The LSRC has definitely gotten better for me as I am now developing a stronger understanding of not just Rails but Ruby. I am still not a hardcore developer but I am thinking that will change this year. This year the focus was on how to make things move faster, here is what I learned:

• Ruby 1.9 feature set will include multilingualization!
• Code coverage, though important may not reflect the true status of how stable your code
• Complexity metric should be part of your suite of tests
• FLOG your code! A cool way to discover where complexity lies within your MVC
• Metric will help establish priorities with work but the use of metrics should be within the dev team and not from a manager hoping for full coverage!
• Social thing to help, explain your code! useful for others to get up to speed on your work and keeps you focus on why you code the way you did
• Use Heckle! It mutates your code and tries to make test fail, gotta try that!
• Ruby community is embracing cloud computing
• PoolParty is one tool to work in a cloud
• Keynote of Matz was great, you can see that though he is very pleased with the adaption of Ruby, there was a subtle worry in him about Rails. Rails has always been push as a quick web framework to create web apps without learning Ruby and the focus is RAILS over Ruby. It was obvious Matz would like the focus shift back to the elegance of Ruby to strengthen the quality of the developer rather than speed. He seems genuinely sincere and humble. A calmness about him is a stark contrast to the rebel attitude of the community.
• github adds the nice social branching to your code base that allows simple branching and joining of code. SVN can do this but not as elegant nor practical.
• PacketFu is crazy cool for security folks. Killer features, will most likely be part of Metasploit

Very cool conference. Now I am all energize to expand my Ruby knowledge! Need to go to more of these to stay motivated!!!

I like the idea Microsoft is pushing with Photosynth. Stitching photos together from similar sources to create dynamic, 3d images rich in detail would create a great social experience. So of course I went over to the website and try to install it on my lappy. At least Microsoft is trying to be cool about it:

It is funny how getting a Mac version up will solve supporting any OS that is not Windows. Well I might actually have a reason to boot into my Vista partition.  It is like going into the attic for something you have not used in a long time.  Wiping the cobwebs and blowing off the dust.  Heck does Vista even work anymore?  I guess I will find out…

Crap, Giz is reporting that the crippling CRB may shutter the doors of my favorite streaming music site, Pandora.  I wonder what will replace my daily music fix?  I guess it will soon be nothing if RIAA has it their way.  Wow, it is amazing how an organizations like the RIAA and the CRB can make listening music suck so bad.

You want to tour a city before you take a vacation there? Take a look at EveryScape.com. It is like Street View on Google Maps but with more detail. They are in beta now and only have the following cities mapped:

What is fun? Singing at the top of your vocal range, exhausting your lungs, and still not be able to hit those crazy high notes of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” on Singstar. Keyla and I stayed up to one in the morning earlier today trying out all the new 80’s songs we purchased on Singstar. Many memories of my youth was sparked as well as the realization that singing is hard! Breathe I keep telling myself, I must learn to breathe. Continue reading