruiseControl; Team City

 Loans forum

MythTV

  • System requirements
  • Features
  • Front End and Back End
  • Exporting Video
  • Getting your listings from schedules direct

 

Monitoring and Best Practices

  • Nagios, Mon, Smokeping, ZenOSS, OpenNMB, and others
  • Cultural aspects of monitoring
  • Alerting vs Trending
  • Complexity of setup

 

Design Patterns in Dynamic Languages

  • Ruby vs Java

 

Learning Resources

  • Books: Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master; Mythical Man Month; Programming Perl; TDD: By Example; Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code; Refactoring to Patterns; Practices of an Agile Developer; Design of Everyday Things; Lean Software Development; The World is Flat; The Goal; Orbiting the Giant Hairball; Lean Thinking; Slack; Good to Great; Getting Things Done; Crucial Conversations; The Art of War
  • Podcasts: Agile Toolkit; Drunk and Retired; Business Week; Java Posse; Ruby on Rails Podcast; Software As She's Developed; Floss Weekly; Linux Reality; The Teaching Company; Audible.com
  • Local User Groups

 

  • RSS Feeds: Debian Package of the Day; Sourceforge; Sans Feeds; Bugtrack; Agile Management; O'Reilly; Schneier on Security
  • Events: Barcamp; No Fluff Just Stuff; Linux Group Social Picnic

 

Parallel Programming (Andy Beatty apbeatty (at) gmail (dot) com )

 

 

Agile / Lean Software Development

  • Everyone was drunk by this point
    • and no one
    • remembers

 

Promote Yourself on the Web

  • How to use google's rankings
  • Proper use of social networking sites
  • Sharing numerous sites
  • Importance of blogging / constantly changing content
  • Self branding
  • Using redirects and 302 to centralize traffic

 

New Jobs

  • Importance of certifications, and which certifications matter
    • Good Certs: CISSP, RHCE, NCLP, GIAC-GSLC
  • Using Linked In
  • Multiple targetted resumes
  • Skills list
  • Book: Don't Send a Resume

 

Asterisk / Callweaver Install

  • We installed it
  • It was shiny
  • We were happy

 

Cold Fusion Web Development

 

Weather and Doppler Radar

  • Dan is good, Dan is great, Dan is who we appreciate
  • Nexrad is the government radar network
  • Value of different ways of abstracting weather data onto maps, analogous to database views

 

Software Development Metrics

  • Different metrics needed for internal development vs external (for hire) development
  • Cycle time
  • Estimates are inaccurate
  • Different models for tracking status
  • Project teams vs vertical handoff model

 

Wii

  • Wii was played by some
  • They looked awfully silly over there
  • I mean, they were just swinging their arms at the screen
  • Quite a ridiculous system, really.

 

 

Things that went well

  • Using the post-it index cards for the scheduling worked really well, it's like a old-style wiki!
  • Food was good
  • Lots of good conversations
  • Complete lack of rabid wolverines

 

Things that could be improved

  • Ambient noise was an occasional problem. Perhaps use the room partitions next time?
  • Perhaps next time we do 45 minute sessions with 15 minute breaks?
  • Consider a broader marketing strategy for next year
  • Music was somewhat distracting, perhaps next year we have a lounge with music and the wii (or wiii)
  • Use pads or wiki to track progress in real time
  • Two words: Mountain Dew

 

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