Blatant Advertising…..Yep, I’m doin’ it.

“37signals” is a software company that I find myself drawn to. I have been dabbling with Ruby on Rails as a software development tool for a little over a year now (maybe a little longer, but who’s counting). I empathize with the 37signals Rails design philosopy simply stated as “Goodbye to bloat. Simple, focused software that does just what you need and nothing you don’t.”

So, 37signals is now introducing an affiliates program which allows individuals to recommend 37signals products and actually get a little compensation for the recommendation when users sign up. I’ve been 37signals “Basecamp” user for a few months now and am really appreciative of the simplicity Basecamp offers for managing collaboration efforts on team projects. My software development team members are starting to get spread all over the world. Basecamp provides an excellent team collaboration and control tool for managing all of the projects in one places. We especially love the “Writeboard” feature which acts as a version control for ideas, specification, user stories, etc.

So, I am shamelessly including this flagrant advertisement,

And, if you decide Basecamp, or any of the other 37signals products might fit your needs, please use this link => 37signals Basecamp or click on the Basecamp badge (above) prior to signing up. If you do, 37signals will throw a few bucks my way :0)

Thanks!

Back From Orlando and then Back to Orlando (again….)

So, I did have a great experience in Orlando at the Rails_for_all conference. I met several other Ruby on Rails developers and even became acquainted with a team from a healthcare organization that my own company had prior litigation experience with. This team has already established Ruby on Rails in their enterprise for all new application development and I am attempting to get clearance from the legal departments of both companies to allow our two development teams to get together and exchange ideas. I think it will eventually work out, but I am keeping my fingers crossed.

I met some very interesting developers, one happened to be with NASA and is contemplating using Ruby on Rails within NASA’s information systems development process. This chance meeting was an especially interesting moment for me as this fellow’s father also happen’s to be highly connected with the Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute.

Jim James, another developer that I met, has established a social web site => http://www.mytripscrapbook.com. Take a look at it. The site is clean and easy to use allowing you to post an online scrap book of your trips and vacations. Jim is a seasoned web developer and a pretty nice guy offering many suggestions and answers on topics I had many questions about.

I also met a few great folks from ThoughtBot and Connextions. Sun Micro systems had a dominant presence at the conference and I found out that their involvement in JRuby has really bolstered development in that area. Essentially, JRuby can now be deployed in a Java environment with the Java folks not knowing that the JRuby applications are actually running Ruby code. (i.e. the app acts like java). I admit that I am having trouble running the native ruby and Jruby environments on my Macbook (Intel OS X) as well as my Dell laptop (Windows XP Pro). There seems to be a problem with RubyGems (at least in my environment) playing nice in both environments at the same time. Maybe I’m just not getting it. If anyone has any ideas how to overcome this little issue, please email me at tprentis@mac.com.

- Tim

Getting Ready for Orlando – Rails for All

I’ve been experimenting with Flex on Rails this week. I admit that it seems to add a little more work to creating a RoR project. I understand some of the benefits of using Flex over just using AJAX but am not totally sold yet that Flex is the end all. I plan to discuss this aspect of programming Rails with some of the other attendees at the Rails for All – acts_as_conference in Orlando this weekend.

Here’s to hoping for an enlightening conference and making some new acquaintences in the Ruby on Rails community )

I’m finally starting my first Blog.

Never thought I’d be doing this, but what the heck? Anyway, I’ve been dabbling with Ruby on Rails for about a year now and have deployed several quick and needed applications on my company’s intranet. I find that I am somewhat addicted to the RoR style and philosophy. The one thing that I do find difficult is keeping up with releases and all of the new plugins, gems, and syntax changes that seem to be regurgitating almost daily.

I am also going to my first Ruby on Rails conference in Orlando on Feb. 8 & 9. This conference is labelled Acts_as_conference and looks to be quite interesting. I even plan to attend the charity session offered and found myself compelled to donate to the prescribed charities.

My nephew, Joel Watts, is a Python/Django developer and is embarking on some interesting concepts. I’ll let the reader determine the relativity of http://quiltid.com. Joel has created a quilt analogy using favicons and allowing users of quiltid to claim association, or even ownership, of related or non-related websites. I envision this concept as allowing a user to capture and present their presence on the web. Joel has leveraged OpenID into his grand scheme. I think there are some more exciting things to come from this. Keep Dreaming, Joel )

That’s all for now.

Tim