Bundle update “killed:” ...

Today was supposed to be a normal day. A simple pull-request merge, an automated Jenkins build, and then a database migration. What followed instead was a search for the cause of a build failure– or, rather,...

Trolling, Sexism, and Dealing with D...

This past week has been one is extreme disappointment for me as I survey the landscape of my beloved profession. From Portland’s own Postgres genius Selena Deckelman getting hazed on IRC to the...

A Redis-backed acts_as_follower gem

This entry is part 1 of 1 in the series Redis GemsI usually start blog-based introductions to gems and libraries that I write with a narrative. Lately, however, I’ve been getting busier keeping up with...

Rails: SQL Injection over Configurat...

It was an interesting weekend for the Github team, the Rails core team, and lots of Rails users who worked at all through the weekend. There are a lot of details about the weekend to discuss, but my main...

A Web App Went Live Today

A new web app went live today, and I shed a tear. The Power of Good Questions Some history. Years ago, I was starting to question my decision to become a hydrologist. Not because I hated hydrology, I did–...

Science in Corporate America

There’s a bill in Congress called “The Research Works Act”1 which threatens open access to science in a very disturbing way. The bill basically gives control of publicly funded research to...