Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

This week Ben Orenstein is joined by Nick Quaranto, developer at 37signals and one of the maintainers of RubyGems.org. Nick and Ben discuss the just released Basecamp iOS app, the architecture of the app, the origins of the app and how it became what it is today, and RubyMotion in general. They then move on to discuss the recent RubyGems.org cracking, the mechanism behind it, the process of restoring the service, and how it might affect RubyGems going forward. They then circle back to talk more about RubyMotion, testing, working at 37signals, CoworkBuffalo, OpenHack, and good coffee. #inspect, RubyMotion conference Basecamp for iOS RubyGems.org cracked CoworkBuffalo The On-Call Programmer Kevin Purdy Chemex Coffeemaker OpenHack Follow @thoughtbot, @r00k, and @qrush on twitter.

Ben Orenstein is joined by Dennis Najjar CPA from AccountingDepartment.com. They discuss international companies operating in the United States, the tools of his trade, how AccountingDepartment.com is set up and what their different clients look like, and why it makes sense to outsource your bookkeeping and accounting. They also explore the checks and balances you should have in bookkeeping and accounting, the accounting departments role in an organization and 1099s their purpose, and what to do if you don't get one. AccountingDepartment.com Follow @thoughtbot and @r00k on twitter.

In this week's episode, Ben Orenstein is joined by Steve Snyder, Entrepreneur in Residence at the law firm, Gesmer Updegrove LLP. Ben and Steve discuss Steve's history, his unique position at the law firm, mistakes to avoid, and advice and guidance to entrepreneurs just starting out. Gesmer Updegrove LLP The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products that Win Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't Follow @thoughtbot and @r00k on twitter.

This week Ben Orenstein is joined by Jarrod Drysdale, the author of Bootstrapping Design. Ben and Jarrod discuss the sales and revenue of the book, and his new project, cascade.io. They also talk about learning new things, problem solving, and the differences between programming and design. They also discuss the downside to recurring revenue, successful marketing strategies for his book, advice for people who want to start something new, the concerns of a solo entrepreneur, and how his previous failures help him keep perspective. Bootstrapping Design cascade.io Getting Real 30x500 Follow @thoughtbot, @r00k, and @studiofellow on twitter.

Ben Orenstein is joined this week by Daniel Jalkut, the developer of MarsEdit and other fine software. Ben and Daniel discuss the origin of Daniel's twitter username, his history at Apple and his work there, and how it influences what he builds today. They also discuss the challenges of running your own company, and how Daniel's priorities and rule systems help him get things done, how the success of MarsEdit takes up his attention at the exclusion of other ideas, and how he thinks about failure. Then then go on to talk about App Store versus direct sales, why Daniel still sells his software outside the app store as well as in it, and what the breakdown of sales are like there, as well as Daniel's thoughts on App Store pricing and the benefits of being in the app store. Finally, Daniel tells us why he thinks git is like a PC and Mercurial is like a Mac, why he dislikes git, what he thinks makes a good podcast, how his podcast has changed, and much more. Red Sweater Software MarsEdit CVS RCS SVN git Bazaar Me

This week Chad Pytel is joined by software developer, podcaster, and author, Brett Terpstra. Chad and Brett discuss Brett's work location and setup, his open source and commercial software projects, app store pricing, his publishing experience and workflow, and his podcast. They also discuss his keyboard and trackpad mappings, and much more. brettterpstra.com nvALT Brett's GitHub profile Marked MultiMarkdown 60 Mountain Lion Tips iBooks Author Pandoc Systematic on 5by5 KeyRemap4MacBook Apptivate BetterTouchTool Follow @thoughtbot, @cpytel, and @ttscoff on twitter.

Ben Orenstein is joined by Chad Pytel, the CEO of thoughtbot to take a look back at some of the things thoughtbot did in 2012. They then answer a bunch of listener questions. January Trajectory Redesign Open source releases every two weeks Factory Girl 2.4 (refactoring, speed increase) and 2.5 (custom constructors) shoulda-context gets a new maintainer February Shoulda 3.0 Apprentice.io Launches Airbrake acquired by Exceptional March thoughtbot goes to Stockholm Paperclip 3.0 FactoryGirl 3.0 Apprentice.io opens up to all employers Copycopter goes open source Trajectory gets Campfire integration April Zero Github Issues FactoryGirl 3.2 New Boston office May Trail Maps released Trajectory gets a full json API Humans Present: Refactoring June Backbone.js on Rails hit 1.0 Opening and office in SF First podcast episode! July Playbook: Video Edition Version 3.6.0 of factory_girl, memoization to the names of attributes which adds a 33% speed increase on factories with override August Learn launched S

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. RubyMotion LLVM CoffeeScript Bacon, a small RSpec clone Writing Tests for RubyMotion Apps Joel on Software, "Back to Basics" The LLDB Debugger rubymotion-tutorial.com RubyMotion, by Clay Allsop Test-Driven iOS Development All the C You Need to Know Fantastical for iPhone UIAppearance CocoaPods Follow @thoughtbot, @halogenandtoast, @gfontenot, and @r00k on twitter.

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. David

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. Law of Demeter, Wikipedia Virtuous Code - Avdi Grimm, Demeter: It's not just a good idea. It's the law Nathan Long's LoD question #try Builder pattern, Wikipedia The Boy Scout Rule Ruby Science Fluent interfaces, Stub a chain of methods Follow @thoughtbot, @joeferris, and @r00k on twitter.

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. Destroy All Software Screencasts Functional Core, Imperative Shell Erlang Follow @thoughtbot, @garybernhardt, and @r00k on twitter.

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. apprentice.io TechStars NYC dispatch.io Seth Godin Follow @thoughtbot, @alex_godin, and @r00k on twitter.

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. RailsBridge Pivotal Labs Follow @thoughtbot, @sarahmei, and @r00k on twitter.

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 Follow @thoughtbot, @thunderboltlabs, @tsaleh, @daksis and @r00k on twitter.

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. Code Climate Steve Berry, Thought Merchants Follow @thoughtbot, @r00k, @brynary and @codeclimate on twitter.

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. Clean Ruby DCI DTO Radiant CMS Writing Effective Use Cases Follow @thoughtbot, @saturnflyer, @r00k, and @joeferris on twitter.

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 @though

Ben Orenstein is joined by Aaron Patterson, Ruby Core team member, Rails Core team member, and a Señior Software Engineer at AT&T Interactive. Aaron and Ben discuss the upcoming features and excitement for Ruby 2.0 and some things Aaron would like to see in Ruby in the future that didn't quite make it into Ruby 2.0. They also discuss how the Rails Core team differs from the Ruby Core team, how much effort it takes to write a detailed blog post and how many mistakes are involved, how he likes being a ruby celebrity, his involvement in Seattle.rb and what it teaches him. Finally, how awesome his job is and how he could do it forever, how he worries about Ruby or Rails becoming irrelevant and wants to stop that from happening, how he is happy all the time, and if he could wave a magic wand and change one thing about Rails, what it would be. This and so much more in this entertaining episode recorded at RubyConf 2012. Tender Lovemaking Seattle.rb Follow @thoughtbot, @tenderlove, and @r00k on twitter.

Ben Orenstein is joined by Brennan Dunn, author of double your freelancing rate and planscope.io. Ben and Brennan discuss transitioning from a freelancer to a consulting company, the issues he faced doing it, and how he overcame them. How he promoted someone to replace him in his consulting company and is focused exclusively on products now, where Planscope came from, how it works, and how he more than doubled the conversion rate. How content marketing was slow to work for him, and how he fixed it. How to effectively pitch and sell products, what victory looks like for him and what he's working for, and so much more. Double Your Freelancing Rate in 14 Days Planscope, Project Management for Independents Kalzumeus Podcast 3: Growing Consulting Practices, with Brennan Dunn Workshop: Start Your Own Multi-Million Dollar Consultancy Ramit Sethi, I Will Teach You To Be Rich The Brain Audit: Why Customers Buy (And Why They Don't) Bidsketch Freckle MicroConf Follow @thoughtbot, @r00k, and @brennandunn on twitter.

Ben Orenstein is joined by Kyle Fiedler, a designer at thoughtbot, and one of the creators of Bourbon Neat. Ben and Kyle discuss responsive design, what it is, and how to implement it. They also discuss Bourbon (a library of Sass mixins) and Neat (a fluid grid framework based on Bourbon), what's wrong with Twitter Bootstrap and why Bourbon Neat is better, and the other reasons why Bourbon Neat was created despite all the other grid frameworks that are available. Kyle shares the most common design mistakes he sees developers make in projects, whether or not design is subjective or whether it can be more objective, his design process and how it has changed, what the Golden Ratio is, and how it's used in Neat. Finally, they also discuss the Design for Developers workshop offered by thoughtbot, which teaches the fundamental design principles and tools to developers, and much, much more. Bourbon Bourbon Neat Sass Design for Developers Golden ratio Follow @thoughtbot, @r00k, and @kylefiedler on twitter.