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Rails 3 is just around the corner. It is optimized for the better performance and superior features of Ruby 1.9, but it also plays nicely with version 1.8.7. Ruby 1.8.6, on the other hand, cannot run Rails 3. This might not be a problem for you at all. If you are on a Mac, you were probably faced with Ruby 1.8.7 last year at the latest, when the upgrade to Snow Leopard changed the built-in Ruby version from 1.8.6 to 1.8.7. Most applications built for 1.8.6 runs fine on 1.8.7 – but many servers and deployment environments still runs only 1.8.6.

For me, the situation is like this: My standard version of Ruby on my development machine is 1.8.7. I deploy to many different environments, some (the ones I have a degree of control over) runs 1.8.7 and others (such as Heroku and some customer’s servers) runs 1.8.6. I can test and code away happily only to get some ugly exceptions when I deploy because I have called count on an array instead of length. Further, I also want to play with the new features of Ruby 1.9 and run Rails 3 on it. And that’s not to mention that I also use alternative Ruby implementations such as JRuby for projects where I need to tap into Java libraries.

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Enjoy the new decade – take care of our world.

Most of us enjoy getting a link to something entertaining once in a while. In the early days of the World Wide Web, we send each other funny pictures via emails – today, we share our favorite videos via Twitter, Facebook and other social media. Most of these are so called “user-generated content” – that is; videos made by you and me for our own amusement and to get some feedback from other people. Many videos are – to put it nicely – mediocre, but the ones that spread and go viral are usually really good. Not because they necessarily feature great talent or professionalism, but simply because they are so damn entertaining.

For some reason – and I am sure people with a bit more insight into the human psyche than me can tell you exactly why – videos where people do something really stupid, disgusting, dangerous or daring are amongst the most popular. But what reward do the people who makes these videos get for their hard work? A lot of views and comments on Youtube? That’s nice, sure, but couldn’t we get something even better if the makers actually earned some money on entertaining the rest of us?

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