I’m at RailsConf 2008 in Portland. Today was the tutorials day.
I went to two sessions. First was on refactoring. I think I’m pretty good at this already but I did pick up a few tips. They used an agile project management tool called strac. I didn’t agree with all the tips but I did get better clarification on when/how to do mixins cleanly.
The second session was a pretty big disappointment. I went to a talk on testing for developers. It just wasn’t well done at all. The presenter assumed we knew RSpec and he rarely explained what exactly he was doing. I readily admit that my Rails testing practices need improvement. I was hoping to get a little more hand holding on the right way to do it. This session didn’t deliver.
Tomorrow the main content gets underway. I’m looking forward to the talks. It feels like OSCON but the focus on Rails topics will be fun. And I’m bringing my laptop tomorrow. I tried the lightweight approach today but too many times I wanted to try something out or looks something up. They should rent out those Nokia handhelds for conferences. iPhone isn’t enough and a laptop is sometimes too much.
Barack Obama will be holding a rally in Seattle at Key Arena on Friday February 8. I’ve been behind Obama since it was first rumored he would run. I’m hoping to sneak away from work to hear him on Friday and I’ll be there with my wife and my daughter on Saturday to caucus for him.
I’ve been a supporter of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project since I first heard of it. When they announced the Buy 1 Give 1 program in November, I signed up on the first day. I did it both to support the program and to satisfy my own curiosity. I think the laptop is an extraordinary accomplishment. It may help redefine what computers need to be.I also have a 3-year old daughter. She is already adapting nicely to technology. We regularly use an iMac for a few learning games, music, photos, and some videos. I’m amazed at how fast she has picked up using the mouse and generally interfacing with the computer. I’m very interested in putting the XO laptop in her hands and seeing what she can do. I hope that it can be a tool for her to be introduced to technology in a positive way.Today I got an email with my tracking number for the XO. It’s in Portland and set for delivery tomorrow.
Seattle is finally getting an MLS franchise! It’s been painful to see places like Kansas City or Salt Lake get teams while Seattle was hung out to dry. I think MLS will do very well here. It only makes sense for the A-League champion Sounders to move up to the MLS. And if we have to trade the Sonics to get MLS here, I say it is a good trade. The NBA is a ghost of the Michael Jordan league of old.Â
It only took like 4 years but finally, Gmail has IMAP support. Way to go guys! Nothing wrong with being last I suppose.
All kidding aside, this is a very long overdue change and in my opinion makes Gmail legitimately useful. I’m glad there is a web interface but it is not as good as Mail.app or Thunderbird. And IMAP makes Gmail much more useful on the iPhone. Cool.