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software_writer

273 karma · joined January 6, 2023

I'm a Ruby on Rails contractor and write about Rails at writesoftwarewell.com. Email me at akshay.khot@hey.com
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software_writer··on Fifteen years later, the Apple Cards origin story
Such a pretty website / blog. You don't see many of these nowadays.
software_writer··on Omacom Foundation funding hits $10M
> Opinions are apparently valuable.

I'd think so, given the same opinions when applied to a programming framework have generated hundreds of billions of enterprise value in the past.

software_writer··on Omacom Foundation launches with $8M
I've been using ThinkPad E14 (AMD Ryzen 7, 16GB RAM, 512 SSD) - very happy with it. No problems with performance, battery, etc. at all. The new Dell XPS 13/14/16 is also good. Just get one with Windows and wipe it clean when installing Linux.

In fact, I was going to buy a $4K M4 MacBook before I saw Omarchy and decided to give it a try with a new $730 ThinkPad. Exceeded all my expectations. Omarchy literally saved me thousands of dollars.

software_writer··on Omacom Foundation launches with $8M
Same here. Using my ThinkPad became much more fun after I installed Omarchy on it.
software_writer··on Omacom Foundation launches with $8M
Switching to Omarchy was one of the best decisions I made last year that improved my everyday computing experience so much, and introduced me to so many amazing tools like neovim, tmux, tiling window managers, Arch Linux, and countless TUIs.. Haven't touched my old MacBook this year at all.

If you're in the market for a new laptop / operating system, I highly recommend you give it a try.

software_writer··on Year of the Linux Laptop: Omarchy on XPS
After more than a decade with Apple (and Windows before that), I’ve been using Linux with Omarchy exclusively for the past few months and have been very happy with it. Can’t imagine going back to Mac or Windows at this point.

I had never really used Linux as a daily driver (aside from sysadmin stuff on remote servers), but Omarchy setup took less than 10 minutes and getting comfortable took just a few hours. Since switching, I’ve seen clear productivity boost, and the competency gained in Linux, Vim, etc. and overall performance made it totally worth it.

I’m running it on a cheap ThinkPad for all my daily development work and it likely saved me over $4000 since I was planning to buy a new MacBook Pro before trying this. Haven’t touched my old MacBook in quite some time.

Just wanted to share my experience with Omarchy, definitely worth trying if you're on the fence.

software_writer··on The Pragmatic Programmer: 20th Anniversary Edition (2023)
A classic book. I learn something new each time I read it.

Also, Dave Thomas, one of the authors, is looking for a job.

> So, I'm looking for a job!

> Internal or external consultant, devrel, training, team fixing, design, architecture. WFH or travel the world.

> So, if you know any company that has a Dave-shaped hole, please email me. Some more about me on my site. Links below.

> Many thanks.

> email: dave@pragdave.me

https://x.com/pragdave/status/1978142569272877078

software_writer··on Rubygems.org AWS Root Access Event – September 2025
100%
software_writer··on [dead]
This post shows how your application servers (Rails, Django, Laravel, etc.) can offload file delivery to reverse proxy servers like Nginx using the X-Accel-Redirect (or X-Sendfile) header. We'll also read a new reverse proxy's (Thruster) source code in Go to learn how this pattern is implemented at the proxy level.
software_writer··on What's New in Ruby on Rails 8
You can append the dasherized version of the headline (or specifically, the id of the header) to go to that specific section:

https://rubyonrails.org/2024/9/27/rails-8-beta1-no-paas-requ...

software_writer··on What's New in Ruby on Rails 8
For a concise overview of all the new frameworks and announcements, I recommend reading the official Rails blog post from DHH:

https://rubyonrails.org/2024/9/27/rails-8-beta1-no-paas-requ...

software_writer··on Notes on Buttondown.com
ConvertKit supports 10,000 subscribers on a free plan.

https://convertkit.com/pricing

software_writer··on From a lorry driver to Ruby on rails developer at 38
Author of the original post here. I have no affiliation with either the Flatiron bootcamp, nor the SuperByte company. But I know Pedro and he (and his story) is real.

If you take a quick look at the rest of my blog, you'll quickly know that this was neither an ad for any bootcamp or company, nor an attempt to 'manipulate tech news readers'.

software_writer··on [dead]
Ruby's defined? keyword is an elegant way to check if a variable is defined or not and also to cache expensive operations. However, it's confusing, and a few gotchas await the new Rubyist.

In this post, we'll learn how it works and how to use it correctly to cache expensive operations returning `nil` or `false`.

software_writer··on [dead]
In this article, we'll build a simple but complete application in plain Ruby without Rails, to get a deeper understanding and appreciation of everything Rails does for us.
software_writer··on [dead]
Rails 7.1 ships with a handy `perform_all_later` method that lets you enqueue multiple jobs to be executed at once, reducing the round-trip to the job backend like Redis or the database.

Although it's currently supported only by Sidekiq and GoodJob (as far as I know), it provides a nice abstraction to enqueue multiple jobs at once. This post explores this method including the behind-the-scenes implementation.

software_writer··on How to Check If a Variable Is Defined with Ruby's defined? Keyword
I'm not sure why, but all the source values are listed here: https://github.com/ruby/ruby/blob/1cc700907d3ad3368272488a6f...

Maybe someone knowledgeable in the underpinnings of Ruby will explain why "class variable" was not hyphenated.

software_writer··on Ruby's hash is a Swiss-army knife
Very cool, thanks for sharing!
software_writer··on Ruby's hash is a Swiss-army knife
> The interaction of hashes, symbols, and blocks lead to a language which feels like it is designed with DSLs as first-class citizens.

Totally agree.

software_writer··on Ruby's hash is a Swiss-army knife
Do you know any use cases, other than iteration? Would love to know any interesting ones. Thanks!
software_writer··on Ruby's hash is a Swiss-army knife
To be honest, I wrote that just to add a little drama ;)
software_writer··on Ruby's hash is a Swiss-army knife
Ah, that makes sense. Thank you!
software_writer··on Ruby's hash is a Swiss-army knife
I don't quite understand how this code works. Where does the `nil` come from? What operation are we performing on 3 that causes it to return `nil`?
software_writer··on Ruby's hash is a Swiss-army knife
Yes, hashes in Ruby, associative arrays in PHP, maps in Go[1], dictionaries in Python[2] and C#[3] represent the same concept, a collection of key-value pairs.

[1]: https://gobyexample.com/maps [2]: https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/datastructures.html#dicti... [3]: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.collecti...

software_writer··on Ruby's hash is a Swiss-army knife
You're right, thanks for the demo and sharing the link, really appreciated. I'll update the article to mention this.
software_writer··on Logging in Ruby: (Almost) Everything You Need to Know
I was trying to think of a good example, but the following table from RFC 5424 [1] might be a good starting point. I guess unknown could be used for the top 3 conditions.

           Numerical         Severity
             Code

              0       Emergency: system is unusable
              1       Alert: action must be taken immediately
              2       Critical: critical conditions
              3       Error: error conditions
              4       Warning: warning conditions
              5       Notice: normal but significant condition
              6       Informational: informational messages
              7       Debug: debug-level messages
[1] https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc5424
software_writer··on Logging in Ruby: (Almost) Everything You Need to Know
> Wow in 2023 someone thinks this is worth a blog post?

It was meant to be a beginner-level introduction to logging (especially for those developers who got started in 2023 ;))

software_writer··on Logging in Ruby: (Almost) Everything You Need to Know
It could be useful for logging messages that don't fit a particular category, i.e. a catch-all category, to identify patterns over time. Edit: You could also use it to turn-off logging for a while. Since unknown is the highest level, no other logs would be recorded.
software_writer··on A Beginner's Guide to Closures and Anonymous Functions in Ruby
Closures and anonymous functions are very useful concepts, especially in functional programming. Ruby makes working with them a pleasure via its flavors like blocks, procs, and lambdas. This post provides an in-depth tutorial and shows the subtle differences between them.
software_writer··on Ruby's switch statement is flexible
Thanks for pointing it out. I've updated it.
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