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Ovidiu Mățan

Ovidiu Mățan

Founder @ Today Software Magazine

INTERVIEW
Pioneering AI Synergy: A Conversation with Lena Thorsmæhlum and Thordur Arnason of Gervi Labs

Interview conducted with assistance from synthetic lab member AIson using whisper-large-v3, GPT-4o and Gemini 1.5 Pro 002. At the forefront of AI experimentation and the exploration of human-AI collaboration, Gervi Labs has been pushing boundaries in generative AI, blending curiosity with real-world application. Co-founders Lena Thorsmæhlum and Thordur Arnason are leading this research and will be keynote speakers at the IT Days conferencel in Romania. In this exclusive interview, they delve into their unique projects, AI's role in the arts, and the future of human-robot interactions.

PROGRAMMING
Interview with Mark Seemann

Congratulations for your latest book, Code That Fits in Your Head: Heuristics for Software Engineering! A lot of great software engineers like Robert C. Martin, Kevlin Henney, Adam Ralph and may others are saying good words about it in the preface. It also makes me happy to see a such “family” and I think we might contribute also due to conferences like IT Days or The Developers.

INTERVIEW
Electronic trading - interview with Christopher Lederer

How does electronic trading look like after more than one year of pandemic crisis, considering the shift to online platforms? As our core business is fully electronic, the impact was rather on a personal level. Business was not really affected from a technical POV. The traders could not work from home because of compliance/regulation. For all supporting teams, we have seen, after a 2-3 week adjustment period, very little to no impact.

INTERVIEW
Startups and microservices - interview with Richard Rodger

Has the pandemic time changed the direction of your Voxgig startup ? Yes! Completely. Our original business was an events platform for technology companies, to help them manage their speakers and exhibits. Exhibits really need physical events to work properly - you need to be able to take sales prospects you meet at an event out to lunch etc. I know there are experiments now to do this online, but the problem is that all the previous exhibit activity is way down, and will take years to build back up again (as far as we can see). 

INTERVIEW
Microservices, interview with Sam Newman

How do you see the difference between SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) and Microservices ?

Sam Newman: They are not different things. Microservices are an opinionated subset of SOA. SOA just describes a system built out of collaborating services. Microservices is a type of SOA, which is more opinionated - it's "prime directive" if you will is that microservices are independently deployable. So think of microservices as a type of SOA, in the same way that XP is a type of Agile.

INTERVIEW
Software Architecture, interview with Mark Richards

Your latest book, Fundamentals of Software Architecture, is providing a good framework for software architects. Which is a normal path for someone to become a software architect?

Mark Richards: The advice I usually offer people about becoming a software architect is make sure you are prepared before jumping into the role. Becoming a software architect is much more than having strong technical skills. An architect must also have a passion for creating solutions for business problems, an interest in developing strong people skills, and a desire to mentor, coach, and lead teams.

INTERVIEW
Behavior-driven development - Dan North interview

Ovidiu Mățan: People know you as the father of BDD. How did all of this start out?

Dan North: I was working as a developer at ThoughtWorks, a global software consultancy, back in 2003. We were advocating an XP-like delivery model, using practices like iterations, user stories, pair-programming, continuous integration, test-driven development, etc. The big sticking point seemed to be TDD - the developers thought that writing tests was the work of lowly testers. The testers didn't like the idea of programmers writing tests either - maybe because they didn't think the programmers knew how to write tests, maybe because they were afraid they would be out of a job!

INTERVIEW
Interview with Frank Wolf - Head of Bosch Engineering Center Cluj

Ovidiu Mățan: You have been leading Bosch Engineering Center Cluj for a few months now. How was the transition into your new role, and how do you see the integration of the technologies developed in Cluj into the Bosch global ecosystem?

Frank Wolf: I took over the role of Head of Bosch Engineering Center Cluj this year in July, and since then I am responsible for leading this great organization with more than 800 employees and about 200 interns.

PROGRAMMING
Five years in Cluj - Interview with Dennis Raabe

Ovidiu Mățan : Dennis, the local team has grown a lot since you came to Cluj for the first time, offices changed and new projects came. Tell us a few things about your journey and why it was special.

Dennis Raabe: It was a special journey, indeed. Besides the many successful projects delivered, the growth of the ECC team from around 40 associated to more than 800 today, what always impressed me most, was the passion and commitment of this young team. From the very first day, I knew that their special drive to show what they are capable of and 'the yes we can' attitude will help us achieve great things together.

EVENTS
IT Days 2019 - #ProgrammingARt

On the 12th and the 13th of November 2019, we invite you to attend the 7th edition of Cluj IT Days. Last year’s focus was on #BuildingTomorrow. This year’s theme will be #ProgrammingARt. Obviously, we focus on development as art. Moreover, we try to highlight the connections between art by and large, as field of creativity, and development. We have a couple of surprises which will make the conference even more interesting. IT Days 2019 will take place on the 4 stages at Casa de Cultură a Studenților (Students’ Cultural Hall) in Cluj-Napoca. We expect to have 800 - 1000 participants / day. We will touch upon topics such as: Products & Leadership, AI, Automotive, Industry 4.0, Testing, Serverless and Microservices, AR and VR, Security, Management, SAP, Agile, Research, Web, Start-ups, Software Architecture, Coding, DevOps and Hands on lab. All the details related to the presentations and the agenda will be made available in the forthcoming weeks and months.

EVENTS
Cluj-based start-ups at IT Days, moderated by Mike Butcher, TechCrunch

One of the questions that I hear very often has to do with Romanian intellectual property, especially in the Cluj IT ecosystem. Even though, in Cluj, several local start-ups have stood up from the crowd, we can say that we neither have a benchmark, nor a small unicorn, if you wish. There are many reasons why this initiative was not steered in the right direction. Even though there are events, like Startup Weekend or Techsylvania, which get involved in start-up support, unfortunately, many of these initiatives are short-lived. What might be the reasons for this state of affairs? It may be either because the initiated number of projects is inferior to the actual needs of the society, or because the financial resources and the other means of ensuring support are much too modest to be able to lead to the implementation of the respective project. We can also add the competition that comes from Western Europe, a fierce competition which is usually the winner at local competitions.

INTERVIEW
MWC 2019 - Interview with Magnus Frodigh - Head of Research @ Ericsson

Ovidiu Mățan: Hello. We are at MWC (Mobile World Congress) in Barcelona and we are talking to Magnus Frodigh, Head of Research at Ericsson. Magnus Frodigh: Hello. Ovidiu Mățan: 5G seems to be the trend at MWC Barcelona. How do you see 5G adoption? Can we leverage any of the existing infrastructure? Magnus Frodigh: We are seeing a rapid take-up of 5G. We started the standardization for this 5-6 years ago. We were aiming for 2020, but now we have full commercial builds out there. Our customers’ interest is enormous (and it should be) because 5G offers such a powerful platform for the operators, for the society, for the industries. It is super important to get involved early on. To do this, you must build on what you have. You cannot build completely new networks. We have designed 5G so that 4G is actually a subset of 5G. This is done so that 5G is so much more, but the 4G fits in the 5G. We built a system that can instantly switch between 4G and 5G because they share the spectrum. So, if you have an operator that has an attractive spectrum, 4G customers, it is hard to switch completely, but if you add 5G on top of it, you cater for all your subscribers.

EVENTS
MWC 2019 - Day 3

The third day was short because I had to return to Cluj. Despite all this, we managed to learn some more interesting things. At the Mercedes booth, I noticed the new EQC brand. A new EQC 400 4Matic was displayed. It has two electrical motors and reaches an impressive performance: 408 HP, 765 NM maximum couple, 0-100km acceleration per 5.1sec, and autonomy of over 450 km.

EVENTS
MWC 2019 - Day 2

We began the second day with a rather long visit at the booths. The great number of technologies on display can convey a feeling of surcharge.  The fascination or curiosity showed by attendees is many times turned into financial gain.  This type of event is different than the classical IT conferences where technologies and ideas are presented only for the sake of users. Therefore, beyond the quaint technological mood, you start noticing that everyone is trying to sell you something. As journalist, you are many times overwhelmed by invitations.

EVENTS
MWC 2019 – Day 1

This year we had the pleasure of attending MWC 2019, one of the biggest conferences in Europe, held annually in Barcelona. The main trend is 5G, the next step after 4G. All communication-based technologies (AR/VR, IoT, Automotive, Industry 4.0) benefit from 5G. HTC introduced its new VR device which has frontal cameras. Therefore, we could witness a mixed VR which, until now, would isolate users from the external environment via Augmented Reality. Ericsson had one of the biggest booths at MWC, but access was restricted because of the large number of attendees.

INTERVIEW
Digital currencies: Interview with Peter Lawrey

We are talking with Peter Lawrey about digital currencies.
What do you think is the main advantage of a digital currency vs. a classic one?
Peter Lawrey: Digital currencies have a different trust model. This allows multiple organisation and individual to co-operate with a lower level of trust required. There is less risk of hacking as the data is designed to be shared from the start. Instead of trusting central governments, people can trust the platform and/or a company which interests are known. This doesn't make the solution better but does provide a viable alternative.

STARTUPS
Startups

This month, we will focus on some international startups which, we believe, can be a great source of inspiration for all of us. Despite the fact that the Romanian startup scene is more and more animated, we would like to see a greater concern for reasearch and hardware, aspects which are more neglected than services. We notice that the investment area is also coming back to life and is gaining momentum in startups. The first step is always the most difficult, and in order for you to promote your startup, TSM helps you get your projects published. We are an email away.

INTERVIEW
Expert talks panel - Automated trading

We talked with our guests about automated and electronic trading challenges, what are the performance requirements and regulations in this area.
Guests:
- Christopher Lederer - Development Manager @ Flow Traders
- Cotyso Bodea - Technical Director @ Tora Trading Services
- Florin Bunău - Technical Expert @ Ullink
Moderator: Ovidiu Mățan - founder @ Today Software Magazine

EVENTS
UBB Graduation Day 2017

On the 8th of July 2017, I attended UBB Graduation Days, a public event where local IT companies get the chance to award prizes for graduates' effort. I don’t know how many people are familiar with this event, but I can say that of all the events I attended over the last years, it had the largest dose of ingenuity and passion for technology. This event represents BBU Computer Science students’ work for their BA thesis. Besides enthusiasm and dedication, the demos reflect present-day technologies very well. Many of them featured at least a machine learning component, combining various learning algorithms in order to solve a specific problem.

INTERVIEW
Interview with Danny Goh

Danny is a serial entrepreneur and an early stage investor. He is the Co Founder and COO of Nexus Frontier Tech, an AI research firm to make AI easy to work with organisations by using natural language processing to transform idle information into structured data, enabling them to run better, leaner, and faster. He will be one of the speakers at The Developers conference, 19 April, Cluj-Napoca, cinema Florin Piersic.

INTERVIEW
Agile trends - Interview with Henrik Kniberg

We talked with Henrik Kniberg about latest Agile approaches, how to consider output value instead of quantity in an Agile project, how to get to a free highway project instead of a stuck one and at the end a nice way to organize you barbecue party. Henrik Kniberg is Owner & Agile/Lean Coach @ Crisp, he was getting a lot of media attention with the Spotify model.

INTERVIEW
Interview with Jennifer Marsman @ Leade.rs Paris 2017

Jennifer Marsman: We have a number of different Microsoft Artificial Intelligence products kind of spread throughout the whole company. We kind of meet people where they are in terms of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. So for example, we have something called The Cognitive Services, and those are pre-trained models that you can just call and they do very common Artificial Intelligence tasks such as facial detection (like recognizing my face is right here) and facial verification (recognizing that I am Jennifer Marsman) and emotion recognition and text analytics (being able to detect the sentiment text, and what language it is, and automatic machine translation and the key topic extractions, if you’d like support logs, figuring out the main points in them) and all sorts of things like that. So there are these common tasks that everyone is doing over and over again. We have great pre-trained models where you can essentially just call them via the REST API call then get a bunch of data back.

INTERVIEW
Interview with Arie van Bennekum - about Agile Manifesto

Ovidiu Mățan: Agile manifesto is one of the important aspects in building modern software and you are one of its founders. Could you describe what the context was back in 2001 when you and the rest of the group wrote it? What is the origin of its name?
Arie van Bennekum: I can just speak for myself, not for others. I consciously started consciously working in a different way in 1994. It was a very specific choice. I did not understand my value as technical designer, and wanted to change bureaucracy and improve on business value. Right from the start, I became very active in the community of best practices. It was one of these communities, the DSDM Consortium in the UK that I represented in Salt Lake.

INTERVIEW
I want a Dacian in Bucharest - Interview with Alexandru Voiculescu

We talked to Alexandru Voiculescu, the founder of PureQuad, an IT Romanian company which chose to get involved in the project I want a Dacian in Bucharest, a project supported by the Association of Contemporary Cultural Identity (AICC).
Ovidiu Mățan: What is the connection between an IT company and a project that seeks to relocate a statue from Florence to Bucharest by creating a copy of it?
Alexandru Voiculescu: Obviously the connection exists because of the people and their ideas. My connection with the initiators of this project runs for over a decade, given the IT projects and the outsourcing we have been caring out since 2004.

OTHERS
Romanian IT companies plans for 2017

he discussions I had with the major IT companies in Cluj, at the beginning of 2017, focused on their predictions for the current year. Aside from the fact that all of them predict a substantial growth in the Romanian IT sector via the development of services, products and training, each has a unique way of forging their path according to the goals at hand.

ADVERTORIAL
Interview: Life at Arvato Romania as seen through an employee’s eyes

Arvato Romania, the contact-center services provider, extended its presence on the Romanian market this year, with the opening of a new support center in Cluj-Napoca. Initially, the company was looking to hire 200 people in the new office by the end of the year. However, more than 100 employees are already working in the offices, located in Liberty Technology Park Cluj. Due to this success, the company plans to end the year with a more numerous team, not only in Cluj, but also in the other two offices, located in Brașov and Sibiu.

EVENTS
Preview Cluj IT Days 2016

As we've accustomed you for the past three years, November marks the Cluj IT Days event for the Today Software Magazine team. This is one of the largest events for developers, testers and managers in Cluj and Romania. This state of facts was acknowledged by the attendees who came from as far as Brașov, Iași, Craiova or Bucharest. We were glad to find out that our event has had a significant contribution to the following state of facts: large IT conferences and events are pretty hard to find, especially in other cities.

INTERVIEW
Interview with Eddy Vermeire, CEO @ ISDC, about Endava merging

We had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Eddy Vermeire, CEO @ ISDC, about the recent merge with Endava.

Both iSDC and Endava are international companies with development centers in Cluj. It was a surprise the recent fusion between both companies. What did determine this change and what opportunities do you see here ?

There was a private equity stake in ISDC, which was keen to sell during 2016, so the ISDC board made sure they found a suitable buyer. Endava's cultural alignment, growth ambitions and track record made it the outstanding candidate to provide a secure and exciting future for our people. Similarly, for Endava, ISDC represents an ideal match providing real engineering expertise and quality, further strength in financial services and an opportunity to expand its presence selling in Europe as well as the delivery centres in Romania and Bulgaria.

ADVERTORIAL
Master every stage of your mobile app lifecycle with HPE Mobile Center

Users expect mobile apps to be valuable, elegant, and useful, among other things. User experience is emotional and is driven by how users think, perceive, and feel. Most importantly, users expect mobile apps to work seamlessly, regardless of their choice of technology, their location, or context. A good user experience is essential to achieving our business goals, whether it is transforming our customers' experience, increasing workforce productivity, or growing revenues.

EVENTS
Techsylvania and IT Camp 2016

In May 2016, I attended Techsylvania and IT Camp, two important conferences for Cluj and Transylvania alike. The conferences covered different topics, but their impact on the local market was significant if we take into account the number of participants and the prestige of the speakers.

OTHERS
Supporters of IT communities in Cluj

This study began out of the need to discover the degree of involvement IT Cluj companies show when organising and supporting events for the local IT community. The main IT events in Cluj and the monthly activity of the TSM magazine were taken into account. Cluj is well-represented, at a national level, from the point of view of the events it hosts. Bucharest is the only city which surpass Cluj from this viewpoint. The selection of events took into account the number of participants for each event.

INTERVIEW
Interview with Robbert Visser about SkinVision

My resume is actually not complete, looking at your question, but this is also not something of interest to me. Doing the things in life that I really like and believe in makes it more manageable. Over the years, I learned that, if you don’t really believe in something, it gets very hard to do that particular thing. This is most likely a formula for failure. Besides that, it is just a matter of working hard and going forward. 

OTHERS
Techsylvania Levels Up With an IoT Village

Technology enthusiasts and IT specialists can test and win the latest gadgets and innovations at the IoT Village, during Techsylvania. The IoT Village is part of the Techsylvania event and aims to be the hotspot for all the people who are eager to see and win the latest, most innovative and practical devices and gadgets on the market.

OTHERS
IT Forecast for 2016

At the beginning of the year, we all make new plans and set new goals, hoping that the new year will be favorable to their achievement. If some people take into account what the horoscope says, we have decided to give more credit to some important representatives of the IT community in Cluj. Therefore, we asked them to share with us their previsions regarding the year 2016. Based on their answers, we cannot but draw a very optimistic conclusion: year 2016 is going to be beneficial for the IT industry. 

OTHERS
Start-ups – January 2016

Moqups. The Moqups.com startup from Cluj for the creation of online drafts has recently launched the second edition, much improved. The projects carried out can be published online or downloaded in the form of PDF or SVG. There is also the possibility of inviting collaborators and working together on a draft. 

OTHERS
Communities and Events

Launch of the issue 43 of Today Software Magazine January 27 (Cluj) - 6:00 PM Siemens Cluj Office , Cluj-Napoca. Today Software Magazine Community built around Today Software Magazine Since: 06.02.2012  Members: 2424

OTHERS
Cluj IT Days 2015

Cluj IT Days 2015 has become a reference event for the IT community in Cluj. We had more than 320 participants who, during the two days, were able to attend high quality technical presentations and prove our innovation capacity, but also that of integrating the latest technologies in our current projects. For this review article, we have decided to publish the article posted by Robin Morar on his blog, article which we have discovered by chance, after the event.

OTHERS
IT News

We are hereby launching the column of news in our industry. It will contain a series of global, but also local news. The news can be signaled right to: news@todaysoftmag.com.

OTHERS
Cluj IT Days 2015 from the point of view of presentations

There are still a few days left until Cluj IT Days, an event that has reached its third edition and has grown year after year. We have almost 320 participants, and if you hurry up, registration is still possible. For a good perspective, we have asked some of the speakers to describe their presentation, the target public and what the participants will be able to learn from the event.

OTHERS
Why to participate at Cluj IT Days 2015?

I have recently got this question from a web programmer who is going to be in Cluj during the event. Should he attend IT Days given the fact that there is no track dedicated to web technologies? The answer is affirmative. As a specialist in an area, it is relatively easy to understand the other technologies, and IT culture should consist of several areas, not just the one we are currently working with. Actually, most of the presentations are addressed to programmers, no matter their specialty. Thus, we have the following sections: big data, management, software architecture, products, startups and research. Moreover, those from Hands On Lab will make references to concepts, not necessarily to a certain language. The only tracks oriented towards specialists are those of Java and .NET, where it is recommended that the people attending have some knowledge in these areas.

OTHERS
Cluj IT Days 2015

Cluj IT Days, which this year has reached its third edition, reunites the Transylvanian IT community around the same passion: the development of software and hardware products. If in 2014, the reference topic within the leadership section was the transition from outsourcing to product, this year our topic is the release of Romanian products. Therefore, it is not by chance that the event is going to start by a series of presentations subordinated to this theme.

OTHERS
Minimum Delightful Product - Interview with Rohan Chandran

I had the pleasure of interviewing Rohan Chandran on the topic of product management, during the second edition of the event dedicated to entrepreneurship, Techsylvania. The concept described in his presentation within the event is the Minimum Delightful Product, a subtle modification of the well-known concept of Minimum Viable Product, but one which has a great impact.

MANAGEMENT
Editorial 35 en

The events of the IT domain also brought their contribution to the roaring of cultural and educational events that have enveloped Cluj in the month of May. One of them, the Romanian Testing Camp, reunited a great part of the testers from Cluj in a surprising location, four cinema rooms in a local mall, distinguishing itself especially through the prestige of its guests and the interesting approaches. Another event, IT Camp, invited us to travel inside the fascinating Microsoft world, maintaining in the organization, the unfolding of the event and the selection of guests, the same high standards we were accustomed to during the previous years. For the beginning of the month of June, the TSM recommendation is Techsylania, a conference dedicated to entrepreneurs.

TESTING
TESTATHON - A HACKATHON FOR TESTERS

Crowdsourced testing company Global App Testing are set to organise Romania’s first Testathon in Cluj with Betfair. “A Testathon is like a hackathon but specifically for testers”, said Owais Peer, co-founder of Global App Testing. “A lot of our tester community have told us they don't get invited to hackathons, despite it being such an important part of the developer community”. The Testathon is a not-for-profit event aiming to bring together the best testers in the world so they can learn from each other and win prizes whilst trying to break real apps.

OTHERS
First graduates of Cluj Simplon program

I met Roxana last year, when she had come to Cluj with the purpose of creating a new generation of programmers. It was a courageous statement in a local context characterized by a great number of programmers. To this, we also have to consider the fact that, at about the same time, Pitech+Academy was being launched. But Roxana kept her word and managed to launch her program in which twelve young people were selected. They were promised to be offered courses and programs, free of charge, for a period of six months, in order to become young web programmers. Now, at the end of the six months, Roxana reveals to us from the experience of implementing this program, but also the endeavors that condition its continuity.

PROGRAMMING
About testing with Rene Tuinhout

Rene is a senior test adviser and test coach with over 17 years of experience in software testing. He advises organisations on Lean Quality, test management, test change management, structured testing, and manage test (change) projects. This year he will be the chairman of Romanian Testing Conferences and we had the pleasure to take this interview.

OTHERS
The First IT&C Cluster in Bucharest, Different Angle, is being officially launched

March 26th 2015, Sky Tower, Bucharest - the official launching of the first IT&C Cluster in Bucharest, Different Angle, also coincides with the announcement of the first domain of common interest promoted by the members of the new organization: Smart Cities. Starting from the premise that modern, intelligent cities are able to ensure a comfortable and sustainable environment for their inhabitants through the efficient usage of the available technology, Different Angle Cluster has invited three genuine "ambassadors" of the concept of Smart Cities to the launching event.

OTHERS
Interview with Jonathan Shieber, senior editor at TechCrunch and CrunchBase

We had the opportunity to talk to Jonathan Shieber within a workshop organized in Cluj at the beginning of March. Those of the startup area, interested in exercising their pitch, had the opportunity to do this and receive advice directly from him. As we have expected, there is no recipe for success, but it is important to focus on the essential and the differentiating factors of the product, no matter if we talk about a presentation or the publication of an article in TechCrunch. Here is a short interview with Jon, on the current tendencies.

OTHERS
Three years of Today Software Magazine

On February 6th 2012, the first issue of Today Software Magazine was released. I remember how, on the launching of the magazine, together with my colleagues from Gemini Solutions, we tried to draw a list of all our acquaintances from the IT domain. We managed to bring together twenty people, thus setting up the first release event. Back then, we did not think about presenting articles, we simply had a chat and gave the magazine away to the participants. Since then, this project has been through several transformations and collaborations in order to reach today's form.

OTHERS
2014 overview and future plans for Today Software Magazine

2014 meant a period of maturation for our magazine, by the increase in the number and the quality of the published articles. In numbers, this was reflected in the increasing number of online loggings which has reached 7000 sessions per month and participants in the release events, which has gone up to an average of 70-80 attendants. The peak was reached in September, when the release event registered over 120 participants, and online during the IT Days period, when there were over 10,000 sessions per month.

OTHERS
IT Days - image of Cluj IT

We have recently got through the second edition of Cluj IT Days, the annual event of Today Software Magazine. We believe we have succeeded in offering those over 200 participants present this year the opportunity to get a clearer overview on the IT in Cluj and on the latest trends in the local industry. A novelty of the event was the release of a book entitled How to build a product? , signed by nineteen authors, who have also participated as speakers to the event. This book will actually be available online on the site of the magazine and that of the event.

OTHERS
Human software assessments - Interview with Tudor Gîrba

Tudor is a researcher and software consultant. He has recently become known for winning the Junior category annual award offered by AITO (Association Internationale pour les Technologies Objets), organization which supports research in the object oriented technologies area. He was present on December 13th in Cluj, in the event called Be Fast and Curious organized by 3Pillar Global company.

OTHERS
Interview with Peter Lawrey, special guest at Cluj IT Days 2014

Peter Lawrey is a Java expert who appeared on the third position in the StackOverflow chart. We have the pleasure to have him as special guest to Cluj IT Days 2014, where he will deliver a technical presentation on “Hot topics in Java Performance Tuning”, as well as a presentation on his experience as an independent consultant: “What I have learnt by becoming an independent consultant”. Moreover, Peter is having a one day workshop on Java Performance

OTHERS
Invitation to the third edition of Gemini Solutions Foundry conference

Gemini Solutions group, together with Gemini Foundry Inc, organizes the third edition of the Foundry Conferences, on September 23rd 2014, in Bucharest, having Romain Lavault as a special guest, partner in Partech Ventures. This edition of the event brings to Bucharest a new important investor for the Romanian startups, while during the previous editions we had the opportunity to see Nicolas El Baze, Partech Ventures partner and Romain Niccoli, co-founder and CTO Criteo, one of the most important European startups.

OTHERS
Interview with Chris Heilmann from Mozilla

We had the pleasure to make an interview with Chris Heilmann, Principal Developer Evanghelist at Mozilla Developer Network, Londra. Chris will be one of the speakers at IMWorld 2014, www.imworld, 8-9 october, București. Can you tell for our readers a few words about Mozilla Corporation? Mozilla is a not-for-profit organisation to keep the web open and free. This does not only mean we build a browser and a mobile OS, but we take the user’s interest to heart. The web is there for everyone, everywhere and meant to make the world smaller and a better place to communicate with each other without having to worry about your privacy and security.

OTHERS
Today Software Magazine invites you to the second edition of Cluj IT Days 2014, www.itdays.ro

The IT Days event was organized last year by Today Software Magazine as an attempt to reunite almost all those involved in the development of the local IT community. All of them are animated, beyond the specific of the domain they are active in, by similar fundamental interests, namely maximum efficiency and supporting the local IT community. Setting some basic principles that should become guiding marks in the development of the local IT was one of the main goals targeted by the event.

OTHERS
The Cluj IT Ecosystem from the startup perspective

The “ecosystem” term of the title is used as a metaphor of the economic context in Cluj, which establishes close relations between organisms such as the IT community, universities and financing resources. Each of these, the IT community through execution, the university through research and the local financing resources by sustaining the first two, are involved in creating a network of interdependencies and conditionings. The emergence of startups within this ecosystem is interpreted as an instrument of measuring innovation and entrepreneurial culture.

OTHERS
Interview with Dan Romescu

We had the opportunity to make an interview with Dan Romescu, founder of DruidCon and president of Augmented Reality Fundation. Dan will talk at DevTalks conference, www.devtalks.ro in 11 june in Bucharest.
What is your opinion on Google Glasses from the perspective of private life? In one of your recent presentations you’ve mentioned a led that should be included in order to let the other people know about the fact that we are recording.

[Dan Romescu] Google Glasses present, at the moment, a very high character of intrusion in everyday life.

OTHERS
Techsylvania

On the 2nd of June, I took part in Techsylvania, an event 100% dedicated to entrepreneurship. Such an event, which can be considered to target only a limited part of audience, from the point of view of the local industry, represented a premiere for Cluj. The first part of this event was represented by a local hackaton, where the participants had the opportunity to develop applications for devices such as Google Glasses, Small printer, Onyx Beacons, Leap motion, Sphero, Sony Smartwatch 2, Pebble, Oculus VR, EyeTribe Tracker.

OTHERS
Interview with Radu Georgescu

We are begining to publish a series of interviews from How To Web 2013, most important event dedicated to innovation and entrepreneurship from Eastern Europe. Radu Georgescu is a well known IT entreneur from România as he built several products: RAV Antivirus sold to Microsoft, Gecad ePayment sold to Napster, and the last big transaction have been the selling of Avangate.

OTHERS
Interview with Philipp Kandal

Lately, we have witnessed a series of acquisitions of local companies. It is also the case of EBS, purchased by NTT Data, Kno by Intel, or Evoline by Accenture. The last transaction of this kind was the purchasing of Skobbler by Telenav. Philipp Kandal, co-founder of Skobbler, had the kindness to answer a few questions for us.

OTHERS
Cluj Innovation Days 2014

The second edition of Cluj Innovation Days is scheduled to take place on March, 20th and 21st and is the main yearly event organized by Cluj IT Cluster. The President of the Cluster, Mr. Alexandru Tulai answered a few questions about the event, exclusively.

OTHERS
IT Days 2013 (I)

The present article is dedicated to IT Days, www.itdays.ro – representing the first part of the retrospective of the most important event organized by Today Software Magazine in its home town, Cluj-Napoca. Before giving you more or less detailed information about the event, I wish to thank those more than 170 people in the audience and the 10 companies that stood by us in this event: AROBS, Endava, Evoline, EBS, Gemini Solutions Foundry, Accesa, Yardi, Skobbler, 3Pillar Global and msg systems Romania. We would also like to thank our partners which supported us: Cluj-Napoca City Hall, it-events.ro, Cluj Hub and Microsoft Student Partners.

OTHERS
IT Days 2013 (I)

The online magazine from Cluj, Today Software Magazine, organizes on December 5th-6th, 2013, at Cluj Arena, the IT Days event. To the conference, we have invited international speakers as well as representatives of the local software industry. On the first day, we will approach subjects such as innovation and technology in IT, and on the second day, the main topic will be entrepreneurship.

OTHERS
Interview with Bogdan Iordache, CEO How to Web

Entrepreneur in technology, geek, Star Trek fan. This is how Bogdan Iordache describes himself, but his activity in the entrepreneurial domain is impressive, to say the least. Co-Founder and CEO of How to Web (the most important event dedicated to entrepreneurship, innovation and technology in South-East Europe) & Startup Spotlight (a competition and mentorship program addressed to the most efficient 32 startups from SEE), Co-Founder TechHub Bucharest, Co-Founder Tech Angels – the first network of private investors in Romania, Co-Founder TechLounge, Co-Founder Conectoo, Co-Founder of Stagii pe bune. Bogdan is a promoter of innovation and entrepreneurship in technology and he contributes to the development of the regional ecosystem, from the inside.

OTHERS
Business Networking from offline to online on Business Days platform

Business Days is already a well-known event on the national market and this month we have the opportunity to take part in its edition in Cluj. Laszlo Pacso, Business Days’ organizer had the kindness to answer to Today Software Magazine’s questions.
Tell us a few words about yourself. Very briefly about me: I’ve been an entrepreneur for more than 13 years, very passionate on project management, a business networking specialist

OTHERS
The Launching of Gemini Foundry

Start-ups are beginning to be a fashionable subject in 2013. There are more and more organizations which wish to support these efforts, and we have recently published, in no. 12, an article on Gemini Foundry. We come back to this subject since different start-ups have shown interest in this initiative and there is the need of some clarification. Serban Tir, the technical director of the Gemini Solutions group of companies, together with Radu Popovici, have answered a few questions for us.

OTHERS
TodaySoftMag app for iPhone and iPad

We developed the TSM application for iPhone / iPad at the initiative of Dan Suciu , Director of Engineering @3Pillar Global , to collaborate to write it and publish it on AppStore . The development team has been Agile in every sense. The team was originally made up of three iOS programmers: Madalina Miron , Daniela Bulgaru and Tudor Stânean, with Gabriela Botiş as project manager. Subsequently, Robin Molnar brought his contribution on the QA part, and for look & feel, our colleagues from Gemini Solutions: Dan Hădărău and Marius Chincisan.

OTHERS
ICT SPRING EUROPE 2013 (II)

In this article we continue to give the account of ICT Spring Europe, which I had the pleasure to take part in, together with my colleague Marius Mornea. It was the first TSM delegation abroad and we had the opportunity to connect to the pulse of the European IT world. The future looks good and it wouldn’t surprise me to assist to a redefinition of the old continent’s importance in the development of tomorrow’s applications.

OTHERS
ICT SPRING EUROPE 2013 (I)

The first TSM delegation abroad took part in the ICT SPRING EUROPE 2013, event that took place in Luxembourg and lasted for two days. The public was numerous and, as partners, we had the opportunity to share our magazine within the event. The stars of the event were Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia and Trip Hawkins, founder of Electronic Arts. Let us begin with the story of the event. From Cluj, Luxembourg is not very far away, a flight to Charloi (Belgium), and from here, a shuttle directly to our final destination.

OTHERS
The Advocates of Romanian Startups

Though we find ourselves at the beginning in so far as the Romanian startups are concerned and we cannot yet boast about a mass culture of the autochthon IT environment, its advocates begin to make their presence seen more and more. Through the actions and the facilities offered they have a common goal, namely to support the local businesses and their success. The present article is designed as a list of contacts for anyone who wishes to launch a startup.

MANAGEMENT
Made in Romania

This section started in the previous issue is now presenting another games production company in Cluj-Napoca. It is an area of particular interest in terms of Romanian innovation. The company initially started offering outsourcing services, but then it gave them up, the focus being now 100% on developing new applications. IDEA Studios is a startup founded in 2007 by Daniel Tamas and Tudor Rad, two young entrepreneurs and former web development freelancers, or SEO.

OTHERS
Achievements and visions at the end of 2012

We had the opportunity to ask Marius Ghenea, Andrei Pitis and Voicu Oprean’s about their achievements in 2012 what global vision they have for 2013. We have also discovered their opinion about the Romanian software industry. These mini interviews were conducted using Business Days www.businessdays.ro. We would like to thank Codruta Nicolescu, CEO of ADESCO, for all her help.

OTHERS
Made in România (I)

We are starting a new column in the magazine, where we will present some of the successful applications of local companies. We will see companies which, in spite of their external popularity, are not locally famous; we will also see local initiatives to support the Romanian IT market or recent products of a very good quality.

VIDEO: ISSUE 109 LAUNCH EVENT

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VIDEO: ISSUE 109 LAUNCH EVENT

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