Recent content on Kevin Murphy
Frequently Played 🔗 I tend to listen to the same songs or albums on repeat that are evocative of how I’m feeling or what’s going on with me. Here is what I’m currently listening to over, and over, and over, and over, again. Atlantic City 🔗 I just got my hands on the Expanded Edition of Nebraska. Easily a top 5 Springsteen album for me. I’m not sure the Expanded Edition…
Validating The Problem Domain 🔗 Today we’re modeling a system that involves providing validated parking. It’s a benefit provided by different businesses. They offer their customers a discount at a nearby parking lot. The lot has the following rules: All parking validation tickets must have an expiration time when they’re issued. The parking lot owner has a special ticket that…
Frequently Played 🔗 I tend to listen to the same songs or albums on repeat that are evocative of how I’m feeling or what’s going on with me. Here is what I’m currently listening to over, and over, and over, and over, again. Hello Kitty Kat 🔗 The height of passive-aggressive angst? Full Lyrics You know I hate to say it Oh no, I always stay I don’t wanna be like the others,…
Frequently Played 🔗 I tend to listen to the same songs or albums on repeat that are evocative of how I’m feeling or what’s going on with me. Here is what I’m currently listening to over, and over, and over, and over, again. Not Bad For New Jersey 🔗 A signature Tele AND two new tunes from Brian? Yes, please. Full Lyrics I can’t say I had a good time But after all this…
The videos from Blue Ridge Ruby 2026 are now available on YouTube . Check them all out!
Blue Ridge Ruby 2026 🔗 I returned to Asheville for the first time since 2023 . Both times for the Blue Ridge Ruby conference. Both times convinced for the same reason: organizer Jeremy Smith. Both times because I was selected as a speaker. This post is not intended as a review of any of the talks, but to highlight the variety of great work from all involved. I hope you’ll seek out the full videos…
Frequently Played 🔗 I tend to listen to the same songs or albums on repeat that are evocative of how I’m feeling or what’s going on with me. Here is what I’m currently listening to over, and over, and over, and over, again. As Alive As You Need Me To Be 🔗 Dive into the album . The NIN x Boys Noize collaboration builds on their work together on the B stage during the Peel It…
Abstract 🔗 Congrats on joining Hours Unlimited. The Math and Numbers team is excited to have you join us on our journey to redefine the importance of numerals. This introductory session will provide tips and tricks for best interacting with powerfuLLMachine, the next-level platform we use to unlock productivity and effectiveness. Presentation Resources 🔗 Slides Proposal Video Reviews 🔗 Rachael…
Frequently Played 🔗 I tend to listen to the same songs or albums on repeat that are evocative of how I’m feeling or what’s going on with me. Here is what I’m currently listening to over, and over, and over, and over, again. Witch Dance 🔗 Grief, perseverance, the search for community, the desire for answers. Full Lyrics And I met every monster from the bar to Broadway And all…
SimpleCov’s coverage report will tell the coverage of code at a moment of time. You may want to track differences over time though. That’s where the simplecov-compare gem comes in. Backstory 🔗 I have a project at work where I want to evaluate the impact of changes on the application’s test coverage. I’m using SimpleCov to measure and report the coverage. There are services…
Frequently Played 🔗 I tend to listen to the same songs or albums on repeat that are evocative of how I’m feeling or what’s going on with me. Here is what I’m currently listening to over, and over, and over, and over, again. Everybody Scream 🔗 I’m very much looking forward to seeing the most powerful and beautiful singing voice I’ve ever heard in concert next month.…
I caught up briefly with Blue Ridge Ruby organizer Jeremy Smith to talk about speaking, blogging, conferences, and why you should come to Blue Ridge Ruby.
My daughter got me a new guitar stand I have set up in the living room. This lets me see my guitars more easily, which I enjoy. Inspired by that, I wanted to make my own stand to support two guitars in the office area of my bedroom. Build 🔗 I used a piece of hickory wood that’s been waiting to be put to good use for this project. Armed with an idea of the visual look I wanted, I drew the…
It’s 2026. Everything’s awful. The only news you hear is bad news. I figured I’d spend a few hours trying to make some things sound a little better. So I installed new pickups in some of my guitars. Single Coils 🔗 I recently came into a Squier Affinity strat. I would confidently describe the stock instrument as “fine”. Particularly for an entry-level guitar.…
I’m thrilled to be part of the program for Blue Ridge Ruby 2026 in Asheville, North Carolina. I’ll be speaking about…LLMs? I hope you can join us ! InstiLLMent of Successful Practices in an Agentic World 🔗 Congrats on joining Hours Unlimited. The Math and Numbers team is excited to have you join us on our journey to redefine the importance of numerals. This introductory session…
Frequently Played 🔗 I tend to listen to the same songs or albums on repeat that are evocative of how I’m feeling or what’s going on with me. Here is what I’m currently listening to over, and over, and over, and over, again. The Weatherman 🔗 Trying to predict the future is almost as bad as my prediction coming true. Full Lyrics And I put aside my strongest desires that ruled me…
An episode of the Bike Shed podcast convinced me to dig this out of my drafts. Thanks Stephanie and Joël. I read a lot of pull requests (PRs) for work. It’s been a huge accelerator for my growth. It helps push work towards production. Work that’s in a pull request is likely closer to completion than what I’m working on. Alternatively, the PR may exist because the author is stuck.…
Frequently Played 🔗 I tend to listen to the same songs or albums on repeat that are evocative of how I’m feeling or what’s going on with me. Here is what I’m currently listening to over, and over, and over, and over, again. Downbound Train 🔗 In a debate about the most underrated Springsteen song, this would be high on my list. Full Lyrics Last night, I heard your voice You were…
This isn’t a “real” post. This is a summary of all the things that made up my year in 2025 (almost all in a professional context). Thanks to all who were a part of it. Writing 🔗 I published 8 articles about Ruby or software development in general this year. The first was about it . My last post of the year was a highly-nuanced take on reviewing AI PRs . In between, I wrote about…
Frequently Played 🔗 I tend to listen to the same songs or albums on repeat that are evocative of how I’m feeling or what’s going on with me. Here is what I’m currently listening to over, and over, and over, and over, again. Buckle 🔗 Just get the new album. And all the prior albums. You’re welcome. Full Lyrics I’m much too old for this But I’m not over it…
Close them .
RESTful Routes 🔗 You can find many resources trumpeting the benefits of following RESTful routes in the context of a Rails application . I want to focus on my personal favorite benefit: Adherence to the default RESTful actions creates a constraint, and is a noticeable heuristic, that aids in limiting the surface area of classes. Planting an example 🔗 Let’s say we have an application that…
Frequently Played 🔗 I tend to listen to the same songs or albums on repeat that are evocative of how I’m feeling or what’s going on with me. Here is what I’m currently listening to over, and over, and over, and over, again. Second Best 🔗 The “Live From The Pyre” videos they’ve been releasing to accompany the tracks on the new album have been treats. Full…
Current Setup 🔗 I have a Boss Katana-50 MkII combo guitar amp. This is far from unique, but it serves my needs. It more than serves my needs, given I pretty much use it as a pedal platform. You could argue that this is redundant given the built-in features of the Katana, and you wouldn’t be wrong. But it’s more fun for me to tweak knobs and dials that I can more easily see than play…
Frequently Played 🔗 I tend to listen to the same songs or albums on repeat that are evocative of how I’m feeling or what’s going on with me. Here is what I’m currently listening to over, and over, and over, and over, again. Halloween 🔗 ‘Tis the season. Full Lyrics Well I think I saw you for the flash of a moment Your broken heart and the body that holds it I lost your…
Seeing SQL 🔗 Have you ever needed to display the SQL query used to generate the data in the report you’re also showing? Me neither. UNTIL I DID. And when I did, I wanted it to look nice. Readable. Formatted. Something that didn’t look like this: irb(main): 001 : 0 > puts 'SELECT * from FOOS join bars on foos.id = bars.foo_id WHERE A = true AND B = 'test' OR coalesce(status, 'unknown')…
Glitch on Plaster 🔗 I recently received some new prints that immediately went into frames and made their way on to my wall. They’re all from Rob Sheridan . I first learned about Rob from his time as the Creative Director of Nine InchNails, and I’ve enjoyed following his work since then. These are all poorly-taken phone camera pictures of high-quality prints from within frames. Trust…
Frequently Played 🔗 I tend to listen to the same songs or albums on repeat that are evocative of how I’m feeling or what’s going on with me. Here is what I’m currently listening to over, and over, and over, and over, again. The Blues, Mary 🔗 This song is a precursor, a warning, a premonition. Full Lyrics I learned how to cry In them lonesome September nights I learned to get by…
Frequently Played 🔗 I tend to listen to the same songs or albums on repeat that are evocative of how I’m feeling or what’s going on with me. Here is what I’m currently listening to over, and over, and over, and over, again. This Is The Killer Speaking 🔗 I pre-ordered the new The Last Dinner Party album right away. Yes, I buy music.I’m old. I’ll be receiving a…
The videos for RailsConf 2025 have been posted to Ruby Central’s YouTubechannel, and that includes my session .If you weren’t able to join us, I hope you’ll check it out.
RailsConf 2025 🔗 RailsConf recently wrapped up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The 2025 conference, and also the RailsConf event itself is now over as far as we know it. This post is meant to highlight the great work from all involved. I hope you’ll seek out the full videos of all the sessions that interest you once they are available. Unfortunately, I couldn’t be everywhere, so this…
Abstract 🔗 RailsConf has played an important role in my professional and personal life. I’ve learned about technology in ways I wouldn’t have otherwise at RailsConf. I’ve learned about myself in ways I wouldn’t have otherwise thanks to RailsConf. I’ve met people that changed the course of my career thanks to RailsConf. I’ve met others who have become dear…
Frequently Played 🔗 I tend to listen to the same songs or albums on repeat that are evocative of how I’m feeling or what’s going on with me. Here is what I’m currently listening to over, and over, and over, and over, again. Nothing Matters 🔗 I am definitely consuming all things The Last Dinner Party lately. Full Lyrics Even when the cold comes crashing through, I’m…
Description 🔗 RailsConf has played an important role in my professional and personal life. I’ve learned about technology in ways I wouldn’t have otherwise at RailsConf. I’ve learned about myself in ways I wouldn’t have otherwise thanks to RailsConf. I’ve met people that changed the course of my career thanks to RailsConf. I’ve met others who have become dear…
Frequently Played 🔗 I tend to listen to the same songs or albums on repeat that are evocative of how I’m feeling or what’s going on with me. Here is what I’m currently listening to over, and over, and over, and over, again. Countin’ On A Miracle 🔗 Unfortunately, miracles are nothing more than dreams gone bad . Full Lyrics It’s a fairy tale so tragic There’s no…
How can I help you today? 🔗 We’re building an app to display the prompts from an automated phone system. The system will read these out when people call our technical support phone number. We use a callback to set the list of prompts to read. Whether you’re calling for details about consuming our GraphQL endpoints or looking for tips on charging your phone battery, you’re going…
Frequently Played 🔗 I tend to listen to the same songs or albums on repeat that are evocative of how I’m feeling or what’s going on with me. Here is what I’m currently listening to over, and over, and over, and over, again. De Profundis Borealis 🔗 Ghost dropped a new psalm (album) at the end of April, so that’s been my focus. Full Lyrics All the words that never came out…
Elevator Pitch 🔗 Let’s leverage the expectations that developers have interacting with LLMs to receive a satisfactory output. We will highlight that through the lens of how we can manage humans and ourselves. Rubyists use a language which promotes developer happiness. Our processes and systems should too. Description 🔗 Congrats on joining Hours Unlimited. The Math and Numbers team is excited to…
RailsConf 2025 🔗 I’m honored to be speaking at the final RailsConf this July in Philadelphia.I’ll be speaking on Thursday, July 10 at 10:15am on the Main Stage in theLiberty room. How 10 years of RailsConfs can inform the next 10 years of your career 🔗 RailsConf has played an important role in my professional and personal life. I’ve learned about technology in ways I…
Frequently Played 🔗 I tend to listen to the same songs or albums on repeat that are evocative of how I’m feeling or what’s going on with me. Here is what I’m currently listening to over, and over, and over, and over, again. Racing In The Street 🔗 This musical outro is transcendent. Full Lyrics She sits on the porch of her daddy’s house But all her pretty dreams are torn…
Flash Sale! 🔗 We’re offering our best deals on select products for a limited time. We’re going to link to this flash sale from many different pages on our site. The call-to-action (CTA) we display at the top of the flash sale page will change based on which page you access the flash sale from. We’re going to store that text in a flash message. For example, let’s say…
I try to do the bare minimum of development work on this actual site. That way my time spent here is on actually blogging. That’s why I chose hugo over something like Bridgetown . By intentionally choosing a static site generator written in a language I’m less familiar with, I’m less likely to tinker. Due to a tragedy with a git submodule this morning (that is…deleting…
Frequently Played 🔗 I tend to listen to the same songs or albums on repeat that are evocative of how I’m feeling or what’s going on with me. Here is what I’m currently listening to over, and over, and over, and over, again. Happy 🔗 Happy. Really happy? Full Lyrics I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a lonely soul And the last to admit I need a hand to hold…
Frequently Played 🔗 I tend to listen to the same songs or albums on repeat that are evocative of how I’m feeling or what’s going on with me. Here is what I’m currently listening to over, and over, and over, and over, again. Valentine’s Day 🔗 ‘Tis the season. I listen to the Tunnel of Love album throughout February everyyear. Full Lyrics So hold me close, honey, say…
This post may appear to be about new functionality in Ruby. However, it may instead be an attempt to write an article with the worst possible SEO. Anyway, hit it. What Is It? 🔗 As of Ruby 3.4, it is another way to refer to the first parameter in a block. This may be more obvious by way of an example. [ 'What is it?' ]. map { it + ' It's it' } * 4 => [ 'What is it? It's it' , 'What is it? It's it'…
Frequently Played 🔗 I tend to listen to the same songs or albums on repeat that are evocative of how I’m feeling or what’s going on with me. Here is what I’m currently listening to over, and over, and over, and over, again. Zero 🔗 These riffs are super fun to play. My maybe toxic 90’s music take is that Jimmy Chamberlin is the best drummer of the bunch. Sorry Danny Carey,…
This isn’t a “real” post. This is a summary of all the things that made up my year in 2024 (almost all in a professional context). Thanks to all who were a part of it. Writing 🔗 I published 7 articles about Ruby or software development in general this year. The first was about possible RailsConf tracks . My last post of the year covered what I saw at RubyConf . In between…
Frequently Played 🔗 I tend to listen to the same songs or albums on repeat that are evocative of how I’m feeling or what’s going on with me. Here is what I’m currently listening to over, and over, and over, and over, again. The River 🔗 Bruce is my favorite storyteller. He speaks to me. Helps me understand stories beyond my own, while also making sense of things in my life. Full…
RubyConf 2024 🔗 RubyConf recently wrapped up in Chicago, Illinois. This post is meant to highlight the great work from all involved. I documented my updates from “on the ground” elsewhere . I hope you’ll seek out the full videos of all the sessions that interest you once they are available. Unfortunately, I couldn’t be everywhere, so this covers what I saw. I certainly did…
RubyConf 2024 🔗 I’m starting this post from Terminal B in Logan Airport (Boston). Waiting for my plane, I figured I might put together a post to document a quick and loose exploration of what I see while I’m in Chicago. Check out my recap post for more details about the sessions I visited. Travel 🔗 I had a surprisingly uneventful airport experience. Got there bright and early. Left…