Inductive Bias

Are devs contributing to OSS happier?

September 24, 2010
software development, Motivation, Get Better, apprenticeship patterns, Free Software, Self Direction, Mastery, Freetime, Hacking, Purpose

Are devs contributing to OSS happier? # When talking to fellow developers or meeting with students it happens from time to time that I get the question of why on earth I spent my freetime working on an open source project? Why do I spend weekends at developers’ conferences like FOSDEM? Why do spent afternoons organising meetups? Why is it that I am reviewing and writing code after work for free? ...

Apprenticeship patterns (O'Reilly)

September 23, 2010
software development, apprenticeship patterns, Free Software, book, learning, Hacking

Apprenticeship patterns (O’Reilly) # A few days ago I finished reading the book “Apprenticeship Patterns” - Guidance for the Aspiring Software Craftsman, by Dave Hoover, Adewale Oshineye. The book is addressed to readers who have the goal of becoming great software devleopers. One naive question one could ask is why there is a need for such a book at all? Students are trained in computer science at university, then enter some IT departement and simply learn from their peers. ...

Apache dinner wrap-up

September 21, 2010
Dinner, Apache Dinner Berlin, Apache Dinner

Apache dinner wrap-up # Today three Lucene committers, two Mahout committers (one of them also being committer of Lucene: Hi Karl, was great having you here - see you at the next Hadoop Get Together, or maybe some day for lunch.), several users of Lucene and Hadoop together with their family (including a very cute, unbelievably quiet three weeks old baby) met at Jamerica - a restaurant offering American as well as Jamaican food in Schöneberg. ...

Apache Hadoop Get Together Berlin - October 2010

September 15, 2010
Mahout, Hadoop, Get Together, General

Apache Hadoop Get Together Berlin - October 2010 # This is to announce the next Apache Hadoop Get Together sponsored by JTeam that will take place in newthinking store in Berlin. When: October 7th, 5p.m. Where: Newthinking store Berlin, Tucholksystr. 48 As always there will be slots of 30min each for talks on your Hadoop topic. After each talk there will be a lot time to discuss. You can order drinks directly at the bar in the newthinking store. ...

Part 3: A polite way to say no - and why there are times when it does not work.

September 7, 2010
Hacking, saying no, energy management, Freetime, Time management

Part 3: A polite way to say no - and why there are times when it does not work. # After having shared my thoughts on how to improve focus and how to track tasks eating up time this post will explain how to keep time invested at a more or less constant level. The goal of this exercise is to keep obligations at a reasonable level - be it at work or during ones spare time. ...

Part 2: Tracking tasks, or - Where the hack did my time go to last week?

September 3, 2010
Hacking, Scrum, Freetime, Time management

Part 2: Tracking tasks, or - Where the hack did my time go to last week? # After summarising some strategies for not loosing track of tasks, meetings and conferences in the last post, this one is going to focus on the retrospect on achievements. If at some point in time you have asked yourself “Where the hack did time go to?” - maybe after two busy weeks of work this article might have a few techniques for you. ...

Berlin Scrumtisch - open discussion

August 25, 2010
Self organising teams, Scrum, Definition of done, Team Motivation, Software Foundation, Decision making

Berlin Scrumtisch - open discussion # This evening the Berlin Scrumtisch took place in Friedrichshain. More than thirty participants followed Marion’s invitation for discussions on Scrum, wine and pizza at Vecchia Trattoria. As there were several new participants, Felix started out with a very brief summary of the very core concepts of Scrum itself: Most important to know is the basic assumption of Scrum, that is planning ahead of time in a very detailed way is impossible. ...

Apache Dinner DUS

August 17, 2010
Free Software, FSFE, General, Dinner, Freetime, DUS, Software Foundation

Apache Dinner DUS # the evening after FrOSCon - that is on August 22nd 2010 at 7:30p.m. CEST - a combined “FSFE Fellowship meetup/ Apache dinner*” takes place in Tigges in Düsseldorf (Brunnenstraße 1, at Bilker S-Bahnhof). Given it doesn’t rain, we’ll be sitting outside. Would be great to meet you there for tasty food, interesting discussions on Apache in general, as well as projects like Lucene, Hadoop or Tomcat in particular. ...

Scrumtisch August Berlin

August 14, 2010
Berlin, Scrum, Event, scrumtisch

Scrumtisch August Berlin # Just seen it - the next Scrumtisch Berlin has been scheduled for 25th August 2010 at 18:30 Uhr. So far, no official talk has been scheduled, so please expect two topics on Scrum and its application to be selected for discussion according to Marion’s agile topic selection algorithm. Please talk to Marion Eickmann if you would like to attend the next meetup.