Not much in terms of the open source community, but Oracle forums have some good support for this. Plus, the documentation that comes with the product is pretty decent, and a lot of really large firms use the solution.
Here's a thought - why not make the speaker selection process double blind, like medical trials. Whoever is reviewing submissions, should not have access to the authors' info. Though this is not perfect, it does provide a way for conference organizers to silence all criticism about demographics... #justathought
We go the VM route as well. We have a base VM with all the applications and development tools installed, and clone it for each new developer that we on-board. We have an internal HyperV based solution for hosting the VMs and the cost works out to about 250-300 per month depending on usage, but it's worth the cost...
If you need to set up a base VM, set it up natively on a desktop / laptop and create a VM from it using VirtualBox / VMWare / Parallels ... You can then distribute this VM or host it on a VMWare server
I'd take the iFixit recommendation with a sack of salt. Their business model relies on being able to sell components and tools that can open up laptops. With the new Retina MBP, they can not do much, hence they are bound to rate it lower.
Apple's task is to create a laptop with the features they think users will like, and not have to worry about the support for third party component vendors. If you think iFixit is your source for recommendation, don't buy the MBP. :)
I've been using an OCZ Vertex 2 for a couple of years and it works like a charm ... I got it from Newegg, but if you have a Microcenter, they may price match ...
It depends on what your contract says... I work for a firm that clearly states that whatever you do, if it involves their equipment, resources, or time, or knowledge gained while working with them, they have IP rights at that point. That being said, some companies allow you to do stuff on your own, e.g. work for a different client / project outside your billable hours, and they don't have rights to those products (as long as you're clearly showing that you're not using shared resources).
One big distinguishing factor between success and failure can be - who does the requirements? Allowing the same company who is going to code, to get the requirements part done is asking for a bad product, no matter where your development takes place, period! In all off-shoring projects that I have seen, successful ones had requirements done by the client, and having a client liaison work on a day to day basis with an on-shore tech lead from the off-shore company ... (too complicated?)
In some cases, especially if you have a good plan, you can get a very decent product out of the project, but changing requirements (especially with today's agile environments), are not conducive to off-shore development
As someone who managed off-shore projects, I think this model can be made to work only if the coding part is offshore. The design part would have to be done on-shore in a majority of cases. The problem with outsourcing design is that you may not have people who understand the business or the dynamics of the environment they are designing for.
Personally, I've learned a lot by attending user groups and conferences. There is no substitute for hands-on learning but interacting with people who have the skills that you're looking for is as close as you can get.
I've been using the TripleFi 10vi from Ultimate Ears (http://is.gd/cpZjf) and they're superb... currently they're priced around $200 but Amazon seems to have deals where they halve the price now and then so keep a look for that...