Wednesday marked the momentous Quick Left + Orbotix Hackfest. With the help of Quick Left, Orbotix released their web SDK the night of the event, which opened up the mobile playing field to web developers.

This Wednesday from 6 - 10 pm, we’ll be throwing a Sphero-themed Hackfest with Orbotix. Developers will compete against one another for a chance to win a free Sphero (5 chances, in fact).

Last week our developers teamed up with Orbotix to work on a version of their SDK that is compatible with PhoneGap, which means that now even web developers can get in on the action!

Quick Left and Sphero are teaming up to bring you one of the best Hackfests EVAR. Local start up Orbotix will be sharing their Sphero SDK with the opportunity for 5 crafty individuals to win their own Sphero.

Not too long ago we came up with an idea to shake things up with our hackfests: The One Night Stand. We held the infamous event last Wednesday by matching people that needed help on a project with people willing to share their skills for a couple of hours. It was a great time all around and there was even some actual code written!

Not bad, especially when you consider that nobody had to suffer the humiliation of a walk of shame.

Our friends at TechStars inspired us with Founder Dating, a mixer created to match people who may someday get married in the form of co-founding a startup. Good stuff, but what if you're a developer or UI designer who's not ready to make that kind of commitment? Enter Quick Left's next Hackfest, The One Night Stand. No serious relationships, just one night of project oriented hacking.

How it works:

If you've got a project that needs some Ruby on Rails, Javascript, or user interface design expertise, tell us a little bit about it and describe the help you want.

If you're a developer or UI designer who's willing to help somebody else move their side project forward, tell us a little bit about your expertise.

Don't worry, if you're cheating on your co-founder or employer for the night, mum's the word.

When you arrive at QLHQ, I'll play matchmaker to help break the ice. We'll try to get as many people matched as we can to help move people's projects forward. Don't forget to bring your laptop. We'll provide the beer and pizza.

When: Wednesday 3/28 6:00pm - 9pm
Where: QLHQ
Register: Use our fancy form to register here

Thanks to everyone who came out for our Hackfest on Wednesday! In case you missed it, Collin gave a talk on applying software design patterns to Rails apps. His slides are up on slideshare, but you can also take a look at his example app on github. He’s got some great resources posted, complete with awesome talks by Uncle Bob and Corey Haines, an example of a Sinatra app, etc., so it’s worth taking a peek at.

The highlight of the evening came 10 minutes into the presentation when Bing’s daughter not-so-discreetly asked just how long Collin would be talking. New rule for presentations on web development: if a 3 year-old isn’t entertained by a talk on Ruby on Rails, you’re probably doing it wrong. Maybe next time...

On that note, this month we’ll be putting the “Hack” back into Hackfest so keep those fingers limber and stay tuned for more updates. We have some ideas for what we'd like to do, but we'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions, so get at us.
We’ll see you on the 28th!

In an effort to recruit one of our coworkers to give a talk at next Wednesday's Hackfest, Becca and I stationed ourselves near the kitchen like two lions at a watering hole. Collin was our water buffalo that day.

Before he knew what was happening we had pounced and got Collin's commitment for a presentation on how to structure applications too big for the Rails default and too small to break into a service-oriented design. If you've been bumping into challenges that are a result of creating a large, monolithic app, Professor Schaafsma's talk will be right up your alley.

As the Rocky Mountain Ruby-filled week draws to a close, we’d like to do a quick recap of the Hackfest. Participants had a little under 2 and a half hours to pull down the repo, write a Ruby gem and two iPads were on the line...

Tomorrow evening at 7pm, Quick Left is hosting a special Rocky Mountain Ruby edition of our monthly hackfest. Remember, it's open to anyone to come participate - not just conference attendees! Also, tomorrow, you'll have to be present to be eligible to win a prize. Here's a couple of other quick updates regarding the hackfest tomorrow evening....

We've Got Judges

Man oh man do we have an awesome set of judges that are ready to give your code a twice-over. We can't be giving away big prizes without having some experienced eyes giving things a look-see! Thanks to...


- Konstantin Haase of Sinatra and @finnlabs

- Zach Holman of @github

- Wayne Seguin of RVM and @engineyard

We've Got Prizes

You and your pair have a chance to win a brand spankin' new iPad2. Get here and get coding.

We've Got Food & Drink

There'll be a burrito bar for those brave enough to come on time as well as a selection of beers on tap. Come hungry and thirsty for the proper experience.

Plancast

Make sure to sign up and RSVP on Plancast

More Details

Here's a link to our previous post with all the details on the Hackfest.

Next week, Boulder has the pleasure of hosting the second annual Rocky Mountain Ruby conference. We're really excited to both sponsor the conference and host a hackfest during it! Never been to one of our hackfests? Here's a little sampler of what you could expect...