For a few days I debated whether there is much point in writing this review. I had a lot of enthusiasm going into 2020 and couldn’t wait to begin working on my ideas. But then this C letter thing happened, spelling the end for all of my best laid plans…

If you have used Ruby for any length of time you have probably, knowingly or not, used a gem. It could’ve been already installed on your system as part of your Ruby release. You may also have downloaded it with the RubyGems package manager. Irrespective of how you got hold…

I created my very first Ruby gem in 2009. Since then I have released many packages. It’s been a long ride. A lot of things have changed in a Ruby gem manifest file. Some configuration options are no longer necessary. A few new options appeared. Despite having a Bundler to…

T his is the second time I’m doing this, a review of the past year. I find this process helpful in reminding myself about what I’ve been up to and increasing my gratitude. My memory is usually quite patchy about the past and I tend to forget the smaller details…

In the “Working with Capistrano: Tasks, Roles, and Variables” article, we explored Capistrano’s fundamental concepts. We wrote two useful tasks. One for logging into a server and another for accessing Rails console in a production system. This time around, we’re going to write a more involved script composed of many…

Capistrano is a great tool for automating the deployment and maintenance of web applications. I use it to deploy Ruby on Rails and other Rack-based applications. It takes care of all the tedious bits such as installing dependencies, compiling assets or migrating database schemas. The alternative would be to manually…

Recently, I needed to add a “Download all” button in a Rails application for managing meeting assets. Specifically, this magic button would allow attendees to download all the meeting documents in a single zip file. …

The “Bad Blood” book by John Carreyrou compelled me to write a review. It also left me with a nagging question of ethics in software development. Is it okay for businesses to sell software that doesn’t exist? It seems like an easy option to promote an imaginary product. After all…

I was completely consumed by a recent book “Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in Silicon Valley” by John Carreyrou, an investigative journalist who uncovers the hidden truths behind one of the biggest health care scams in modern history. The book touches on some important ethical issues and paints a disturbing…