About
Primarily, I consider myself a software developer. I’m interested in writing maintainable code where possible and quick hacks where necessary. I end up reading quite a bit about the craft of software development to improve my skills. (I’d recommend The Pragmatic Programmer if you’ve never read it. Code Complete is next on my list once I get my hands on a copy.)
Most of my experience fits into web development. (Basically, I’ve been doing web stuff since I was a kid.) My primary language is Ruby, but I’ve written a lot of SQL (and some PHP) too. I don’t really consider HTML and CSS programming, but I’m pretty knowledgeable about them as well. (I’m looking for a good excuse to learn C better, but I haven’t found a compelling reason yet. Ruby just makes so many things simple!) I did almost all of the HTML5 and CSS3 of this site, but it’s powered by WordPress.
I think face-to-face communities are important since too much activity surrounding programming only takes place online. In response to this, I made the Iowa City Ruby Group (with a lot of help from others in the community). I’m now working to revive NewHaven.rb, again with invaluable support from the community.
I’m into other things as well, but the above is what I’m expecting to blog the most about. I’m a big fan of typical geeky/nerdy stuff (such as computers, operating systems, video games, sci fi, etc.), but I’m also passionate about other things too (such as politics, writing, music, the saxophone, drawing, film, gardening, the environment, vegetarianism, cooking, Buddhism, philosophy, and more).
That’s me in a nutshell. Enjoy browsing around.
— Ben
Places I’ve worked
- The Yale Early Social Cognition Lab
- Research Information Systems at the University of Iowa
- The Iowa City Public Library
- The Language and Memory Lab
- Harlan Municipal Utilities
Online Presence
You can find me various places online:
- Working with Rails
- StackOverflow
- SuperUser
- ServerFault
- Meta StackOverflow
- LaunchPad
- The Iowa City Ruby Group (also, the new website). I founded this group based on a conversation with Gary Tsang. At last count, there were 36 members.
- The New Haven Ruby Group, which I’m helping to bring back to life
- GitHub
- RubyForge
- The mostly defunct Odin Project
- Redmine
- Rails Lighthouse
- Readernaut
- Last.fm
- Radio Paradise
- Amazon Wishlist (I’ll always welcome anything from that list, if you’re so inclined)
- CafePress store
Random online things
Things that didn’t fit in above:
- Scholarship listing from Computer Science
- Commencement Program, U Iowa class of ’09 (alternate site)
Danielle’s stuff
Danielle is my great girlfriend (and friend). She has some webpages too:
- Her blog
- The Savvy Boutique’s website, which Danielle used to maintain. You can find them on Facebook and Twitter, too.
Our stuff
We’ve done some stuff together online too:
- Our Amazon Storefront where you can buy items we have on sale