November 2012 News

As previously mentioned we are proud to support the London Perl Workshop (the United Kingdom Perl Workshop) both as a sponsor and by sponsoring the individual speakers where possible.

This year we have already committed to sponsoring the evenings social activities, the sponsorship of travel costs for Ludovic Tolhurst-Cleaver and now we can announce the further sponsorship of accommodation costs for Kaitlyn Parkhurst.

Kaitlyn is a young developer from Los Angeles who will be attending the London Perl Workshop and giving two talks, Shadowcat likes to be able to promote and support young people and their entry into the Perl community.

• London Perl Workshop
• Previous Shadowcat News Item on Sponsoring Ludovic Tolhurst-Cleaver
• LPW Schedule
• Config::Loader - Configuration Is Fun
• DBIx::Class:: Schema::Config - because why didn't this exist already?
• Kaitlyn’s User Information

Our Managing Director, Mark Keating, will be running a short presentation at the January tweet-up organised by Jane's Social Media and Lancaster Ethical Small Traders Association.

The theme of Mark's talk will be: What the Heck is Open Source? It is meant as a simple introduction to the world of Open Source thinking and what the general principle is. Mark will also briefly touch upon some of the reasons that this methodology is favoured in modern programming, how it is inked to other disciplines in Science and Art, how you can make money from it.

This is a rather grand ambition so Mark will be using a light hearted approach as this is an introductory piece aimed at people with any level of understanding.

The provisional date has been set for this event on the 23rd January 2013, we will update you with more information as we receive it. The tweet-up is a chance to come and mingle with members of ESTA and other small to medium enterprises in the local district in an informal setting. It is a networking, social and co-operative venture.

Shadowcat Systems will once again have the honour of hosting the North West England Perl Mongers physical Hackday this week at its conference room office in Castle Shadowcat.

This will be the fourth year in succession that the event has been hosted at Castle Shadowcat and the first year in which both the current leaders of North West England Perl Mongers, Mark Keating and Ian Norton have been employees at Shadowcat.

Hackdays are always special to us at Shadowcat, and it is a great privilege to open our doors to people to use the office space in a creative fashion.

If you would like to attend in person to work on one of the Hackday projects or to work on something yourself and enjoy free beverages, snacks and company then drop Mark a line at m.keating(at)shadowcat.co.uk.

• ✥ North West England Perl Mongers
• ✥ https://shadow.cat

Shadowcat Systems has become the first Platinum Sponsor of a Kickstarter project whose eventual aim is to save Undershaw from being sold and developed.

"Undershaw, lies in disrepair and the threat of being destroyed forever. Commissioned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself, Undershaw was witness to the creation of many of his most famous works, including The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Return of Sherlock Holmes. It is a building deserving preservation for the British nation, and indeed the world, for all time. Sadly, the building is currently under threat from the property developers who wish to divide the house"

The people at MX Publishing created the book: The Empty House (http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Sherlocks-Home-Empty-House-Sherlock-Holmes-Fans/9781780922256) to help raise funds to preserve this important and historical building for the United Kingdom and Holmes fans across the globe.

Most of the Shadowcat Staff are fond of Sherlock Holmes (and in the case of one of our staff it is a long time love) and it is an interesting project to be involved with, supported by a number of famous people who are liked here at Castle Shadowcat.

We will be holding a competition to choose from which of the five languages we eventually pick as our 'backed' language, and you can view that on our Facebook page or leave your preference in the comments below. The langauges are:

• » French
• » German
• » Italian
• » Spanish
• » Dutch

Keep an eye to our news and Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/ShadowcatSystems) for more information.

• ✥ Save Undershaw
• ✥ Kickstarter Page
• ✥ MX Publishing
• ✥ Book Depository
• ✥ Shadowcat Facebook Page

Once again the Managing Director, Mark Keating, of Shadowcat Systems will be helping to organise the Google Code-In on behalf of the Perl Foundation and the Perl Community in 2012/13.

At this point the organisation has not yet been officially accepted, however, Paul Johnson (chief Organiser) and Mark (back-up Organsier) have already started the task of collecting tasks, mentors and organising applications and promotion for the event.

The announcement for acceptance will be made on the 12th November at which point the work of organisation will start in earnest.

Up until that point people may add suggestions of tasks to the wiki, sign up as mentors, enter the irc channel and join in on the conversation to help get the event up and running. Most important at this point is that we get a number of suggestions on the wiki.

If you think you can help follow the links below and join in the initiative.

• ✥ Google Code-In
• ✥ EPO Wiki
• ✥ Suggestions of small tasks
• ✥ Sign up to be a mentor
• ✥ Per.ly Blog Announcement
• ✥ TPF Blog Announcement