Next Tuesday is Ruby next Tuesday, May 28th at 6:30pm, and we have two talks for you:

1) Christopher Saunders will be giving us a talk on Functional Testing. He’ll also be going over the tools that Shopify uses for testing.

2) Alan Gardner will be giving us a Lightning Talk on Impala and Ruby.

We also have room for another Lightning Talk, if anyone is interested. Feel free to send one of the organizers a message, or post a comment on the meetup.com event page and let us know.

You can learn more and RSVP here.

We hope to see ya’ll there!

Thanks, The Ottawa Ruby Team

Thanks a lot for coming out to Project Night on Tuesday everyone!

It was a good turn out. Lots of interesting projects, and a wide variety of backgrounds. There were Ruby, Javascript, Python and PHP developers; students and industry pros; and a ton of pizza! :)

Fun night!

Stay tuned for the next Project Night. We hope you’ll come out!

Thanks again,

The Ottawa Ruby Team

Hey there!

Project Night is on Tuesday, May 7th

Project Night is back! The next one is scheduled for next Tuesday, May 7th at 6:30pm.

It’s open to all Web Developers, so invite your Javascript/Python/PHP/PERL friends and come out for a fun time.

You can learn more and RSVP on meetup.com/ottawaruby.

We hope to see you there! The Ottawa Ruby Team

Thanks for coming out on Tuesday everyone!

Here’s the summary of the meetup.

What happened?

1. Christian Joudrey’s talk: Automate your Infrastructure with Chef

Christian Joudrey gave a fantastic talk titled Automate Your Infrastructure With Chef.

The slides are up here. Check them out!

You can learn more about Chef here. Christian is @cjoudrey on Twitter.

2. Mike Williamson’s talk on Teaching Ruby with Minimal Magic

Mike Williamson gave us an excellent talk on Teaching Ruby with Minimal Magic.

You can see the slides here.

Up Next:

1. Project Night is coming up

Stay tuned for the date and time. We’re currently aiming for May 7th.

3. May Ruby Tuesday

Next month, Christopher Saunders of Shopify will be giving us a talk titled Christopher Saunders (homepage | twitter) of Shopify will be giving us a talk on Functional Testing, and also the tools that Shopify uses for testing.

Alan Gardner will be giving a Lightning Talk on Impala and Ruby.

You can learn more and RSVP to join us here.

Want to present?

We’re still looking for potentially another 30 minute talk. If you’re interested, please send one of the organizers an email, or reply to the post on meetup.com.

Thanks, The Ottawa Ruby Team

Hey all,

Ruby Tuesday is tomorrow (April 23rd) at 6:30pm.

In case you didn’t notice on meetup, we now have an additional main talk to be given by Mike Williamson.

Here’s the plan:

1. Christian Joudrey will give a talk titled Automate your infrastructure with Chef.

2. Quick break, with food and drinks sponsored by Shopify.

3. Mike Williamson will be giving us a talk titled Teaching Ruby with Minimal Magic.

4. Mingling / Networking / Chit-Chat… finish off leftovers. ;)

More details and RSVP here —> http://www.meetup.com/OttawaRuby/events/98805702/

We hope to see ya’ll there!

Thanks, The Ottawa Ruby Team

Thanks for coming out on Tuesday everyone!

Here’s the summary of the meetup.

So, what happened?

1. Matt Buck’s talk on Front-End Web Development With Ruby

Matt Buck gave an excellent talk on Front-End Web Development with Ruby.

The slides and video have been posted. Check them out!

You can follow Matt on Twitter at @techpeace.

2. Alain Achkar’s Lightning Talk

Alain gave us an impromptu Lightning Talk on SketchUp’s Usage of Ruby.

He went over part of SketchUp’s Ruby API to show us how easy it is to programatically build structures using Ruby in SketchUp.

Pretty neat! :)

Special Announcement: $9 CodeSchool Trial Month

Dan and Gregg over at CodeSchool were super nice in hooking us up with a $9 CodeSchool Trial Month in addition to the free passes.

So, if you want to level up your skillz, check out some of their courses, and use this link to get a month of access for $9.

Side-Note: In case you didn’t notice, CodeSchool now has a Rails 4 course available. :)

Up Next:

1. Project Night is coming up

Stay tuned for the date and time.

3. April Ruby Tuesday

Next month, Christian Joudrey of Shopify will be giving us a talk titled Automate your Infrastructure with Chef.

Automation is good. It can save you a TON of time, and help you avoid potentially costly mistakes. You’re not a machine, so why wouldn’t you want to automate your repetitive tasks?

Come on out and learn how Chef can help you free up your time for more important things.

You can learn more about the talk and RSVP to join us here.

Thanks, The Ottawa Ruby Team

Just a head’s up that the next meetup is next Tuesday, March 26th at 6:30pm.

This month, Matt Buck will be giving us a talk on Front-End Web Development with Ruby.

We’re also looking for one or two Lightning Talk speakers this month. Reply back if you’re up for it.

You can find more details and RSVP here

Thanks, The Ottawa Ruby Team

Thanks for coming out last week everyone!

Here’s the summary of the meetup, along with a few upcoming events.

What happened?

1. John Duff on How Shopify Scales Rails.

John Duff gave us an excellent talk on How Shopify Scales Rails. Lot’s of great info here. Slides will given out after RailsConf.

2. Greg Clarke’s Lightning Chat

Greg Clarke gave us a Lightning Chat on Ruby 2.0, and opened the floor for discussion on the new version of Ruby.

Has anyone started playing around with Ruby 2 / Rails 4 (aka Rails 24 :)? Thoughts?

3. Tristan Hume’s Lightning Talk

Tristan Hume gave us an impromptu Lightning Talk on How To Find a Topic for a Lightning Talk.

Very helpful, and hopefully got some people thinking about what topic to present.

Speaking of which, we’re looking for Lightning Talk speakers! :) If you’re up for it, either hit reply and let us know, or get in touch with one of the organizers. We’d love to hear your talk.

4. Whenbot came up. :)

Ah, yes, Whenbot. Sorry it’s been so long on this everyone, it’s totally my fault.

This will still be great project to do, so let’s go for it! (Maybe we can do it in Ruby 2 w/ Rails 4? :)

I’ll start a separate thread on this though. Basically just need to figure out what people need to get started. Lots of emails today however, so maybe not today?

Up Next:

1. Project Night - Tomorrow (Tuesday) at 6:30pm

Get your hack on with a room full of Web Developers in this month’s Project Night!

This may also be a good place to find a team to work on your ambitious project. We’ll put you up on stage if you’d like to make a request for collaboration.

Other than that, come on out for a good time!

More details and RSVP here.

2. CodeSchool Workshop - Learn Something New

Coming up this Sunday, March 10th, you’ll have free access to all of CodeSchool’s courses for the day.

CodeSchool has a great approach to teaching: short, engaging video tutorials paired with in-browser coding challenges to solidify what you just learned.

They have fun courses on Ruby, Rails, JQuery, CSS, Sass, Backbone JS, Node JS, Coffeescript, Git, iOS and R.

You’ll be like a kid in candyland. :)

You can either choose your own adventure and work on your own, or follow along with the main group on the big screen.

Pretty much, you’re guaranteed to learn something new. So, you come out! :)

Limited spaces available. You can learn more and RSVP here (you must RSVP to attend).

3. March Ruby Tuesday

This month, Matt Buck will be giving us a talk on Front-End Web Development with Ruby.

Even if you prefer to stick with models, learning a little something about the Front-End can be helpful. It’s not as scary as you may think.

You can RSVP to join us here.

Phew, I think that’s it! Lot’s going on!

Thanks, The Ottawa Ruby Team

Hi all,

Thanks a lot for coming out to the meetup everyone! We had a great turn out, even with the -37 wind chilled night. Lots of new faces too!

What happened?

Steven G. Harms gave us a great talk titled Metaprogramming: Up Close and Personal.

Steven has kindly summarized his talk here, as well as added some additional thoughts. Be sure to check it out.

Tristan Hume gave another great Lightning Talk on Replacing Shell Scripts with Ruby Awesomeness (slides are here).

Up Next:

February Ruby Tuesday

John Duff of Shopify will be giving a talk on How Shopify Scales Rails.

More details on the talk, and RSVP here.

Code School Event

The nice guys at CodeSchool have agreed to give us a free day pass to go through any of their courses! :-)

We’re going to try and run through a course or two as a group. Of course, you’re free to choose a course to work through on your own if you’d prefer (just bring some headphones).

We’re still settling on the date and times. We’re aiming to do it on a Saturday or possibly a Sunday this month.

Stay tuned for more details. Feel free to holler with any questions.

Thanks, The Ottawa Ruby Team

Thanks for coming out on Tuesday everyone! We hope you had a great time.

Here’s the summary of this week’s meetup.

Summary

Pizza, beer and laughter were shared by all. Jeff Casimir give a great talk on Internationalization and Localization, and Cam Stevenson gave us another great talk about Ruby with Windows Azure.

Talk: Jeff Casimir on I18n

Hopefully everyone learned a thing or two from Jeff’s talk. Bottom line: using I18n properly can give you cleaner, more maintainable code; and you should make an effort to use it from the start in your projects.

Jeff’s slides can be found here.

If you missed the talk, or would like to review, you can watch this video of his I18n talk from a Ruby Hangout session.

You can follow Jeff on Twitter.

Talk: Cam Stevenson on Ruby with Windows Azure

Cam talked about using Ruby on Windows Azure: Microsoft’s Cloud Hosting offering.

Cam’s Azure and Ruby Slides are here.

You may also want to check out this post on getting Rails deployed on Azure.

Want Ruby on Rails Training, plus a guaranteed job in about 6 months? Check out gSchool!

Also, if you’re looking to ramp up on your Ruby on Rails and have a guaranteed job in ~6 months, you should take a look at gSchool, where Jeff is Lead Instructor. 

Here’s a quick blurb:

“` We’re launching a six-month developer training program, gSchool.it, in Denver this winter. If you want to become a professional Ruby/Rails/web developer, this is the best way to do it.

Scholarships and loans are available to help reduce tuition  and it’s all backed by a 100% job placement guarantee (if that’s your thing and you’re eligible to work in the US). Applications close Monday and the program starts January 28th. “`

If that sounds good to you, you should definitely check it out.

Project Night

Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts with booking the Lounge, we’re going to skip Project Night this month. Sorry about this ya’ll, December is a bit of a tricky month to host events in general. :\

But never fear, we’ll be back with more Project Nights in the New Year!

Lightning Talks

We’re looking for speakers. If you’d be up for a 7-10 minute Lightning Talk, please get in touch with one of the organizers.

Thanks again for coming out. We hope to see you all next time!

Thanks,

The Ottawa Ruby Team