Robby on Rails: Tag railsconf

The Argon Express 2008? It's not too late!

Robby Russell — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:39:00 -0600

Picture yourself and your laptop. It’s been over a day and you’re sitting on a train with a group of Rails developers with a view like this over your shoulder.

Hacking and reading on the train.

Enjoying the sceneary of the U.S.A.

Two years ago… a group of us went from Portland to Chicago for RailsConf 2006 on the Argon Express.

I know this is a tad late… but uf you haven’t purchased plane tickets to Portland yet for CabooseConf or RailsConf 2008 and would be interested in catching the train from somewhere the East Coast, email me and we’ll talk. I’m hoping to organize the Argon Express 2008 over next few weeks.

Ruby on Rails meets the Business World

Robby Russell — Mon, 21 May 2007 19:36:00 -0500

On Saturday, I had the great pleasure of being up in front of several hundred people with the following individuals on the the Business of Rails panel at RailsConf.

Photo by James Duncan Davidson

Moderated by:

Nathaniel Talbott, President, Terralien, Inc.

The Victims:

Justin Gehtland, Founding Partner, Relevance
Geoffrey Grosenbach, Topfunky
Andre Lewis, Earthcode Studios
Joe O’Brien, artisan, EdgeCase, LLC
Robby Russell, Director, PLANET ARGON

Overall, the experience was fantastic. I really enjoyed the questions that Nathaniel and the audience threw our direction, both during and after the session. Throughout the remainder of the conference, people would catch me and present complicated business questions to me and ask for my input. I think that I even helped one guy make his final decision about which job offer he was going to accept (btw, did you decide yet?). It’s always great to share my experiences of leaving my last full-time job (3+ years ago), moving to Rails exclusively (2+ years ago), how Allison and I went from two people in an attic to seven people in an attic in about a month... to having an office in downtown Portland and clients around the globe. I’m also always happy to share my not-so-happy experiences throughout the past few years as well. Running a business is hard stuff as it comes with a whole lot of responsibility, which can lead to stress. It was great to know that the rest of the panel has had their difficult experiences. While Rails makes everything feel easy… running a business is a whole different spectrum of challenges. ;-)

At one point during the session the audience was asked, “How many of you are considering starting your own business based on Ruby on Rails?”

The response?

Based off of my extremely scientific calculations (looking around the room), I’d estimate that around 30-40% of the audience raised their hands! Wow. It was fantastic to see that there was that much interest in people starting venturing off onto their own. Imagine… a flood of new companies, competing directly with us… and guess what? I think that’s awesome! Awesome for Rails. Awesome for future startups. Awesome for everyone!

Let’s face it. Rails isn’t going anywhere for a long time.

So, now that the conference is over, questions have begun to appear in my email box. Thank you all for writing. What if you could have a sounding board to throw questions to on a regular basis? Unfortunately, our session only lasted a hour at RailsConf and too many questions weren’t gotten to. Well, I’ve asked the rest of those on the Business of Rails panel to join me on a google group, titled, Ruby on Rails meets the Business World.

If you’re looking to (A) start your own Rails-based business, (B) already run your own Rails-based business, or ((C)) have business experience that you’d like to share with those in camp A and B… then join the community and start some conversations.

Personally, I’m really looking forward to learning from you all and hope that my experience of co-founding and leading PLANET ARGON can be of benefit to all of you.

Photo by James Duncan Davidson

All the cool kids are doing it... why aren't you?

Robby Russell — Thu, 17 May 2007 13:15:00 -0500

Josh Knowles just mentioned an article written by David Chelminsky, titled, an introduction to RSpec – Part I. In this article, David introduces you to some of the new language that appeared in some of the recent versions of RSpec as well as give you a complete tutorial on building some specs.

Last night, I had the opportunity to sit down with Aslak Hellesøy and David Chelimsky for a few hours and talk about my experiences of using RSpec at PLANET ARGON and how it’s helped us redefine and evolve our process. In particular, how RSpec has helped us reshape our process of gathering user interaction specifications from our Interaction Design team and business rules from our clients.

If you’re in town and are using RSpec… or are thinking about using RSpec… and see these guys… thank them for all the hard work that they’re doing… and of course, if you run into anybody else on the team... do the same. :-)

Aslak Hellesøy and David Chelimsky

Also, by the end of the conference... Graeme and I are hoping to have a small project done to help encourage more adoption of Behavior-Driven Development

Heading to Portland for RailsConf... by foot

Robby Russell — Wed, 16 May 2007 17:21:00 -0500

Yay! It’s almost conference time… and I’m almost completely thrilled!

Why am I not more thrilled? Well, mainly because RailsConf is being hosted here in Portland, which means that I don’t get to travel by train like we did last year via The Argon Express. (ah… the memories)

One perk of being here already… is that I get to act as a tour guide to visitors. For example, earlier today… Josh Susser (hasmanyjosh) joined Graeme and I for lunch in downtown Portland, OR. It was exciting to hear about how he and his fellow Rubyists at Powerset are using Ruby and Rails for various projects. John also spent a few minutes introducing us to Merb, which some people think will become popular in near future. We’re expecting more visitors to come by the offices over the next few days.

If you’re in Portland already (Wednesday)... you might head over to the Lucky Lab for a game of Werewolf, which I believe Michael Buffington is organizing the event. I’m going to try to make it… maybe I’ll see you there!

Flickr Group

I created a flickr group named RailsConf 2007, and started to use the tag railsconf2007 for flickr photos. I look forward to seeing all your photos from the event!

IRC Channel

As of this afternoon, there are almost 20 people hanging out in #railsconf on freenode. Stop by and introduce yourself!

Portland Revealed

If you haven’t already subscribed to our feed, you might have missed that the PLANET ARGON team has been posting several articles about things to do, see, and drink in Portland during your visit to RailsConf. Here are a few that we’ve posted so far.

You can also peak around GoSeeOregon (a Rails application!) to find places around town to go see.

RailsConf is coming to Beertown

Robby Russell — Thu, 10 May 2007 13:05:00 -0500

The team at PLANET ARGON is continuing a series of blog posts for all of you who are coming to Portland, Oregon for RailsConf 2007. Allison just posted Portland Revealed: Episode 2: Beertown, which provides a list of places to get good beer in Portland… starting at the PDX Airport to other places around the conference center. We even through in a platial map to make the beer hunt easier for you. :-)

View all Portland Revealed articles

Speaking at Ostrava on Rails

Robby Russell — Wed, 02 May 2007 09:04:00 -0500

I have been invited to speak at Ostrava on Rails in the Czech Republic this June. I hear that Jamis Buck and Geoffrey Grosenbach will also be speaking at this event. Once a few minor details are set, I’ll post more information about the talk that I am giving, which will related to the Business of Rails panel, which is where you see me speak in just a few weeks at RailsConf 2007 (Portland, OR).

If you’re going to be at the conference in Ostrava, let me know. I’m thinking that I’ll also try to visit Prague before or after the event… as I’ve seen and heard great things about both cities. I believe my lodging in Ostrava will be decided by the powers that be… but if you have any pointers as to where to stay while in Prague, let me know. :-)

Don't Go Hungry During RailsConf 2007

Robby Russell — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 00:13:00 -0600

If you’re going to be coming to Portland, Oregon for RailsConf 2007, be sure to check out the new Urban Edibles website. Michael Bunsen gave a short demonstration of it at the Portland Ruby Brigade monthly meeting. If you’re looking for fig and pear trees within the city limits of Portland, this is the site for you!

Business of Rails Panel at RailsConf 2007

Robby Russell — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 14:57:00 -0600

Trying to finish my book and running PLANET ARGON consumes quite a bit of my time… so when the RailsConf people announced that they were accepting proposals for talks, I opted to pass so that it wouldn’t distract from my sprint to finish my book. :-)

This decision was even easier for me when Nathaniel Talbot invited me to be part of his proposal for a panel of people that are running companies that specialize with Ruby on Rails. I liked the idea and the other people that were invited were all people that I greatly admired and respected… so I said yes. After all, so much of my time and energy goes into this stuff and there isn’t any doubt that I spend way more time on the business side of Rails… than in code these days.

I just got an email from Nathaniel to let me know that his proposal was accepted.

So, if you’ll be at RailsConf 2007 (US), come see me on The Business of Rails panel session.

The following people are planned to be on the panel.

Moderator: Nathaniel Talbott, Terralien Inc.

Panelists include:

Justin Gehtland, Relevance, LLC
Geoffrey Grosenbach, Topfunky Corporation
Andre Lewis, earthcode.com
Joe O’Brien, EdgeCase, LLC
Robby Russell, Planet Argon, LLC

I hope that you all send Nathaniel some great (and tough) questions… ;-)

RailsConf 2007 in style

Robby Russell — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 09:50:00 -0600

Wow, this is pretty cool.

CDBaby is sponsoring conference passes AND twenty rooms at the Jupiter Hotel in Portland, OR during RailsConf 2007 to the top 20 contributors to the Ruby on Rails project from during January.

Start submitting patches!

Rails is not about inventing your own style

Robby Russell — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:40:00 -0500

I meant to post this list of quotes I was compiling while at RailsConf Europe 2006, but never got a chance to do so.

“This is definitely the first time that I have eaten pizza while walking in the rain.” – David Black

“Rails is not about inventing your own style.” -DHH

“Nobody is passionate about something that they suck at.” – Kathy Sierra

“But it’s not about the tools you build, it’s about what your users do with them.” – Kathy Sierra

“What can you help your own users kick ass at?” – Kathy Sierra

“Talk to the brain not the mind.” – Kathy Sierra

“My computer might be at risk. Well, oh well. Life on the edge.” – David Black

Jonathan Lim also posted a few on his blog as well.

RailsConf Europe, day zero

Robby Russell — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 23:33:00 -0500

Arrived in London yesterday after ~13 hours of flying from Portland to Chicago to London. It seems that sleeping on planes (or trains) is not something that my body does well… so I am pretty tired. That mixed with general jet lag due to an eight hour time zone change… my body is feeling pretty confused. In fact, I am typing this from my hotel lobby at 5am.

Yesterday, I was wandering around London, seeking a new UK/US power adapter (thought I blew the one that I brought… long story) and was taking a picture, when I heard a familiar voice say, “Robby?” Go figure… travel across the world and some Canadian (david goodlad) spots you in downtown London. He was walking with Luke Redpath and Jarkko Laine to PizzaOnRails. It’s a good thing that I bumped into them because I thought it was in the complete opposite direction!

Here are a few pictures that I snapped…

The pictures that I took at the pizza & beer party didn’t come out so well… but here is one of James Adam. I was really looking forward to getting to spend some time with him again. We’re both speaking at the Ruby on Rails Seminar in California in a few weeks as well. That’ll make four conferences in six months that we’ve both been to together. :-)

Thanks again to everyone who has sent me links to veggie-friendly places to eat at in London.

Quotes from RailsConf Europe

The only one worth mentioning so far was…

“This is definitely the first time that I have eaten pizza while walking in the rain.” -drblack

Buzz in the Rails community

The RadRails guys are up to no good. Kyle Shank gave us a quick overview of a Rails project that they are working on called HedgeHog. The project is definitely something that I’ll be looking forward to trying when it’s available. :-)
Everybody is extremely busy with client work. By the way, we are hiring.
A Dublin Ruby User Group is in the works… would they be called DRUG? ;-)
Everybody is really excited about BDD!

I’ll try to post entries throughout the day and will be taking lots of notes today.

If you’re in London for RailsConf Europe, stop by #railsconf on freenode.

Cheers!

Meeting up in London

Robby Russell — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 21:09:00 -0500

I’m leaving for London tomorrow. Thank you all for your responses to my travel security questions. I really appreciate it. :-)

I’m going to be getting in on Wednesday afternoon and am going to try to meet up with people at PizzaOnRails.

Thurs-Fri is RailsConf fun… but I haven’t figured out what I will be doing over the weekend. I’m leaving for New York on Tuesday.

Does anybody know of any good vegetarian places that I should go out of my way to try in London? Interested in hanging out and talking shop? Email me! :-)

Question: Travel Restrictions

Robby Russell — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 12:09:00 -0500

Travel restrictions?

When I purchased my tickets for my trip to London for RailsConf Europe through travelocity.com, it showed me the following warning (after I paid).

Traveling in the UK:

If you are traveling within the UK, you will have to check ALL of your belongings. Wallets, IDs, and necessary medications are the exceptions, and must be carried in a plastic bag (clear bags are recommended).
Laptops, mobile phones and iPods are among the electronic items banned in carry-on luggage on British flights.
Liquids, gels, and pastes are no longer permitted in carry-on luggage on board any aircraft within the U.S. and UK (This includes toothpaste, sunblock, and perfume.)
Please check our website for updates and the latest information.

So, I follow that link and come across this page, which doesn’t mention laptops, mobile phones, or iPods.

Does anybody know what the current restrictions are for flights to and from the US and UK?

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

Robby Russell — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 19:01:00 -0500

Just got my confirmation email…

Your payment of £616.88, has been received and your RailsConf Europe 2006 registration is now complete

Ouch! In USD… this translates…

UK£ 616.88 = $1175.21809 U.S. dollars

Sheesh.

So, I am going to be heading to sunny London, UK on September 12th for the RailsConf Europe. In fact, I’ll be traveling for about two full weeks in September as I will be heading to London for the conference and to wander around for a few extra days. Then I will be flying to New York City on the 17th or 18th for almost a week where I will be working with one of our clients for a few days and spending the weekend sightseeing.

If you’re interested in meeting up with me in either London or New York during these trips… email me. :-)

james.adam: hey, there's a small possibilty that i might be in NY at the same time as you too!

robby: heh. cool

james.adam: that would be 3 weekends in a row. people will talk

the Argon Express

Robby Russell — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 01:31:00 -0500

While at RailsConf, I was asked probably a few dozen times how the trip to Chicago via Amtrak was… and my answer was, “fun!” It really was… granted it wasn’t easy to sleep on the train but we did have fun.

Here are a few photos from the trip… in chronological order. Be sure to see the gallery as people are adding more and more photos to the group.

Walking to Union Station in Portland, OR.

Group photos before boarding…

Traveling on the train along the Columbia River

Late night hacking..

Late at night… leg streching

Breakfast on the train

Stopped in Wisconsin

Hacking on the train…

More hacking on the train…

The Mac shot…

Arrived at Union Station in Chicago, IL.

A video is coming soon too!

RailsConf, day 1

Robby Russell — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 16:22:00 -0500

Rails and Database Schemas

This morning, David Thomas opened up the conference by pointing out three problems that Rails needs to solve. The one that hit home for me and my love of databases… especially monolithic legacy ones… was his first bullet, “Data Integration.” Natural keys, composites, automatic AR relationships with reflection, and non-database backends. He didn’t mention stored procedures… I’ll have to ask him about that. ;-)

Shared Hosting and Rails

I’m currently sitting in Topfunky’s talk, “Rails Deployment on Shared Hosting”. He had a few funny slides… yes… deployment on shared hosting can be painful. We’ve been working with our customers to ease this problem as much as possible by collaborating on the PLANET ARGON Documentation Project. He also suggested that people consider a VPS, which is a very viable option… if you have the time and patience to setup the server. The pains of regular shared hosting are a big concern especially if you have a mission critical business application. This is why we moved towards our Rails Business Hosting plans and are working out the details for yet another step above in terms of cost and reliability. Stay tuned for more details…

I’ll post more notes later…

Snakes on a Train

Robby Russell — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 11:39:00 -0500

First of all, thank you Allison for keeping people updated for the past few days as the sixteen of us traveled across the country together. We made new friends and enemies over those two days and we’re already talking about RubyConf and next year. :-)

Yesterday…. Allison posted that we arrived in Chicago. We are all at the conference hotel now and last night we had the world famous Giordano’s pizza. Then we headed downtown to a few clubs (several of the argon express passengers came). I just woke up from the best sleep since Portland as I didn’t have to try to sleep in an awkward position on a train seat.

I also updated the Flickr group for the Argon Express. Hopefully the others who joined us will be posting photos to the group. :-)

The Argon Express Has Arrived!

allison@planetargon.com (Allison Beckwith) — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 17:50:00 -0500

Hello Chicago!

I just got a message from Robby announcing their arrival in the windy city. I’d advise that anyone eager to catch up with the Argon Express passengers stay away until they have all showered. 40-some hours on a crowded train? No thanks! :P

Hope you all had fun on the train, be sure to add your photos to the Argon Express group photo pool.

The Argon Express: St. Paul, Minnesota

allison@planetargon.com (Allison Beckwith) — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 09:44:00 -0500

I got another update from the Argon Express this morning during a stop in St. Paul Minnesota. Here are some of Robby’s thoughts from the train.

We just left the Amtrak station in St. Paul, Minnesota and we can now see the Mississippi to the right of the train. Sleeping on the train has been one of the biggest challenges and Josh and Alain snuck into sleeper cars last night.
People have been commenting how they haven’t seen so many laptops on a train before.
Montana is really huge.
We’ve had good luck with the power and have power strips running in two areas of the train so nobody has run out of battery life.
We’re going to try and post more pictures to the groups in the next day as we have more internet access.

Robby did seem to find a moment to post some more photos. Be sure to keep checking the PLANET ARGON Argon Express photoset for more updates.

I just caught Robby online, and asked if anyone is working on any interesting projects… here is what I gathered:

Chris Anderson is working on a version of Asset Compiler for audio files with the help of Jeremy Voorhis.
Trevor and Mark are working on something and did a lot of swearing about has_many through but… not sure what
Steven and David are working on rspec for rails
Other than that… not sure what people are up to… personal projects and client work

And lastly, here is a portion of a blog post Robby was working on yesterday. He asked me to share it with you:

Sitting in my seat on the Argon Express and been looking out the window for most of the day. Brian is reading my latest copy of Scientific American Mind and I’ve been reading, Wherever you go there you are. Jeremy Voorhis is reading the Betrand Russell book I brought and is in front of us and Jeremy Hubert just took his shoes off and is watching The Pink Panther. Josh Knowles got the internet up for a few minutes… long enough for me to see the last post by Allison. I predict we’ll have very limited internet for the rest of the day, which is just fine with me.

The train is quite relaxing and we stayed up really late last night, which took its toll on my energy level for the day. Sleeping on a train is not as easy as one would think.

Woke up this morning to some awesome scenery in western Montana, which I will try to upload in the near future.

As far as development projects, Chris Anderson and Jeremy Voorhis stayed up pretty late working on a variation of asset compiler for audio files… should be interesting to hear about that.

The Argon Express: Whitefish, Montana

allison@planetargon.com (Allison Beckwith) — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 11:05:00 -0500

I was only able to catch a short conversation with Robby this morning as the train was preparing to depart Whitefish, Montana. They should be rolling along the southern edge of Glacier National Park soon. I didn’t get much of an update on what the guys have been up to on the train, but I will keep you posted as I get more information.

It’s been just about 16 hours since the bulk of the group left Portland. Be sure to check out our Argon Express photoset and the Argon Express group photo pool for hot rails on rails action.

We're moving...

Robby Russell — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 18:58:00 -0500

We just left the Union Station in Portland, Oregon… we’re on the train… and thanks to Josh Knowles… we have INTERNET!

Stop by #theargonexpress and say hey to the passengers. :-)

Dear David and Allison,

THANK YOU!

Guest Blogger: Allison Beckwith

Robby Russell — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 14:35:00 -0500

For the next two days, I will have a guest blogger to post updates from the Argon Express. This guest blogger has been known to hang out in #planetargon as allisbe and is the Creative Director at PLANET ARGON.

Some of the passengers should be getting into Portland this afternoon and we leave in less than 4 hours!

A tough decision

Robby Russell — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 02:06:00 -0500

Due to some fairly complex personal issues that have surfaced in the past week or so, I finally decided that I needed to cut back on a few of my professional engagements. This morning I made the decision that I will not be able to speak at RailsConf. I’m still going and plan to have a blast but I haven’t had the mental capacity all week to finish preparing for the talk and it was causing me quite a bit of stress. We all have our limits and I decided to side with personal sanity. :-)

Chad said they’ll make it work out and I’ll be more than happy to talk about legacy integration with Ruby on Rails while at the conference.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that I’m human and can’t work like a robot. ;-)

All aboard the Argon Express in just three days

Robby Russell — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 10:51:00 -0500

On Monday, a handful of PLANET ARGON developers will be catching the Amtrak Empire Builder in Portland, Oregon and riding the train almost across the entire country to Chicago, Illinois.

Here is the current roster of Rails enthusiasts who are taking The Argon Express to RailsConf!

This should be pretty fun… and I’ll try to take a ton of photos and share any interesting stories from the trip.

I expect to do a lot of reading, writing in my personal journal, talking shop with many of these people, and enjoying the sights. :-)

Catching a train to RailsConf

Robby Russell — Thu, 25 May 2006 17:04:00 -0500

We’re finally getting our confirmations for who is coming to RailsConf with the team at PLANET ARGON via the ~~peace train~~ Argon Express. We’re departing Portland, Oregon on June 19th… the names of people who confirm are being added to the site.

...this should be fun… and you can still join us if you act soon!

All aboard the Argon Express

Robby Russell — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 13:50:00 -0500

People are purchasing their Amtrak tickets for The Argon Express. If you’re interested and haven’t let us know… you better send us an email. :-)

Here is the reservation information:
28 Empire Builder

Portland, OR (PDX) 
4:45 pm 
19-JUN-06

Chicago, IL Union Station (CHI) 
3:55 pm 
21-JUN-06

45h 10m

It’s not too late! ...can you think of a better way to get to RailsConf? ;-)

Speaking at RailsConf 2006

Robby Russell — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 17:24:00 -0600

While talking to a client in our office this afternoon… I glanced at my email and it seems that I got accepted to speak at RailsConf 2006! About ten minutes later… Jeremy said that he also got accepted to speak at RailsConf!

We’re also speaking next month at Canada on Rails. :-)

The title of my talk is… “Sneaking Rails through the (legacy) System.”

How are we getting there? By train of course!

Last Call for The Argon Express

Robby Russell — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 13:45:00 -0600

Okay, we need a few more people to get our big group discount for The Argon Express!

Spend two whole days on a train riding from Portland, Oregon to Chicago, Illinois.

...we’re talking… only $107.20 for each coach seat! (one-way… we’re flying back)

You have less than a week to decide!

Email us at argonexpress@planetargon.com!

HURRY!

:-)

46 hours on Rails.... here we go!

Robby Russell — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 18:59:00 -0600

If you recall… I had hinted at 46 hours on Rails.

Come with PLANET ARGON as we board the ARGON EXPRESS!

...this should be fun.

Learn More: theargonexpress.com

UPDATE DHH blogged about us on the Rails blog! :-)