01 May 2007
Until now I didn’t actually have a DZone account.
However, I do have an OpenID identity.
OpenID + DZone == simple account registration. Creating a DZone account was as simple as entering my identity (from myOpenID) and giving DZone access to my identity. Quite painless and one less username I have to remember.
In my opinion, this is a direction that online (technically savvy) services should be going.
For it’s part, DZone seems to have created a basic account keyed off my open identity. It then prompted me to fill in additional information (email, password, etc.) to complete the registration.
I should note that this last step was not actually necessary. If all I wanted to do was log in and vote, I wouldn’t need to provide anything beyond the OpenID identity.
The only thing I can’t seem to do is change my full name?
01 May 2007
The following is a response I got from Matt @ Cenqua regarding my recent blog on Crucible.
It is good to hear you are getting something useful out of Crucible. You mentioned that the thing you really want is “diff-based reviews”. I just want to check if that means the same thing as what we call “patch-based pre-commit reviews”.
Pre-commit reviews is going to be the very first thing we focus on once Crucible goes 1.0. At least in the first iteration, we want to ensure that you can go “svn diff > patch.txt”, upload that file into Crucible, and issue a review on that patch. Is that the kind of functionality you are after?
Please feel free to expand on what you would like to see. We will be at JavaOne again this year, if you are going to be there please drop by and say “G’day” 
Thanks Matt. Patch-based pre-commit reviews, as you call them, are exactly what we’re looking for*. * I look forward to seeing it roll out. I see it as basically the ability to take the output from svn diff, associate it with a particular branch or trunk in the repository and schedule a review around it. Instead of launching a review from the FishEye perspective, I’d go directly to Crucible and create one there.
What impressed me the most (beyond the fact that they’re going to be working on the feature) was the speed of their response.
This isn’t a one-time thing either, what problems problems we did have with earlier versions of FishEye and Subversion were solved with a couple timely emails back and forth and the odd a beta release every so often. Well done boys!
Between Fisheye, Crucible (both from Cenqua) and JIRA, Confluence and Bamboo (all from Atlassian), we’re big fans of Australian software.
Sadly, I won’t be able to make it to JavaOne this year but for anyone that is going, swing by the Cenqua booth for a demo and t-shirt.
01 May 2007
Just reading CBC.ca and noticed this gem.
Looks like athletic company Lululemon Athletica is planning a $200 million IPO. Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Merrill Lynch & Co. are involved. Couldn’t help but remind me of the various dot com IPO’s of the late nineties. Difference here, Lululemon is a powerful brand with real revenues that has cornered the market in womens athletic wear. Plus, I doubt the valuation is nearly as high.
Not sure what or who Lululemon is?
Walk into any gym and there’s a good chance that those spandexy-type pants and shirts (w/ the little upside-down U logo) all the women are wearing are Lululemon. If you’ve got a daughter, she’ll fill you in more. It started out as Yoga wear but I’d bet that most people wearing the brand nowadays have never stepped into a studio.
It’s an interesting phenomenon that’s spread like wildfire over the past 5 years. They do have a men’s line but it’s not high on my list of thngs to get. Give me a Nike sweatshirt and I’m good. My girl friend’s closet is a different story.
Either way, good on them for being a local company (they started in Vancouver, BC) shooting high and hitting the big time.
I laughed at this comment from one of the various press releases about the offering:
The move is not altogether surprising. In 2005, Chip Wilson, Lululemon’s founder and head designer, sold 48 per cent of the Vancouver-based company to two U.S. private equity firms, Advent International Corp. and Highland Capital, for $108 million. Lululemon’s proprietary ‘Luon’ fabric holds up under exercise stress and ‘women are convinced that it makes their butts look better,’ said an analyst commenting on the yogawear retailer’s success.