Getting Your Boss To Buy Lava Lamps 249
jarich writes "Mike Clark's blog provides directions and code on how to wire up lava lamps to your build system. When a compile or test fails, the red lava lamp gets switched on... The delay in the lamp heating up gives you a few minutes to fix things before it becomes obvious to co-workers that you broke the build. His example uses CruiseControl but you could easily modify it. Very cool stuff and inexpensive to setup."
Yeah Sure... (Score:5, Funny)
I'll ask my boss when he gets back from playing golf with the VC group.
Re:Yeah Sure... (Score:5, Funny)
-
They'll look great next to the bean-bag chairs and the espresso bar.
For full effect you should put a disco ball on the ceiling of the conference room and have polyester fridays.Re:Disco? (Score:2, Funny)
Why? Didn't you get the memo? Disco Stu doesn't advertise...
Break time (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Yeah Sure... (Score:4, Funny)
Hooking a computer up to a lava lamp is neat (however not as cool as the Ambient Orb [ambientdevices.com]), but treating programmers like Pavlovian dogs is ridiculous.
Re:Yeah Sure... (Score:5, Funny)
My boss had a thing with people not answering the phone, so the phone light moved from being a modified desk lamp, to being a strobe light, to being two strobe lights, to being two strobe lights and a red rotating police light.
All this being said, and since I know for a fact its a pretty easy electrical hack, why stop with a silly lava lamp? If my old General Manager was in IT these days, a failed build would result in a temporarily blind and deaf dev team, and an office space that would occasionally have the lighting and decible range of a metal concert.
Apple Cube solution (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Apple Cube solution (Score:5, Interesting)
That might not be a bad idea for a casemod on some of the latest P4s. Run a heat pipe from the CPU over to a lava lamp.
However, IIRC a lava lamp works with just a 40W bulb. With some of the latest CPUs throwing off >200W of heat, you might need a whole row of lava lamps on top of the machine. Maybe the entire side of the case could be filled with gloop and made into a wall of lava.
Re:Apple Cube solution (Score:4, Funny)
Wow ... the iLamp ;).
That... (Score:2, Insightful)
It's better the other way ;) (Score:3, Funny)
Re:It's better the other way ;) (Score:2)
cool, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:cool, but... (Score:4, Funny)
It'll go nicely with my nerf guns, huge pile of empty soda cans and my blacklight-lit office!
Er, wait, I don't live in the college dorms anymore. Nevermind.
Re:cool, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Lets say somehow you convince your boss to buy you one. How long are you going to spend hooking it up. Then how long are you going to spend hooking it up to other things (it must be raining out, the green lamp is on and the red is off). Then how long are you going to spend testing the other apps you've hooked it up to. (New story on slashdot, both lamps are on!).
Re:cool, but... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:cool, but... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:cool, but... (Score:2)
That's nothing; we're trying to get our *users* to wear those. Augument those "Illegal entry"-type dialogs with a quick electric shock and you guarantee the user won't make the same mistake twice.
Now if I could figure out a way to make the shock collar go off when someone tries to report a bug, I'd be all set...
Re:cool, but... (Score:2)
Replace the seat of their Herman Miller chair with a wire grid and wire that up instead.
Re:cool, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:cool, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
X10 Hardware?! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:X10 Hardware?! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:X10 Hardware?! (Score:2)
http://artists.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/kompressormu
And no, Kompressor doesn't take himself seriously either.
Is there anything more annoying on /. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:X10 Hardware?! (Score:5, Informative)
One doesn't necessarily have to come from the other, and it's a shame that the vendor has ruined a perfectly useful technology, even shaming it doubly by making poor-quality electronics.
Re:X10 Hardware?! (Score:4, Informative)
What century are you living in (Score:2)
/.'ed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:/.'ed (Score:5, Funny)
Off = No Bugs /.
Yellow Lamp = Warnings
Red Lamp = Broken Code
Exploding Lamp = Got linked off of
Re:/.'ed (Score:2)
Exploding grenade = got a CGI linked off of /.
Workaround... (Score:3, Funny)
nice, but (Score:2, Insightful)
A Better Mod? (Score:2, Funny)
Really bad coders would get lauched like a rail gun 'bullet'.
Re:A Better Mod? (Score:5, Funny)
Cause of death: missing }
Instead of Lava Lamps... (Score:4, Funny)
I think we should have an air raid siren hooked up to it. Not only would it alert you to a problem, it would also scare the crap out of everyone and wake them up for a nice productive afternoon.
It's either that or electrodes into your chair.
Re:Instead of Lava Lamps... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Instead of Lava Lamps... (Score:3, Funny)
Very Cool, Cat (Score:2, Funny)
Room 101 (Score:5, Funny)
Off you Room 101 YOU go... (Score:2)
Re:Room 101 (Score:5, Funny)
Better make sure you specify wild rats. If they were fancy rats, they'd probably just lick your nose or snuffle in your ear or something. Then you might want to break the build on purpose just for giggles.
--Rob
Re:Room 101 (Score:4, Funny)
Already slow... (Score:2)
Conficting reports (Score:3, Funny)
conflicting reports are rising from the break room.
Usual Google Cache (Score:2, Informative)
You insencetive clod (Score:2)
better idea (Score:4, Funny)
Re:better idea (Score:2)
Forgive my ignorance, but how do you debug before you compile? Don't you need to compile first before you can step through the code?
Re:better idea (Score:3, Insightful)
You might be meaning "integrated" where you are saying "compiled." Even if the final integration step involves compiling via a master project, you'd still need a test bed or "scaffolding" to compile your code against before submission. Otherwise, you are flying blind and may as well be programming towards the old batch cards systems of yesteryear. (Then again, the project I'm working on now involves separate shared libr
Coffee maker (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Coffee maker (Score:2)
Lava lamps have many uses for IT (Score:3, Interesting)
I remember seeing that, and thinking, hey, not all ideas that emerge from a cloud of dope smoke are bad.
Re:Lava lamps have many uses for IT (Score:2)
Re:Lava lamps have many uses for IT (Score:2)
Re:Lava lamps have many uses for IT (Score:2)
Just my speed too, to bad I left my lamp in the US
Jimmy I hope you like the lamp!
Re:Lava lamps have many uses for IT (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Lava lamps have many uses for IT (Score:2)
Yeah, that was SGI. It now lives here.
That's a significantly different project. It was invented by different people, and doesn't even use a lava lamp; it uses the noise from a capped webcam.
Re:Lava lamps have many uses for IT (Score:4, Informative)
It was the Silicon Graphics (SGI) Lavarand implementation, which was at lavarand.sgi.com.
It seems to live on at lavarnd.org [lavarnd.org]
Lavarand, at SGI (Score:2)
Yes, it was real, and yes, that's pretty muvh how it worked. Several lamps being viewed by a camera, and the image data was broken down to use as random numbers. You could even click a button to request a kilobyte or so of random digits.
It was hosted for a while at SGI's "personal pages for employees" server, which was decomissioned after it became obvious that the projects people worked on in their spare time were way cooler than anything SGI was officially offering that year. The Lavarand webpages w
Re:Lava lamps have many uses for IT (Score:2)
Re:Lava lamps have many uses for IT (Score:3, Interesting)
It was not hard for us to get approval to buy the Lava Lite lamps. Our bosses were very supportive in signing the purchase orders to buy the lamps. All it took was presenting a cool idea (lavarand) to cool bosses (David Watson and later Mel Pleasant). :-)
Alternatively... (Score:2, Interesting)
Slashdot effect.... (Score:3, Funny)
firewall mod? (Score:3, Funny)
Non /.'ed CruiseControl Info (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Non /.'ed CruiseControl Info (Score:3, Informative)
Overall, I think it's good to have some sort of tool that automates your builds and emails you when they brake. Continuous integration is a good part of it for developers, but this also gets into release management, communication between teams, and such.
Re:Non /.'ed CruiseControl Info (Score:2)
article text in case of /.ing (Score:4, Informative)
Your software is being automatically built and tested on a schedule. It even sends you an email when the code doesn't compile or pass its tests. You're certainly ahead of most projects, but email is just so 90s. Even if you could manage to find those build failure emails amidst all that spam, you're reading yesterday's news. Indeed, you may already be ignoring the status of the scheduled build.
The Monitoring chapter of the book offers alternative, in-your-face, worth-getting-up-for-in-the-morning techniques for monitoring scheduled builds. The most popular technique came by way of a story contributed by Alberto Savoia. He describes how his project uses red and green lava lamps to radiate the status of their scheduled build. Better yet, those lamps are controlled using X10 devices such as those used to turn on your household lamps so that you don't arrive home to a dark house.
Well, as you might imagine, I could hardly wait to build my very own build-monitoring lava lamp kit. And as bonus material for readers of the book, I've crafted a bit o' software that integrates with CruiseControl. So now you too can enjoy red and green bubbles on your project!
Bill of Materials
To get started, you need some automation gear. Think of these gadgets as this year's essential project accessories:
* 4-Piece Firecracker Automation System
This kit includes:
o 1 Firecracker Computer Interface
o 1 Transceiver Module
o 1 Lamp Module
o 1 Palm Pad Remote Control
Cost: $39.99
(Props go to the folks at x10.com for supporting this project by supplying me with a complimentary kit. It all fits in a wee box, so I can carry it from project to project.)
With that kit, you can control two lava lamps -- one plugged into the transceiver module and the other plugged into the lamp module. You can optionally purchase another appliance module if you want to control two appliances. For example, you might want your build process to turn on a coffee pot when the build fails and then kick start your margarita machine when the build is fixed.
* 2 lamps, preferably the kind that boil red and green lava
I used the Hot Rock Lite F/X (yellow earth/blue liquid and red earth/purple liquid). Note for legal purposes that these lamps (shown in pictures below) are not LAVA(R) brand motion lamps, but those will work just as well.
Cost: $9.99 each at Target or Walmart
* Pragmatic Automation X10 software
It's an open source Java library that includes the CruiseControl plug-in, an API to make your wildest X10 dreams come true, detailed instructions, and an ever-so-useful collection of tests.
Way down deep, the library uses the Java Communications API to send bits out over the serial port and into the Firecracker Computer Interface. (Linux users will need the RXTX implementation). Michel Dalal's Java X10 CM17A API library, an implementation of the FireCracker (CM17A) Communications Specification, is used to send out the correct 1s and 0s in response to human-friendly commands. Many thanks to him for doing all the low-level bit twiddling and sharing the goodies with us!
Cost: Free to readers of Pragmatic Project Automation
Assembling the Kit
With that hardware in hand, you're ready to start the assembly process. The Firecracker Automation System includes instructions written for your average home electronics consumer, so your average computer/network geek should have no trouble. I'll spare you all the gory details and instead run through a quick visual tutorial of my setup.
Start by plugging the Firecracker Computer Interface into a serial port of your scheduled build machine:
This little gem sends a wireless signal from the computer to the transceiver module. Notice that you don't lose the serial port. You can plug another serial device
Seems counterproductive (Score:5, Funny)
Low Tech Works (Score:5, Funny)
We tried a white board, we tried a sign in/out sheet, it got so bad that we held a meeting and the manager decided we would use the ownership of a certain file to show who was allowed to control the tape drive.
The same manager broke his own rule immediately after the meeting.
My solution was the one that worked.
We used a really cheesy Mardi Gras necklace. Who ever had the necklace in their possession was allowed to access the tape drive. We never had a problem after that.
If you left the necklace on your desk it was perfectly okay for someone else to steal it. If you wore the cheesy thing around your neck, everyone knew you were using the tape drive.
Sometime low tech is easier, more reliable and best of all, funnier.
I live the greatest adventure anyone could wish for. - Tosk the Hunted
Re:Low Tech Works (Score:2)
"Tragically, KcDoodle's life was cut short today suddenly while leaning over a massive office shredder. The cause of his demise? A 30 cent fishing-line string Mardi Gras necklace. Details at 11".
Re:Low Tech Works (Score:2, Interesting)
We used a really cheesy Mardi Gras necklace. Who ever had the necklace in their possession was allowed to access the tape drive. We never had a problem after that.
This also works great when trying to manage a discussion in a group of 10 to 20 people. If things start get out of hand and people cut each other off just take a random token (perhaps a small ball) and throw it to someone who wants to speak. After speaking the person passes
Reminds me of Dilbert's "lost token" (Score:4, Funny)
> allowed to access the tape drive.
Reminds me of an old Dilbert cartoon:
Dilbert: (holding a cable) we have a token ring network.
Boss: So why is it not working?
Dilbert: the token fell out. It must be somewhere in this room...
Boss: (gets on his knees to search)
Quick fixes? (Score:2)
So it encourages people to fix the problem in a few minutes, rather than to make sure it's fixed right?
Yeah, that'll increase product realiability and eliminate bugs.
More practical (Score:3, Funny)
That's ANOTHER cool use of Lava lamps in computing (Score:4, Interesting)
Too bad the website [sgi.com] for it appears to be off line. SGI used to be cool, too...
Re:That's ANOTHER cool use of Lava lamps in comput (Score:4, Informative)
APPLE on its merry way to implementation already (Score:2)
Virtual lava-lamps. (Score:4, Funny)
If the keyboard or other input device isn't used within five minutes, a lava-lamp appears on screen.
That way, we can tell if someone hasn't been working within the past five minutes.
Personally, I prefer the futuristic virtual Lava Lamp office, where you're cubicle rises and falls according to how productive you have been.
However .... (Score:2)
Unfortunately, the ceiling height won't be changed, so over-achievers get a series of cieling noogies until they settle back down with the dregs.
He should have made one for webservers (Score:4, Funny)
His datacenter would be groovy right now.
Quick Fixes (Score:3, Insightful)
Does your build environment allow you to debug, build, and test a loadbuild break in the time it takes a lava lamp to heat up?
Sounds... (Score:2)
There's also a developer interface where any semi-savvy web programmer can control the color of their Orb with a simple http "get" call. Track how full your hard drive is, traffic on your website, Slashdot posts, or your credit-card debt.
The Average User (Score:2)
Yeah. Like the average user is going to look at your lava lamp and say, "Geez, looks like Bob borked the sendmail build again . . ."
Pit and the Pendulum (Score:2)
Lava lamps are supposed to be soothing man. (Score:5, Funny)
this is funny (Score:5, Interesting)
CB
And the best lamp to use? (Score:2)
Blurb doesn't do justice (Score:5, Insightful)
This book is not about lava lamps (although it does talk about them). This book is about using automation to keep your software project on-track... never letting things get broken... using a computer in your office as a 'virtual employee', continually building and running unit tests and letting you know if someone breaks the build.
Yes, there is a reference about automatically turning on a red lava lamp if your unit tests fail... but far more important than that, the build on my project (which uses the ideas from this book) is never broken long enough for a lava lamp to heat up.
If you are interested in Agile process (especially the XP concept of 'continuous integration'), you need this book.
Here's a link that works: (Score:5, Informative)
-- /\ndy
But will it light the bong for me? (Score:4, Funny)
This would be more useful, if it lit up a bowl at 4:20 if the green lamp was going.
Hmmm... All I need is an automated valve and a mini blowtorch...
W.E.P.Well... you can always... (Score:2, Funny)
Alternative build's broken procedures... (Score:2)
When the build first breaks, light a big aerial shell firecracker that goes BOOM. Since you're supposed to run these tests once on the hour, the next two would go on the hour while the build was still broken.
The fourth piece would be a flare aimed at the offender's cube. Think of it as a 4-gun salute...
Is Firecracker X10?! Eeew. (Score:3, Informative)
X10!!! Oh.... my... hell. Slashdot recommending a project that uses *THEM*.
What next, a story on a project that uses SCO software?! Personal firewalls using XP SP2? A softball interview with Jack Valenti or Orin Hatch?
I know, it's not pico/x10/whoever's fault entirely, but after years of X10 popups, I feel tricked/annoyed/dirtied and I haven't even clicked past the google results.
A couple years ago, we were revising a website, with an eye toward better google placement. My tech lead forwarded a spam for a related utility, and I had to read him the riot act on why we'd *never* buy anything from a spammer.
(yeah, I know... I'm goin' to modpoints hell for criticizing the editors.)
Another way... (Score:3, Informative)
Now, everyone go buy an Ambient Orb so they can mass-produce them more, and then I can finally afford one!
Very cool stuff? (Score:3, Insightful)
In a related note. Today is Macaulay Culkin's Birthday [wikipedia.org].
Over-Engineered Workplace (Score:3, Interesting)
I mean, if you're looking for that sort of subterfuge to mask your screwup, why buy one to begin with again? Do you absolutely need a delayed action screw-up beacon. I mean, the moment the damn thing turns on, people are going to know you fucked up anyway even without an undulating blob since the entire lamp GLOWS WITH LIGHT, warm or cold.
I nominate this for the "Weakest Excuse for Lava Lamp Placement in a Workcenter" Award. Thank you.
Re:Nifty (Score:2)
The lava flowing says "Hey, look, this tard doesn't know how to FIX IT."
Re: Lava Lamps... Full Metal Jacket quote (Score:2)
Private Pyle has dishonored himself and dishonored the platoon! I have tried to help him, but I have failed! I have failed because you have not helped me! You people have not given Private Pyle the proper motivation!
So, from now on, whenever Private Pyle fucks up, I will not punish him, I will punish all of you! And the way I see it, ladies, you owe me for one jelly doughnut! Now, get on your faces!