ADS specializes in using Ruby on Rails to build advanced, scalable, database-backed web sites for organizations of all sizes. Find out more at our website.

ADS is happy to announce that Jeremy McAnally has joined the ADS team. For those of you who don’t know Jeremy, here is some insight:

Jeremy has been developing applications with Ruby and Rails for a little over two years. Before that, he tortured himself with PHP, C#, Python, VB, and other instruments of destruction. After finding the light, he worked with Ruby for a while and penned Mr. Neighborly’s Humble Little Ruby Book (soon to be published by No Starch). Since then he has continued writing software, books (such as Ruby in Practice for Manning), open-source code (such as dcov, radiograph, valimaticotron, pircy, and more), has done presentations for numerous Ruby conferences and user groups, and basically anything else he can to sharpen his Ruby (and Rails)-Fu. He likes good food, good times, and a mean game of Mario Hoops 3-on-3.

We are, as you can imagine, extremely happy and excited to have Jeremy join the team.

We are happy to announce the launch of our new corporate site. We have done a complete overhaul of not only our look but also our messaging. The new site is a reflection that the growth ADS has experienced over the past two years, as well as the experience we have gained in web application development. Look for even more additions to our portfolio in the coming months as multiple ADS clients launch their sites. Read the official press release and view the site here: http://www.techcfl.com.

One of the great things about using WordPress for our blog is that there are a myriad of plugins that quickly add functionality. The latest plugin we are using provides us with a custom template making it easy to read our blog on an iPhone. We currently use the out of the box iPhone theme and will soon update it to match the new look of our blog. For all those of you with iPhones, enjoy.

ADS is happy to announce that we have a new look for our blog. This new look is only phase 1 in a multiphase roll out of our new corporate blog and web site. Our new corporate site is a total re-write and yes, it is using Ruby on Rails. We decided to keep our current blog in Wordpress as it works great and there is more to move than we wanted to (did someone utter “lazy programmer”?). With the help of a few Wordpress plugins we will have a new URL structure and shouldn’t break any of the existing links to current articles (lest people laugh at us for doing so). Check the ADS web site next week for the new site and for now, enjoy the new look on the blog.

Rails For All launched the acts_as_conference site today. acts_as_conference is a two day Ruby on Rails conference being held in Orlando, Florida February 8th and 9th, 2008.

On July 22nd we posted a help wanted video on StandoutJobs.com. A few days later, one developer answered the call in the most unique way that we have seen yet, with a video of his own. That developer is the newest member of the Atlantic Dominion Solutions team - Lyric Lee Hartley.

About Lyric
Lyric Lee Hartley is a programmer, open source advocate, agile/GTD/Getting Real evangelist, philosopher, music lover, father and general seeker of “the good”. He loves and strives for beauty and simplicity in his personal and professional life. It is that pursuit that has led him to Ruby and Rails, and has brought him to ADS. He is passionate about what he does, interested to learn about what he does not, and maintains a healthy curiosity about all aspects of the world. Lyric’s background includes Rails, Perl, Flash and a lot of Linux.

Robert Dempsey, Project Director of ADS and Founder of Rails For All, will be speaking at the Sarasota Java Users Group meeting on November 15th. The talk with be a front to back overview of Ruby on Rails. Here’s what you get:

Ruby

• Overview
• Ruby’s growth
• Objects everywhere
• Ruby is flexible

Ruby on Rails

• Overview
• Why Ruby on Rails
• Uses of Ruby on Rails

How to create a basic Rails application

• Create a Rails application
• What is MVC
• The structure of a Rails application (where everything is)
• Connect to a database
• Create scaffold
• Fire it up and see what we have

Testing the Rails (if there is time)

• BDD (our preferred approach)
• RSpec

Come and enjoy! We will see you there.

The entire ADS team will be going to BarCampOrlando to enjoy the techy goodness here in Orlando. We will see you there. If you aren’t already registered or you don’t know about BarCampOrlando, here is the link: http://www.barcamporlando.org/

Rails For All announced this evening that they plan to hold a two day, one track Rails conference in Orlando, Florida in February of 2008. You can read the official announcement on the Rails For All Announcement List. To engage the local and non-local Rails communities, they are asking for session ideas on the Rails For All Discussion Board. Check it out and provide your ideas on what you would like to hear at the conference.

Let us know:

No one has commented on this yet but I figured I would take a moment to comment on it myself. When the ADS website was in “1.0″ we had the site designed in PHP. This was when we were a network services company. Times changed and so did our site. We didn’t change the platform of the site though as there wasn’t too much of a point in doing so.

We have been developing Ruby on Rails sites for almost two years now, so why are both our site and blog still on PHP?

When we have a client that comes to us looking at potentially moving their site to Rails we ask them why. If they don’t say something along the lines of “managing my site is getting out of hand” or “our site is old and we want something newer and better” (I heard this today) then we tell them they might just want to stick with what they have. If it ain’t broke, don’t break it. Moving from one platform to another is never a simple matter, and can be costly depending on the complexity.

Before someone flames me for saying so, I am all for moving sites of all flavors to Rails. We can help with that. But before taking the plunge, you have to ask is it worth it. Usually it is.

So, in that light, I am happy to announce that ADS is in the process of moving our entire site, blog and all, to Ruby on Rails. This comes along with a major update to our site that is currently being developed. In a month or two you will see a nice clean site that is 100% Rails goodness.

We look forward to it. Represent!