Archive for June, 2008
san_jose_hackfest_on_steroids
June 16, 2008 5:25 pmSeveral of us from not_joseph’s San Jose Ruby Hackfest Meetup have been getting together fairly frequently to hack. I’ve created a Google Group for folks in the South Bay area to announce when/where they’re hacking so that it’d be easier to set up impromtu hackfests and get to know other Ruby/Rails folks.
One of my internet friends said that she’d like a simple desktop app which would allow her to post to multiple sites like Twitter, Plurk, etc. A little later she plurked about how HelloTxt basically does what she wants except that it doesn’t have a desktop app.
Adobe AIR to the rescue.
HelloTxt has a mobile client interface written in HTML so making a simple cross-platform desktop app was as simple as firing up Flex Builder, adding panel and HTML components, and specifying HelloTxt’s mobile client interface’s URL as the HTML component’s “location.” I then twiddled around with a little bit of styling and config. stuff but that wasn’t necessary to make it work.
<mx:windowedapplication title="Grrrgregg8r" height="550" width="300"
layout="absolute" xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml">
<mx:panel headerheight="10" bottom="0" right="0" top="0" left="0"
layout="absolute">
<mx:html bottom="0" top="0" left="0" right="0"
location="http://m.hellotxt.com/" />
</mx:panel>
</mx:windowedapplication>
A cross-platform desktop application in five lines of MXML. Pretty dang nifty if you ask me. 
A compiled/working version of Grrrgregg8r is available by right-clicking the link below and doing that “save as” thang.
San Jose Hackfest - THIS Saturday
June 4, 2008 8:03 amThere’s gonna be a hackfest in San Jose at Hyrdration this Saturday at 9:30 p.m.. As always, I’m totally looking forward to hanging out with the folks who usually show up to this and I’m totally going to be there, though perhaps I won’t be wearing bells. I’ll probably be there a bit earlier than 9:30. 
Adam (whom I met at Barefoot last night), if you’re reading this, please attend if you can… I think you’d be an especially good fit with some of these cool cats (who put up with me)!
Enterprise Flexible Rails (Ruboss)- WOOT!
June 3, 2008 6:14 pm
Peter Armstrong’s new book Enterprise Flexible Rails (which is all about Ruboss and is co-written with Ruboss badass Dima Berastau) was released to Manning’s Early Access Program today! Chapter one is available as a free PDF download.
If you only buy one book this year… well, maybe this isn’t quite ready to be it… but if this book ends up being even 1/2 as good as Peter’s Flexible Rails book then we’re in for a mammoth treat.
There’s a worth-reading announcement ’bout the book (since Peter and Dima are Canadian, I should have probably written “aboot” ;)) on the Ruboss-Framework Google Group.
Susser Rox! (Fanboy Silliness)
June 1, 2008 10:30 amI went to Josh Susser’s session The Great Test Framework Dance-Off yesterday afternoon. It was a great survey of Rails Test Frameworks and I appreciate his take, which I summarize as “if it helps you write tests, then use it.” Exactly!
During his presentation, someone suggested turning down the lights so that it’d be easier to see his slides. Susser joked: “Hey, if we do that they you won’t be able to see me!”I shouted “we don’t need to see you, ’cause I have a tattoo of you on my arm.*”
Susser retorted “it’s nice to have fans!” and resumed his outstanding presentation.
I was sitting next to my new friend Harlan and asked him if he’d draw a smiley face on my arm (with eyebrows and a subtle eyebrow piercing) and put “Susser Rox!” underneath it. When the presentation was over, I went up to Susser and said “dude, I’m serious… check out my tattoo!” and rolled up my sleeve.
Harlan took this picture, which I think clearly shows how Susser responded:
I really love being a tiny guppy in the huge Rails Community lake.
* I think I did my standard “stammering” thing, so I may not have actually said precisely this, but it’s definitely what I meant.
