Clinton D. Judy
9/15/2008 8:35:00 PM
Eek! I just discovered how fast the seats sell out! How much time do I =
have to register!?
-----Original Message-----
From: Clinton D. Judy [mailto:cdj@goh-inc.com]=20
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 4:33 PM
To: ruby-talk ML
Subject: Re: Getting Employer to Pay for RubyConf
This may be a little lengthy.
My office has almost exclusively run Microsoft applications, from SQL =
Server to IIS to Windows Server (and all the usual desktop apps, =
XP/Vista/Office that aren't relevant here). My first application here =
was to organize and search employment applications. I built the UI in =
Flex, and barely hacked together a backend for simple CRUD in ASP. I =
told the office I would be researching languages/frameworks for the next =
project, and I did a few tiny programs in Perl, Python, and PHP. My =
first attempt with Ruby was wonderful though, and doing a small Rails =
application got me hooked. I developed our second in-house program, an =
app to manage paving crews around Pennsylvania, completely in Rails. =
(We're still attempting to deploy to IIS on Windows Server, and I had to =
write it using stored procedures for all database stuff to SQL Server. =
But it's been wonderful otherwise!)
Right before "Paving Scheduler" my boss and several coworkers raised the =
concern that we're supporting too many technologies. I countered that =
Ruby and RoR were completely worth it, and I would be happy using it as =
my only language for the next few years.
As of today, I've all but finished Paving Scheduler, and am working on =
the first application for "Phase 2" as I program several features =
requested over the previous year. I will hopefully be redoing the =
backend to work in Rails, seeing how well Rails works with Flex. Even =
though I'm actively encouraged to "stop refactoring when it starts =
working"...
Our company isn't a stranger to sending people away to conferences. Our =
report writer is at a Cognos event in Alabama as I write this. But she =
was sent there, and it sounds like most of the people who go to =
conferences around here wouldn't really care to go, but their bosses =
send them.
...Maybe there's something subliminal I can do?
- Clinton
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Dober [mailto:robert.dober@gmail.com]=20
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 3:55 PM
To: ruby-talk ML
Subject: Re: Getting Employer to Pay for RubyConf
<snip>
> if
> this conference were in Minnesota in the dead of winter, the office
> would know for CERTAIN that there were no other reason for me wanting =
to
> go there. November in Florida?
Seems indeed a bad choice LOL.
Anyway you have made it quite clear you have to show that it brings
them more than what it costs them.
With the background information you gave us it is difficult to
elaborate a rationale, maybe you can be more explicit?
Robert
--=20
C'est v=E9ritablement utile puisque c'est joli.
Antoine de Saint Exup=E9ry