On this episode Charles talks to Ruby Rouges panelist Dave Kimura, the creator of Drifting Ruby, the popular Ruby on Rails Screencast and Blog. Find out more about how Dave got interested in programming and first introduced to the world of Ruby. Dave also talks about how and when he started Drifting Ruby.

Dave discusses living in Germany during middle school in the 90s. During this time, he owned a simple Mac LC II. He found a floppy disc that contained a program called Chipmunk Basic, which was his very first exposure into the world of programming. His interest with programming was further sparked by computers at school. These computers were loaded with three different programs: Fortran, Pascal, and C compiler. All of these peaked his interest in programming further.  


Dave tells Charles that anything that pre-dates the Internet feels like a different world; one in which learning was more complicated. He talks about how technology has come a long way in the past 20 years. He discusses the creativity that people have displayed and how amazed he is by the progression of different applications.

Dave discusses his work as a Systems Administrator at an engineering firm for the past 6 years after college. He talks about being at his current job at Sage Software for almost 8 years and that he does not believe in job hopping, although many do today. He states that he has no valid reasoning that he went with Ruby over Python or another program. He says that he did not like PHP or asp.net. Instead he wanted something new. Dave wanted to do things the way he wanted to do, which can’t be done in Python. A big part of his decision was made when he looked at Matz’s twitter. Matz seemed happy which led Dave to pick Ruby, which he thinks is mainly a good “dumb luck” decision.

Dave says that the coolest thing he’s done is with a Raspberry Pi his brother gifted him in 2013–2014 for Christmas. He built a CNC machine and a Ruby Gem called a Router out of it. He explains that he wrote an interpreter to read and control the machine. He adds that he has built a bunch of hardware as well.

Dave says that his inspiration is Ryan Bates, who created RailsCast and went off the grid in 2013. He strives to fill in the high bar that Ryan left by producing quality material.

Dave started Drifting Ruby in 2015, which is a couple years after RailsCast. He explains that he was not entirely committed to the program at first. He explains that he has revamped the audio setup two or three times.

Dave is currently focused on releasing good content. He wants to give back to the Ruby community and feels good that people are able to use the content he produces. Eventually he states that it will go to a subscription base, but does not have a definite date as to when. He is very dedicated to his work, as he spends 10 to 15 hours of his weekend working on episodes.

Dave feels like his commitment to Ruby Rogues has been consistent but is not a hassle. He doesn’t look at it as something he wants to get paid for because he enjoys the time he dedicates weekly. He doesn’t feel like he’s had anything big other than Drifting Ruby.

Dave is currently working on a money manager that he uses with his wife. He built this Ruby on Rails application in 2011–2012 off of the premise he learned at a Dave Ramsey conference. He states that he recently rewrote it and cleaned up so that it uses the latest Rails 5.1.1. The application helps budget money for bills, groceries, spending money, etc. using a digital envelope system. He states that anyone is able to use the program, and it has made a difference in his life.

Harbor Freight

Ketogenic diet Spaghetti Squash

Dave’s Twitter