Any experience with a Continuous Integration Appliance? [closed]

Answer 1

I came across this nice article "Who broke the build?"
which show how they use a USB Foam Missile Launcher.

The associated open source project to control the device is named Retaliation.

Answer 2

Whatever you do, please also purchase one of these and program it such that it will detect who in your team breaks the build; aim itself at them, and shoot them.

But more seriously, a nice LCD with various displays is nice; but consider that if you use twitter, you may also like to have a twitterbot that tells all your staff the status of the builds (when the break; etc).

Answer 3

There are many solutions (all links below point to working solutions with Hudson or existing plugins):

• Hudson Build Status Lava Lamps
• Hudson Ambient Orb
• Hudson Do It Yourself Orb
• "Red Bear Alert!" - The Hudson Bear Lamps
• "Watch the bikes!" - Extreme Feedback with Traffic Lights
• Start to smell those code smells
• Nabaztag
• TuxDroid
• Radiator View (ideal for displaying on a screen on the office wall)
• eXtreme Feedback Panel (even better than the Radiator View, especially for a FullHD flat panel)

Check out the other Build notifiers plugins for more ideas.

Personally, I have experienced the bunny, lava lamps, orbs and the radiator view. They all do the job but I have a little preference for the lava lamps. As Jeffrey mentioned in another answer, it's indeed funny to race against the wax to fix a build failure :)

Answer 4

Did you consider using Lava Lamps? There is also project ContinousLava - notification tool for integrations servers (Continuum and Cruise Control) - maybe in future for Hudson.

Answer 5

Take a look at this previous question: What's your Favorite Extreme Feedback Device?

Answer 6

Christoph De Baene has a nice wiretup of using Continuous Integration with traffic lights