Me in the hotel foyer of RailsConf 2006, hogging bandwidth with fellow MacBooks.

On the last day of RailsConf, Mike Pence led the way with his presentation on OpenLaszlo, an open source platform for injecting some nifty Flash and DHTML elements into your projects. Presenting on little sleep and with a technical glitch, Mike did a good job of spotlighting OpenLazslo highlights.

“Don’t hate the player, hate the game,” Mike commented on Flash.

I missed the day’s second presentation going through hotel check out processes, but caught the end of Stuart Halloway’s “MetaRails.” Stu is an example of when I talk about chatting with the guy next to me, only to find out later that he’s a key member of the Rails community. During Guidebook on the first day, Stu helped me get Rails up and running on the MacBook.

James Duncan Davidson presented “Deploying Rails Applications” before the Rails core team wrapped up with a Q & A session.

The shuttle carted me back to the O’Hare airport where my legs really got a taste for how huge that place is. After a few hours of Rails reflecting and plane watching from the gate windows, I boarded for home and found my ticket number in the very back of the plane (last row). In the hurry of kicking my oversized luggage under the seat, I didn’t immediately notice the “beauty and the beast” that sat beside me. The meager confines of standard airline sitting room could not contain the bundle of inked up muscles in human form to my left. This is the kind of guy you don’t want to have as a cellmate, nevermind travel buddy. Next seat in, his daughter, maybe 4 years of age and with picture perfect golden hair and devilish smile, had window. She was boss. The Tulsa native, whose tattoos were clearly done in the slammer, turned out to be a total softy, despite his stone-skinned appearance. Nothing like seeing a man of this size watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on a portable DVD player he pulled out from his daughter’s pink polka dot purse. Bob and Hillary, as their names turned out to be, were the most beautiful part of the whole trip.

And that’s a wrap. I’m back at school now, overcoming jet lag and 5 days of exhaustive learning. Excellent trip; thanks to all how helped make it happen.

Day two rocked with some impressive speakers. Justin Ghetland spent his hour talking about Ajax on Rails and revived my interest in Javascript and Ajax. The presentation was a collection of examples like live search, drag and drop, autocomplete, and just how easy Rails can integrate these effects. Sam Stephenson, the creator of Prototype, is floating around somewhere at RailsConf as well.

To create a Web 2.0 start-up, you need is a name that ends in “r” with no vowel before it. -Justin Ghetland

Scott Raymond was on deck with his lessons from Blinksale & Iconbuffet. Scott’s presentation was particularly interesting to me because he told it from the view of a contractor, a one-man show without the resources and staff of large companies. He emphasized the importance of client communication and a variety of other must-do business practices.

The “Putting BBC’s Catalogue on Rails” talk by Matt Riddulph was great, both in content and presentation. Whether you knew what was going on or not, the speech was easy to listen to.

I missed the second half of “Rails Deployment” by Ezra Zygmuntowicz (last in the phone book, as he put it) but enjoyed Jason Kunesh’s topic of universal design. Jason made point of the disabilities many internet users have and how to create accessible, useable apps and websites. A lot of visually impaired web users surf with the aid of screen readers, dishing out site content at an incredible 300-400 words per minute! Jason played a clip at 100 and it sounded like jibberish to me.

Lastly, David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of Rails, delivered a lengthy keynote to end the night. While he may look like he’s 19, he knows his stuff. A very inspirational speech, DHH is a comfortable presenter with the brains to back it up.

For the past two mornings, the conditioner I’ve been using was really body lotion. *shakes head* You’d think they’d have contrasting cap colors or any discernible difference other than the size 8 font that no morning eyes should have to read.

The beauty of RailsConf is that you find yourself magically learning even when you’re not trying to. It’s tough to gauge personal progress when everyone around you is intelligent to begin with; there’s a tendency to feel behind when really, you’re dealing with people who have years of experience. Following today’s presentations, I kept thinking, “Whoa, I would never have thought of that or tried this if it hadn’t been for this conference.” Thursday I was wondering how long I could keep pretending to be a developer and looked forward to my comfortable XHTML/ CSS world back home; tonight I can’t get Rails off my mind and am anxious to get back in the crowd. That’s the other thing: the Rails community has been exceedingly helpful and never shy to answer a question or two. There’s been a handful of times where I quiz the guy next to me, realizing later that he is a major contributor to Rails.

Long day and exciting presentations slated for tomorrow. A more extensive update to come…

Next morning: And now for that extensive update.
Thursday’s initial keynote by Dave Thomas was straight out a war movie full of morale boosting and a sense of comraderie among all listeners; it really fired you up. This goes back to the same welcoming community I briefly mentioned which is more concerned with producing great apps as a whole rather than “I did this” or “only my way works.”

The first presentation I attended discussed tooling Ruby on Rails through the use of an IDE called RadRails. The three man (or kid, they were pretty young) lecture team was also the creators of this open source project and I commend them for their efforts. Unfortunately, their speaking performance a bit to be desired, perhaps due to the invigorating display previously put on by Dave.

David Demaree was in the number two slot, delivering some key points on creating search-easy websites and apps and really making it obvious what you’re you’re trying to offer. While not much of what he said was directly related to Rails (actually, none of it), the basic concept of making your work accessible and clear to your targeted audience is a good one.

Next was Rails Application Optimization Techniques & Tools by Stefan Kaes. While most of what he said was more than a new guy could understand, Stefan did an excellent job presenting with some really great material. Although I’m still working on the basics and not ready to start optimizing, I have no doubt that a lot the points he made will surface again when I get to that stage.

Wrapping up the night was a motivational speech by Martin Fowler (incredible) followed by Paul Graham (hilarious).

Started the morning off with a nice breakfast in bed; everyone has to try room service at least once in their life. Guidebook, an introduction to Ruby and Rails, began shortly after and was, like my boss, Mike, keeps saying, “Drinking from a fire hydrant.” First lesson learned: arriving half an hour early to a conference does not mean you’re early! There was a limited number of outlets available for charging laptops and wouldn’t you know it, me and the other 90% of people missed out. Fortunately, the presentation was more of a lecture style than hands on so it wasn’t a problem at all. Speakers were Dave Thomas and Mike Clark who put together a brilliant performance, very smooth and well laid out. Keynotes consisted of the basics of the web programming language Ruby, where Rails comes in, and general developing practices. 6 pages of notes later and a head full of code, I had a very good day and am dead tired.

One thing I am amazed about is the wide range of attendee ages and the equal amount of respect all are given. Every walk down the hall, I get nods from guys twice my age because who knows, it could be the young guy writing that next great app. Little do they know, I’m a front end programmer and know jack about what’s going on (shhhh ). Seeing so many young faces in the hotel is like being back at school, except the kids here are really smart.

Other than that, I got my badge and T for the start of Rails tomorrow and hung out in the flock of laptops eating bandwidth in the main foyer. The new MacBook is fitting in quite nicely and making lots of friends.

Reminder thoughts: the hustle and bustle of any major city is enough to make 24 hours feel like minutes. With the intense content being presented and the challenge to learn Rails in a week, I’m imagining little New London to be a bit cushy feeling when I get back.

Ill Chicago weather delayed my flight 317 to Rails Conference 2006 by about 30 minutes; no big deal. I had the middle seat mid way into the plane, a teacher on my left and one of her 36 students to my right. The band of middle school rugrats and accompanying chaperones, totaling 50, were on their return flight from an adventurous exploration of select New England states. Notable events included Mt. Washington, Kancamagus Highway, Portsmouth, Kittery Trading Post, York, the Nubble, and a week’s worth of other attractions that I would consider “in my backyard.” What a small world.

Entering the O’Hare airport was like walking into another country with so many people that you could visibly see the different territories; a group of pilots in aviator attire briskly walking to their next flight; the gang of janitors with wheelbarrows of garbage bags; squads of security guards. A “travel triathlon” later (rolling suitcase dodging, NFL crowd weaving, and track runner walking pace), Wyndham’s 24/7 shuttle services carried me and a few other tourists to the hotel. Finally, I made it.

The room is pretty sweet, more than one person needs. Out my window hums a highway about a stone’s throw away with commercial airliners buzzing a few hundred feet above. I can see a plaza, a good place to stock up on snacks and necessities. I also set up wireless internet in my room through Wayport. After a few hours of up and down service and 4 phone calls later, I have both wireless and Ethernet access for one fee (originally separate), along 3 free days of access ($40) useable in the next 6 months. If you ever use Wayport during your travels, their all day and night call support is absolutely excellent.

Tomorrow is Guidebook, a pre-conference setup to get Rails installed and a gist of what is going on. Stay tuned.

edit: How could I forget? Amidst all the Wayport calls and hotel phone procedures, I somehow dialed 9-1-1 in the process. Security called the room within 5 minutes.

“Sir, do you need 911 assistance?”
“Mmm, no, not that I know of.”

Tomorrow is fly day. Stick around for updates.

A little over two weeks into this summer’s internship so far. Being on campus is pretty sweet, an amazing experience when you don’t have to wear ski goggles walking from one building to the next. The rooms worked out great; Kath is right across the hall in a single with bath and I’ve got a double, minus the roommate. For a cheap rate compared to the average apartment fee, we really have no complaints. With everything but food services, I’m able to still lift at the gym and continue freelancing on high speed net.

As for work, I’m involved with a few Colby-Sawyer College related web projects (they’re redesigning the school website this summer) and interning for Michael Yacavone of Xenium Group, located in Hanover, NH. The beauty of working on the web is I can do most of the jobs right from my room via the internet. Even on the days I do travel to Hanover, Kath and I are able to carpool since her work is but a block or two away from Mike. With gas prices the way they are, the minimal commute is a huge benefit.

My first day on the job, Mike and I reorganized his office to accommodate two workspaces. After shuffling a few papers and sliding desks around, he unveiled a new MacBook (2Ghz/2gb Ram) that I’ve been loaned for the summer! The majority of my Mac experiences being on pre-OSX machines, this has been a great opportunity to get Apple back on my good side. Not to mention, I can run Windows on the same machine now.

Xenium Group projects to this point have included creating a lengthy html form for Dartmouth College, an ongoing redesign of Mike’s Pivot CMS (the one CSC uses), and supplying a student’s perspective on the CSC redesign. Thanks to Kimberly Slover and the rest of Admissions who’ve also helped fund a variety of recommended literature to aid in this summer’s learning and productivity.

The real kicker is I’ll be going to the first official Rails Conference at the end of this month. I haven’t dealt much with programming in the past but am anxious to tackle something new and excited at the possibilities of Rails. Five days in Chicago, I’ll have updates upon return.

That’s an overview of the latest. Still in the works: a fresh Shifting Creations layout arriving shortly and hopefully more blog updates in the near future.

2Advanced relaunch their site. Hello, beautiful.