It’s Presidents Day 2007 here in the US and what better way to celebrate than to highlight some of the things our presidents have said? Here are a few of our favorite quotes.

“The thing that’s wrong with the French is that they don’t have a word for entrepreneur.” -George W. Bush, via Gary

“I’m an idealist without illusions.” – John F. Kennedy, via Alain

“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.” –Thomas Jefferson, via Robby

“People are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” -Abraham Lincoln, via Allison

“The world has nothing to fear from military ambition in our Government.” -James K. Polk, via Daniel

“If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.” -John F. Kennedy, via Brian

What are some of your favorites?

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Although Railsconf is still three months away, people are already planning for what should be a great four days of learning, networking and, of course, fun.

What makes this year’s conference even more special is that it is in our home town of Portland. For those of you who have yet to visit, you’re in for a treat. For a somewhat small city, it certainly has a lot going on. Perhaps the most attractive aspect, to many people like myself, is the abundance of outdoor activities. Having access to countless trails, skiing and more, all within an hour or so drive, makes it a great place to live.

While you may not get time to head out of town to wander around the Gorge, its easy enough to get over to Forest Park, which is a great place for walking, running and cycling. It includes over 5,100 wooded acres making it the largest, forested natural area within city limits in the United States. More than enough space to wander around while you absorb what you learned at the conference.

Cyclists can rent from various places around town, with Fat Tire Farm being the closest to the park. Its actually on the same road as one of the entrances to a good cycling trail, which can be accessed by heading west on Thurman St. However, they do not take reservations and it is first come, first served. Getting over there from the Convention Center is also very easy, with Portland’s excellent public transport system. Most of the downtown area is covered by a fareless square, which means you can take the Max, for free, over to west Burnside, then catch the 15 bus over to NW 23rd.

We hope you’ll enjoy Portland as much as you enjoy the conference itself!

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Once upon a time, a PLANET ARGON company blog was neglected and under-used. One brave and diligent hero did work tirelessly to better the blog galaxy with his wit and information, but sadly the blog was taken hostage by spam space-pirates and trackback tyrants. The people of the PLANET blog were weary of the toils… and eventually the PLANET blog was ignored so much that a year and half passed without the sun shining brightly on its surface.

But there is hope for the blog galaxy. Today… a new blog has been born.

Our brave team has decided to give hope back to the blog galaxy and launch a new blog. The team has selected Mephisto as the blogging engine that will run on our much beloved web development framework, Ruby on Rails. Many of us have our own personal and technical blogs, but we wanted to enrich this PLANET by fostering and engaging in an open dialogue with our customers, friends and communities. We hope that this new blog makes PLANET ARGON an even better place to be a part of.

All the employees at PLANET ARGON are suited up in preparation for our quest deep into the blog galaxy… and we hope that you enjoy the ride.

3… 2… 1… blast off.

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