DABlog

Announcing the opening of WishSight!

WishSight is for managing wishlists and gift-giving. It lets you see who’s given (or promised) what to whom, and it lets gift-givers for particular people communicate with each other, via a comment-board, so that they don’t duplicate gifts.

It’s based on a Christmas-list application I wrote in 2005 that my family and friends have been using every year since then. It’s completely merchant-unaffiliated. You can post links for the gifts you want, and they can be links to any merchant.

WishSight helps you cut down on gift duplication, and increases the chances that people will get things they actually want, without the gift-givers having to do a round-robin of email or phone calls to pin down who’s buying what. And chances are they don’t all know each other anyway—which doesn’t matter on WishSight, because you all communicate by leaving comments directly on your mutual friend’s wishlist.

All you have to do is:

• sign up
• list the email addresses of people who you want to be able to see your wishlist
• get those people to sign up and “whitelist” your email address
• list your wishes
• stake “claims” on other people’s wishes

There’s no stealth: the email addresses are only used internally to determine who’s allowed to see whose wishlist. Also, you can list email addresses even if the people haven’t signed up yet. Once they do sign up, they will automatically have permission to see your wishlist and claim your wishes. No two-sided “handshakes” required; you just whitelist people.

Have fun, and let me know if any questions or problems!

The bailout bill has just passed. I know very little about economics, little enough that I don’t feel entitled to a strong opinion one way or the other on whether the bill should have passed. But I am suspicious of it.

I’m suspicious of it, for one thing, because of the fear-mongering that has surrounded it; it’s very reminiscent of the ongoing “Terrorists will come and kill your family if the executive branch doesn’t get a blank check for waging undeclared war” campaign, and things in that vein.

But I’m even more suspicious of the bill because of all the rhetoric about how it will help “Main Street” as well as “Wall Street”. I don’t know whether it will or not, but what troubles me is the fact that this kind of rhetoric makes it sound like Congress and the Bush administration are desperate to help Main Street. The fact is that, in general, they’re not.

Every microsecond of every day in the history of this country there have been uncountable opportunities for the government to help citizens with financial problems, difficulty paying for a home, lack of job opportunities, inability to get credit, and all the rest of it. The thrust of the behavior of the government for most of the history of the country has been not to bother helping such people to any significant degree.

Now, all of a sudden, helping Main Street leaps to the front of the congressional and executive agenda. I’m disinclined to buy it. If the common weal were really a government priority, we would have known by now. I find it immensely suspicious that the greatest outpouring of social concern, at least as measured in money, comes tethered to a Wall Street bailout.

If Main Street is going to benefit from the delivery of a de facto blank check to Wall Street, surely it would not benefit any less from having money delivered to it directly. But you don’t hear any talk of, say, the government purchasing houses for the victims of fiscal mismanagement. I suppose it would have taken too long to draft a bill that did that; and as we know, the earth would have left its axis if the bill had not been passed this week….

Ruby Central is gearing up for RubyConf 2008, which has a fantastic program and which you can still register for (at time of writing, anyway!).

People have noticed, naturally, that we’ve gone over entirely to a multi-track format (except for keynotes and a couple of other special slots). And they’re surprised; we used to be one-track, and then last year we were multi-track but with a good dose of plenary sessions.

So I thought I’d say something about the multi-trackedness of RubyConf 2008, for anyone who’s interested.

The bottom line is that we’ve scheduled multiple tracks because we got so many really, really good proposals. Of course we can’t accept all of them; we can’t be that multi-track. There will always be a cutoff, and where the cutoff comes always involve a judgment call. This time around the judgment was that the number of talks we’d have to exclude, in order to dilute the multi-trackedness significantly, was too great.

In fact, we started drafting a schedule without explicitly discussing the multi-track issue; it mostly emerged from what we jotted down, and then it continued to make sense to us as we started analyzing the track issue more closely.

People have asked whether it’s about the size of the event. It is, in a couple of ways—subtle ways, perhaps, but important.

For one thing, we know that not every speaker is comfortable getting up in front of 500 people. Lots are, but it’s still a lot to ask. Breakout sessions make for situations in which more speakers are likely to be comfortable.

Of course, if there are only fifteen speakers, we could easily find people who don’t mind a big audience. But what about that “only fifteen speakers” thing?

In a conference with 400-500 people present, it’s definitely more fun if, say, twelve percent of the people prowling the halls and sitting next to you at lunch are speakers, instead of two or three percent. Having fifteen speakers at an event with over 400 people isn’t the same, for anyone, as having fifteen speakers at an event with sixty people. If the ratio is too lop-sided, it gets too much into the “us and them” thing. We’ve never been into that.

Another reason we’re OK with moving toward a multi-track format is the proliferation and success of the Ruby regional conferences, many of which are one-track. Everyone should attend, at some point, a one-track conference. It’s really cool the way everyone at such a conference shares the same experience. My first conference was a one-track academic film conference in 1985, and it was great. And the wonderful flowering of the Ruby regional conference culture means that, even if it isn’t at RubyConf, many Rubyists will get a chance to have that experience.

We started our regional conference grant program in 2006 in the hope that “regional” wasn’t going to mean “provincial”—that regional conferences could be top-notch events—and that hope has been fulfilled beyond what we could possibly have wished for. (And certainly way beyond what we can take credit for. The regional organizers have been amazing!) These high-quality small events can address many needs and desires, including the desire for the experience of a one-track format.

In sum, the RubyConf format for 2008 is a format for its time, its year, its configuration of the Ruby world. We’re nothing but excited about it and hope you’ll come and share the fun!

I got home yesterday from RailsConf Europe 2008 in Berlin, and am very happy to say that the event was a major success.

It was particularly gratifying to hear from many attendees that they found the program content more advanced and more instructive than last year. It’s always hard to fine-tune the level of talks across a big program like this, and I’m really glad to have evidence that people overall felt it had gone in the right direction.

Highlights included keynote addresses by David Heinemeier Hansson and Jeremy Kemper, as well as a Rails core team panel discussion with David, Jeremy, and Michael Koziarski. DHH led us through some very interesting thoughts on the notion of “legacy” code, and how that concept plays out with respect to one’s own development and growth as a programmer. Jeremy talked about performance, and masterfully expanded the horizon beyond the shop-worn “Does Rails scale?” stuff to some very specific and powerful techniques for evaluating and adjusting performance.

We also held a “Symposimi” (the name is based on a misspelling in the program; it should have been “Symposium” but came out “Symposimi,” and I decided that sounded really cool!) on the subject of Ruby versions and implementations—who’s using what, what’s targeting what, the pros and cons of moving to 1.8.7 and/or 1.9. A symposimi is a town-meeting-like gathering of people who want to ask and answer questions about a topic. It’s more audience-based than a symposium, and less hierarchical.

The symposimi was fun for me because I got to do some live code demos, which I usually don’t at the conferences I’m an organizer of!

Lots of people asked about next year. We don’t know yet where RailsConf Europe will be in 2009. Probably not Berlin, just because we’d like to move it around. If you have suggestions (and a rationale other than that you happen to live there :-) by all means let me know.

Now that RCE2008 is over, I’m looking forward to RubyConf. Stay tuned for announcements of the program and registration!

My friend and nearly-neighbor Erik Kastner is going to be joining me to teach the Ruby Power and Light course “Advancing With Rails” in Edison, New Jersey, August 18-21. This will be RPL’s first co-taught course, and I’m really looking forward to it.

See the calendar at Ruby Power and Light for more info!

During the week of July 6-12, I invite and encourage everybody who includes links in their email, blog posts, online chats, and other documents, to link to something other than Wikipedia.

I’m not trying to be a Wikipedia slayer. It wouldn’t matter if I were; that’s not going to happen.

I just want to remind everyone that there are thousands and thousands of interesting, well-informed, thought-provoking, educational websites out there, written by professors, researchers, doctors, artists, scientists, practitioners of every craft and industry—and however you slice it, these websites are getting a raw deal when it comes to links.

It’s not about whether Wikipedia articles are accurate or not. Some are, some aren’t. But that’s true of the whole Web. Let’s stop acting as if Wikipedia has some special status.

The best thing about the Web is that it isn’t an encyclopedia. And Wikipedia is evidence that when Web culture meets encyclopedia culture, encyclopedia culture wins. Sure, Wikipedia is collaborative. Most encyclopedias are. They still give off an aura of total, centralized, complete knowledge and authority. And that’s not very Web-like, is it?

So:

• If you’ve got a point to make about grammar, look for an English (or whatever language it is!) professor’s site. There are some great ones. Point the person you’re arguing with to a couple of those.

• Countries have their own informational websites, some official and some written by people who live there. Many of them are multi-lingual. Are they “balanced”? Probably not, at least not in the network news way. So much the better! Balance on the Web emerges from the quantity and interplay of sites. It’s not supposed to be embodied in every document. How boring!

• Wikipedia is great for technology-related topics. But so are lots of other sites. Are you sure that Wikipedia’s description of the algorithm you’re discussing on that mailing list is really the best? the clearest? the most engaging?

• You get the idea! Strike a blow for the richness of the Web, and for the beauty of discourse that doesn’t try to be poker-faced and non-committal, even about important issues. Rediscover the expertise of the many Web contributors who write about their own specialties and have taken the time to share their thoughts.

There’s a lot to learn at Wikipedia, but it’s time to spread the linkage!

I’ve always vaguely disliked horse races. The anthropomorphizing of the horses, the claims that they know that they’re involved in a race and that they share the goals of their owners, is manifestly silly and self-serving. And the whipping always bothered me. I suppose I made myself believe that horses didn’t really care and that an attack with a whip was, to them, kind of like a verbal exhortation to us. (Not that verbal exhortations can’t be painful, but they’re not physical).

The death of Eight Belles shocked me out of my indifferent, complacent position.

All the crap in the news about how noble she was, how competitive her spirit, how great her self-sacrifice… it’s all smug and disgusting beyond belief, despite the accompanying descriptions of the tears glistening in the eyes of the various stakeholders. What really happened was that this horse was forced to run as fast as she could, for reasons she could not understand and that had nothing to do with her well-being, and as a direct result, her legs fell apart, and then someone killed her.

That’s it; that’s all there is to it.

Why is this allowed to go on? Is it simply because more horses survive races than don’t?

For some reason, we continue to give the benefit of the doubt to this bizarre, nasty, money-drenched “sport”. Except that for me, at this point, there is no doubt, and no further conferral of the benefit.

My Ruby/Rails consultancy, Ruby Power and Light, LLC, is offering two Ruby on Rails training courses this Fall, both hosted by Exceed Education in Edison, New Jersey:

• Introduction to Ruby on Rails, October 23-26
• Advancing With Rails, November 6-9

I will be the instructor for both.

You can get more information on the courses, and on signing up, at Ruby Power and Light—just follow the links in the banner box.

I’m in Boston, having just spent four days at the Boston Early Music Festival. My brother Gavin, director of the Princeton Early Keyboard Center, rented an exhibitor’s room—basically a hotel room from which the beds have been removed—where he displayed his oldest harpsichords (one made in London in 1785, one made in Italy in the late 17th century). Visitors to the room were encouraged to play on the instruments, and many did.

It wasn’t just a display, though. Gavin also produced something like fifteen half-hour musical recitals, involving himself, me, and various musical colleagues and friends. The result was that Room 921 at the Radisson was a hot-spot of wonderful performances and presentations. Highlights included:

• Baroque music performed by its composer, Grant Colburn (unusual at an early music event!)
• John Thompson performing on the qin (pronounced ‘chin’), a Chinese instrument, with Gavin playing clavichord selections to complement the pieces
• John Burkhalter discussing the Neff manuscript, a one-of-a-kind handwritten collection of pieces, dating from late 18th century Pennsylvania and belonging to John
• Two recitals by the baroque group Col Legno, of which I am a member

And there was more. Room 921 was, as Gavin and I said to each other almost simultaneously when we were discussing it afterwards, a festival within a festival. Congratulations to Gavin for producing these four days of music, and thanks to everyone who participated and everyone who came to hear us.

I also spent a lot of time looking at the exhibit halls, where there were lots of instrument makers and sheet music sellers. There were not as many cellos as I would have liked; in fact, I only saw three. Viols seem to rule at this event, and the violin family is mainly represented by the smaller instruments. I guess it’s understandable, since the makers have to lug the instruments to the festival… but I still would have liked to have seem more baroque cellos. There were a lot of bowmakers on hand, though, and that was interesting.

I’m going to be speaking at the Emerging Technologies conference in Philadelphia. The conference is being held March 28-29, at Drexel University, and is produced by Chariot Solutions.

I’ll be speaking on Rails routing, a topic that’s becoming dear to my heart as I”m working on some materials on it for publication, and also giving a tutorial on it at RailsConf 2007.

I’m going to miss RubyConf, for the first time ever.

This is happening for two reasons. The second reason erases the first—that is, it would be sufficient in itself.

The first reason is, or was, that I accidentally scheduled a training course in conflict with the first day of RubyConf. That was just dumb—though I’m happy to be doing the course, which is a 4-day Ruby/Rails intro in Alexandria, VA>

The second reason is that a dear friend of mine is having her 80th birthday party on October 21, the second day of RubyCOnf. So that pretty much takes me out of the picture.

It feels weird to miss a RubyConf. I’m one of only seven people who have been to all of them. Even Matz has missed one. (He had a good excuse: his wife was about to have a baby.)

But it’s definitely in a good cause. And you’ll all be very well looked after, as always, by Chad, Rich, and the hotel staff.

As you may already know, the first RailsConf Europe was a big success. Ruby Central had the easy job: we were in on the planning at a fairly general level, and we chose the talks. Credit for actually arranging and running the even goes to Wendy Devolder and her team at Skills Matter, the London-based training company that teamed up with us for this event.

I didn’t go to as many talks as I would have liked to, as I was doing event-related things much of the time; but I went to all the keynotes and enough sessions to be very impressed. I was also taking mental notes on the fact that the keynotes, which were attended by about 300 people, didn’t feel like they were mobbed or overcrowded. This has a bearing on my thoughts about the upcoming RubyConf 2006, which is going to have upward of 300 people in attendance and one track.

I’m now in Copenhagen, having given a Rails workshop in Malmo, Sweden, yesterday. The workshop, hosted by Polar Rose, went very well. Afterwards I checked into my hotel in Copenhagen; and as I was getting in to the elevator, I heard a voice call, “David!” Usually it’s safe to ignore that, in cities where you don’t know anyone, since it probably isn’t you—but in this case it was me, and the person calling me was David Heinemeier Hansson. He’s staying at the same hotel, it turned out.

And I, and I think also DHH, will be going to tomorrow evening’s meeting of the Copenhagen Ruby Brigade, which I’m looking forward to a lot.

“Home” is an exaggeration; I’m actually in the Grand Rapids airport.

The Michigan conference was very successful. There were about 65 people there. It was a one-track event, with three talks in the morning and six in the afternoon—a demanding but very rewarding day.

Congrats to Zach Dennis and the rest of the organizers for putting together an exemplary regional ruby conference!

Which reminds me….

You (dear reader) should consider putting together a regional Ruby conference where you live, and apply for a Ruby Central Regional Conference Grant to help with expenses. I won’t say it isn’t a lot of work to put on even a small conference, but it’s definite doable, and it’s a way to do something really cool and constructive.

Keep in mind that the Regional Conference Grants are only intended to offset out-of-pocket net expenses for the organizers. That means that if you get sponsorship, the maximum possible amount of the grant goes down, possibly to zero. Still—if a conference takes place, that can’t be bad!

Ruby Central, Inc., parent organization of RubyConf and RailsConf, has announced the 2006 Regional Conference Grant Program. Ruby users groups can get grants of up to $1500 for expenses connected with putting on a regional conference.

It’s a timely program (if I say so myself, being one of the people behind it). RubyConf is a gem of a conference, and we want to keep it that way—but that also means it can’t be all conference-related things to all conference-going people.

We’re aiming to become Ruby Centrifugal. (Not literally, but metaphorically.) A distributed effort makes sense.

So if you’re involved in a Ruby users group - or even if you’re not, but feel motivated to try to put on an event - have a look at the guidelines (link above) and let me know what you think (dblack@rubypal.com).

I’ve been here in Portland since Saturday, which means I got here early for OSCON (happened to be traveling in this part of the country anyway), and I’m leaving today, which is a couple of days early (have to do stuff back home and then come back to the West Coast next week).

It’s been interesting and fun. I’ve hung out a lot with many of my fellow Rubyists, including Pat Eyler, Jim Weirich, the Prags, and Phil Tomson; surreptitiously (or otherwise) watched people leaf through my book at the Powell’s Bookstore table in the conference venue; had dinner on Saturday with conference organizer Nat Torkington and a couple of his friends; went to FOSCON last night; and generally had a great time.

Jim Weirich and I were talking yesterday about the culture(s) of the event, and of the various communities that make it up. There’s certainly a lot of potential interest to social scientists and analysts.

One thing I find particularly intriguing is the undercurrent of laptop use, especially during the presentations themselves. This isn’t school, so I’m not out to stop people from doing it (as I was during my professorial days; I didn’t allow laptops in the classroom at all). What interests me about it is wondering what’s actually getting done. People talk at OSCON and other conferences about synergy, networking, and all the rest of it—and I have a suspicion that a lot of this goes on in laptop sessions during talks. But when it takes that form, it’s not celebrated. It’s accepted (or at least tolerated) as a corollary of the existence of laptops. But it’s actually a bit taboo, I think, to make too much of it.

I wonder…. I remember starting to learn Rails by sitting at a conference talk and conducting a private chat session with David Heinemeier Hansson, who was sitting one row behind me and coaching me through the rudiments of the MVC architecture. That was a real and substantive moment in my development as a developer. I wonder what else is going on. I have a feeling the laptop stratum is at least as rich as the “BOF” sessions and acts of hallway networking, when it comes to personal and community growth.