Re::Rails

What we do

Web Application Triage

Your deRailed projects need not be abandoned. Our team has the skill and experience required in order to properly assess, scope and deploy your Rails project in rapid fashion.

Ruby on Rails Application Development

ReRails specializes in the complete design, development and deployment of commercial Ruby on Rails projects. We handle the entire process from concept to production.

Lypp and 37signals are putting on a VoIP Mashup contest.

Developers, build a mashup application or mashup your existing application using both the Highrise API and the Lypp API and win stuff. This is a great way to show off your Ruby-fu and win some great prizes.

Best app:

* $3000 Apple gift certificate
* 20,000 minutes of call time from Lypp (approx value: $1800)
* 12 months subscription for a Highrise MAX account (approx value: $1800)

Runner-up:

* $1500 Apple gift certificate
* 10,000 minutes of call time from Lypp (approx value: $900)
* 6 months subscription for a Highrise MAX account (approx value: $900)

2nd Runner-up:

* $500 Apple gift certificate
* 5,000 minutes of call time from Lypp (approx value: $450)
* 3 month subscription for a Highrise MAX account (approx value: $450

Get in on the action here.

There is a religious war being waged around “Ruby on Rails vs. Other” scripting languages (mainly PHP) and frameworks. Railsenvy.com has been all over this and does a great job of poking fun at the comparisons that are being made between Rails and PHP, .Net, Java et al.

As a businessman and entrepreneur I have based my entire 15 year career around building and selling software. That market is evolving rapidly and now what used to be downloaded is simply used. Software as as Service (SaaS) and new era Web applications are paving the way to simplicity for the end user.

These new services need to leverage powerful, agile application programming languages and frameworks. Ruby on Rails offers a power-packed payload to developers and business owners that need to move fast with scalability and resiliency in mind.

Ruby on Rails is not for the faint of heart.

There is enormous potential that RoR brings to the table but don’t think for a second that a junior engineer can pick it up overnight and actually build a scalable application that functions reliably. Many have tried and many have created a great deal of stress and pain for their bosses, customers and themselves. It’s especially dangerous if you are a great PHP developer and think you will become a Ruby on Rails Ninja in the blink of an eye.

If you are going to learn Ruby on Rails do it knowing it will take time to hone your skills. Just like anything else. RoR requires a great deal of practice and study. As a developer you should be building plenty of apps, taking part in mashup contests and with each one push the envelope of development a little further.

The Koolaid Point.

At some point, when you have a few apps under your belt you will understand what all the hubbub is about. Ruby on Rails (in my humble opinion) is the best language+framework out there for developing mission critical web applications in this day and age.

Obie Fernandez had a great post recently: Big Name Companies Using Ruby on Rails

An excerpt from his site..

* amazon.com
* BBC
* CapGemini
* BPN
* Cisco
* C|Net
* EA (Electronic Arts)
* IBM
* JP Morgan
* NASA
* Oakley
* Oracle
* Siemens
* ♫ ThoughtWorks ♫
* Yahoo!

In addition to the list above, there’s a number of companies where I have direct, or reliably indirect knowledge of Rails adoption through my friends and associates:

* John Deere
* New York Times
* NBC
* Barclays
* LA Times
* Chicago Tribune
* Orbitz
* Google
* Turner Media
* Limewire

For good measure, I also mentioned http://rails100.pbwiki.com/, which tracks high-traffic consumer-facing websites that corporate-types won’t necessarily recognize by name, but that for sure handle millions and millions of visits per day. The top ten list on that page (and corresponding Alexa rankings):

* twitter.com [642 !!?! I thought it would be higher]

* scribd.com [940]

* blingee.com [1170]

* yellowpages.com [1734]

* penny-arcade.com [2069]

* 43things.com [4190]

* kongregate.com [4488]

* pitchforkmedia.com [4740]

* projectpath.com [5041 One of the Basecamp hostnames]

* funnyordie.com [5089]