Promoting the growth and development of Ruby (and the programmers therein)

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Rails Testing for Zombies – Feb 15th

It’s time again to Beta Test the next course at Code School, Rails Testing For Zombies is the 3rd course in our zombie series.  This will take place the night of Wednesday, February 15th, starting at 6:30 PM at Envy Labs.  There will be free food and beer provided for those who show up.  For more information and to RSVP, head over to Eventbrite.

CSS Cross-Country Beta, January 19th

We are ready to Beta test our next course at Code SchoolCSS Cross Country. Cross-Country is an intermediate course for those who are already familiar with the basics of CSS and want to learn more about best practices. We’re stepping back to give users a comprehensive understanding of major CSS fundamentals and techniques at a professional-use level.   Topics covered include:

  • Level 1 – Adding Style, Selectors, Cascade Order, Floating
  • Level 2 – Clearing Floats, Inheritance, and Specificity
  • Level 3 – The Box Model, Positioning, Z-Index
  • Level 4 – Staying DRY, Display Types, Centering
  • Level 5 – Protecting Your Layout
  • Level 6 – Image Use & Cropping
  • Level 7 – Image Replacement & Sprites
  • Level 8 – Pseudo Classes & Elements

The Beta will be 6:30 PM to 10 PM on Thursday, January 19th at Envy Labs and dinner will be provided.  You’ll need to RSVP over on EventBrite

CoffeeScript Beta – December 8th

We are ready to Beta test our next course at Code School, A Sip of CoffeeScript. As you may know CoffeeScript ships with Rails 3.1 by default, so if you haven’t learned it yet, here is your chance.  Topics covered include:

  • Level 1 – Variables, functions, and the command line.
  • Level 2 – Converting jQuery into CoffeeScript
  • Level 3 – Conditionals, operators, and comparisons.
  • Level 4 – Arrays, objects, iteration, and list comprehension.
  • Level 5 – More advanced jQuery into CoffeeScript
  • Level 6 – Object orientation, inheritance, fat arrow, and encapsulation.

The Beta will be 6:30 PM to 10 PM on Thursday, December 8th at Envy Labs and dinner will be provided.  You’ll need to RSVP over on EventBrite

jQuery Air 2 – Beta Test

jQuery is the default JavaScript framework in Rails 3.1, and on Thursday, November 10th, 7 PM at the Envy Labs office we’ll be Beta Testing Code School‘s new jQuery Air 2 Course. This course covers move advanced jQuery topics such as Binding, Unbinding, Live/Delegate, AJAX calls, Effects, Effect Speed/Easing, Queues, Delays, creating Utility Methods / Plugins, Custom Events, and finally jQuery Templates. Not a small list.

If you wish to attend you’ll need to RSVP on Eventbrite, see you next week!  Oh, and we’ll bring free dinner =)

Meeting next Wednesday – Zombies!!!

The next ORUG meeting we’re going to be doing a walk through Rails for Zombies 2: Resurrected, our next Code School course which should be coming out in the next few weeks. If you haven’t done much Rails in a while (or you’re still new), this is a perfect opportunity to catch up and continue your learning. This will take place down at Envy Labs, September 7th from 7 PM to 10 PM. We’ll also have free food at 6:30 PM if you want to come by for dinner. You’ll want to register at http://rfz2.eventbrite.com/ and the description is below:

Done with Rails for Zombies but can’t stop the craving for a second corpse? This sequel picks up where Rails for Zombies #1 leaves off, but this time the game engine has been new and improved, keeping track of points and offering you hints to help you along (like our other courses).

Gregg Pollack is resurrected in this paid course to advance your Rails knowledge with 5 new videos and a bunch of new code challenges. We’ll jump into the command line, migrations, more ActiveRecord, forms, using AJAX, and even a taste of the Rails 3.1 asset pipeline with SCSS and CoffeeScript.

If you’re an experienced Rails developer and you just want to come and hang out, you’re welcome to stop by, have a free beer/whiskey, and play some ping pong. It’ll be a grand old time.

jQuery Air Thursday, May 12th

This last month at Envy Labs we’ve been putting together the next Code School course, and with your assistance we’re going to beta test it at the next Ruby Users Group on Thursday, May 12th. The meet-up will take place at the Envy Labs new office in the Plaza (directions here: http://bit.ly/envylabs) from 7 PM to 10 PM.

jQuery Air is taught by Jeff Casimir, so this time we WILL be watching videos rather then having a live instructor. jQuery Air: First Flight covers the basics of jQuery, so it is a beginner topic, although the challenges make it fun to play through at any skill level. We have limited space for this meeting, mainly because of space AND we don’t want to be overwhelmed with people so I’ve created an eventbrite list. Please register if you’d like to attend.

http://jqueryair.eventbrite.com/

You’ll need to bring a laptop to the event if you want to play AND headphones to watch through the videos. If you don’t manage to get a seat but you’re really interested in playing the course, leave your email over here and we’ll let you know the moment it comes out. Thanks!

Free Ruby Primer

We’re all geared up for Magic Ruby this weekend, hopefully see some of you there.

However, if you’re new to Ruby, or you have friends who need to taste the cool aid, Jeff Casimir will be doing a free Ruby class next Wednesday, February 9th from 6 PM to 9 PM at Voxeo’s office downtown. The class is absolutely free, so register today to reserve your spot.

Be sure you’re subscribed to the Orlando Ruby Users Group Announcement list. We may be running some additional short notice events this month, so you’ll want to make sure you’re subscribed so you’re notified.

Two Free Ruby Events

First up, thanks to Andrew Smith, we’re running a a free Intro to Web Development with Rails course (Rails for Zombies) next month hosted by Full Sail University.  The date is Thursday, January 20, 2011 from 6 PM to 9 PM.  To register please head over to eventbrite.  If this is going to be review for you, but you want to come hang out, feel free to come on by and act as a teachers assistant.  I’m sure our students will run into issues as they go through the course, so it’ll be nice to have a few people to help instruct.

Next up don’t forget about Magic Ruby on February 4th and 5th, a FREE two day Ruby conference down at Disney’s Contemporary Resort.  This conference already has a bunch of great talks listed, including keynotes from Chad Fowler and Dave Thomas.  See the Magic Ruby website to view the talks and register.

Have a great holiday season.  =)

Rails for Zombies

This morning Envy Labs released Rails for Zombies, which is the all online version of the tutorial we ran at the Orlando Ruby Users group a few weeks ago.  If you’re new to Rails this is a great way to give it a try!

Meeting Thursday, August 12th

It’s been a while and I apologize for not staying on top of it (business has been good at Envy Labs), but our next meeting is going to be next Thursday, August 12th, 7 PM at CoLab Orlando, see this map for parking options. We have one talk and two discussions lined up:

First up Jacob Swanner will be doing a talk titled “Webmachine – the web framework you didn’t know existed”. Webmachine is written in Erlang, but don’t let that get you down. It has some really cool features, it’s easy to understand, and Erlang can be a lot of fun. We’ll go over how to get started with Webmachine, helpful resources and debugging tools, as well as how it can play well with Ruby/Rails apps.

Next up Caike Souza will talk about his experience at Oxente Rails 2010, Brazil’s largest Rails conference where he was doing his Refactoring talk. I’m hoping he’ll share with us what the Rails community looks like in Brazil, and maybe teach us about what he learned. At the moment I’m up near Jacksonville for Bizconf, and at the meeting I’ll give a summary of the conference . I’ll share some of the most interesting tech biz topics from the top Ruby/Agile tech shops.

Also I want to make sure you know about Robert Dempsey’s Rails / Software Craftsmanship conference, Acts As Conference taking place October 28-30. Tickets are on sale for $395, though you can get $100 off by using the discount code “qrcodesarethecoolestthingever”.

Hopefully see you next Thursday!