What are you doing these days?

People have been asking me this question again and again since I finished my masters degree (not to long ago). What am I doing these days? Well, the answer is easy but hard to understand especially if you haven't heard about Ruby on Rails (a.k.a. RoR), Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (a.k.a AJAX) or even XML or JavaScript. Sometimes I have the feeling that people don't know what I'm talking about or even they think I'm crazy. As I mentioned in my first post this blog is for those who want to be geeks. Therefore, if you are not one of us, you can skip this comment and continue reading other of my posts :)

I'm working on a Web-based application for a nursing home based in Sydney. The whole purpose is to change old paper forms into computer/web-based forms. If you are not a geek and you are still reading, this will look like a simple web page. Then, why we call them web-based applications? Answer: We geeks like weird names, like Asynchronous for example. Anyway, programs are also called applications and a web-based application is just a program running behind/on a web-page.

What is that Ruby on Rails thing? - Ruby on Rails is an open source web application framework written in Ruby that closely follows the Model View Controller (MVC) architecture... blah blah blah. Meaning, Ruby on Rails is a cool an easy way to program for the web.

What about AJAX? AJAX is not only the Antibacterial Dish-washing Detergent but it is also Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. Unfortunately the technologies that enable AJAX were created by Microsoft but I have to recon they were really cleaver. These techniques help loading content of webpages without requiring a full page reload. Are you lost? AJAX is the technology behind Gmail, Google Calendar, Google and Yahoo Maps and many others. This allows you to update only some portions of your page without refreshing the whole page.

Hopefully you are still awake after this explanation of what I am doing for living. If you think this article was Awesome or even more if you want more information, please let me know. However, if you are one of those who prefer to read the last lines of all the articles and skipped my review or you found it boring, think again when you ask me this type of questions. Anyway, feel free to come back and post a comment.