Entry #3: Happy 22nd Birthday, Planet Argon!

?? Message from the Captain

I bought the planetargon.com domain in August 2002.

The plan was to start a side business to make some extra money on the weekends. I was extremely excited to be working with open-source programming languages and tools. Unfortunately, my day job wasn't keen on that. Yet, I sensed a need in the local small business market to help build robust web applications with lower-cost tools. ??

Here we are, 22 years later. We're no longer debating whether or not to use open source. The discussion now is about?which open-source tool to use for our clients' projects.

With that, I want to thank all our clients—past and present—and our incredible team members who have helped us along the way.

Here's to another trip around the sun! ??

-Robby

P.S. I'll speak at Rails World in Toronto, Canada, next month. Hope to see you there!

?? Oh My! It's Oh My Zsh's Birthday, too!

Grab another cupcake, we're still celebrating. Oh My Zsh celebrated its 15th birthday on August 28- another big milestone for its creator, Robby Russell. You can even grab some swag from The Oh My Zsh Shop at 15% off with the code OMZTURNS15! For fun, here's a pic of?Robby and fellow Oh My Zsh maintainers?Marc Cornellà?and?Carlo Sala Gancho?at The Merge, Berlin earlier this year.

?? Logbook Entries: Blog Highlights

Our Engineering Manager, Ben Parisot, was recently a guest on the groCTO Podcast, where he and Kovid Batra chat about how productivity metrics like DORA and SPACE frameworks help our team with goal alignment, productivity, visibility, and team morale.

?? Exploration Report: Tips, Gems, and Articles for Developers

?? Learn how to use custom metrics in AppSignal for deep insights into our Ruby app's performance.

?? Run your GitHub Actions locally.

?? Rails 7.2 is approaching its final release. Here's the first release candidate of Rails 7.2.0.

?? Patterns for the effective modernization of legacy software systems.

?? A Rails Engine to Manage Rake Tasks.

?? Launching our Digital Marketing Intern off into the Ethers!

Just kidding- but she is traveling to London to study this semester. If you enjoyed our social media posts the last couple of months, we have Sydni Johnson to thank! She shares her internship experience in her blog post, New Kid on the Block: A Digital Marketing Internship Experience. As she concludes her internship with us, we wish her all the best in her next adventures!

?? Signals from the Ethers: Podcast Highlights

Featured appearance: Earlier, we mentioned a blog post about Ben Parisot's interview on measuring developer productivity. You can listen to the entire podcast episode here!

Popular Episode on Maintainable Software Podcast

Robby Russell sat down with Obie Fernandez to chat about integrating AI into modern software development. Obie shares his unique perspective on leveraging AI to enhance the maintainability and functionality of software applications, particularly in the Ruby on Rails ecosystem. His approach to AI-driven account management also offers a glimpse into the future of business automation.

?? Creative Chronicles

You've seen Michael Kurt rocking his role as project manager, but he also has a knack for photography. He just released his first photography zine, Foliage, a thoughtful perspective of alleyways and unpaved roads in southeast neighborhoods of Portland, Oregon. Check it out at I See Bad Spirits.