Happenings in the Rails world

Being as into Rails as we all are, I consider it my duty to inform you of the upcoming Rails evetns.




First up is Canada on Rails, going down April 13th (Thrus) and 14th (Fri) in Vancover Canada. I don't believe they're sold out yet so feel free to pick up your $250.00 (for now, will go up to $300) ticket online to make sure you get to partake in the festivities. Who else is going? Beats the hell outta me, but I don't know the speaker list...

David Hansson, creator of Ruby on Rails
Thomas Fuchs, creator of script.aculo.us
Dave Astels, published author on Test Driven Development
David Black, creator of SCANF.rb, RCRArchive
Joe O'Brien, developer with ThoughtWorks
James Adam, creator of Rails-Engines
Steven Baker, creator of RSPEC
Michael Buffington, cofounder of Price.com, co-architect of MeasureMap.com
Robby Russell, founder of Planet Argon
Geoffrey Grosenbach, host of Ruby on Rails Podcast
Kyle Shank, lead developer of RadRails and Rubish

Jeremy Voorhis, lead architect at Planet Argon
Alex Bunardzic, founder of Jooto
Sebastian Kanthak, creator of FileColumn plugin
Amy Hoy, future author of a "Right-Brained Guide" to Ruby on Rails

Talk about a strong lineup. You know you want to go.

If you're an asipiring Rails groupie and are already looking for the Rails event after Canada on Rails, look no further than the first official Rails conference creatively dubbed RailsConf! RailsConf 2006 will begin on June 22nd and run through the 25th in the ever windy (or so I've heard) city of Chicago Illinois. This sucker is selling fast so register ASAP to maintain your sanity and your Rails credibility. IF you're going to RailsConf, I would also recommend you look into attending the Pragmatic Studio's "The Rails Guidebook" event which sounds more or less like a crash crouse intro to Ruby and Ruby on Rails. They're not charging admission but they are taking donations. Feed your brain and your spirit at the same time, it's two for one people. See the value! The offical list of speakers aren't out yet (the keynotes are) but expect everyone who's anyone to be there......RailsConf!

Now those events are good an all but if you're like me (i.e. broke, hence the use of blogger) those events might be a bit out of reach financially. So what does a Rails-hero-to-be do in the meantime? Well, might not pick up/download one of the latest Rails books to hit the streets.



The one that gets my hear beating the fastest is Chad Fowler's Rails Recipes. It's in beta mode right now with only a percentage (like 30%-40% I believe) finished but you can still buy it now and watch it grow. There is surely going to be a lot of good Rails content and code in that one. I plan on picking it up shortly (*cough*freereviewcopy*cough*) and when I do, I'll let you all know about it.

Never the ones to let a good idea get away, the O’Reilly-ers have released their own form of "beta books" with their Rough Cuts series.



First up is Ruby on Rails: Up and Running: Rough Cuts Version by way of Bruce A. Tate and Rails tutorial pioneer Curt Hibbs. I say tutorial pioneer because most of the articles he wrote on Rails (I say most becaise it seems like it, in all reality it's probably two or three) ended up on Slashdot which I saw and began my whole interest in Ruby and Rails. He also happens ot be the reason why I changed my IRC nick from curtis3000 to noobieonrails.



There is also Ruby Cookbook: Rough Cuts Version coming to you from the hands of Leonard Richardson and Lucas Carlson.

So even if you don't plan on making the conferences, pick up a book or two. Support the community and expand your knowledge since you know the IRC channel (#rubyonrails) will be dead silent anyway.