Once a Copy Editor, Always a Copy Editor
Lori Fradkin used to copyedit for New York magazine. As a former full-time copy editor myself, I think her essay, “What It’s Really Like To Be A Copy Editor,” captures the trials of the job and the personality required to do it.
Copy editors will often say the role is invisible and thankless. Like most jobs, it defines who you are all of the time. But unlike, say, being a lawyer or a teacher, it tends to inspire uncomfortable and sometimes dorky conversations with strangers.
Fradkin writes:
No one will look at an edited article and think, I am certain that, once upon a time, there was a double quote where there should have been a single, and a wise person fixed the issue for my benefit. But if you let a “their” slip through in the place of a “there,” you are a complete moron. And if you are working online, commenters will let you know so. Then your boss will let you know that the commenters are saying so in case you didn’t see it yourself. Also, people will want to talk to you—outside of work—about grammar. Aside from the guy who called me “awkward, in a cute way,” I think the worst line I’ve heard was from the dude who asked my thoughts on the serial comma.
Nevertheless, those of us attracted to the job and who stay in it for a while are special. In a good way. After all, as I once wrote in my farewell note to my colleagues at the L.A. Times, I saw the job as “readers’ advocate and writer’s champion.” In other words whether you create the story or see the finished product, we’ve got your back.
Read Lori Fradkin’s full essay at The Awl.
Thought for the Day
“Enough already with this hyperactive behavior, this techno-tyranny and nonstop freneticism. We need to slow down and take a deep breath.”
—Bob Herbert
From his New York Times op-ed, “Tweet Less, Kiss More“
The Ups and Downs of Social Networks
Who’s got the biggest social network per country? The BBC charted Nielsen’s figures from June 2010 and from a year ago. Facebook had the largest audience by far in both months, while MySpace has dropped quite a bit.
What’s more interesting is the change in the amount of time people are spending on Facebook every month. I’d really like to know the demographics of the surveyed population. Anyone have info?
(via BBC News)
Flipboard Kind of Makes Me Want an iPad
…but the customer reviews in the iTunes store make me think: “Not quite ready for prime time.”
If you’ve downloaded Flipboard already, what’s your experience been? Is the app working for you?
To learn more about Flipboard’s promise, visit the website.
How to Get Started With Github and Release a Gem Using Jeweler
These are quick notes I’m sharing with the NYC Ruby Women’s group, which I organize. One of my developer friends, Peter Harkins, recommended I share them with the world at large, so here they are.
More about Ruby and the NYC Ruby Women’s group in a bit.
SOME HELPFUL LINKS
- rubygems.org – The official Ruby Gem repository
- ruby-toolbox.com/ – Shows the most popular Ruby gems (how many people who’ve looked at it, how many have downloaded it, how many have forked it)
- railsplugins.org/ – Compatibility tracking of plugins and gems (what works with various version of Ruby and Rails 3)
SOME HELPFUL RUBY COMMANDS
gem update --system– updates all gems on in your systemgem environment gemdir– displays the system directory for gemsgem help– basic help directorygem env– shows the Ruby gem environmentgem list– finds gems. You can include letters afterward as wildcards.gem cleanup– deletes old gem versions. Use with caution — you don’t want to unwittingly break anything that depends on an older gemrake -T– Rake helpfile
So let’s get started. These instructions assume you’re running Mac OS with Ruby version 1.8.7 installed. These tips should also work for Ruby 1.8.6, but if they don’t, leave a comment — and a fix if you find one.
INSTALL THESE GEMS (or check if you have them already)
(You may need/want to add “sudo” [no quotes] in front of each of these commands to install)
gem install rubygems-update– Read Me at: http://github.com/thoughtbot/shoulda
gem install thoughtbot-shoulda
gem install rspec-rails
gem install jeweler- Read Me at: http://github.com/technicalpickles/jeweler
ESTABLISH VERSION CONTROL
Download Git from the official repository.
CONFIGURE YOUR LOCAL SYSTEM TO TALK TO GITHUB (once you’ve established an account at github.com)
git config --global user.name "Real Name"
git config --global user.email "youremail@foo.com"
git config --global github.user username
SET UP YOUR PUBLIC KEY
(See the help pages for Mac, Windows, or Linux if you run into trouble or need additional details.)
Check if you have a key
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
If you do have a key:
$ ls
config id_rsa id_rsa.pub known_hosts
$ mkdir key_backup
$ cp id_rsa* key_backup
$ rm id_rsa*
If you don’t have a key, then create one:
ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "youremail@foo.com"
CREATE A GEM ON YOUR LOCAL SYSTEM USING JEWELER (I’m calling my test gem “dabeers”.)
jeweler dabeers --rspec --rdoc --create-repo
If you get a FileUtils error (this may happen if you’re running Ruby 1.8.6), try:
mate /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/jeweler-1.4.0/
require 'FileUtils' in generator.rb (if that's the error)
jeweler dabeers --rspec --rdoc --create-repo
VERSION YOUR GEM
rake version:write
Since it’s our first rake, the version is set to 0.0.0. If you wanted something different for your initial version, write: rake version BUILD=alpha1 [or change "alpha1" a word or number without quotes]
UPDATE VERSIONS AS YOU UPDATE YOUR GEM
You’ve got three choices. They should be self-explanatory, but if they aren’t ask a question in comments.
rake version:bump:major
rake version:bump:minor
rake version:bump:patch
COMMIT TO GITHUB
rake github:release
COMMIT TO GEMCUTTER (a.k.a. committing to the official Ruby repository at rubygems.org/)
rake gemcutter:release
Thanks to the NYC Ruby Meetup for the intro to Jeweler and Gemcutter and Peter Harkins for QA of these notes.
And finally, if you’re a woman in New York developing in Ruby or interested in developing in Ruby, join a terrific group of us on the NYC Ruby Women mailing list. All levels of development experience are welcome.
