14 Mar 2006
•
Miscellaneous
•
Software Development
There was recently a change in the IT management here where I work. This lead to a change in the IT strategy. We are now going to focus on fixing the many problems with the existing system, rather than implementing a replacement. That means the Ruby on Rails project I have been working on for the last few months has been terminated, just a week after we went live.Nearly the same thing happened to me at DigitalGlobe. I joined a group that was developing in Ruby and then it was reorganized out of existance and I was moved on the a Java development team. But, as [Cote](http://drunkandretired.com/) pointed out at the last [Denver Tech Meetup](http://www.denvertechmeetup.com/), I suppose that this is one of the risks of embracing a leading edge technology.
When I joined this organization a few months ago I accepted a Ruby on Rails job. The fact that I would be working with new and interesting technologies, like Ruby on Rails, was a major draw for me. That combined with the IT director at the time, who was someone I liked and respected, made it an opportunity I could not pass up. But, now that IT director has left and the technology is different than what I signed on for.
The existing system is written in C#. I have no experience with .NET or C#, but I am a language whore so learning a new language is something I rather enjoy doing. And from what I have read .NET seems like a reasonably nice platform. On the other hand, I really like dynamic languages, like Ruby and Python, and I think they are the way of the future. They are more productive, and just plain more fun, than any of the static languages I currently know. I would really miss closures if I had to give them upCan delegates in C# be used as closures? and I would miss my Ubuntu box.It is possible that I could develop under Mono but since I am going to be developing for a Windows production environment I will run Windows, at least until Mono gets a bit more mature.
It is always hard to have a project canceled before it is done but this one is especially disappointing because the system was coming together nicely and the technology was so interesting.
14 Mar 2006
•
Miscellaneous
This month’s DeRailed meeting is this Wednesday, March 15. The agenda looks very interesting, including a session about the differences in RoR 1.1. I missed the inaugural meeting last month but think I am going to be able to make it to this one.
13 Mar 2006
•
Miscellaneous
•
Personal
Well, my house is on the market; there’s no turning back now.
I am really going to miss this house. It is a great house it is just does not quite fit my family anymore. This house was perfect for us when we bought it. It is in a nice neighborhood within easy commuting distance of Interlocken, Denver and Boulder and we had quite a bit of room to grow.
Now we have two young children, one boy and one girl, and we want three bedrooms on the same floor so that the kids do not have to share a room. We have found a another house we like and have made an offer on it. This other house is a great fit for us but I think it will be a long time before I feel about it the way I do about our current house.
04 Mar 2006
•
Software Development
My very first Rails app went live today. The project had a very tight
deadline and we managed to go live only three days late which, in my
book, is on time. Interestingly, this is the very first application
that I have deployed live on the Internet. Prior to this all my web
application experience came from working on a web application
framework. That was interesting work but it is a bit little different
feeling when someone else actually does the deployment on their
hardware, data and application code. I like this feeling of having
accomplished something “real”, for lack of a better word. I think that
feeling of realness come from the fact that this app solves an actual
business problem and that is available to the public.
I have learned a lot in the last couple of weeks. I might blog about
some of the in more depth at some point in the future but I want to get
some things off my chest before I forget them.
- Ruby on Rails — After doing a project from start to
deployment I still think it is really nice. It’s fast to develop in an
overall a really solid platform. I still don’t like those URIs, though.
- Lighttpd — Seems reasonably fast and solid once you get it configured but the
documentation is teh suck. Many fairly important configuration options
are not even mentioned in the documentation. And that configuration
language leaves a lot to be desired. On the other hand I am comparing
it to Apache, which is a tough act to follow as far as easy of use and
documentation go .
- CSS — Sweet. Absolutely brilliant. But how on earth did we get to version 3 and still not have a parent pseudo class?
- JavaScript — This is a very nice little language. Really nice semantics. Would be
nicer if it did not have those ugly curly braces all over the place,
but if you skip the semi-colons (and they are, in fact, optional in
most situations) the code can look half decent.
- IE — That annoying other browser that really, absolutely work. I know that
complaining about IE incompatibilities is passé but how are child
selectors not supported?
- Firefox — What can I say… Get it, use it, love it.
- Commuting by bus — No matter what is going on you are guaranteed 1 hour of sleep each day. Priceless.
Over all the technology stack is really nice. There are a few rough
edges here and there but it is eminently workable and the experience of
building an app with the set of technologies is mostly about building
the app, not about spend excessive amounts of time learning the
infrastructure.
17 Feb 2006
•
Personal
Update: Due to a misconfiguration some of my blog entries from the month of February where recently lost. This is merely a repost of the original content.
It has been a long time since I posted about the family. Too long, in fact, because a lot has been happening.
REXML could not parse this XML/HTML:
<a href="http://www.barelyenough.org/apps/gallery/2006"><img src=';/blog/wp-content/asittinghappy.jpg'; alt=';';Audrey sitting up" /></a>
Audrey can sit all by herself. She can also roll over (both ways)
and is trying, unsuccessfully so far, to crawl. This is a fun stage,
not that another mobile child is really what we need right now. She is
also a lot more playful and talkative that a couple of weeks ago. It
seems that when she turned five months old she decided to stop being
lazy and get some skillz. Just a few Weeks ago she was not very
interested in rolling, sitting or crawling.
REXML could not parse this XML/HTML:
<a href="http://www.barelyenough.org/apps/gallery/2006"><img src=';/blog/wp-content/eatcomputer.jpg'; alt=';';Elliot playing with the computer" /></a>
The changes are more gradual at two years than at five months but they are still coming. Elliot talks a lot now. He loves the computer, as you can probably tell from the picture. He is especially fond of Peek-A-Boo with Elmo, Zoe and Big BirdPeek-A-Boo game link only works if you have the Flash plugin installed. on Sesame Street’s website. Catherine is happy because Elliot finally started calling her “mama”.Up until a month, or so, ago both she and I were “daddy”.
It is snowing today, and Elliot loves snow. We had to eat breakfast
this morning sitting on a stool in the kitchen so that Elliot could
look out the window and watch the snow. And brushing snow off of the
cars, now that is fun.
Anyway, mostly I just wanted to show off my kids, because they are so cute.