Exploring AI and Internet Technologies
I was fortunate enough to survive today’s layoff at AOL, which was particularly brutal for the Dulles, VA campus. Half of the development team that I worked for got cut today. Many of my friends and co-workers also got the axe. While I am, of course, happy to continue having a job that’s a mere 5 minute commute for me, I can’t help but think that, in some very fundamental ways, AOL has lost its way.
David Keener did a presentation on JFreeChart at AOL’s Unconference. This unique event exposed AOL’s IT staff to a wide array of technical topics presented by some of AOL’s top technologists.
David Keener led the team that launched the Exception Request Tool (ERT), the first internal corporate application to be fielded (and actively used) at AOL using Ruby on Rails. This follows on the heels of Ficlets (which later became Ficly.com) and circaVie, the first two customer-facing applications fielded with Rails.
It’s official. I’ve signed up to do the October presentation for the Washington DC Ruby Users Group. The topic of the presentation will be “Using Rails to Create an Enterprise App: A Case Study.” The talk will focus on real-life issues, and solutions, associated with using Rails to create a business application for use by AOL employees. I’m currently seeking permission from AOL to release real-life screen shots and related information. It should be an eye-opening presentation.
The Keeners went to Scotland for vacation from May 10 to May 21. Highlights included visits with Sally’s relatives, various pubs, shopping, Dave pulling a muscle, various pubs and limping around places like Glasgow.
Compliments to AOL, for procuring several sessions of Chad Fowler’s Ruby on Rails class, one of which I’m enrolled in beginning Monday, March 26th. Chad Fowler is the author of the book “Rails Recipes.”
Douglas Sellers gave a nice presentation on the practical uses of Selenium for testing web sites. He then demonstrated some of the advantages of using Selenium on Rails to improve the testing experience. Afterwards, Sean Mountcastle spoke on REST development in Rails.
I conducted a presentation at America Online on JFreeChart, a very nice open source charting package. See my Presentations web page to view a PDF of the presentation.
Chad Fowler, author of the book “Rails Recipes,” covered a grab bag of Rails tips and tricks during his presentation at the users group meeting in Reston. It was a well-attended meeting.
Due to the extreme lack of snow on the East Coast, the regularly scheduled Killington ski trip to Vermont morphed into a last minute excursion to Salt Lake City, Utah, from December 30 to January 1, 2007. Dave went to several ski resorts, including the Alta ski resort, accompanied by friends Ian Watson and Lucia Capuano from Scotland.
David Keener, skiing at the Alta Ski Resort in Utah in December 2006. It was the middle of winter, and the only place in the US with snow worth skiing was the Rocky Mountains.