Super Secret Project Update

Well, I got the first feedback from one of the people I most respect in the IT industry. I wouldn't say all was glowing but the information was useful, pertinent and really useful.

Now to hear from the others I'll be contacting and see what they have to say.

Suggestions: Open Source Change/Configuration/Project Management Solutions

Looking for comments, suggestions, links to existing (current and up to date preferred) implementations of these types of projects which exist in the open source world.

Some new Glest Screenshots

I thought I would post some screenshots while I was playing Glest. Although there is still much to do with the development of this game, it is by far one of the best free 3D Multi-Player RTS games I have found to date.

New Secret Project

Well, I guess it isn't so much of a secret if you start blogging about it. If you have read any of my other posts below regarding management, goals/objectives, change/configuration as well as charting, you will now have some clue as to what my new project is.

The domain is registered, the preliminary scope statement is almost finished. It will be released under the BSD license (although I may reconsider that). I will likely either host the source via sourceforge or google (I'm still thinking about which would be best).

I should be able to release the full details in about a week and a half after I have had input from some friends, colleagues and mentors (That means you Bruno).

Update: 12/30/2007

I've started contacting people to review and advise based upon what I've written up so far. After I have their input and make appropriate changes/additions I'll be making at least a somewhat more public announcement.

Google releases Chart API

In what is probably one of the most fantastic tools Google has released to date, is the new Chart API. This is a simple URL based format for generating all different sorts of graphs (pie, line, dot, you name it).

Users are limited to 50,000 requests per day (so says google, no word on if a pay version exists). Even with that limitation this is an awesome tool for developers and management to easily generate graphs in web based applications.

I foresee many uses in my upcoming projects.

Change / Configuration Management

I was giving some thought to my earlier post about Metrics for IT Management, part of which included a brief discussion of Change/Configuration management. I went looking around to see what existed in the OSS world for such a package. The majority of what I came up with dealt specifically and only with software development.

This started me thinking that either I was looking in the wrong places (freshmeat, sourceforge, google) - The best that I came up with being able to find was OpenQRM which seemed focused very much on datacenter usage. While it provides a huge selection of a very useful tools, only one screenshot I saw listed "Reports".

So, now I'm considering a project which is built around the more management (.sic PHB) side of change/configuration management, reporting and metrics which can be used as a business tool vs. something which is more an administrative tool. Ideally I would like something which not only satisfies making managers and employees lives easier but can also be used for a PMIS level solution.

There is only one way I know of to approach thinking about such a project and that is over a decent bottle of scotch and gathering up some friends to talk about it.

Comments are freely accepted if you are interested or have relevant input.

Glest - Multi-platform Multi-player 3D RTS

I was trolling through some random blog (I forget who, else I would give credit) and came across a link to Glest
which purported to be a multi-platform, multi-player RTS.

We all need distractions at times and amusements, so I figured I would give it a shot. The first attempt at compiling it from the soureforge provided zip files failed miserably. Small issues like having to convert conf files with dos2unix, satisfying dependencies, etc.. so I chose the alternate route and grabbed the svn provided trunk. I still needed to fuss around a bit, automake needed to be version 1.7 (Ubuntu 7.10) and install dev portions of certain libraries.

This was considerably easier, it compiled per the instructions and loaded up just fine (after I set it to windowed mode). There are still some key issues with the linux variant, the "Start Game" and "Join Game" options don't work - they issue errors if you are watching your terminal. The good thing was you can play the multitude of AI scenarios which are provided.

Overall, it seems like a good distraction, although I could definitely see some need for improvements. Units attacking, auto-actions, etc but overall if development continues it will be an awesome game.

An update, thankfully someone on the forums (hailstorm) pointed me to this site which offers a fix for the "Start Game" option. You can find the information at http://hailstone3.truefreehost.com/?tag=compile