GoRails – Ruby on Rails screencasts for web developers

by bdcravens • 12 years ago

152 55 12 years ago

iagooar• 12 years ago

This is a nice idea as there is a huge void left after RailsCasts hasn't gotten new episodes for a long time.

What's a little bit negative is the sound quality of the screencasts, it's really, really bad. It would be a really important improvement if you got a proper studio microphone and did some audio post-processing (I recommend https://auphonic.com/ for this kind of stuff, it's magic what they do).

sudhirj• 12 years ago

Ryan was nice enough to list out what he used for Railscasts: http://railscasts.com/about

Heil PR 40 - the microphone KeyCastr - visual keyboard shortcuts

Both are valuable.

IbJacked• 12 years ago

I didn't think the audio quality was "really, really bad". It does have a slight echo effect, or maybe hall effect (not my area of expertise so please excuse me if I'm not describing it correctly).

I've watched a couple of them now and, if I hadn't seen your comment, I don't think I would have given the audio a second thought.

If Chris Oliver happens to see this: nice work!

excid310• 12 years ago

Thanks! One thing I noticed is that people who did complain about audio quality weren't receiving as much value from the content.

So far, the feedback from people who learned from an episode was that they didn't even notice the audio quality was bad which I'm happy about. It will improve as I have practice, but the content should matter more than the quality of audio.

hackerboos• 12 years ago

Metacasts[1] was good for Ruby/Rails but the author is now focusing on Go.

Ruby Tapas[2] by Avdi Grimm is a good replacement - although it's ruby and not much rails.

[1] http://www.metacasts.tv/

[2] http://www.rubytapas.com/

bparanj2• 12 years ago

Checkout http://www.rubyplus.com for articles.

excid310• 12 years ago

I picked up a new mic (the Blue Yeti) because I know it's pretty terrible so far. About as bad as Ryan's were at the beginning actually if you go back to his first ones. ;)

Haven't done much recording before, so I'm learning the ropes. Auphonic looks really cool. I'll definitely be checking them out.

JonnieCache2• 12 years ago

The classic technique for vocal capture with zero budget is to put a duvet over your head while recording. Failing this, you can pin the duvet to the walls of a wardrobe or something and sit inside that. Failing that, you may wish to build a little fort out of cushions and blankets or something. You may wish to do this anyway.

The traditional pop filter made from a pair of tights and a wire coathanger works very well too.

Also get some good closed back headphones asap, so you can monitor how you're coming in as you speak.

The next thing to think about after you're getting a decent capture is some kind of dynamics control, ie. compression, but that's beyond the scope of this comment.

eddieroger2• 12 years ago

I support Ryan needing some time off, I just wish he'd open up the Pro episodes if he's done. There are a few I want to watch, but I can't rationalize paying in my head if there's no new content coming out.

excid310• 12 years ago

He deserves it. I'm not sure what happens exactly, but I know he's not charging the monthly fee anymore since he isn't active. It may just be a one-time $9 to get access to pro episodes.

ch4s32• 12 years ago

they're totally worth the one time $9 for (maybe)indefinite access.

bigtunacan• 12 years ago

To be clear; He is not currently charging $9/month. You are now charged a one time fee of $9 that is either indefinite, or until Ryan returns and starts adding new content.

It is definitely worth $9 for all of the existing great content.

bshimmin• 12 years ago

The nicest thing about RailsCasts, for me, was ASCIIcasts - I'm sure I'm in a minority, but I've never had much time for watching videos or listening to podcasts. GoRails seems to lack that, but perhaps for the majority that's a non-issue.

hayksaakian• 12 years ago

The text casts are a great reference after the initial viewing.

riffraff• 12 years ago

+1 I've watched maybe a couple videos but I refered to the scripts all the time

nicholassmith• 12 years ago

I loved the ASCII casts as I find text based information easier to reference than a video where you have to jump back a few seconds, hit pause, switch to a text editor, jump back, reload something, unpause etc etc.

dpritchett• 12 years ago

There are affordable transcription services out there. DevReps could probably give you some advice if you buy a few hours of their time.

excid310• 12 years ago

Chris from GoRails here! I'm absolutely going to be getting transcriptions added. So far this has been an experiment to see if people were interested and it appears that people definitely are.

bphogan• 12 years ago

This is just my advice - I teach, and must provide transcripts for my videos for students who are deaf, blind, or with learning disabilities.

I write my scripts out when I do my videos. It helps me prepare the lesson plan. I place all the code I'll type in there too. Then I record. And then if I deviate from my script, I can just fix it up. It doesn't need to be a 1:1 thing.

But I find that this really helps speed up the process because I have a plan in place, and the script can easily turn into the transcript.

Just thought I'd share to see if there's anything you can steal from this process.

ch4s32• 12 years ago

Yep, tons of interest for good rails resources. Keep up the great work!

izietto• 12 years ago

+100 by a non-english guy! I can read english, but I have a lot of problems listening

ckrailo• 12 years ago

You rock! ASCIIcasts were my favorite part of (and main way of consuming) Railscasts. :)

arikrak• 12 years ago

I find text is essential. How else can you quickly skim to what you want or reference something you saw?

shire2• 12 years ago

is there something similar for PHP?

zackboe• 12 years ago

Laracasts by Jeff Way for Laravel comes highly recommend.

https://laracasts.com

shire2• 12 years ago

I just feel like there is just not a lot of good material out there in the PHP community to learn from

Leander_B• 12 years ago

Anything similar for JavaScript and its MVC frameworks?

gordonzhu• 12 years ago

I just started working on something similar for Angular.

http://www.angularcourse.com

bdcravens• 12 years ago

egghead.io

frik• 12 years ago

Is there something similar for Go?

ciniglio• 12 years ago

http://www.metacasts.tv/ from a poster above

berkes• 12 years ago

I could not locate an RSS-feed, other then that of the blog.

I'd love to add this to my podcasts/video-casts. Or, at the least, to my RSS-reader to see when new episodes arrive. Maybe this is a good idea to add (and a nice subject to make a screencast about...)

excid310• 12 years ago

I'm definitely going to add a feed for the screencasts soon. Just last week I set up the site as it is now so I'm happy to see such a great response. Lots to do now!

gingerlime2• 12 years ago

This seems like a successor of Railscasts, exposing specific gems and walking through the installation and getting up to speed. Both GoRails and Railsscasts seem like a great resource, so all I can say is keep it up!!

The thing I would personally like to see more, is screencasts from (or similar to) Destroy All Software[0]. These don't typically target very specific gems, but rather cover general aspects of programming, design, testing methodologies and how those concepts integrate. I personally found those far more thought-provoking.

Another side-benefit is that whereas some screencasts about a specific gem or a library become almost irrelevant when new versions are released, those more approach-oriented talks and screencasts don't go stale that quickly.

[0]https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/screencasts

excid310• 12 years ago

Gary Bernhardt did a fantastic job with Destroy All Software and I wish he was continuing them. I really enjoyed his approach to screencasts because they were so thought-provoking. Hard to stop watching them at times.

pairing• 12 years ago

I was also a fan of destroy all software screencasts, and found them incredibly useful in leveling up as a ruby developer. I've recently subscribed to Ruby Tapas http://www.rubytapas.com/, which I find similar to DAS in topic selection and quality.

gingerlime2• 12 years ago

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out.

I personally have mixed feelings about Avdi Grimm's approach. Some of his small tweaks are brilliant. Others feel to me like OO going totally overboard for no good reason. That's where I identify more with Gary Bernhardt's views. In that sense, DAS is perhaps much harder to replace.

dustinrodrigues• 12 years ago

Are there similar tutorials for Django? I really enjoyed RailsCasts when I was looking into Ruby on Rails.

excid310• 12 years ago

My friend (https://twitter.com/buddylindsey) does http://GoDjango.com.

piratebroadcast• 12 years ago

I found these videos yesterday through a lucky Google search and I think they are fantastic. I really like the... tone of it. The host excid3 seems really chill and I really like the way he communicates. Not too old and stuffy, yet very professional but still also pretty chill, just like that one coworker that you really like. Keep it the great work, mate.

autokad• 12 years ago

I often find railcasts not very useful since most of them dont work in a short period of time due to lots of non-backward compatible updates.

WestCoastJustin• 12 years ago

Congratulations! It's a big step to put yourself out there for review ;) Your site looks nice and clean. These don't all happen at once, but here are some bits to think about:

  - Look into adding transcripts (you will get lots of traffic from google)
  - Add RSS feed + iTunes feed (www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/specs.html)
  - Add "feedback" tab at the top where people can get in touch
    - Use that feedback to develop your product
  - Have a marketing plan! How to get new customers and keep them.
  - Have a way to generate episode ideas people are looking for (ask them)
  - Create an intro with your name+email (if downloaded you want branding)
  - Try trello.com for developing episode ideas (create lists/add nodes, etc)

If you want to chat, email me. I do something very similar, except for sysadmin type topics, see my HN submission @ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8011081

excid310• 12 years ago

Thanks Justin! I'm shooting you an email now. :)

darylfritz• 12 years ago

One thing I liked with Railscasts was its length. On average, a video fit between 7 and 14 minutes. GoRails seems like a great resource, but with some videos approaching 30 minutes long, it's hard for me to justify sneaking a peek while at work.

excid310• 12 years ago

I'm going to be cutting those down into multiple episodes. 15 minutes is about the maximum length for keeping interest it seems.

scoot• 12 years ago

Great to have someone pick up the baton from Ryan Bates - I've missed RailsCasts! It looks like you've released quite a number of episodes in a short space of time, so great you have a reasonable base to build on. Not wanting to suggest you slow down, but perhaps you might work on building up a backlog, then release on a regular cadence. That way if you can't produce an episode one week, you'll still be able to release a new episode.

breakingcustom• 12 years ago

This is a great start and I think the presenter has a good, clear and precise tone. I don't think the audio is as bad as some of the people have made it out to be, but a decent mic probably wouldn't hurt.

One thing I would like to see that I'm spoiled from Railscasts is a quick summary of what you will be doing and the results that were achieved prior to the tutorial starting.

jacke• 12 years ago

Hey, who know what happening with Ryan Bates? Is he alive?

excid310• 12 years ago

This is the last I heard. http://www.reddit.com/r/rails/comments/1ysbdb/any_news_about...

aridiculous• 12 years ago

I really love your selection of topics. For instance, the first one on PATH variables reminds me of when I first got started and wondered what all the auxillary command-line stuff does. I even learned something watching it now.

Most beginner tutorials just say "do this, do that" on things that aren't part of Rails proper. I found this really frustrating and glad you're thinking like a beginner would.

GoRails – Ruby on Rails screencasts for web developers

Related Stories