OpenSource Connections

Take Time to Learn Something New

This past Monday, OSC had a company hackathon day. It is not our first, but we have been trying to make this sort of activity a more regular thing for us. Unlike our previous hackathons, this one was more flexible on the rules. Previously we had the entire team work ...

Software Estimation: The Cone of Uncertainty vs The Wormhole of Reality

Earlier this year in my MSMIT classes at UVa, we talked about software estimation techniques, which was a very interesting topic. One thing we talked about was the "Cone of Uncertainty", as described in Steve McConnell's book "Rapid Development." You can read the full description of the cone of uncertainty on ...

DevDays DC

Three OSCiers attended DevDays DC and for a one day show there were some interesting moments and quite a bit of information to be absorbed. The conference started with a funny clip by the people at Fog Creek and had a nice lineup of speakers. You can find my notes from most ...

Department of Defense CIO Publishes Open Source Guidance

In a memorandum dated October 16, 2009, the CIO of the Department of Defense published guidance on the use of open source software within the DoD. The CIO's assessment of the perception of open source sums up quite well the obstacles we have seen time and time again: "Unfortunately, there have ...

James Bach, the bad boy of Testing?

So, is James Bach (@jamesmarcusbach) the bad boy of testing? I flew up to Boston on Monday to lead some workshops on Continuous Integration. I checked into my room at the Hyatt and then went downstairs to see who was around. I ran into a couple of ...

Eric Pugh to speak on Solr at Shenandoah Ruby Users Group October 27th

From the Meetup site: We'll look at the thriving Ruby ecosystem that has grown up around integrating with Solr. From Ruby gems that integrate with Solr like solrb and rsolr, to general search solutions like acts_as_solr and sunspot. We'll also look at a complete "shrink wrapped" catalog solution for Solr using ...

OpenSource Connections Announces Matching Donation For American Freedom Foundation

As many of you know, I am a disabled veteran, but I was fortunate in that my injuries were very minor, particularly compared to what many of our Wounded Warriors go through on a regular basis. OpenSource Connections is a sponsor of the November 7 American Freedom Festival, presented by ...

Good Will, Coffee, Help Desks and Software.

There is a true story behind this odd ensemble of a title. I remember it like it was yesterday. In fact, it was yesterday..... The Story. I was packing up my laptop when I was abruptly cornered by an energetic fellow. He rattled off his problem in such a degree I could only ...

12 Strategies for Selling a Traditional Client on an Agile Project Plan

Why do we need to sell Agile? For those of us who know and love Agile, the benefits of Agile seem obvious. It can be frustrating when someone doesn't inherently see those benefits, and we sometimes forget that we need to sell our clients or our managers on our process. For some ...

Arin Sime to speak on Agile at Richmond SPIN October 14th

I'm very pleased to be speaking to Richmond SPIN (Software Process Improvement Network) next Wednesday October 14th, at 6:00 pm at Anthem BCBS in Richmond. The address is 2015 Staples Mill Road in Richmond. You can find more details and register online at: http://www.richmondspin.org/home22222 Here's the brief on my talk, which is ...

Installing Older Version of a Language Using MacPorts

I personally like to keep up to date with technologies and use the latest and greatest of what's available. Not everyone is the same though, and it is not always a possibility. In my case, using the latest version of PHP at the moment (PHP 5.3.0) means not being able ...

EdUI 2009 Conference Workshops Recap

What is the EdUI Conference? The EdUI Conference is a new conference held by the University of Virginia for the niche of web professionals in higher education. Do not let the tag line fool you. A good portion, if not all information, provided by on-the-front-lines professionals easily translates into other ...

Arin Sime’s Agile2009 Presentation Receives Praise

Arin Sime's presentation last week at Agile 2009 on how to sell a traditional client on an agile plan made a good impression, apparently. First, his presentation was featured on the front page of SlideShare. Now, he's received an excellent writeup from Adam Goucher (we were pointed to Adam's writeup from ...

RJ Bruneel presenting at the next Adobe User Group Meeting

When: August 25, 2009 from 12:00pm - 1:00pm Where: Michie North Building Room 324 across from Barracks shopping center. RJ Bruneel will show his Stock Watch Flex app which uses Google Finance for customers to be able to watch their stock portfolios. For more information about the meeting: http://groups.adobe.com/posts/93f0df3964 For more information about the ...

OSC will attend and sponsor EdUI Conference 2009 in the University of Vir

OSC is proud to announce that we will attend and sponsor this year's EdUI Conference 2009 which is bein held at the University of Virginia on 21st-22nd September 2009. A number of folks from the OSC team will be attending, and stop by our booth in the Vendor Hall ...

Solr 1.4 Enterprise Search Server Book is Released!

I am very proud to annouce the first book on Solr has been published by Packt. This has been a labor of love for myself and my co-author David Smiley, and we are excited to see the book now "in the wild!". Below is a copy of the ...