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    <title>Article RSS Feed</title>
    <link>http://lrug.org/</link>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <ttl>40</ttl>
    <description>LRUG.org London Ruby User Group : Just the meetings - I'm trying to sort out a global everything rss feed.</description>
    
    
        <item>
          <title>September 2010 Meeting</title>
          <description>&lt;p&gt;The September meeting will be on &lt;em&gt;Monday&lt;/em&gt; the 13th of September, from 6:30pm to 8:00pm.  Our hosts &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/&quot;&gt;Skills Matter&lt;/a&gt; will be providing the space, at their offices on Goswell Road; &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/location-details/design-architecture/484/96&quot;&gt;The Skills Matter eXchange&lt;/a&gt;.  It's a great space with plenty of room for the group, but you still need to &lt;a href=&quot;#sep10registration&quot;&gt;register to let Skills Matter know you are coming&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Agenda&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;Rails 3 Internals&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://priit.mx.ee/&quot;&gt;Priit Tamboom&lt;/a&gt; would like to talk about Rails 3 internals:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
    &lt;p&gt;Recently I have been porting an app into Rails 3 and probably you have
    also been poking this new Rails 3 with ruby 1.9.2.&lt;/p&gt;
    
    &lt;p&gt;Therefore I would like to discuss a bit more about Rails 3 itself.
    Particularly, things under railties lib directory covering classes
    such as Railtie, Engine, Application and will go through
    initialization with initializers.&lt;/p&gt;
    
    &lt;p&gt;Along the way I'll show some examples how you can use this knowledge
    in your own gem or plugin.&lt;/p&gt;
    
    &lt;p&gt;Nothing too fancy but should be useful for developing your next Rails
    3 project.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;Asynchronous interfaces&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.eribium.org/&quot;&gt;Alex MacCaw&lt;/a&gt; will talk about moving state to the client side as opposed to the more traditional request/response model.  He'll go through the various options, such as &lt;a href=&quot;http://github.com/maccman/syncro&quot;&gt;Syncro&lt;/a&gt; (the successor to Juggernaut), and &lt;a href=&quot;http://github.com/maccman/superapp&quot;&gt;SuperApp&lt;/a&gt; (his JS framework).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;&quot;Analogue Blog&quot;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We start the meetings with announcements for the group.  If there's something you think the group should know, or something you're looking for help with, this is the time to say it.  You don't have to ask for permission, just get up and say your piece.  Just keep it short so you don't eat into the time for the scheduled talks.  In fact if it's longer than a minute, maybe you should think about &lt;a href=&quot;/speaking/&quot;&gt;doing a longer talk&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Pub&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;When all the talking is over we break ranks and head out for some beer.  Our chosen pub &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.theslaughteredlambpub.com/&quot;&gt;The Slaughtered Lamb&lt;/a&gt; which is about 5 minutes from the Skills Matter office.  The main meeting finishes around 8pm and you'll find us joslting for service at the bar shortly after.  If you don't think you can make it for the talks, you should come along for the beers, as the talks are really just an excuse for going to the pub afterwards.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a name=&quot;sep10registration&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Registration&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skills Matter prefer that you &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/event/ajax-ria/rails-3-internals/rl-890&quot;&gt;register your attendance with them&lt;/a&gt; if you are coming to the meeting.  On a few exceptional occasions we've had to turn away people who haven't registered, but this has only been at extremely popular meetings, and has yet to happen at the new venue on Goswell Road.  It's better to be safe than sorry though, and it is polite (don't forget &lt;a href=&quot;http://oreilly.com/ruby/excerpts/ruby-learning-rails/ruby-glossary.html#I_indexterm_d1e32036&quot;&gt;MINASWAN&lt;/a&gt;), so please do &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/event/ajax-ria/rails-3-internals/rl-890&quot;&gt;register&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's also an &lt;a href=&quot;http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/6640513/&quot;&gt;upcoming event&lt;/a&gt; for those of us that love online calendaring, but this is not a place to indicate attendance in a meaningful way for Skills Matter.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
          <pubDate>Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:19:41 GMT</pubDate>
          <guid>http://lrug.org/meetings/2010/08/25/september-2010-meeting/</guid>
          <link>http://lrug.org/meetings/2010/08/25/september-2010-meeting/</link>
        </item>
    
        <item>
          <title>August 2010 Meeting</title>
          <description>&lt;p&gt;The August meeting will be on &lt;em&gt;Monday&lt;/em&gt; the 9th of August, from 6:30pm to 8:00pm.  Our hosts &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/&quot;&gt;Skills Matter&lt;/a&gt; will be providing the space, at their offices on Goswell Road; &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/location-details/design-architecture/484/96&quot;&gt;The Skills Matter eXchange&lt;/a&gt;.  It's a great space with plenty of room for the group, but you still need to &lt;a href=&quot;#aug10registration&quot;&gt;register to let Skills Matter know you are coming&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Agenda&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;Making old projects better&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://timcowlishaw.co.uk/&quot;&gt;Tim Cowlishaw&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://thechrisoshow.com/&quot;&gt;Chris O'Sullivan&lt;/a&gt; have been working together on an older project of theirs and want to share some things they've learned about making it a nicer project to work on.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
    &lt;p&gt;Most of us want better software development processes, and spend a lot of
    time reading and talking about methods for making better software. However,
    when you've already been working on a project for a long time, entropy can 
    get the better of you, making it difficult to adapt your working practices. 
    We've been working on a project like this that started 18 months ago, and 
    over the last few months have been steadily improving how we go about things, 
    getting better at BDD and Scrum, and starting to do a bit of Domain Driven 
    Design. We're going to talk about how we got on, focusing in equal parts on 
    refactoring legacy code bases, improving test coverage, and improving 
    processes, as well as revealing the incredible powers of suggestion we 
    employed to convince stakeholders, management and sundry doubters that this 
    was a good idea.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ittybittyboom.com&quot;&gt;ittybittyboom.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://mrjaba.posterous.com/&quot;&gt;Tom Crinson&lt;/a&gt; will talk about &lt;a href=&quot;http://m.onkey.org/2010/1/7/introducing-cramp&quot;&gt;Cramp&lt;/a&gt; and some of the other technologies he's used in his HTML5 Bomberman clone.  Tom says: &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
    &lt;p&gt;You'll find out how and why I use &lt;a href=&quot;http://github.com/lifo/cramp&quot;&gt;cramp&lt;/a&gt; to cope with hundreds of simultaneous
    players on &lt;a href=&quot;http://ittybittyboom.com&quot;&gt;ittybittyboom.com&lt;/a&gt;.  Cramp is an asynchronous
    event driven ruby based framework based upon event machine that allows the coder to
    write succinct, clear code to deal with hundreds or thousands of tcp connections at once.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;&quot;Analogue Blog&quot;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Our meetings start with a short period where we make announcements about things going on in the community.  If you have something you think the rest of the group might want to know about; an event, a new gem, a blog post, a company that's hiring or even just to introduce yourself, then this is the time and place to do it.  The only rules are that you can't go on about it, we don't want to eat into the time for the scheduled talks.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Pub&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After the talks we head on over to the more informal surroundings of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.theslaughteredlambpub.com/&quot;&gt;The Slaughtered Lamb&lt;/a&gt; to finish the evening with a beer and maybe a fish-finger sandwich.  If you can't make it to for the talks, we'll be heading to the pub at around 8pm, so we can see you there.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a name=&quot;aug10registration&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Registration&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skills Matter prefer that you &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/event/ajax-ria/lrug-august&quot;&gt;register your attendance with them&lt;/a&gt; if you are coming to the meeting.  On a few exceptional occasions we've had to turn away people who haven't registered, but this has only been at extremely popular meetings, and has yet to happen at the new venue on Goswell Road.  It's better to be safe than sorry though, and it is polite (don't forget &lt;a href=&quot;http://oreilly.com/ruby/excerpts/ruby-learning-rails/ruby-glossary.html#I_indexterm_d1e32036&quot;&gt;MINASWAN&lt;/a&gt;), so please do &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/event/ajax-ria/lrug-august&quot;&gt;register&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's also an &lt;a href=&quot;http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/6592375/&quot;&gt;upcoming event&lt;/a&gt; for those of us that love online calendaring, but this is not a place to indicate attendance in a meaningful way for Skills Matter.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
          <pubDate>Thu, 15 Jul 2010 07:11:38 GMT</pubDate>
          <guid>http://lrug.org/meetings/2010/07/15/august-2010-meeting/</guid>
          <link>http://lrug.org/meetings/2010/07/15/august-2010-meeting/</link>
        </item>
    
        <item>
          <title>July 2010 Meeting</title>
          <description>&lt;p&gt;The July meeting will be on &lt;em&gt;Monday&lt;/em&gt; the 12th of July, from 6:30pm to 8:00pm.  Our hosts &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/&quot;&gt;Skills Matter&lt;/a&gt; will be providing the space, at their offices on Goswell Road; &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/location-details/design-architecture/484/96&quot;&gt;The Skills Matter eXchange&lt;/a&gt;.  It's a great space with plenty of room for the group, but you still need to &lt;a href=&quot;#jul10registration&quot;&gt;register to let Skills Matter know you are coming&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Agenda&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;Carat: An interpreted language, written in Ruby&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://jonathanleighton.com/&quot;&gt;Jonathan Leighton&lt;/a&gt; has recently completed a project for his third year at University, which he thinks we might be interested in:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
    &lt;p&gt;I ended up writing an interpreter, in Ruby, for a language
    heavily inspired by Ruby. A sort of distilled Ruby-like language which
    is far too simplistic to be useful and probably overlooks tonnes of
    important things.&lt;/p&gt;
    
    &lt;p&gt;But anyway! The point is not really that the language is utterly
    pointless. The point is that it's an interpreter written in a very
    high-level language, which I think it relatively easy to understand.&lt;/p&gt;
    
    &lt;p&gt;So I'm offering to do a talk which would take the listener through the
    workings of this interpreter. The parsing is done with Treetop, although
    I wouldn't propose really talking about the parsing at all as I think a
    lot of people are quite familiar with Treetop.&lt;/p&gt;
    
    &lt;p&gt;I might as well finish with some buzzwords. If you ever wondered what
    &quot;trampoline function&quot; or &quot;continuation passing style&quot; means then this is
    your chance :)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For those who like spoilers you can see &lt;a href=&quot;http://github.com/jonleighton/carat&quot;&gt;the code on github&lt;/a&gt; and read &lt;a href=&quot;http://dump.jonathanleighton.com/project.pdf&quot;&gt;Jonathan's final year report about the project&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;ActionEmbedding&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://twitter.com/philcowans&quot;&gt;Phil Cowans&lt;/a&gt; has recently been working on a rails plugin called &lt;a href=&quot;http://github.com/philcowans/action_embedding&quot;&gt;ActionEmbedding&lt;/a&gt;, and he'd like to show it to us:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
    &lt;p&gt;ActionEmbedding is a simple Rails plugin I've been using to look at
    ways of building up pages from independent user interface elements 
    called pagelets. The idea is to implement a number of different patterns, 
    including Hierarchical MVC, and make it as easy as possible to switch 
    between them. I'll try to explain why I think this is a good idea, show
    you what the plugin can do at the moment and talk about how I see it evolving.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;&quot;Analogue Blog&quot;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We start the meeting with a short amount of time where anyone in the room can make an announcement.  In the past few months it's mostly been the LRUG job board, but that's not all we want people to talk about.  If you've written some fancy new gem and want to tell people about it, this is the time and place to do it.  If you read a controversial article about some aspect of ruby that you want to draw people's attention to, this is a great time to mention it.  If you've got your finger on the pulse and know about some new hack day or other geek event, this is the room full of people you should mention it to.  The rules are simple, you just have to be quick.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Pub&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We aim to finish up the formal proceedings of the evening at 8pm.  After that we head to a local pub, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.theslaughteredlambpub.com/&quot;&gt;The Slaughtered Lamb&lt;/a&gt;, and have some beers and a chat.  If you fancy some lively ruby discussion, but you can't make it for 6:30 you are more than welcome to head straight to the pub.  Just look for a group of people wildly debating the syntax of the latest version of RSpec and you'll have found the right group.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a name=&quot;jul10registration&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Registration&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skills Matter prefer that you &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/event/ajax-ria/july-meeting&quot;&gt;register your attendance with them&lt;/a&gt; if you are coming to the meeting.  On a few exceptional occasions we've had to turn away people who haven't registered, but this has only been at extremely popular meetings, and has yet to happen at the new venue on Goswell Road.  It's better to be safe than sorry though, and it is polite (don't forget &lt;a href=&quot;http://oreilly.com/ruby/excerpts/ruby-learning-rails/ruby-glossary.html#I_indexterm_d1e32036&quot;&gt;MINASWAN&lt;/a&gt;), so please do &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/event/ajax-ria/july-meeting&quot;&gt;register&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's also an &lt;a href=&quot;http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/6582011/&quot;&gt;upcoming event&lt;/a&gt; for those of us that love online calendaring, but this is not a place to indicate attendance in a meaningful way for Skills Matter.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
          <pubDate>Mon, 05 Jul 2010 04:09:42 GMT</pubDate>
          <guid>http://lrug.org/meetings/2010/07/05/july-2010-meeting/</guid>
          <link>http://lrug.org/meetings/2010/07/05/july-2010-meeting/</link>
        </item>
    
        <item>
          <title>June 2010 Meeting</title>
          <description>&lt;p&gt;The June meeting will be on &lt;em&gt;Monday&lt;/em&gt; the 14th of June, from 6:30pm to 8:00pm.  Our hosts &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/&quot;&gt;Skills Matter&lt;/a&gt; will be providing the space, at their offices on Goswell Road; &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/location-details/design-architecture/484/96&quot;&gt;The Skills Matter eXchange&lt;/a&gt;.  It's a great space with plenty of room for the group, but you still need to &lt;a href=&quot;#jun10registration&quot;&gt;register to let Skills Matter know you are coming&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Agenda&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;&quot;My First Ruby&quot;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://h-lame.com/&quot;&gt;Murray Steele&lt;/a&gt; wants to talk about the first ruby script he ever wrote, and he thinks you might be interested because (in his own words from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.lrug.org/listinfo.cgi/chat-lrug.org&quot;&gt;mailing list&lt;/a&gt; thread where he proposed the talk):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
    &lt;ol&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It's a mailing list with a web front-end.  The web stuff is pre-rails and I think it's interesting in terms of &quot;look how far we've come&quot;.  Seriously, if you've never done web development without a higher-level framework like rails you'll be amazed.  (For anyone who's heard of it, it uses &lt;a href=&quot;http://sourceforge.net/projects/narf-lib/&quot;&gt;NARF&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;I can pretty much guarantee that my first ruby code is worse than your first ruby code.  So for any newbies in the room, it should come as welcome relief that even apparent old-hands like myself have written terrible code (and it truly is terrible code), made terrible design decisions, and done both without the safety net of TDD.  Of course, hopefully in the talk I'll point out why, if writing this again, I would use TDD.  At the end I hope this talk will make people feel less embarrassed about showing off code of their own at future events; I'll be setting a base-level of awfulness.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This bit of software was written in a weekend and has been in &quot;production&quot; for  7 years 11 months (according to the date I filled in for &quot;when I first started using Ruby&quot; on my Working With Rails profile) and it's been remarkably stable and unchanged for those 7 years.  I've no real evidence for this, but it's a scientific fact that it's the longest running piece of ruby software in the world... wouldn't you like to see inside it?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A video of Murray's talk is available on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/ajax-ria/my-first-ruby&quot;&gt;Skills Matter site&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;UNIX: Rediscovering the wheel&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://johnleach.co.uk/&quot;&gt;John Leach&lt;/a&gt; kindly offered to do a version of this talk (previously given at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.conferenciarails.org/&quot;&gt;Conferencia Rails 2009&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://scottishrubyconference.com/&quot;&gt;Scottish Ruby Conference 2010&lt;/a&gt;).  Originally scheduled for our &lt;a href=&quot;/meetings/2010/04/28/may-2010-meeting/&quot;&gt;may meeting&lt;/a&gt;, he's going to give it this month instead.  This is the abstract from his talk at &lt;a href=&quot;http://app.conferenciarails.org/talks/58-unix-rediscovering-the-wheel&quot;&gt;Conferencia Rails&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
    &lt;p&gt;&quot;Those who don't understand UNIX are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
    
    &lt;p&gt;We in the Ruby Community seem to have a habit of re-inventing things. Sometimes this is for good reason, but in some cases we don't know we're even doing it! We're wasting valuable time that could be spent learning Erlang!&lt;/p&gt;
    
    &lt;p&gt;UNIX-like operating systems have been around for decades and lots of problems have come and gone in that time. I'm going to talk about some of the tools available that can be used to solve common Ruby and Rails deployment and development problems.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A video of John's talk is available on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/ajax-ria/unix-rediscovering-the-wheel&quot;&gt;Skills Matter site&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;&quot;Analogue Blog&quot;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As per usual there will be some time at the start of the meeting for anyone in the group to get up and let us know about anything you think is relevant to the group.  Recently it's just been recruitment announcements, which are great, but it'd be even better if people mentioned some other news items; maybe you've just released a top-notch gem, or read a thought-provoking article you want to let people know about, or there's some event you've spotted that you think rubyists would be interested in.  It's really up to you what you say, just keep it short because we don't want to eat into the time for the scheduled talks.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Pub&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The meeting usually finishes at around 8pm, but that's not the end of the evening.  We can be found at around 8:05pm jostling for service at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.theslaughteredlambpub.com/&quot;&gt;The Slaughtered Lamb&lt;/a&gt;.  If you're not going to make it to the main meeting, you really should come along to the pub for a quick drink and a bit of a blather.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a name=&quot;jun10registration&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Registration&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skills Matter prefer that you &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/event/ajax-ria/my-first-ruby/rl-311&quot;&gt;register your attendance with them&lt;/a&gt; if you are coming to the meeting.  On a few exceptional occasions we've had to turn away people who haven't registered, but this has only been at extremely popular meetings, and has yet to happen at the new venue on Goswell Road.  It's better to be safe than sorry though, and it is polite (don't forget &lt;a href=&quot;http://oreilly.com/ruby/excerpts/ruby-learning-rails/ruby-glossary.html#I_indexterm_d1e32036&quot;&gt;MINASWAN&lt;/a&gt;), so please do &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/event/ajax-ria/my-first-ruby/rl-311&quot;&gt;register&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's also an &lt;a href=&quot;http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/6006199/&quot;&gt;upcoming event&lt;/a&gt; for those of us that love online calendaring, but this is not a place to indicate attendance in a meaningful way for Skills Matter.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
          <pubDate>Tue, 25 May 2010 15:06:53 GMT</pubDate>
          <guid>http://lrug.org/meetings/2010/05/25/june-2010-meeting/</guid>
          <link>http://lrug.org/meetings/2010/05/25/june-2010-meeting/</link>
        </item>
    
        <item>
          <title>May 2010 Meeting</title>
          <description>&lt;p&gt;The May meeting will be on Wednesday the 12th of May, from &lt;strike&gt;6:30pm to 8:00pm&lt;/strike&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7:00pm to 8:30pm&lt;/strong&gt;.  Our hosts &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/&quot;&gt;Skills Matter&lt;/a&gt; will be providing the space, at their offices on Goswell Road; &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/location-details/design-architecture/484/96&quot;&gt;The Skills Matter eXchange&lt;/a&gt;.  It's a great space with plenty of room for the group, but you still need to &lt;a href=&quot;#may10registration&quot;&gt;register to let Skills Matter know you are coming&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Agenda&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;(j)ruby profilers&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://danlucraft.com/&quot;&gt;Dan Lucraft&lt;/a&gt; is going to talk to us about ruby profilers, specifically his &lt;a href=&quot;http://github.com/danlucraft/jruby-prof&quot;&gt;jruby-prof&lt;/a&gt; gem.  Even though his gem is for &lt;a href=&quot;http://jruby.org/&quot;&gt;jruby&lt;/a&gt; only, he's going to give us a good grounding on &quot;pure&quot; ruby profilers first.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A video of Dan's talk is available on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/ajax-ria/daniel-lucraft-ruby-profilers&quot;&gt;Skills Matter site&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;Tokyo Cabinet, Tokyo Tyrant and Kyoto Cabinet: the world of &lt;a href=&quot;http://1978th.net/&quot;&gt;Mikio&lt;/a&gt; ware&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://twitter.com/makoto_inoue&quot;&gt;Makoto Inoue&lt;/a&gt; gave a short talk at the recent &lt;a href=&quot;http://nosqleu.com/&quot;&gt;nosqleu conference&lt;/a&gt; about Tokyo Cabinet and he offered to give a slightly retooled (and more ruby focussed) version of that talk for us.  The blurb for his original talk is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
    &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://1978th.net/tokyocabinet/&quot;&gt;Tokyo Cabinet&lt;/a&gt; is one of the first &quot;Key Value&quot; 
    stores. It was released in 2007, but surprisingly small number of people knows 
    what it is really capable of. Makoto, the maintainer of 
    &lt;a href=&quot;http://tokyocabinetwiki.pbworks.com&quot;&gt;Tokyo Cabinet Wiki&lt;/a&gt; will unveil
    the core philosophy and exciting features behind these products.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A video of Makoto's talk is available on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/ajax-ria/makoto-inoue-tokyo-cabinet-tokyo-tyrant-kyoto-cabinet-mikio-ware&quot;&gt;Skills Matter site&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;UNIX: Rediscovering the wheel&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://johnleach.co.uk/&quot;&gt;John Leach&lt;/a&gt; kindly offered to do a version of this talk (previously given at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.conferenciarails.org/&quot;&gt;Conferencia Rails 2009&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://scottishrubyconference.com/&quot;&gt;Scottish Ruby Conference 2010&lt;/a&gt;), but unfortunately he had to pull out at the last minute due to a double booking.  We'll try to reschedule this talk for a future meeting.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;&quot;Analogue Blog&quot;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There'll always be time at the start of the meeting (and between the speakers) for anyone in the group to get up and say something.  Use this time to let us know about anything you think is relevant to the group: maybe announce that your awesome team is hiring, or that you've just released a really interesting gem, or draw people's attention to a controversial blog post, or event to ask for some help working on a personal project.  It's really up to you what you say, just keep it short because we don't want to eat into the time for the scheduled talks.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Pub&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We aim to finish at about &lt;strong&gt;8:30pm&lt;/strong&gt;, after which we make the short walk from Skills Matter's offices to our watering hole of choice: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.theslaughteredlambpub.com/&quot;&gt;The Slaughtered Lamb&lt;/a&gt;.  Even if you can't make the formal part of the evening, you know where we are if you want to pop along for some of the more informal chat.  You'll be more than welcome.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a name=&quot;may10registration&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Registration&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skills Matter prefer that you &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/event/ajax-ria/may-2010-lrug-meeting&quot;&gt;register your attendance with them&lt;/a&gt; if you are planning to come to the meeting.  If you forget to register it's unlikely that you'd be turned away at the door, but it has happened before when we've been &lt;em&gt;really&lt;/em&gt; busy.  Even without the worry of being turned away hanging over your head, it's useful for fire regulations and to help our hosts arrange the room properly.  And most importantly it's simple manners (don't forget &lt;a href=&quot;http://oreilly.com/ruby/excerpts/ruby-learning-rails/ruby-glossary.html#I_indexterm_d1e32036&quot;&gt;MINASWAN&lt;/a&gt;), so please do &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/event/ajax-ria/may-2010-lrug-meeting&quot;&gt;register&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's also an &lt;a href=&quot;http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/5750484/&quot;&gt;upcoming event&lt;/a&gt; for those of us that love online calendaring, but this is not a place to indicate attendance in a meaningful way for Skills Matter.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
          <pubDate>Wed, 28 Apr 2010 07:43:45 GMT</pubDate>
          <guid>http://lrug.org/meetings/2010/04/28/may-2010-meeting/</guid>
          <link>http://lrug.org/meetings/2010/04/28/may-2010-meeting/</link>
        </item>
    
        <item>
          <title>April 2010 Meeting</title>
          <description>&lt;p&gt;The April meeting will be on Wednesday the 14th of April, from 6:30pm to 8:00pm.  Our hosts &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/&quot;&gt;Skills Matter&lt;/a&gt; will be providing the space, at their offices on Goswell Road; &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/location-details/design-architecture/484/96&quot;&gt;The Skills Matter eXchange&lt;/a&gt;.  It's a great space with plenty of room for the group, but you still need to &lt;a href=&quot;#apr10registration&quot;&gt;register to let Skills Matter know you are coming&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Agenda&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;What every computer programmer should know about time&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://twitter.com/seanohalpin&quot;&gt;Sean O'Halpin&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
    &lt;p&gt;I've been putting some notes together on time similar in spirit (if
    not in detail) to &lt;a href=&quot;http://docs.sun.com/source/806-3568/ncg_goldberg.html&quot;&gt;&quot;What every computer programmer should know about
    floating-point arithmetic&quot;&lt;/a&gt; ranging from
    localtime vs &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time&quot;&gt;UTC&lt;/a&gt;, hardware clocks and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Time_Protocol&quot;&gt;NTP&lt;/a&gt;, how to do accurate timers
    in Javascript, calendars, date arithmetic, comparisons and gotchas, to
    &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamport_timestamps&quot;&gt;Lamport&lt;/a&gt;/&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_clock&quot;&gt;vector clocks&lt;/a&gt; (the new black in the 'eventually consistent'
    world of nosql).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A video of Sean's talk is available on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/ajax-ria/sean-ohalpin-what-every-computer-programmer-should-know-about-time&quot;&gt;Skills Matter site&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;MongoDB&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://codesnotdead.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;Seth Edwards&lt;/a&gt;, one of the committers to the C# driver for &lt;a href=&quot;www.mongodb.org&quot;&gt;MongoDB&lt;/a&gt; (and who plays with the ruby driver in his spare time) is in town and in has volunteered to give us a talk on MongoDB.  He'll cover the use-cases for why we might want to use MongoDB in our apps and also give examples of using the ruby driver.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A video of Seth's talk is available on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/ajax-ria/seth-edwards-mongodb&quot;&gt;Skills Matter site&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;&quot;Analogue Blog&quot;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As usual we'll have 10-15 minutes at the start of the meeting for anyone to fill up with something they think might be of interest to the group.  It's really up to you what you say: announce a gem you've written, ask for help on a project, say you are interested in talking to someone in the pub after wards who knows about a particular gem, or even just say hi. the only rule is to keep it short as there'll be others who want to say something and we don't want to eat into the time for the scheduled talks.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Pub&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;When the talks are finished, we make the short walk over to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.theslaughteredlambpub.com/&quot;&gt;The Slaughtered Lamb&lt;/a&gt; to continue the evening in a more informal setting.  The talks tend to finish around about 8pm so if you find that you can't make it to the meeting but still fancy some Ruby chat, head along for just the pub bit.  Maybe you can score us a table?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a name=&quot;apr10registration&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Registration&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skills Matter prefer that you &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/event/ajax-ria/talks-on-time-data-type-and-mongodb/zx-548&quot;&gt;register your attendance with them&lt;/a&gt; if you are planning to come to the meeting.  You won't be turned away at the door if you haven't registered (unless we're &lt;em&gt;really&lt;/em&gt; full), but it's useful for fire regulations and to help them arrange the room properly.  Finally, it's simply just polite, and well, &lt;a href=&quot;http://oreilly.com/ruby/excerpts/ruby-learning-rails/ruby-glossary.html#I_indexterm_d1e32036&quot;&gt;MINASWAN&lt;/a&gt;, so please do &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/event/ajax-ria/talks-on-time-data-type-and-mongodb/zx-548&quot;&gt;register&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's also an &lt;a href=&quot;http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/5628845/&quot;&gt;upcoming event&lt;/a&gt; for those of us that love online calendaring, but this is not a place to indicate attendance in a meaningful way for Skills Matter.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
          <pubDate>Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:46:07 GMT</pubDate>
          <guid>http://lrug.org/meetings/2010/03/19/april-2010-meeting/</guid>
          <link>http://lrug.org/meetings/2010/03/19/april-2010-meeting/</link>
        </item>
    
        <item>
          <title>March 2010 Meeting</title>
          <description>&lt;p&gt;The March meeting will be on Wednesday the 10th of March, from 6:30pm to 8:00pm.  Our hosts &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/&quot;&gt;Skills Matter&lt;/a&gt; will be providing the space, at their new offices on Goswell Road; &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/location-details/design-architecture/484/96&quot;&gt;The Skills Matter eXchange&lt;/a&gt;.  It's a great new space and we there won't be the problems we've had in the past with fitting people in, but you still need to &lt;a href=&quot;#mar10registration&quot;&gt;register to let Skills Matter know you are coming&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Agenda&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;Software Craftsmanship&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This month &lt;a href=&quot;http://pa.rsons.org&quot;&gt;Chris Parsons&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.coreyhaines.com/&quot;&gt;Corey Haines&lt;/a&gt; will be leading us in an evening of exploration of the ideas behind &lt;a href=&quot;http://manifesto.softwarecraftsmanship.org/&quot;&gt;Software Craftsmanship&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
    &lt;p&gt;Where the agile movement focused on principles for developing better software, the software craftsmanship movement
    focuses on developing better software developers, growing out of a frustration with the current state of the software 
    development industries. Starting with &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.objectmentor.com/articles/2008/08/14/quintessence-the-fifth-element-for-the-agile-manifesto&quot;&gt;Uncle Bob's keynote about 'craft over crap'&lt;/a&gt;, many companies and individuals 
    started looking at concrete ways to advance our field into a true profession; the focus generally resting on two key
    areas: ways to effectively acquire new practices and ways to bring new people into our field.Chris and Corey will 
    be presenting their thoughts on how this affects businesses and personal careers.&lt;/p&gt;
    
    &lt;p&gt;With the emphasis on developer improvement, might we lose the focus on delivering business value?  Chris will talk
    about how craftsmanship ideas have been applied at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.edendevelopment.co.uk/&quot;&gt;Eden&lt;/a&gt;, showing there doesn't have to be a conflict between these 
    two goals.&lt;/p&gt;
    
    &lt;p&gt;The terms 'apprentice' and 'journeyman' are often thrown around without really defining what they mean in terms of 
    acquiring skills and techniques.  Corey will discuss these words, describing concrete definitions that go past the 
    FUD often associated with them (nobody is asking you to doff your cap or mop the floors with a toothbrush).&lt;/p&gt;
    
    &lt;p&gt;We will then hold a Q&amp;amp;A session and answer people's questions and comments.  If there's time, Corey will discuss 
    and perform a code kata, one helpful way to practice our techniques. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Videos of &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/agile-scrum/chris-parsons-software-craftsmanship-ideas-eden&quot;&gt;Chris's talk&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.slideshare.net/skillsmatter/chrisparsons&quot;&gt;slides&lt;/a&gt;) and &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/ajax-ria/corey-haines-software-craftsmanship-terminology&quot;&gt;Corey's talk&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.slideshare.net/skillsmatter/coreyhaines&quot;&gt;slides&lt;/a&gt;) are available on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/event/ajax-ria/software-craftsmanship&quot;&gt;Skills Matter site&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;&quot;Analogue Blog&quot;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After the hiatus in February, the analogue blog will return at the start of this meeting.  There'll be about 10-15 minutes available for anyone to get up and say something to the group.  It's a open forum for the local community to speak to each other, maybe to announce a newly released gem or library, maybe to ask the rest of the group for some help, or to suggest a theme for a future meeting.  The only rule is that you shouldn't go on for too long as there are other people that want to say something too.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Pub&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After the meeting we head on over to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.theslaughteredlambpub.com/&quot;&gt;The Slaughtered Lamb&lt;/a&gt; which is about 5 minutes walk from the Skills Matter eXchange.  If you can't make it to the meeting, we usually finish up at about 8pm if you want to head along for just the pub bit.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a name=&quot;mar10registration&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Registration&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skills Matter still prefer that you &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/event/ajax-ria/software-craftsmanship/zx-548&quot;&gt;register your attendance with them&lt;/a&gt; if you are planning to come.  It's not a disaster if you don't, as there's plenty of space, but it is polite to let them know you are coming so they can set the room up appropriately.  You'll also get a name badge, so you really should &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/event/ajax-ria/software-craftsmanship/zx-548&quot;&gt;register&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's also an &lt;a href=&quot;http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4902931/&quot;&gt;upcoming event&lt;/a&gt; for those of us that love online calendaring, but this is not a place to indicate attendance in a meaningful way for Skills Matter.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
          <pubDate>Fri, 19 Feb 2010 01:51:34 GMT</pubDate>
          <guid>http://lrug.org/meetings/2010/02/19/march-2010-meeting/</guid>
          <link>http://lrug.org/meetings/2010/02/19/march-2010-meeting/</link>
        </item>
    
        <item>
          <title>February 2010 Meeting</title>
          <description>&lt;p&gt;The February meeting will be on Wednesday the 10th of February, from 6:30pm to 8:00pm.  Our hosts &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/&quot;&gt;Skills Matter&lt;/a&gt; will be providing the space, at their new offices on Goswell Road; &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/location-details/design-architecture/484/96&quot;&gt;The Skills Matter eXchange&lt;/a&gt;.  It's a great new space and we there won't be the problems we've had in the past with fitting people in, but you should still &lt;a href=&quot;#feb10registration&quot;&gt;register early&lt;/a&gt; to let Skills Matter know you are coming.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Agenda&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;Lightning talks!&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This month we're having our annual lightning talk evening.  If you've not been to one of these before it's quite simple; we have lots of short talks all on one night.  We use the 20x20 format for our talks which means that each speaker gets 20 slides that auto-transition after 20 seconds, this gives them 6 minutes 40 seconds to get their point across.  It's a really fun way to run a lightning talk event, and the rigid time constraints mean that the talks tend to be really entertaining (jettisoning for brevity things like explanations or support for the speakers opinions).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The current line-up of 20x20-ers is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://pardel.net/&quot;&gt;Paul Ardeleanu&lt;/a&gt; - Paul will talk to us about Rails &amp;amp; iPhone integration. (&lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/ajax-ria/rails-iphone-integration&quot;&gt;Video&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.estadobeta.com/&quot;&gt;Ismael Celis&lt;/a&gt; - Using &lt;a href=&quot;http://dev.w3.org/html5/websockets/&quot;&gt;Websockets&lt;/a&gt; with &lt;a href=&quot;http://rubyeventmachine.com/&quot;&gt;EventMachine&lt;/a&gt;. (&lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/ajax-ria/using-websockets-with-eventmachine&quot;&gt;Video&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.monkeysthumb.org/&quot;&gt;Joel Chippindale&lt;/a&gt; - Joel will talk about &lt;a href=&quot;http://github.com/schacon/showoff/&quot;&gt;Show Off&lt;/a&gt;; ruby-based HTML presentation software (this talk might get a bit meta). (&lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/ajax-ria/show-off-a-ruby-based-html-presentation-software&quot;&gt;Video&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanger.ac.uk/&quot;&gt;Lars Jorgensen&lt;/a&gt; - Evolution of data models in Rails. Lessons learned. (&lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/ajax-ria/evolution-of-data-models-in-rails-lessons-learned&quot;&gt;Video&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.eribium.org/&quot;&gt;Alex MacCaw&lt;/a&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://github.com/maccman/bowline&quot;&gt;Bowline&lt;/a&gt; - Alex has been building a ruby GUI framework and wants to show it off. (&lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/ajax-ria/bowline-a-ruby-gui-framework&quot;&gt;Video&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.anup.info/&quot;&gt;Anup Narkhede&lt;/a&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://birdpie.com/&quot;&gt;birdpie.com&lt;/a&gt; - Anup will introduce the site and the architecture behind it; &lt;a href=&quot;http://rubyonrails.org/&quot;&gt;Rails 3.0&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://code.google.com/p/redis/&quot;&gt;Redis&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://github.com/defunkt/resque&quot;&gt;Resque&lt;/a&gt;. (&lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/ajax-ria/architecture-of-birdpie-a-twitter-application&quot;&gt;Video&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://mintdigital.com/&quot;&gt;Thomas Pomfret&lt;/a&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://tomayko.com/src/rack-cache/&quot;&gt;Rack::Cache&lt;/a&gt; and associated things. (&lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/ajax-ria/rackcache-and-associated-things&quot;&gt;Video&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://fuglylogic.com/&quot;&gt;Brent Snook&lt;/a&gt; - Decorating the domain - Wrapping polymorphic presentation logic around the model. (&lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/ajax-ria/decorating-the-domain-wrapping-polymorphic-presentation-logic-around-the-model&quot;&gt;Video&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://h-lame.com/&quot;&gt;Murray Steele&lt;/a&gt; - The mailing list suggested that Murray talk about &lt;a href=&quot;http://ruby-doc.org/core-1.9/classes/Fiber.html&quot;&gt;Fibers in Ruby 1.9&lt;/a&gt;. (&lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/ajax-ria/fibers-in-ruby-1-9&quot;&gt;Video&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;&quot;Analogue Blog&quot;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Depending on how many lighning talks there are, we may have time at the start of the meeting for 10-15 minutes of free time for anyone to speak.  You don't need to ask for permission or let us know in advance that you have something to say here, just turn up, stand up and say it!  It's a forum for announcements, or pleas for help, or a soapbox for starting discussions.  Just remember not to run on for too long as there's probably other people that want to say something too (it would also be embarrassing if you ran on for longer than our scheduled lightning talks!).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Pub&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The meeting will finish around 8pm and we'll be in a local pub shortly thereafter.  The pub we tried after the last meeting was &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.theslaughteredlambpub.com/&quot;&gt;The Slaughtered Lamb&lt;/a&gt; which is about 5 minutes walk from Skills Matter's new office.  If you can't make it for the main meeting consider, coming along as an advance guard to the pub and securing us some tables.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a name=&quot;feb10registration&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Registration&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/event/ajax-ria/lightning-talk-evening&quot;&gt;Registration&lt;/a&gt; isn't mandatory as Skills Matter's new office has plenty of space.  That said, you really should register as it lets Skills Matter arrange the room properly and means you'll get a name badge so people know who you are.  If there aren't enough seats, people without name badges will have to sit on the floor.  Please do &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/event/ajax-ria/lightning-talk-evening&quot;&gt;register&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's also an &lt;a href=&quot;http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4902929/&quot;&gt;upcoming event&lt;/a&gt; for those of us that love online calendaring, but this is not a place to indicate attendance in a meaningful way for Skills Matter.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
          <pubDate>Thu, 21 Jan 2010 01:22:33 GMT</pubDate>
          <guid>http://lrug.org/meetings/2010/01/21/february-2010-meeting/</guid>
          <link>http://lrug.org/meetings/2010/01/21/february-2010-meeting/</link>
        </item>
    
        <item>
          <title>January 2010 Meeting</title>
          <description>&lt;p&gt;The first meeting of LRUG in 2010 will be on Wednesday the 13th of January, from 6:30pm to 8:00pm.  Our hosts &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/&quot;&gt;Skills Matter&lt;/a&gt; will be providing the space, at their new offices on Goswell Road; &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/location-details/design-architecture/484/96&quot;&gt;The Skills Matter eXchange&lt;/a&gt;.  It's a bright new space and we shouldn't have any problems with fitting people in, but you should still &lt;a href=&quot;#jan10registration&quot;&gt;register your attendance early&lt;/a&gt; to let Skills Matter know you are coming.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Agenda&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;Symbol vs. String&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strike&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://twitter.com/aubergene&quot;&gt;Julian Burgess&lt;/a&gt; fresh from his special guest hosting of the &lt;a href=&quot;/meetings/2009/11/22/december-2009-meeting/&quot;&gt;December meeting&lt;/a&gt; is going to step once more into the spotlight, but this time he's going to give us a talk:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
    &lt;p&gt;When I first started down the road of learning Ruby I had no idea what
    a symbol was. Gradually I've learnt to the point that I believe I can
    identify cases where using a symbol will be a good idea (saving memory
    and speed) and cases where it would be a bad idea (eating up all your
    memory).&lt;/p&gt;
    
    &lt;p&gt;The talk would be pretty short, I might say something which is
    completely wrong so will rely on the crowd to correct me. The goal
    being at the end for everyone in the room to understand and love the symbol.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Note: Description borrowed from his &lt;a href=&quot;http://groups.google.com/group/ruby-manor/browse_frm/thread/3e3de3745d2ad66e&quot;&gt;Ruby Manor proposal&lt;/a&gt;.  You can check the thread to see what other things people asked for that he might cover.&lt;/strike&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Julian couldn't make it because of inclement weather.  However, we had a replacement in the shape of:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;Dragonfly&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://github.com/markevans&quot;&gt;Mark Evans&lt;/a&gt; gave us an overview of a new file attachment gem he'd written called &lt;a href=&quot;http://github.com/markevans/dragonfly&quot;&gt;Dragonfly&lt;/a&gt;.  The interesting thing about this gem is that rather than specifying the thumbnail sizes at the model level, you specify them at the point at which you want to use them in the view and leave it up to caching to deal with performance.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Thanks to Mark for stepping in at the last minute!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A video of Mark's talk is available on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/ajax-ria/dragonfly&quot;&gt;Skills Matter site&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;An update on Redcar&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://danlucraft.com/&quot;&gt;Daniel Lucraft&lt;/a&gt; is going to talk to us about &lt;a href=&quot;http://redcareditor.com/&quot;&gt;Redcar&lt;/a&gt;, the Ruby IDE he's been writing.  Daniel first talked to us about it in &lt;a href=&quot;http://lrug.org/meetings/2009/02/17/march-2009-meeting&quot;&gt;March last year&lt;/a&gt; and he wants to give us an update on how it's been going since then.  He recently &lt;a href=&quot;http://redcareditor.com/2009/12/christmas-gem-redcar-030dev/&quot;&gt;released 0.3&lt;/a&gt; and is looking for interested rubyists to play start hacking on it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A video of Daniel's talk is available on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/ajax-ria/redcar&quot;&gt;Skills Matter site&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;&quot;Analogue Blog&quot;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We'll start the meeting with 10-15 minutes of free time for anyone to speak.  You don't need to ask for permission or let us know in advance that you have something to say here, just turn up, stand up and say it!  It's a forum for announcements, or pleas for help, or a soapbox for starting discussions.  Just remember not to run on for too long as there's probably other people that want to say something too.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Pub&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We aim to finish up the meeting by 8pm, after which we mosey on down to ... well ... we're not sure.   Skills Matter's new office isn't close to our old preferred pub, so we're going to have to find a new one.  We've organised a special &lt;a href=&quot;/nights&quot;&gt;LRUG Nights&lt;/a&gt; to do just that.  Watch this space to find out what pub we choose (or come along on the 6th to help us choose!).  Regardless of what pub we choose, if for any reason you can't make the talks it's fine to come along just for the pub part of the meeting.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a name=&quot;jan10registration&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Registration&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/event/ajax-ria/lrug-jan-2010&quot;&gt;Registration&lt;/a&gt; isn't mandatory as Skills Matter's new office has plenty of space.  However, registration lets Skills Matter arrange the room properly and if you don't register you might have to sit on the floor.  It's also polite to let people know if you're coming.  So, please do &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/event/ajax-ria/lrug-jan-2010&quot;&gt;register&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's also an &lt;a href=&quot;http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4880412/&quot;&gt;upcoming event&lt;/a&gt; for those of us that love online calendaring, but this is not a place to indicate attendance in a meaningful way for Skills Matter.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
          <pubDate>Thu, 17 Dec 2009 04:51:30 GMT</pubDate>
          <guid>http://lrug.org/meetings/2009/12/17/january-2010-meeting/</guid>
          <link>http://lrug.org/meetings/2009/12/17/january-2010-meeting/</link>
        </item>
    
        <item>
          <title>December 2009 Meeting</title>
          <description>&lt;p&gt;The next meeting of LRUG will be on Wednesday the 9th of December, from 6:30pm to 8:00pm.  Our hosts &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/&quot;&gt;Skills Matter&lt;/a&gt; will provide the space, at our new venue &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/location-details/home/166/26&quot;&gt;The Crypt&lt;/a&gt; (it's very close to our previous venues).  Despite the new venue it's still important for people to &lt;a href=&quot;#dec09registration&quot;&gt;register&lt;/a&gt; so Skills Matter know how many people to expect and set the room up correctly.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Agenda&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;DDD (Domain Driven Design)&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.blackkettle.org/&quot;&gt;Alex Young&lt;/a&gt; is going to talk about DDD.  Chances are his talk will be based on &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.lrug.org/pipermail/chat-lrug.org/2009-November/004312.html&quot;&gt;a comment he made on the mailing list&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
    &lt;p&gt;I &lt;em&gt;also&lt;/em&gt; think that of the major Ruby ORM libraries, only Sequel is really 
    aligned with DDD in the first place, so if you're using anything else you've 
    already compromised the model (although again, possibly that's a discussion 
    for another time).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A video of Alex's talk can be found on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/ajax-ria/domain-driven-design-1187&quot;&gt;Skills Matter site&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;Javascript Stories: The Animal, Mineral or Vegetable guide to testing javascript in web applications.&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.the-it-refinery.co.uk&quot;&gt;Rob Holland&lt;/a&gt; describes his talk as follows:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
    &lt;p&gt;The talk will cover how to use &lt;a href=&quot;http://github.com/jnicklas/capybara&quot;&gt;capybara&lt;/a&gt; with 
    &lt;a href=&quot;http://cukes.info/&quot;&gt;cucumber&lt;/a&gt; to easily write and run stories including javascript 
    functionality. The talk should be useful to people who don't currently test their 
    javascript, or those who are already doing so with another framework.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A video of Rob's talk can be found on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/ajax-ria/javascript-stories&quot;&gt;Skills Matter site&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;&quot;Analogue Blog&quot;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;At the start of each meeting we have 10-15 minutes set aside for anyone in the room to speak.  It's run &quot;open&quot; style, so you don't need to ask for permission, just stand up and say something.  In the past we've had new site announcements, gem demos, new framework announcements, overviews of recent conferences; basically anything you might post a link to on something like &lt;a href=&quot;http://rubyflow.com&quot;&gt;Ruby Flow&lt;/a&gt;, you should think about mentioning here.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Pub&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We aim to finish up the meeting by 8pm, after which we mosey on down to &lt;a href=&quot;http://fancyapint.com/pubs/pub199.html&quot;&gt;The Crown Tavern&lt;/a&gt; to continue the evening.  If for any reason you can't make the talks feel free to come along to the pub and mix with your fellow rubyists.  In fact, if you get there early, you can get the first drinks in!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a name=&quot;dec09registration&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Registration&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/event/ajax-ria/lrug-dec&quot;&gt;Registration&lt;/a&gt; isn't mandatory as there's always room in the venue on the night, however, registration lets Skills Matter arrange the room properly so if you don't register you might have to sit on the floor.  So, please do &lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsmatter.com/event/ajax-ria/lrug-dec&quot;&gt;register&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's also an &lt;a href=&quot;http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4880415/&quot;&gt;upcoming event&lt;/a&gt; for those of us that love online calendaring, but this is not a place to indicate attendance in a meaningful way for Skills Matter.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
          <pubDate>Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:22:28 GMT</pubDate>
          <guid>http://lrug.org/meetings/2009/11/22/december-2009-meeting/</guid>
          <link>http://lrug.org/meetings/2009/11/22/december-2009-meeting/</link>
        </item>
    
    
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