June 2010 Summaries

On January 1, 2017, a company announced an update to their pricing plans, introducing new "Bronze" and "Silver" tiers specifically designed for small businesses using their Organizations product. Originally intended for large customers managing multiple developer teams, Organizations proved unexpectedly beneficial for smaller businesses as well. Consequently, the existing plans have been restructured: the previous Silver has been renamed Gold, Gold is now Platinum, and the former Platinum plan is only available upon request by contacting support. Existing accounts have been automatically adjusted to reflect these changes, and customers are encouraged to explore the new plans to optimize their use of Organizations.

GitHub has introduced a new feature that allows users to easily bookmark Gists by using a 'star' button, which can be applied to any Gist, including their own. This feature eliminates the need to fork a Gist just to remember it. Users can access all their bookmarked Gists through a dedicated "Starred Gists" link, enhancing the ease of organizing and retrieving important Gists. The announcement of this feature was made by Scott Chacon.

GitHub has introduced Organizations to streamline the management of group-owned repositories, enhancing workflow for businesses and large open-source projects by centralizing code and billing under a single account. Organizations offer advanced permissions control through teams, allowing for easy management of access levels, including a new read-only option. Each organization has its own dashboard context for focused work environments, and the feature is free for open-source projects. Organizations can be created by converting existing user accounts, and GitHub has updated its pricing plans to accommodate the new feature, offering tiered plans based on the number of private repositories while keeping public repositories free.

The new fileserver has been successfully brought online and is now operational, addressing issues from last week's fileserver problems. The transition to the new server occurred on Wednesday, June 23rd, at 22:00 PST, with an anticipated outage duration of approximately 10 minutes for users relying on this fileserver. The update was provided by Risk Olson, also known by the handle @technoweenie.

An upgrade was successfully completed, and a scheduled maintenance on the database is planned for Monday, June 21, 2010, at 22:00 PST, during which background jobs will be temporarily disabled but data will remain accessible via the web. Git/SSH access will not be impacted, and the migration is anticipated to take approximately 10 minutes as communicated by Risk Olson, also known as @technoweenie.

Twitter has been actively open-sourcing its code on GitHub in recent months, creating a comprehensive Twitter OpenSource page that includes numerous links to its hosted projects. This initiative reflects the company's strong commitment to open source, a move that is enthusiastically supported by developers like PJ Hyett, who appreciates seeing companies engage with the open-source community so extensively.

Tom Preston-Werner, co-founder of GitHub, was recently interviewed by Josh Owens for webpulp.tv, where they discussed a range of technical topics including GitHub's architecture, the use of tools like Grit, BERT and Ernie, Erlang, load balancing, Redis, and MongoDB, as well as technologies such as Resque, Git-backed Wikis, and Unicorn. The conversation also covered broader themes such as open source, backups, and EventMachine. The interview, which offers insights into these technologies and their applications, is available to watch on Vimeo, and viewers are encouraged to subscribe for more tech-focused discussions.

Android developers can now benefit from an automatic feature that generates a QR code page link when an Android package (.apk) file is uploaded. This feature is applicable only to uploads made since a specified weekend, but will be available for all future uploads. By clicking on the QR code icon, users access a page that allows them to scan the code with their Android phones, facilitating the direct download and installation of the package. An example of this feature can be seen with the Japanese localization of the K-9 email client available on GitHub, as described by Scott Chacon.

On June 10, 2010, a failure in a fileserver pair led to an outage and file corruption for users relying on the affected server. Prior to the failure, the A server exhibited anomalies but passed memory tests and was returned to standby mode to support disk syncs. At 14:55 PST, a load spike on the B server triggered a fallover to the A server, resulting in repo corruption, especially for those pushed since the fallover. The fileserver was taken offline, and after confirming B was not causing the corruption, it was restored to service at 18:40 PST. Recovery efforts included scanning repos with git fsck and restoring corrupted objects from backups or snapshots, though some recent changes were irretrievable. The root cause was identified as faulty hardware on the A server, which has since been replaced, and procedures have been updated to better handle future incidents and detect early corruption.

An upcoming meetup is scheduled to take place outdoors at the Irish Bank on June 17th at 8:30 pm, as announced by Melissa Severini. Though the decision to hold the event outside might be optimistic given the unpredictable weather, attendees are encouraged to consider their clothing options, with a lighthearted suggestion to bring a coat just in case.

A new feature has been introduced allowing iPhone users to receive push notifications when a commit is made to their repository, thanks to the integration of Notifo with service hooks. To set it up, users can navigate to the "Admin" section of their repository, select "Service hooks," and choose Notifo from the options. Additionally, Paul has provided a comprehensive guide on how to get started with the Notifo API, which is accessible on the blog. Notifo's code is also hosted on GitHub, facilitating easy access and collaboration. The announcement was made by Kyle Neath.

Slide has recently made a significant move by open-sourcing a collection of code on their GitHub account, aligning themselves with other innovative companies such as Digg, Yahoo, and Facebook, which have previously embraced open-source practices. This initiative opens up opportunities for collaboration and transparency within the tech community, as it allows developers and organizations to access, modify, and contribute to Slide's codebase. The announcement was made by PJ Hyett, highlighting the growing trend of companies adopting open-source models to foster innovation and community engagement.

Scott Chacon has created a concise and user-friendly reference site, gitref.org, aimed at simplifying the learning process for Git users who find the comprehensive Pro Git book overwhelming. This site organizes the most frequently used Git commands into commonly needed tasks, providing a reference table on each page to facilitate easy navigation. Users can either look up specific commands for a quick refresher or go through the site as a continuous tutorial, making it a versatile tool for both beginners and those needing a quick reminder on Git usage.

GitHub is working on enhancing feature visibility by introducing new ways to inform users about its offerings. Initially, they added Broadcasts to user dashboards to announce large feature launches, but this approach only reached those present at the time of the announcement. To address this gap, GitHub has launched GitHub Tips, which are short messages appearing at random intervals on user dashboards, providing useful GitHub and Git insights. As more tips are compiled, the frequency of these messages may increase, and users are encouraged to contribute tips they find indispensable.

GitHub is sponsoring the after-party for the Dutch PHP Conference on June 11th in Amsterdam. Attendees are encouraged to find and greet Chris Wanstrath, identifiable by his "Fork You" shirt, during the event.