May meeting for the Boston Ruby Group

[Tom Dyer]

New Location, Sermo!!

This month's meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 13th at Sermo, 215
First Ave, Cambridge. About two blocks from the old location at the
CIC. The meeting runs from 7 to 9pm, but you can arrive after 6:30.

Meeting Notice:
http://boston.rubygroup.org/articles/2008/05/01/may-meeting-new-location
Directions: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&saddr=1st+street,+cambridge,+ma+02142&daddr=&sll=37.058533,-95.671949&sspn=0.024384,0.039911&layer=&ie=UTF8&z=16&om=1&iwloc=addr%EF%BF%BD

This meeting is sponsored by Viximo, http://www.viximo.com

Agenda:
* Mark Bates will be presenting the Mack Framework. Mack is a Ruby
web framework being designed for distributed, portal-like
applications, using 'best of breed' technologies and form, with an
emphasis on performance.
* Daniel Higginbotham will be presenting a tool he developed,
Palmist, that is used to optimize MySQL databases on Rails sites.
Check it out at svn://rubyforge.org/var/svn/logviewer
* Jonathan Barket will be presenting restful-authorization, an
authorization and workflow mechanism built on top of
restful_authentication.

Many Thanks to:
* Viximo for sponsoring the meeting.
* Sermo for providing the venue and all the food and drinks.
* EngineYard for providing a host for group projects.
* Brian Delacey and John Norman for helping out,( producing the
videos, finding speakers, ...)

--
Tom Dyer

[LukeStark]

Question regarding parking: There's a tasty looking parking lot
(http://tinyurl.com/4bap8e) next to the building between 1st and 2nd
St. Is that publicly accessible for some fee? It see it's gated. I
could take the T, but having the car leaves more options. Anyone know
the scoop?

-L

On Apr 30, 9:59 pm, "Tom Dyer" <tdy...@gmail.com> wrote:
> New Location, Sermo!!
>
> This month's meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 13th at Sermo, 215
> First Ave, Cambridge. About two blocks from the old location at the
> CIC. The meeting runs from 7 to 9pm, but you can arrive after 6:30.
>

> [snip]
> Tom Dyer

[Brian DeLacey]

To help celebrate the new location, we have a generous collection of books to give away at tonight's meeting from our publishing friends at O'Reilly and Addison-Wesley / Pearson.

O'Reilly, a long-time supporter of the group, sent us Ezra's new book, "Deploying Rails Applications" as well as their definitive "Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide." Other recent titles we'll give away include "Advanced Rails" and "The Ruby Programming Language." In the spirit of multi-lingualism, we also have Python books. (Vote for Ruby in Google App Engine - their only runtime platform right now is Python.)

Addison-Wesley/Pearson has also signed on as a supporter of our group. We'll give away a half-dozen titles from their Ruby/Rails Professional Series including: "The Rails Way", "The Ruby Way", "Design Patterns in Ruby", and "RailsSpace". We'll also raffle off their innovatively packaged collections/tutorials on CD and DVD. (Pearson is planning a Ruby conference for November which presents a great opportunity for active participation by members of Boston Ruby.)

Special thanks to our friends at O'Reilly and Addison-Wesley/Pearson for their support of Boston Ruby!

-- Brian

--
Brian

[Tom Dyer]

According to Sermo the parking lot closes at 7pm. But there should be
metered parking space on the street, Linskey Way, for about a dozen
cars? I'll ask Sermo about other options.

--
Tom Dyer

[Tom Dyer]

Just heard from Sermo that the parking area is open until 10pm.

--
Tom Dyer

[Mark Bates]

Thanks to everyone in the group for letting me speak tonight. I really
appreciate it. It was a great time, and I enjoyed the discussions I
had with everyone.

For those who want them, you can grab my slide deck here:

http://www.mackframework.com/2008/05/13/boston-ruby-users-group-presentation/

Thanks again everyone.

On Apr 30, 9:59 pm, "Tom Dyer" <tdy...@gmail.com> wrote:

> New Location, Sermo!!
>
> This month's meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 13th at Sermo, 215
> First Ave, Cambridge. About two blocks from the old location at the
> CIC. The meeting runs from 7 to 9pm, but you can arrive after 6:30.
>
> Meeting Notice:http://boston.rubygroup.org/articles/2008/05/01/may-meeting-new-location

> Directions:http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&saddr=1st+street,+cambridge,+ma...
>
> This meeting is sponsored by Viximo,http://www.viximo.com

[Daniel Higginbotham]

I've thrown up a little page for palmist here: http://www.flyingmachinestudios.com/2008/05/14/announcing-palmist/

If anyone's unfamiliar with git and would like me to make a zip file
available, let me know and I'll be happy to do so. It was fun
speaking and getting to meet other ruby hackers :)

Thanks,
Daniel

[Josh]

GitHub actually provides tarballs automatically, just go to:

http://github.com/flyingma/palmist/tree/master

Then hit 'download' near the top.

On May 14, 1:46 pm, Daniel Higginbotham

<dan...@flyingmachinestudios.com> wrote:
> I've thrown up a little page for palmist here:http://www.flyingmachinestudios.com/2008/05/14/announcing-palmist/
>
> If anyone's unfamiliar with git and would like me to make a zip file  
> available, let me know and I'll be happy to do so.  It was fun  
> speaking and getting to meet other ruby hackers :)
>
> Thanks,
> Daniel
>
> On Apr 30, 2008, at 9:59 PM, Tom Dyer wrote:
>
> > New Location, Sermo!!
>
> > This month's meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 13th at Sermo, 215
> > First Ave, Cambridge. About two blocks from the old location at the
> > CIC. The meeting runs from 7 to 9pm, but you can arrive after 6:30.
>
> > Meeting Notice:
> >http://boston.rubygroup.org/articles/2008/05/01/may-meeting-new-location

> > Directions:http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&saddr=1st+street,+cambridge,+ma...
>
> > This meeting is sponsored by Viximo,http://www.viximo.com

[Randy Cole]

Every event at Sermo until tonight, building security very graciously opened the gate at the Antheneum parking lot to let us out (or it was already open).  Tonight they wrote down my info so that the parking lot company can send a bill.  I'm curious to see if they bill me the 1/2 hour rate for parking between 6:45 and 7pm, or try for more!!

I understand this policy changed some time in the last few weeks.  Needless to say I will now walk two blocks or so from a free space.  (Note that Chris's car was broken into when parked on 2nd St, on the far side of Binney St last year - see thread from October 2008)

  ***   ***    ***

While on the subject of parking, most people attending the Hackfests at Thoughtbot arrive by public transit, but there is some on-street parking in the Federal St / High St area.  Boston parking meters are in effect until 8pm, but commercial slots are free for all at 7pm.   Ditto for Ruby Theater, though parking situation is worse in Back Bay.

Randy

[Matthew Krom]

A summary of parking options near the meeting location would really help.  It's not far from Kendall T, but it's not close enough (like 1 Broadway) to make it a no-brainer (for me).  I'm familiar with the area, yet I'm embarrassed to report I paid $27 to park for the meeting, right next door in a garage. Street/permit parking was jammed full.  I would have kept looking, but was running out of time.

So, thanks in advance to anyone who can summarize parking options, and even include then in the meeting information.  I'd do it, but my experience above shows I'm not the expert in that area.

The T totally rocks for the Hackfests.

Matt

[Dan Croak]

Let's have all events on one of the Boston Harbor Islands, only accessible by air or water.

On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 12:36 AM, Randy Cole <rand...@gmail.com> wrote:

Every event at Sermo until tonight, building security very graciously opened the gate at the Antheneum parking lot to let us out (or it was already open).  Tonight they wrote down my info so that the parking lot company can send a bill.  I'm curious to see if they bill me the 1/2 hour rate for parking between 6:45 and 7pm, or try for more!!

I understand this policy changed some time in the last few weeks.  Needless to say I will now walk two blocks or so from a free space.  (Note that Chris's car was broken into when parked on 2nd St, on the far side of Binney St last year - see thread from October 2008)

  ***   ***    ***

While on the subject of parking, most people attending the Hackfests at Thoughtbot arrive by public transit, but there is some on-street parking in the Federal St / High St area.  Boston parking meters are in effect until 8pm, but commercial slots are free for all at 7pm.   Ditto for Ruby Theater, though parking situation is worse in Back Bay.

Randy

--
Dan Croak
http://thoughtbot.com

[Brian Cardarella]

I don't think it is any secret that parking anywhere in Boston is going to be an issue. I do like the idea of keeping a list of good parking options for each venue. The last thing I would want would be to have people decide not to come to an event simply because they have to worry about parking.

Maybe we can have something on the Bostonrb.org site?

- Brian

[Randy Cole]

A RubyCruise might be interesting in July or August.

[Tom Dyer]

Could be more interesting in Feb, may need an ice breaker tho.

--
Tom Dyer

[Wyatt Greene]

LoL!

Here are some other locations to consider: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pole_of_Inaccessibility

[Sean Hussey]

There are some good options (if available) near the Pru that I'll map out before the next Theater night. The issue will be when Theater night coincides with a home Red Sox game. 

Sean

Sent from my iPhone.

[Mick T.]

This site might help people figure where to park, and how much it'll
cost:
http://boston.bestparking.com

On Feb 15, 10:55 am, Sean Hussey <seanhus...@gmail.com> wrote:
> There are some good options (if available) near the Pru that I'll map  
> out before the next Theater night. The issue will be when Theater  
> night coincides with a home Red Sox game.
>
> Sean
>
> Sent from my iPhone.
>

> On Feb 13, 2009, at 13:20, Brian Cardarella <bcardare...@gmail.com>  

> wrote:
>
> > I don't think it is any secret that parking anywhere in Boston is  
> > going to be an issue. I do like the idea of keeping a list of good  
> > parking options for each venue. The last thing I would want would be  
> > to have people decide not to come to an event simply because they  
> > have to worry about parking.
>
> > Maybe we can have something on the Bostonrb.org site?
>
> > - Brian
>
> > On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 11:57 AM, Dan Croak <dcr...@thoughtbot.com>  
> > wrote:
> > Let's have all events on one of the Boston Harbor Islands, only  
> > accessible by air or water.
>

> > On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 12:36 AM, Randy Cole <randy...@gmail.com>  

[Sean Hussey]

Google Maps doesn't have an actual address for this street, but here's
a map that's close:

http://tinyurl.com/bnt9s8

Just to the left of the point is Charlesgate E. All parking on the
left side of the road is free all day.

If you hit the end of that street and take a right onto Ipswich, all
parking on the right is free after 6:00 (they're 2-hour spots, though,
so if you park after 4, you're ok).

Also on that map, there's parking on Hemenway St., Haviland St.,
Edgerly Road, and Norway St. When I was at Berklee, we all ran the
Berklee 500 looking for spaces every 3-3.5 hours (they were mostly
2-hour spaces, but we had the meter maid schedules committed to
memory). I wouldn't recommend driving around too much. This is mostly
a guide to try out before you end up having to throw it in a garage or
lot.

Hope this helps.

Sean