Gig: Speaking at RailsConf Europe 2007

Nick Sieger — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 05:33:00 +0000

Speaking of keeping busy, I’ll be speaking alongside my colleague Craig McClanahan at RailsConf Europe in Berlin next week.

Sun is a Diamond Sponsor at RailsConf again, just like in Portland last May. Part of that sponsorship money pays for a brief keynote spot (filled by Craig) as well as a session or two. So no, I didn’t get my spot through an accepted proposal submission, but that doesn’t mean that the session is going to be a big marketing shill.

No, actually Craig and I are part of a small group at Sun that’s embracing Rails in a big way, and we’re going to be launching a site built mostly on Rails later this fall. We’re taking what we think are some novel approaches to building a Rails-based application and we thought we’d share some of those thoughts with you rather than drone on for the session about how great Sun is and what snazzy tools we make. (Although expect to see a subtle plug or two for Sun hardware and tools. Call it product placement rather than overt selling.)

I titled the session “Rails Hydra” because the central idea of the structure of our application is not one Rails app, but many. The UI and views don’t even talk to a database; instead they make use of ActiveResource and RESTful web services, talking to the models living in other Rails applications in the backend. One key point is we’re deploying .war files to JRuby running on Glassfish, thus avoiding headaches of morbidly multiplying Mongrel math. We’ll elaborate on this arrangement and talk about some of the other tools and tricks we’re using.

Also, Charlie, Tom and Ola will be there, so we’ll certainly have a JRuby summit at some point. Stop by and say hello!

Spring and Summer Gigs

Nick Sieger — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:25:16 +0000

Just a quick note on some upcoming gigs. I’ll be speaking next month at both JavaOne and RailsConf, giving an update on the JRuby deployment situation, which by the way is rapidly improving! Despite my proposal for a hands-on tutorial on JRuby deployment not getting accepted for RailsConf, I’ve been asked to fill one of the Sun-sponsored talk slots again. So, much like RailsConf EU last fall, if you come listen I promise you will not get a heavy sales pitch from me! Do stop by, I may even have a couple goodies in store for you.

I also feel privileged to be speaking at RubyFringe this summer, where I haven’t yet determined exactly what I’ll be talking about (although it will probably have some connection to JRuby).

Hope to see you at one of these upcoming events!

Update: We just re-jiggered the schedule of 3 JRuby-related talks at JavaOne, including mine, so that they flow better from beginning to end of the week. My talk is now on Thursday morning instead of Wednesday morning. In addition, Charlie and Tom’s is on Tuesday, and Ola’s is on Wednesday. If you’re attending JavaOne and are interested in JRuby-related talks, please make sure you log into Schedule Builder and re-check your schedule.

Nick Sieger: Tag gig

Gig: Speaking at RailsConf Europe 2007

Spring and Summer Gigs