Halfapenguin.com

So more than 4 years after first looking at Django, and thinking it was better than a bread knife that toasts your bread while it is sliced... it still seems less popular than its slightly younger and scruffier sibling, Ruby on Rails.

I have to say there is a touch of betamax feeling here, i'm a python programmer at heart, and Ruby itself seems to be messy and inelegant, combine with it more than a few misgivings about the way rails does things, i felt sure that Django would eventually emerge supreme, as the better thought out and more sophisticated framework. That happy day has yet to come, and given that RoR seems to be in vogue in the job hunting circles, i may need to swallow my pride.

In the past i have experimented with RoR, i've even got somewhere with it, but still it did not appeal to me. This time i am going to try to go in with a clean(ish) slate, an entire 1.0 of difference separates this RoR from the old version, and its just possible i may find a new framework awaits me.

In an effort to record my RoR experiences, i'm going to attempt to do semi-regular blog postings on the subject. Also to try to prevent my prejudices sneaking in, i'm going to set myself some ground rules...

• I will try to be as forgiving of RoR as i am of Django's little foybles (they do exist)


• I will work on improving my Ruby skills, and endevour to be able to at least examine the Rails source


• I will attempt to keep up with the latest news in the RoR community


• Once i have become re-familiar with RoR, i will use it to develop on of my upcoming projects. its the only way to get good at something is to use it


• I will find a use for blocks... people rave about them...popular opinion may not always be right but see whats doable

There was a missed post from feburary, it didn't seem to post, probably because i suspect i was trying to bug test the live-journal interface (doesn't allow i-frames)...

I need to write something to fix this in an upcoming patch for the software.

So here is the reposted article.

This is the third attempt at writing this entry, since safari has been logging me out midway through writing.

I was thinking about how i really want to do a proper road trip at some point, and while i don't have the time right now, i thought i'd make a rough plan with the help of the Great and Powerful Google.

After working out i'd like to head to San Francisco and chose places i'd like to visit along the way, this is what it gave me.

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Admittedly its nearly all southern places, but then i can always do a northern road trip in the future :)

I told google to avoid all highways, since it means i can see the little places as well as the big places, which is part of the reason for the trip.

I'd want to stay in each of the places on my list, so this would be about a 3 week trip, so not really practical on the amount of holiday i'm given... maybe i could work this into the idea of being a roving developer...

Aside from the time however i'm more concerned about the carbon footprint such a trip woud generate. If i took my current car, thats about 250 gallons of gas and thats being optimistic... so i'd want a carbon neutral car... anyone mind lending me their Tesla?

Realistically tho, until the technology allows me to do this trip without burning huge amounts of carbon fuels, i'm going to have to wait at least a few years...but when the car is available, i'll be heading to San Francisco... anybody want to come with?

However given i'd probably want to get back to where i started, i'd probably do the extra special see as much as humanly possible trip, which would be something like this...

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For those of you wondering about spokane, i'm still waiting for my breakfast in spokane from 4 years ago...

So i'd probably end up needing a bit more time for this trip... still i'd love to do something like this... roll on fuel cell green supplied cars :)