Nashville web developer, Ruby on Rails, Josh Crews : Blog

Creation Museum in NYTimes

01 July 2009

Very excited to see the Creation Museum get covered in the NY Times*.

I haven't been to the Creation Museum yet, but its special to me because it's parent ministry, Answers in Genesis has been a very helpful resource in answering many questions about the Bible and science.

From my 5 years of following and supporting their ministry, I testify that these are solid, biblically-faithful, gospel-centered men and women that seek to serve God before man. They are playing a good part in building up the body of Christ in our day.

*The article doesn't support Answers in Genesis, but they are fair in reporting about the museum.
Who else is using Ruby on Rails?

30 June 2009
Any web entrepenuer might ask, Can I have confidence that Ruby on Rails can really do the job? Or, What if my idea is really successful... can Ruby on Rails hold up? These guys at an Australian start-up made an excellent (and attractive) list of the 'top 50' websites right now (April 09 technically) using Ruby on Rails. Ruby on Rails Top 50 sites
Eric Brown at Ugly Mugs

27 June 2009
We saw Food, Inc. movie at Belcourt

27 June 2009
A very solid food industry documentary/propaganda (I mean propaganda in a positive sense).

The main message: trace American food back to its roots and it's profit-driven evil at its worst. By bringing the factory model to farming and meat-production, it's making us sick.

The unexpected star of the film (for me) was Joel Salitan, a sustainable philosopher/farmer in Virginia.

John McGary sent me a link to a talk that Joel did with Michael Pollan at Berkeley in 2005. If you want know what it's about watch this talk. Joel Salitan at Berkeley.
Heroku, so helpful!

27 June 2009
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="80" caption="The Ronin package from Heroku"][/caption] I wanted to brag on Heroku, a new type of webhost for Ruby on Rails (and other Ruby framework) web applications. I had been spending 2 days trying to get a good staging* server setup. Heroku solved all my problems, and I haven't even paid for anything yet!
What's different about Heroku
- You add to your website by typing 'git push heroku'. The next best option was almost as easy ('cap deploy') but only after you set everything up right (takes time).
- No database setup.
- They create a big copy of your website so that it can be rapidly replicated if traffic increases.
- The intro version is free!
Their price goes up as your use resources. I'm just getting started with it, so I can't testify to it's long term performance or it's performance for high-traffic applications. But it looks like a great application for starting small and scaling up seamlessly. *What is a staging server? It's a website almost identical to your real website, where you can try out changes first to make sure the new changes are both approved and don't break anything.
Great June Nashville Ruby meetup group

27 June 2009

Nashville Ruby on Rails meetup group had an awesome meeting at Portland Brew on Thursday. I haven't been to every meeting; but even so I will declare this past meeting to be the best yet!

We had 9 people split between old timers, new timers, and at least 4 who had moved to town in the past 2 weeks. The conversation was self-propelled. Most at the meetup had worked, or do work with Rails professionally If you are a Rails newbie, this would be a great time to come next July. We plan to do a presentation on Test Driven Development using Shoulda (a Rails testing tool).
Nashville web design for musicians and artists

19 June 2009
From reading the comments of this post about the downfall of EchoMusic in Nashville, I can tell that these companies (all seem to be local to me) are interested in picking up artists who need a website (and fan communities, online stores, etc.)
I found out about Echomusic closing from another developer in Nashville who can do a site for artists: ArtistOne. He's got a pretty good deal for $750 if it's still available. I'm in Nashville and I will do a custom artist site with tour, audio, fan engagement, and design for $2,500. Contact me (bottom of page).
Venn Diagram on work

18 June 2009
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="How to be happy in business Venn Diagram"][/caption] I think there is a lot of wisdom in this diagram and wanted to share it. Happiness in business is not the ultimate goal; glorifying God by being satisfied in him is the greatest goal. But I think this diagram has a lot of wisdom on discerning what to do next in your vocation.
Nashville hosting Ruby Hoedown 2009

12 June 2009
Jeremy McAnally has organized a FREE regional Ruby language conference in Nashville at the Opryland hotel, the Ruby Hoedown. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="509" caption="Ruby Hoedown August 28-29, 2009 Nashville, TN FREE!"][/caption] He's made this a free conference (what a commitment to the spirit of open-source!) so I want to publicize and encourage as many out of towners to come in and stay onsite at Opryland hotel. The Opryland hotel is absolutely gorgeous--it's like a giant garden of paths, a river, restaurants and Savannnah/Charleston charm and $109/night special rate is an amazing deal for this hotel. The normal hotels cost that much and aren't nearly as cool. [caption id="attachment_90" align="alignnone" width="554" caption="Opryland Hotel, Nashville TN"][/caption]
Reformed Hip-Hop Discipleship Conference in Chicago

12 June 2009
Stephie and I are going to Chicago at the end of July to the Legacy Conference. I'm attracted because it has
- The best Christian song writing happening in our generation
- By young, black rappers
- And a preacher that has benefited me greatly, Paul Washer

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