Thanks to everyone that came out to this last meetup. We did something a bit different and had Derick Bailey in to talk about backbone.js. It worked great, and we’re going to continue trying to get more speakers in to other events in the future. Let us know if there’s anyone you’d like us to try to track down!

We also had a number of new faces out at the meetup. It’s great to see new people coming out and remeber that all skill levels and experience are welcome.

News

• We had another hackup on Nov 7th. Thanks to everyone that came out!
• jQuery 1.7 released - live() is deprecated, new promises and pub/sub support, faster
• jQuery is going on a diet - lots more deprecations coming soon, looking for feedback on ways to slim down

Upcoming Events

• Nov 19 - StartupEdmonton is running a Twitter Hack Day (register)
• Nov 22 - DemoCamp 16 at TELUS Centre on the UofA campus (register)
• Dec 5 - Founders & Funders (register)
• Dec 5 - YEGrb hackup at IdeaLoft (YEGrb Calendar)
• Dec 13 - YEGrb meetup. We’ve loved it ahead one week to accomodate Christmas.

Jobs

• Yardstick Software is looking for a web designer

Talk (60 minutes)

Derick Bailey joined us via our new Google+ page to talk about using backbone.js and to take questions. He’s got lots more resources up available at http://backbonetraining.net/resources, and he’s posted his presentation on GitHub if you want to take another look at it.

Derick also mentioned building simple Ruby RESTful API’s using the grape gem. You can also find a list of other API builder on the Ruby Toolbox.

House Keeping

We agreed to have a meetup on Tuesday Dec 13th, 2011. Sign up to talk now!

WHAT: Meetup, Backbone.js with Derick Bailey
WHEN: Tuesday, November 15th at 18:30 - 20:00
WHERE: In person, room 2-49 in the Computing Science Centre at the University of Alberta Campus. Live online via the YEGrb Google+ Page.

We’re excited to announce that Derick Bailey will be joining us to do a short introduction to Backbone.js followed by time for questions and answers.

Backbone.js is an exciting new JavaScript MVC library. It’s small (less than 5 kb), simple, and works well with other lbiraries like jQuery. In the year since it was launched it’s gained a passionate following.

Derick Bailey is an independent consultant, developer, trainer, speaker and author, living in Waco, TX. He’s been slinging code since the late 80’s and doing it professionally since the mid 90’s. After nearly 10 years of working in .NET, Derick spends his time primarily writing ruby and javascript, while still dabbling in other bits, blogging with LosTechies.com, screencasting at WatchMeCode.net, and much more.

Derick’s most recent technical love affair is with BackboneJS and JavaScript in general. He’s been heads-down coding with them, helping out on the Backbone Google group, StackOverflow, and writing the backbone-memento and backbone.modelbinding libraries, as well as contributing back to the backbone project. He’s also a very nice guy.

We’re taking questions for Derick in advance. You can submit your own questions and vote for your favourite questions that have already been asked.

Afterwards we’ll head out for drinks at Original Joe’s Varsity.

WHAT: Monthly Hackup
WHEN: November 7th at 18:30
WHERE: Idealoft, #101 10355 105 street, buzzer #101 (map)

Continuing the tradition of hackups on the first Monday of each month, you’re invited to join us this coming Monday to work on your latest project or help someone out with theirs. We’ll order pizza or equivalent around 7:00 once everyone has arrived.

WHEN: Tuesday, Oct 18 @ 18:30
WHERE: 2-49, Computer Science Centre, University of Alberta

Ruby News

• Rails 3.1.1 released, stability, performance and bug fixes
• Ruby Toolbox has received a new look and some usability improvements
• Bundler 1.1 coming soon, promises to make your bundle installs much faster
• rbenv is an emerging alternative to RVM. Watch for more coverage.
• Facebook has launched Facebook Developers HTML5 portal with coverage of almost everything HTML5
• StartupEdmonton is launching Skunkworks. It’s goal is to turn large companies with specific needs into customers for local start-ups. Register or contact @camlinke for detais.
• Amir Barylko who spoke about using Capybara a few months ago, is offering YEGrb members a discount on his Clojure training course. Mention YEGrb and get a discount.
• RailscastsPro — 9$/mo for even more awesome screencasts, and revised episodes from Ryan Bates.
• We had a hackup at Original Joe’s on Thanksgiving Monday. Much beer was drunk, and even a little code was written. The next hackup is Monday Nov 7th.

Talks (10 minutes)

1. Ruby Recap (Beginner)

   • Managing application processes with the Foreman gem

2. Twilio SMS Overview / Implementing Twilio SMS into a Rails app / Twilio Dashboard & Statistics - Ryan Jones

   • Get the source and a copy of Ryan’s presentation from his GitHub repo.

3. RubyConf recap with @fnichol (Beginner)

   • Picks

     • “Algorithms” is not a four letter word
     • Services Inception with Ruby
     • jRuby: Polyglot Heaven (integrating jRuby with Scala and Closure)

   • Trends = fast tests, concurrency, and alternative implementations

   • Need a Canadian contingent!

House keeping

1. Backbonejs Q&A with Derick Bailey

   • voted to do this instead of the next meetup. Will contact Derick to see if he’s available Nov 15th.

2. Thanks to Fletcher Nichol for bringing back a bag of Ruby shirts from his recent trip to RubyConf.

   • We’ll be giving these away to speakers to say thank-you. Speak soon to get first pick!

3. Future talk ideas?

   • advanced bundler
   • the meaning of self
   • rbenv
   • LocomotiveCMS — new, fresh, buggy, but promising tool for fast creation of simple websites
   • how to add documentation to MRI
   • doing CRUD AJAX with Rails and jQuery
   • Sprockets
   • HTTP Streaming (@RyanOnRails)
   • MongoDB (@benzittlau)
   • Ruby Implementations Overview: JRuby/Rubinius/MRI (@stormbrew)
   • Channel9.rb (@stormbrew’s crazy ruby VM http://www.github.com/stormbrew/channel9.rb) * Or related: Crazy things in ruby you may not know about (eg. flip-flops) that I learned while implementing.

The next meetup is Tuesday Nov 15th @ 19:00. The next hackup is Monday Nov 7th @ 18:30.

Drinks

We tried to go for drinks at Original Joe’s but with the Oilers playing the Flames and the upstairs closed there was no chance of getting a seat. Instead we went to Boston Pizza which was still busy but had more room for a group of ten.

WHAT: Monthly Meetup
WHERE: Room 2-49, Computing Science Centre (CSC), University of Alberta
WHEN: Tuseday October 18th at 18:30

This month’s meetup is a nice mix of beginner and more advanced topis. We’ll have four lightning talks covering:

• How to build a gem
• Sending SMS messages from Ruby with Twilio
• A recap of RubyConf 2011
• An intro to Foreman and managing your apps processes with Procfiles

As always there will be coverage of the latest Ruby and developer news. We’ll also have a special announcement of interest to all you JavaScript developers out there.

If you can’t make it out for the meetup, join us afterwards for drinks at Original Joe’s Varsity on the corner of 109th Street and 84th Ave.

Get more details, and contribute news and other notes on our wiki.