ATLRUG

In an effort to network with computer people (like myself), I went to another of these computer meetings on Saturday. Every month, ATLRUG meets up for a programming session lasting around 5-6 hours. This event is planned out a little differently from the ones I have been to till now. Typically, all the members are divided into groups and work on a programming task/topic and produce actual working code. You either work on 1 main topic, or a bunch of topics. Everyone works in only Ruby, btw. Sometimes (or so I have heard) there are presentations too. Sounds cool! Yesterday, it wasn't just Ruby, it was ( oh yeah you guessed it ) Ruby On Rails! Everywhere I go, someone is talking about RoR. We were all "assigned" to work on a wiki web application.
Designing and programming in a group environment is so different from a solo project. Pros and cons for both styles of development. One of the definite advantages of working in a (small) group is combining everyone's ideas and effort into one big result. I was introduced to this style of programming @ Emory in one of my grad classes. I know I felt relieved that I wouldn't have to program all of it myself, but hey it's one way of learning something new!
On a side note, Atlanta is a small world: I ran into an ALE guy at this meeting, who is also a regular at the Python and Perl meetings! I just may check those out!

ATL Hack

Every Tuesday night, a group of geeks meet in a coffee shop near Tech. This week I went to check it out. It was raining and quite dreary outside, so it was a good night to drink coffee and code along with a bunch of cool tech people. ATL Hack is basically a community around "computer people, poet hackers of the cyber frontier". This week Rails was the hot topic, and I am all for programming on my RoR project. ( It is mostly done, but you can always tinker with it! ) This is a nice opportunity to program on your side projects, get feedback by talking to smart people and just hanging out with people with common interest. My husband( Tejus ) and I spent around 3-4 hours there, and we are probably going back.

Project #2: Hibernate

3 years ago, Tejus and I wrote a product, vendor, customer management tool for Choices. Our software works great, and it is certainly a big improvement over their legacy PowerBuilder dbms. We were a little wet behind the ears and we didn't really use a ORM tool, so we basically re-wrote all the ORM mapping tools. While we were programming, I did wonder why there wasn't a more efficient tool to use, but hey you don' always voice out your grievances. Anyway, my next mission is to move over to a Hibernate-based application.
My inspriation came from using Rails, and how effortless it is to do the CRUD operations. ( Of course Rails and scaffolding makes it almost too simple to retrieve/update data! ) The mapping tools are promising and I am looking forward to seeing what Hibernate can offer me.
Wish me luck!

Project #1: Work on the Retail Website

In my last post, I talked about working on my company's website. I am excited to say that I am done and the site looks awesome. Now only if I can get it online on the world wide web ( I am waiting for upper management to give me the go .)

SoCon07

Just got back from a social networking event in Atlanta, GA. It was very interesting to have discussions on topics ranging from Web 2.0, start-ups, venture capitalists, to cool new innovative technologies. It takes a considerable effort to get people (software and non-software based) to meet up and socialise in a conference - non-conference way (which btw was a pretty neat idea). A shout out to the SoCon team!

One discussion topic stuck with me: Entrepreneur 2.0, moderated by Jeff Haynie since my husband and I are planning to start our own company in the very near future. We talked about the different stages of a start up, what makes it successful and financing the whole deal. I heard (horror?) stories about how 12 years ago, if you wanted to start your own company, you were pretty much on your own. We are lucky to live in this time and age where there is a support system for start-ups: communities of already-made-it businessmen, venture capitalists who are willing to help out. There is talk about a Start-Up conference too ( in summer? ), organized by a few of the same guys involved in SoCon07. Should be fun to attend.

Blogging

Why is it so hard for me to blog? Its not like I don't have stuff to talk about, thoughts to share or views on the latest fad in technology. I think my concern is that I feel that I have to be extra careful about the topics I write about. Who knows who all are reading it! If I blog about the things close to my heart ( ie. family/work/money problems), then (potentially) the entire world is aware of these issues and I don't want that. You can obviously have a personal and private blog, but hey if you want your presence felt on the internet, your blogs will be linked back to you. Maybe I just need time to choose safe topics, and since there are a billion blogs out there, I'll get better at steering clear from the "emotional" posts.

Working with Rails and AJAX

My company website really needs a face lift. It has been 4 years and it is now my responsibility to get it up and working well with the Web 2.0 technologies. I am working with Ruby on Rails, CSS and a little AJAX thrown in to redesign our website, while also adding in the "shopping-online" feature. Rails is wonderful to work with. Just like so many others, I am also jumping on the Rails bandwagon, and I understand why: its so easy to just code and not worry about minor details. The website is looking good already, and the html is easily decipherable. Will keep you updated on the progress....

And the Colts Win!

I am a couple of days late in posting this but hey whatever The Colts won and thats that! I am really happy for Peyton that he finally won his ring. That guy deserves it. Their defense played well which was surprising looking at their previous performances. It truly amazes me that the Bears made it so far with Rex as their QB. Rex is quite awful, with his interceptions, slipping, and just plain bad passes. Peyton also had one interception but at least he rose up to the challenge of playing like a Superbowl QB. He made good play calls, completed his passes and scored touchdowns! The Bears defense was hardly that inspiring. They made one sack in the entire game, and really seeing how Peyton is Peyton, they should have blitzed him more. Urlacher tackled a few people, but nothing that stood out.
Ahh well I am delighted and my husband is miserable!