A Brief Bio

Andrew Hanson is the founder of Coding Inertia LLC, a software consulting company located in Boise, Idaho. A Brief Bio I have been a professional software developer for 14 years. I got my start programming for the United States Air Force right out of High School. While that was supposed to just be a temporary gig until I found out what I wanted to be when I grew up I have since come to embrace my inner geek and now developing software is not only my profession but truly one of my passions. Checkout my LinkedIn profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewhanson for a more detailed overview of my work experience. Contact Me * Twitter: @andrewhanson * Email: andrew at codinginertia dot com

The next Code Dojo meeting is going to be October 12th at The Dojo (Coding Inertia office in downtown Boise)

Big congratulations go out to Chris Brandsma and Eric Dalling for their progress and success. You have created some great products that everybody should go check out:

• * Eric - http://www.caseprogression.net
• * Chris - Times Table Helper

As many of you know I will be out of the country for the next couple of months. Chris Etcheverry will be opening the doors and making sure that you all have a place to come and code and create products. And remember to not just talk but to ship or I promise to harass you virtually.

I am super excited about tonights meeting. In addition to our usual projects we will have two new product pitches and some very interesting business related discussions.

Just to wet your appetite hear is an excerpt of one of tonights products by Michael O'Meara who is looking for other developers to join his effort:

Active Agenda is a mature Open Source project that is a Risk Management application that is still quietly in >development with two of the founders in Fresno and part time help from Bruce Perens (OSI co-founder). It is >one of the very few projects released under a OSI-Reciprocal Public License (RPL). It runs on a LAMP/WAMP >tack and is in production use by many businesses including banks, insurance companies, wineries, energy >companies, as well as my production environment with Catholic Healthcare West, University of Wisconsin, and a >health system in Cincinnati.

I've developed several extension-modules specific to healthcare. I'm seeking developers to integrate/extend the application and possibly join my company. Projects on my roadmap include:

• Integrated support for image scanners (SANE or TWAIN)
• Jasper Reports integration (user-triggered creation of pre-defined reports)
• Integration with Google Wave-in-a-Box (when available)
• Automated email notifications (manual notifications already functional)

I hope to see you tonight.

-Andrew

The next Code Dojo meeting will be the second Tuesday of September which is the 14th. at 5:30.

We are still meeting at the Hoff building in downtown Boise. If you've been having too much fun this Summer to drop by this first meeting of the Fall will be a great time to start.

For this meeting we are looking for the following volunteers:

• Demo their Product
• Pitch a Startup Idea ( or practice a pitch for their current effort)

If you have any questions about the upcoming meeting hit us up on Twitter @codedojo.

We've got a great Code Dojo meeting shaping up for next week.

Cory Isakson as volunteered to pitch an idea for launching and Open Source API Based CMS product. I remember working a little with Cory 6 years ago when he was involved in the then popular open source Rainbow Portal .Net project and then again when he became a power user of Dot Net Nuke. I'm excited to see where his views on CMS have evolved over the years and in hearing how he plans to turn those ideas into a product.

If you're interested in contributing to an Open Source project or just in developing content management systems come check us out next Tuesday August 10th at the Code Dojo.

Eric Dalling has volunteered to demo his Case Progression tool at the next Code Dojo meeting on August 10th. The inspiration for this tool came from Eric's job at a local law firm. He's been working hard on this tool for several months, even hacked on it at the last Code Dojo meeting.

Congratulations Eric for moving your tool to this stage. I look forward to seeing the demo.

It's time to fire up the BBQ and get your code on. The next Code Dojo meeting will be Tuesday August 10th. We'll start the grill at 5:30 and keep going until everybody's coded and pitched out. This is an open event so feel free to invite your friends or anybody who can sling code and wants to start a company.

I'm looking for volunteers to do one of the following:

• Demo a product
• Pitch an idea
• Share a Tech Tip

Let me know if you're interested helping with one of these items

Andrew

The Code Dojo meeting tonight starts at 5:30 in the Hoff building at 802 W. Bannock Street. If you're going to be a little late let me know as they lock up the main doors just before 6:00.\

Tonight will be a working meeting. In addition to updates on your projects I'm thinking we can look at the following issues from last month:

• Facebook integration
• Designing multi-tenant applications
• Project scoping / Minimal Viable Product definition for products not yet started.

Hope I see you tonight. -Andrew

The next Code Dojo meeting will July 6th, 2010 at 5:30 once again at the Coding Inertia office in the Hoff Building.

The agenda for this meeting is all about code and about getting things done so bring you laptops and your progress from the last meeting. We'll once again setup the BBQ or bring in some Pies from Guido's (or Pie Hole). I want to hear about or start working on the needs that we mentioned last meeting. So that means Chris I want to see your icon and Eric I want to hear about how your progress is going in regards to multi-tenancy and Joel how much closer are we to identifying a minimally viable product... well you get the picture. I'll even have to have a start on that whole GoFi.sh intro video on YouTube.

I've been reading 'Art of the Start' by Guy Kawasaki lately. If you haven't read it yet I would encourage you to checkout some excerpts from the book, http://www.guykawasaki.com/downloads/index.shtml.

See you in July. -- Andrew

The first Code Dojo meeting took place on June 8th in Boise and apart from almost filling the entire Hoff building with smoke from our BBQ the meeting was a smashing success.

To recap, the purpose of the Code Dojo is to bring together junior and senior software developers with the goal of taking all those great ideas in our heads and motivating each other to finally begin building the great products we've always dreamed of. I had two big take aways from the first meeting (besides close the balcony door when cooking on the BBQ):

1. Many perceived development roadblocks were addressed just by starting the conversation
2. Helping each other to identify the Minimal Viable Product will go a long way to helping us all succeed.

Here's a list of the Startup projects that came to the first Code Dojo Meeting.

Dyslexic Math - Chris Brandsma

Description: Dyslexic Math is an children's learning game for the IPad that specifically targets the needs of the learners with dyslexia.

Status: Active Development

Needs: - Needed Good Icon for App Store (solved via http://www.iconfinder.net) - $100 Apple fee for publishing in AppStore (can pay when app is 'ready')

CM - Matt Overall

Description: [Kept quiet at developer request]

Status: Idea

Needs: -Identifying the Minimal Viable Product -Social Media Integration Knowledge (Facebook)

Case Progression - Eric Dalling

Description: Web based portal for clients of legal firms using Needles case management software: http://www.needles.com/. Eric currently works at a law firm that uses Needles and has been given their support in developing this application.

Status: In Development

Needs: -Design of a multi-tenant web portal -Patterns for handling differences in the Needles schema export formats

Clicker Killer - Chris Etcheverry

Description: Startup Weekend alumni project. Clicker Killer is a classroom management solution designed to ...

The first Code Dojo meeting is this Tuesday June 8th @ 5:30.

If you're working on launching a new software product or are just willing to lend your enormous programming brain to those that are we'd love to see you.

Directions:

The Hoff Building

802 W. Bannock St, Boise ID

Suite 1002

The agenda for this first meeting is to share the projects that we're working on, enjoy some food and maybe tackle a programming problem or two.

If you haven't already RSVP'd email me at andrew at codinginertia dot com or on Twitter @codedojo.

See you on Tuesday.

-Andrew

While still in it's formative stages the Code Dojo is:

1. A place for experienced coders to mentor up and coming geeks
2. A community to focus us all on shipping products
3. Another reason to geek out

The first Code Dojo meeting is scheduled for June 8th @ 5:30. Stay tuned for more details.

Over the past several weeks I have been sharing my ideas for the Code Dojo with more and more people. Through almost every meeting I have been impressed with the level of excitement and interest in both mentoring young engineers and shipping products. I am feeling an excitement in Boise that I have never felt before in the 9 years that I have lived here. There is a lot going on the Boise software development scene right now and I am excited to see how a small group of coders can help push things to the next level.

In other news: I (and my lack of design skills) took a stab at a logo for the Code Dojo this morning. What do you think? Should I quite my day job as a coder?

-Andrew