We had the idea for a hackathon for quite some time now but never had the time and topic to actually do it. But then a few weeks ago we came up with an interesting topic, which could be doable in a few days and more importantly, would be fun. Because we didn’t have experience in organizing such an event, we decided to do our first hackathon internally instead of public. Since then, we organized a nice place to stay near the french border in Boncourt Jura, packed our mac minis, linux desktops, screens, laptops, beamer, N64, and of course, an appropriate amount of beer. So now we are here on our third day coding, debating, eating, gaming and drinking. The environment is just great, even the weather is perfect: It has not stopped raining since we arrived. After all, perfect conditions for a successful hackathon. Can’t wait for the next one! Here are a few impressions:
-
Hackathon Jura 2012
-
Benchmarking WebSocket Servers
We’re using WebSocket connections to provide real-time information to the users of our PHP web application. A year ago we implemented a solution based on the WebSocket-emulation layer Socket.IO. Due to some issues we switched to SockJS few months ago. For both we’ve set up a small server in Node.js which relays the push messages from our PHP application to the WebSocket-emulation, which then pushes them to the browser:
-
Office Redesign
This Friday afternoon we decided to redecorate our conference room. In the end we combined both work and leisure at one place. We’re now able to play XBox Games or do some more serious stuff like writing this blogpost on a huge wall-screen. Below you can see priceless smile of the first visitor in our entertainment centre.