I’ve been busy working, both for my job and to finish learning what I need for Ruby on Rails. I’ve been spending some time with Ruby on Rails again, now that the books have mostly caught up to the version 2 and 2.2 stuff, it’s making a lot more sense. I do find it a little funny that as soon as the books come out for 2.0 and 2.2, they drop 2.3 on the community. I haven’t looked at it much, but hopefully it isn’t a huge change causing everyone’s hard work to become outdated as soon as it is released.

I’m working slowly, I managed to pick up a new hobby over the summer, Remote Control Cars/Trucks, and it has been consuming a lot of time, and to my girlfriend’s dismay, money. Great hobby but it can turn into a money pit when you start racing like I have. I’m sure I can make a whole post on the racing and what I’ve learned and done and so on, maybe I will tomorrow. Anyways, once the weather turns to the cold stuff we enjoy so much up here in New England, I’m planning on going full speed into the rails version of this site. I’ve dug myself a bit of a hole with it already using Wordpress for the interim, as I will now have to write some sort of import for the existing post and content on the site now. All in all it should be nice once done. I’m not sure about a design, but I am sure I’ll try and go simple and keep it along the lines of what is here now.

Work has been busy, I’ve been expanding my programming skills a great deal in the .Net world. I have made some amazing pieces of functionality for our customers. It might be my opinion but I have no shame in taking pride in the things I have made lately. I honestly was not aware of how much I knew and could get done at my previous job. I was not allowed time or opportunity to really program like I do now, and I am glad I made the change. You can take a look at the work we’ve been doing from our corporate site, Websolutions Technology Inc..

For anyone interested my girlfriend does have website finally, we got her setup on Dreamhost after a deal I could not resist. They offered $6.95 for a full year of unlimited hosting. So I set her up with a Wordpress blog like mine, and now she blogs about her quilting and crafting, and she links to her Etsy site where she sells what she makes. Feel free to take a look, http://lovejessicaalways.com.

Well off for now.

For anyone out there that is interested and unaware, there is a new version of Wordpress out, 2.7. I just upgraded this site to use it, painless as always, andso far the new version is good. The admin interface has been overhauled and it is very easy to use. They added a lot of panels that you can show/hide and all kinds of flash. Don’t let it fool you it’s not just adding some sexiness to the platform for the sake of doing so, it is functional and makes things a lot better to use. The editing area is now much larger than it was previously, and by collapsing the left hand menu can get a little larger. All of the same old features are there as usual, and I haven’t hd any problems. Anyone who hasn’t upgraded or is interested in starting a new blog/site I recommend this version over the 2.6. And if you need help with an upgrade or getting started with a new site, I am trying to do more freelance these days, so let me know and we can work something out.

Which brings me to my second update for today, I am a free agent again. If you’ve looked at my resume you’ll notice my previous employment at Ektron Inc. has ended, and I have moved on to some contract work. I am new to the independent contractor world, but so far I am enjoying it. I am a little worried about handling the taxes for the first time like this, but I am sure my friends over at H&R Block or Jackson Hewitt will keep from being thrown to the wolves at the IRS.

Like I said above I am interested in freelance work so if you’re looking for some website development, drop me a line here. I am sure I can fit some time in between my other contracts. While I am not a designer, if only I had such talent and skill to do so, I know a great deal about web development. My main skills are mostly .Net, but I learn fast, and do have a decent amount of knowledge with PHP and of course RoR. Jump over to the about page and take a look at the resume, there is a portfolio on the way, maybe tomorrow or this weekend.

On a sidenote, anyone who has a blog should have Akismet, it’s been catching lots of spam on this little end of the interent, I can only imagine what it could do for a highly active blog. It’s a great plugin for Wordpress, and best of all free.

It’s been a while since I have done an update, and happily there is a reason. It is not just laziness as is generally the cause. I spent a few weeks working on the new theme, made some great headway, then I hit some roadblocks. Those roadblocks caused me to go back to my original idea for this tie, and the result was a new book, Ruby on Rails for Dummies.

Apparently I am a dummy, and this book seems to be what I am looking for. It asnwers a lot of my questions about the hows and the whys, as well the all important wheres in Ruby on Rails. The book is great, written in an older version of RoR, but then again they all are. The differences between the older version the book uses and the current 2.1 version are minimal, thats a HUGE plus in my book. It minimizes the amount of time I spend trying to find the new methods, and keeps everything understandable. I recommend this book a lot if you’re trying to learn RoR.

So the theme is done, mostly, and it will be great when I am ready to implement it. That theme however is not going to be applied to this Wordpress version of the site, it will be used for the RoR version I am beginning work on (again). I have a much better idea of what I need to do, and what I want to do. As with any project I’ll start with the needs, and add in the wants when I am done. I am a firm believer in get the thing working, preferably well, before adding any new functionality. Some may differ on that sort of view, but I find the cause for that is something not based on a product’s, in this case site’s, best interests.

On a sidenote, I am trying to find some freelance sidework. As the bubble of our economy continues to collapse, I think more and more people will be looking for cheaper smaller projects to be completed to save time and cost. I would like to work on my portfolio, or lack of one currently. Please take a look at the resume, linked on my about page, and contact me if there is a fit.