Hackdiary

RailsConf wrapped up this afternoon and I’m heading back to reality. Before I fly home to Amsterdam, I’m staying one night in actual downtown Chicago. It’s a great relief after so many nights in O’Hare Airportsville. Luckily the quality of the conference made up for the terrible location.

It’s been a fun and worthwhile trip that’s introduced me to a whole new community. Unlike an ETech or an XTech, there were only a few familiar faces from my usual conference circuit. I think I made a reasonable impression on my new friends with my talk on Saturday morning: Putting the BBC’s Programme Catalogue on Rails. There was a great turnout and people hung around after the talk to ask some very interesting and intelligent questions. I spotted Martin Fowler at the back of the room, which threw me for a few seconds. His books on refactoring and software patterns are essential reading for any developer and I have enormous respect for his opinions.

Without the audio, I’m afraid the slides are just a vague visual outline. There was a dedicated team recording the talks throughout the conference, and I’m told that the audio will be available soon. Sadly you’ll have to pay for access to this, although the cost may be justifiable judging from the quality of the talks that I was able to attend.