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In January 2006 my wife Jayne had arranged a surprise birthday present for me. It was an invitation to a party at Robert Sawyer's residence http://www.sfwriter.com. For those few of you who don't know who he is, please check out his website, buy a few of his books, and prepare to have a thought-provoking good time.
I had recently read on Paul Lutus' site about a language that was new to me - Ruby http://www.arachnoid.com. Paul's site is one of those very few that I like to review on an irregular basis, primarily when I want a rational, well thought out, and well-presented view on a wide variety of subjects. The fact that I aspire to his level of class and erudition is a pleasant bonus. In any case, Paul had written very favourably of Ruby.
Getting back to Rob Sawyer's party, I had the good fortune to get into conversations with a variety of the guests. One, for example, was Jeffrey Rosenthal, the author of 'Struck by Lightning', a book on "The Curious World of Probabilities". One young lady spoke at some length to Jayne and myself about how she was working on becoming a writer. Then, seemingly at a random moment, she said in all seriousness that she had to go find her Klingon boyfriend, and off she went. Another, whose name I can't remember, was a software developer. I mentioned that I had just read about Ruby on Paul Lutus' website, and he said "Oh, you should check out Ruby on Rails™". So I did.
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