Hello, I am James Adam.

About me

I try to solve problems using simple solutions, often with software.

I am building Jelly, the team email software I’ve wanted to exist for almost 15 years.

I’m also exploring some new ways of building software, amidst all of the changes in software development these days.

I write and blog at interblah.net.

Contact

• @james@lazyatom.social and @james@ruby.social on Mastodon
• @lazyatom on Twitter X, if you are still active on that hell-site
• You can send me a message!
• lazyatom on most other things.

Projects

• Right now
  • Jelly, a shared inbox; the best way for a team to jam on email.
  • Eleven, a better messenger for teams and groups; the tip of the CARLOS spear.
• Social
  • Exciting, the home of a few projects and products that I spun out of:
  • Go Free Range, the software company I co-founded to explore better ways of working.
  • Ruby Manor, an attempt to steer conferences away from bloat and cargo-culting.
• Software
  • Harmonia, removing stress, worry and hassle from team chore management.
  • Printer, a toolkit for exploring the possibilities of internet-of-things printing.
  • Vanilla.rb, the ‘bliki’ content system that runs interblah.net.
  • Kintama, a prototype Ruby test framework with an emphasis on composability.
  • Gem This, a very simple gem-creating tool that gets out of your way ASAP.
  • Engines, the original Rails Engines implementation.
  • Lots more on GitHub…

Conferences & Presentations

I co-organise Ruby Manor, and also help run LRUG.

I’ve also spoken at a few Ruby and Rails conferences:

• RailsConf 2018 — Here's to the crazy ones slides video transcript
• RubyConf 2015 — Why is nobody using Refinements? slides video transcript
• Austin on Rails — Deploying Rails with Docker slides
• IoT London — An open-source distributed platform for IoT printers slides
• LRUG February 2011 Lightning Talks — An exploration of why nobody needs to write any more test frameworks video
• Ruby Manor 2: Manor Harder — Gem That slides video
• RailsConf 2009 — The Even Darker Art of Rails Engines slides
• Future of Web Apps 2008 — Best practice techniques for Rails developers
• @media 2008 — Rails + Django
• Ruby Fools — The Dark Art of Developing Plugins slides
• RailsConf 2007 — The Dark Art of Developing Plugins
• QCon London 2007 — Extending Rails with Plugins slides
• AjaxWorld 2006 — Plugging into Rails
• Canada on Rails — Engines: Team Development with Rails slides

Background

I am from Scotland, lived and worked London for eight years, then moved to Austin, Texas for a little bit, and am now back in London.

I’ve been using Ruby since 2002, which is a relatively long time. I love using Ruby but I try and keep my eyes open for whatever else might come along in the future.

I am very interested in exploring the emergent behaviour of simple systems. My PhD thesis explored this within the context of simulated multi-agent systems, but projects like Good Enough, Go Free Range and Ruby Manor can also be interpreted as explorations of the simplest systems that may yield valuable behaviour and structure.