Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

Kolab Sync for Android and Outlook: Developer Preview

05:18 PM

We are proud to announce the first developer preview for Kolab sync clients for both Android and Outlook. Both are licensed under the GPLv3.

Using this software you will be able synchronize your contacts and calendar to any IMAP folder. Every item is saved in a separate Email using the Kolab Storage Format. This allows for interoperability with other Kolab Clients.

Please join us on the Google code projects for the Android and the Outlook connectors.

Since there are still quite a few rough edges, this is only a developer preview to publish the already done work. Read on for a more detailed status of the development so far.

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CruiseControl.NET and other open source stuff

12:49 PM

Recently I’ve spent some time setting up a CruiseControl.NET instance for our internal projects. Using this project, we have an automatic and immediate feedback whether our checkins work without having to waste developer time waiting on the full unit test suite.

To improve response times of the server running CC.Net while integrating, I’ve applied the ProcessPriority patch from CCNET-504 and now run all processes at BelowNormal. Now there is no noticeable impact on other services on the server while a build is running. Since the patch didn’t apply cleanly to the newest CC.Net version, I updated the patch to current HEAD and posted it in the bugtracker. Thanks to Craig Sutherland the patch is now applied in the HEAD and will be released with 1.5. Having already wet my feet, I proposed a refactoring for the Tasks to move all common properties to the BaseExecutableTask class, thereby removing ~300 lines of code and unifying the diverse set of properties currently in the wild. This will have to wait for the next release in order to not interfere with a timely 1.5 release.

Currently CC.Net builds the projects from subversion, runs all unit tests with NUnit and checks code quality with Gendarme.

While integrating Gendarme in our build process, I found and reported two bugs in the rules, which triggered false positives on our code. Thanks to Sebastien Pouliot both appear to be already fixed and slated for release with the next Gendarme (2.8).

What is puppet?

03:15 PM

Puppet is an application to automate the configuration of UNIX systems. The puppet master defines the intended system state (packages, files, services, etc) on a central server. On the managed installations an agent regularly fetches the manifest and applies it to the system. The agent sends information (like hostname or IP address) from the system to the server. This can be used to parametrise the configuration.

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Alarm: Softwarepatents on the move again

10:16 AM

stopsoftwarepatents.eu petition banner

From a press release of FFII e.V.:

The President of the European Patent Office (EPO), Alison Brimelow, has asked the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) to decide on the interpretation of the European Patent Convention (EPC) regarding the exclusion of software from patentability. The EBA is replacing the European Parliament in order to validate software patents EU-wide without the need of a debate.

We already have signed. You should sign too, to make your voice against modern forms of highwaymens heard! Sign here.

Reference Project: New User Interface for Simulation Tool

07:24 PM

Soil.NET detail

Soil.NET is a port of an old DOS application written in Pascal to the .NET framework. It is a one-off programming project for the civil engineering office Steinhauser, who are useing the application to support writing expertises in the area of vibration protection and seismology. While the mathematical core could be taken almost literally, the use of a modern GUI toolkit WPF enabled important improvements in user interface experience:

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Almost ready…

04:01 PM

… our company dasz.at OG is almost founded.

We were positively surprised by the nice and friendly officials who we needed to register our company.

Now we can legally provide programming and consulting services.