ASP.NET vs. Ruby on Rails

I don't really know ruby as well as I'd like to, but the parts I know I really love. Actually, if I had the time, I'd be drooling over it on a daily basis. One of the biggest things that make me drool are under the "Get Excited" section of the Ruby on Rails site.

Tonight, while installing all my standard development software, I came across a video showing someone develop a to-do list based on ASP.NET and AJAX. It was cool and all, but after about 10 minutes, I realized, this video is similar to a 15 minute video showing the Ruby implementation of a weblog website. I hoped the ASP.NET version would be as cool, but after about 20minutes, I was left a bit bored. The Ruby version seemed quicker, more fun, and more.... well, more.

See for yourself:

Creating a weblog in 15 minutes

Scott's To-do list

Now, I'll probably end up staying in .NET world, for work reasons. I just find it odd that Ruby's example seemed so much more exciting.

Google SketchUp

Most of my work revolves around Autodesk drafting products and automating these tools for our clients. While that is fun and exciting it is always neat to see Google step into different industries. Last year they started up with Google Docs & Spreadsheets and now they are going into 3D design. SketchUp 6 is now out and it is cool! All sorts of fun things to do that can be exported to Google Earth, or even imported from AutoCAD. There is even a 3D warehouse where you can download different models to play with.

To make it even more cool, since SketchUp 4, there is an API. While most of the work I do is in the Windows world and uses .NET for work, I have always been quite interested in Ruby. SketchUp's API is all in Ruby! How cool is that?

Now I just need to think of some cool little add in that will connect SketchUp to the AutoCAD world so I can learn more about Ruby!