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How I Learned Enough Ruby On Rails In 12 Weeks To Launch Freelancify

webstartup.me

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Re: How I Learned Enough Ruby On Rails In 12 Weeks To Launch Freelancify

#31

Post by mnoire »

joshcrews wrote: post #11
james-fend wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it was the hardest/easiest thing to learn I've ever experienced. Sometimes I was jumping out of my chair and then other times throwing things against the wall. Plenty of times I wanted to just give up.. during those points; I'd step back and go take a break, go for a walk, do something.. other than think. Programming is hard because it's full-time blitz mode thinking. I felt the front part of my brain (is that w…

> Do you have an actual product you want to work on? Having a real product to build, even if its just to help yourself and not the world is key. It gets you out of the tutorials (which you need to do) and into finding out the main problems you have to solve to get something live. And once you've got something live, you've built your mental framework that you can "hang" everything else you learn on.

Couldn't agree more. The urge and desire to start learning was constantly squashed by the daunting task at hand. Once my ideas began to coalesce into something coherent, the passion and interest superseded the difficulty or fear I'd never "get it".

Re: How I Learned Enough Ruby On Rails In 12 Weeks To Launch Freelancify

#32

Post by mellifluousmind »

james-fend wrote: post #29
mellifluousmind wrote: post #27

As someone with programming background, I actually wish there are more stories on the opposite direction (programmer who gets kickass awesome in UI design (HTML + CSS)). I think that the complexity of CSS compatibility (what browser supports what not... even there are minor quirks between Firefox & Chrome, not just IE.. don't get me started on IE7 & 8 either), it is very easy to raise a white flag and say "that is it…

Do you think it's a left brain, right brain sort of thing? I mean what controls someone's ability to draw better than others? I've noticed usually the better someone can draw on paper, their web design reflects the same.

I think it has a lot more to do with memorization of all the little quirks on what works on what browser and what doesn't.

With languages like C#/Ruby/PHP/JavaScript, I find that I can soak up that knowledge better than HTML/CSS, because I find it consistent and organized (...not too sure about PHP's quirky API naming conventions). For CSS, it just seems like there is a myriad of tricks you gain through out the years, and I guess it just takes more effort to get good at it.

Re: How I Learned Enough Ruby On Rails In 12 Weeks To Launch Freelancify

#34

Post by ams6110 »

civild wrote: post #5

I just had a look at Freelancify and registered, and I'm amazed that you did it all in 12 weeks learning Ruby from scratch. Kudos! Based on your experience, how do you think learning materials/tutorials could be improved for people learning from scratch?

I had a look at it too, and from a design standpoint it looks very nice. I am not sure about your choices for project budget. For example, this description was posted for bids:

Need Drupal developer to: - do PSD/HTML to Drupal theme for one new section on the existing site. - Do additional module programming. - fix issues/error on the site - Make the entire site work

With a stated budget of $100--$300. I mean come on, that's ridiculously naive on the part of the person who posted. If you could give bid-seekers some guidelines on what to reasonably expect, e.g. some examples of what a budget of $100-$300 might buy, it would help people get qualified bids.

Re: How I Learned Enough Ruby On Rails In 12 Weeks To Launch Freelancify

#36

Post by kabuks »

james-fend wrote: post #26
jemka wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's likely a result of a cheap host server not being able to handle the traffic. Not a reflection of OP's programming abilities.

Yep. That's exactly it, it's on a cheap server and too much traffic. Anybody experience this before and/or know some quick solutions?

You mentioned Heroku in your post. Why did you decide not to host there?

Re: How I Learned Enough Ruby On Rails In 12 Weeks To Launch Freelancify

#37

Post by BummerCloud »

kabuks wrote: post #36
james-fend wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. That's exactly it, it's on a cheap server and too much traffic. Anybody experience this before and/or know some quick solutions?

You mentioned Heroku in your post. Why did you decide not to host there?

It is hosted on Heroku:

➜ ~ dig -x 75.101.163.44 +short proxy.heroku.com.

Re: How I Learned Enough Ruby On Rails In 12 Weeks To Launch Freelancify

#38

Post by randomdata »

mellifluousmind wrote: post #27

As someone with programming background, I actually wish there are more stories on the opposite direction (programmer who gets kickass awesome in UI design (HTML + CSS)). I think that the complexity of CSS compatibility (what browser supports what not... even there are minor quirks between Firefox & Chrome, not just IE.. don't get me started on IE7 & 8 either), it is very easy to raise a white flag and say "that is it…

I sort of built my skills in unison (had an interest in both programming and design since I was a kid), but my career has tended towards the development side, so I guess you could say that I am a programmer by trade that picked up design on the side. Whether or not I am "kickass" is subjective, but people seem generally happy with my work.

The biggest challenge I find is that people do not take designer programmers seriously. Those who do just enough programming to support their interfaces seem to be respected, but as soon as I dive in writing some low level component in C, as an example, my design skills are immediately discounted, it seems.

Programming is design, in my opinion. The way you structure your code, getting the indents and spacings just right to be pleasing to the eye, are the exact same skills you need when you're shifting pixels in photoshop. Thinking about how the next programmer will interpret the meaning of your code is the same skill you need when thinking about how a user will use your interface. I feel the only thing limiting a programmer from becoming a good designer is practice.

Re: How I Learned Enough Ruby On Rails In 12 Weeks To Launch Freelancify

#39

Post by james-fend »

kabuks wrote: post #36
james-fend wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. That's exactly it, it's on a cheap server and too much traffic. Anybody experience this before and/or know some quick solutions?

You mentioned Heroku in your post. Why did you decide not to host there?

Good question. The wordpress blog (webstartup.me) is on a cheap server. Freelancify is hosted on Heroku.
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