Rackspace Email & Apps Blog

Recent Posts in the ‘Geek Out’ Category

Rackspace Hosts a GNU/Linux Legend

May 19th, 2009 in Geek Out by Thomas Weeks

On April 20th, we hosted a very special guest from the Free Software Foundation and GNU/Linux software community. Our special guest was, none other than Richard Stallman, author of the GPL free software license and the bulk of the GNU+Linux operating system that most Linux distros rely on today (including gcc!).

Stallman was in town to lecture on Free Software at Trinity University, but by a lucky turn of events, he stayed at my house for two nights! Since I had his ear, I lured him to the Rack for an FSF.org book signing, and then lunch with a few of our uber geeky GNU/Linux guys. We all had fun and I think that we all learned just how far geeky the geek spectrum goes.

Later that night, our user group (xcssa.org) attended and recorded Stallman’s Trinity lecture. I helped Stallman sell off the last of the FSF.org books and t-shirts, raising over $2,100 in funds for the Free Software Foundation.

I must say, hosting Richard Stallman in my home and within my various personal and professional geek circles was a once in a lifetime experience.

For all the photos and details, see the XCSSA.org photo site.

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Glimpse into Hackathon 7 Projects

May 9th, 2009 in Geek Out, Product Enhancements by Cameron Nouri

Hackathon 7 is underway at the Mailtrust office and there are lots of interesting projects being worked on. I want to highlight just a few to show you they type of projects being worked on:

Please Note: Projects that are showcased as a part of this event may or may not make it into the Mailtrust product suite. The event is designed to spark creativity and promote innovation inside our organization. None of the information shown here is intended to infer product direction or future direction of our organization.

Forgot attachment or subject?

Mike Bulman is working on adding checks to Noteworthy Webmail that will alert you if you forgot to add an attachment or a subject line.

Noteworthy Webmail Mobile for iPhone

Khaled and Will Wolf are working on a new Noteworthy Webmail Mobile interface design for the iPhone.

Adding some fresh paint to the office

Bob Black and Amanda Swetnam teamed up to add some color to one of the new conference rooms we have in our office.

These are only a couple of the projects being worked on today—there are over 25 people working on projects today. There is lots of energy in the office and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a couple people trying to knock out more than one project today.

Hackathon 7.0 Begins

May 9th, 2009 in Geek Out, Product Enhancements by Cameron Nouri

Here at Mailtrust we have a tradition. A tradition that challenges and rewards the brave employees who choose to participate. That tradition is known as Hackathon.

What is Hackathon?

Hackathon is a day where employees choose to volunteer their time for one day on a weekend and dedicate it to “hack” on what they want to with little restriction as to what they can should do. The only requirement is that the project they choose has to be completed – from start to finish – in one day.

The projects that employees choose to work on may or may not make it into our product offering. In fact the event is actually designed to spark creativity and promote innovation inside our organization. It’s not really designed to add new features to our product suite (although we do enjoy when a great idea comes from a Hackathon).

Just a few hours ago we kicked off our 7th Hackathon.

This is my Hackathon project. I am going to be covering today’s events here on our blog. Stay tuned today and throughout this week as I continue to post updates.

In the meantime, you can check out some previous Hackathon recaps:

Hackthon 1.0
Hackthon 2.0
Hackthon 3.0
Hackthon 4.0

Software Developers Forum – Test-Driven Development

Jan 16th, 2009 in Email & Apps Industry, Geek Out by jhartman

Wednesday night, I’ll be giving a presentation on Test-Driven Development (TDD) at the Software Developers Forum. Sponsored by the NCTC and made possible by many local companies in the New River Valley, the Software Developers Forum is a peer group for information exchange and relationship development, which strengthen the local technology industry.
In a nutshell, TDD is a software development technique that promotes a test-first method often advocated by the agile community. If you’re interested in learning about TDD, sharing your experiences with TDD, or eating free food, please attend the forum. We really want to see a great turnout.
The presentation will be on Wednesday, January 21st at 6pm. Luna Innovations is hosting the event at 1 Riverside Circle, Suite 400, Roanoke, VA. If you plan on attending, please kindly RSVP to Michele Wright at NetVentures by Monday, January 19th (Call 540-527-9000 or Email michele [at] netventurescorporation.com).

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Does Your Inbox Have Xobni?

Jan 13th, 2009 in Email & Apps Industry, Geek Out by Nell-Marie Colman

Anyone out there tried Xobni yet? It is an Outlook plug-in that helps users organize email and attachments. They just received $7 million in financing from Cisco and others. So, it looks like they’ll be around for a while. We’d love to hear feedback if you’ve tried it.
Post your feedback in the comments section.

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