It’s mid-afternoon here in Chicago and RailsConf has just officially ended. There is a huge line of people out front of the hotel waiting to catch the next shuttle to O’Hare. I’ll need a few more days to properly digest the conference and write a more detailed overview of what happened, but overall it was the most positive experience I’ve had at a conference outside of NFJS. Great speakers, late nights of hacking with friends, and geeky conversation. Well worth the time, money, and trouble to come.
Author: Matthew
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RailsConf ho!
Tomorrow I fly to Chicago for the biggest Ruby bash so far this year: RailsConf 2006! Aside from getting to hear some wonderful keynote speakers and hang out with a herd of fellow Rubyists, many of my buddies from the Raleigh area (and elsewhere) will also be in attendance. It’ll be great seeing familiar faces again, and meeting the owners of some new ones. If you’re planning on being at RailsConf too, consider posting a comment here so I’ll know to look for you.
Chicagoans, brace yourselves. The geeks cometh.
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NFJS 2006 wrap-up
It was with mixed sadness and relief that NFJS 2006 came to a close last Sunday evening. Two and a half solid days of listening to some of the best technical speakers in the country can be draining, but the knowledge and enthusiasm one picks up is priceless.
The highlights from day three were Andy Hunt’s “Refactoring Your Wetware” and “Pragmatic Learning” talks, along with Jared Richardson’s “Software Tools.” I had heard Andy’s wetware talk at the local .NET Users Group last year, but he has since revised and lengthened it, splitting it into two different NFJS talks.
The first talk covered how the brain works (it’s a dual CPU, shared pipe architecture) and how developers can make incredible productivity gains by using more of their right brain instead of their left. In the second talk, Andy gave tips on how to learn more effectively.
One point that struck home for me was the need to write all your ideas down the moment you get them. If you’re not writing your ideas down, you’ll start forgetting you have them. I’ve been using a plain old ballpoint pen (not all of us have enough cash kicking around to buy a Fisher Space Pen) and some index cards. They work quite well, and I get the added benefit of more right-brain activity. I wouldn’t otherwise have that if I were typing.
Jared’s talk centered around CruiseControl, an open-source continuous integration tool. In a matter of minutes, he installed the tool on his laptop and configured it to build and test a couple of Java classes he had written. I was familiar with CruiseControl before attending his presentation, but the demo was still impressive. I’m sure if I were a newby attending his talk I would be eager to set up my own CI server the very next day.
Jason posted a comment to my NFJS day 2 post requesting more information on Ramnivas’ demo of Selenium. Selenium is a JavaScript-based tool that can be used to generate and run cross-browser functional tests for web applications. Tests can be defined as HTML tables, Ruby scripts, and so on. Element locators are quite flexible, allowing widgets on the page to be looked up by ID, name, XPath, or directly through the DOM. Selenium also has a Firefox plugin that can be used to “record” interaction with a web app. This is a fast way to generate functional tests for an existing application.
One tip Raminvas gave was to instruct testers or other people submitting bugs to include a Selenium recording with their report. That way, you as a developer can play back the exact steps they made to discover the bug. Handling of browser-specific code doesn’t seem to be a problem with Selenium. It’s certainly the most promising open source web application testing framework to be produced in a long time. Remember that it’s only at version 0.7 so it will continue evolving and (hopefully) improving over time.
Next stop this month: RailsConf 2006! See you there.
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Audible frequencies and cell phones
Some of my co-workers were chatting at lunch yesterday about the highest audible frequencies that can be heard by people of various ages. Apparently, teens these days are programming their cell phones to use high frequency ring tones while in class. The frequencies are so high that adults can’t hear them, only teens can. One of my co-workers located a web site that has links to sounds at various frequencies. What’s the highest frequency you can hear? I got up to 18k using my headphones, but only 17k on my speakers. Anything higher than that makes me physically uncomfortable even though I can’t hear anything.
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Bring on NFJS day 2
It’s the morning of NFJS day 2 and I’m psyched about another day of listening to great speakers and hobnobbing with fellow members of geekdom.
Yesterday’s kick-off was great. The first workshop I attended was Stuart Halloway’s intro to the Spring framework. This was mostly for review since I’ve used Spring before. Well worth the time spent to attend. Next up, Venkat Subramaniam’s talk on refactoring. Again, great stuff. I appreciated how he didn’t recommend memorizing a list of possible refactorings, but going with your gut on what you thought would make the program simpler and cleaner. The last workshop I attended was Raminvas Ladddd’s discussion of strategies for testing web applications. He touched on a few other frameworks, but his focus was on the open-source Selenium tool.
The day closed with an excellent dinner and the keynote address from Dave Thomas which was cleverly titled “Cargo Cults and Angry Monkeys.” If you have a chance to hear this keynote at another NFJS, I’d certainly recommend it. It was fascinating and quite funny too!
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10 flagrant grammar mistakes that make you look stupid
ZDNet UK recently published a list of common grammar mistakes that occur in e-mail messages. This isn’t something I’ve seen very much of from my friends and business associates, but every now and then an item from this list will sneak into a blog entry or an e-mail.
I realize I’m just as serious an offender as everyone else, but I still thought I’d share this article with y’all. It was a helpful reminder to me of just how important correct grammar can be, especially in business communications.
Now don’t go using no bad grammer anymore, okay?
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NFJS Expert Panel podcast
I noticed today that the NFJS web site now has a podcast. One of the audio clips available is the entire Expert Panel session from the New England NFJS in March. I’ve started listening and it’s quite good. In fact, it’s making me hungry for more great discussion at the RTP NFJS this weekend. Oops, excuse me. I need to wipe that drool off my keyboard.
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NFJS in RTP this weekend
Two acronyms in one title! How much wilder can it get?
I’ll be attending the No Fluff, Just Stuff conference in RTP this coming weekend (June 9th, 10th, and 11th). I attended my first NFJS last year and it was a truly memorable experience. I’m seriously looking forward to attending again this year. Aside from being packed with great speakers, NFJS events are always a fantastic way to hobnob with fellow geeks. I mean, these folks are passionate about what they do. Who else would give up their weekends to go talk about computer software?
If you read my blog, I’d love to chat with you in person. I can’t read minds, though, so if you see a guy with my name on his tag by all means walk up and introduce yourself! I’m not mean. Really, I’m not.
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Life on TV just isn’t fair
This is a hilarious example of communication gone horribly wrong. Poor guy!
There are two things I like about this. First, the cab driver does an outstanding job of improvising in a tight situation. He should get a medal. Second, the interview didn’t turn out that bad, at least when compared with lots of other interviews I’ve seen.
Sure, the guy talked a lot while saying very little, but how is that different from what most other interviewees do? If you know you’re going to be on TV, take a few hours and come up with some points you’d like to make, then take those points and figure out what kinds of words you’ll need to put together to make them coherent. It’s time consuming, maybe even difficult, but it will provide immesurably more value to your audience than showing up unprepared.
What about those of us who don’t get interviewed on the BBC? Why not strive for more effective dinnertime conversations, or delivery of a thought-provoking and entertaining presentation at work? For the geeks in our midst, consider making that comment in your code just a tad more concise, or ironing out that requirement a little more.
“Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.” — William Penn
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Of satellite photos and real estate values
Zillow.com is amazing. Enter an address, street name, or neighborhood name and you’ll be presented with a scrolling satellite photo of the area (a la Google Maps). Hover over a house and its current market value will be displayed. Spooky.