Opinion

Why I Like Ruby, Part 2: Blocks

It's great to see people so interested in Ruby and what makes it work. My last post sparked a great discussion and I'm happy I did it (thanks for the prod Jon!). In that spirit I thought it would be fun to add some more to it: this time with the nebulous Ruby code block.

The Reasons I Like Ruby

Last night my friend Jon Galloway suggested that perhaps if I could elaborate more on why I like Ruby, then it might help people to understand a bit better why they might want to look into an alternative language (rather than just take my word for it). I sort of believe this leads to arguments. We'll see.

Contrasting Ruby and C# Using My College Friends

This really happened: I spent the last weekend with my college/post-college friends at a cabin in Northern California. We do this every year - a way to keep up with each other as the years go by. This is our 8th trip to the Sierra Nevada and there are usually 10-20 guys that show up - from all over the country. We spend the weekend catching up, tuning in and "tuning out" so to speak - and this weekend I had a really funny experience: I realized that one of my friends is the physical incarnation of Ruby - and another is C#. Yes, I was sober. Sort of.

I Smell Smoke

It's been almost a month since I posted anything and it's for a pretty good reason. I've been really busy finishing the Tekpub EF series and also getting ready for NDC 2010, where I gave A bit of a challenging talk. I thought I should explain it a bit, since I'm getting some interesting reactions.

Do Androids Dream of Modal :Sheep?

I don't know how I got on this weird tangent - but I'll warn you now: it's weird. It has something to do with Gary Bernhardt, my brother, and Vim - but I can tell you this much: I'm a changed guy and I'm kind of hooked on Vim.

Visual Tooling Will Make You Go Blind

It's Rob picking on someone again! I've been goaded into this post, to be sure, but it's all in the name of good, clean Twitter fun because what came out of it is probably something worth your time. If you're an MS dev it's likely you're hooked on Visual Tooling - and you're paying the price. Get faster, make more money, and get all the [chicks|dudes] using some command line love.

Your Blog Is Blinding Me

I have this huge monitor in front me, nice and clear. In fact I have two. I have Twitter open in the corner of one of them and from time to time I chase links off to blogs that sound interesting. It's making me blind. Let's discuss the basics of readability and typography mmmkay?

Building The Conversation

I’ve just turned on comment moderation for my blog – the first time I’ve done so, ever. I had a policy that I won’t delete a comment unless the author was a spammer, used racial/gender/preference slurs, or verbally attacked another commenter. Lately – since I’ve been writing some cheese-moving posts no doubt – I’ve had to read comments that would rather attack me personally than discuss the issue at hand. I even had one commenter suggest that we could chat on Skype so he could explain why I’ve “become an asshole”. A generous offer, no doubt, but I’m not into troll bloodsport and moreover I’m trying to help out the community without derailing the topic into my personal failings. Maybe I am a dick, perhaps I don’t know a thing. It’s OK if you think so, but you have to be a bit more skilled about telling me about it now.

Asking the Mountain To Come To You

I enjoyed reading Ian Cooper’s post on CodeBetter about the state of Alt.NET, pondering if it’s still got a pulse. I’ve thought the same thing myself and judging by some of the reactions in Twitter and in the comments – no one really seems to care – or at least have decided Alt.NET could use a good thrashing. I’ll spare you my take on it as I agree – “the cause” as it were seems a bit overplayed of late and I don’t think I can add anything new to the “state of affairs”. I don’t really consider myself an Alt.NET person, however I enjoy a lot of the things I’ve learned from people on that mailing list. But I, too have wondered if the whole thing has become completely deflated. If so – I think I have an idea for a way to pump some life back into its veins: Leave. And blog it.

Thoughts on ASP.NET MVP – A Framework That Wants To Be MVC

It’s Javier Lozano’s fault – he sent me to http//webformsmvp.com where I read up on the latest efforts on working ASP.NET Webforms into the Model/View/Presenter pattern. The pattern is fine - but it's sort of against the grain when it comes to the web. Didn't we cover this a few years back? I don't mean to sound negative - but there are so many other cool things to do in the Open Source world with all the mojo!

Hello from 2020

This will be hard to believe, but you have to believe me. You simply must. I have to get the hell out of here as fast as I can and so far everything I’ve tried is failing. I don’t know how this happened but I’m trapped here in 2009 on New Year’s eve, condemned, it seems, to relive this new year’s eve in Ground Hog Day perpetuity – arguing about data persistence, yet again.

Thoughts on EF vs. NHibernate Redux

I posted this yesterday and violated a prime rule of mine: don’t blog when frustrated. I’ll admit it – this conversation frustrates me as it has derailed so many architectural discussions I’ve had over the years. Sometimes, when frustrated, I spend a bit too much time on the negative. I’ve revisited this post with a bit more thought after a rather “short” conversation on Twitter with my friend Rick Strahl, who had some good points which I crapped all over ;).