This WednesdayTuesday, 23th of May 2006, is the second [meeting of SSRUG](http://www.rails.se/rails/show/SSRUG+Meeting+2). A _Clubb_ for you to join, and meet with other Ruby enthusiasts in the ‘hood.
Time: 1900 hours.
Place: see the above wiki link.
Lennart (of _Lund Agile Languages User Group_ fame) will be there, and we’ll try and get as many heads as possible in there.
OK, then, Tuesday, in Lund (or Copenhagen, if enough people decide to show up for us to be the Majority).
**Dogs in the Vineyard**, the Early-West Mormon gunslinger role-playing game has not yet larp-ified, to my meagre knowledge.
The picture here, snipped from Flickr, is an excerpt from something completely different. For which the player’s outfit might be outright wrong.
But: for a Mormon Judgment game, this would be just the character. Just right. Especially the ears. And the suspicion.
Us Euros have been envious of the US/Canada GoogleMaps situation for quite a while. The option “satellite image” has been all we had for a while, and the other choices “map” and “hybrid overlay” have been missing for our part of the globe. [Peter Rukavina](http://ruk.ca/)’s tales of integrating GoogleMaps with existing data have been riveting, if a bit frustrating reading, since the European GoogleMaps still lacks city mapping capabilities (does it? I’m unsure – please tell me if I’m wrong). On the outside looking in, in Smokey Robinson’s immortal words.
In Denmark, the name [Peter Brodersen](http://pe.ter.dk/) is synonymous with deep MySQL-fu (i.e. he’s a database demi-god) and sharp web programming. Peter’s been making web toys for as long as anyone cares to remember. They include the Danish roleplaying game scenario database (“IMDB for scenarios”) [Alexandria.dk](http://www.alexandria.dk/) and his “very-beta” [PDF Workshop](http://pdf.ter.dk/). “See them all at [ter.dk](http://ter.dk/), and see if you find anything exciting,” Peter says over IM.
His latest addition to his ever-growing pool of web toys is perhaps the most useful: [findvej.dk](http://www.findvej.dk). “Find-the-way” lets you enter a placename in Denmark, and you get a full-screen map of the place, with the street names on it.
The app caused quite a stir. [Reports](http://borsen.dk/650.88247) from [many places](http://www.computerworld.dk/art/33749?a=rss&i=0) on Peter Brodersen’s mashup of GoogleMaps + street data from Danish Mapping Authorities. Hyperbole is rife in these journalistic texts, but it’s nice to see reports of mashups in “more mainstream media”, and some credit where it’s due.
Peter’s work is for hire, and you can get in touch with his one-man outfit [Korruption](http://www.korruption.dk/).
Anders Højsted, Danish role-player and game researcher, needs a hand.
A few good gamers are needed, to test some game-related things for his final paper. If you know someone who fits these requirements, or fit them yourself, don’t hesitate to phone Anders: 50 53 15 38 or email andersh@itu.dk.
> Testere søges!
> Vi er i testfasen af vores speciale som omhandler analoge metoder til at teste computerspilskoncepter.
> Vi har brug frivillige testere som kan være med til at afprøve testene. Dette er IKKE en digital spiltest, men indebærer vurderinger af æstetik og historie i et computerspilkoncept. Testene finder sted på IT-Universitetet i København torsdag-søndag mellem 10-21. Du skal være computerspiller, men må ikke have spillet Surreal Games’™ spil “The Suffering”. Hver testen tager cirka 2 timer; du må gerne MEGET melde dig til mere end en.
> Hvis du er interesseret i at opleve hvordan man tester digitale computerspilkoncepter med analoge metoder, så skriv til
andersh@itu.dk eller ring på 50 53 15 38.
> Mvh., Anders
See, he really needs you. Go ahead, call.
Daen notes that we’re getting new buses, perhaps.
I’d like to see how they’re different from the bus stock we now ride in. But hey, upgrades are cool.
Coders Matt Webb and Ben Cerveny are digital age heroes, making a highly interesting thing with playsh, **the playful shell**.
Matt [talks about it in his blog](http://interconnected.org/home/2006/03/15/playsh).
Tech keywords: the Python programming language, the Twisted framework, fragments of Zope framework, parts of MOO game software LamdaMOO, SSH as lifestyle.
Culture keywords: Marshall Berman’s “All that is solid melts into air”, Infocom’s text adventures, social patterns.
I am psyched, stoked, enthusiastic. Emailed mr Webb asking for a mailing list or the like. This project cries out “Dance with me! I’m available!”
Maybe something for upcoming [Fastaval](http://www.fastaval.dk).
My neighbour Sean Treadway today posted a sad post – he is getting kicked out of the country:
> So that’s all folks Denmark has evaluated that my contribution to the
country through my freelance work is not of significant value.
This is patently horrible. On so many levels. Sean’s one of the really great minds I have met here in Denmark. He’s contributed greatly to the local and global Open Source community, and to the local freelancer environment.
If not even this guy can start a business in Denmark, then who can? Oh, right, me: and the only thing I have got going for me is that I’m an EU citizen.
These are the ill effects of an immigration policy dictated by backwater opportunists of the bleakest kind. This is what the government’s association with Dansk Folkeparti means in practice.
It’s good to know that the Berlin-based effort [Plazes](http://www.plazes.com) will have one razor-sharp mind more to refine their geo-tagging application. I have an informed hunch that Sean will like Berlin, but that’s cold comfort when I have to keep living in a country run like this.
[Mygdal](http://www.bootstrapping.net/living/001406.html) says it:
> I’ll never again in my lifetime spend a single cent buying the Jyllands-Posten newspaper.
**+1**.
[Albert](http://albert.delamednoll.se/), of the South Swedish Rails community, noted he’d be travelling to talk Ruby on Rails, and that secretly he [wished for a community nearby](http://albert.delamednoll.se/articles/2006/01/11/travelling-in-the-name-of-rails).
Why the heck not.
This is an open invite for you, my buddies, who are using Ruby on Rails (for anything) to come have a sit-down with other Rails users.
Albert suggests Copenhagen, Malmö or Lund as locations for the meetup. What’s best for you?
(I could muster two or three friends, as well.)
FYI, there’s a [wiki page on Ruby User Groups](http://rubygarden.org/ruby?RubyUserGroups), as well, at [RubyGarden](http://rubygarden.org/). The [Danish Group](http://rubygarden.org/ruby?DanishGroup) has not seen a lot of activity. Seems like it needs someone with initiative. That might be us, dear reader.
**Update**: [Danish Group](http://rubygarden.org/ruby?DanishGroup) page now updated with a pointer here.
Swedes might also be interested in signing up for [the Rails.se mailing list](http://lists.rails.se/mailman/listinfo/rails).
(I’m setting comments here to unmoderated, for faster feedback.)
[Rubyholic](http://www.rubyholic.com/) is a groups locator for Ruby folks, as well.
