We're looking at offsite for a couple of reasons:
* because our office environment isn't well suited to this sort of thing. Everyone is in individual cubicles with high walls. Nice sometimes, but not so nice when collaborating.
* for separation from the sales and marketing team. We want this to be a dev event.

Thanks for the feedback. I think it is going to be fun. And useful.

We're planning our first-ever company hackathon. We plan to hold it during normal work hours at an offsite location. Our intent is to make this a fun event, promoting team-bonding, giving the team a chance to work on projects of their choosing (but related to our company's products).

We thought this would be a good thing and certainly don't want negative feelings to come from it. So I'm interested in feedback from others that have participated in this type of thing. Did you enjoy it and would you recommend it?

Completely disagree. Well not completely because yes it is a press release for software. But it is free for me to play with and nobody is forcing me to try it out. So all good as far as I'm concerned and I will try it out because it sounds cool.

Move along and ignore this type of item if you disagree but I appreciate hearing about it here.

I'm curious to know how many people that get so worked up about this this have really tried Windows 8. After having used the OS now for 6 months I just don't get the outrage. I do not miss the start menu or the start button. And yes, I'm working on a desktop. I understand that older folks like my elderly parents might get confused as ANY change to anything upsets them but they don't go posting about it on Slashdot because that would be too hard for them to figure out...

If I already had Windows 7 I wouldn't bother with Windows 8 (unless I was also looking to use Windows 8 tablets and wanted to share my apps/configs). But if you have a Windows box I find it a big improvement over earlier versions.

E-book pricing is a sham.

Perhaps he should have said "'Obsessing' about your potential morality isn't very constructive". It is important to understand that our time is limited and it makes good sense to do the best you can while you can. Taken that way I think his comment rings true.

Whenever I receive an endorsement from somebody I know that somebody is looking for a job.

Well said. I know I'm going to get slammed for this but what the hell.

I use Windows at home and at work. I use Linux at home and at work. I use Android and iOS devices at home and at work. I can pick holes in every one of them, but each has a place (maybe not for every user or use-case - I wouldn't put my Mom on a Linux machine and I sure as heck wouldn't want to write a document on my iPad, etc).

I updated my home Windows box to Windows 8 simply to see what all the fuss was about. And what I've found is that the new UI has rough edges on a desktop machine but it is no where near as bad as you would believe from reading countless non-objective articles and comments. Switching back and forth to desktop mode is no big deal. And for all the talk about the missing Start button - I don't miss it at all. Should Microsoft have left it in as an option based on the feedback from beta testers? Who knows, but the backlash against this change is ridiculously out of proportion. If you don't like the new UI, don't use it. For the most part you can use Windows 8 like the old Windows and for me, moving from Vista it is a huge improvement. If I had Windows 7 would I have upgraded? Probably not, but if I was upgrading again from Vista I would still jump straight to 8.

I think Microsoft saw the writing on the wall regarding desktops and the overwhelming momentum to move to mobile devices and they decided they needed to address it. But they couldn't do it in one swoop without stranding users between versions. So they released a less-than-ideal version that tries to bridge the two camps and it is far from perfect. It works okay and if you don't like it don't use it. But for Microsoft it provides a step towards having a presence in the mobile market. Will it work? I dunno but I'm willing to keep an open mind until things sort out.

Can't say I understand why LG would pay much for WebOS (must have been cheap) but according to this reference they are acquiring the developers as well: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2013/02/26/tech-hewlett-packard-lg-webos.html

In so many ways.