Adam Turtle, Freelance Web Design in Belfast, Northern Ireland
Since1986
Ruby on Rails
- 2nd September, 2007
- filed under: San Francisco, Web stuff
- 2 comments
Firstly, I have yet another new address which you can find on my contact page should you need it.
Secondly, I had a very boring and extremely unproductive day at work today. Seeing as it’s Labour Day and everyone appears to be at the Golden Gate Park for the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love at the park. I was in the park yesterday and the hippies were already causing a nuisance of themselves with their tuneless percussion and singing. Most of them were already tripped out on weed, so I was going to shout favourable remarks regarding the establishment and cause a fuss about the war but thought better of it just before doing so.
With my multitudes of time to myself I investigated the whole Web 2.0 thing. Casual readers beware: what is about to ensue is a verbal onslaught of nerd stuff which some people may find both boring and confusing. Those not familiar with this stuff can skip the next paragraph unless you want to learn something new.
For those still following allow me to introduce my findings. I discovered that the hot thing in web development right now is Web 2.0 i.e. user generated content. Think Youtube, Facebook, Delicious… and specifically for the web developer i.e. me, is Ruby on Rails (or RoR for short). What RoR allows the developer to do is to easily create web-based applications and creates powerful database driven content. It’s basically the next step up from PHP and ASP. It’s got it all – dynamic content, database integration, AJAX. It’s the shiz. To that end, I just ordered myself Build Your Own Ruby on Rails Web Applications which is published by SitePoint. SitePoint use many different authors but the format for each book is similar – they introduce the basics and teach you all you need to know by working through an example project. I’ve bought two books from them before and they’re both excellent. They’re always great for reference too. I can vouch for any of these books. I’ve come a long way in my web development career. Last year around this time I was just finishing teaching myself CSS and how to abandon tables, then by Easter this year I was able to create a database driven site using PHP and MySQL. This is a fast moving industry and you gotta keep on top of what’s hot so Ruby is my next challenge. And I’m looking forward to getting started!
On a more generic note, yesterday I found a British grocery store called You Say Tomato. It’s flippin’ expensive but stocks all the goodies that a homesick Brit remembers from good oul Norn Iron. I picked myself up a bag of Fox’s Glacier Mints and a bottle of Ribena. Oh how I’ve missed Ribena! I adjusted quite well going from 4 pints a day to cold turkey overnight when I moved here, but now that I have it I seriously hope it doesn’t start an expensive habit. It’s actually much more expensive than alcohol!
A small bottle cost me $7.99 and the glacier mints cost $4.00 so with tax I had just enough to cover the two things, reluctantly having to leave back the chocolate covered Hob Nobs I also simply had to have. They weren’t as important as the Ribena as I’ve replaced my Hob Nob craving with milk and Oreo’s which are quite simply America’s greatest accomplishment to date. On that note, if anyone should happen to be in Tesco this week (Stephen, that’s assumed in your case) then perhaps a packet of chocolate Hob Nobs could find their way over here? I’m willing to exchange it for a box of Oreo’s if the offer comes along!
choc hob nobs you say? i think i would die without them… mmmm theyre so good. Can’t believe u paid 8 dollars for ribena, ha
Tescos eh? Oreo’s eh? I’ll see what I can do, if I remember. On the topic of bugs in your room, I caught a huge spider the other night, scared the crap outta me. Currently keeping in in a transparent plastic box on my desk and feeding it flies.
Quitting Jessops in two weeks as I have aquired a job in the Spar in Kells, better pay and better hours while im at Uni.
Which is in two weeks time.
Also im for starting a blog on my site at some point when I can be bothered.