[ElixirConf] ElixirConf is Here This Month!

[Jim Freeze]

Greetings

This year ElixirConf will host the largest gathering of

Elixir and Phoenix developers on the planet, from

September 1-2, 2016 in Orlando, FL.

And, in just 14 days on August 14, 

Standard Pricing ends and Late pricing begins.

----

Do you want to learn more about Elixir, Phoenix and Nerves?

Do you want to meet some of the friendliest developers on the planet?

Oh, and who also happen to be writing the future of developement?

Elixir & Phoenix Conf is the most important place you can

be this September.

Hang out with folks that are creating scalable, realtime web

systems, or who are inovating embedded systems for IoT.

Sign up for the world's best Elixir training on August 31.

   https://ti.to/elixirconf/2016-usa

Learn why companies are leaving older, more traditional languages

and frameworks and adopting Elixir & Phoenix for their core

technology solution.

The excitement for this years conference is building.

Sign up now to reserve your space

   https://ti.to/elixirconf/2016-usa

I hope to see you in Orlando at ElixirConf USA 2016!

-- 

Dr. Jim Freeze, Ph.D.

ElixirConf Organizer

http://ElixirConf.com

P.S.

 Reserve your hotel room at the Swan at:

 http://elixirconf.com/#venue

P.P.S.

 You can get a discount on Disney tickets or 

 get partial-day tickets at:

 http://elixirconf.com/2016/venue

P.P.P.S.

 There is still time to sponsor ElixirConf and 

 to support the Elixir community.

 http://elixirconf.com/elixirconf-sponsor-prospectus.pdf

[Matt Lawrence]

But where is the Lone Star Ruby Conference?  Life just isn't the same without it!

-- Matt

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[Jim Freeze]

I believe it has effectively been replaced with Keep Ruby Weird.

Dr. Jim Freeze, Ph.D.

(m) 512 949 9683

[Hal Fulton]

Where and when and who is that?

Hal

[Jim Freeze]

https://keeprubyweird.com/

[Hal Fulton]

At first glance, I am unimpressed.

Sent from my iPhone

[Matt Lawrence]

The Lone Star Ruby Conference is a hard act to follow...

-- Matt

[Jim Freeze]

You are too kind.

All the Ruby goodness has been poured into Elixir now.

Join us at ElixirConf.com in Orlando for the show of the year.

BTW, I'm toying with the idea of having a Lone Star ElixirConf.

Would anyone here be interested in that? Would be similar to LSRC, but filled with Elixir goodness instead.

Jim

[Hal Fulton]

I don't think I can make it to Orlando. Maybe later.

I'd be down for a local Elixir Conf -- I'd have preferences on

some details, but we'll see...

Re:  KRW - they say this:

"We're looking for only the top Webmasters to speak at our event. Candidates that are the best fit will have had 30 years experience in Ruby, 20 years experience working with Rails, and sufficient experience building software applications for the World Wide Web."

I assume the 2nd and 3rd assertions are facetious (30 and 20 years), but I don't believe

the 1st and 4th are.

As someone who is not a web guy nor wants to be, this sounds like just another webmonkey

conference. Why do they reference Ruby at all? Why not just Rails?

At any rate, I am clearly not qualified to speak at this conference.  ;)

Hal

[Nola Stowe]

If you look a past conferences of keep ruby weird, they aren't necessarily about the Web or rails 

Ruby: http://blog.rubygeek.com - http://www.twitter.com/rubygeek 

Clojure: http://blog.clojuregeek.com - http://www.twitter.com/clojuregeek 

[Hal Fulton]

Is it a recent change, then?

Sent from my iPhone

[Charles Lowell]

KRW has only existed for two years. It is a charming  conference, and I highly recommend it to anybody who cares to listen. 

As somebody who attended both times, I can recall only a single talk on Rails, specifically how to break into Rails applications.

Most of the talks are….. well…. weird.

cheers,

Charles

[Hal Fulton]

I am sure some very fine people run it and attend.

If it wasn't Rails-centric in the past, then why the shift?

Hal

[Steven Rogers]

On Aug 1, 2016, at 12:30 PM, Hal Fulton <rubyh...@gmail.com> wrote:

Re:  KRW - they say this:

"We're looking for only the top Webmasters to speak at our event. Candidates that are the best fit will have had 30 years experience in Ruby, 20 years experience working with Rails, and sufficient experience building software applications for the World Wide Web."

I would expect that whole thing is meant to be ironic. All the young kids are into that. Speakers are “webmasters”, decades of experience, etc. - very irony. Much glib. 

SR

[Joshua Butner]

Are you okay? Why are you forcing this point in a public forum when numerous people have attempted, quite cordially, to clear it up for you?

It's a conference for persons who like Ruby and like it a little weird. Web or no. Rails or no. Developers, designers, PMs who for whatever reason dig Ruby or the ecosystem, literally anyone with an interest in Ruby, Weirdness, and probably tacos, because Austin... and tacos.

C'mon, man.

[Jim Freeze]

Joshua. You crack me up man.

Jim

[Hal Fulton]

If that's the case, I would like it better if they had said that.

I'm all for that.

Although part of the description was ironic, it seemed part of it was not.

No offense intended toward anyone at all.

Haven't you seen (quite seriously) "Ruby" conferences that are really

about Rails? And haven't you seen numerous people, even in the

computing field, who don't seem to know the difference? And haven't

you seen numerous people (even in the computing field) who think that

web development is the only development there is?

If you haven't seen those things, I envy you.

Hal

On Mon, Aug 1, 2016 at 1:19 PM, Joshua Butner <joshua...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Scott Bellware]

Not entirely to Hal's point, but perhaps agreeing somewhat
in-principal and perhaps commenting more directly:

Because Keep Ruby Weird's identity leans toward the cutesy and the
ironic, and because - for better or worse - these kinds of things are
often correlated with less experienced software communities where
chasing fashion and fad displaces foundational techniques, KRW might
be less palatable to anyone who might be burned out on the cutesy and
irony - especially with perhaps more pressing issues that attention
might be paid to.

I'd like to see a Ruby event in Austin again. But I've skipped KRW
because the cute and the ironic tendencies mean that there a greater
probability that I won't see anything terribly edifying. That
prejudgement is very likely a weakness on my part, but there you have
it. I expect a greater preponderance of clichés from events that
identify with the cute and ironic that those that are focused on
problem solving rather than concerns over social aesthetics.

So... Is it possible for Ruby developers in the region to be
interested in a space and time reserved for learning and teaching
without indulging in the same old tired clichés? Or is it a necessary
facet of promotion and marketing that the cute and the ironic be
indulged?

Can an event with broader appeal, and one that is welcoming to all
levels of professional Ruby work, be done? And I guess, is such a
thing even welcomed and necessary?

Perhaps said otherwise: An event that is perhaps a little more
dignified might attract an audience that has greater diversity.

I realize that this might sound harsh to anyone who doesn't see a
problem with the KRW identity, but I feel it's important to express
the real downside of indulging such kinds of things.

KRW - to me, from the outside - strikes me as a leaning toward the
Brogrammer side of things, and I tend to stay away from those things
for not wanting to have to be reminded of its prevalence and the
difficulties that it creates in getting new, fresh ideas and
improvements under way.

On the other hand KRW is a specific kind of thing, and it's free to
express itself in any way that it wants, and it's not my place to say
what it should be. KRW isn't beholden to anything but itself and it's
own values, and that's fine. I'm not entitled to be served by KRW any
more than KRW is required to answer to me. But these are my critiques
nonetheless.

And I think it's critical in communities of practice to have these
kinds of discussions and negotiations of meaning openly and without
attempt to muffle them in any way.

Elixir is not an answer to what ails Ruby these days. And it would be
valuable to put heads together with folks who would like to see new
life breathed into Ruby and to start to address traditional problems
that make the exit to other platforms attractive rather than digging
in and fixing the mess we've created - and to learn to avoid doing so
again in the future (possibly on the next trendy platform).

I wish there were an event in Austin that is welcoming to all of Ruby
culture, and is focused not on promoting trendy traps, but on digging
in to software development, design, and architecture, and doing it
with Ruby as the language.

I wish there was an event that is committed to breathing some life
back into the core of the Ruby community in Austin, and ideally, to
avoid the clichés of the past and to talk about more than banging out
web prototypes for web startups (not that there's anything wrong with
that - unless it's the only thing on the docket and reduces diversity
accordingly) and tinkering with robotic kits.

Maybe it's just an event that needs to be organized by the community
rather than left to an events company or even the LSRF (but ideally
with the support of the LSRF).

Anyway, that's my two cents.

Apologies to Hal for usurping his commentary here to deliver something
of a harsher message.

Nonetheless, there's hard work to be done in Ruby and Ruby community,
especially in recovering from Rails, and helping companies, projects
and teams remediate the problems exacerbated by it. I hope that we can
dig into that work as a community.

Best,
Scott

[Nola Stowe]

In defense of Keep Ruby Weird, its not all "cute" 

Past conferences: 

https://confreaks.tv/conferences/keep-ruby-weird

Also it is not called Keep Rails Weird :) 

[Scott Bellware]

Indeed. And I didn't mean to impugn the content or the event's
contribution or its organizers and volunteers.

But again, just pointing out that it's chosen identity is likely more
limiting and self-selecting of audience than the content itself.

I believe that it is somewhat less welcoming than it could be, and I
believe that it's organizers might have wanted to be aware of this on
the off chance that this is unintentional.

Best,
Scott

[Hal Fulton]

I apologize if I insulted anyone.

I have never attended KRW because I never knew about it (and I

have been in exile in Fort Worthless for three years).

I am certainly not boycotting it or snubbing it. I know for example

that Nola has good judgment, and she speaks well of it. Maybe I

will find time to attend the next one.

Part of my issue in general is that I have spent more than ten years

explaining that I'm a Ruby expert, but I don't know Rails. Not just to

recruiters, but to people who should know better. (One of the

best things about Phoenix is that it isn't called "Elixir on Rails.")

Those of you who don't know me personally can skip this next

sentence as TMI: Also, my emotions have been out of whack
ever since ealier today I was texted a photo of my father's tombstone,
finally installed after being backordered more than three months.

Peace and weirdness,

Hal