Got some comments that RiakCS and OpenStack Swift should be included though I think both are very mature. That list could have been longer with things like Ansible and SaltStack too.
After spending six months in the hospital for orthopedic care for my news it became very apparent that unless you had a negotiated rate with your HMO or were on Medicare, pricing was the wild west. If you could discern what the bills were for via the medical codes, you would become outraged by the overhead. The best part is that hospitals get to hide behind HIPAA as they gouge and steal.
I have worked with Daniel and Erica (the Bitnami execs) for the last five years. They are smart and they have been steadily growing Bitnami for a while now. Their appliances make deploying and updating a snap.
I think that Hackathons are invaluable for meeting people you are going to work with long term. However, I agree it's rare that you will do something significant during an 8/10/12 hour hackathon.
This holiday season I was in State College, PA and the local Schlow Library was a great place to work and much quieter and more comfortable than the coffee shop. - http://www.schlowlibrary.org/ - Since then I try to find a library when I am on the road.