Learning Ruby on Rails
In order to keep with my personal goal of learning something new that will advance my career at least a few times a year I have decided to devote 25% of my week to learning Ruby on Rails. I’d go into a long tangent on why I believe it’s a language and framework worth learning, but this article on A List Apart sums it up much better then I can.
If you build websites, you have no doubt heard about Ruby on Rails (RoR). But if you’re a designer or front-end developer or you’re using PHP without any application framework, it may seem like a big leap to adopt the Ruby on Rails approach. In this article, I hope to demystify Ruby on Rails and convince you that you can make the leap—and that it is a leap worth making if your needs fit within the Ruby on Rails “sweet spot” detailed below.
I’ll be dragging a few friends along on this adventure with me and I’ll be posting here as I go with my progress.
If you are interested in Ruby on Rails and don’t need the article above to convince you of anything, you can go straight to the lessons I am taking and check it out for yourself. They are in podcast and screencast format and are very well done so far.
Coworking and the future of Austin
@ Coworking space, future plans
John Metcalf of Think27, one of the founders of the upcoming Conjunctured co-working outfit here in Austin, posted today to talk about some of the plans they have.
I have only recently discovered Conjunctured as I haven’t been back in Austin very long. It seems like in the last two years while I was gone something happened here that sparked some really great changes. I am excited, to say the least.
Co-working is a reletevly new concept which is essentially renting a desk in a community office with other like minded folks. This is great for people like myself who work from home. I cannot tell you how often I wish there was someone sitting across from me to bounce an idea off of, or simply chat about Google’s latest big news. You get the get all of the creative, producivity, and social benefits of an office without the internal company drama and nazi bosses. The networking and partnership potential is amazing as well. Imagine you are a web programer working at home and a potential client has contacted you but also needs a web design design. Unless you can handle both yourself you’d be stuck finding someone else on the web and hoping they can deliver on a project. With co-working you may have a kick ass designer sitting next to you. Instant partnership and potential to create a company.
Remote working has already changed my life; I’m a happier person, my creativity and productivity are at much higher levels, and I don’t have a boss breathing down my neck every hour. Co-working can only take things to the next level. With the exception of all the new condo developments popping up, I think Austin is finally coming into it’s time.
Energy Conversation Launch
After two weeks of coffee, fonts, colors, mockups, and more coffee I am proud to say, on behalf of Mazenti, that we have launched the Energy Conversation’s new website. We’re very excited to be working with this client; their cause is truly a great thing and the people behind the project are a pleasure to work with. I encourage everyone to check out the website to read about their mission and view past event’s which feature some of our countries most intelligent citizens, leaders, and scholars. If you happen to be in the DC area I would highly recomend registering for and attending one of the monthly events.
Back to the project itself: Two weeks. Why is this significant? The only way to truly understand is a breakdown of what was required for this site to launch:
- Multiple mockups which resulted in a brand new design
- New server configuration
- Setup of a new content management system
- Integration of membership management, event registration and creation, mailing list management, and various other tools into the CMS
- Migration of all existing content and creation of new content and copy
- Hours of fine tuning, tweaking, and installing modules to streamline processes
- Testing, testing, and more testing
- Two email campaigns to a list of over 3,000 contacts on a system that had not been used before
I have launched websites quickly before, but this tops them all. This was all done with a team of two and lots of testing and feedback from the client. We are far from complete and have a lot in store for this site and another upcoming “sister” site, but it’s very rewarding to finally see it live. Look out for a few more extensive writeups on the solutions that were used for this project in the not too distant future.
What's this all about now?
The name 10hats is a play on the phrase that is often thrown around in the entrepreneurial world, "to wear many hats." This site is a collection of the personal rants and raves, portfolio, and services of Cullen Wilson, a web entrepreneur living in beautiful Austin, Texas. Find out more about me.