There are now over 100 free episodes but don’t panic they are short, sharp and to the point and Ryan does a fantastic job of explaining things and presenting some really useful examples. The early ones cover Rails prior to 2.0 but are all still valid and most can be viewed in isolation.

I gained a lot of understanding by just being able to look over a proper Rails developer’s shoulder and within the first few episodes had a few ‘ah, i see!’ moments. Ryan is part of the PeepCode network which provides quality screencasts for Rails developers so you know your in good hands!

You can subscribe to Railscasts through itunes as it is available in podcast format or by visiting the site you can download the casts separately.

A few things that you may find useful are:

Using a model without a database table

Put this code in your model definition at the top
var $useTable = false;
or
var $useTable = 'some_different_table_name';

Creating a controller that references other models

Put this at the top of your controller definition
var $uses = array('Sheep,'Farmer');

Static pages without using a controller and actions

If you just want some quick static html pages put some .thtml files in your /views/pages directory.

These are immediately available in your browser at
http://www.your-site.co.uk/pages/staticpagename

Adjusting the page title when using $title_for_layout

Add this to the static view
$this->pageTitle = 'Title of your page.'

Setting variables to use from your static pages

Put this at the top of your view and you can use it to set a body class or something in your default layout depending on what static page is rendered.
$this->_viewVars['variable_name'] = ‘Data’;
Reference it with $variable_name

Thats it.

There is always one thing that continually bugs us and that is what an image looks like in Photoshop (lovely, vibrant and rich) and what it looks like when its saved for the web (ugly, dull and plain) which induces a bit of head scratching.

This problem is one that I always forget the solution to. I ask myself “how did I do it last time?” and “why did I not bloody note it down somewhere?” I debate with my boss as to the cause of the problem which usually revolves around wether to ditch or not to ditch embedded colour profiles, sort our monitor colour calibration and what browsers do what to images. But, I never really think I know what the hell is going on, I kind of muddle through.

My usual workflow after trial and error in Photoshop is:

1. Import the image and ditch the embedded colour profile
2. Do what needs doing
3. Save for Web and Devices and ‘Convert to sRGB’ in the little overflow menu next to the ‘Optimized’ tick box.
4. Put it on the internet and wait for either the complaints to roll in that the image looks crap or not.

That workflow recently hasn’t yielded any complaints which leads me to believe it maybe okay. I wasn’t sure.

I recently wanted to know what other people where doing. I looked on Google and found that Viget.com have an article way better than this one explaining the whole thing. The reassuring thing for me is they do basically what I was doing except they explicitly mention working in Monitor RGB (Proof Setup > Monitor RGB). Luckily I was.

Read ‘The mysterious save for web colour shift’ article to get the full story and the theory behind it.

A word of warning. This issue is highly contentious and the comments of the Viget article highlight this. It seems like you can’t totally nail it but this method is one of the simpler solutions that yields some more predictable results without getting into setting profiles and calibrating your monitor.

This kind of sums up what we have to deal with:

What we’re doing here won’t make your colors look the same on all monitors or machines. Macs will display lighter (by default, at least), and monitors themselves will experience crazy color shifts based on age and settings. Reassure yourself: This is not your fault. The key is to calibrate your monitor as close to the center as possible … and be prepared to gently explain to clients why your green looks like aqua on their friend’s 1992 Trinitron.

Gotta love the web.

The ad is filmed from your point of you making your way from a pub side spotted by Arsene Wenger to playing for the Gunners and getting done by the likes of Christiano Ronaldo and Ibrahimovic to finally getting to represent your country. Basically your development from zero to hero which is down to hard work and of course the shiny new Nike boots you are going to buy.

I loved watching this ad as the change in perspective is just different to what Nike have done before and gives a welcome break from all the dross out there.

I urge you to watch the better quality full version at nike.com.

Or if by the time you read this it is gone here is the YouTube version

Genius.