Codetown ::: a software developer's community
I went to OSCON last week. It was even better than ever. There were lots of memorable moments for me this year. I'll try to capture them here, stream of consciousness.
*** Note *** this is a work in progress!
One of the big topics was cloud computing. Openstack was mentioned in many conversations. JQuery, Neo4J, extracting data from social networks, HTML5, Arduino hacks, an informative and funny keynote by Mayor of Portland Sam Adams.
I went to a presentation by Ward Cunningham on wikis and had lunch with him and GatorLUG's Clinton Collins (on the left).
Mark Shuttleworth and I talked for a few minutes. I asked Mark whether he had anything to add to my upcoming JCertif presentation in the Republic of Congo and he said "Tell them Africans will see great changes in their lifetimes and they can be a part of it!"
...please check back as I continue this blog post. Thanks!
Codetown is a social network. It's got blogs, forums, groups, personal pages and more! You might think of Codetown as a funky camper van with lots of compartments for your stuff and a great multimedia system, too! Best of all, Codetown has room for all of your friends.
Created by Michael Levin Dec 18, 2008 at 6:56pm. Last updated by Michael Levin May 4, 2018.
Check out the Codetown Jobs group.

DoorDash engineers built a simulation and evaluation flywheel to test large language model customer support chatbots at scale. The system generates multi-turn synthetic conversations using historical transcripts and backend mocks, evaluates outcomes with an LLM-as-judge framework, and enables rapid iteration on prompts, context, and system design before production deployment.
By Leela Kumili
Engineers at Netflix have uncovered deep performance bottlenecks in container scaling that trace not to Kubernetes or containerd alone, but into the CPU architecture and Linux kernel itself.
By Craig Risi
Alicia Collymore discusses the critical role of cultural alignment in building high-performing engineering teams. She explains how to move beyond "vibes" by identifying specific attributes in company values and assessing them during coding challenges and system design sessions. She shares practical advice on using interview debriefs, assessment criteria, and "culture add" to drive growth.
By Alicia Collymore
Have you ever tried mixing oil and water? That is the moment software architecture is entering as deterministic systems meet non deterministic AI behaviour. Architects must anchor intelligent systems in intent, governance and systems thinking. This article introduces the Architect’s V Impact Canvas, a framework for navigating this shift while keeping human trust at the centre.
By Shweta VohraIn this podcast, Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Adrian Peryer about Ron Westrum's organizational culture continuum, the role of information flow in shaping team culture, and how leaders can develop requisite imagination to detect weak signals.
By Adrian Peryer
© 2026 Created by Michael Levin.
Powered by
You need to be a member of Codetown to add comments!
Join Codetown