PragDave

They Shoot Presenters, Don't They?

Remember the Sydney Pollack film They Shoot Horses, Don't They? We got to watch a set of desperate dancers turn themselves into near corpses as they compete in a grueling dance marathon. Who can dance continuously the longest?

Well, it looks like Mike and Nicole's copy must have arrived from NetFlix. It's clearly inspired their latest offering—back-to-back Advanced Rails and Advanced Ruby Studios in Reston this May.

Actually, it's a really clever idea. Many people want to do both, and by piggybacking them like this, these folks will be able to save a couple of days travel time. (Of course, you don't have to do both--they're open for individual enrollment too.)

And, here's a hint. Once you've attended any Studio, you're an alumnus. And alumni get a discount. So, if you did happen to want to attend both, it seems to me that for the second, you're an alum. So you should probably choose the alumni rate for that second Studio...

It should be fun betting on which of the presenters drops first.

Advanced Ruby Studio

Mike and Nicole have been presenting the Rails Studio and the Advanced Rails Studio for a while now. Almost all of them sell out, which says a lot about the quality of both the material and their organization.

So now we're branching out. Chad Fowler and I are putting together an Advanced Ruby course. The first is slated for July 18–20 in Reston.

We've had fun deciding what to include. In the end, we decided to look deeply into the areas that make Ruby unique and productive. We went for stuff that's immediately applicable when you're writing Ruby for real applications: integrating Ruby with other applications, networking, advanced programming techniques that make code easier to maintain, metaprogramming, performance, internationalization and localization, debugging, and so on. We decided to do nothing that's Rails specific: this is all Ruby content.

I'm really looking forward to digging deeply into real-world Ruby in the course. And I'm really happy that Ruby has reached a level of acceptance that will support experiences such as these.

Two Hands Bad: The Frustrations of Dreyfus Level One

A while back an interviewer asked what I would do if I had three months of free time. Without hesitation I said "I'd take piano lessons." I've been hacking away on pianos since I was a kid, but I never really learned how to play anything real.

So my wife got wind of the interview (thanks, Google), and for my birthday I got piano lessons. In fact, I got perfect piano lessons—my piano teacher is totally flexible, into theory, and can play just about anything, in any style. He sets homework to do one thing, I get sidetracked and bring back something different, and he just rolls with it and I learn from what I did. It's invigorating, and great fun.

But I'm learning first hand about the Dreyfus model.

The Rails Edge

Mike Clark has announced The Rails Edge, a set of small, regional Rails conferences. The first will be November 16-18 in Denver.

Rails Guidebook

RailsConf 2006 is in its final day, and I just realized that I hadn’t blogged on Rails Guidebook.

The Guidebook was a preconference event. For a day before the conference proper started, attendees got an introduction to all the stuff that’d be hearing about in the following days. It was a combination of a tutorial and a glossary. We didn’t charge. Instead, the cost of admission was a contribution to charity.

The Rails community raised over $8,000

This is wonderful stuff, and Mike and I thank everyone who made it possible: the Ruby Central folks who agreed to add a day to the agenda, Jay Zimmerman for organizing the facilities, the core team members and other experts who turned up to help, Mike and Nicole for doing all the Guidebook logistics, and, more importantly, the folks who turned up and contributed.

A Challenge

If you’re already organizing a conference, adding a guidebook day ahead of it isn’t a great incremental cost. So, here’s a challenge to conference organizers. Let’s start a tradition of these types of charitable events. Let’s make a point of sharing some of our success with others. Not only does it do some good—it’s fun.

Capistrano-Standing Room Only

It was standing-room only at Mike Clark's Capistrano talk: one of the first talks at this year's RailsConf. Latecomers stole chairs from other rooms and fought their way to some free floor space to hear Mike talk about the way we deploy Rails applications.

I'd just finished giving the first keynote. One of my topics was making deployment in Rails easier and more amenable to corporate use. I suspect from the interest in my talk, followed by the overwhelming interest in Mike's talk, that deployment will be one of the hot Rails topics of the coming year.

Production Rails Studio

The good folks over at Pragmatic Studio have just announced their next title, and it’s clearly a winner.

Mike Clark and James Duncan Davidson will we running a studio dedicated to putting Rails applications into production. There’s a clear need for this—there are many, many options when it comes to deploying a Rails applications, and the landscape changes constantly. Mike and JDD are experts at this: they’ve deployed both large and small Rails applications. In fact, I trusted them so much that they’re managing the deployment of the next big Pragmatic Programmer site.

These studios tend to sell out: the Portland Rails Studio filled up last week, the Boston studio is well on its way, and since Mike announced the Production Studio on Sunday he’s been flooded with e-mail. If you’re looking for the best advice on how to get your Rails application into production, I’d get on the list now.

And if you’re looking for advanced Rails training, well… we may have an announcement for you shortly.

Three New Pragmatic Studios

The Rails Studio is hitting the coasts next. Mike and I will be in Portland on April 10-12, and then in Boston May 11-12.

Meanwhile, Stu and Justin take the Ajax Studio to Chicago on April 25-27.

Maybe see you there.

RailsConf and the Rails Guidebook

RailsConf in Chicago (June 22-25) promises to be an exciting affair. And it looks as if there’ll be a number of people coming who are fairly new to Rails.

So Mike and Nicole Clark and I were sitting down after a day of teaching a Rails Studio, and we came up with an idea. We’ll be running a one-day course before the conference. It is designed to bring newcomers to Rails up to speed, both with the framework and with Ruby.

We’re calling it the Rails Guidebook. Think of it as the difference between between turning up somewhere exotic knowing nothing about the language, customs, and places to visit, and turning up having spent a small amount of time reading a guide book. Hopefully, a day spent with us will make the rest of the conference more enjoyable (and informative).

We’re not charging for the Guidebook—it’s our way of saying "thank you" to the community. Instead, we’re asking folks to donate to charity before they come. Space is limited, so you might want to book early. (And, the top 3 contributors will get some perks…)

Rails in the Windy City

After Reston, Denver, and Pasenda, Mike and Nicole are taking the Rails Studio to the midwest. We’ll be doing the three day Rails Studio in Chicago on February 16-18. Based on the signup rates for the other events, you might want to register fairly soon!