Archive for October, 2006

Keep an eye on djangobook.com

Antonio Cangiano October 31st, 2006

You may want to keep an eye on Django Book today, trusted sources tell me there may be a surprise for you from Adrian and Jacob.

Psstt… don’t tell anyone.

CASCON 2006 presentation material

Antonio Cangiano October 19th, 2006

Cascon 2006 is officially over: what an amazing experience! My bulldog-like physical appearance may make you think that I’m talking about the excellent food that was provided free of charge, but I’m not. ;-)

The conference was remarkable in every aspect and I’m now all the more proud of working for such a great company (IBM that is, not the Hilton Hotel :-P).

Day 2:

In the afternoon, I taught the first Ruby on Rails and DB2 hands on workshop to a class of over 30 people. I started with a long introduction to Ruby, followed by a brief Rails overview by my colleague Alex. We had a small break, and then I started explaining Rails while creating a basic step by step application using DB2 as database. The feedback was very good with many enthusiastic people, but there was a lot of material to be covered in a really short time – so some participants felt more time should have been spent on the hands-on part.

Day 3:

We tried to incorporate the feedback from the first class into the second one
(this was a repeat of yesterday’s class for more than 30 new people). We decided to trim down the amount of material shown during the Ruby and Rails introductions and dedicate much more time to the hands-on session. We wanted to make it as good as it gets, considering the broad scope and the small amount of available time.

The feedback was overwhelming with a lot of praise left on the evaluation forms. One of the participants congratulated me, telling me that he was impressed by the fact that we covered 2 days worth of material in the short span of 3 hours. It was a very fast paced experience, but certainly a great one.

Day 4:

Time to sit back and relax. I followed the third part of the workshop about Social Computing / Web 2.0, which included a lively debate about the future of the Web and its current revolution. Nothing new of course, but still a very interesting discussion.

You can download my Ruby slides and a basic step by step pdf to get started with DB2 and Rails.

You can also get Alex’s Rails overview here.

CASCON 2006: Day One

Antonio Cangiano October 17th, 2006

October 16th, one of those sprite, luminously sunny fall days that so wonderfully bridges the gap between summer’s heat and winter’s chill. Half way through the month, yet inside the Markham Hilton Hotel something just as exciting as the changing seasons was beginning its run.

CASCON
may have only started but it was already running like a well oiled machine. Registration was a breeze, and the peckish assortment of breakfast goods and complimentary “welcome bag” only added to the positive early morning vibe that this conference was giving off.

The IBM Center for Advanced Studies organization was spot on, and it was crystal clear that workshops such as the Ajax workshop had attracted a far larger crowd than simply those who had registered in advance for it. A stream of hopeful people tried to make it onto the waiting list, like theater goers standing hopefully in the cancellation line on the first night of a sold out Broadway play. This doesn’t surprise me for a moment, given Ajax’s immense popularity. A similar scenario will no doubt be replayed with other “hot” topic workshops like Ruby on Rails and hands-on Web 2.0.

This isn’t merely foreshadowing. I know by the fact that the two Ruby on Rails workshops that I’ll be giving filled up within a few days of being announced, that Ruby’s increasing popularity is spreading rapidly through the IT world. Evident because the Ruby community itself, didn’t actually garner any particular hype about CASCON. These are Ruby enthusiasts who independently decided they really wanted to be a part of such an exciting event.

I sat down and began my CASCON (2006) experience with the highly interesting, Agile for All: Supporting the Human Element in Agile Development. Presented by bright industry experts and academics. It reminded me once again about why I value agile methodologies.

Tomorrow afternoon (or rather, I should say, this afternoon as, as it’s 6.30 AM at the moment) I will be presenting an introductory Ruby on Rails with DB2 workshop. A repeat of which will follow on Wednesday afternoon.

What I’m giving is a relatively basic lesson, intended for people who are just finding their footing when it comes to working with Rails, or even for people who will be tasting Ruby for the time here. It’s definitely an interesting workshop – I just hope that my attendees were able to get more sleep than I was tonight.

As I lay awake with the excitement of CASCON day number two (of which I will certainly blog about tonight) ahead of me, I feel confident that the remainder of this conference is going to be terrific.

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