Hackathon Lessons

Pat mentioned on the Webmail blog that we have learned many valuable lessons since our first Hackathon. I thought I'd go into a bit more detail and tell you exactly what we have learned and why Hackathon III was our most successful Hackathon yet.

1. Pick projects that are small enough to complete in one day.

Developers believe they can accomplish the world in one day, so chances are they are going to pick projects that are just too big. They see a small task, assume it will take only a few hours, and they won't want to do it. If someone finishes a few hours early that is great, they can usually help in other areas.

2. Design before the Hackathon

In the weeks prior to the Hackathon we have found it valuable to design the project before the actual day of the Hackathon. It helps ensure that the project is small, but the main reason is that our graphic designer won't get overwhelmed with requests on the day of the Hackathon. Having the designs early is crucial to getting the coding finished in one day.

3. Don't upload the same day.

It's important to finish the project the same day as the Hackathon, but getting it uploaded on the same day isn't necessary. It causes too much pressure on quality assurance and nobody wants to fix bugs after working all day. It's nice to go out, have a nice dinner, and not have to worry about that last upload that might be causing issues. Don't skip on QA because you are trying to get everything finished the same day.

4. Limit the presentation time

Limiting the presentation time to three minutes certainly helped us get through all the projects in a reasonable time.

5. Order the pizza early

Don't wait until people start getting hungry to order the pizza. Velvet made sure this time around that the food was here at 12:00pm sharp.

lighttpd

We've been testing out lighttpd for over two months now in a production environment. I'm very happy with the results thus far. The performance is slightly better than Apache, but the configuration is much simpler. It amazes me how big and complex Apache's httpd server has become and I was glad to see that lighttpd was so simple. The stability has been there too, so I think eventually all of my web servers will be running lighttpd instead of Apache.

If you haven't heard of or tried lighttpd yet I highly recommend it.

NCTC Fall Gala

Last night several of us from Webmail went to the NCTC Fall Gala in Roanoke. NCTC events are usually fun and entertaining and last night was no exception. The keynote speaker was very entertaining and there was even a surprise visit from Senator George Allen. Velvet was kind enough to get a picture of the group.

The keynote speaker was Jason Dorsey. His talk was focused on "an insider'’s perspective for business and community leaders seeking to retain and motivate Generation X and Y." I was glad to hear someone like Jason reinforcing many of the ideas and values that are already present at Webmail.us. I hope the other companies at the Gala learned something so that as a region we can attract more talent to this area.

Clemzon

Sometimes I'm wrong. I'm sure my avid readers are shocked by this statement....but even when I'm wrong, I'm still right. Case in point is my ability to predict the VT football record. At the beginning of the year I predicted a two loss season. I was just wrong about which two games we would lose. I predicted we would lose to Clemzon and Miami. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I think we will beat both Clemzon and Miami. I just have a gut feeling that the Hokies can pull off a miracle tonight. Plus it's been two whole weeks since a Hokie football player was last thrown in jail, think about all of the additional film time that buys us. :)

College football made me sick this weekend...

Are you kidding me? What a turn of events in college football. First, the Hokies are much worse than I ever thought. This team lacks leadership, starting at the top (that's you Beamer).

Second, Miami's bench clearing brawl was one of the more disgusting events I've seen in awhile. I understand fighting, but come on, stomping on people when they are laying on the ground defenseless and swinging your helmet as a weapon is a bit over the line. I expected several Miami players (especially the dude who was stomping on people and then running away cowardly) to be kicked off the team. Well, guess what, that guy is the defensive captain, so let's just suspend him for one game. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? According to Miami's president Donna Shalala:

"I believe that the young men we have recruited for our football team are young men of great character," Shalala said. "But they did a very bad thing."

Ya think? Hmm, maybe the one game suspensions you handed out will teach them a lesson....maybe not. Donna, wake up, any player who was out there trying to maim or end the career of another player should be kicked off the team immediately. That would send the message. You have done nothing to dissuade these players from doing this again.

At least FIU got it right. They kicked two players off of the team and suspended 16 others indefinitely.

As for my Hokies, according to Frank Beamer "What we're going to do is work like heck to make people proud of how we play on the field and what we do off the field." Blah, blah, blah. We've heard this same song and dance for years now. So far this team has had 3 players arrested this year. Each receiving a one game suspension. Give me a break. Four personal fouls last week against BC makes me so proud to be a Hokie. :(

Careers in BIT Panel

I had the privilege today to be a panelist for the Pamplin College of Business "Careers in Business Information Technology Night" at Virginia Tech. Anytime I have the opportunity to meet students at Virginia Tech I take it, but honestly, I know nothing about "Careers in BIT", haha. But I'm glad Pat hooked me up with the opportunity because I enjoy going on campus and meeting new people. Gary Kinder is the Director of Undergraduate Career Services and he did a great job of moderating the event. Here were some of the questions and my answers:

1. What was the one thing that "sold you" on the field of information technology?

I knew going into college that computer science was the major for me because of the excellent computer related classes I took in high school. Our high school was small, but I had the opportunity to learn how to program from a really good teacher and I had no doubts this was what I wanted to do as a profession.

2. What's the two or three most helpful classes you had in college and why?

Any CS class was very helpful, but outside of CS I really enjoyed my two economics classes. Getting an "A" in econ was really exciting for me because there were a lot of business majors in my class who struggled. I guess I liked proving that I could handle more than programming.

3. When looking at applicants for positions within your company, what are the skill sets you find to be best suited for the positions?

I look for people who have two basic characteristics; they are smart and can get things done.

4. What types of things do you read, as far as professional journals, trade papers, industry material, etc.?

I follow the blogs of individuals from my industry that I believe are smart, on the cutting edge technology, and have similar jobs / goals as I do.


There were many other questions but those are the ones that stand out in my memory. A general theme of the night was how to decide on a career path. My advice was to do as much research as possible as early as possible. Co-op, intern, get a part-time job, talk to employers at career fairs, talk to graduating seniors, get a feel for the types of jobs that are available and how they line up with your interests.

The best part of the night was receiving a VT coffee mug as a gift for being on the panel!

Thanks again to Gary and Pat for the opportunity to participate! Gary, if you need help with the "Careers in Marketing" panel on Thursday just let me know. ;)

2006 Black Sox Team Picture

2006blacksox
Originally uploaded by kevin_minnick.

Our team picture has finally been published. I'm on the front row, third from the left ( or right ).

Other team members (back left to front right):

Ricky Smith, Adam Harber, Mike Mayo, Scott Minnick, Mannin Dodd, Zac Adelman, Brad Mullins, Paul Bielema, Sam Wood, Edwin Whitelaw, Me, Jason Ferritto, Tom King

Not Pictured:
Frank Bartin

Web Sox Win !!!

Last night we won our first softball game. Our softball team is composed of primarily Webmail.us employees and several of our close friends. Until last night we were yet to play a full game because our team is usually losing so bad that they call it early (known as the "run rule"). We came through last night though and won an exciting extra inning affair. Bill scored the winning run off of a nice hit by Brian Hartsock. It was a close play at the play but Bill was way too speedy and determined to get caught at home.

It was a true team effort and it felt like a thousand pounds were lifted off of our shoulders after that win. We are gaining confidence every week and are starting to gel as a team. I'm looking forward to our remaining games. So far this certainly has been a draining experience and it takes a lot to keep your head up after being killed game after game. But our team showed that we are not quitters and we can play in this league. Thanks to everyone who gave such a great effort, I'm looking forward to our next win and celebratory dinner at PK's.

Black Sox: 2006 NRV MSBL Champions !!!!

It was a beautiful day for a baseball game. We won 15-7. I think everyone on our team is a bit shocked that we were able to rip through the playoffs and win the championship. This is the third year of the league and we have played for the championship twice. The first year there were only 4 teams, we won the first playoff game, lost the championship game. The second year the league had 6 teams and we lost in the first round. This year the league had 8 teams, and we won 3 straight games to take home the championship. After finishing the regular season in 5th place I don't think many of us believed we would be able to make it to the championship, much less win it. But, like most single elimination tournaments, anything can and will happen.

There were three key events that won today's game:

1. We scored 11 runs in the first inning, giving our pitcher tons of breathing room, after that we just had to play good defense and hang on.

2. We have played this team so many times we know how to play each batter defensively. Most importantly, after the butt kicking they handed us the last game of the year, we knew not to pitch to their fourth batter. He is an amazing hitter, it's better to just walk him and pitch to their other batters. This kid was the Babe Ruth of our league.

3. Ricky Smith. Ricky has been on our team all three years. He is a good player but had a really rough year at the plate. Ricky was put into the game in the 5th inning to play left field. In the 7th inning we were in a tight spot. The Warriors had managed to load the bases with two outs when Babe Ruth steps into the box. I was thinking to myself, let's just walk him (scoring a run) and pitch to the next guy. Our pitcher threw a pitch about 3 feet outside and Gerald (his real name) drives it deep to left field. I start yelling "Back! Back! You got room! Back! Back!". Ricky is running hard straight back. I'm sure he's thinking he will hit the fence at any point but snags it 2 feet in front of the wall. We all scream in excitement, understanding that Ricky just saved the game. If that ball isn't caught, 3 runs score and all of a sudden our win is in doubt. Our pitcher gave Ricky a big hug in the middle of the field as we trot off to the dugout.

I'm sure our team wasn't the best team in the league. We were probably the 4th best team talent-wise. But, the most talented team doesn't always win the big game. Our team is a good example of why we actually play the games. String together several hits, play good defense, and don't make mistakes and anything is possible.

Great job Black Sox! Just think, every time we take the field next year we take it as "Defending League Champions". ;)