Hot Cell: Securing Active Storage in the age of AI
Rails World 2026 · 2026-09-23
Driven by Rails CVE-2026-66066, Hot Cell moves image processing into a secure container sandbox. Explains the vulnerability class and how to configure and deploy Hot Cell.
View slides →Recordables: Rails Multi-Tenancy
Recordables (37signals) · 2026-02-13
A conversation about multi-tenant database architecture in Rails, covering the journey of implementing separate SQLite databases for Fizzy customers, and the open-sourced Active Record Tenanted gem that simplifies multi-tenancy implementation.
Multi-Tenant Rails: Everybody Gets a Database!
Rails World 2025 · 2025-09-04
As Rails's SQLite support has improved, it's finally possible to have truly multi-tenant Rails applications - isolated data for each account! - without sacrificing performance or ease of use.
View slides →Rails::HTML5: the strange and remarkable three-year journey
Rails World 2023 · 2023-10-06
An accessible deep dive into the evolution of Rails to include HTML5-compliant sanitization, which provides better security for Rails applications.
View slides →Put that test down! You don't know where it's been.
RubyConf 2021 · 2021-11-10
One afternoon in early 2021, a 14-year-old test in Rails started failing. Nobody understood why. This 12 minute video will amuse and/or annoy you with a mystery that spans decades and tech stacks.
View slides →Building Native Extensions (Part 2)
RubyConf 2021 · 2021-11-10
Part two, a bit broader look at C extensions in Ruby, including an explanation of why Nokogiri chose to start precompiling native packages.
View slides →Building Native Extensions (Part 1)
Ruby Kaigi 2021 · 2021-09-10
A deep look at the techniques and toolchain used to ship native (precompiled) versions of Nokogiri and other rubygems with C extensions.
View slides →Nokogiri: History, Present, and Future
GoGaRuCo 2013 · 2013-09-20
The history of a successful OSS project, along with humorous stories and lessons learned. This talk, given multiple times, is presented here in its final version.
View slides →From Maintenance to Rails Core: Security, Sandboxing, and Open Source Impact
The Ruby AI Podcast · 2026-10-13
In this podcast I talk with Joe Leo about joining the Rails core team, handling the volume of Rails security reports, Hot Cell's sandboxing of Active Storage image processing, CVE assignment delays, and maintaining Nokogiri.
HTML parsing & sanitization and SQLite
Remote Ruby · 2024-08-30
In this podcast episode I talk with Chris Oliver and Andrew Mason about Loofah and the Rails HTML sanitizer, SQLite support in Ruby, how I got started in Ruby, and a bit about management vs leadership.
Ruby Shield, Ruby Central, and Shopify (with Evan Phoenix)
Programming Throwdown · 2022-11-14
Evan Phoenix and I were interviewed by Patrick Wheeler and Jason Gauci about our personal journies in Ruby, how we learn, and how we came to work together on Ruby Shield, a security partnership between Shopify and Ruby Central.
Cloud Foundry Overview
Software Engineering Daily · 2018-02-21
In this interview I talk about Cloud Foundry, Pivotal, and a potpourri of other topics.
Embracing Change as an Organization
How a 500-person organization can stay agile and embrace change. Presented at Code Climate Summit. (2019-05-22)
Why you're in the right place at the right time
A talk given to CUNY students and recent grads about the importance of community in shaping a career. (2015-05-15)
Agile Inceptions 101
An internal "Core Practice" talk given at Pivotal Labs. (2014-10-10)
enterprise-fu, or, How To Succeed in Business Like A Ninja Samurai
Subversive lessons from two decades spent in enterprisey companies. Presented at Asbury Agile. (2013-10-02)
Stupid XML Tricks
Introduction to OSS projects Loofah, Lorax and McBean to modify, compare and transform HTML and XML documents. Presented at NYC.rb. (2010-03-09)