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The winner of our Rocky Mountain Ruby 2016 ticket giveaway is a toy designer by trade.
He funded his last venture with Kickstarter. But he found crowdfunding challenging and inaccessible to smaller companies. By learning Ruby, he is on his way to building a pre-Kickstarter tool.
So congratulations to Dale Taylor. He is attending Rocky Mountain Ruby 2016, courtesy of Honeybadger.
I asked him to share his experiences with Ruby, how his toy design work translates, and why he's looking forward to hearing Sarah Allen talk. (Me too! We should start a fan club.) Have a great time, Dale.
What's your background in Ruby?
I started learning Ruby on Rails (RoR) and Redis for a freelance job in 2013-2014. It was baptism by fire, helping an over-worked team deal with a large RoR API system during the holiday rush. The public API system had not been stress-tested after flipping the switch. After that job, I let my skills drop. Nevertheless, I'm committed to learning a modern web framework. I was researching Ruby for my education when I saw a post about Rocky Mountain Ruby giving away a ticket!
How does your toy design work relate to your desire to learn more about Ruby?
Most new toys have an Internet of Things component or a web app these days. I plan to translate my background in physical product development into web and app-based products.
What talks are you looking forward to at the conference?
I’m looking forward to seeing Sarah Allen. She was a pioneer turning the text-based programs of the 1990s into beautiful motion and art-making software that non-programmers could use. That said, the Ruby community is active in the Denver area. I am also looking forward to seeing the founders.
An offer for our contestants
Thanks to all who participated. Look for an email with a special offer.
Attending the conference? Make sure to stop by the Honeybadger table for a t-shirt.
