AdvisorBits

Although Why makes me think, sometimes I want a little more hand holding.

Rolling with Ruby on Rails provides all that, and by the end of the tutorials, I was thinking up reasons to write RoR applications.

If you're not comfortable with MySQL administration, you may want to work through the revised version: RwRoRR. by Bill Walton and Curt Hibbs. Some of the GUI MySQL software described in the original version is no longer available so I had to wing that part. The new version uses the MySQL console and a structure file to create the tables for the excersizes.

Not counting installing Ruby and MySQL, it took about 2 hours to get through the original tutorial. I should think the new version would go much faster. This is highly recommended for any programmer who wants to see a demonstration of RoR's potential.

At the bottom of my sidebar, you might notice a new item, my del.icio.us tags. I have recently begun to actively use this on-line bookmark and bookmark sharing service. When I see something on the web I want to share with my associates and co-workers, or even my friends, I can use a button installed in my browser to store, and tag a bookmark in my on-line del.icio.us account.

Readers can browse my bookmarks, or look at bookmarks I have given a certain tag. Let me know what you think of this idea, do you use del.icio.us? Have you ever visited another user's bookmarks?

If you look very closely, you might notice a tag down there today that most people would find unusual for me to have used: kids I remember being fascinated with programming when I was a kid and wishing for access to a computer to learn. Hackety Hack is an interesting sounding tool to teach your kid how to program. (Hack is not a bad word, no matter what the news media would have you believe.)

If you are interested in manifesto's and such, you are encouraged to read the Hackety Hack Manifesto. I thought this "bylaw" was great:

Also, helpful sentences. Preferably short and with a period.

I was surprised when I found this, because it is written at least in part by _why, who I have heretofore found to be a little difficult to read. I really liked reading his stuff, just don't think the why's (poignant) guide to ruby is for kids 13 and up, which is the described age range for Hackety Hack.