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Videos!

Well, gosh - the remaining Rails Underground videos are now available on the SkillsMatter site!

This includes:

Robby Russell - Launching Ruby on Rails Projects

Dr Nic - JavaScript Unit Tests

Where are the remaining videos?

..good question! Hopefully, they will be available soon. I know that one of the SkillsMatter recording guys has been on his honeymoon, which probably delayed things a bit (but congratulations!)

I'm taking care of my father for a few weeks, and he is meditating in a monestary somewhere in the Italian countryside, with no transport, internet or phone, and hence so am I!

I've managed to get this message out, though, so there is hope! I'll chase up on the videos, but you may see the results before I do...

Notes

I'm still wrapping a few things up, so theres a bit more to come, but in the mean time here are a few quick notes to pass on:

Today is the last day for a 35% discount at www.manning.com. Just use the discount code railsund35

If you get in touch with Obie, you can also get a great discount on tickets to BizConf!

Vladimir Tarasov

Vlad Tarasov has today had some serious health issues, and, of course, can no longer attend. We send him and his family our best wishes, and hope for a speedy recovery.

Workshop Info

I've posted a bit more information about the BDD/Cucumber Workshop, and how to find us and register.

Change in line-up

I got an e-mail last night suggesting that Jason Hoffman won't be able to attend the conference. It seems that this is indeed the case. These things happen, I suppose!
However, as a motivational speaker might tell you, these sort of things are not problems, but opportunities, and in fact, its all turning out rather well!

Instead ofJason, we can now hear from Fred George - a former ThoughtWorks Vice President, Agile Guru and someone with 40 years experience in IT - who has written code not just in Ruby, but 60 other languages!

Lightning talks

You'll notice on the conference program, a section for Lightning Talks. If you've got something that you'd like to share, the floor is open for you to chat for 10-15 minutes on any topic you think people will find interesting. The mic and data projector will be available should you want them, too.

We'll also be keeping the mic on during tea breaks and lunch, so if you have something you'd like to point out, advertise a job, tell your favourite joke, or suggest the best pub in the area, feel free :)

Sponsor News, book discounts

Manning, publisher of books such as The Well Grounded Rubyist and Ruby in Practice (and many others) are offering a 35% discount to everyone attending the conference. You could even pre-order Rails 3 in Action (due in February 2010, but available via early access)

A postful of shortcuts

Some quick links to popular pages, all in one place:
Conference Registration, and information about the venue.
The free BDD & Cucumber Workshop information & registration

Talk: Working with Legacy Rails Apps - Technical Debt Hell and how to work your way out of it, Desi McAdam

Details

Many of us have found ourselves having to deal with a difficult Rails
codebase. Maybe you wrote it before you got good at Rails. Maybe you
are rescuing a disaster caused by someone else. Many times our gut
reaction is to scrap the legacy codebase and rewrite, but what about
times when that isn't a feasible approach? What to do?