DABlog

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.

Wearing my Ruby Central director’s hat:

We’ve received a record-smashing 73 talk proposals for RubyConf 2006. That’s more than twice the number we got last year—and last year was about double the previous high.

It’s absolutely great to see all the interesting work that’s being done. I’m feeling buzzed and inspired in a way I usual am after RubyConf.

It’s also agonizing to have to select not much more than a handful of talks. We’ll do it, and the program will be great, but it’s not easy.

RubyConf is a gem of a conference: small (not tiny, but small compared to many), one-track, intense, fun, collegial, coherent, unified. We want it to stay that way; it’s an event many people look forward to and treasure.

The fact that we’ve received 73 proposals doesn’t change that—but it does set us the challenge, as an organization, of looking for more and more ways to get the community together and to let people know what others are doing.

We (that’s “we” as in Ruby Central) have opened up the presentation proposal process for RubyConf 2006.

Now we need proposals!

You don’t need to be a Ruby core developer, author, guru, whatever…. We welcome proposals from anyone and everyone who has about 45-50 minutes worth of ideas, code, plans, experiences—anything Ruby-related. And part of that 45-50 minutes can (and even should) be questions and discussion.

So please propose a talk, or contact me if you have questions.

The deadline is June 30, 2006. (That may get flexed a little, but not much.)