Are you excited for RubyConf? I am! It’s my first time, and it’s made possible by my awesome employer, Yardstick. Thanks Yardstick! I’m excited for the talks, though there are some time slots where it’s going to be tough to pick which talk to go to! Luckily, Confreaks records everything so I can always watch it later! Thanks Confreaks! See the pattern? Two paragraphs, two thank yous. But I want more. I want to thank you I want to meet you at Rub…

You might have seen this gist make the rounds about keeping a programming journal. Writing things down is important. Write on paper, in a bug tracker, on your hand, whatever. Just write it down. Writing things down is important for two reasons: It helps you remember things. Your brain has a finite capacity, and if something is written down, especially in a “public” place, it probably won’t get forgotten. It keeps you sane. If you just try to rem…

I was working on my twitterstream package the other day and got thinking. When do you make a new type? When don't you make a new type? Type System Basics If you use a programming without a strong static type system, you probably don't have much to worry about. In ruby and python for example, it doesn't really care about what you pass a method or function, as long as it has whatever methods you expect it to have. This is called duck typing The Go…