Too much to learn in today's tech world? Feel like there's no end to what you need to know? Maybe ...

Too much to learn in today's tech world? Feel like there's no end to what you need to know? Maybe you've completed a web development boot camp and think you have a good grasp on the technology. Of course, the moment you google, you realize there is so much more out there and a ton more to learn. When is enough, enough? Sure, learning is a lot of fun and probably why you got into this field, but if you're looking for a new job, it becomes very intimidating and overwhelming. Well, it turns out that you don't need to know the latest framework to help your career. To get a good gig, the key is to know what hiring managers *really* want. As a bonus, I'll talk about what to do once you have the job so that you can move up the food chain to where you actually want to be.

Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, empathetic computing, affective computing are all the rag...

Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, empathetic computing, affective computing are all the rage now. These are just the latest computing dynamics born from cybernetics, fuzzy logic, expert systems, evolutionary computation, and dynamic programming. While there have been some theoretical advances recently what's really leading to substantial adoption is that nodejs, flask/jupyter, GPU, cloud computing and things like tensorflow have made dynamic, complex computation available to all types and experiences of developers. It turns out, like with most of nature, the more efficient and available a resource is the more it can be adopted and integrated into the ecosystems. In the case of AI, the fact that advanced modelling and model serving can happen directly in javascript is a leading rapid growth. Javascript is often decried as the language that just doesn't have the right stuff for the job... whether that was in the early days of the web or the initial confusions of Web 2.0/ajax days or with the smartphone app take over. The thing is... javascript not only never really gave into that reputation it continues to be the one language and the one community and the one ecosystem that has survived and thrived through every technical change over in last 25 years. Javascript does this because like wide spread natural languages it can absorb any style or concept you throw at it... Javascript isn't just the thing we have to do because it's everywhere Javascript is the reason things get everywhere. (see history of ThreeJS, HTML5 apps, WPAs, responsive web, etc etc) And so... this is now true of AI. For AI to really go big, everywhere, on every computing surface it required javascript. A language and community capable of the flexibility and speed to figure out where and how and why things work the way they work. Javascripts expressiveness and interactivity with the programmer+all devices ensures that AI ideas can be fully integrated. A big claim comes next... General AI will only come about and be generally available to all computers and humans BECAUSE of Javascript. That javascript is so widely deployed, is 100% inspectable, has trillions of running systems on the open web, and is understandable by humans and devices is the only possible fabric of General AI. Javascript is truly the way humans computer murmurate into collective intelligent behavior. But like everything... don't take an abstract's word for the truth... let's compute our way to this truth.

This talk is about my personal journey shipping my side project, LearnInPublic.org, from April to Ju...

This talk is about my personal journey shipping my side project, LearnInPublic.org, from April to July this year. It involves both technical and nontechnical takeaways, from coding and designing the landing page and ecommerce fulfilment, to writing and marketing the book, all as a solo dev. Shipping side projects for money is a dream for many dev and I wanted to share what I learned doing mine.

The story of how I built a WebRTC app to help people connect for 1-on-1 video chats during the pande...

The story of how I built a WebRTC app to help people connect for 1-on-1 video chats during the pandemic. A tale of product learnings, technical decisions, and lots of conversations!

When I took over maintaining Mongoose after a short Twitter exchange in April 2014, I had no idea wh...

When I took over maintaining Mongoose after a short Twitter exchange in April 2014, I had no idea what to expect. Through some combination of luck, persistence, and support, Mongoose grew over 100x in terms of monthly downloads and became the most downloaded database framework on npm over the years that followed. In this talk, I'll cover what I've learned about how to be an effective maintainer, as well as several fun experiences I've had along the way.

Window sub system for Linux allows developers and anyone trying to do anything sophisticated as a de...

Window sub system for Linux allows developers and anyone trying to do anything sophisticated as a developer to run anything on Linux, using the windows they already have. I’ll show you how to set up a Windows machine that is as effective or more effective than any MacBook, for free.

The web is a bloated, over-engineered mess. And, according to developer and educator Chris Ferdinand...

The web is a bloated, over-engineered mess. And, according to developer and educator Chris Ferdinandi, many of our modern “best practices” are actually making the web worse. In this talk, Chris explores The Lean Web, a set of principles for a simpler, faster world-wide web.

In this talk, Cameron Manavian will focus on the core concepts of ML and how it relates to AI, with ...

In this talk, Cameron Manavian will focus on the core concepts of ML and how it relates to AI, with as little mathematics as possible. We will cover Tensorflow.js, predictions, and a simple but widely employed machine learning method called a regression. All examples work in a browser and are directed towards intermediate JS engineers.

A Ne'er-do-well's Amblings through Fluid Typography with CSS Locks; Prospects on Universal View Laye...

A Ne'er-do-well's Amblings through Fluid Typography with CSS Locks; Prospects on Universal View Layer; and Hella Living Frontend Component Systems

This all started when I needed to architect a new platform from scratch for a new version of an exis...

This all started when I needed to architect a new platform from scratch for a new version of an existing product … 12 years ago. It led to work, prototype, more work, and now what I have to present today. Every App no matter how carefully crafted at the outset incurs Technical Debt. Our choice then becomes to solve it early with a lot of upfront architectural work or solve it later by moving quickly on the Application itself. I say, "why choose?" By leveraging proven architectural principles, tao.js was built to enhance the technologies we already use and provide a simplified way of Decoupling our Apps from the Architecture on which they reside to allow each to evolve as necessary and only when needed. In this talk you will learn Why it works with live coding of converting an existing application to use tao.js, and then evolve the App's architecture easily without affecting the App's functionality.

The day has come. It’s time to upgrade that major dependency your project uses. You’ve been puttin...

The day has come. It’s time to upgrade that major dependency your project uses. You’ve been putting it off. It’s starting to scare you. Fear not! In this ten minute talk I will walk you through identifying the upgrade, campaigning for the work time to start it next sprint, important tasks to accomplish before actually starting, setting up your environment for low-friction workflow, tips while debugging, hazards to avoid, general thoughts on the cadence of upgrades, and an exercise for the bold.

WebAuthn is a new security-oriented browser API that empowers users and website operators alike to u...

WebAuthn is a new security-oriented browser API that empowers users and website operators alike to use secure hardware devices to lock down their accounts. Join me as I introduce the API, discuss the pros and cons of its use, and otherwise evangelize an API that could eliminate passwords from websites for good!

High-level programming languages like JavaScript give us the ability to encode software in human ter...

High-level programming languages like JavaScript give us the ability to encode software in human terms, yet so often we struggle to maintain clarity of our original intent as software evolves. Join me for a night of functional frivolity as we incorporate the ideas of top-down design with the power of composition to maximize clarity of intent and minimize opportunities to introduce bugs.

This talk covers the learnings and experiences of developing WasmBoy. A Game Boy Emulation Library f...

This talk covers the learnings and experiences of developing WasmBoy. A Game Boy Emulation Library for running Game Boy ROMs in both NodeJS and browsers, written in AssemblyScript.

I want to talk about what service workers look like at scale. We've been working on our PWA at GOAT,...

I want to talk about what service workers look like at scale. We've been working on our PWA at GOAT, and many of the articles online about service workers are simple "get started" tutorials. There hasn't been a lot of discussion about the problems, solutions, pitfalls, etc of deploying service workers to apps with high traffic and complex CI/CD. We would cover cache invalidation, quota storage limits, SWs on testing environments, SWs behind authentication, and other things we've run into.

If you were paying attention to the Democratic primaries in February, you're probably familiar with ...

If you were paying attention to the Democratic primaries in February, you're probably familiar with the infamous Iowa Democratic Party caucus app build by Shadow Inc. that due to bugs and reporting mishaps had American politics in suspense for days afterwards. The Warren campaign had their own app. Ours worked. I built it. In this talk I'll go into why the app was a success and a bit of what tech looks like in the campaign world.

All artists make messy sketches. All writers write terrible first drafts. All coders create dirty fi...

All artists make messy sketches. All writers write terrible first drafts. All coders create dirty first passes. Whether one wants to be a developer just to make a comfortable living, or create the tools and libraries that make today's internet work, it starts with creating... Anything! This talk speaks to how my book, "Modern Javascript by Example" unexpectedly took off in ways I would have never expected and brought about a new wave of "hit publish!" in my career. Showcasing and continuously publishing my work, whether it be writing, software, or speaking didn't immediately pay off, but months later and a profile full of blog posts, git repos, and talks on Youtube have amounted to success I never saw possible in my own career. In addition to the above, this talk presents a motivational aspect to encourage developers to stretch their imagination and create many small, fun little projects to showcase, and progress their skills, career, and talents to their full potential.

TypeScript has won the hearts and minds of programmers all around the world. Unfortunately, your dea...

TypeScript has won the hearts and minds of programmers all around the world. Unfortunately, your deadlines are due yesterday, your boss is unconvinced, and your team remains skeptical. What's a TypeScript enthusiast to do? Join me on a journey of self-discovery: we'll learn what it means to lead by influence and level up our effectiveness as engineers. Then, an exploration of the value to engineering and business brought about by type systems (with some math to prove it). To tie it all together, we'll explore this through the lens of real world stories from Netflix, where we use TypeScript to modernize filmmaking.

Testing tools have improved dramatically in the past few years. Cypress, an open source test runner,...

Testing tools have improved dramatically in the past few years. Cypress, an open source test runner, stands out as a prominent player making E2E testing easy. In this talk, I'll go over the key features of Cypress and how we use it in our day to day work at GOAT. Additionally, I'll go over how Cypress has played a large role in improving our CI/CD pipeline and all of the gotchas I encountered along the way.