RailsConf

As far as the sessions at the conference go, there were so many excellent talks I don't intend to review them all here but I will mention a few. Kent Beck's keynote was a highlight; I love his passion for helping people create better software and making the practice of creating software a better human experience. The Dialog Concerning the Two Chief Modelling Systems, presented in the form of a play by Jim Weirich, Joe O'Brien and Chris Nelson was a superb blend of entertainment and education. Other presentations that imparted useful knowledge included David Chelimsky's Integration Testing with RSpec's Story Runner, Aaron Bedra's De-Railing: Smashing the Rails Stack and Chad Pytel's Advanced Active Record Techniques: Best Practice Refactoring. And on a light-hearted note, Oh the Fail I've Known by Adam Keys was very entertaining.

The final session, which involved core Rails members Michael Koziarski, Rick Olson, Jeremy Kemper and David Heinemeier Hansson fielding questions about Rails from the audience, left me with a keen desire to attend RailsConf 2009.

What's new in Rails 2.1?

Next weekend the wider Australian Rails community will be converging on Kariong for RailsCamp 08. Paradoxically, I won't be able to attend due to a personal commitment.

OSDC Proposals due by 30 June

If you have something to share, or know another developer who has something to share about open source software, please do make sure proposals are submitted by 30 June.

Anyway, time for supper and a snooze before the long journey...

Already this year, following the historic apology to the stolen generations, there has been some progress. Just one week after a report that Indigenous health research was being ignored came funding announcements to tackle high rates of smoking in Indigenous communities as well as training initiatives to get more Indigenous people into the health workforce.

On the same day came a statement of intent to "achieve equality in health status and life expectancy between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians by the year 2030". Obviously, the realisation of this noble objective will require much cooperation. As Mick Gooda, chief executive of the Co-operative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health, says, "the strategy must involve all areas of government to be successful". He also asserted that community control is crucial.

As I write this I am mindful of Crescent Head, near Kempsey on the NSW mid-north coast. We have been enjoying our holidays there for over a decade. Each year it saddens me to see and hear about the divide between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in Kempsey. I'm sure I'm only superficially aware of the background and the present day situation but it's obvious to me as an occasional visitor that there are huge challenges for Kempsey. Recently a committee of the NSW Upper House met in Kempsey to hear evidence about Indigenous people enduring substandard living conditions. And there has been a call for Kempsey's Indigenous people to "play a lead role in upgrading the Kempsey District Hospital".

It is heartening to hear about good intentions, helpful initiatives and community consultation. And good to hear that the PM will formally report on progress each year.

But, for me, the test will be evident on my annual holidays to Crescent Head and Kempsey. Hopefully that litmus test will show that the gap is truly closing.

The change to working from home has been very positive so far. I'm feeling much healthier and glad that I have more time to spend with my family. As far as work is concerned I'm usually quite productive although there are times when I get distracted. But it's amazing how being your own boss focusses your mind. Nobody to blame but yours truly and you are directly answerable to your clients.

Working remotely from people with whom you are collaborating obviously presents communication challenges. Overall, I've found the combination of email, instant messaging, IRC and project management webapps like Unfuddle and Basecamp has been very effective. And of course there's Skype, the phone and occasional face to face meetings when necessary. If the trust and discipline is there, the technologies now at our disposal certainly allow effective remote work.

Speaking of work, it's time I got back to it!

Well, these are certainly interesting times for international cricket. The Indian Premier League, due to start on 18 April, has thrown the cat among the pigeons as far as the upcoming Test series between the West Indies and Australia is concerned.

Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, three of the West Indies' best and most experienced players, have been signed by the IPL. Consequently, they may miss the first two Tests against Australia. As former Australian opening batsmen and current West Indies coach John Dyson says, it is up to the IPL to honour the generally accepted agreement that international cricket takes priority and ensure that the three players are released for the Test Series. The ICC may have formalised guidelines for the IPL, including the principle "that every ICC member had the right to object to a player from its country taking part in the IPL". However, in reality, this is useless in the relatively poor countries that comprise the West Indies team. The amount Chris Gayle can earn from representing the West Indies is a pittance compared to the $800,000 he has been signed up for by the IPL. Who is going to stand is his way?

Then there is the power game within the ICC, which is effectively controlled by India. If push comes to shove, is the ICC going to stand up to the IPL and ensure that international cricket takes priority?

Interesting times indeed. Oh, and by the way, I think New South Wales has just about got it's hands on the Pura Cup trophy. With a day's play remaining, Victoria only needs another 533 runs for victory with 8 wickets in hand.

Together with others in the Gosford community I was listening to the Australian Prime Minister's historic apology to the indigenous people of this land for the injustices of past governments. It was as if the rain was an emotional message from the country that the healing of our nation could begin.

Just as tears were flowing from the sky, tears on faces nearby showed the emotion of the moment. And just as the conclusion of Kevin Rudd's speech evoked a spontaneous standing ovation in Canberra, the applause from those gathered in the gardens at East Gosford was heart-felt. Together we had witnessed a defining moment in Australia's history.

I was glad to be there to share the experience, hear some moving responses from indigenous leaders in the local community as well as see some marvellous performances from the NAISDA dance group.

At the end of the ceremony we listened to a recording of Archie Roach singing Took the Children Away. I had heard this plaintive, haunting song many years before and couldn't help but be moved. In today's context it resonated more hope.

I hope that today's ceremony, as important as it has been as part of healing the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous people in this land, leads to real improvements in the lives of indigenous Australians.

My assessment was that Ponting and Hussey had to both score hundreds to give the Aussies any chance of achieving a record 17th successive Test victory. Ponting was certainly due. Hussey was capable but had only scored one century in his five previous innings in the series, below par for him.

As it turned out, Ponting and Hussey both fell in the 40s and, despite a valiant 81 from Michael Clarke and an entertaining 73 run 9th wicket partnership between Mitchell Johnson (50 not out) and Stuart Clark, Australia fell 72 runs short.

After India had the rough end of too many poor umpiring decisions in Sydney, I have to say I was pleased for them. I admire their resilience. Well played India!

But if you're reading this, here is a pre-Christmas professional update.

OSDC 2007

In late November I had the privilege of attending the Open Source Developers' Conference in Brisbane.

I learnt plenty, realised how much I still have to learn, caught up with former colleagues and people I'd met at the previous year's conference in Melbourne, and met more geeks with interesting stories to tell. I was reasonably satisfied with my talk (slides here) although I have to admit to being somewhat overawed by following Dr Nic Williams and Dr Paul King. But I think it made for an interesting overall discussion about Ruby on Rails, Groovy and JRuby.

The Brisbane open source geeks were very hospitable and it is probably fair to say that I consumed perhaps a little too much amber fluid. Maybe that is related to the fact that I volunteered to be part of the organising committee for next year's conference in Sydney (if we get our act together).

Ruby on Rails

I continue to be inspired by the vibrant Australian Ruby on Rails community. So much talent and a wonderful willingness to share. Unfortunately I wasn't able to make it to RailsCamp 2.0 but I have been a regular at the Sydney Rails Group meetings.

As far as improving my working knowledge of Rails goes, I give a big thumbs up to The Rails Way by Obie Fernandez. Although just recently published I've enjoyed following the book's progress through the beta period and thoroughly recommend it. Every time I dip into this extensive tome I discover something else to add to my Rails knowledge-base. It is not exactly bedtime reading but is an excellent resource for the professional Rails developer. Now that Rails 2.0 is out, I've found Ryan Bates' recent Railscasts very useful. So far he has four short episodes, each of which shows an improvement delivered with Rails 2.0.

Rails continues to be my web application tool of choice and I look forward to using it more intensively in 2008.

Moving On

Speaking of 2008, it will mark a change in direction for me. After nearly eight years at Cirrus Technologies in Sydney, I have decided to start my own business. Initially I will be freelancing, based from my home office, but who knows where it will lead?

I owe a big vote of thanks to the directors of Cirrus Technologies and the colleagues that I have worked with at Cirrus over the years. When I joined in early 2000, Enterprise Java was still very new. Java was still young. For any Java developers reading this, do you remember programming with Java before the Collections Framework was introduced in JDK 1.2? Or perhaps you remember when CMP Entity Beans were still a novelty and the Spring Framework was unheard of, still gestating in Rod Johnson's brain?

Cirrus has provided me with many professional opportunities for which I am truly grateful.

But the time has come to move on. Twelve years of commuting between the Central Coast and Sydney has taken its toll and I am very much looking forward to an improved lifestyle. As my endocrinologist said yesterday, "You only go around once."

Seriously though, I'm in Brisbane at OSDC and have just had the privilege of listening to Rasmus Lerdorf, creator of PHP, give his keynote address about Exploring the Broken Web. In an entertaining style he showed how easy it is for hackers to use Javascript to exploit XSS and XSRF holes. As he said, all we have to do to use the web in a secure way is to take care in the way we use it. For example, never click on a link. Never use the same computer to use the web externally and internally.

So the web is broken and will not be fixed any time soon. I guess it's not a perfect world.

At the close of the second day's play Victoria had lost two second innings wickets and still needed 155 runs to force Queensland to bat a second time. When assistant coach Darren Berry pledged to shout the whole squad dinner if they could win from that position he probably thought his money was safe. Or maybe it was a masterful touch of motivation.

In any event, Victoria won this remarkable cricket match in a canter.

Untimely for Howard that is. As Ross Gittins recently pointed out in the Sydney Morning Herald, the federal treasurer merely pretends to play a significant role in economic policy. The reality is quite different.

And the political reality on the evening of 24th November could well be very interesting. Will we, as seems very likely, see a change of government? And will we, for the second time in Australian history, see the Prime Minister lose his seat?

A group of children with Down's Syndrome were enjoying an excursion to the zoo. Unsurprisingly, the adults supervising the excursion regularly did a head-count to ensure that none of the children had strayed. One of these tallies came up with a total one short.

A lengthy search ensued.

Eventually the missing child turned up, dripping wet and steadfastly refusing to divulge anything when questioned about the reason for his dampness. Oh well, at least the supervisors could inform the child's parents that he had been found safe and well.

Later in the day, when the said child had arrived home, naturally the first thing his mother wanted to do was to help him change into some dry clothes. When she took off his backpack and opened it what should emerge... but a penguin!!!

Now, comfortable in the knowledge that the Sydney Grade Cricket season has started, I can look forward to the middle of next month when the competition that used to be called the Sheffield Shield will start. And then, more comfortingly still, this Australian season's Test Matches against Sri Lanka and India will begin.

Call me old-fashioned but I can't take this new 20 Twenty stuff too seriously. On the other hand, if it was the more traditional annual Maitland ten-over comp (in which I recall playing in the 1980s), that would be different!