Posted by Curt Hibbs
Mon, 31 Oct 2005 08:00:00 GMT
News.com
and ZDNet
are both running an article titled Ruby on Rails chases simplicity in programming. This is one of the strongest indications to date that Ruby on Rails made it onto the mainstream radar.
The trick, said Hansson, is to “slaughter the holy cows,” the well-understood ideas of computer science that dictate how programmers work. In many cases, software vendors design products for difficult problems, an approach that leads to excess complexity, he said.
His goal with Ruby on Rails is not to create a sophisticated development framework that the engineers at Google or Amazon.com will flock to. Instead, he has focused on creating templates and designs that tackle the unglamorous problems, such as making database modifications, that the great majority of Web developers face every day.
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Posted by Curt Hibbs
Tue, 25 Oct 2005 07:00:00 GMT
There has been a lot of buzz lately about how modern technologies are opening up
long tail markets that were
previously unprofitable to serve. At the
Fifth International Ruby Conference, one of the most interesting
sessions was Nathaniel Talbott’s talk
about ‘long tail’ opportunities in software development.
His main point was that as things like
Ruby on Rails continue to reduce the cost of developing
software applications, it becomes more and more feasible to write specific, tailored applications
for very small markets (like a couple dozen people). I think he’s right. New, high-productivity
technologies will, in fact, make it economical to develop software for smaller markets.
However, in our rush to embrace the long tail, we may be overlooking an even
longer tail—the longest tail of them all. Chad Fowler hit on this in his
post Is the Long Tail wagging the dog?.
Many problems (most problems?) are so far out on the long tail that user couldn’t justify even
talking to a software developer (or more likely, wouldn’t even think about it).
The ‘Longest Tail’ is about enabling the user to provide his own solution.
Excel spreadsheets do this. Quick, spur-of-the-moment applications are possible with a spreadsheet.
You don’t need to find a developer, you don’t need to plan or describe your needs, you don’t need to
spend any money, you just need to do it. If what you did stops being good enough, you can fix it.
Not only do you own the data, you own the solution as well!
Of course a spreadsheet can’t do everything. For its niche, though, its very good and it totally enables
the user. Apple Computer’s HyperCard
did the same thing for a wider class of software solutions.
To serve the Longest Tail, we need software than enables users to create their own solutions. Chad Fowler
pointed out a new web application, Dabble, that aims to do this. I haven’t
tried it yet, but I can’t wait to do so.
Posted in technology, software development | no comments
Posted by Curt Hibbs
Mon, 24 Oct 2005 07:00:00 GMT
If you are generally interested in the subject of intelligence, the brain, and intelligent machines, then run (don’t walk) to Amazon and pick up a copy of Jeff Hawkin’s (of Palm fame) new book On Intelligence.
You’ll only be sorry if you don’t! Seriously, its a seminal work destined to change forever the way we think about intelligence, the brain, and intelligent machines. From an amazon reviewer:
It is not very often that you encounter a book that alters, not simply what you think, but how you look at the world. On Intelligence is such a book. Jeff Hawkins develops a perspective on intelligence that makes sense of much of what I have discovered about learning over the past twenty years.
Audible.com also has it on audiobook so you can listen while you commute.
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Posted by Curt Hibbs
Tue, 18 Oct 2005 07:00:00 GMT
Kevin Barnes has posted an excellent story on the current state of IT outsourcing in India. This is an inside view from living in Bangalore and is a must read if you are interested in this topic.
Posted in software development | no comments
Posted by Curt Hibbs
Sun, 16 Oct 2005 07:00:00 GMT
I’m sitting here in the San Diego airport for another 7 hours because I missed my flight. It was my fault. I had the departing time wrong in my head and cluelessly arrived at the airport 2 hours after my plane took off! Of course, Murphy’s Law stepped in to help… it was the last flight out to St. Louis for the day!
Fortunately, I found a comfortable chair next to a power outlet, so I can power my notebook and do some useful stuff—like write this. Unfortunately, all of the food concessions at this airport are on the other side of the gate security and I can’t go in there until I check in and have a boarding pass (which I can’t do until 5:00am). So, my dinner consisted of peanuts and cheetos off off a small snack cart.
The most striking thing about this year’s RubyConf was the number of people who came (and where they came from, more on that later). The first RubyConf in 2001 drew about 39 people. That slowly increased each year, and just last year people were amazed that 70 people came. Well, that 70 was dwarfed by this year’s 200. And it would have been higher, but the conference could only accommodate 200 and registration was cutoff. Dave Thomas predicted that next year there will be over 500!
Absolutely amazing! And, for the first time ever, there were women in attendance—7 of them. Quite a few people traveled long distances from overseas to attend. The following numbers are estimates because we just asked for a show of hands in an informal poll. There were about 15 people from Asia, 10 from Eastern Europe/Middle East, 10 from Europe, and (if I remember correctly) 1 from Africa.
OK, enough of my rambling… If you want to know what went on at RubyConf2005, you’ve got a couple choices. First, all every talk was recorded and can be downloaded in MP3 or OGG formats from here:
http://yhrhosting.com:7000/
Or, if you prefer to read summaries, a number of people blogged about the conference, but Jon Tirsen of ThoughtWorks had more complete coverage than most:
http://jutopia.tirsen.com/
I hope that more of you can make it next year.
UPDATE: Muness Alrubaie also blogged some excellent, and very complete coverage of RubyConf:
http://muness.blogspot.com/
Posted in ruby | no comments
Posted by Curt Hibbs
Fri, 14 Oct 2005 07:00:00 GMT
Yesterday while I was on the plane to RubyConf, ONLamp.com published my latest Rails article. Basically, its a roadmap to the upcoming Rails 1.0 feature-set.
I actually wrote this back in August because that was the original target date for the release of Rails 1.0, and I wanted to publish this at the same time that Rails 1.0 was released. But after the release got pushed back several times, we decided to publish it before RubyConf started (which is today!).
Good news! DHH and the core Rails commit team are all here at RubyConf, and DHH tells me that they are trying very hard to get a Rails 1.0 release candidate out by this Sunday!
Posted in rails | no comments
Posted by Curt Hibbs
Fri, 14 Oct 2005 07:00:00 GMT
I’ve written four articles for O’Reilly’s ONLamp.com, and each one has made it to the slashdot front page on their first day! (this one was slashdotted here).
I’m afraid that I’ll get spoiled… you know, I write another artcle, it doesn’t get slashdotted, and I wonder what’s wrong with me. :-)
Naahhh!
As usual some of the slashdot comments are hilarious. Sometimes I think I should collect some of the really off-the-wall comments and publish them for a chuckle!
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Posted by Curt Hibbs
Tue, 11 Oct 2005 07:00:00 GMT
I just made a preview release of Instant Rails:
Instant Rails is a one-stop Rails runtime solution containing Ruby, Rails, Apache, and MySQL, all preconfigured and ready to run. No installer, you simply drop it into the directory of your choice and run it. It does not modify your system environment. See the Release Notes for a complete list of what is included.
Instant Rails is still under development and currently has only a preview release. There are still a number of rough edges, but it is essentially functional and usable. This initial release of Instant Rails is for Windows, but there are plans for ports to Linux, BSD, and OSX.
Check out the Instant Rails wiki, or go directly to the download page.
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Posted by Curt Hibbs
Sun, 09 Oct 2005 07:00:00 GMT
A new online magazine devoted to all things Ruby has just debuted. Mozy on over to Ruby Code & Style and check it out… You’ll be glad you did!
Posted in ruby | no comments
Posted by Curt Hibbs
Tue, 04 Oct 2005 07:00:00 GMT
The thing about tipping points is that you usually don’t know you have passed one until its already ready happened. Ever since Dave Thomas made his comment about Rails taking Ruby mainstream, there has been a growing sense that Ruby’s tipping point would be sometime this year.
Perhaps we’ve already tipped, but we just don’t know it yet. I began to feel that way after reading David Geary’s list of high-profile Java developers who have embraced Ruby on Rails. And now ThoughtWorks, the famous IT consultant to the Fortune 500s, has also announce its commitment to Ruby development.
The explosion of interest in Ruby on Rails has catapulted Ruby to prominence among dynamic programming languages. Ruby’s elegance along with Rail’s emphasis on Agile practices is providing many adopters with several times higher productivity than traditional Java and .NET web-development platforms, creating enterprise-worthy systems in many domains.
This is a big deal because ThoughtWorks has a major voice in enterprise development.
via RedHanded.
Posted in rails | no comments
