Iowa Ruby Brigade Meetings

July 2008

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:14:00 GMT

Thursday, July 10, 2008

6:00 - 7:30 PM

Speaker

You

Topic

Tips & Tricks / Q&A / Hackfest

Bring your Ruby questions, puzzlers, tips, & tricks and join us for an open Q&A and coding session. Whether you're a newbie with questions, an intermediate Rubyist, or an advanced Ruby hacker, this meeting is for you. Get your questions answered, share your knowledge, and get to know your fellow programmers.

Please come with at least one question or tip.

June 2008

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 01:23:00 GMT

Thursday, June 19, 2008

6:00 - 7:30 PM

Speaker

David W. Body / Big Creek Software, LLC

Topic

What's New in Rails 2.1?

David will explain and demonstrate the new features of Ruby on Rails version 2.1, which was officially released June 1, 2008, at RailsConf. Rails 2.1 is the result of more than 1600 patches submitted by 1400 contributors in the 6 months or so since Rails 2.0 was released.

New features include:

Time zones
Partial updates
Gem dependencies
Named scope
UTC-based migrations
Better caching

May 2008

Sat, 03 May 2008 12:18:23 GMT

Thursday, May 15, 2008

6:00 - 7:30 PM

Speakers

Luke Amdor / Iowa Student Loan

Ryan Hanks

Topic

Git

Are you ready for an actual version control system that actually stays out of the way? A system that doesn't take umpteen million commands just to work on a branch? Something that doesn't force its workflow on you. Welcome to the world of Git. Git (http://git.or.cz/) is a distributed version control system focused on speed, effectivity and real-world usability. Git was born out of the need for a non-linear distributed workflow for Linux kernel development. Linus Torvald's design criteria were easy: "Take CVS as an example of what not to do. If in doubt, do the opposite."

April 2008

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:41:59 GMT

Thursday, April 17, 2008

6:00 - 7:30 PM

Speaker

David W. Body / Big Creek Software, LLC

Topic

Capistrano

Capistrano, a tool for automating tasks on remote servers, has become the de facto standard for deploying Rails applications. But it can be used for many other things, including deploying applications written in other languages and frameworks, as well as general system administration. David's presentation will cover the following topics:

Getting started with Capistrano
Capistrano's requirements and assumptions
Writing Capistrano recipes
Deploying Rails applications with Capistrano
Rolling back changes on remote servers
Using Capistrano for system administration and other tasks

March 2008

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 04:05:53 GMT

Thursday, March 27, 2008*

6:00 - 7:30 PM

Speaker

Luke Amdor / Iowa Student Loan

Topic

Alternative Ruby (JRuby / Rubinius / IronRuby)

*Note: This is a special meeting date. We will return to our normal third Thursday meeting date in April.

Lately there has been a plethora of news surrounding alternative Ruby interpreters: Sun hires the main JRuby developers, Oracle begins deploying JRuby on Rails applications, Engine Yard hires Rubinius developers to work full time on Rubinius, and Microsoft is currently developing it's own Ruby interpreter IronRuby to run on its CLR.

In this presentation, we'll talk about the motivation behind these interpreters, where they're headed, and what impact this is having on the Ruby community.

February 2008

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 01:49:57 GMT

Thursday, February 21, 2008

6:00 - 7:30 PM

Speakers

Ryan D. Hanks
David W. Body / Big Creek Software, LLC

Topic

What's New in Rails 2.0?

Ryan and David will cover the significant new features and changes from Ruby on Rails 2.0, which was released in December 2007 after almost a year of development. We'll basically follow the outline in the announcement post, and we'll provide code examples and live demos illustrating the major changes. We'll also discuss effective migration strategies for Rails applications developed under previous versions of Rails.

O'Reilly Books

O'Reilly has donated some books for us to give away at the meeting. To be eligible to win one, you must be present at the meeting and be on our mailing list.

Meeting Location

DMACC West
5959 Grand Ave
West Des Moines, Iowa

We meet in the main auditorium on the second floor. Wi-fi Internet access is available.

Map (DMACC West)

Dinner After the Meeting

If you can, please plan to join us for dinner at a local restaurant after the meeting.

January 2008

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:58:51 GMT

Thursday, January 17, 2008

6:00 - 7:30 PM

Speaker

Cassie Schmitz / Iowa Interactive

Topic

Things I Wish I'd Known When I Started Working with Rails

You've heard about all the cool things Rails can do, but Rails is full of hidden features that many developers are not aware of. In this presentation, Cassie will show you time-saving tools and tricks for making Rails development faster and more fun! Cassie will use examples from an actual application she has developed.

Topics that will be covered:

Rails plugins
Spicing up your application with Ajax
Templates
Filters
Validation
with_scope
Rails resources

Meeting Location

DMACC West
5959 Grand Ave
West Des Moines, Iowa

We meet in the main auditorium on the second floor. Wi-fi Internet access is available.

Map (DMACC West)

Dinner After the Meeting

If you can, please plan to join us for dinner at a local restaurant after the meeting.

December 2007

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 01:01:44 GMT

Thursday, December 20, 2007

6:00 - 7:30 PM

Speaker

Josh More / Alliance Technologies

Topic

Web Application Security

Josh More presents an excerpt from SANS 504: Hacker Techniques, Exploits and Incident Handling. We will cover issues like Cross Site Scripting (XSS) and SQL Injection, with examples in a Ruby on Rails application.

Josh More has fourteen years of experience in IT, and seven years working in Security. He has designed, developed, and implemented distributed Linux-based secure products. He has also been the lead for all technical security matters -- ranging from incident handling to prevention -- in multiple companies. From a business perspective, he has consulted on security policy, vulnerability analysis, and strategy. He will be teaching a SANS security course in Des Moines in January 2008.

Meeting Location

Alliance Technologies
400 Locust Street, Suite 840
Des Moines, Iowa

Directions

Park at the ramp at 4th and Grand, or drive around and find a spot on the street. (ramp parking costs $, street parking is free after 6).
Come into the capital square building and take the escalator to the 2nd floor. (If you come in via the skywalk, you will already be on the second floor.)
Walk around to where the elevators are, sign in, and take an elevator to the 8th floor.
Walk towards the near wall, turn left and cross the little bridge. (The big bridge is the wrong way).
Take the first left after you exit the small bridge. Do not turn left until after you have crossed the bridge.

We are in a conference room on the left, after you pass several rooms and cubes. Generally, you can just follow the noise.

If you get lost, call Josh More at: 515-245-7701

Map (Alliance Technologies)

Dinner After the Meeting

If you can, please plan to join us for dinner at a local restaurant after the meeting.

November 2007

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:43:26 GMT

Thursday, November 15, 2007

6:00 - 7:30 PM

Speaker

David W. Body / Big Creek Software, LLC

Topic

Object-Oriented Ruby

The fundamentals of object-oriented programming in Ruby are straightforward and easy to learn. But there are some aspects of object-oriented programming in Ruby that are special and set Ruby apart.

Every data type in Ruby is an object, including data types that may be considered primitives in other languages. For example, integers, booleans, and nil are objects. Like other object-oriented languages, Ruby supports inheritance and dynamic dispatch of methods. Although Ruby does not support multiple inheritance, it does allow collections of methods called modules to be "mixed into" classes.

As in other object-oriented languages, Ruby objects are instances of classes. But Ruby classes are themselves objects (instances of the class Class). Yes, that means that Class is an instance of itself!

October 2007

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 15:26:16 GMT

Thursday, October 18, 2007

6:00 - 7:30 PM

Speakers

Mike Gorski, Lead Architect, Outsell, Inc.
Dan Buettner, IT Manager, Gannett Regional Toning Centers

Topic

Real Applications in Ruby on Rails: An Introduction

Ruby on Rails (RoR) is web application framework written in Ruby that implements a Model-View-Controller architecture for database-backed web sites. There are plenty of tutorials available on the web which will guide you through building a simple web application with Ruby on Rails. With this talk we hope to take that one step further by showing an RoR application in the real world.

September 2007

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 13:22:44 GMT

Thursday, September 20, 2007 - Organizational Meeting

6:00 - 7:30 PM

Please join us for our first meeting. We're just getting started, so please let us know how we can best serve the needs and interests of the Iowa Ruby community.

Speaker

David W. Body / Big Creek Software, LLC

Topics

Organizational Meeting
Getting Started with Ruby

Iowa Ruby Brigade Meetings

July 2008

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Speaker

You

Topic

Tips & Tricks / Q&A / Hackfest

June 2008

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Speaker

David W. Body / Big Creek Software, LLC

Topic

What's New in Rails 2.1?

May 2008

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Speakers

Luke Amdor / Iowa Student Loan

Ryan Hanks

Topic

Git

April 2008

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Speaker

David W. Body / Big Creek Software, LLC

Topic

Capistrano

March 2008

Thursday, March 27, 2008*

Speaker

Luke Amdor / Iowa Student Loan

Topic

Alternative Ruby (JRuby / Rubinius / IronRuby)

February 2008

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Speakers

Ryan D. Hanks David W. Body / Big Creek Software, LLC

Topic

What's New in Rails 2.0?

O'Reilly Books

Meeting Location

Dinner After the Meeting

January 2008

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Speaker

Cassie Schmitz / Iowa Interactive

Topic

Things I Wish I'd Known When I Started Working with Rails

Meeting Location

Dinner After the Meeting

December 2007

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Speaker

Josh More / Alliance Technologies

Topic

Web Application Security

Meeting Location

Dinner After the Meeting

November 2007

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Speaker

David W. Body / Big Creek Software, LLC

Topic

Object-Oriented Ruby

October 2007

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Speakers

Mike Gorski, Lead Architect, Outsell, Inc. Dan Buettner, IT Manager, Gannett Regional Toning Centers

Topic

Real Applications in Ruby on Rails: An Introduction

September 2007

Thursday, September 20, 2007 - Organizational Meeting

Speaker

Topics

Ryan D. Hanks
David W. Body / Big Creek Software, LLC

Mike Gorski, Lead Architect, Outsell, Inc.
Dan Buettner, IT Manager, Gannett Regional Toning Centers