Global Nerdy

“There are 1600 people attending this conference today,” said RailsConf creator Chad Fowler in the opening keynote, “Do try to meet them all.”

Things have changed since last year’s RailsConf. Where we had 400 people packed into an overly air-conditioned ballroom at an airport hotel in the Chicago ‘burbs, this time, we’ve got four times as many nerds packed into the Oregon Convention Center in Portland.

When Rails creator David Heinemeier Hansson asked the audience “How many of you are paid to work on Ruby on Rails?”, about half the keynote audience raised their hands.

I’m spending today, the optional “tutorial sessions: day at RailsConf, in Dave Thomas’ and Mike Clark’s all-day Rails Guidebook tutorial, a whirlwind tour of both Ruby and Rails. This sesssion is normally worth hundreds of dollars, but Dave and Mike charged only US$75 per attendee, with all the proceeds going to charity (they’ve raised a total of over US$12,000 today).

Dave gave the funny line of the morning early in the session: “XML…the language of the Devil!”

Mike Clark and Dave Thomas at their “Rails Guidebook” tutorial.

Most of the morning was devoted to the Ruby programming language itself, with about an hour of the basics of Rails. We’re now in the afternoon half, which is devoted to a more in-depth look at what goes into a Rails app and what Rails gives you, the developer. “for free”.

Dave also gave the funny line of the afternoon: “If we sound bitter, it’s because we have customers.”

Mike Clark and Dave Thomas at their “Rails Guidebook” tutorial.

Me playing at the Lucky Labrador last night.

Looking for pictures of RailsConf? Check out the Flickr tags RailsConf and RailsConf2007.

For those of you who are wondering what to do before or after RailsConf or between sessions, here are some suggestions:

Planet Argon’s “Portland Revealed” Articles

Over at the Planet Argon Blog, there’s a series of articles called Portland Revealed that visitors should read:

• Part 1: Episode 1
• Part 2: Beertown
• Part 3: Get Ourdoors
• Part 4: Stay Awake During RailsConf
• Part 5: Places to Work

James Duncan Davidson: RailsConf on Light Rail

James Duncan Davidson wrote a little piece on how to get from the airport to downtown Portland cheaply — by taking the MAX, the light rail system. It’s only fitting that you travel to RailsConf by rail!

RailsConf Online Notices

You can also find out what’s happening online in a few places:

• The O’Reilly RailsConf 2007 Wiki is at http://wiki.oreillynet.com/wiki/railsconf2007/
• There’s an independent RailsConf 2007 Conference Meetup site at http://railsconf2007.conferencemeetup.com/
• And what geek conference doesn’t have an IRC backchannel? RailsConf has one on irc.freenode.net — the channel is #railsconf.