Ruby got a new face-lift with the new Rails framework. I was always fascinated with the Ruby language. 25 lines of Java code gets shrunk to 4 lines of equivalent Ruby code plus its more readable. And with Rails, it gets a new kick. It is always impressive to hear people say "I am a full-time Ruby on Rails Developer".

There are plenty of resources for those who would like to get started on this technology:

There are lots of Amazon S3 libraries in Ruby: Some are full fledged libraries like AWS:S3 (Marcel Molina of 37signals talks about his library and why he chose Amazon S3 here - worth a read!), while some libraries are getting started types so that you can customize as per your needs. Some are command shell utilities like rSh3ll, while some are gems like S33r and ruby-s3 for easy installation.

Zachary Holt created a powerful library for Amazon SQS in Ruby. He has added some cool utility functions such as ability to forcibly delete a queue etc.

Dominic Da Silva has written a new article, Ruby for the REST of Us: Using Ruby and REST to Integrate with Amazon S3.

In the article, Dominic introduces Ruby, REST and Amazon S3. He then goes on to cover the AWS registration process, and then proceeds to describe rSh3ll (pronounce it "r-shell" and your tongue will feel a lot better), his command shell for access to S3, which is written in Ruby atop the S3 REST library, s3.rb.

Dominic provided a nice walkthrough of the code, so it should be pretty easy for you to get started with your own S3 project after reading it.

-- Jeff;

PS - Many people don't know this, but in addition to our complete line of web services, Amazon also sells books. If you are looking for a good book on Ruby, start here.