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“Scratch your own itch” is a common theme for developers. The idea being … if you have a problem or something you need, fix it, or build it yourself. This certainly was true for a recent Ruby gem project.
/// backstory
I moved to NYC near the hight of the summer. The heat, mixed with an acrid smell of garbage, didn’t bother me … I’m accustomed to oppressively hot summers and the resulting odd smells, having lived in Florida my whole life. No … what weighed on me was the idea of summer, sans the beach.
Why might I be in NYC?
Oh, glad you asked … I’m transitioning to a career in software development. NYC offered phenomenal networking opportunities, and Flatiron School provided a conduit to facilitate my professional pursuits. Finance (i.e. Wall St) might be what comes to mind when people think NYC … but this is changing quickly. In the early 2000s, start-ups clustered in the Flatiron district of Manhattan, an area known as Silicon Alley.
“Silicon Valley will no longer be the technology innovation center of the world in four years, according to the results of a survey by analyst firm KPMG. Some 60 percent of the 740 technology-industry leaders queried in the survey believe that it is likely or very likely that Silicon Valley will cede that role to New York City, with other cities rapidly catching up.” *
/// Why this is important
Mainly, it’s exciting to see the diffuse of tech jobs on the East Coast … with the majority of those jobs concentrating in NYC. New York holds a special place in my heart and truly is the greatest city in the world. With the city reinventing itself and adapting to the tech economy (granted, not without hiccups … sorry Amazon!), there’s no doubt NYC will continue to be the beacon of innovation and influence around the world.
“The truth is, we caught a wave” Seth Pinsky, former president of the NYC Economic Development Corporation from 2008.**
I digress …
/// what does surf_rockaway do ..?
gem install surf_rockaway
surf_rockaway is a ruby CLI gem. The primary functionality calls on ‘nokogiri’ and ‘openURI’ to scrape surf conditions from https://magicseaweed.com. Running $ ./bin/surf-rockaway starts the application. Users have the option to display current surf conditions or a 3-Day forecast @ Rockaway Beach, Queens, NY.
/// why build the gem?
My adoration for NYC aside, there is a wave of developers and tech workers moving to the city … many of which are coming from coastal areas like myself. I’m sure they will soon discover Rockaway Beach in Queens, as I did. Without-a-doubt the best escape from the city … and the waves are decent.
Kyle Tip: Catch a water ferry from the Wall St station. In exchange for $2.75, you get 45 minutes of fresh air and sunshine … whilst taking in the best views of Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Statue of Liberty.
Armed with the knowledge that the ocean was a short ferry ride away … I soon found myself checking surf conditions at Rockaway … frequently. Hoping to find decent waves and an excuse to step away from the computer. As with most developers, a good amount of my time is spent in the terminal. This naturally leads to … 💡 → display the surf report in the terminal?
No gem pulled the data set I wanted, so I decided to build one. Cutting the jumps between browser/terminal and providing a tool for fellow NYC developers who surf.️ The result is surf_rockaway.
