• Introduction to Scala for Rubyists - With easy onramps writing ruby-style code in Scala.
• aws-daleks - Iterate and get rid of AWS resources. Or, as the code says, exterminate your account's resources.
• #COFFEE is the color - A collection of English words that are valid hex CSS colors. Quite a few of them, actually.
• Heroku ChatOps (public beta) - Using Slack commands to run your Heroku pipelines is now a thing. An officially-supported thing, at that.
• 5 hard-earned lessons from a decade of Rails performance work - Advice from the folks at Scout, based on their experience monitoring and optimizing things.
• NSA (National Statsd Agency) - Gem to hook up Rails ActiveSupport::Notifications to a statsd backend. I could have used this a while ago.

• Tachyons - Lightweight responsive CSS framework.
• The Future of MDN: A Focus on Web Docs - Nice to see that Mozilla is committed to keeping & enhancing the MDN repository for all web developers to use.
• Welder - Plain shell script alternative to Ansible et al for setting up a new server.
• Corneal - "A Sinatra app generator with Rails-like simplicity", able to spin up new apps as well as models, views, and controllers.
• OSX/MacRansom - Ransomware for MacOS is apparently getting commoditized. Here's an analysis of one new entrant in the market.

• Solidus - Open source form of Spree Commerce, for those who want a Rails engine commerce platform without working directly with Spree.
• React FAQ - Collection of links & resources for those trying to get their bearings in React world. Yep, that includes me these days.
• Embracing the power of styled-components - Bookmarking this for when I understand enough React to be seriously worried about organizing things in my own projects.
• Unit testing ActionCable channels with RSpec - A piece of the testing picture that isn't covered in the official Rails guides yet.
• How to add an onboarding app tour with mock data - A quick start for Rails SaaS applications.
• Emmet - HTML/CSS macro processor for popular editors. How did I now know about this?
• SMTP security: prevent command injection via To/From addresses - Update your mail gem now, OK?

• google-drive-ruby - Gem to read and write files and spreadsheets on Google Drive (or in Google Docs, depending on which branding you're using). There was a time when I could have really used this.
• API Geriatrics - How to plan and manage the inevitable process of retiring an outdated API without pissing off all of your users.
• Codescout - Search engine for Rubygems that tries to rank results in a sensible order.
• OK Computer - Server health check endpoint for Rails application. Features sensible defaults & pluggable extensions. One less thing to build yourself.
• The RedMonk Programming Language Rankings: June 2017: Kotlin sticks its nose into the tent this month. Will be interesting to see how its trajectory looks over the next half year or so.
• Triple the Hope - On When Venture Capitalists Pay Water Bills - No, it has nothing to do with software. Yes, if you click any link today, it should be this one. (The 3x match is over, but it's still a worthwhile cause).

I'm still looking at various opportunities, but nothing has clicked yet. So if you could use an experienced Rails dev, with interests and skills in many areas, feel free to reach out to me. Formal CV is all over the place, including LinkedIn. (And if you're a Fresh Cup reader, feel free to connect with me even if you aren't ready to offer me a job).

• I'm a woman in tech, and this is what I want in a company - If you seriously want to diversify your workforce, you ought to listen to the people that you're trying to attract.
• Redis Dashboard - Sinatra app for monitoring redis. It's set up as a gem that can be mounted as a Rails engine. I'd go for stronger authentication though.
• Power Moves: SQL Server on Linux, Rails, and Docker - A nice quick start to using SQL Server as the backend for Rails by pulling the official Docker image.
• Elixir Toolkit - A list of useful Elixir resources from the folks over at MojoTech.
• Public Speaking Resources - Announcing the launch of a new GitHub repo to help out speakers. Think of this as your super-bootstrap for your first conference talk.

• Using React Inside Your Rails Apps - With the aid of the React on Rails gem. So many ways to skin that particular cat...
• React/Redux Links - A curated & up-to-date list of tutorials, documentation, and anything else you could want in the React world.
• WebAssembly 101: A developer first steps - Just in case you want yet another new thing to learn. It's a bit too much in the weeds for me right now, but good to know it's out there as a way to tackle performance-critical code.
• Announcing Heroku Shield: Continuous Delivery for High Compliance Apps - Who would have thought when Heroku launched that some day you'd be able to use it for HIPAA-compliant applications? That day is apparently now.
• Locally Scoped CSS Variables: What, How, and Why - Also called CSS Custom properties, these are a pure-CSS way to get some of the easy dynamic behavior we're used to from SASS and the like.

• Redux-Tiles - Library built on top of Redux to make it less verbose and otherwise better. I don't know enough yet to know if this is significant. I have a feeling I'd better learn, though.
• asdf - An extendable version manager with plugins to handle all sorts of languages. Sort of like rvm or rbenv but for everything.
• Tracebin - Easy & free application monitoring for Rails/Rack apps (as long as you don't need more than 24 hours of data).
• terraform and GitHub labels - A tiny example showing how you can use this tool for a simple maintenance task.
• Cloud Firewalls: Secure Droplets by Default - The latest from Digital Ocean. I need to look into this...

• AWS Docker Swarm Setup - Scripts to give you a 3 node cluster with pretty much just "push the button" effort. Uses Terraform to do the work.
• Ruby Standard Gems - More and more of the Ruby standard library is being moved into gems. This is good, because it means faster bug fixes & fewer "big bang" updates.
• Getting Hacked, Lessons Learned - There's always room to be more secure. Some good advice here, though my own approach to Bitcoin is "too silly to play with."

• The state of JavaScript modules - I probably need to learn about this stuff. But right now it makes my head hurt. A look from the webpack side of things.
• Try Amazon WorkSpaces at No Charge for Up to 2 Months - If you suddenly find yourself need a Windows test machine, here's a quick way to get one.
• rack-tracker - Analytics at the rack level. I've written code to do this in the past, but these days I just say "no" as much as I can.

• deloominator: a data visualization tool for SQL users - write a query, get an automatic chart. Dashboards and reports are coming. Newly open-sourced and looking for contributors.
• Tad - Desktop (Mac, Linux, Windows) pivot table analysis application that works with CSV and SQL data sources.
• Performance Analysis Reference - A complete list with plenty of screenshots of all the Chrome DevTools features you can use to look at performance issues.

• attachy - Attachments handler for Rails that uses Cloudinary on the backend.
• pshtt - Command-line tool to check for HTTPS best practices.
• google_sign_in - A new gem to provide an easy way for Rails to use Google's login functionality.
• Sublime Text 3 Plugins for Frontend Web Development - A long list to pick and choose from.

Posting may be spotty for a while - summer camp season is underway!

• rubocop-rails - A RuboCop configuration to help ensure that your PRs follow the official Ruby on Rails style.
• Proximate vs Root Causes: Why You Should Keep Digging to Find the Answer - Root Cause Analysis applies to life as well as software. I'm surprised by how many developers don't do RCA when faced with a serious bug/incident though.
• Flynn - Do-it-yourself PAAS (or you can pay them to manage a cluster for you).
• ActiveObject - "Commonly used object helpers in a ruby based project." If ActiveSupport doesn't add enough syntactic sugar for you, here's a good deal more.

You're getting longer Double Shots because I'm still looking for a job. I'm sure you all appreciate that. But if you'd like to help fix the situation, please drop me a line at MikeG1 [at] larkfarm.com. Hey, maybe someone would give me an hour of paid time a day to keep this up?

• How to build a modern CI/CD pipeline - Using Travis, Docker, and Heroku, among other bits and bobs. I'm noodling with this myself, though via CircleCI, Hatch, and Digital Ocean. Fun stuff.
• Better Code Hub - Metrics-based code quality analysis that works across a variety of languages. Looks like an interesting alternative.
• Testing a Feature with Rails and RSpec: A Deep Dive - A detailed walkthrough of using BDD to add a new feature.
• Sublime Text 3 Linux Package Manager Repositories - Now available for apt, pacman, yum, dnf, and zypper.
• Why we use Terraform and not Chef, Puppet, Ansible, SaltStack, or CloudFormation - An evaluation of the strengths of various "infrastructure as code" tools.
• Testing SMS Interactions - How to stub out Twilio in your tests.
• js-sequence-diagrams - A way to create UML sequence diagrams from simple text scripts. There's also a demo of using them in Markdown.
• The Leprechauns of Software Engineering - Ebook-in-progress that attempts to trace the history of some of the folklore that we've turned into accepted truths. Good luck with that.
• FastestWebsiteEver - Fits in a single TCP packet. Works fine on Chrome, my Firefox coughs up hairballs on it though. The ultimate "be forgiving in what you accept" experience.

• letter_opener_web - A web interface for browing emails during Rails development. Builds on the letter_opener email interception gem.
• Suggestions and Tips for Attending your first tech conference - Collected by Scott Hanselman. Lots of good ideas here.
• DotenvSekrets - Combine environment variable handling via dotenv with secure encryption via sekrets.
• ActiveDecorator - Only mix the decorator module into models in views. ORM-agnostic, Rails 3.2+.
• Git Error gpg failed to sign data - Good troubleshooting info if you're having issues signing git commits with a homebrew-installed GPG.
• Problem Child - Quick app to allow authenticated or anonymous users to fill out a web form that creates issues in your GitHub repo. Set up for easy deployment to Heroku.
• ToroDB - Open source layer that runs on top of PostgreSQL to present a MongoDB-compatible API to the world.
• Testing Huge PostgreSQL Backups for 37 Cents a Day - You can either test your backups now, or regret it later.
• Footgun Prevention with AWS VPC Subnetting and Addressing - Yes, we are all network engineers now. Or at least a lot of us play network engineers on TV.
• Chrome Store Foxified - Huh, you can install at least some Chrome extensions into Firefox now, with the rise of the WebExtension API. Still not sure it makes up for losing my XUL extensions though.

• capistrano-fiesta - Capistrano addin to put together an editable list of GitHub pull requests and then push it over to Slack.
• SkyBlue CSS Framework - A lighter alternative to Bootstrap that's working well for me in a new Rails project. There's an associated gem to load it up.
• HTML Color Codes - Color pickers, charts, hex codes, names...pretty much everything you might need.
• Webpacker 2.0 - The webpack integration for Rails is moving quickly. Be sure to read the changelog if you're updating, because there is a breaking configuration change.
• Railsconf 2017: The Performance Update - A round-up from Nate Berkopec, who was clearly in the thick of things.

• CallGraph - Gem to provide automated construction of call graphs in Ruby code. It's meant to help track down Law of Demeter violations.
• PostgreSQL operations that you can't EXPLAIN - File under "things I never knew".
• What are some use cases where Elixir/Phoenix is more advantageous than Ruby/Rails? - Hint: it's not as simple as "oh Rails doesn't scale." Because of course it does. You're not freaking Amazon.
• Istio - "An open platform to connect, manage, and secure microservices." Limited to Kubernetes at the moment, but who knows where it will end up. Backed by Google, IBM, and Lyft.
• Little Things I Like to Do with Git - A medley of tips and tricks. I especially like aliasing 'blame' to 'praise'.

• BBR, the new kid on the TCP block - I am glad that there are smart people thinking about this stuff so that I don't have to.
• Introducing GitHub Marketplace and more tools to customize your workflow - More ways to make GH indispensible, plus a new GraphQL API.
• Image Uploads with AWS S3, Elixir + Phoenix (:ex_aws) - Including the security and S3 setup on the Amazon side of things.
• Open Source Guides - Guidance on launching and growing projects, fueled by GitHub's opinions on how OS should be done.
• U.S. top court tightens patent suit rules in blow to 'patent trolls' - Awesome news that should mean far fewer bullshit patent suits in East Texas.
• The Epic Guide to Bootstrapping a Startup by Yourself - EBook coming this fall that promises to not be the same old advice slung around by the Hacker News crowd. $24.95 pre-order.

I'm still looking for my next job. 10 years experience in Rails, way more than that in software development, team lead and manager for teams of 2 to 50, immediately available. You can email me at MikeG1 [at] larkfarm.com. Thanks for any leads!

• ArcaOS 5.0 now available - Wow, "the long-awaited modern OS/2 distribution". I remember installing the IBM version from a stack of floppies as tall as a water cooler.
• Announcing JSON Feed - Because JSON ALL THE THINGS. An alternative to using XML for your RSS/Atom feeds, because XML makes you feel dirty.
• Managing Async Dependencies with JavaScript - A new way to inject scripts just when you want them. This stuff makes my head hurt but it's important.
• feedparser - Ruby gem for parsing web feeds, now updated to support the new JSON Feed format.
• pipethis - Tool to make running install scripts from the net a bit better. It includes showing things in an editor before running them as well as public key verification of authorship.
• How Ingrained Is Sexism in Silicon Valley? Ask the Women Trying to Get Funding - More evidence that VC is broken in multiple ways. Nope, I don't know how to fix it.

• Bootsnap: Optimizing Ruby App Boot Time - Some interesting work from Shopify to make their Rails monolith spin up faster in development. And it looks dirt-simple to try on your own apps.
• 6 Rules to Live By When You Work In An Office But Have Remote Team Members - A bunch of good advice from Trello. More and more places "get it" but others still have learning to do. (H/T my wonderful wife, who by the way is hunting her next dev/mentoring job.).
• CanCanCan 2.0 is out - A bunch of big updates to this authorization gem, descended from the old CanCan codebase.
• Deep Dive Rails - Ryan Bigg is writing about Rails internals. That pretty much means this will be a must-buy.
• Bundler 1.15: Bundle Oh So Fast - The latest updates to bundler make it faster, and now supports 'bundle pristine' to clean up any mess you may have made by ill-considered edits to installed gem files.
• Made a Phoenix webapp as a veteran Rails dev. - I suspect this might be me in a few months.

• Announcing Git Integration for Atom and GitHub Desktop Beta - A bunch more integration work from GitHub, including going all-in on Electron.
• RailsConf 2017 - If you didn't go, you can now view a whole mess of videos from Confreaks to make up for it.
• Administrate - Framework for Rails admin dashboards implemented as an engine. From Thoughtbot.
• Ruby Backend Performance Getting Started Guide - Richard Schneems points you in the right direction.
• PostgreSQL 10 Beta 1 Released - These folks are relentless. Looks like some interesting replication improvements are in the pipeline.
• Heroku CI is Now Generally Available - Now you have a CI/CD solution that doesn't require ever paying anyone other than Heroku.