Software Development Study Group - Ruby On Rails with Marina Fedner

Even though I didn't work the prerequisites (more on that later) and I still hadn't really grasped Ruby, I left last night's study group with my first Ruby on Rails project running last night.

Marina set out to help us get a simple Ruby on Rails application working. We learned about the basic configuration of Ruby on Rails, how MVC works, how to hook Ruby on Rails to a database using SQLLite, and how the basic conventions fit together to make a Ruby on Rails project come together. I guess it's a testimate to both the choice of materials and Ruby on Rails itself, that even I, who talked most of the night, was able to get the application running before 7:00 pm (we ran a little late last night).

We had one small problem, only a few people worked the prerequisites. This was a combination of not knowing, since not everyone wasn't subscribed to the email or twitter updates, and being lazy, such as Ben and Chris. It's important that people try to work the prerequisites if they can, but I think in general, if you have to start with the prerequisites when you get to study group, then that's OK as well. That worked out fine last night, everyone worked at there own pace and Marina was available to help us when we got stuck. Some got a lot farther than others, but in the end, everyone learned a whole bunch about Ruby on Rails that they didn't already know. Keeping with our focus of one hour of learning time a week means that it's OK to skip your homework (except Ben and Chris).

Last night was our biggest study group in the history of study group (4 weeks). I like to think it was the topic and the speaker, but it might have been the email blast from Stout Systems (pretty much all the new people except for two said they had heard about us from a Stout email blast from last week).

I have to say that Marina learning Ruby on Rails earlier this year was one of the inspirations for study group. I realized how many things I was missing out on because I wasn't taking extra time to learn each week. Now, having set aside 1 hour a week for learning time, I've learned a whole bunch in the last four weeks and can't wait for the next four.

Next week is Silverlight with Brian Genesio. I hear he's going to have us build a Twitter client in Silverlight. Just a rumour though.

St. Bernards in need of a home

These are our newest dogs. Maybe one of the worst stories so far in terms of how they came to us.

http://sites.google.com/site/nardpreserve/julie-and-lillie---in-need-of-a-home

Learning Ruby from Ben Barefield

Last night's study group was on Ruby, lead by Ben Barefield. Let me say that I didn't know a thing about Ruby going in, but from what I observed, even those who know and use Ruby, and had done the Koans before, seemed to be getting a lot out of it. Granted, there was a lot of complaining about the problems being "too hard" (that was me in the first 10 seconds). In reality, I went from not knowing Ruby to feeling comfortable enough to come home and keeping working on the Koans. And I actually know what a Koan is now! I'm now playing around with a few different Ruby IDEs. Thanks Ben.

Oh and we had a few new faces last night. Jay Harris (who frankly was dodging study group until cornered and forced to come), Carl Wright, and Becky Glesner.

If you didn't make it last night, then definitely you have to come next Tuesday from 5:30-6:30 to learn a whole lot about Ruby on Rails, lead by Marina Fedner.

Academia, please use source control!

Dear Faceless, Nameless, System Admin at the University department where my unnamed wife works,

Let's call you Tyler and we'll call her Mary.

Tyler, please consider installing SVN (server side) and Tortuous SVN (client side) so that Mary doesn't have to cry on a Sunday mornings because someone (who will definitely remain nameless) started making changes on a different document than the most current document.

It's easy and fun. You install SVN as a web application (MS or Unix servers are both an easy install) and then your users can either access their docs directly through the web page or via an installed client call Tortuous SVN. No more shared drives, no more crying about lost documents.

Before SVN:

Them: "I know I saved it

You: "uh yeah, but then someone overwrote it on the shared drive with an older version!"

After SVN:

Them: "Wow things are so easy"

You: "Yeah, I'll have another Oberon."

SVN is so simple to use that even software developers can use it. Imagine what people with actual intelligence could do?

Study Group - XSL with Andy Seidl

Last night's study group was incredibly informative. We decided that if we had hired Andy at $50,000 for that hour, we would have more than made our money back given how much time he could have saved the developers in attendance on past projects. I felt more than a little embarrassed at my real lack of understanding of XSL and on top of that, my cluelessness about CSS. I'll be using these technologies a whole lot better in the future because of Andy and the 1 hour study group.

Join us for Study Group every Tuesday from 5:30 - 6:30. Check out our schedule at http://sites.google.com/site/softwaredevelopmentstudygroup/silibus-and-prerequisites-1.

Bernard Preserve

I completely forgot to blog about the Bernard Preserve. So we've started to foster St. Bernards. It's been a heck of an adventure, you can learn more at http://sites.google.com/site/nardpreserve/home.