Introduction to AutoItX3

I don’t know about you, but I’m constantly using Ruby to automate my work around the office. If I need a series of documents converted to another format, some data sorted out in a complex way, or even entering data into a web form, I’m usually doing it with Ruby.

Useful Assignment Operators

Ruby has lots of idiosyncrasies that beautify our code and make our lives easier. Let’s take a quick look at two assignment operators that I consider to be a staple of clean, readable code.

Commatose Released

As you may have already noticed from my last post, I’ve created a new gem called Commatose.

Creating a Gem

Ever wanted to create your own gem? It’s a lot easier than you probably think it is. Let’s walk through the steps.

How easy is Ruby?

A lot of beginners or would-be beginners don’t learn to program because of the myth that it’s difficult and time consuming. Let’s examine a few (very) short Ruby scripts and prove that Ruby is both easy and powerful.

Don’t worry if you don’t know how to program in Ruby. The whole point of this article is to prove that Ruby is easy, so you’re the person who needs to read this article the most!

Also, don’t worry if you don’t perfectly understand how the code works. These examples aren’t meant to teach you how to program in Ruby, they’re supposed to get you excited enough to go out and learn!

Hello, World!

Hello, and welcome to the acts_as_buffoon blog.

Eventually, I’d like this blog to be a place that has lots of information about programming. I’ve programmed in many languages over the years, but my favorite is Ruby. I’ve been working with Ruby for about a year now, focusing mostly on desktop applications, though I’ve done some work with Rails as well.

Why?

If you’re reading this then either you’re interested in learning about programming, or you’ve wandered in here by accident while searching Google for baboons. If it’s the former then this post is for you. If it’s the latter then slow down and pay more attention to your spelling.

New Blog

I’ve had some issues with WordPress that have driven me to move my blog. Long story short, you can find me here from now on: http://actsasbuffoon.heroku.com

I’m moving due to frustration with the constraints about the type of data I can post. WordPress won’t allow you to post iframes, embedded Flash, or Javascript, which I can understand from a security standpoint. However, I’d really like to be able to post Youtube videos via the new iframe method that makes them directly viewable on an iPad (I love my iPad).

Sharding with MongoDB 1.6.0

I’ve created a 13 minute screencast demonstrating how to set up sharding in MongoDB 1.6.0. Let me know if you found it useful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3ib5eEEOqk

The script I used to put data into the database can be found here: http://gist.github.com/532669

UrDoinItRite

In addition to AutoPong, I’ve also released another project today. This one is called UrDoinItRite, and you can find it here on GitHub.

UrDoinItRite will eventually become a full fledged RPG engine based on Gosu. At the moment, it’s just a hacked together proof of concept that I slapped together in a few hours. Expect updates soon.

Also, check out the Lighthouse page.

AutoPong

I’ve just released some code I wrote yesterday over the course of an hour and a half. It’s a simple Ruby-Processing script that plays a game of Pong by itself. There’s not much to it, but if you’re curious about learning Processing/Ruby-Processing, then I suggest checking it out.

http://github.com/actsasbuffoon/AutoPong

O Hai

Apparently I have a blog. Who knew?

I’ve been away for a long while, and I’ve been quite busy. I’ve changed jobs (I’m the lead developer for a Ruby based startup now), and I’ve written a whole lot of code. I’ll spare you the boring details, but I’m going to try to post more often.

I had an entertaining afternoon yesterday, and I threw together a few projects which I’ll post here shortly. Stay tuned!