Slashdot Mirror
Getting Your Boss To Buy Lava Lamps
jarich writes "Mike Clark's blog provides directions and code on how to wire up lava lamps to your build system. When a compile or test fails, the red lava lamp gets switched on... The delay in the lamp heating up gives you a few minutes to fix things before it becomes obvious to co-workers that you broke the build. His example uses CruiseControl but you could easily modify it. Very cool stuff and inexpensive to setup."
...might be the silliest thing I've ever heard of. I like it.
Ce n'est pas un vrai mouvement de robot!
granted, this is a neat idea, but how exactly does it make you more productive?
[move
Sure, it's a good idea to be notified when the build is broken. But does it really require a lavalamp? I know we here at Slashdot love our little toys, but it seems like anyone who knows how to wire up an LED gets a news story.
Since they require X10 hardware/software, forget it. I won't be supporting those damn pop-under ads.
Right is wrong when left is right.
In my office we use a group-wide email.
Jonathan Pearce jonathan@pearce.name
3EAAFB2A http://www.jonathan.pearce.name/
I'm not sure I would want to put in place something that would encourage designers to make quick fixes. Once the build breaks the "lava lamp penalty" would encourage a designer to keep the lamp from bubbling rather than spend the time to fix the break in the best and safest manner (i.e. one that may take an hour longer.)
Does your build environment allow you to debug, build, and test a loadbuild break in the time it takes a lava lamp to heat up?
SlashDot simply cache the linked sites in their stories. Only the first page off the link. Maybe in a split version like google's cached sites showing the URL and all. That way, if anyone is interested in the rest of the site, they can dig from there.
Yes, off topic. But needs to be addressed. It gets frustrating when links go dead in less than an hour after the story is posted.
That headline blurb doesn't do this book justice. I was one of the first kids on my block with a copy of this book, and I highly recommend it.
This book is not about lava lamps (although it does talk about them). This book is about using automation to keep your software project on-track... never letting things get broken... using a computer in your office as a 'virtual employee', continually building and running unit tests and letting you know if someone breaks the build.
Yes, there is a reference about automatically turning on a red lava lamp if your unit tests fail... but far more important than that, the build on my project (which uses the ideas from this book) is never broken long enough for a lava lamp to heat up.
If you are interested in Agile process (especially the XP concept of 'continuous integration'), you need this book.
You might be meaning "integrated" where you are saying "compiled." Even if the final integration step involves compiling via a master project, you'd still need a test bed or "scaffolding" to compile your code against before submission. Otherwise, you are flying blind and may as well be programming towards the old batch cards systems of yesteryear. (Then again, the project I'm working on now involves separate shared libraries or code modules, rather than something so monolithic.)
Those who complain about affect & effect on
Must be a slow news day for this to be cool.
In a related note. Today is Macaulay Culkin's Birthday.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire