Design Notes + Photos

Shared by Vincent Gallegos in Washington, DC 
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November 16, 2009
 

Photos: Snapshots of #BarcampDC 2009

                                                                       

Update: Enjoy more photos on Barcamp Flickr pool.

BarcampDC celebrated its third year at MLK Library. Yes, there were girls there, despite the overlapping She's Geeky event. My 3 intro tags: lifestreamer, shy... {a moment of silence}. Peter Corbett adds: "and out of words."

A large amount of sessions centered around startup strategies--and tech employment. Steph Hay's advice for those seeking web work: "follow instructions." Come on, people! Good thing web firm Whitmoyer was there to give out super awesome megaphones.

My notes of Jared Goralnick's session--led with a single slide--are coming. Aarr!

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November 14, 2009
 

Russell on CSS/JS tricks #barcampdc

Sent from my iPhone

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October 18, 2009
 

Photos: #Pubcamp at AU - Introductions

Wonderful personalities, each with their unique take on '3 tags' (what were yours?). Session proposals--shared interests and theme-setting. See the Flickr photos.

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October 17, 2009
 

Live Photos: #Pubcamp - Social Media Ethics

                     

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October 17, 2009
 

Audio Notes: #Pubcamp NPR Social Media Success Stories, @acarvin @sophieci @ombudsman @phijosays

Click here to download:
Pubcamp - NPR Success Stories.aac (13429 KB)

For the rest of the presenters, could you let me know who you are so I may tag you on the wiki? Thanks!

greglinch: Thanks for posting! RT @acarvin: My slides from the #pubcamp #success stories session of NPR social media projects http://slidesha.re/1U8Lnm

phijosays: Nice! I'm sure this will become more common... RT @sophieci: #pubcamp NPR Social Media guidelines. http://bit.ly/3EAnrJ (expand) (via @ombudsman!)

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October 17, 2009
 

Audio Notes: #Pubcamp - Julie Drizin from AIR's MQ2 Project on New Media Forms

Click here to download:
Pubcamp - Julie Drizin on New Media Forms.aac (7058 KB)

Read the tweets here. About Julie Drizin. (Typo in my last post - Drizin, not Drizen).

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October 17, 2009
 

Live photos: #Pubcamp Social Media Success Stories

                               

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October 17, 2009
 

Live photos: #Pubcamp - Julie Drizen on new media forms, follow @beyondbroadcast for live tweets

                     

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October 17, 2009
 

Audio Notes: #Pubcamp session: Nexus between professional and citizen journalism

Click here to download:
Pubcamp - Nexus between professional and citizen journalism .aac (9925 KB)

Notes here: http://www.livescribe.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/LDApp.woa/wa/MLSOverviewPage?sid=Zm78QdhMBp0P

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October 17, 2009
 

Live photos: #Pubcamp session: Nexus between professional and citizen journalism

                                     

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October 6, 2009
 

Phil Jones at Hamiltonian Gallery Talks About Web Technology for Artists


DC-based Phil Jones is like me: a web developer with a passion for art and photography. Last week, he gave a talk to artists at Hamiltonian Gallery. He recommends popular web services to artists looking to share their work in a more efficient and social manner. He mentioned Tumblr, Flickr, and Google applications (Feedburner, Docs) and how they are integrated into artists' websites. He also advocated for ShareThis/AddThis.


I was thrilled to see that Phil included my own blog as an example, an application powered by Posterous. As you know, I'm an advocate of the service since I switched over to lifestreaming in the summer. Posterous is releasing more features for lifestreamers than any other service on the web. If you haven't felt its power, see Steve Rubel's posterous blog. The Edelman-hired media professional is an evangelist for the start-up. Listen to him--he is usually ahead of the curve when it comes to web innovation.


Joining Phil tonight is Greg Lavallee, software engineer at The Washington Post.

Phil Jones works for CITI (Community IT Innovators), an employee-owned web development studio on U Street corridor. I am excited to see tech folks mingling with the DC art community, and looking forward to more!

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September 28, 2009
 

JavaScript in a Single Picture

From Digg -- see this page for conversation

I jotted down a couple of notes last week on JavaScript's good parts, from Doug Crawford's talk on the subject (Doug is the mastermind behind JSLint). See the video and notes here.

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September 25, 2009
 

Today, I'm giving Google Sidewiki a try

via googleblog.blogspot.com

Not sure how I feel about Sidewiki yet. I will explore today and post details in this post tomorrow.

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September 24, 2009
 

JavaScript: The World's Most Misunderstood Programming Language

via youtube.com

Doug Crockford - TechTalk @ Google - Feb 27, 2009

Intro

Javascript: Where is the love?

  • even though JS is probably the most important programming language in the world
  • it is not held in high esteem
  • there is no love in community
    • Who does JS have?
  • Lack of understanding partly to blame

JS is the most misunderstood programming language
  • You don't need to learn it before you start using it
  • Misuse
  • JS: "a virtual machine for the world"
  • You can write very good programs in it
  • Knowing what you are doing makes a difference

Javascript is a language of many contrasts :)
  • It contains the best ideas, it contains the worst ideas
  • It has the broadest range of programmer skills
    • from CS PhDs to cut-n-pasters
    • and everybody in between

Common Complaints

  • "Not a language I know"
    • Writing without learning
    • Doug says: man up, learn it
  • "Browser programing experience is awful"
    • Really it's the DOM's fault
      • "worst APIs ever imagined"
      • AJAX libraries to correct this [mentions only YUI]
  • "It's not fast enough"
    • Mentions Google and higher-performance JS engines
  • "The language is just a pile of mistakes"
    • Not JUST a huge pile of mistakes ;)
JS succeeded where Java failed

"Hidden under a huge steaming pile of good intentions and blunders is an elegant, expressive programming language"

Influences
  • Self
    • prototypal inheritance
    • dynamic objects
  • Scheme
    • lambda ("the best idea in the history of programming languages")
    • loose typing - controversial
      • strong typing doesn't absolve need to test
  • Java
    • syntax
  • Perl
    • regular expression notation

Before the good part... the bad parts!
  • global variables
  • + adds and concatenates
    • loose type 
  • semicolon insertion
  • typeof
  • with (avoid!) and eval (most misused)
  • phony arrays "essentially hash tables"
  • == and !=
  • false, null, undefined, NaN
    • too many
    • type coercion
  • never use ==, use === instead
  • good features that interact badly
    • objects can inherit from other objects
    • functions can be members of objects
  • for in is troublesome
    • shallow skim vs. deep dredge
  • netscape

Bad Heritage [ Bad Practices ]
  • Blockless statements
  • Expression statements
  • Floating point is the only type for math
    • "they picked the wrong type"
  • ++ and --
    • convenient but implicated
  • code which is too tricky is most likely wrong
  • switch statement (he reached "engightement")

A Short List But a Good List
  • Lambda
    • Powerful, safe, smart, good, great stuff
  • Dynamic Objects
    • Objects from other objects
  • Loose Typing
    • An advantage, D. believes
  • Object Literals
    • Inspiration for JSON
Inheritance
  • is OO code reuse
  • two schools
    • classical
    • prototypal

Prototypal Inheritance
  • Class-free
  • Objects inherit from objects
  • Object.create(oldObject); (24:38)

new operator
  • required when calling Construction f(x)
  • If new omitted, global object is clobbered by constructor
  • no compile-time/run-time warning

Examples! The Fun Begins

Power Constructors - The Recipe
  • 1. Make an object using e.g.:
    • Object literal
    • new
    • Object.create
    • call another power constructor
  • 2. Define some variable and functions
    • These become private members
  • 3. Augment the object w/ privilege methods
  • 4. Return the object

The Recipe -> The Template

function myPowerConstructor (x) {
 var that = otherMaker(x);
 var secret = f(x);
 that.priv = function () {
   ... secret x that ...
 };
 return that;
}

So, Closure...
  • A function object contains the function itself
  • Has reference to the environment in which it was created (context)
  • A very good thing :)

Style Isn't Subjective
  • In general, don't get emotional - let's just all drive on the same side
  • In JS, style matters and strict

return
{
   ok: false;
};

Gives you silent error! (semicolon insertion one of them)

return { 
    ok: true;
}; 

All good!

Working with the Grain
  • Scheme
  • Shipped too early, but hey, it worked
Like everybody else, Doug started doing it without learning it

"There's JSON in it!" (He made it a standard :))

Discusses JSLint, a "programming discipline"
  • dynamic, loosely-type
  • evaluate other people's libraries
  • will hurt your feelings ;)
Unlearning something wrong is really, really hard

"It's not ignorance does so much damage; it's knowin' so derned much that ain't so"
- Josh Billings

The Very Best Part: Stability
  • no design errors since 1999
  • Discusses ECMAScript 4th Ed
  • Most cross-browser compatibility due to DOM, not JS
  • Immutable objects, strict mode

Not Coming Soon
- ES4 (instead, ES-Harmony)

Safe Subsets
  • JS not secure, but not far-off
  • FBJS (Facebook), Caja & Cajita (Google), ADsafe (his)

Reviewing the Good parts
  • Potential audience of billions
  • If you avoid the bad, JS works really well
  • "If you don't want to write good programs, ... find yourself another line of work"

 

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August 20, 2009
 

How does your school stack up? U.S. News Launches 2010 Best Colleges Rankings

I'm pleased to be on the web team that is making today's 2010 Best Colleges Rankings launch possible. Now in their 26th year of publishing, the rankings are accompanied by the most innovative web tools to date. The tools help determine student-college fit as they relate to location, tuition costs, and other advanced research options. A very data-intensive project and a pleasure to explore!

Today and tomorrow, millions of people across the nation will be exploring the 2010 rankings, as they appear in the media and college campuses for discussion and consideration. Today, we are on the homepage of Yahoo!, and tomorrow, one of our own will be on the Today Show between 8 and 9 a.m.

US News has partnered with HP and Adobe to help students explore colleges with easy-to-use web applications. The site also features thousands of videos that provide students and families first-hand accounts of what it is like to attend some of these great US Higher Ed institutions.

Check out the articles and blog posts for more information about US News' ranking methodology and how to best use the data to help you with your college search.

My own alma mater, Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA, has been ranked #5 as an "up-and-coming" liberal arts institution. Dickinson is spearheading unique efforts in global engagement and environmental sustainability. They also understand the impact of social media networks-- you can follow them on Twitter or subscribe to blogs relevent to a particular field of study.

I hope you find the new rankings and features at USNews.com helpful in determining the best college for your career goals and dreams. Remember that these rankings are an aspect of a successful college search, and that you should consider other forms of thinking when making final choices. Visiting schools, for instance, is almost always a good approach.

You can follow US News on Twitter.

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July 30, 2009
 

Misunderstanding Markup: XHTML 2/HTML 5

via media2.smashingmagazine.com

Written by Jeremy Keith. Adapted by Brad Colbow.

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July 28, 2009
 

Photo Recap | Africa Rural Connect (ARC) Website Launch Party at Local 16. Plus, what blogs are saying about ARC

via Phil Foss / Flickr.com.

How do you connect over 200,000 current and returned Peace Corps Volunteers with the African Diaspora, development practitioners, scholars, technology innovators, and anyone who cares about Africa to change lives? Africa Rural Connect [ARC]. You have the power to help solve rural Africa's greatest challenges – simply add your voice, your comments, your ideas... Your idea could win up to $3,000 each month.  In November, the best action plan wins $20,000 – plus opportunities to meet with leaders in the development community to discuss bringing those ideas to life.

Not a bad incentive to get involved! The Africa Rural Connect project is an online initiative made possible by the National Peace Corps Association. Kudos to Whitmoyer (Nick and Phil) for the great site architecture and stunning design. Infamia and Wegora were also involved in the production of this fantastic web project.

                   

Check out Phil Foss on Flickr for his photos of the launch party: they paint a better picture of the place than the ones I've posted. Cheers to you, Phil!

More photos! These are the official party pictures, courtesy of photographer, blogger and technologist Nakeva C.

The event was held at Local 16 (see the poster invite). Visit the Africa Rural Connect website to learn more. You can also follow ARC on Twitter or join the ARC group on Facebook.

What blogs are saying about Africa Rural Connect

Do you have photos or blog posts about ARC? Send them my way at blog [at] vincentgallegos.com. I'll include them here. Thanks for supporting the cause!

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July 27, 2009
 

Developer Day Boston is next month: A one-day conference for web workers

We're lining up eight great talks on topics from JavaScript to git, and from document databases to general development practices. No matter what your standard tools, languages, and frameworks, you're guaranteed to learn something new. So, come meet cool people, eat some lunch, and give yourself the day to learn and participate in great discussions — all for the low, low price of $50. Register today!

The conference is on a weekend, so you don't have to ask your boss for a day off! If you tell her about all the things you'll learn, she might let you go on company budget. Head to Developer Day for more details. You can also follow Developer Day on Twitter.

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July 20, 2009
 

Tomorrow: Africa Rural Connect Launch Party at Local 16

Added July 28: View the photo recap for this event.

Join us for a fun evening to mark the beginning of an exciting new online initiative, Africa Rural Connect.

ARC will bring together Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, technology innovators, Africa Scholars, development workers, and anyone else with an interest in Sub-Saharan Africa to create the best ideas to improve the lives of rural farmers.

This event also marks the launch of Wegora, a site platform made especially for online collaboration.

We hope that you'll stop by to converse with friends, meet new people, and learn more about these projects!!

Feel free to extend the invitation to others. Look for us and the drink specials upstairs.

Africa Rural Connect: http://www.AfricaRuralConnect.org


Here is the Facebook Invite. I thank my buddy @Whitmoyer, for the invitation. Nick has done an incredible job designing ARC's new web presence and campaign media tools.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009
6:00pm - 9:00pm

Local 16
1602 U Street, NW
Washington, DC


View Larger Map

(Invitation image courtesy of nickwhitmoyer)

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July 19, 2009
 

Refresh DC slides on HTML5/CSS3. Spotlight on Justin Thorp: why you should follow this web tech personality

View the presentation slides (courtesy of Jason Garber and M. Jackson Wilkinson -- see my photo recap of this month's event).

Refresh DC (website / twitter) is a unique event that gathers super talented professionals from all walks of web life for monthly talks and happy hour. Some of the best designers, developers, and social media pros form this energetic and impassioned community.


One of my favorite pals from my old days at Refresh DC is Justin Thorp, a true connector and web evangelist (pictured left). He works as a community manager at Clearspring. Check out his blog, where he discusses human behavior as it relates to online communities and web trends generally. His blog posts are insightful and authoritative. He is humble and often initiates great dialogue. You can follow him on Twitter.

More Refresh DC personalities here.

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