Robby on Rails

Hello from London!

Am currently enjoying the talks at Rails Underground 2009 in London and had the pleasure to be one of the first speakers at the conference. My talk covered a collection of what our team considers best practices. Best practices that aid in the successful launch of a web application and covered a few Rails-specific topics as well.

I’ll be sharing some posts in the coming week(s) that’ll expand on some of these topics as promised to the audience.

Since I covered a wide range of topics, I decided to share my slides online. They won’t provide as much context (as I’m not speaking as you’ll look at them), but they might hint at some of the topics that I covered. There was a guy video taping the talks… so I assume that a video of my talk will be posted online in the near future.

Until then… here are the slides

It’s time to find my passport again…

I’ve been invited to speak at Rails Underground, which is being held in London, UK from July 24-25th.

My talk, which is tentatively titled, “Launching Ruby on Rails projects, a checklist”, will expand on several ideas that came out a previous article on the topic. Additionally, I plan to share some of the lessons that we’ve learned at Planet Argon as we’ve launched projects over last several years.

If you’re able to make it, I encourage you to register for the event before it’s too late. Take a quick peak at the list of speakers. I’m grateful to the event organizers for the invite and look forward to seeing/meeting all of the attendees!

Also, for those of you in the London area. If you’re seeking a design and development team that specializes in Ruby on Rails and want to schedule a meeting with me while I’m visiting, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. I’m planning on staying a few days extra around the conference dates to visit some of our existing clients and would be happy to meet you.

Just when you think that you’re sneaking through Fall/Winter without getting sick… it hits you. Been sick the last week and am finally coming up for air. :-)

Anyhow, I’m going to be traveling a few times over the coming weeks/months and wanted to reach out…

Dear Londoners,

A few of us from the Planet Argon team, (Andy, Paige, and myself) are heading to London in just over a week to visit one of our big clients. We’ll also be staying for a few more days to explore. If you’re interested in grabbing a few pints and/or interested in meeting up, drop me an email we’ll try to coordinate something when we’re over there. =)

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!

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! :-)

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