Nick Sieger's Rails/Java Video
While I functioned as the producer and driving force behind RubyNation's video production effort, I had only limited editing experiencer with Final Cut Pro. Nick Sieger's video on "Rails: The Killer Java Web Stack," is the first conference video that I was 100% responsible for from beginning to end.
NovaRUG Rails/Facebook Talk
I'll be giving my "Leveraging Rails to Build Facebook Apps, Version 2.0" talk at the NovaRUG meeting on September 15th. This version of the talk incorporates the recent changes that Facebook has made to its developer ecosystem. It will also be videotaped by the incomparable Don Anderson, although the talk won't be available online until after I've given the talk at
SunnyConf in Phoenix, AZ.
GSA Competitions and Prizes Industry Day
I attended the GSA's Competitions and Prizes Industry Day yesterday, an event designed to facilitate President Obama's mandate for using contests and prizes to spur innovation, transparency and collaboration within government. Contests represent an exciting application space, and I was pleased to be able to talk to folks about our
Votridea Contest Platform.
IE7 Glitches
Just had an opportunity to test some recent site layout changes using Internet Explorer 7. Found a couple of CSS glitches impacting my (few) PC-based readers. So, I'll be fixing that over the weekend. If Microsoft can't do a decent web browser then they should remove it from the market.
I Have No Klout
Apparently, I have no
klout, which is a new measurement of social media influence. Check out the
Klout web site for more information about this new statistic.
Finding Ruby Jobs
Here are some recommended sites for hunting down Ruby/Rails jobs:
http://jobs.rubynow.com
http://www.rorjobs.com
http://railswork.com
http://www.workingwithrails.com
Rails activity has also kicked back into gear in the Washinton DC area.
MetroStar Systems and some other companies that I'm aware of are regularly hiring developers.
All About Tweetups 
A tweetup is an event organized through Twitter that allows people who have met through Twitter to meet in person. Find out more about Tweetups in this in-depth blog entry.
KeenerTech on Facebook
KeenerTech.com now has a
Facebook presence. Follow us on Facebook now.
Speaking at SunnyConf
I just received word today that I was accepted as a speaker for
SunnyConf, Arizona's first Ruby conference, which will be held September 25, 2010. I'll be giving a talk on "Leveraging Rails to Build Facebook Applications." This is version 2.0 of the talk, incorporating major changes that were announced by Facebook at their F8 conference in April.
Earthquake Hits DC Area
I felt my first earthquake this morning — like a freight train rumbling past my house just outside. It was a minor quake, just 3.6 on the Richter scale.
KeenerTech.com Hits a New High
Site traffic for this blog hit a new high in June with more than 11,000 page views. I'm very pleased with the steady growth in traffic.
Twitter Problems
I just got "rate-limited" doing a search on Twitter for #RubyNation. This was the first time I've used Twitter in the past week because I've been busy with multiple projects. It's also, by extension, the first and
only search I've done in the past week. I have to say that either Twitter's search is broken, or their algorithm for identifying people who need to be rate-limited is totally FUBAR.
Adobe Connect Pro Class
I'm currently in MetroStar's Adobe Connect Pro class, with instructor John Zeno Gianopoulis. It's a very nice communication tool, and it's being heavily used by MetroStar's education division.
RubyNation Contest
It looks like RubyNation will be doing an online photo contest using the
Votridea Online Contest Platform. I'll post more news as it becomes available.
Awesome Computer Accessories
Here are some great, steampunk computer accessories. Totally pointless, but amazingly different in a bizarre sort of way. Must see it to believe it.
KeenerTech Changes
Inspired by RailsConf 2010, I've updated the site to support comments on all of the articles. I've also added a modest little Gallery page and a bunch of tweaks and minor re-factors.
Votridea.com Launches!
My team's been working for months now on the
Votridea Online Video Contest Platform, and it just soft-launched today. The platform can do video and photo contests, is cloud-based, fully-scalable and robust since it's based on the real-world experiences we got running international contests for the Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Recruiting Rich Kilmer
I'm at RailsConf 2010 in Baltimore, MD. I just recruited Rich Kilmer to be a keynote speaker for RubyNation 2011.
David Keener at RailsConf
Yes, I will be attending
RailsConf, the world's largest Ruby/Rails conference, in Baltimore from June 8 - 10. This is the first time I've had a chance to attend a RailsConf, so I'm really looking forward to it.
First Three RubyNation Videos
Don Anderson and I have gotten the first batch of RubyNation conference videos live online at
rubynation.blip.tv. This includes presentations from Jim Weirich, Nick Gauthier and Kyle Banker.
Social Media Stats
HubSpot is a great site for collecting statistics about social media. Here's a
link to more stats than you would believe possible.
New Toy: Final Cut EXpress
My new toy just arrived, compliments of Amazon.com: Final Cut Express. So, I'm now armed and dangerous when it comes to video editing. OK, ok, so it's not Final Cut Pro, but it's got a solid subset of features for video editing (and it was MUCH cheaper), and I'm working with two other editors who have Final Cut Pro (so they can do the extra heavy lifting if needed). Onwards to the editing of RubyNation conference content!
RubyNation 2011
We felt that the April timeframe worked out so well for RubyNation 2010 that we've already booked the same timeframe for RubyNation 2011. Next year's conference will be April 8 - 9, 2011, with a separately paid for training day on April 7 for those who are interested.
New Computer Consultants Meetup
My friend,
Charles Calvert, has just formed a new Computer Consultants meetup to replace the now-defunct Independent Computer Consultants Association (ICCA), which went bankrupt at the end of 2009. If you're interested in consulting, you should think about trying out one of this group's meetings.
Joining Toastmasters
I joined
Toastmasters last Wednesday to ramp up my public speaking skills, particularly since I've been regularly speaking at user groups and technical conferences. My long-term goal is to be as effective in front of an audience as speakers that I admire, such as nationally known speakers like Dave Thomas and Chad Fowler, or top local speakers like Jeff Casimir.
Choose Your Own Price
My friend, Carl Fyffe, brought this interesting blog post to my attention. It's from a freelancer who has used a technique where he lets clients pay him what they think a task is worth.
Two External Drives and Final Cut Express
I just spent $641.16 on equipment to accommodate the video editing needs of RubyNation 2010. Specifically, I ordered two 2TB Western Digital external drives with FireWire800 support to handle our video storage needs. The FireWire800 support also ensures that the drives can be used as scratch drives during video editing. Additionally, I ordered Final Cut Express for myself (my other editors both have Final Cut Pro, so we're covered).
RubyNation Restrospective 2010
We just had the Retrospective for RubyNation 2010, where all of the organizers get together for a celebratory dinner and discuss 1) what worked well with the conference, and 2) what needs to be improved for next year. I believe this strategy is one of the key reasons that RubyNation has steadily improved as a conference over the past three years.
KeenerTech Crosses Milestone
KeenerTech.com just recently crossed an important milestone. I implemented Google's AdSense program in December 2009. The site is getting enough traffic now, and has Google ads sufficiently integrated into the site, that KeenerTech.com is now self-sustaining. That is, the site earns at least enough through advertising to pay for its hosting costs. As a by-product, it also covers the hosting costs of the other sites that I host for various people.
Running Amuck at Quantico
Those pesky marketing folks at
MetroStar Systems have done it again. Our company is sponsoring the Marine Corps series of races, and the marketing folks pounced on me (in a weak moment) and convinced me to sign up for the Marine Corps
Run Amuck race on August 14th. This four-mile race engages runners in obstacles, mud pits, a water challenge and more beginning at 8:00 AM!
On Media Convergence
Here's an interesting video perspective on media convergence. Quite nicely done,by the way.
MetroStar Ad
Here's a preview of MetroStar Systems' full-page advertisement in the RubyNation 2010 Conference Program. I was surprised (and pleased) when the Marketing team incorporated pictures of myself and Dave McVicar into the ad.
Great Stats About Google
This link shows some really interesting info graphs about Google. It shows just what an Internet behemoth Google has become.
FaceBook Stats
OK, here are some really cool statistics about FaceBook. This was actually strategic for me, since I'm doing a talk on FaceBook and Rails in a couple of weeks at RubyNation 2010.
MetroStar Launches Votridea Contest Platform
My company, MetroStar Systems, just a launched a new product called Votridea. It's a contest platform, generalized from our ExchangesConnect online video contest, that can foster brand awareness, build social communities and promote innovation.
Volunteers Needed for RubyNation 2010
The video production effort for RubyNation 2010 is really taking shape now, and it's clear that we're going to need more volunteers to help out. We're up to 7 cameras and two additional recording devices now. Contact me if you're interested in helping out on April 8 - 11, 2010.
Perspectives on the IPhone
Here's an interesting, and decidedly negative, perspective on IPhone apps from Mark Suster, an entrepreneur turned venture capitalist. A lot of his remarks make good sense.
Upcoming Ruby Conferences for 2010
Here's the most comprehensive list of upcoming Ruby conferences that I've seen. It's also nice to see that
RubyNation is among the conferences listed.
RubyNation Video Production Site Survey
I just completed the video production site survey at the Sheraton Hotel, where we've got the master ballroom and a junior ballroom booked for RubyNation 2010. We resolved most of the big audio/visual setup issues, so all systems are green for this year's video production effort. We'll be video-taping the conference sessions, as well as producing a television documentary about the conference.
BBC Redoes Web Site
The BBC has decided to re-design their web site. This blog entry provides in-depth details about the whole design process, as the BBC rebuilds its entire online digital image. There are some nice insights here. Check it out.
Exchanges Connect Top 40 Announced
The Top 40 videos for the Exchanges Connect Online Video Contest have been chosen. I was part of the team that created and ran the contest for the Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Now it's in the hands of the celebrity judges to select the final winners!
KeenerTech.com Upgraded!
KeenerTech.com has been upgraded from Rails 2.2.2 to Rails 2.3.5. Even better, the site is now hosted using Phusion Passenger and Nginx, for faster performance than ever before. As a bonus, we've even upgraded to the latest version of the ActiveScaffold plugin.
My Talk at RubyNation 2010
I will be speaking at
RubyNation 2010. My topic is "Leveraging Rails to Build FaceBook Applications." This is a distillation of some of the practical tactics that my development team at
MetroStar Systems has used to create highly successful FaceBook applications using Rails, including real-life systems like
PollCast and
Iran Voices. FaceBook is the world's largest social network, with over 600 million members.
RubyNation 2010 Speakers Selected
The conference organizers, including myself, met last night to finish the evaluation of the 60+ talk proposals we received this year for RubyNation. After a lot of discussion, we've now narrowed them down to the final set, pending some last minute tweaking and final confirmations of a few details with a couple of the speakers. Notifications of acceptance/non-acceptance will be going out soon.
A How-To Video About FaceBook Connect
This How-To video is a great, language-agnostic introduction to leveraging FaceBook Connect for external web sites, i.e. - sites that don't function within the FaceBook "chrome." From Luke Shepard and Wei Zhu, two engineers on the FaceBook Connect team.
Ruby is 10th Most Popular Programming Language
Tiobe Software does a monthly index of the top programming languages. Ruby is listed as the 10th most popular language. Java, as you might expect, is ranked first (although its market share has been steadily declining over time). It's an interesting overview. Check it out.
Cory Doctorow on Internet Productivity
Cory Doctorow, writer and Internet commentator, compares the Internet to rock-n-roll, citing the fluid, chaotic nature of Internet businesses. He holds that the primary advantage offered by the Internet is "doing something X-percent as well with less-than-X-percent" of the necessary resources.
Yes, My Yahoo Account Got Hacked
My Yahoo account got hacked. Joy. I've used Yahoo for about 10 years now to manage my various email accounts, and was not pleased at this development. Yes, I'm also aware that all my contacts got spammed.
Git is Great for Branches
I've been using
git pretty heavily lately. The commands are a little wonky to learn, but once you've mastered a core set, distributed software revision control becomes a snap. I'm particularly impressed with how smoothly
git manages branches and synchronization. I remember how painful that was in Subversion (and CVS).
SlideShare Down For the Count
Started to get all of the KeenerTech.com presentations online via
SlideShare, but they seem to be down for the count. All major functionality (uploads, etc.) seems to be down except for, fortunately, support for embedded presentations. You'd think they'd have some sort of contingency plan in effect or some kind of staff notification feature.
Article View Counts
I just added view counts for all of the articles on the web site, and this count is now displayed for all articles that have over a 100 page views (which is most of them generally, except the newest ones). The hardest part was collating the data (which goes back to 2005 and comes from several different sources) and getting it ported into the database. So this is how I occupy myself during the Blizzard of '09.
AWStats Now Working
Finally got
AWStats working for this blog site. I've already got SiteMeter (the free version), which provides one view of the site's traffic, but it will be interesting to contrast this with the more detailed view provided by AWStats.
Finding Good Twitter Lists
Twitter just recently added a feature that allows users to organize the people they're following into meaningful lists. However, Twitter doesn't really provide a way for users to search for interesting lists. When Wini Tse asked me how to find good lists, I quickly discovered the
Listorious site. Check it out, they did a nice job on the site.
Atom Feed Fixed
For those who follow KeenerTech.com via a feed reader, there was a slight problem with our Atom feed. That problem has now been fixed.
ExchangesConnect Contest Site Live!
The 2nd Annual
ExchangesConnect Video Contest launched at noon today. Within hours, users were uploading the first videos for the contest. I'm really pleased to have been involved in the development of this contest.
Beer and BBQ at RubyNation
Woohoo! My company,
MetroStar Systems, has signed up to be RubyNation's Friday night Happy Hour sponsor, featuring two of the major food groups: Beer and BBQ!
RubyNation Interviews
I was in the studio yesterday with a team of 7 volunteers to videotape interview footage for my upcoming documentary, "The Road to RubyNation: The Making of a Conference." Interviewees included: 1) Gray Herter, the chief organizer of RubyNation, 2) myself as a RubyNation organizer, and 3) Johnny Nguyen, Vice President of the New Media Group at
MetroStar Systems.
Grab Networks Lays Off Entire Ruby Team
Grab Networks, the media company known for making news video clips available on the Internet, just laid off their entire Ruby development team yesterday. I worked there myself until midsummer, so I know all of the folks who just got the axe. If your organization is looking for some good Ruby (or Java) developers, check out my
Contacts page and send me an email.
Installing Fonts on the Mac
I recently had to add some fonts to my Mac so I could use them in Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Word. It turns out that it's really easy. Click
here to find out how.
RubyNation 2010 Date is Moving, Part 2
It's looking like April 9-10, 2010 will be the revised date for the RubyNation 2010 conference. Not confirmed yet, but looks likely.
Arlington Independent Media
David Keener just signed up for video production courses with
Arlington Independent Media (AIM). Their "Studio Production" class begins on October 10, 2009.
RubyNation 2010 Date is Moving
After a moderately unpopular sojourn to Las Vegas,
RailsConf has been hinting about a move to the East Coast of the United States. Today, they dropped the bombshell that RailsConf 2010 will be held in Baltimore, virtually in our backyard, in June 2010. This is, unfortunately, also the timeframe when we were planning to hold RubyNation 2010. So, it looks like RubyNation will be moving out of the way of its much larger (and considerably more expensive) cousin. March 2010 looks like a major contender for RubyNation's new date. More news later as it becomes available.
RubyNation Web Site Updated
Just finished the latest update to the
RubyNation web site. Moved 2009 content into the archive area, and updated the remaining content to reflect the run-up to the next conference in June 2010 (exact date and venue still to be determined). Next step, we're working on a new look-and-feel, thanks to some help from Don Anderson, graphic artist extraordinaire.
Making Money Online
This is a great round-up from Josh Catone on the
Mashable site. It covers 15 great sites that people are using to make real money online.
Check out the Huge Multi-Touch, Multi-User Touch Wall
Schematic is a design group that has created a multi-touch, multi-user touch wall for Cannes. To picture it, just think of multiple iPhone apps running on a large wall screen at the same time and supporting many users in an impressive, graphically intense fashion. Very cool stuff. Click on the title to view a video.
David Keener Speaking at "Rails 101 Night"
David Keener will be speaking, along with Gray Herter and Arild Shirazi, at the Rails 101 Night being hosted by the
NovaRUG. The night is aimed at Ruby newbies, and will be focused loosely on "rails persistence," i.e. - how data gets stored in the database. Dave's topic will be "Rails Tips and Tricks" — basically, a compendium of tips that Dave wished he'd had in-hand when he started programming in Rails.
Loudoun County #4 For Job Growth
Loudoun County just ranked #4 in the United States for job growth according to
CNN Money. There may be an economic downturn, but the IT market in Northern Virginia is hopping along just fine.
Atom Feed Now Available
I've just added an
Atom feed to the KeenerTech.com web site. The feed makes articles easily accessible to users with any feed reader. It also makes it easier to leverage the content on other sites, e.g. - article entries are now visible on
LinkedIn.
Just Finished iPhone SDK Training
Dave Keener just completed Pragmatic Studio's "iPhone SDk" training course, held in Reston, VA this week. "Highly recommended for those who are serious about embarking into the realm of iPhone application development," stated David Keener. The course covered the SDK, some fundamentals of Objective C, development tools (XCode and other tools), and various Cocoa Touch capabilities. The class was taught by Bill Dudney and Daniel Steinberg.
JRuby Team Jumps to EngineYard
Oracle is in the process of acquiring Sun, where three core team members of the JRuby development team work. Charles Nutter and company have jumped ship to join EngineYard, a prominent hosting company and a major supporter of the Ruby community. In fact, they're one of the sponsors of our local RubyNation Conference. There's more
information about this on Slashdot.org.
Steve Keener at Apraho National Forest
Steve was just on vacation in Colorado for some dedicated cross-country riding. On Day 7 of the "riding" vacation, he set up his Oregon Scientific helmet mounted camera, so here's a YouTube video showing what it was like to travel through Apraho National Park on a dirt bike.
New Specktrum Release
A new release of
Specktrum.net went live today. As part of the release, the web site has been moved from Windows hosting to Linux (CentOS) hosting using the Apache web server. Specktrum is an accounting firm.
Skillset In a Day
David Keener has been invited by
Code Sherpas to create a course for their "Skillset In a Day" educational program. The Skillset in a Day series consists of one-day courses that delve deeply into a single technical subject. They are designed to give technical professionals a jump-start in the target subject in a minimum amount of time.
Radical Career Success Online
On July 1, 2009, Chad Fowler and Andy Lester had an excellent webcast, sponsored by O'Reilly, called "Radical Career Success in a Down Economy." The recording of that
webcast is now available online, as well as my
blog entry discussing the talk.
RubyNation 2009 Survey Results
Survey results from the RubyNation 2009 survey have been trickling in, and we're very pleased with the results. This was only the second year that we've run the conference, and we've sold out both years. Even better, 2009 had 15% more attendees than 2008, so we were able to occupy a larger venue. Anyway, 66.8% of respondents rated RubyNation Very Good or Excellent compared to similar conferences. Counting in those who considered the conference Average for its type, 91.8% of respondents considered RubyNation to be Average or better for this type of technical conference.
All Articles Now Online Again
All KeenerTech.com articles are now online again. Some of the older articles, from 2006 and early 2007, required extra work to get them moved into the new content management system. So, now you know how Dave Keener spent a good part of his July 4th holiday weekend.
Missing Content Online Soon
There are still a few issues being worked out since the launch of the new KeenerTech.com on Sunday, June 21. The largest is that some of the oldest articles on the site, including a couple of Dave's most popular articles, are not online yet. That will be fixed by the end of this upcoming weekend. Those articles actually pre-date any use of a content management system for the site and are thus in HTML form. They'll be online as soon as they can be entered into the site's CMS and be suitably edited and verified.
Charles Calvert Talk in Tysons Corner
Charles Calvert will be talking at the next meeting of the Independent Computer Consultants Association in Tysons Corner. His topic will be "Becoming an Independent Consultant." The meeting is at the Olive Garden. Networking begins at 6:30 PM, dinner at 7:00 and the talk will start around 8:00. The cost is $30 for non-members ($35 at the door), but this cost also includes the dinner and non-alcoholic beverages.
Character Encoding in Ruby
I recently ran into a need to do some serious character encoding conversion in Ruby. Specifically, I need to convert text from Latin1 encoding to UTF-8. This article told me everything that I needed to do to accomplish the conversion. This actually Part 6 of an excellent multi-page article on character encoding issues in Ruby 1.8.x and 1.9.
Subversion Branching and Merging
This blog entry by Ned Batchelder is basically the best article I've seen on branching and merging using Subversion.
Videos from Scotland on Rails
The
videos of the major presentations from the Scotland on Rails conference are now available online, compliments of
EngineYard.
Next NovaRUG Meeting Should Be Good
Chad Fowler and Dave Thomas, two prominent Ruby-ists, will be speaking at the next NovaRUG meeting on April 15, 2009. Talks start at 7:00 PM; networking begins at 6:30. It may be crowded, so register in advance. The meeting will be held at FGM headquarters; see the NovaRUG web site for details on the location and how to register.
Hosting With WebFaction
Based on recommendations from several of my fellow web professionals, including Naveen Vemula and Allan Bunch, I've chosen
WebFaction.com for my Rails web hosting needs. I have 4 web sites that will be moved to Rails over the next few months, including KeenerTech.com.
Recent Partial Web Site Outage
My apologies to everyone for the recent problems with the web site. My hosting company, AccuWebHosting.com, made a sweeping security policy change on the Windows host where my site resides which broke major portions of my web site. Basically, they broke the site's capability to show the full text of articles and also broke most of the administrative features of the site ... right before I went on vacation to Scotland for 10 days. Needless to say, I exchanged some progressively more aggressive emails with them until the problem was resolved today.
RubyNation Speakers Selected
The list of RubyNation speakers has now been finalized, and I will be one the local DC-area speakers again this year. My topic is going to be: "Creating a World-Class RESTful API in Rails." This is based on my direct experience at
Grab Networks.com creating a robust, Amazon-style API for use by partners and, eventually, the public.
Specktrum.net Goes Live
I just completed a new web site, Specktrum.net, for a small accounting firm owned and operated by Mark Speck. The site officially went live today.
Speaking at the ICAA June Meeting
I just got confirmation that I''ll be speaking on Rails at the June 2009 meeting of the
ICCA, the Independent Computer Consultants Association. The meeting will be June 9th ay 6:30 PM at the Olive Garden in Tysons Corner. Socializing begins at 6:30, dinner at 7:00 and the presentation at 8:00. The meeting is open to the public.
Location: Olive Garden Restaurant, 8133 Leesburg Pike, Vienna VA 22182
RubyNation 2009 Web Site Now Up!
Karen Gillison, of
CodeSherpas and I just finished all of the updates for the RubyNation 2009 web site, and the updates are now live. Last year we maintained the content in, essentially, straight HTML, so this year I added a custom-built content management system to make posting news items to the site easier (implemented using
Active Scaffold). The
Call for Papers is now officially open, too.
RubyNation 2009
Ruby enthusiasts of the Washington DC metropolitan area, mark your calendars. We've confirmed the date for RubyNation 2009. It's going to be June 12 - 13 in Reston, VA. Based on last year's sell-through, we have commissioned a larger venue. We're going to have it at the Sheraton Hotel, where we can expand it to accommodate 200+ people, rather than the hard limit of 125 that we had at last year's conference. It's also going to be a dual-track event this year.
KeenerTech Version 3
A new version of the KeenerTech.com web site, designated as Version 3, is in the works. Version 1 was a Java/JSP intranet (on my home network); Version 2 is the current ASP.NET site. Version 3 is a full Rails 2.2.2 site, with admin functionality implemented using the
ActiveScaffold plugin, a wider page content area and numerous other features. This should explain why there's been fewer blog entries on the site lately (plus the workload at Grab Networks, of course).
Voxant Merges With Anystream
The official announcement went out over the wires today. My company,
Voxant Media, just merged with
Anystream. Voxant Media specializes in building an advertiser-supported distribution network for monetizing content such as video, images and text. Anystream produces products that process video, transcribe video as needed and generally make it available for distribution. Their most notable recent activity is streaming all of the content from the Beijing Olympics. Check out the official
press release.
Reactions on the Voxant-Anystream Merger
Some more reactions to the merger:
WorldCon 66
Dave Keener attended the 66th World Science Fiction Convention in Denver, Colorado, from August 7 to 11. As per usual, there were lots of great events, good food and many, many SF books. The convention center was also nice, with an interesting statue, as shown below:
RubyNation 2008!!!
The
RubyNation 2008 Conference was a stunning success on August 1 - 2, easily at the upper end of what the organizers were hoping for. The CIT venue was excellent, with plenty of parking, a really nice auditorium and good electronics capabilities. The catering was first-rate. Finally, the array of speakers and the mix of topics went over very well with the audience. Rest assured, there will be a RubyNation 2009.
Merging Branches in Subversion
In Voxant's codebase today, I had to merge a branch back into the trunk. As a recent converter to
Subversion, this was new to me, so I went looking in the Blogosphere to find out how to do the merge effectively. I came across this nice blog entry from Eleutian Technology:
How to Branch Properly.
RubyNation Conference Sold Out!
As one of the organizers, I'm proud to say that the RubyNation 2008 Conference has sold out. All 125 tickets (at $175 each) were sold in 52 days, which is excellent for any technical conference, let alone the first year of a conference. We were also able to attract a number of great sponsors, as well as companies to provide some truly excellent giveaways. Between the tickets selling out and the sponsors, the conference is solidly in the black, which is also gratifying (since there are some pretty hefty hard costs associated with running a conference).
Portland Trip
I just got back from a business trip to Portland, Oregon, where I got to spend four virtually uninterrupted days designing RESTful web services with some excellent developers. Staying in downtown Portland was a treat; the city was gorgeous, the weather was delightfully mild and walking through the city was a lot of fun. I also got to try out a bunch of really nice restaurants at company expense. I even managed to catch a glimpse of the majestic Mount Hood from my hotel room.
RubyNation Tickets Selling Nicely
Tickets for
RubyNation 2008, a new regional Ruby conference that I'm helping to organize, are selling briskly. We're at about the 75% mark, with ticket prices due to increase by $25 on July 16th. By my calculations, we're already in the black based on ticket sales and sponsorships, which is always a vital milestone. My guess is that RubyNation will be sold out at least a week before the conference.
Scotland Trip 2008
David and Sally Keener toured Scotland, Sally's homeland, from May 14th to May 27th. Highlights included a highland journey to scenic Loch Lomond, a guided tour of the Cruacha Power Station (a water-based electrical generating plant tunneled into a granite mountain), shopping in Glasgow and many pubs. The top restaurant for this trip was the
River House, situated next to a small loch and literally within view of Stirling Castle.
RubyNation 2008 Registration Now Open
Registration for the 2008 RubyNation Conference just opened today. Join the nation! Get your ticket for the DC area's very own regional Ruby conference.
RubyNation Progress Report
Plans for
RubyNation, a new regional conference serving metropolitan DC and surrounding areas, is progressing nicely. The venue and budget have been finalized. The Call for Papers just closed earlier this week, and final selection of speakers will be done in a couple of days. Finally, registration will be opening shortly for this two-day conference, which will start on August 1, 2008.
On the Steering Committee for RubyNation.org
I was honored to be asked to join the Steering Committee for
RubyNation.org, which is a new, regional Ruby Conference that will be held in the DC metropolitan area this year. The organization is headed up by a sterling group of people, who I have already worked with in various capacities. Naturally, I accepted, even though I realize it's going to be a lot of work. We're expecting not only to run a successful conference this year, but we're also hoping to make it an annual event.
JFreeChart Presentation for NovaJUG
I will be presenting for the Northern Virginia Java Users Group (
NovaJUG) on April 9, 2008. The topic will be "Creating Dynamic Charts With JFreeChart." I've given this talk several times for AOL during my recent tenure there, so the presentation is already available in PDF form on my
Presentations page. See the NovaJUG web site for directions to the meeting location at the FGM headquarters in Reston. The talk begins at 7:00 PM, although the (optional) networking activities begin around 6:30 PM.
Regional Ruby Conference (2008)
The as-yet-unnamed regional Ruby conference being planned by the
NovaRUG has been tentatively scheduled for June 28th. Right now, it's planned as a one-day event, although I'm hopeful that it will expand to a two-day event. Expansion to two days would, of course, increase my chances of being one of the speakers.
Shenandoah Speaking Engagement
I have been asked by the
Shenandoah Ruby Users Group to give my OpenID/Rails presentation to their membership. I'm scheduled for June 24, 2008 at their regular meeting locale, which is the headquarters of Rosetta Stone in Harrisonburg, VA.
Temporarily Unemployed
As of today, I am temporarily unemployed. Yes, this means that I am yet another ex-AOL employee, although my separation was voluntary rather than being the result of one of AOL's notorious rolling layoffs. Fortunately, my unemployment will only last three days, after which I'll start my new job as a Technical Architect for
Voxant.
Dead Man Walking
This blistering
article in the April issue of
Fast Company exposes the management problems, lack of vision and business ineptitude that have transformed AOL from a high-flying Internet company and world-class brand-name into a slow-motion train wreck. The article is also strikingly negative about Randy Falco's reign of error as the CEO of the organization.
Arthur C. Clarke
Pioneering science fiction writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke has died at 90. He's best known as the author of classic science fiction novels such as "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Rendezvous with Rama" and others.
Regional Ruby Conference
I'm a member of a
NovaRUG committee that's organizing a regional Ruby conference for the Northern Virginia area, to be held sometime in June 2008. I'll post more news about this event as it becomes available. I'm also tentatively planning to speak at the event, probably on a topic related to JRuby.
Joining Voxant
Well, after five productive years at AOL, I'm finally leaving for greener pastures. I officially submitted my resignation notice to AOL today. I'll be joining
Voxant as a technical architect, effective March 31, 2008.
AOL Ruby Users Group
I got a last-minute request to speak at the AOL Ruby Users Group, which is held the second Thursday of each month (March 13th for this month). So they're getting a preview of my March 19th NovaRUG presentation. The topic will be "Implementing OpenID for Your Social Networking Web Site."
NovaJUG and JFreeChart
I will be presenting for the Northern Virginia Java Users Group (
NovaJUG) on April 9, 2008. The topic will be "Creating Dynamic Charts With JFreeChart."
NovaRUG: March 19th
I will be speaking at the Northern Virginia Ruby Users Group on March 19, 2008. The topic will be "Implementing OpenID for Your Social Networking Web Site." Meetings start at 6:00 PM for networking, with presentations beginning at 7:00 PM. Meetings are held at the FGM building in Reston; see the
NovaRug web site for directions.
Metro Web Services Stack
I've started working with
Metro 1.1, the new, high-performance web services stack from Sun. Metro packages up Sun's reference implementation of JAX-WS (Java API for XML Web Services), JAXB for bindings and WSIT (Web Services Interoperability Technologies) into one comprehensive package. I'm sure I'll be posting more about my experiences later.
Movies
OK, it's no secret that I'm a huge movie buff. It's also no secret that, while I enjoy the typical, over-hyped, over-the-top Hollywood action thriller as much as the next person, I'm much more excited about movies that reach out and make an emotional connection. A number of people have recently asked me for a list of the movies and television shows in my
DVD collection, so I decided to put it online.
Rails 2.0 Released
Check out the link below to find out more about this eagerly awaited release.
QuickStart Rails
I decided to create some brief "Quick Start" presentations with the expectation that there might be opportunities to present them as "fillers" at other events. No sooner did I finish the first one, "Quick Start: What Is Rails?", than I found myself presenting it internally within AOL twice in two weeks. The
PDF of the presentation is now available online. Check out the
Presentations web page for other available presentations.
Winning an iPod Touch
I just won the new 8GB iPod Touch at an AOL offsite event (for best team scores in bowling if you can believe it). Within 8 hours, I had it filled with music, i.e. - more than 700 songs. Truly an impressive device ... expect some posts about it later.
AOL Brown Bag Presentation
I will be conducting my presentation, "Using Rails to Create an Enterprise App: A Real-Life Case Study," as a Brown Bag presentation at AOL on November 27th, 2007.
Yes, It's Confirmed
I will be be doing the December presentation for the Washington DC Ruby on Rails User Group. The meeting will be held December 13th at George Washington University, from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM.
December DCRUG Meeting
Still waiting for final confirmation, but right now it looks like I'll be presenting at the December meeting of the Washington DC Ruby on Rails Users Group. The meeting will be held at George Washington University. The topic is going to be "Leveraging OpenID in Rails."
Surviving the AOL 2007 Layoff
I was fortunate enough to survive today's layoff at AOL, which was particularly brutal for the Dulles, VA campus. Half of the development team that I worked for got cut today. Many of my friends and co-workers also got the axe. While I am, of course, happy to continue having a job that's a mere 5 minute commute for me, I can't help but think that, in some very fundamental ways, AOL has lost its way.
AOL Unconference
David Keener did a presentation on
JFreeChart at AOL's Unconference. This unique event exposed AOL's IT staff to a wide array of technical topics presented by some of AOL's top technologists.
First Internal Rails App at AOL
David Keener led the team that launched the Exception Request Tool (ERT), the first internal corporate application to be fielded (and actively used) at AOL using Ruby on Rails. This follows on the heels of
Ficlets and
circaVie, the first two customer-facing applications fielded with Rails.
Traffic Diary
My brand-new
Traffic Diary blog provides a detailed look at the types of low-cost tactics that can be used to promote web sites. Using KeenerTech.com as an example, this blog provides statistics and analysis regarding the effectiveness of various guerilla promotional techniques. Note: (12/28/09) — This has become a series of interlinked
articles.
Giving October Presentation for DCRUG
It's official. I've signed up to do the October presentation for the Washington DC Ruby Users Group. The topic of the presentation will be "Using Rails to Create an Enterprise App: A Case Study." The talk will focus on real-life issues, and solutions, associated with using Rails to create a business application for use by AOL employees. I'm currently seeking permission from AOL to release real-life screen shots and related information. It should be an eye-opening presentation.
Scotland Trip
The Keeners went to Scotland for vacation from May 10 to May 21. Highlights included visits with Sally's relatives, various pubs, shopping, Dave pulling a muscle, various pubs and limping around places like Glasgow.
Elected as Director for the Belle Terra Community
On April 26th, Dave Keener was elected to the Board of Directors for the Belle Terra community.
Chad Fowler's Rails Class
Compliments to AOL, for procuring several session of Chad Fowler's Ruby on Rails class, one of which I'm enrolled in beginning Monday, March 26th. Chad Fowler is the author of the book "Rails Recipes."
Northern Virginia Ruby Users Group
Douglas Sellers gave a nice presentation on the practical uses of Selenium for testing web sites. He then demonstrated some of the advantages of using Selenium on Rails to improve the testing experience. Afterwards,
Sean Mountcastle spoke on REST development in Rails.
Presentation on JFreeChart
I conducted a presentation at America Online on JFreeChart, a very nice open source charting package. See my
Presentations web page to view a PDF of the presentation.
NOVA Ruby Users Group
Chad Fowler, author of the book "Rails Recipes," covered a grab bag of Rails tips and tricks during his presentation at the users group meeting in Reston. It was a well-attended meeting.
Skiing in Utah
Due to the extreme lack of snow on the East Coast, the regularly scheduled Killington ski trip to Vermont morphed into a last minute excursion to Salt Lake City, Utah, from December 30 to January 1, 2007. See
Dave at the Alta ski resort, accompanied by friends Ian Watson and Lucia Capuano from Scotland.
Vacation in Scotland
David and Sally Keener visited Scotland for vacation from November 18 - 28, where they got to enjoy seven days of rain (out of ten days). Hey, this is what happens when you visit Scotland during the rainy season.
Belle Terra Phase 2
Phase 2 of the Belle Terra web site launched today. This release seamlessly augments the site by integrating a full-featured content management system into it. New features include user authentication, permission-based access to features, banner advertising and rotating reminders.
Parade of Homes
Dave and Sally Keener attended the Northern Virginia Parade of Homes, which was sponsored by B.F. Saul Mortgage. The promotional event allows custom home builders to showcase some of the best homes in the area.
DC Ruby on Rails User Group
Dave volunteers to design the web site, including the look-and-feel, for the newly formed Washington DC Ruby on Rails User Group. Ruby on Rails is one of the hot, new technologies for producing highly functional web sites in minimal timeframes.
Architectural Guidelines, Final
The ARC Recommendations Committee of the Belle Terra community delivered the
final version of the new Belle Terra Architectural Guidelines to the Board of Directors for consideration. Dave worked as the technical writer who helped the committee draft the new guidelines.
New KeenerTech Look
David Keener unveils a sleek, new look for the KeenerTech web site, replacing the original look-and-feel that the site launched with in 2004.
Architectural Guidelines
On behalf of the ARC Recommendations Committee, Dave delivers revision 0.8 of the Belle Terra Architectural Guidelines, the first version to be submitted for external review. Dave volunteered in April as a technical writer to help the
Belle Terra community draft new guidelines.
WorldCon 64
David Keener attended the 64th World Science Fiction Convention in Anaheim, CA, from August 23 to August 27. One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to the
bridge of the Starship Enterprise. Dave also supported the convention by working as a volunteer.
MilitaryByOwner.com
David Keener becomes a monthly columnist for MilitaryByOwner.com, a web site that publicizes homes for sale or rental by military personnel. Leveraging his extensive property management experience, Dave will be regularly covering topics related to managing rental properties.
Bentley Homes Property Management
David and Sally Keener offically organize their property management and real estate investment activities as an ongoing business concern.
Scotland Vacation
The Keeners go to Scotland for vacation from April 16 to April 25. Highlights included visits with Sally's relatives, shopping, various pubs and indoor skiing at the new
XScape center adjacent to the Braehead Mall.
Lake Anna Holiday
The Keeners are invited to visit overnight at the Lake Anna cabin of Andrea and Roger Monaghan. The cabin is advertised on the web as Lake Cabin Retreat, and is a splendid rental.
Lakes Community Meeting
The second meeting of the Lakes of Belle Terra neighborhood was held at the house of David and Sally Keener. More than 30 people attended. Discussions included prioritization of neighborhood problems, selection of a neighborhood ARC organization and other issues. The goal of the meeting was to ensure that the homeowners association addresses the issues currently impacting the neighborhood.
Belle Terra Web Site Launches
The initial version of the Belle Terra web site launches. The site includes key HOA documents, as well as extensive information about the Belle Terra community.
Belle Terra Web Site Demonstrated to Board
An early version of the Belle Terra community web site was demonstrated to the Board of Directors. Attendees included Michael Lowman, Tim Holmes, John Johnson, Al Wilhelm and Caryn Moran, plus hosts David and Sally Keener. The demonstration was well received; only minor text changes were requested by the board.
Muddawg.com Web Site Launches
The web site for the MudDawg professional motorcycle racing team went live today. The web site embodies a stark, minimalistic design that conveys speed to viewers.
WorldCon 63
David Keener attended Interaction, the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, Scotland, from August 4 to August 8. The convention coincidentally took place during David and Sally Keener's regular vacation to Scotland.
Interviewing Tips for Recruiters
Interviewing candidates is a difficult task. This article provides practical tips for interviewing candidates.
Rating Career Sites Using the Candidate Ratio
In advertising to employers, career sites often promote their "candidate ratio," a statistic that describes how many job seekers they have in comparison to the number of job opportunities listed. How useful is this statistic?
