September is gone already, that was crazy fast.  Digital Engine Software has been busy but nothing too much has changed since last month.  Kevin has been teetering on the edge of insanity as he works on trying to automate some interactions with the state websites.  I’m tempted to try and push him over because I’ve never seen a ginger angry before but as it is I will most likely be the first against the wall when the Kevin revolution comes so I’m not going to push my luck.

In other news we were asked to do an evaluation of some inventory management software.  Peter took charge of that and it turns out, unfortunately, that there is only one semi-decent piece of open source inventory management software (OpenBravo in case anyone is curious).  OpenBravo is even a corporate sponsored half open source half premium product that has received almost $20M in venture funding.  As we were evaluating off-the-shelf software options we also ran the numbers on our own development.  Once you begin digging into the nitty gritty of the software features you begin to realize how incredibly immense these programs are.  Our conservative estimate for development time was nearly 3,000 hours.  There are admittedly some very complex and gigantic open source projects but inventory management doesn’t have nearly the sexy cachet of say a new encryption algorithm implementation.  Ultimately we discovered that this is definitely an area that is better served by closed source proprietary solutions.  Peter is also still hard at work on his GIT GUI project.  I’m pushing him to get it done by December 7^th because it’s possible that he may become a permanent resident of the World of Warcraft once Cataclysm comes out.

As I blogged earlier I spent most of September preparing for and actually doing the Orbit seminars.  So much fun!  We have another LAN party coming up this Saturday (October 9^th) at the library.  Our reserved seat charity this time around is the Human Resource Development Council – donate and help keep people warm and fed this winter.  I’ve also been attending some Young Professionals Group meetings. These are really cool get-togethers put on once a month by the Chamber of Commerce (you don’t have to be a member of the Chamber to join YPG) where younger individuals (<35or so) meet to network, learn stuff, volunteer and have fun.  Last month we had three business people from the community come in and answer our questions and I’ve heard that this month is Vegas night.  There are four sub-committees within YPG that you can join: Community service, education, social and mentoring and the groups alternate hosting the meeting or activity each month. If you’re a younger professional and you enjoy groups you should totally join (bonus points if you’re not a financial adviser or a chiropractor).