We have a continuous integration server running Hudson CI. I'm thinking about putting up an LCD display in the office with various build stats and am curious what others have put together.
I'm currently thinking about buying a WIFI-enabled digital picture frame that I can send generated images to. Or repurposing an old laptop...
Thoughts? Experiences?
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).
Christoph De Baene has a nice wiretup of using Continuous Integration with traffic lights
Take a look at this previous question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/303614/whats-your-favorite-extreme-feedback-device
At my company someone build a rails or grails webapp creating such pages. With a frame page a cycle is created using javascript.
A former company i worked for, had a flashing light connected via an usb controlled extension lead to the cruise control server. A broken build turned the light on, fixed turned of - you can use different lights with different colors for multiple builds.
If your environment permits it, you can use a sound system with different sounds to play when someone breaks the build. "D'oh!" from Homer Simpson, Darth Vader, sirens, all of them are just some examples of what you can do.
If you have access to developers machines, you can even create jokes like this sent to their desktops:
...obviously, with other context.
The best way to create these jokes is to use "Motivational Posts" with internal jokes they can understand. Every organization has internal jokes. You can use a motivational generator.
...again, this would be the "funny" approach. If you're into programming all these features, you can do a lot of stuff!
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.
There are many solutions (all links below point to working solutions with Hudson or existing plugins):
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 :)