Ippoippo

For the last week or two, I’ve started teaching myself some Ruby and Ruby on Rails. I figured I’d start looking at this to complement some self study in Mac/iPhone/iPad programming. (With a bit of Git for source control).

For some reason, there seems to be a lot Mac (using) developers in the Ruby world. Also, I find it pretty interesting because Ruby was invented by a Japanese chap (“Matz – まつもとゆきひろ“), so you end up seeing a lot of Japanese names for various Ruby utilities, tools and frameworks.

Once I feel a bit more comfortable with Rails, I’m probably going to attempt two ‘home projects’. The first is an idea for a web-app (which I’m keeping secret for now), which has potential for having a iPhone and iPad rich client (but with a web front end as a fall back). The second is basically handcrafting a ‘CMS’ for this blog and replacing the WordPress blog. Sure, it would be easy just using a free downloadable too, but writing my own CMS means I can tweak it and gives me some focus.

There are some good resources for getting started with Ruby and Rails.
Programming Ruby 1.9
Ruby Koans
Rails for Zombies
Agile Web Development with Rails
Crafting Rails Applications

Found this documentary, about working in the Japanese nuclear industry. It was shown on Channel 4 back in 1995. Rather relevant now.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Röhl, Nicholas. 1995. Kakusareta Hibaku Rōdō: Nihon no Genpatsu Rōdōsha. 隠された被曝労働 – 日本の原発労働者 物語 [Nuclear Ginza].

Nicholas Röhl, a student of Japan’s master director Imamura Shohei, produced this 30-minute documentary in 1995 for Channel 4. The film exposes how Japan’s nuclear energy industry used disadvantaged people in the 1970s and ’80s to carry out highly dangerous manual labor inside their power stations. The story follows the photojournalist/anti-nuclear activist Kenji Higuchi as he exposes the exploitation of the “untouchables” who were pulled out of the slums of Tokyo and Osaka in order to work while exposed to radiation, often without their knowledge. Referring to the tacit cooperation and close ties between the Japanese government and the country’s nuclear industry, a man notes in one scene that “democracy has been destroyed where nuclear power stations exist.” The film shows how Japan, having suffered nuclear attacks in the past, remarkably transformed itself within a few decades into one of the most “nuclearized” nations worldwide. This documentary film has special significance in the light of the recent Fukushima nuclear crisis, in which media reports about the exploitation of unskilled laborers in the plant spawned a major controversy.
– Christian Dimmer