Presentations

These are (most of) the talks that I've given at various venues (or that I'm working on).

I try to make all my presentation materials available on this page, but that's not always possible. Also note that I tend to provide additional material verbally that's not included in the text of the presentations. So you should always attend live when I'm presenting! ;) My presenter notes also contain additional information; hit p to see them.

Presentations are listed in chronological order, with the most recent listed first.

2021

• 2021-06-11: Intro to TDD

2019

• 2019-06-11: How To Conference (STL Ruby)
  • Video coming soon
• 2019-05-01: Active Record and the Repository Pattern (RailsConf)
  • Video
• 2019-03-18: Einstein's Photoelectric Effect (Papers We Love St. Louis)
• 2019-01-26: Passion + Giving (St. Louis DevFest)
  • Video coming soon

2018

• 2018-10-08: Ruby Reimagined (STL Ruby)
• 2018-07-11: HTTP Exploration (STL Full Stack)
• 2018-04-17: Booleans Are Easy - True or False? (RailsConf)
  • Video
  • Quote from an attendee: "Craig Buchek’s ‘Booleans are Easy — True or False?’ is exactly the type of talk I look for and enjoy at conferences. I learned something that I can use and that will hopefully improve me as a developer."

2017

• 2017-09-18: Why Calculating Is Better Than Scheming (Papers We Love St. Louis)
• 2017-04-20: Smaller! (refactoring) (Agile Alliance Technical Conference)
  • PDF
• 2017-03-13: Refactoring Ruby (STL Ruby)

2016

• 2016-11-10: Ruby Hooks (RubyConf)
  • Video
• 2016-08-18: Effective Agile (STLLUG)

2015

• 2015-11-16: Too Late to Estimate (lightning talk) (RubyConf)
  • Video
• 2015-11-15: Ruby Preserves (Micro ORM following Data Mapper pattern) (RubyConf)
  • Video
• 2015-10-12: Ruby Preserves (STL Ruby)
• 2015-09-16: Alternatives to ActiveRecord (WindyCityRails alternate; never presented)
• 2015-08-22: Immutable Infrastructure (Madison+ Ruby)
  • Video
• 2015-08-12: Immutable Infrastructure (SLUUG)
• 2015-08-10: Immutable Infrastructure (STL Ruby)
• 2015-05-11: Retrospectives (Mercy Agile Users Group)
• 2015-04-23: HTTP Exploration (workshop) (RailsConf)
  • video (introductory material)
• 2015-03-19: How the Web Works - Part 2 (STLLUG)
• 2015-03-11: How the Web Works - Part 1 (SLUUG)

2014

• 2014-11-17: Ruby Idioms You're Not Using Yet (RubyConf)
  • Source
• 2014-11-10: Ruby Idioms You're Not Using Yet (STL Ruby)
• 2014-11-06: Ruby Idioms You're Not Using Yet (Lambda Lounge)
• 2014-03-12: Curl and Wget (tutorial/demo) (SLUUG)
• 2014-03-10: The Crystal Programming Language (STL Ruby)
  • Video
  • Source
• 2014-02-10: Ruby ORMs (STL Ruby)

2013

• 2013-07-18: PostgreSQL (STLLUG)
• 2013-01-17: How to Give a Presentation (STLLUG)
  • Source

2012

• 2012-11-15: New Web Technologies (demo) (STLLUG)
• 2012-11-14: HTML 5 (SLUUG)
• 2012-06-21: Testing Web Apps with Selenium, Capybara, and Cucumber

2011

• 2011-08-08: Writing Better Rails (STL Ruby)
  • Audio coming soon
• 2011-07-21: APT Packaging Tool (STLLUG)
• 2011-03-09: StackOverflow and ServerFault Q&A Sites (demo) (SLUUG)

2010

• 2010-12-16: HAML/SASS/CoffeeScript (STLLUG)
• 2010-10-21: Postfix (STLLUG)
• 2010-08-11: Features of GNU grep (demo) (SLUUG)
  • --count, --context, -A, -B, -e, --color, etc.
• 2010-02-10: Creating a Web Site From Scratch (demo) (SLUUG)
  • Domain registration, DNS hosting, virtual hosting, OS, Apache, MySQL, WordPress

2009

• 2009-08-20: Git (STLLUG)
• 2009-06-18: Open Source Licensing: What You Need to Know (STLLUG)
• 2009-05-09: Open Source in an Economic Downturn (as presented) (Free Software Expo)
  • Working Version
• 2009-04-08: WordPress (demo) (SLUUG)
• 2009-02-19: Mozilla-based Apps: Miro, Songbird, Komodo (demo) (STLLUG)
• 2009-01-15: Everything You (N)Ever Wanted to Know About Digital TV (STLLUG)

2008

• 2008-12-18: Everything You (N)Ever Wanted to Know About Hard Drives (STLLUG)
• 2008-02-11: jQuery (STLRUBY)

2007

• 2007-12-20: PHP Best Practices (STLLUG)
  • Working Version
• 2007-07-19: Everything You (N)Ever Wanted to Know About HDTV (STLLUG) (slide show, as originally presented)
  • Updated Version (corrections, more links, some additional info)
  • Audio - WAV, MP3
  • Transcript (coming soon)

• 2007-03-15: Survey of GUI Email Clients (demo) (STLLUG)

2006

• 2006-12-21: Democracy Player (demo) (STLLUG)
• 2006-10-19: Troubleshooting Linux Problems (demo) (STLLUG)
  • Follow-up email with some details about what was demoed (username: discuss, password: freely)
• 2006-06-14: Everything You (N)Ever Wanted to Know About Hard Drives (SLUUG)
  • Notes
  • Changes
• 2006-02-16: Financial Apps for Linux (STLLUG)

2005

• 2005-11-17: Modern Web Development, Part 2: AJAX, RIA, and Web 2.0 (STLLUG)
• 2005-10-20: Modern Web Development: XHTML, CSS, and AJAX (STLLUG)
• 2005-02-17: An Introduction to XML (STLLUG)

2004

• 2004-10-13: Intro to Wikis (SLUUG)
• 2004-09-16: Mozilla Extensions (STLLUG)
• 2004-07-14: SpamAssassin (SLUUG)
• 2004-05-12: File Permissions: A Tutorial (SLUUG)
• 2004-03-18: Scripting GUI Applications In Linux (STLLUG)

2003

• 2003-07-17: Everything You (N)Ever Wanted to Know About Hard Drives (STLLUG)
• 2003-04-23: What's So Great About Open Source? (Monsanto)
• 2003-02-12: Why Linux Sucks (SLUUG)

2002

• 2002-10-17: GUI Design for Non-Programmers (STLLUG)
• 2002-08-15: Sharp Zaurus: Linux Handheld (STLLUG)
  • Original KPresenter format

2001

• 2001-12-20: Distro Fever: Red Hat (STLLUG)
  • Original PowerPoint format
• 2001-05-24: XML: Extending the Possibilities (ITEC)
  • Original KPresenter format
• 2001-05-23: Rethinking the Process: When to Consider Open Source (ITEC)
  • Original KPresenter format
• 2001-05-23: Turning on the LAMP (ITEC)
  • Original KPresenter format
• 2001-04-11: UNIX Tricks and Tips (SLUUG)
• 2001-03-15: New Features of the Linux 2.4 Kernel (STLLUG)
  • Original KPresenter format

2000

• 2000-07-20: Compiling a Linux Kernel (STLLUG)