I'm back in Chicago. RailsConf 2007 was a good conference. I'll blog more about my experience later this week. One of the highlights was a dinner on Saturday night for twelve of us Softies at Old Town Pizza. Like an idiot I forgot to take a picture. It was a great chance to discuss Microsoft, the DLR, Rails, Macs, and Ruby. Blogs and email and forums are great, but there's nothing better than sitting around the same table talking about these issues together.

One of the topics that came up was book publishing. Brian Hogan has just published an O'Reilly "shortcut" book, Rails on Windows; Mike Gunderloy has been around the publishing block more than a time or two; and Geoffrey Grosenbach is doing some exciting things with his new PeepCode Press venture. I hadn't had a chance to talk with Geoffrey in person since our appearance on the Ruby on Rails podcast during RailsConf 2006. It was great to hear all these guys talk about their experiences.

I was also delighted to be able to talk with Hirano Koichi of NRI, who came to our Softies class back in January. We threw around some ideas for how we might collaborate on a Japanses version of our blog (not just a translation), and I'm excited to think about the possibilites. And NRI graciously sponsored our dinner! Thanks Koichi!

Thanks again to Brian, Mike, Geoffrey, Koichi, and everyone else who came. I hope we can do it again one day.