Hey everyone and apologies for not getting this out to you sooner, but the Toronto Ruby on Rails Project Night will be taking an hiatus over July and August 2008. There are TONS of fantastic events going on for Ruby’ists this summer and, rather than try to steal people’s precious free time away from these, I’m going to lend a hand.

This means that Tuesday September 9th will mark the *glorious* return of the Toronto Ruby on Rails Project Night - anyone interested in getting involved, please email me at corecorina@hotmail.com ASAP. Thanks to everyone who has been contacting me with questions about the Project Night - see you in September!

In the meantime, please don’t forget to check my blog and torontoRB for updates about what’s going on this summer. The next big event I’m looking forward to will be RubyFringe, namely the kickoff party on Friday July 18th - stay tuned!

This Tuesday June 10th marks the 6th Ruby on Rails Project Night for Toronto’s tech community. Join us for some fantastic presentations from top developers, as well as a RailsConf ‘08 review!

This month, Mike Bowler (http://www.GargoyleSoftware.com) will go “Inside Enumerable”. In his own words, his presentation will look at one of the most frequently used mixins and see how it works and how you use it. In order to explain Enumerable itself, he’ll share his expertise by looking into Mixins/Modules and case equality.

Rowan Hick (http://torontorb.ca) has also prepared a much anticipated presentation on “Merb, the Pocket Rocket framework.” As the framework for hackers, Rowan will lead an exploration of why Merb differs from Rails and how to get your feet wet in it.

Finally we will be joined by Libin Pan (http://learnhub.com/) who is a regular at the Toronto RoR Project Night; he will bring us news and reviews from the recent RailsConf ‘08! Libin and his colleagues were fortunate enough to attend the recent Rails gathering in Portland and will share his experience with our audience.

This event is free but space is limited: RSVP by emailing corecorina@hotmail.com . The Ruby on Rails Project Night is held at 151 Bloor Street West, Toronto and presentations begin at 6pm. BYOB!

Thank you to everyone who has already shown interest. We need presenters for July and August - please contact me ASAP!

See you Tuesday!

Corina
http://correlations.wordpress.com

May 13th marked my Fifth Ruby on Rails Project Night for the Toronto programming community. This newly independent event is something I’ve taken on myself since leaving TSOT, Inc. and, with the help of many many friends and supporters, is held on the second Tuesday of every month. This event continues to draw a great crowd and I’m pleased to report that it’s starting to really get noticed: we’ll be featured on an upcoming segment on CTV news so look for it!

For May’s Ruby on Rails Project Night, we welcomed back Andrew Burke of ShinDig to discuss how to “Keep your Sanity With the Command Design Pattern”. A long time friend and supporter of the Ruby on Rails Project Night, Andrew joined us as a presenter for the very first event back in January. We hope to have him join us again soon! May’s event also included an indepth presentation on RSpec from Steven Baker, who discussed behaviour driven development; and finally, we were very pleased to have Paul Bloor of Idee Inc. join us to discuss his company’s highly successful Image Search APIs and how they are being used in different applications. A big thanks to all of our presenters for both their time and effort in the demos, as well as for their time in fielding questions from the audience. The Ruby on Rails Project Night is intended to open up the floor for all levels of developers and technical interests, and it’s been fantastic to see both new and familiar faces every month.

The next Ruby on Rails Project Night will be held on Tuesday June 10th, 2008, with details coming soon on my blog and of course at www.torontorb.ca - please add this fantastic new website to your favourites, as Rowan Hick has put together a great source for all Toronto-area Ruby Info. Along with the help of many volunteers, I host the Ruby on Rails Project Night each and every month as a way to generate excitement and energy about new tech projects in Toronto. If you are interested in getting involved, please contact me atcorecorina@hotmail.com or better yet, come see me at one of the events; I’m always interested in new presenters/sponsors/contributors!   

Thanks to all our supporters and see you June 10th!

I’m looking forward to my first solo effort at the Ruby on Rails Project Night, and remind you all that you’re invited to join us next Tuesday May 13th, 2008. This event will continue to be held in the TSOT development office, located at 151 Bloor Street West, Suite 1130, Toronto. We always draw a great crowd and I’ve seen a tremendous outpouring of support from Toronto’s tech community as I took on the hosting of this event. Although the Project Night is free, space is limited; please make sure you reserve your spot by emailing me at corina.newby@tsotinc.com or submit an RSVP on facebook.

The May Ruby on Rails Project Night will open at 5:45pm with presentations at 6pm. This month the Ruby on Rails Project Night will feature:

Steven Baker (quarter-turn.com), who will launch the evening by exploring “Behaviour Driven Development with RSpec“

Andrew Burke (shindigital.com), who returns to discuss what I termed ‘Using the “Command” Design Pattern Elegantly”… however he has revised the title to “Keeping Your Sanity With the Command Design Pattern” (haha, guess ‘elegantly’ is too tongue and cheek to carry over the web)

and Leila Boujnane, co-founder and CEO of Idée Inc. and feature presenter, who will demonstrate her company’s highly successful image search APIs.

May’s evening is a BYOB event, but some people usually proceed to a nearby pub after the presentations. I thank everyone for their ongoing support and interest – as always, if you would like to get involved as a presenter or sponsor, please email corina.newby@tsotinc.com or call (416) 809-9673.

To see reviews and presentations from past Ruby on Rails Project Nights,

please visit TSOT Inc. or continue to visit this blog!

     I was lucky enough to score a free trip to San Francisco last week (first time there!) to attend the O’Reilly/CMP Web 2.0 Expo. An interesting event, even though the common theme seemed to be disappointment over the lack of end-customer contact at the Expo… However it was never really sold as a ‘consumer’ gathering. From what I understood, this was an industry-wide event giving new developers/ideas a chance to gain exposure in a VERY crowded market - and I suppose it delivered on that end!

In attending different social gatherings and sponsored sessions, I met tons of people from across the Western hemisphere who were looking for ways to expand their reach into the 2.0 market. The best part of the Expo for me was the encouraging feedback I received from most of the developers I met - many looking for a way to enter Toronto’s tech community and most actively seeking ways to promote their company and outsource their marketing/PR (hopefully, this will keep me in demand!)

Overall I wouldn’t recommend the Web 2.0 Expo unless your company has something clearly defined and ready to sell - although your end-users may not frequent these gatherings, most of your potential partnerships and widespread distribution channels have some sort of representation in attendance. It definitely takes more effort to make these meetings happen, but seeking out mutually interested businesses can help you to secure your position in the market by borrowing from the credibility of others. Everyone at the Expo seemed to come with open ears and were willing to lend them even to small fries like myself… whether or not you can afford to attend these events, they’re useful in creating a spirit of entrepreneurialism and excitement in an often jaded industry - that alone made my trip worthwhile

OK… well not everyone will have seen the South Park episode necessary to find humour in my title… but I’m off to San Fran for the first time this week, planning to give lots of Web 2.0 Expo-sure. My previous company, TSOT, Inc. is sending me along for the ride, and since I have not yet had the opportunity to attend any O’Reilly events, Web 2.0 seems like a good place to start!

Before all my ‘hardcore’ nerd friends chime in with their two cents, I realize that by naming it ‘Web 2.0′ the conference is going to see a lot of upturned noses and smugness - maybe that’s why it’s in San Fran ? (haha South Park again) However I’m going to try and leverage my way into some interesting conversations and fun parties at the event. It’s always good to see what the general business community thinks of web 2.0 technologies, especially when it comes to implementation; this conference is probably the one place where I can chat without being completely overshadowed by tech gurus… *crossed fingers*

Anyway, for those of you who attend the Ruby on Rails Project Night in Toronto, I’ll be trying to drum up some interest for our event as well. I’ve already spoken to a few Rails design houses who are interested in getting involved both as sponsors and as presenters - don’t forget to direct interest my way: corecorina@hotmail.com or corina.newby@tsotinc.com - so far things are looking good for May and June!

A bit of a boring post just to give an update… LOTS more to come once I arrive in the Bay! Not being much of a flower girl… I’ll just show up with my laptop/ipod/blackberry in hand. 

This past Tuesday April 8^th, TSOT hosted the fourth Ruby on Rails Project Night in Toronto’s tech scene. The event was launched in January with the help of my (then) co-worker Joey DeVilla, and has since seen a great response from local programmer/developers. I’m really enjoying hosting these events, despite my lack of hard coding wisdom - I just happen to love technology and computers and all the people who work in webstuffs. April’s event continued in the spirit of innovative programming, this time offering ideas from both Java and Ruby on Rails together in the night’s presentations. Before anyone gets overly critical (you blogosphericals!) we’re trying to hi-light the ‘beauty’ of Ruby on Rails… the mashup is not intended to generalize

Mike Bowler, president of GargoyleSoftware.com, gave his third presentation in a series which, following last month’s lead, looks at meta-programming. Looking at Date.once, Mike explored more method dispatch and the notion of freezing objects.

Kristan ‘Krispy’ Uccello of Domainer.com joined us to introduce a little Java into the evening, and to explain “Web Development Demons: Why it can be hard to do something simple”. Using Domainer.com as an example, he looked at the challenge in building a new application that hosts and manages other web applications.

Luke Galea, past presenter and Technical Lead at mdlogix.com, returned to the TSOT stage to revisit the past and look at difficulties in using active resource. Luke was kind enough to re-address the migration number issue from his February presentation, and then demonstrated his recent project to replace active_record with active_resource.

I’m looking forward to TSOT’s next Ruby on Rails Project Night on Tuesday May 13^th, 2008, where Leila Boujnane of Idee Inc. and Andrew Burke of Shindig will join us. The event is free but space is limited; please email corecorina@hotmail.com to reserve a spot, or to inquire about becoming a presenter or sponsor.

A brief update to everyone registered for tomorrow’s TSOT Ruby on Rails Project Night:

Mike Bowler (GargoyleSoftware.com) returns armed with a fist full of meta-programming as he looks at “Diving into meta-programming with Date.once”

Kristan ‘Krispy’ Uccello will examine the architecture and design of the Domainer.com platform as he investigates, “Web Development Demons: Why it can be hard to do something simple”.

We regret that Leila Boujnane, co-founder and CEO of Idée Inc. (idéeinc.com), was called out of town. However, Leila will join us at our next event, May 13^th, to discuss and demonstrate her company’s highly successful image search APIs.

We thank you all for your ongoing support and interest – as always, if you would like to get involved as a presenter please email corina.newby@tsotinc.com or call (416) 908-6082.

See you tomorrow night!

TSOT’s Ruby on Rails Project Night brings together the brightest minds in Toronto’s programming community for a night of dynamic presentations on the latest Ruby and Ruby on Rails projects.

This month we are proud to feature:

Mike Bowler (GargoyleSoftware) returns armed with a fist full of meta-programming as he looks at “Diving into meta-programming with Date.once”.

Kristan ‘Krispy’ Uccello will examine the architecture and design of the Domainer.com platform as he investigates, “Web Development Demons: Why it can be hard to do something simple”.

Leila Boujnane, co-founder and CEO of Idée Inc., will join us to discuss and demonstrate her company’s highly successful image search APIs.

We are also pleased to have Morph Labs and the Morph eXchange join us as our official drink sponsor for April’s event – therefore BYOB is only necessary in extreme cases! This event is free but space is limited; please reserve your spot by emailing corina.newby@tsotinc.com. If you would like to submit a presentation idea or learn about sponsorship opportunities at future TSOT events, please contact Corina at (416) 908-6082.

If you are interested in learning more about the Obie Fernandez workshops being offered on April 7th, please visit the TSOT events page to obtain your discount code. You can read more about these workshops at www.it360.ca