Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

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29: The most ironic iOS developer Dec 30, 2012

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Ben Orenstein is joined by Gordon Fontenot and Matt Mongeau, two thoughtbot developers, to discuss iOS development using both Objective-C and RubyMotion. Ben, Matt, and Gordon talk about the differences between the two platforms for iOS development, testing in iOS development, the difficulty in it, and the ways to do it. They also make they're recommendations for getting started with iOS development, and discuss iOS apps they like, designing iOS applications, the iOS release cycle, and much more.

Follow @thoughtbot, @halogenandtoast, @gfontenot, and @r00k on twitter.

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28: Farther, further, faster Dec 23, 2012

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Ben Orenstein is joined by David Heinemeier Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails and a partner at 37signals. David and Ben discuss David's normal day, his working relationship with Jason Fried, how their blog, Signal vs. Noise, is important to the company, how he got into programming, where he draws his inspiration from, some good books he's read and how he learns today, how he overcomes fear and why he takes risks, how he got into racing, why he enjoys it, what he learns from it, and how feedback loops and goal posts help you learn, inspire you, and help you know how good you are. They then go on to explore what David would, or wouldn't, change about Rails, and how he sees Rails evolving into the future. David also talks a little bit about the new product 37signals has in development, and 37signals' overall product strategy, coding at 37signals and his approach to providing guidance to the team, what role he plays on Rails core, what he cares about, and what he pays attention to, and much, much more.

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27: Fabulous new mistakes Dec 16, 2012

Show notes

Ben Orenstein is joined by Joe Ferris, CTO of thoughtbot. Inspired by a question on Law of Demeter from listener Nathan Long, Joe and Ben (hopefully) answer Nathan's question, and then go on to discuss how the Law of Demeter is a form of duplication, how it effects testing, and how to better architect your report, your view, or your entire system to better obey the Law of Demeter. They also touch upon Rails' try method, how the pain of testing helps guide the code you write, where the Law of Demeter doesn't apply, how people don't refactor their tests, how to productively refactor your tests and avoid wasting time rewriting things, and much more.

Follow @thoughtbot, @joeferris, and @r00k on twitter.

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26: Deep into the psyche of Gary Bernhardt Dec 09, 2012

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Ben Orenstein is joined by Gary Berhardt from Destroy All Software Screencasts. Ben and Gary discuss DAS, how it has changed over the two years he's been doing it, and how his thinking has changed over that time. They then discuss Gary's thoughts on how to write software and tests, how we wants to "fix the kernel", and his exciting plans for the future. They also discuss his background, the production process behind Destroy All Software, and much, much more.

Follow @thoughtbot, @garybernhardt, and @r00k on twitter.

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25: Long hours on the BoltBus Dec 02, 2012

Show notes

Ben Orenstein is joined by Alex Godin from dispatch.io. Ben and Alex discuss Alex's hectic time in both apprentice.io and TechStars, how he got started at his age, what he's accomplished so far, what he worries about, when he is happiest, and his outlook on the future.

Follow @thoughtbot, @alex_godin, and @r00k on twitter.

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24: Not so DRY that it chafes Nov 25, 2012

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Ben Orenstein is joined by Sarah Mei, RailsBridge co-founder, a developer at Pivotal Labs, and Diaspora core team member. In this episode, recorded at RubyConf 2012, Ben and Sarah discuss how communication patterns of your team manifest themselves in the code it writes, and how understanding those patterns can help you improve your code. They discuss RailsBridge, teaching, how teaching is an incredible learning opportunity, and how RailsBridge has helped expand the community of women developers in San Francisco and beyond. Finally, they explore how she got into Ruby, and women in technology.

Follow @thoughtbot, @sarahmei, and @r00k on twitter.

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23: As a consultant it's always your fault Nov 18, 2012

Show notes

Ben Orenstein is joined by Tammer Saleh and Randall Thomas, the founders of Thunderbolt Labs. In this episode, recorded at RubyConf 2012, they discuss their philosophy of running and building the company, how they differ from other consulting companies, and how they do much more than just Rails programming and how its leading to very interesting new kinds of work. Why they list their prices right on their website, and how they derived their rate of $277 per hour. They also explore what their first year in business has been like, some challenges they've faced, and some important lessons they've learned.

Thunderbolt Labs

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22: Your code looks nice today Nov 15, 2012

Show notes

Ben Orenstein is joined by Bryan Helmkamp, founder of Code Climate, hosted software metrics for Ruby apps. In this episode, recorded at RubyConf 2012, they discuss what code climate is, how Bryan considers it a small business not a startup, and what its like being a solo founder. They also discuss how code metrics can help you write and maintain better software, how it helps, and how it changes behavior. Finally they explore what the biggest surprise for him has been so far, some of his plans, and what success looks like for him.

Follow @thoughtbot, @r00k, @brynary and @codeclimate on twitter.

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21: Data, Context and Interaction Nov 04, 2012

Show notes

Ben Orenstein is joined by Jim Gay, author of Clean Ruby, and Joe Ferris, CTO of thoughtbot, in the episode recorded at RubyConf 2012. Ben, Joe, and Jim discuss Data, Context and Interaction (DCI), what it is, whether it is at odds with Object-Oriented Programming, how it can be applied to your applications, and much more.

Follow @thoughtbot, @saturnflyer, @r00k, and @joeferris on twitter.

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20: Ruby Lightning Nov 02, 2012

Show notes

In this special episode from RubyConf 2012 we pulled aside some of the attendees and found out what they're working on. We also include a selection of the great lightning talks at the conference. Enjoy!

Rob Mack from Spiceworks
Dr. Nic Williams from Engine Yard talks about BOSH
Ray Hightower from WisdomGroup, WindyCityRails, and ChicagoRuby
Noel Rapin from Groupon
John Foley and Nick Howard talk about Project Grok, an Open Source Code Reader Club (like a book club, but for code)
Brian Ford from Engine Yard talks about Rubinious 2.0-rc1.
Jeff Casimir from JumpstartLab talks about gSchool
Daniel Huckstep from Yardstick Software talks about rc files and sub.
Joshua Szmajda talks about the Ruby Hangout, an online Ruby meetup.
Ron Evans from The Hybrid Group talks about gitnesse and wields a mean ukulele.
Christian Trosclair from The Hybrid Group talks about Kids Code Camp and FeatureCreep
Richard Schneeman from Heroku talks about Issue Triage.
Chris Maddox from LivingSocial talks about happiness.

Follow @thoughtbot and @rubyconf on twitter.

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