6 ms·

Watch me work: Video of me building a new Rails app from scratch

79 points by MrMcDowall 14y ago

platzhirsch 14y ago
Is this the new trend of overcoming procrastination? I like it!
- nulluk 14y ago
  I'm doing something similar with all my personal projects, but not quite a live video, more a time lapse style so a picture every 30 seconds. It's not for overcoming procrastination for myself, but to focus me & stop me instinctively browsing my regular sites when a difficult section arises. It's also prompting me to become more efficient as I know when the project is finished & the video compiled it will be watched by my peers who will hopefully provide some insightful feedback!
- crusso 14y ago
  Right. I haven't tried recording my development, but I'd imagine that this really focuses you. It reminds me of pair programming -- you're not going to just stop in the middle and go look at HN or go down some man page rat hole tweaking something that isn't going to help you achieve the larger goal that you sat down to reach when you have another developer looking over your shoulder. Shame and ego are such great motivators. :) I need to give this technique a try, even if I have no intention of every posting any videos.
ericmsimons 14y ago
Love your music choice - are you streaming from a service or do you just have an awesome music library?
- AdamGibbins 14y ago
  One of his tabs is http://nederland.fm http://nederland.fm
  - einarlove 14y ago
    Rather beautiful website dont you think ?
- fsckin 14y ago
  http://www.nederland.fm/radio/radio538/radio-538-heeft-het.html http://www.nederland.fm/radio/radio538/radio-538-heeft-het.h...
- michielsikkes 14y ago
  I hooked up my brain to my iMac combined with an algorithm reading my code productivity so it selects the best song to play next to increase code awesomeness. Nah. It is actually the kind of music I listen to most and my library is full of it! But, it is a live (repeating) stream from a Dutch radio show I am a big fan of: 538 Dance Department. Check it out at http://www.538dancedepartment.nl/ http://www.538dancedepartment.nl/ and http://nederland.fm/ http://nederland.fm/. You can also find the iTunes playlist link I was trying to find in the video ;)
aychedee 14y ago
It's a shame the video is too low res to actually read the code!
- AdamGibbins 14y ago
  Thats a limitation of the embedded player, if you go direct to youTube you can bump it to 1080p: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYrbc-g6R-U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYrbc-g6R-U Edit: Seems you can actually bump to 1080p in the embedded player also, my mistake.
  - ryanbraganza 14y ago
    I can bump it up in the embedded player... It also helps to enable fullscreen on the player.
- fsckin 14y ago
  Original resolution is an option in the player for me -- all 2560x1440 pixels of glory.
  - bjansn 14y ago
    Works for me too! Now someone needs to build YouTube a 8x speed multiplier.
    - SatvikBeri 14y ago
      It's not quite 8x, but this $30 program lets you play flash videos from 1/3 to 5x speed: http://www.enounce.com/compare-myspeed http://www.enounce.com/compare-myspeed
      - bjansn 14y ago
        Interesting :) Thanks for the link!
Luyt 14y ago
This is more about HTML/CSS/jQuery coding than about Rails. Nevertheless, insightful video in a typical development process.
- michielsikkes 14y ago
  Yeah! I plan to do a sequel where I hook up the interface with the actual Rails app. Rails with the asset pipeline and the gems does make it very easy to just kick off with HTML/CSS/jQuery.
edmarriner 14y ago
any other videos like this?
jaggederest 14y ago
Just for reference, 'michielsikkes' posts are all showing up 'dead' - if you check 'show dead' you'll see them. Appears to be the original author, somebody should probably unban him.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
  - michielsikkes 14y ago
    Absolutely no idea why. I can't think of anything I did wrong with this post. Except maybe, responding to some comments in a short time window. I hope my comments will appear soon!
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
ckdarby 14y ago
9 minutes in and I wanted to cry that this guy isn't using twitter bootstrap...
- michielsikkes 14y ago
  I think Twitter Bootstrap will have slowed me down because I would have needed to hack around a lot of standard stuff in there. For other situations, Bootstrap rocks :)
- BoldAsAnEagle 14y ago
  And made his page look just like all the other bootstrap pages? Why not just use LibreOffice and save the document as html? Better yet, advance to microsoft frontpage or something.
SatvikBeri 14y ago
Does anyone know of videos like this for Clojure?
- humbledrone 14y ago
  Here's Chris Granger building a Clojure/ClojureScript application that plays sounds via overtone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcRQFGtFiyE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcRQFGtFiyE .
envex 14y ago
Really enjoyed this video, one tip I could offer though is to setup snippets for HTML when creating divs. Speeds up development time a lot when you just have to write div+tab and then add your class/id.
vitomd 14y ago
Thanks for sharing, the shadow-box trick it really enhance the page. I don't know if you use it, but LiveReload (livereload.com) can help speed up the refresh page each time that you change something (html, css).

79 points by MrMcDowall 14y ago

platzhirsch 14y ago

Is this the new trend of overcoming procrastination? I like it!

nulluk 14y ago
I'm doing something similar with all my personal projects, but not quite a live video, more a time lapse style so a picture every 30 seconds. It's not for overcoming procrastination for myself, but to focus me & stop me instinctively browsing my regular sites when a difficult section arises. It's also prompting me to become more efficient as I know when the project is finished & the video compiled it will be watched by my peers who will hopefully provide some insightful feedback!
crusso 14y ago
Right. I haven't tried recording my development, but I'd imagine that this really focuses you. It reminds me of pair programming -- you're not going to just stop in the middle and go look at HN or go down some man page rat hole tweaking something that isn't going to help you achieve the larger goal that you sat down to reach when you have another developer looking over your shoulder. Shame and ego are such great motivators. :) I need to give this technique a try, even if I have no intention of every posting any videos.

ericmsimons 14y ago

Love your music choice - are you streaming from a service or do you just have an awesome music library?

AdamGibbins 14y ago
One of his tabs is http://nederland.fm http://nederland.fm
- einarlove 14y ago
  Rather beautiful website dont you think ?
fsckin 14y ago
http://www.nederland.fm/radio/radio538/radio-538-heeft-het.html http://www.nederland.fm/radio/radio538/radio-538-heeft-het.h...
michielsikkes 14y ago
I hooked up my brain to my iMac combined with an algorithm reading my code productivity so it selects the best song to play next to increase code awesomeness. Nah. It is actually the kind of music I listen to most and my library is full of it! But, it is a live (repeating) stream from a Dutch radio show I am a big fan of: 538 Dance Department. Check it out at http://www.538dancedepartment.nl/ http://www.538dancedepartment.nl/ and http://nederland.fm/ http://nederland.fm/. You can also find the iTunes playlist link I was trying to find in the video ;)

aychedee 14y ago

It's a shame the video is too low res to actually read the code!

AdamGibbins 14y ago
Thats a limitation of the embedded player, if you go direct to youTube you can bump it to 1080p: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYrbc-g6R-U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYrbc-g6R-U Edit: Seems you can actually bump to 1080p in the embedded player also, my mistake.
- ryanbraganza 14y ago
  I can bump it up in the embedded player... It also helps to enable fullscreen on the player.
fsckin 14y ago
Original resolution is an option in the player for me -- all 2560x1440 pixels of glory.
- bjansn 14y ago
  Works for me too! Now someone needs to build YouTube a 8x speed multiplier.
  - SatvikBeri 14y ago
    It's not quite 8x, but this $30 program lets you play flash videos from 1/3 to 5x speed: http://www.enounce.com/compare-myspeed http://www.enounce.com/compare-myspeed
    - bjansn 14y ago
      Interesting :) Thanks for the link!

Luyt 14y ago

This is more about HTML/CSS/jQuery coding than about Rails. Nevertheless, insightful video in a typical development process.

michielsikkes 14y ago
Yeah! I plan to do a sequel where I hook up the interface with the actual Rails app. Rails with the asset pipeline and the gems does make it very easy to just kick off with HTML/CSS/jQuery.

edmarriner 14y ago

any other videos like this?

jaggederest 14y ago

Just for reference, 'michielsikkes' posts are all showing up 'dead' - if you check 'show dead' you'll see them. Appears to be the original author, somebody should probably unban him.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
- michielsikkes 14y ago
  Absolutely no idea why. I can't think of anything I did wrong with this post. Except maybe, responding to some comments in a short time window. I hope my comments will appear soon!
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]

ckdarby 14y ago

9 minutes in and I wanted to cry that this guy isn't using twitter bootstrap...

michielsikkes 14y ago
I think Twitter Bootstrap will have slowed me down because I would have needed to hack around a lot of standard stuff in there. For other situations, Bootstrap rocks :)
BoldAsAnEagle 14y ago
And made his page look just like all the other bootstrap pages? Why not just use LibreOffice and save the document as html? Better yet, advance to microsoft frontpage or something.

SatvikBeri 14y ago

Does anyone know of videos like this for Clojure?

humbledrone 14y ago
Here's Chris Granger building a Clojure/ClojureScript application that plays sounds via overtone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcRQFGtFiyE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcRQFGtFiyE .

envex 14y ago

Really enjoyed this video, one tip I could offer though is to setup snippets for HTML when creating divs. Speeds up development time a lot when you just have to write div+tab and then add your class/id.

vitomd 14y ago

Thanks for sharing, the shadow-box trick it really enhance the page. I don't know if you use it, but LiveReload (livereload.com) can help speed up the refresh page each time that you change something (html, css).