May 2011 Summaries

Several individuals, including Corey Donohoe and others with the usernames @tmm1 and @sr, are attending the EuRuKo conference in Berlin and are inviting local users to join them for drinks. The gathering is scheduled for Sunday evening at 19:30 at Prater Biergarten, where attendees can enjoy complimentary German beer and engage in conversations with fellow hackers. The venue also features a restaurant nearby offering a selection of food.

In a recent interview with Founder.LY, Tom Preston-Werner discussed various aspects of GitHub, including strategic approaches for early-stage startups and insights into his personal background. This three-part interview offers an inside look at the operational methodologies at GitHub, providing valuable information for those interested in the company's functioning and entrepreneurial strategies.

A new stand-alone Java library for accessing GitHub API v3 was announced alongside the Mylyn connector, offering functionalities such as creating and fetching issues, labels, milestones, and gists. This library is demonstrated through a simple example of creating a new private Gist containing a one-line Java file, and further examples are available in the GitHub Mylyn connector source. The library, known as org.eclipse.egit.github.core, requires Google Gson 1.6+ and Apache HttpComponents 4.1+, with the latest builds accessible on the GitHub Eclipse Hudson page. As the API v3 expands, additional services will be incorporated into the library, and users are encouraged to share their creations using the GitHub Java API library.

The weekly GitHub Reflog highlights notable repositories and community activities, with recent editions now available in Russian thanks to Alexander Marshalov's efforts. This week's featured repository is yostudios/Spritemapper, a Python-based command-line tool that generates CSS sprites using advanced techniques. Other notable projects include jstrait/beats, a Ruby-written audio sequencer utilizing YAML for song programming, and tweetdeck/TDOAuth, a streamlined OAuth v1.0 implementation for iOS. The Reflog also showcases innovative tools like SWFREtools for Flash security audits, Microsoft's Azure library for iOS, and wbsun/kgpu for GPU-based computation in Linux. Promising projects include a Vim plugin for CSS color highlighting, a script for domain blocking, and an esoteric project running Perl on the Go stack. The Reflog invites feedback and tips, with additional open-source news available on The Changelog and GitHub Explore.

Zach Holman shares plans for attending RailsConf in Baltimore, highlighting the city's appeal as an experience rather than just a location. Both Holman and his colleague Aman will be delivering talks, with Aman discussing Rails Performance Tools on Wednesday morning and Holman presenting on Double-Shipping Software for Profit on Tuesday afternoon. Attendees are encouraged to join both sessions to gain valuable insights. Additionally, a GitHub drinkup is scheduled for Wednesday evening at the Pratt Street Ale House, in collaboration with beer.js, offering a chance for participants to socialize and unwind after the conference sessions.

The website experienced a planned maintenance event on Saturday, May 14, 2011, beginning at 22:00 PDT, to upgrade its MySQL system, resulting in temporary unavailability of the site and all repository access via git/ssh. Although initially expected to last only a few minutes with a contingency plan to roll back if downtime exceeded 15 minutes, the maintenance extended to 29 minutes. Despite the delay, the MySQL upgrade proceeded without issues, as reported by Aman Gupta.

An event is being held at Thirsty Bear, located at 661 Howard Street, on Thursday, May 12th, 2011, at 8:30 PM, with the possibility of it becoming an annual tradition due to its success last year. Attendees from the previous year may already understand the appeal, while newcomers are encouraged to come and discover it for themselves. The organizer humorously suggests marking one's home address and blood type on their arm before attending, hinting at the lively nature of the gathering. The event details were shared by Melissa Severini, known by the handle @luckiestmonkey.

This week marks the alpha release of the GitHub Mylyn connector for Eclipse, a set of plug-ins enhancing Eclipse IDE integration with issue trackers, build tools, and code review tools. Built around the new features of GitHub Issues 2.0, such as milestones and mentions, and leveraging the new Issues and Gist APIs, the connector allows users to create, update, comment on, search, and monitor issues within Eclipse. It also supports Gists, enabling users to create, browse, and clone Gists as Git repositories directly into Eclipse projects. Available from the Eclipse Marketplace, the project is open-source, part of EGit, and actively welcomes contributions. The aim is to release version 1.0 with the Eclipse Indigo release next month, with Kevin Sawicki acknowledging contributors like @caniszczyk and @smilebase.

PJ Hyett announced that he would be in Verona, Italy, for phpDay 2011 and jsDay 2011, and invited attendees to join him for a meet-up at Kulmbacher Bier-Haus – Birreria Con Cucina on May 13th at 20:30. The informal gathering was organized by GitHub, and Hyett encouraged those in the area or attending the conferences to join for a beer.

Scott Chacon invites those in the Seattle area to a social gathering at the Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery in Bellevue, Washington, on Saturday, May 7th, at 7 PM. This event coincides with the Alt.Net Seattle conference, which he and Tim will be attending over the weekend. Attendees are promised a private, informal get-together at the brewery, located at 550 106th Avenue NE #103, offering an opportunity for networking and camaraderie among like-minded individuals.

GitHub is hosting a social event at John Harvard's Brew House in Cambridge, MA, on Monday, May 2, at 7:00 PM, where attendees can enjoy free beer as part of the gathering. This event, organized by Scott Chacon, invites participants to join the GitHub community for an evening of socializing and networking.