PragDave

They Shoot Presenters, Don't They?

Remember the Sydney Pollack film They Shoot Horses, Don't They? We got to watch a set of desperate dancers turn themselves into near corpses as they compete in a grueling dance marathon. Who can dance continuously the longest?

Well, it looks like Mike and Nicole's copy must have arrived from NetFlix. It's clearly inspired their latest offering—back-to-back Advanced Rails and Advanced Ruby Studios in Reston this May.

Actually, it's a really clever idea. Many people want to do both, and by piggybacking them like this, these folks will be able to save a couple of days travel time. (Of course, you don't have to do both--they're open for individual enrollment too.)

And, here's a hint. Once you've attended any Studio, you're an alumnus. And alumni get a discount. So, if you did happen to want to attend both, it seems to me that for the second, you're an alum. So you should probably choose the alumni rate for that second Studio...

It should be fun betting on which of the presenters drops first.

Advanced Ruby Studio

Mike and Nicole have been presenting the Rails Studio and the Advanced Rails Studio for a while now. Almost all of them sell out, which says a lot about the quality of both the material and their organization.

So now we're branching out. Chad Fowler and I are putting together an Advanced Ruby course. The first is slated for July 18–20 in Reston.

We've had fun deciding what to include. In the end, we decided to look deeply into the areas that make Ruby unique and productive. We went for stuff that's immediately applicable when you're writing Ruby for real applications: integrating Ruby with other applications, networking, advanced programming techniques that make code easier to maintain, metaprogramming, performance, internationalization and localization, debugging, and so on. We decided to do nothing that's Rails specific: this is all Ruby content.

I'm really looking forward to digging deeply into real-world Ruby in the course. And I'm really happy that Ruby has reached a level of acceptance that will support experiences such as these.

Two Hands Bad: The Frustrations of Dreyfus Level One

A while back an interviewer asked what I would do if I had three months of free time. Without hesitation I said "I'd take piano lessons." I've been hacking away on pianos since I was a kid, but I never really learned how to play anything real.

So my wife got wind of the interview (thanks, Google), and for my birthday I got piano lessons. In fact, I got perfect piano lessons—my piano teacher is totally flexible, into theory, and can play just about anything, in any style. He sets homework to do one thing, I get sidetracked and bring back something different, and he just rolls with it and I learn from what I did. It's invigorating, and great fun.

But I'm learning first hand about the Dreyfus model.

The Rails Edge

Mike Clark has announced The Rails Edge, a set of small, regional Rails conferences. The first will be November 16-18 in Denver.

Rails Guidebook

RailsConf 2006 is in its final day, and I just realized that I hadn’t blogged on Rails Guidebook.

The Guidebook was a preconference event. For a day before the conference proper started, attendees got an introduction to all the stuff that’d be hearing about in the following days. It was a combination of a tutorial and a glossary. We didn’t charge. Instead, the cost of admission was a contribution to charity.

The Rails community raised over $8,000

This is wonderful stuff, and Mike and I thank everyone who made it possible: the Ruby Central folks who agreed to add a day to the agenda, Jay Zimmerman for organizing the facilities, the core team members and other experts who turned up to help, Mike and Nicole for doing all the Guidebook logistics, and, more importantly, the folks who turned up and contributed.

A Challenge

If you’re already organizing a conference, adding a guidebook day ahead of it isn’t a great incremental cost. So, here’s a challenge to conference organizers. Let’s start a tradition of these types of charitable events. Let’s make a point of sharing some of our success with others. Not only does it do some good—it’s fun.

Capistrano-Standing Room Only

It was standing-room only at Mike Clark's Capistrano talk: one of the first talks at this year's RailsConf. Latecomers stole chairs from other rooms and fought their way to some free floor space to hear Mike talk about the way we deploy Rails applications.

I'd just finished giving the first keynote. One of my topics was making deployment in Rails easier and more amenable to corporate use. I suspect from the interest in my talk, followed by the overwhelming interest in Mike's talk, that deployment will be one of the hot Rails topics of the coming year.

Production Rails Studio

The good folks over at Pragmatic Studio have just announced their next title, and it’s clearly a winner.

Mike Clark and James Duncan Davidson will we running a studio dedicated to putting Rails applications into production. There’s a clear need for this—there are many, many options when it comes to deploying a Rails applications, and the landscape changes constantly. Mike and JDD are experts at this: they’ve deployed both large and small Rails applications. In fact, I trusted them so much that they’re managing the deployment of the next big Pragmatic Programmer site.

These studios tend to sell out: the Portland Rails Studio filled up last week, the Boston studio is well on its way, and since Mike announced the Production Studio on Sunday he’s been flooded with e-mail. If you’re looking for the best advice on how to get your Rails application into production, I’d get on the list now.

And if you’re looking for advanced Rails training, well… we may have an announcement for you shortly.

Three New Pragmatic Studios

The Rails Studio is hitting the coasts next. Mike and I will be in Portland on April 10-12, and then in Boston May 11-12.

Meanwhile, Stu and Justin take the Ajax Studio to Chicago on April 25-27.

Maybe see you there.

RailsConf and the Rails Guidebook

RailsConf in Chicago (June 22-25) promises to be an exciting affair. And it looks as if there’ll be a number of people coming who are fairly new to Rails.

So Mike and Nicole Clark and I were sitting down after a day of teaching a Rails Studio, and we came up with an idea. We’ll be running a one-day course before the conference. It is designed to bring newcomers to Rails up to speed, both with the framework and with Ruby.

We’re calling it the Rails Guidebook. Think of it as the difference between between turning up somewhere exotic knowing nothing about the language, customs, and places to visit, and turning up having spent a small amount of time reading a guide book. Hopefully, a day spent with us will make the rest of the conference more enjoyable (and informative).

We’re not charging for the Guidebook—it’s our way of saying "thank you" to the community. Instead, we’re asking folks to donate to charity before they come. Space is limited, so you might want to book early. (And, the top 3 contributors will get some perks…)

Rails in the Windy City

After Reston, Denver, and Pasenda, Mike and Nicole are taking the Rails Studio to the midwest. We’ll be doing the three day Rails Studio in Chicago on February 16-18. Based on the signup rates for the other events, you might want to register fairly soon!

Rails Studio Pasadena

From the “bad news, good news” department…

The Rails Studio in Denver has sold out, but Mike and Nicole have just announced a third studio. This one’s on the west coast, in (hopefully) sunny Pasadena on January 26-28. This time we’re being hosted by Earthlink, and we really appreciate their support of the local developer community.

If you’re interested, I suggest signing up fairly early—we seem to fill up fairly fast.

Announcing the Ajax Studio

Love and marriage, horse and carriage, Rails and Ajax.

OK, so they don’t rhyme, but they still go together. So it’s only natural that following on from the Rails Studio, Mike and Nicole would branch out and announce the Ajax Studio. The first one will be held in Reston on February 9-11.

Who’s giving it? It was an easy choice. I’m very possessive about the “Pragmatic” label, so I’ll only be happy when Pragmatic Studios were given by people I know and trust. The Ajax training will be given by two of the best: Stu Halloway and Justin Gehtland. Not only are they experts in the field, they also happen to be two of the best speakers and trainers I know. So, if you’d like to add some Ajax magic to your web applications (ASP.NET, Java, and Rails), you might want to check this out.

(ps. Mike tells me the Denver Rails Studio has only a couple of seats left, so if you’re thinking of going, now’d be a good time to call.)

Second Ruby on Rails Studio

I’ve been biting my lip about this, so it’s a relief to be able to announce the second Pragmatic Ruby on Rails Studio. It’ll be in Denver on January 19—21. We’re planning some changes to kick the New year off with a bang, so if you’re in the area and fancy three intense but fun days learning about Rails, check us out.

The First Rails Studio

It was an intense three days, but it's over! We just finished the very first Rails Studio in sunny (if chilly) Reston, VA. The site couldn't have been better. FGM, Inc hosted us, and they did us proud. The meeting room was great (it even had windows :), and they laid on a network and plenty of power (we were initially surprised at how many folks came with laptops, but FGM came to the rescue with additional power strips and we just squeaked by).

The course itself seemed to go really well. We learned a lot along the way (Dave now knows not to start a new topic and delay lunch). We also adapted the presentation style as we proceeded based on the prior day's feedback. This lead to probably the biggest overall lesson learned. We originally had people coding along with us as we developed our Rails application, but at some point or other just about everyone went down a rabbit hole and had a hard time catching back up. Next time we'll have checkpoint versions of the application available so everyone can sync back up before we move on to the next topic.

I think everyone came away having picked up a lot about Rails coding (not to mention the “I'd Rather Be on Rails” bumper sticker and the exclusive Golden Spike T-Shirt). On the final day, everyone coded their own Rails application—some of these had components and Ajax support!

We'll be announcing the next studio shortly: we're probably looking at the west coast next, with a possible return to the east coast shortly thereafter. In the meantime, there's a bunch of pictures up on flickr which give a pretty good idea of the fun atmosphere.

Thank you, golden spike members, for coming along and making this a success...

A New Way to Learn Ruby and Rails

Well, the cat's out of the bag. After gathering gathering feedback on a venue, Mike Clark and I are thrilled to announce our first Rails Studio. It's a two day intensive Rails event (preceded by an optional 1 day Ruby tutorial for those who've not used it before). It's going to be a lot of fun: Mike and I work well together, and we're both really passionate about Rails.

The first studio is in Reston, Virginia: convenient for folks in DC and New York too. We'll be doing more (hopefully lots more), so be sure to keep looking at the site for details.

The only fly in the ointment is timing: to get everything organized, we need folks to sign up in the next 3 weeks. In fact, if early interest is an indicator, you might not want to leave it that long...

Rails Training

Mike Clark and I are planning on giving a two-day Rails Bootcamp at various locations around the country, starting in the fall. The idea will be to take people from zero to Rails coder, with lots of live coding and plenty of time for Q&A. For folks who don’t know Ruby, there’ll be a one day Ruby course before the main event. Cost is still to be decided, but is likely to be something in the $650—850 range (and maybe about $950—$1150 including the Ruby course)—to some extent the price is driven by the location.

We’re trying to gauge interest, and to work out the best cities. The democratic way to decide seems to be to put it to a vote, so if you’d like to wander on over the the wiki, you can both vote for a location and register to be notified.

Could I beg a favor—could you only vote for a location if you would seriously plan to attend there?

Thanks.

The Pragmatic Studio in Denver

I was in Denver this weekend for a No Fluff show. It was great to see old faces and meet new folks. I was reminded (again) of what a lot of great technologists live in Denver.

I’m really looking forward to coming back in June for our first Pragmatic Studio, the workshop that Andy, Mike Clark, and I are running. With my head down for so long in the Rails book, I hadn’t noticed how close we’re getting to that—there are less than 10 days left for early registration. I must get out more…

The Pragmatic Studio

For a while now, Andy and I have been giving our Pragmatic Workshop to companies around the world. Mike Clark, who wrote our Automation Book has been doing the same, running workshops on testing and automation.

So when three of us got talking, it seemed natural to see if we could bring the threads together and produce a combined workshop covering the Starter Kit essentials. The more we talked, the more fun it sounded—we wanted to put together something a bit more lively and interactive that the typical "sit and listen to someone talk" session. And we wanted to make it stick—these practices are vital to project success, and the more we could help teams come away with the will and knowledge to use them, the better.

Mike did all the work, and he’s done an incredible job. The result is the Pragmatic Studio, a series of two-day events held in cities around the country. The first is in Denver on June 20th and 21st, followed by dates in Seattle and Reston. This is just the start—if you want us to come to your town, drop Mike a note and let us know.

I’m excited about this. In the past, we needed to find companies who’d pay the full cost for us to come in and work with their teams. Now Mike’s put together events where companies can share the costs, sending as many team members as they want.

Maybe we’ll see you there…

The rOOts Conference

I just discovered that I'll be giving "How to keep Your Job" as a keynote at this year's rOOts Conference. This came as something of a surprise: I hadn't actually realized that I was invited. It'll be good: rOOts is a great conference: it is nice and intimate, the audience and speakers have a wonderful time, and Bergen is a great town.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to try to plan the conference trips better. Traditionally, I travel somewhere, do the conference, travel back, and then two weeks later get an e-mail from some company in the conference city saying "oh, we wish we'd known you were going to be here." Perhaps there should be a site where speakers can register their itineraries. In the meantime, it looks like I'm going to be in Norway in early May if anyone wants to meet up.