Announcing Developer Day, Boston

We’ve been working with the great folks at Viget Labs and Relevance to bring Developer Day to Boston, and we’re happy to announce that the event will be held at Microsoft NERD on August 15th, 2009 and registration is now open.

For the uninitiated, Developer Day is:

• one day only
• very cheap
• incredibly useful
• platform agnostic
• technology-centric

Developer Day was born out of the realization that there’s a huge amount of development talent and experience spread across the country, and there’s absolutely no need to spend a lot of money to get together and learn from each other. Furthermore, so many of the venues for assembling geeks are focused on a single technology. We need less specialization right now, and more places to talk to people for whom tools are tools, but tech is king.

Staying current with the ever-evolving technological possibilities can be challenging, but you love trying. Why? Because you’re a fantastic web developer who loves building things (and, frankly, that’s just how you roll).

Which is why this conference is perfect for you.

We’ve lined up eight great talks on topics from JavaScript to git, and from document databases to general development practices. No matter what your standard tools, language, and framework, you’re guaranteed to learn something new. So, come meet cool people, eat some lunch, and give yourself the day to learn and participate in great discussions — all for the low, low price of $50. Register today!

Boston neighborhood guide

I have a friend from another city who is considering a Ruby job in Boston. He asked me for advice on places to live.

Cost of living

Expect to pay between $750-$1,250/month for a clean apartment close to Boston. You should be able to knock it down to $500/month if you share a bedroom with someone or live in Jamaica Plain.

However, average salary, and more importantly, the quality of life are also high.

Cambridge

I’ve mostly lived in Cambridge over the last 5 years so let’s start here. The Wikipedia entry hits the high points of Cambridge culture: Harvard University, MIT, the Charles River, and The Red Line.

The blue line encompasses the sections of Cambridge I’d recommend: most of Cambridge except areas that are more industrial or North Cambridge, which is just a little too far from downtown Boston for my tastes.

I put three pushpins in Boston for reference: Fenway Park, the Prudential Center, and Park Street at Boston Common (where the thoughtbot office is located).

If, like my friend, you’re not working downtown, but instead in Watertown, Waltham, Somerville, Medford, or Charlestown, I’d strongly recommend Cambridge.

Brookline

Again, the Wikipedia entry will give you a good overview of the town and its culture: John F. Kennedy, The Country Club, and The Green Line.

This is an area I’d recommend for people with kids. Quiet, safe, and great schools. It’s close to Waltham, Watertown, and the Mass Pike if you’re working out along Route 128. It’s also extremely convenient if you’re working in the Longwood area, perhaps at one of the many hospitals and universities.

Within Brookline, Coolidge Corner, Washington Square are the two areas I would focus on. They’re both right on the Green Line along Beacon Street and have plenty of things worth walking to.

Jamaica Plain

Wikipedia calls Jamaica Plain The Eden of America. I can see that.

This is where you want to be if you’e a park lover or a real artist. The population is diverse. The Milky Way Lounge (Latin dance nights), JP Licks (ice cream), and Doyle’s Cafe (oldest Irish pub in Boston, longtime evening hangout for the city’s Irish politicians) are iconic institutions.

The area I’d recommend is bounded by the Orange Line on the right, the ponds on the left, and is split by Centre Street, which is filled with attractive cafes, galleries, restaurants and shops.

South End

Scan through the Wikipedia entry then take a walk through the area. If you’re not touched by the signature brick architecture of Boston that is prevalent in the South End, you have no heart. You’re probably a vampire. Might want to get that checked out.

The South End is known as a gay and artistic neighborhood. Tremont Street may have the greatest concentration of “Saturday night date restaurants” in the city. Unbelievable food. Lots of theaters, lots of music, lots of visual arts.

I’ve bounded the South End by some major streets.

I’s a tricking balancing act of trying to live in the South End, however. The closer you are to Copley, the closer you are to some of the highest rent areas of Boston. The closer to Washington Street, the further you are from all subway lines and the closer you are to some higher crime areas.

Back Bay, Beacon Hill, North End

It wouldn’t be tour through Boston’s neighborhoods if I didn’t point out the Back Bay, Beacon Hill, and the North End

These are all awesome neighborhoods but pricey.

Written by Dan Croak.

VTM Boston Interview Video

When we were at the VOICES THAT MATTER Professional Ruby Conference in November, we sat down and did a two-part interview for use in promotional materials for next year’s conference, and for our own amusement. It took a while for us to get our hands on this, but here’s the second of the interviews from that day.

The video features Dan Croak (Developer), Chad Pytel (CEO), Matt Jankowski (COO) and Tammer Saleh (Developer) talking about ruby, rails, thoughtbot, TDD, our products, our process, our history, and more.

Interview

Timeline

• 0:00 – Design Driven Development, TDD process
• 4:00 – What else have we tried?
• 7:00 – User stories and tests
• 8:30 – Pair programming
• 11:00 – Open source plugins
• 14:30 – Product ideas
• 17:15 – Promoting OSS, hosting your own tools, paying for services
• 19:25 – Products vs consulting vs training, how did we start out?
• 21:00 – How we found ourselves while backpacking in Europe
• 21:55 – What is Kickstart
• 23:45 – Growth and promotion
• 25:18 – Chad mentions the blog and we all eat lunch instead of continuing the interview

The future of video production in a post modern world

If anyone is in or around the Boston area, and is either an aspiring amateur film maker, a film student in college, interested in films, the owner of a bunch of digital video editing equipment, a big fan of “24”, willing to act like a film student, etc – please get in touch with us. We’re looking to produce some promotional materials (and some funny materials) that require more video equipment and knowledge than we have in house.

Step right up, win a $1,295 prize

Here at thoughtbot, we love a good contest.

It’s been too long since the last one, so here we go again. Now since we all kind of know each other, I’m sure we’ll all feel comfortable within the confines of the honor system.

Follow @thoughtbot

That’s it. All followers of the @thoughtbot Twitter account will be eligible to win a prize next week. We’ll pick a random winner for the following prizes.

• On Monday, winner gets a Widgetfinger account.
• On Tuesday, winner gets a Tadpole Hoptoad account.
  (4 projects, 4 users, Lighthouse integration)
• On Wednesday, winner gets a Toad Hoptoad account.
  (16 projects, 16 users, SSL, Lighthouse integration)
• On Thursday, winner gets a Bullfrog Hoptoad account.
  (32 projects, 32 users, SSL, Lighthouse integration)

Open source markets

Since Vegas has yet to release odds, we’ve created the Open Source prediction market to answer burning questions we have, such as:

Who will win a Ruby Heroes Award at RailsConf 2009?

I’ve got my money on James Golick, but Jason thinks he’s a long shot.

We’re also constantly faced with a decision about which open source project to use for certain tasks:

• Which RESTful controller? giraffesoft/resource_controller, ianwhite/resources_controller, or hcatlin/make_resourceful?
• Which REST client? jnunemaker/httparty or adamwiggins/rest-client?
• Which state machine? rubyist/aasm or pluginaweek/state_machine?

To make the markets measurable, we’re using github watchers as a proxy for “preferred open source project” and setting a date of RailsConf so people think relatively long-term.

When you’re atop the leaderboard at high noon EST on Friday, you win the big prize:

One FREE ticket to a thoughtbot training class,
a $1,295 value.

So trade early trade often at the Open Source prediction market, and tell your friends.