Meetings
The May 2024 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 13th of May, from 6:00pm
to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).
This time we're being hosted by the
lovely folk at Cleo in their
offices, on Shoreditch High St. Full venue and registration
details are given below.
Agenda #
Build and maintain large Ruby applications #
Enrico Teotti says:
This presentation will be about the challenges of building large Ruby web applications and how to maintain existing ones. I will use examples adapted from real applications that I worked on during my 10 years of experience with Ruby outlining: technical limitations of the language, how to use a modular dependency structure to enforce boundaries in complex domains.
Building modern eCommerce applications using Rails 7 #
Winston Ferguson says:
With the newest Rails version, we can create platforms that offer the
modern features customers and sellers expect, with less complexity. Combine
it with an established open-source gem like Spree, and you've got a
comprehensive commerce system. I'll share my learnings from three real-life
examples: a music label selling limited edition vinyl LPs, a wholesaler
shedding enterprise SaaS for a tailor-made setup, and my furniture startup,
where CAD brings bespoke pieces to life.
Afterwards #
When the talks come to an end we'll decamp to a local pub for some food, some
drinks and some chat with your fellow attendees.
Of course, even though this is the socialising part and seems more
informal, please remember that still we consider it to be a part of the
meeting and covered by our code of conduct.
Venue & Registration #
Prior to attending you should familiarise yourself with our
README paying close attention to the code of
conduct which applies to all
attendees.
Secure your place #
Hopefully you all remember that physical meetings involve finite space and so to
be guaranteed entry you need to register via ticket tailor.
We are trialling a new ticketing platform, Ticket Tailor. Do let us know how you
find the user flow on it.
Venue #
The address of the venue:
Cleo
Unit 2.10, 2nd Floor
Tea Building
56 Shoreditch High St.
London
E1 6JJ
See on a map
The venue has a hard limit of 60 people. If you register and realise you
can't come, please use eventbrite to give up your place so we can someone
else come in your place. We might be able to let in people on the night
who haven't registered, but we can't guarantee it.
Accessibility info for the venue #
Below you can find all the accessibility info for Cleo's office:
- There is step free access to enter the Tea Building from both entrances (Redchurch St and Bethnal Green Rd)
- There are stairs and a small open platform lift to get you from the Tea Building lobby to the lifts going up to the 2nd floor
- There are 2 lifts for transporting people to each floor of the Tea Building
- There is step-free access from the lifts to Cleo's office unit
- The double doors to the office may be opened to accommodate a wider wheelchair or motorised chair
- The main floor of our office is step free
- There is 1 accessible restroom in the office, and 6 restrooms in total
Now, there are a couple of caveats, which we hope will not deter anybody:
- The main doors into the Tea Building do not auto-open - they open inwards with a push
- The door to Cleo's office does not auto-open - it opens inwards with a push.
Posted by Chris Lowis on Apr 16, 2024
The April 2024 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 8th of April, from 6:00pm
to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).
This month we're hosted by the lovely folk at Canva
in their offices, on Hoxton Square.
Full venue and registration details are given below.
Agenda #
Do you want a flake with that? #
Murray Steele:
Flaky tests are awful, in this talk we'll explore why tests flake and look at
some techniques and tools you can use to discover why your tests are flaking.
-
LRUG April 2024 - Murray Steele - Do you want a flake with that?
What the Chernobyl disaster can teach us about incident response #
Frederick Cheung says:
What does the worst nuclear disaster ever have in common with a web application being down?
On the face of it, vanishingly little, but the incredible series of events before, during and
after the disaster have plenty of insights to teach us about more mundane situations
-
LRUG April 2024 - Murray Steele - Do you want a flake with that?
Talks needed! #
You, maybe?
We still have room for more talks, get in touch to volunteer!
Afterwards #
When the talks come to an end we'll decamp to a local pub for some food, some
drinks and some chat with your fellow attendees.
Of course, even though this is the socialising part and seems more
informal, please remember that still we consider it to be a part of the
meeting and covered by our code of conduct.
Venue & Registration #
Prior to attending you should familiarise yourself with our
README paying close attention to the code of
conduct which applies to all
attendees.
Secure your place #
Hopefully you all remember that physical meetings involve finite space and so to
be guaranteed entry you need to register via ticket tailor.
We are trialling a new ticketing platform, Ticket Tailor. Do let us know how you
find the user flow on it.
Venue #
The address of the venue:
Canva
33 Hoxton Square
London
N1 6PB
See on a map
The venue has a hard limit of 150 people. Even with such a high number, if you
register and realise you can't come, please use ticket tailor to give up your
ticket so someone else can come in your place. We might be able to let in
people on the night who haven't registered, but we can't guarantee it.
Posted by Murray Steele on Mar 15, 2024
The March 2024 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 11th of March, from 6:00pm
to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).
This month we're hosted by the lovely folk at Canva
in their offices, on Hoxton Square.
Full venue and registration details are given below.
Agenda #
How to Stop Being a Subject Matter Expert #
Luke Thomas says:
Tactics for helping that stressed-out single point of failure in your life
become a happier member of a team…of multiple points of failure.
-
LRUG March 2024 - Luke Thomas - How to Stop Being a Subject Matter Expert
WTF is Technical Strategy #
Laurie Young says:
The phrase "Technical Strategy" is often used by senior leaders when they want
something from their tech teams. However, it's an unclear phrase that doesn't
explain what is needed or why. In this talk, you will learn what's behind the
phrase, but also how anyone from a CTO to a new developer can use that
knowledge to drive conversations that will help not just the leadership but
the whole organisation.
-
LRUG March 2024 - Laurie Young - WTF is Technical Strategy
Afterwards #
When the talks come to an end we'll decamp to a local pub for some food, some
drinks and some chat with your fellow attendees.
Of course, even though this is the socialising part and seems more
informal, please remember that still we consider it to be a part of the
meeting and covered by our code of conduct.
Venue & Registration #
Prior to attending you should familiarise yourself with our
README paying close attention to the code of
conduct which applies to all
attendees.
Secure your place #
Hopefully you all remember that physical meetings involve finite space and so to
be guaranteed entry you need to register via ticket tailor.
We are trialling a new ticketing platform, Ticket Tailor. Do let us know how you
find the user flow on it.
Venue #
The address of the venue:
Canva
33 Hoxton Square
London
N1 6PB
See on a map
The venue has a hard limit of 150 people. Even with such a high number, if you
register and realise you can't come, please use ticket tailor to give up your
place so someone else can come in your place. We might be able to let in people
on the night who haven't registered, but we can't guarantee it.
Posted by Alessandro Proserpio on Feb 18, 2024
The February 2024 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 12th of
February, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).
This month we're hosted by the lovely folk at Funding
Circle in their offices, on Queen
Victoria St. Full venue and registration details are given below.
Agenda #
Lightning Talks! #
Our February meeting is our annual event devoted to short talks of no more
than 10 minutes.
Jay Caines-Gooby:
A quick dive into getting data-pagination (.csv, .json, .tsv
& .yaml files in your _data directory) working with the jekyll-paginate-v2
gem. After deciding that I wanted to archive my posts to a Slack
#music-we-like channel, I wanted to also make the archived posts
paginatible…
-
LRUG February 2024 - Jay Caines-Gooby - Data pagination for jekyll-paginate-v2
Using devcontainers with Ruby #
Jonathan James:
When an engineer joins your organisation, how long does it take for
them to configure their development environment? I will discuss using
devcontainers with VSCode to reduce this time from "days" to
"minutes''.
-
devcontainers
-
LRUG February 2024 - Jonathan James - Using devcontainers with Ruby
Contract testing between Ruby applications #
Katya Essina & Sarah O'Grady:
- what is contract testing & how it works
- why we need contract testing at Funding Circle
- what a contract test looks like for a Ruby application
- how contract testing works in practice
-
LRUG February 2024 - Katya Essina & Sarah O'Grady - Contract Testing between Ruby applications
What is ruby really capable of? #
fell sunderland:
I'd like to do a whistlestop tour of a few different gems I've written over
the years, with the aim of talking about having fun whilst learning what
ruby is capable of. I'd like to showcase things like aspectual
for bringing aspect oriented programming to ruby, cherry-pick
for when you miss import foo from bar, overload for when you
want to really have optional arguments do something different, and more!
-
LRUG February 2024 - fell sunderland - What is Ruby really capable of?
-
What is Ruby really capable of? - Slides
Phlex for a happy developer! #
Martin Tomov:
More than 100 lines files are bad? Not if you have the right tools! Inline
your templates, JavaScript, business & controller logic for maximum
productivity!
-
LRUG February 2024 - Martin Tomov - Phlex for a happy developer
Be More GARY: How to up your RSpec Game #
Scott Matthewman:
Elevate your RSpec tests by questioning common DRY practices. Enter the GARY
method, where strategic repetition enhances test clarity and maintainability.
Resist premature refactoring and convoluted logic, leaving yourself with
clearer tests that document your code. Go ahead, repeat yourself.
-
LRUG February 2024 - Scott Matthewman - Be more GARY: How to up your RSpec game
Making games with ruby #
Paolo Fabbri:
Learn how the Dragonruby game engine makes game development faster and simpler for
everyone, from beginners to pros. Explore its key features, and jumpstart
your journey into the world of game creation.
Join us to transform your ideas into reality with ease!
-
LRUG February 2024 - Paolo Fabbri - Making games with Ruby
Afterwards #
When the talks come to an end we'll decamp to a local pub for some food, some
drinks and some chat with your fellow attendees.
Of course, even though this is the socialising part and seems more
informal, please remember that still we consider it to be a part of the
meeting and covered by our code of conduct.
Venue & Registration #
Prior to attending you should familiarise yourself with our
README paying close attention to the code of
conduct which applies to all
attendees.
Secure your place #
Hopefully you all remember that physical meetings involve finite space and so to be guaranteed entry you need to register via eventbrite.
Venue #
The address of the venue:
Funding Circle
71 Queen Victoria St
London
EC4V 4AY
See on a map
The venue has a hard limit of 75 people. If you register and realise you
can't come, please use eventbrite to give up your place so we can someone
else come in your place. We might be able to let in people on the night
who haven't registered, but we can't guarantee it.
Posted by Paolo Fabbri on Jan 14, 2024
The January 2024 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 8th of
January, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).
This time we're being hosted by the
lovely folk at Cleo in their
offices, on Shoreditch High St. Full venue and registration
details are given below.
Agenda #
Sky Computing #
Kevin Sedgley says:
What comes after cloud computing? Cloud computing is convenient, ubiquitous and relatively cheap. But it also locks developers into proprietary solutions that make migrating to another provider or bringing your solutions back in-house difficult and expensive. If AWS, Google Cloud Computing, Azure and all the others are clouds, then we also need a sky. Researchers at Berkeley and other institutions have proposed sky computing: an interoperability layer that removes technological lock-in and enables multi cloud application development.
-
LRUG January 2024 - Kevin Sedgley - Sky Computing
Leveraging Localised Gems (LLGems): Re-using Code the Ruby Way, Safely #
Joel Biffin says:
The talk takes a look under the hood of our Rails monolith, our Rails
Engines, and how we share code between them. It's a bit like a kitchen
experiment – blending the best of both worlds to enhance the Separation of
Concerns, while still keeping our favorite code recipes within reach. I'll
share our adventure of moving some Kafka infrastructure code from the main
Rails app into a local gem (with zero downtime!). Think of it as giving the
code a new home where it can be shared across our Rails Engines. We've also
managed to preserve our unique, in-house testing infrastructure in the
process which is a serious Brucie bonus!
-
LLGems
-
LRUG January 2024 - Joel Biffin - Leveraging localised gems (LLGems): Re-using code the ruby way, safely
Afterwards #
When the talks come to an end we'll decamp to a local pub for some food, some
drinks and some chat with your fellow attendees.
Of course, even though this is the socialising part and seems more
informal, please remember that still we consider it to be a part of the
meeting and covered by our code of conduct.
Venue & Registration #
Prior to attending you should familiarise yourself with our
README paying close attention to the code of
conduct which applies to all
attendees.
Secure your place #
Hopefully you all remember that physical meetings involve finite space and so to be guaranteed entry you need to register via eventbrite.
Venue #
The address of the venue:
Cleo
Unit 2.10, 2nd Floor
Tea Building
56 Shoreditch High St.
London
E1 6JJ
See on a map
The venue has a hard limit of 60 people. If you register and realise you
can't come, please use eventbrite to give up your place so we can someone
else come in your place. We might be able to let in people on the night
who haven't registered, but we can't guarantee it.
Posted by Chris Lowis on Dec 18, 2023
The December 2023 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 11thth of
December, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).
This month we're hosted by the lovely folk at Zappi
in their offices, on Camden High St. Full venue and
registration details are given below.
Agenda #
Test Smarter, Not Harder - Crafting a Test Selection Framework from Scratch #
Christian Bruckmayer says:
The simplest way of running tests is to run all of them, regardless of what changes you are testing. However, depending on the size of your test suite, this will either get slow or expensive. At Shopify we have almost 300,000 Rails tests and we add 50,000 more annually. The sheer amount of tests and their growth makes it impossible to run all tests, all the time! Hence we implemented a framework to only run tests relevant to your code changes.
We will build a test selection framework from scratch in this workshop. We will begin by exploring the fundamentals of such a framework: code analysis. After that we will dive into minitest reporters, how they work and how we can use them to generate a test map. Finally we will use the generated test map to only run tests relevant to your code changes. Attendees will walk away with a solid understanding of what test selection is, how it works and how to implement it.
This is a workshop, so bring your laptop!
Afterwards #
When the talks come to an end we'll decamp to a local pub for some food, some
drinks and some chat with your fellow attendees.
Of course, even though this is the socialising part and seems more
informal, please remember that still we consider it to be a part of the
meeting and covered by our code of conduct.
Venue & Registration #
Prior to attending you should familiarise yourself with our
README paying close attention to the code of
conduct which applies to all
attendees.
Secure your place #
Hopefully you all remember that physical meetings involve finite space and so to be guaranteed entry you need to register via eventbrite.
Venue #
The address of the venue:
Zappi
Theatre House
97 - 99 Camden High St
London
NW1 7JN
See on a map
The venue has a hard limit of 100 people. If you register and realise you
can't come, please use eventbrite to give up your place so we can someone
else come in your place. We might be able to let in people on the night
who haven't registered, but we can't guarantee it.
Posted by Frederick Cheung on Nov 09, 2023
The November 2023 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 13th of
November, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).
This month we're hosted by the lovely folk at Zappi
in their offices, on Camden High St. Full venue and
registration details are given below.
Agenda #
Outside Technology: Building bridges between engineers and everyone else #
Naomi Christie says:
Naomi will take you on a journey from her previous career outside
technology to her current career as a software engineer highlighting some
of the (many) things she had to learn along the way, providing insight into
why misunderstandings are common between engineers and their stakeholders
and offering some ideas on how we can bridge that gap.
-
LRUG November 2023 - Naomie Christie - Outside Technology: Building bridges between engineers and everyone else
The Art of Talk Design #
Melinda Seckington says:
Everywhere you look, stories surround us, and everyone has something that’s worth sharing with others. As speakers, we need to understand how to structure our talks so they can have the best effect on the audiences we are trying to reach. How do you discover the right angle and the right story for a talk? How do you frame your story?
Within tech we know how to approach building a new product: we research our user base, we figure out what and for who we’re trying to create something for and we make sure we constantly iterate on what we’ve come up with. So why aren’t we taking the same approach for our talks?
This talk will examine how to get in the right mindset of examining your talk ideas, and will introduce a framework of how to design and iterate on your talk. It will focus on several exercises and questions to help you create the best talk for the story you’re trying to tell.
-
LRUG November 2023 - Melinda Seckington - The Art of Talk Design
Afterwards #
When the talks come to an end we'll decamp to a local pub for some food, some
drinks and some chat with your fellow attendees.
Of course, even though this is the socialising part and seems more
informal, please remember that still we consider it to be a part of the
meeting and covered by our code of conduct.
Venue & Registration #
Prior to attending you should familiarise yourself with our
README paying close attention to the code of
conduct which applies to all
attendees.
Secure your place #
Hopefully you all remember that physical meetings involve finite space and so to be guaranteed entry you need to register via eventbrite.
Venue #
The address of the venue:
Zappi
Theatre House
97 - 99 Camden High St
London
NW1 7JN
See on a map
The venue has a hard limit of 100 people. If you register and realise you
can't come, please use eventbrite to give up your place so we can someone
else come in your place. We might be able to let in people on the night
who haven't registered, but we can't guarantee it.
Posted by Paolo Fabbri on Oct 18, 2023
The October 2023 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 9th of
October, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).
This month we're hosted by the lovely folk at Redcat Digital in their offices in Timber Yard on Drysdale Street. Full venue and registration details are given below.
Agenda #
BorrowMyDoggy - Connecting dogs and people via Ruby #
Rikke Rosenlund says
BorrowMyDoggy connects dog owners with local borrowers for walks,
weekends and holidays. Via BorrowMyDoggy, borrowers get happy dog time,
owners get help with taking care of their dogs, and dogs get more love
and attention (it's a win-win scenario). We started by winning the Lean
Startup Machine, then received a crazy amount of media attention and by
now have built a community of +1 million members in the UK and Ireland,
and are working with some of the biggest players in the pet space. Come
and listen to how a simple idea has now turned into a well known brand.
Your talk here! #
Get in touch with us at talks@lrug.org if you'd like to speak. We're always happy to help new (or not so new) speakers.
Afterwards #
Once we're done with the talks we'll leave the venue (after doing our best
to help tidy up) and find a local pub to visit so we can eat, drink, and
discuss the talks we've just heard.
Of course, even though this is the socialising part and seems more
informal, please remember that still we consider it to be a part of the
meeting and covered by our code of
conduct.
Venue & Registration #
Prior to attending you should familiarise yourself with our
README paying close attention to the code of
conduct which applies to all
attendees.
Secure your place #
Hopefully you all remember that physical meetings involve finite space and so to be guaranteed entry you need to register via eventbrite.
Venue #
The address of the venue:
Redcat Digital
Timber Yard
115a Drysdale Street
London
N1 6ND
See on a map
The venue has a hard limit of 50 people. If you register and realise
you can't come, please use eventbrite to give up your place so someone
else can come in your place. We might be able to let in people on the
night who haven't registered, but we can't guarantee it.
Posted by Frederick Cheung on Sep 25, 2023
The September 2023 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 11th of
September, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).
This month we're hosted by the lovely folk at Smart in their offices on 136 George Street. Full venue and registration details are given below.
Agenda #
The Functional Alternative #
Ju Liu says
We'll start with a simple Ruby Kata and solve it together, live, with
imperative programming.
We'll then fix the many, many, many things we got wrong. Then we'll solve
the problem again using patterns from functional programming. You'll leave
this talk with a clear and concrete example of why functional programming
matters, why immutable code matters, and why it can help you writing
bug-free code.
The next time you find yourself writing imperative code, you might
consider… the functional alternative.
-
LRUG September 2023 - Ju Liu - The Functional Alternative
Back in my day… #
Paul Battley says
I've been working with Ruby since the early 2000s. Ruby has changed a lot in that time,
but we don't always remember how much. Let's rewrite a short program so that it runs in
a twenty-year-old version of Ruby and see how much syntax and performance has changed for the better in twenty years
-
Back in my day… - transcript from the Brighton Ruby 2023 version of this talk
-
Supporting git repo for the code used in Back in my day…
Afterwards #
Once we're done with the talks we'll leave the venue (after doing our best
to help tidy up) and find a local pub to visit so we can eat, drink, and
discuss the talks we've just heard.
Of course, even though this is the socialising part and seems more
informal, please remember that still we consider it to be a part of the
meeting and covered by our code of
conduct.
Venue & Registration #
Prior to attending you should familiarise yourself with our
README paying close attention to the code of
conduct which applies to all
attendees.
Secure your place #
Hopefully you all remember that physical meetings involve finite space and so to be guaranteed entry you need to register via eventbrite.
Venue #
The address of the venue:
Smart Pension
The Smart Building
136 George Street
London
W1H 5LD
See on a map
The venue has a hard limit of 100 people. If you register and realise you
can't come, please use eventbrite to give up your place so someone else can
come in your place. We might be able to let in people on the night who haven't
registered, but we can't guarantee it.
Posted by Frederick Cheung on Aug 17, 2023
The August 2023 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 14th of
August, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).
This month we're hosted by the lovely folk at beam in their offices, at the Senna Building WeWork in Shoreditch. Full venue and registration details are given below.
Agenda #
Gain insight and better accessibility into your application's data by using The Brick #
Lorin Thwaits says
Remarkable visibility into the structure of your application and its data
is available by using the open-source Rails gem "The Brick". Come meet the author of this gem, and
experience the cornucopia of usefulness it can provide to teams who
architect, elaborate upon, and then support Rails applications.
Afterwards #
Once we're done with the talks we'll leave the venue (after doing our best
to help tidy up) and find a local pub to visit so we can eat, drink, and
discuss the talks we've just heard.
Of course, even though this is the socialising part and seems more
informal, please remember that still we consider it to be a part of the
meeting and covered by our code of
conduct.
Venue & Registration #
Prior to attending you should familiarise yourself with our
README paying close attention to the code of
conduct which applies to all
attendees.
Secure your place #
Hopefully you all remember that physical meetings involve finite space and so to be guaranteed entry you need to register via eventbrite.
Venue #
The address of the venue:
Beam
3rd floor
WeWork
Senna Building
Gorsuch Place
London
E2
8JF
See on a map
The venue has a hard limit of 80 people. If you register and realise you
can't come, please use eventbrite to give up your place so someone else can
come in your place. We might be able to let in people on the night who haven't
registered, but we can't guarantee it.
Posted by Frederick Cheung on Jul 12, 2023
