pmade inc. Articles

The Secret Life of Devalot

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Devalot lives, although you wouldn't know it from just reading this blog. During the last year and a half there have been some interesting improvements made to Devalot, but I made the mistake of not kicking out regular releases.

That all changed a few weeks ago when Isaac Foraker (a long-time friend) stepped up to the plate and assumed the role of Devalot maintainer. If you're excited about Devalot, this move should make you very happy.

DevFi Podcast #2

Mon, 19 May 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Chris and I strike again with the second installment of the DevFi podcast. If you ignore the fact that I'm using an inferior microphone compared to Chris, it's a pretty good show.

This time around we're talking about releasing software as an open source project, and some of the things that go along with that. We even lightly tread around the topic of open source licensing.

Rails Gotcha #9: Disabled Sessions

Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I was recently working on a Rails application where sessions were disabled in the application controller (affecting all other controllers), and needed to be turned back on in certain other controllers. Basically, sessions were only needed on the admin controllers.

While testing this application I ran into a few surprises, leading to this 2 in 1 Rails Gotcha, and two patches to Rails edge.

Announcing the DevFi Podcast

Tue, 06 May 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I alluded to this in my last post, but now it's time to make it official. Say hello to the DevFi Podcast.

Chris Shea and I have been working on this for about a month now, and we're pretty excited to release the first episode, a discussion about building software vs. buying vs. forking, and an interesting interview with Dan Berger, the long-time Ruby developer and contributor who forked the interpreter.

New Site, New Feeds

Mon, 05 May 2008 00:00:00 +0000

This is a mixed announcement, warning, and an apology. In just a bit here I'll be launching a complete redesign for pmade.com. With the new site comes a new set of news feeds. I'll be redirecting the old news feeds to the new ones, which hopefully won't break.

Best case, you're going to have a bunch of articles from pmade.com show up as unread, sorry about that. Worst-case you'll have to come to the site and subscribe to the new feeds. But hey, you'll see the new content!

Nested Controllers and Resources

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000

At a recent DeRailed meeting a few of us were talking about nested controllers. Personally, I really like using nested controllers, but I've had all kinds of issues with routing and link generation.

Well, I've finally found the perfect way to nest controllers without all those problems.

A Few Tidbits to Catch Up

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Yeah, it's been awhile, I'm a terrible blogger. Oh well, this post should catch you up.

On January 19th, I'll be starting a two day workshop on Unix Fundamentals. The workshop will be held in the pmade inc. office, in downtown Louisville, Colorado. If you're interested, there's more information over this way.

Announcing iDo, Rails GTD To-Do App

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Reinventing the wheel isn't always bad, especially when you have a different take on it.

I'm an early adopter to the iPhone (although I didn't stand in line). The GTD application I was using didn't feel right on the iPhone, and the interface was lacking anyways IMHO.

Open Source and You!

Thu, 24 May 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I've been a contributing member of the open source community for over 10 years. A pretty short amount of time in comparison to the movement itself, but more than enough to have formed some strong opinions.

We all have our own reasons for making the source code to our software freely available. I think we'd all have to agree that ego plays a big part. There's nothing quite like the ego stroke you get when a large number of people send you thank-you emails.

Slides from "Rails Gotchas!" and Announcements

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

If you're interested in the slides from my Rails Gotchas! presentation, this is the place to look.

Also, I made two announcements at the end of the presentation. First, I'll be teaching an accelerated class on Ruby on June 9th in the Denver, Colorado area.