In 2007, I took a whack at learning Haskell as my Language of the Year. It was an educational experience on more levels than I had expected. I didn’t get as far with the language as I might have hoped, but I did have the essential mind-opening experience of dealing with a purely functional, “lazy” language. My approach and style in my primary day-to-day language (Python) changed in a positive way.
I was able to stop by Holocene this evening for the first half of FOSCON III: Really Radical Ruby. Those crazy kids. The event was sponsored by SQKWZR, which the two founding scientists/emcees claimed was fake – but you know they’re just saying that to keep people from stealing their ideas.
I saw five 10-minute-ish lightning talks before I had to leave and get my beauty rest. Here’s the gist.
I wasn’t able to get to OSCON this year, but this photo is definitely a winner in the category of impromptu geek performance art:
Ruby on Rael
Filip Salomonsson commented on Wed Aug 9 15:37:01 2006:
Except, of course, it’s an OSCON 2005 photo.
In November I wrote about rediscovering BASIC Computer Games, a book I had when I was learning programming in the ’80s. Flipping through it recently I came across a simple game called “Reverse”:
The game of REVERSE requires you to arrange a list of numbers in numerical order from left to right. To move, you tell the computer how many numbers (counting from the left) to reverse. For example, if the current list is 2 3 4 5 1 6 7 8 9 and you reverse 4, the result will be 5 4 3 2 1 6 7 8 9.
$ grep ub$ /usr/share/dict/words
| ruby -ne "print split(/(\s+)/).map{|w|w.capitalize}" | xargs -I FOOB echo "FOOBuntu" | column
Bathtubuntu Interclubuntu Strubuntu
Bedaubuntu Knubuntu Stubuntu
Bedubuntu Misdaubuntu Subuntu
Beelzebubuntu Moneygrubuntu Subshrubuntu
Blubuntu Nubuntu Succubuntu
Bubuntu Ouroubuntu Swilltubuntu
Cherubuntu Overscrubuntu Trillibubuntu
Chubuntu Pubuntu Trubuntu
Clubuntu Redaubuntu Tubuntu
Cubuntu Redubuntu Unclubuntu
Daubuntu Rerubuntu Undaubuntu
Disdubuntu Rescrubuntu Underclubuntu
Drubuntu Resnubuntu Undergrubuntu
Dubuntu Reubuntu Underscrubuntu
Flubuntu Roubuntu Undershrubuntu
Flubdubuntu Rubuntu Undertubuntu
Fubuntu Sandclubuntu Undubuntu
Gaubuntu Scrubuntu Washtubuntu
Glubuntu Semishrubuntu Woodgrubuntu
Grubuntu Shrubuntu Zebubuntu
Hubuntu Sillabubuntu Zermahbubuntu
Hubbubuntu Slubuntu
Inrubuntu Snubuntu
I got the idea for this after listening to a recent LugRadio podcast.
The place to be during the afternoon break today was the Portland Ballroom, where the Artist Currently Known as why the lucky stiff and musical accomplices unleashed a multimedia explosion involving Ruby, cartoon foxes, animation, repeated MPlayer crashes, video artifacting, rocking out, shadow puppets, and network timeouts. I think this is the show he did at FOSCON last night. The quality of the stuff that did work was so high that the stuff that didn’t work wasn’t such a big deal.
The PDX Ruby Brigade (“PDX” is the airport code for Portland) is hosting a sort of alternative/extended OSCON called FOSCON. It’s being held at Freegeek.
Several of us in Portland got into OSCON free the last couple of years by volunteering. When we found out that there would be no volunteer opportunities this year we decided to see if any of the Ruby speakers would like to practice their OSCON talks on us local Rubyists - thus FOSCON (or as Lennon calls it: OSCANT) was born.