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And so it begins! I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Dave Thomas in the past and as I expected he’s on top of his game today. Funny and articulate, I think I’d sit and listen to Dave explain actuary tables, discuss a hot new time share investment, heck, even just read the phone book. I’ve never heard Mike Clark live but he’s top notch! The only complaint I can make at this point - the ~100 or so of us are overwhelming this little wireless network. Apparently an “industrial grade” installation is coming this afternoon (thank god - otherwise this could get ugly).

The morning section has largely been a Ruby overview - a level set as they say. While I’ve read through Pick Axe, it never hurts to hear another twist on the material (especially blocks and symbols). So far I’ve taken a ton of notes and I’m (surprise) even more interested in finding new ways to “sneak” Ruby into my daily work.

The section on meta programming was particularly interesting. The beauty of Rails is, to a large degree, thanks to the amazing capabilities of the Ruby language itself - all calls have receivers (though you can warp your mind a bit when it comes to class of Class…), definitions are active (the code can change on the fly) and classes are open (so you’re always free to add or modify methods on *any* class). I’ll admit, as a recovering Java addict, my first thought when I encounter open classes is not a positive one. While the thought of the proverbial chim chim adding to (or changing) one of *my* classes makes my skin crawl, in the hands of competent developers it’s a darn powerful feature. Luckily Dave shared an inside tip on how to fix the situation where a lesser mortal mucks up a class they shouldn’t (lets just say it involves a trip to Home Depot)… Still, the whole meta programming concept really appeals to me - I want that power! Of course it means we have a greater level of responsibility but then we are professionals right? Heck, carpenters don’t use “safety saws” to build a house, why do developers deliberately hamstring themselves?

Frankly, I think this is a numbers game. The average Java application requires significantly more developers than the average Rails app so the chances that you’ll have a couple of, shall we say, less than excellent developers is much higher in the Java space. So, if you’re one of the silver backs, you want your language to make it harder for the feces hurler one cube over to, well, screw things up too badly. Personally, I think I’ll take the more expressive power over the safety…

Lunch was a blast! We (Ben from Minnie, Gary from California, John from DC but thinking of moving to Minnie!) wandered over to Chipotle (mmm, burritos) where we engaged in a far ranging conversation on billable rates, why Ruby and Rails rocks, thoughts on An Inconvenient Truth, whether the greater level of transparency afforded by the blogosphere has contributed to the level of cynicism in modern politics…for a while there I thought I was at a model UN meeting or something. It was good times!

The afternoon was Rails in a blur - basically, Mike and Dave wanted to introduce us to the key concepts, places to avoid, and topics we should perhaps focus on over the course of the long weekend. Of course they did the standard MVC lecturelet but they had an interesting twist: think of the controller as the CEO, involved in strategy but not the details - which are carried out by the admins (in other words the model) while the outside view is handled by marketing (the view component). Good analogy!

There was a very interesting conversation about code in the view and whether or not web designers can “handle” that. Mike was pretty adamant that most web designers were more than capable saying that while we as server side guys dabble in web stuff, the view folks want to dip their toes into our waters as well. In other words, don’t sell the front end guys short - they’re probably sharper than you think Again Dave had sage advice for dealing with designers that can’t stand a little code - get rid of them.

The advice from the scaffolding section was pretty spot on too. While great for showing off and exploring, as of now, it’s just not up to par for production code. But don’t forget, when you use scaffolding to build a structure, eventually the scaffolding comes down… After learning where not to go (components, engines, XML-RPC/SOAP), Dave and Mike pounded through a number of topics including testing, routes (however you pronounce it), REST, Simply Restful, plugins, and deployment.

All in all, a great session (participants raised over $8,000 for charities) and I’m even more interested in attending a Pragmatic Studio session (not sure which one though…) One interesting note - sure am seeing a large number of Macs (shocker) as I wander around! And my wife made this comment when I got back to the room “there sure are an awful lot of geeks here”. Yes dear, there really are!

I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t travel all that much. Sure, I’ve been to Greece and Spain but those were big occasion kind of trips - I don’t really travel for work. Today I took what is normally a short, trivial hop from good old MSP to ORD. Heck, the Twin Cities is so close to Chicago, you could practically fly down for lunch! But of course that wasn’t about to happen tonight…oh no.

As I suspect a few of you know the Wyndham O’Hare is host to the first annual RailsConf (and if the ride over from the airport is any indication - we’ve got some serious alpha geeks in the hizzie). Ordinarily, I would expect to make the hop in about 45 minutes or an hour but you see, we had some “weather” in the midwest today and apparently O’Hare “fell behind” a bit. We were delayed leaving the big Minnie - well, we pushed off from the gate just a few minutes late but of course we had to take a tour of the airport (seriously, who in their right mind thinks of departure time as when the doors are shut?) Basically, we were nearly 45 minutes late just getting in the air.

Of course the delay gave us some time to play the Tetris game that is carryon bags and the overhead bins. Maybe we’re just too nice here in flyover land but when I left San Francisco, they were checking bag size pretty carefully - if it didn’t fit in the box, it was getting checked. Clearly, whomever is responsible for that in our neck of the woods has Wednesdays off because some of the bags people tried to smuggle on board would comfortably fit the Stanley Cup.

This being a short flight, most people didn’t want to check their bags further exacerbating the situation. The *packed* flight combined with bags that really should have been checked (seriously, if you can’t put the bag in perpendicular to the bin and still shut the door, it’s just too big) meant we had a few crabby campers on board (I thought one guy was going to throw some punches - he was *not* happy that his sacred bag was being checked. Never mind that it was too big to fit in the bin…). Eventually we were in the air and after failing at a Sudoko (man, Will Shortz must just weigh his cash - I swear every third person was working through one of his books), I was pleased when the pilot said he was beginning his decent into O’Hare.

I’ll have to ask Ryan for clarification, but I think this is pilot code for “we’ll be in the air for another 45 minutes” because shortly after giving us all some false hope, he reported (from the flight-deck) that we were in a holding pattern waiting for ORD to “catch up” with their backlog. Sigh. I got really excited when he told the flight crew to prepare for landing - which again, must be code for “don’t tell the chattel, err passengers, but we’ve got another 30 minutes”. Eventually we did land - more than an hour late, after being locked in a tin can for more than 2 hours (man, another hour or so and I could have been in California) we were on the ground in the windy city, happy days, the ordeal was over!

Ahh, but there was a catch. You see, apparently O’Hare only has one or two jet-ways (it’s not that big an airport I guess) and, well, we pulled up to a gate that didn’t have one so we were just going to have to sit and wait until the ground crew “got around” to bringing one over (perhaps from Midway). Amazingly, this only took about 10 minutes but by now, I was convinced that driving would have not only been faster, but much less stressful (though it would have cost more when you factor in parking and gas). We were finally able to deplane (wow, according to my spell checker, that’s really a word) and amazingly our luggage wasn’t lost (don’t laugh, it’s happened to me…on a trip to Chicago). Of course it took us a while to find the magic “door number one” where our shuttle would whisk us away to the hotel. As you would expect, we just missed the van so it was the full 15-20 minutes watching anxiously (we looked like puppies and kittens at the shelter) as van after van drove by. I guess a mess of huddled geeks just isn’t as irresistible as a small ball of fur…

Of course we did finally get the hotel - more than five hours after starting our journey (any longer and I would have thought I was in a Greek tragedy); while I don’t think I would have actually driven down, flying didn’t save me that much. Oh well, I’m here and I’m pumped about RailsConf! I’ll do my best to blog along (and unlike JavaOne, I’m wired up - it only took me 20 minutes, and Safari, to get my complimentary wifi hookup. But hey, I’ve got an Aeron so whose complaining?) All right, I’m crawling into bed…

I was really happy to hear that an old friend was starting to explore Ruby and Rails! I haven’t had an excuse to use Ruby or Rails in anger yet, but that hasn’t stopped me from heading to RailsConf (speaking of which, a fresh batch of seats is now open - I’m glad it’s so successful but I was really looking forward to the “exclusivity” of the event.) So, do you have YOUR ticket yet?

Wow. RailsConf 2006 is sold out - in less than a week. Glad I didn’t wait around… I’m *very* excited to be heading down to this event even though it takes place in prime golfing season! Guess I might have to check out RubyConf too. When I first read Rolling with Ruby on Rails I never imagined a year later a conference dedicated to the topic would have sold out in such a short time. Must have struck a nerve huh? I was quite pleased to see Jay Zimmerman of No Fluff fame is involved along with Chad Fowler. I can’t say enough good things about NFJS, it really is a great experience. Check the Tour Stops - chances are it’ll be coming your way and if you’re in the Twin Cities, I hope to see you there!

I’ve got my ticket to RailsConf 2006, how about you? I’m really excited about The Rails Guidebook (I very much wanted to be at the upcoming Rails Studio…sigh). Anyway, I’m trying to get my employer to defray the costs a bit but I just couldn’t pass up this opportunity - heck, the keynotes alone are worth the price of admission. Hope to see many of you in Chicago this June (I wouldn’t dawdle if I were you)!