Too busy to Ruby this month

I have not even looked at a Ruby book since the beginning of August.

Here are my predictions for Ruby....

I am strongly convinced that Ruby has taken hold and will spread across the computer field like wildflowers over the course of 2006 and 2007.

In 2008, I predict there will be a SYS-CON magazine for Ruby and a whole bunch of books on how to do important kinds of computer programming in Ruby really quickly.

I doubt that Ruby will be any kind of a speed daemon in the next 2-3 years but it will probably happen by the end of this decade.

I had a little setback with my Rad Rails IDE a couple of months ago. After I got my Mac and it all configured with the latest Ruby and the latest Rails and some really cool gems, Rad Rails ability to update itself broke. Since then there have been several updates. I have not gotten them.

I am resigned to having to download Rad Rails and reinstall it all over again.

Given that I don't have any pressing need for Ruby and I am really busy at the moment, it seems likely I will push that exercise until the Fall.

Right now I have stuff to program in 5 computer languages Monday and none of them start with 'R'. Tomorrow, or next weekend, I need to do some stuff on my Mom's computer. She just bought a new Mac, and received an iPod Nano from me shortly after that. I have been doing a bit of tech support for her - setting things up and getting her acquainted.

Next month, I have the released of Firefox 2.0 to look forward to and celebrate. I want to flex my rusting XSLT skills because that will be really in demand.

I recently had my appreciation for JavaScript stimulated. There were a couple functions in the language I had never used before, and overlooked - and they turned out to be pretty cool.

I am looking at The Browser in a whole new light. Not just as a necessity but as the easiest platform to program for some things.

I already have lots of books on the web (HTML, XML, XSLT, XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript) but most are from the late 1990s. I recently freshened up my collection. Now it covers 2006 standards quite admirably.

I am really amazed at how quickly web programming libraries and the still-vital web browsers out there have advanced in the past two years.

Even in 2002, I think people were still looking at a lot of things promised for the web that were still just all potential - not realized in products yet. Well, this year, that has all changed. The stuff is here and it runs on all desktops.

Well, so as you can see - I have been pretty busy of late. Instead of things letting up, it looks like I am going to be up to my eyeballs in things to do until November.