>>>> This would make an interesting thread in itself - what people's
>>>> backgrounds were before Ruby, and what sort of spread of work  
>>>> people are
>>>> doing currently.

I lived a life revolving almost exclusively around Delphi for a  
number of years. I still have a soft spot for the language, but  
Borland lost their way some time ago, windows development got  
swallowed by Visual Studio, and I discovered life beyond Windows.
I went back to school and learnt Java, which I also like (no, really.  
I don't know why though) and still dabble in.
I tried Ruby about five years ago (guessing) but didn't get it.
Retried it again about (guessing again) six months ago, and this time  
it clicked.
Work is an eclectic mix of mostly pl-sql in Oracle 8 (and you though  
vb was bad), C (C++ is far to modern for us) and, mainly because no  
one else want's it, vba work.
I've tried Python, and can see why people like it, but Ruby suits my  
style better.
Currently (as in the last week) been learning Erlang. Awkward syntax,  
but very nice language.

Oh, and the Dave/Sharon thing isn't half as interesting as most of  
the suggestion here. Sorry.

Cheers,
Dave