The Blog: News

On March 3, 2012 Startup Weekend comes to TechValley. Startup Weekend is a technology focused business competition, where people pitch ideas, form ad-hoc teams, and develop a product idea over the span of a weekend. Despite what a lot of people think, it’s not a code competition in the spirit of the Node Knockout or Rails Rumble; points aren’t awarded based on cool tech alone. However, also unlike these other events, Startup Weekend focuses on producing real-life companies with making real money. (Like, for real, yo). Why should you care?

As a resident of the Capital Region, it’s good for our economy
There are almost a dozen out of town Venture Capitalists, executives, and engineers travelling here to learn more about what we have to offer. This area has become increasing important due to our local engineering talent and our vicinity to both NYC and Boston. Startup Weekend is the perfect time to show off our entrepreneurial and technical prowess. It’s my belief that while this region has all the right raw materials, it needs a grassroots spark to fan the flames.

As a business owner or manager, it’s good for your company
Startup Weekend is a great way to let your company and your team think outside the bounds & constraints they work with during the week. It’s also a great way to meet other local talent and test your wits against other people in the area. I promise you’ll be surprised at all the small startups that exist right here under your nose. Finally, it shows your team, your customers, and your colleagues that you care about their field and our region. Win win!

As a software craftsperson, it’s good for your career
No one stays in one place forever (particularly in our field). The opportunities locally aren’t as abundant as they might be in a larger metropolitan area,but that itself creates a unique opportunity. Great startups (like all great teams) require the right mix of people. It’s exceedingly rare to see a single individual take an idea and develop it into something meaningful on their own. Said another way, its more risky (resulting in a smaller potentially upside) to go it alone. At Startup Weekend you’ll meet scores of other people interested in the business of technology. Who knows, maybe that idea you’ve had kicking around will take root and grow.

Agora is encouraging (and helping to subsidize) attendance by any interested employees. Here’s a list of other businesses sponsoring the event (current, as I write this post):

• 1st Playable
• Adirondack Basement
• The Anchor Agency
• Arsenal Business & Technology Partnership
• Enable Labs
• GreaneTree Technology
• GreyCastle Security
• Marvin and Company, P.C.
• Nixon Peabody
• Outspoken Media
• Overit Media
• Pinnacle HR
• Rensselaer Emerging Ventures Ecosystem
• TechConnex
• Troy Web Consulting
• Unique Minds

Sponsorship opportunities are still available (but limited) for anyone else interested in helping out. Check out the website for more information!

In our never ending quest to spend more time on software creation and less time on software administration Clarke and I moved our content team from a self managed FTP site to an S3 account.

Besides, administering an FTP site is so 1971.

It took an hour or two to figure out the proper permissions, so I’m documenting them here for posterity. Read on if you’re interested.

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The world is changing. It’s a blue sphere in constant motion; every second of the day produces a new life changing thought. Whether that thought is acted upon or publicized however, is debatable. Considering that fact, one of the greatest things about human nature is that we are prone to adaptation. As our environments change (consequently we are normally the cause of change), we find ways to change with. Now that that’s out of the way, marketing is a topic that’s been around since the establishment of trade. How else would you draw people to your wooden establishment and convince them that your corn is better than your neighbor’s?

The reality is that marketing has been an essential part of history and those who effectively master the far from dying art, are the most successful. Lets look at Apple for example. Their focus has been brand management since CEO Steve Jobs hopped on board. Because of this, they’ve gone from near bankruptcy to one of the top companies in the world. As of August 1, they held more cash on hand than the United States treasury. Are they selling any products that are necessary for survival of mankind? Are their products much different from those on the market?
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What is it like Interning at Major League Gaming?

“I honestly can’t find the difference between an intern and a regular employee. Employees get one trip to a related conference every year; I was also sent to one. Employees may go to MLG events and I’ve been to two. I deploy apps to production on a daily basis, make design decisions when required and am involved in the process from top to bottom. That is why I feel MLG has been a great experience, because I’ve been completely immersed in the software development process. “– Matt Perry (Intern)

You’ve learned a bit in school, but don’t know if you’re ready for the elite work force. Well, most of us have been there so we understand. I guess one of the royalties of an internship is that you’re not expected to know everything. School has set the foundation for you and now its time to start conditioning your catalogue with experience. That’s the exact same feeling that troubled me in the beginning of this summer, so I figured that my perspective might be useful to anyone considering an internship at Major League Gaming.
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August 4th 3:00 PM: Excitement looms in their eyes as they await the fourth coming. An extraordinary combination of producers, interns, devs and more, unify to kick off the event of the century: Hack-A-thon 4. What is a Hack-a-thon you ask? Well, I’m glad you did because only the foolish can live in ignorance of the mankind’s greatest celebration. It is only that moment that we’ve all dreamed of and considered impossible as children. The one moment that all of our parents told us about, but never truly believed we’d actually see. The period when you’re granted the highest level of honor and allowed 24 hours to work on any project that should strike your chord of desire. Brilliant, isn’t it? Now, the Agorians are an interesting people. Masters of the event is only the least that could be said of their Hack-a-thon abilities.
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Here at MLG, we use a product from Opscode called Chef to manage our server environments. Chef allows us to reliably manage our infrastructure by providing us with the ability to write code that describes how a server should be configured. While not perfect, it has served us well.

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When I was in grade school, I had your typical learning experience. My teacher stood up in front of us everyday and lectured about something that I usually found utterly boring. Fast-forward to college and its still pretty much the same ordeal, except now there are more students. Having said that, you can understand the significant amount of envy that poured from my eyes as I read about the new ways that classes are being taught; one of which is video games. Imagine you went to school excited everyday because calculus was no longer your boring system of numbers and formulas. To add to it, you’ve also sparked a desire to learn because it now becomes a fun challenge. Well that’s the situation with these 6th graders who are learning via the Jason Experiment.
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So I recently ordered my own copy of Mortal Kombat and it arrived just a few days ago. Once in my impatient hands, I savagely tore open its containing box without a fragment of mercy; ending with something similar to this:

After that, I proceeded to remove the inferior plastic barrier that stood between me and the future of gory deaths that I’d be responsible for. Having taken care of the plastic with my razor sharp teeth, I pried open the casing open to reveal a fairly well decorated DVD and a booklet on the side. Naturally the booklet never experienced the faintest drop of my attention, but the DVD was pampered with the greatest of care. I removed it from its casing, popped it into my PS3 and enjoyed the awkwardly menacing side of me that enjoyed achieving the bloodiest of fatalities.

Today, with most things, you normally learn as you go along. Somehow, I find myself remembering how I use to value those little booklets that I now show no love to. In the past, before delicately removing the DVD, I would have carefully removed the manual and used it to avoid the learning curve. Now, I realize that it had been a long time since I had read a game manual and will probably be an even longer time before I read another one. So I wonder, are game manuals worth it or have they become a waste of our limited resources? I personally think they should be available on the website or on the game disk. Of course, I haven’t ruled out that I may be the only one who doesn’t care for the manuals, so let me know your thoughts on our Facebook or below!

An overly sized brick that weighed a ton in my hands, comprising of a 2D, black and white screen and some buttons. That’s exactly how the six years old me would have described a Gameboy. Even with its primitive characteristics, the Gameboy is a feature in an evolutionary timeline that started many years before its arrival. If we go back to the beginning of human time, I’m sure that you’d be able to find some relative of gaming regardless of how basic. Competition and play are part of human nature, so whether it was punching wholes in the ground or killing the most mammoths, games can easily be made of anything.
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