Yes, it still needs documentation.  And yes, the tests could be better (but at least they exist!).

But. BUT. (And I should have mentioned this earlier…)

My talk proposal to JS Conf US 2013 got accepted!!

Which basically means that I’ve also been spending the last several weeks becoming rather familiar with Johnny-Five, my little arduino, and a couple of servos.  Take that, silly electrons!

If you’re going to JS Conf (tickets are technically sold out, but there is a waiting list!), you’ll also get the sweet opportunity to play with some NodeBots of your own (if you’re so inclined).

(And if you can’t make it to JS Conf, fret not; the talk will be taped and available for everyone to see sometime afterwards.)

As for the talk itself, I’m well aware that it’s a bit of a crazy notion – just wait for the presentation!

That’s all for now – if you’re paying extra special attention, you may find my code before I present it…

I am SO pumped to announce that I’ll be speaking at Converge SE in April!

I’ll be presenting “Node.js: The Good Parts” as part of the Development track.

The lineup is incredible – be sure to prepare yourself when tickets go on sale on January 30th at 10 AM EST!

And when I say “diving” – I really mean pinching-my-nose-and-squeezing-my-eyes-shut-while-jumping-out-of-a-plane-over-the-ocean.

I had this hunch, this innate desire to do something so very different (though tangentially related) to what I’d done before.  It was a pretty big risk, to be honest.  And I couldn’t be happier or more proud of myself for taking it.

I said I was green, and boy was I ever!  When I started out, I couldn’t handle CSS, I barely knew what HTML could do, and I wrote JavaScript like it was C++.  Looking back, I’m almost embarrassed – but that’s how I know I’ve grown so much

Knowing what I wanted to do, I didn’t spend too much time thinking about how to get there – I just went for it.  I met with the CEO of the coolest web development company in town and asked him what it would take for me to work there.  He said I needed to learn node.js, so I did.  (No, really, right after that conversation, I went ahead and started reading up on it and hacking around.)  I must have done something right, because they asked me to be an intern in their first-ever official internship program.  And then I must have continued to rock someone’s socks off, because they brought me on full time as a Junior Developer after 5 weeks!  Since then, I have been swimming in a sea of code – and it’s been truly, undeniably awesome.

I have absolutely loved my time at Skookum – the team is top notch and they have so many cool projects going on, it’s like being a kid in a web-based candy store.  The Skookum family has also grown immensely and only gets more awesome with time – I am truly honored to count myself among its members.

Unfortunately, my first year as a web developer is coming to a close.

It is with this post that I bittersweetly announce that next year, I will be leaving Charlotte (and, sadly, Skookum ) and returning to the great West Coast: I will be joining the incredible Storify team as an Engineer in San Francisco at the end of January!

At Storify, not only will I get to work on one of the first fully node.js applications on the web, but I will also get to help define storytelling and journalism in the 21st century.  I just know that I’ll be learning even MORE over the next year, and I can’t wait to tell you about all of my sure-to-be crazy adventures as they happen!  (And believe me, I’ve already got a few lined up!)

With that, I wish every one of you a wonderful holiday and a very Happy (Mayan!) New Year – thank you for an amazing 2012

2013? Let’s do this!

****

On a more personal note, we are really going to miss our friends and family in Charlotte.  We’re also really excited to hang out with our friends out west, so…. boo/yay?

(What about the robots, you ask? I know, I’ll get back to those soon – I just needed to do this, really.)

Having only a weekend day to get to the point where I really felt like I could have some honest opinions about both frameworks, I decided to do what I generally tell other people to do: find something that already exists and try to copy it.  And by copy, I don’t mean just copy-paste-run, but start it from scratch.  Think like a developer:  How would you start this project? Chances are you don’t start at line 1 and finish on line 200; more likely, you start at line 1, stop at line 20, move that chunk down so you can start at line 1 again, realize you forgot something at line 25, tack on some lines between lines 50 and 55… and so on.

So that’s exactly what I did.  I used Jérôme Gravel-Niquet‘s todos.js and copied it pretty much exactly.  I used his design, I took note of the functionality, and I got to work.  I didn’t finish, alas, but I did get really close.  (The only reason I couldn’t finish it was simply due to lack of time.)

I used Twitter Bootstrap to help out with the styling.  (I didn’t use any of the .js libraries because I didn’t need them.)

That said, here are my thoughts:

Backbone.js

The ramp-up time for Backbone.js is much longer than Knockout.js.  That is to say, it’s got much more functionality and has a whole lot more power.  Knockout.js is really only useful for data binding.  Backbone is extraordinarily useful for (and was pretty much created exactly for) creating complex, single-page web apps.

With great power comes great responsibility, however.  I found that one of the major reasons it took so long to figure out what was going on in Backbone.js was that it’s just so… messy? Convoluted? Haphazard? Disorganized?

Basically, when working in node.js (and more specifically, express.js – though also more generally, any server-side MVC framework), it’s really easy to mentally separate models, views, and controllers: they’re physically separated into different files, making it really easy to just focus on a specific model, view, or, well, controller.  In Backbone.js (though I’m sure it’s totally possible, and working with this one example I know I’m judging more than I probably should), there is no separation.

In every example I saw (probably because I specifically searched for “backbonejs tutorial,” which caters more to beginners), the app itself was limited to a single page of JavaScript.  It got messy, and quickly!  Plus, for every change you make in your model, you also need to make a change in the view.  And then you had to decide if it was going to be in the model’s specific view, or in the app’s view…  I think it’s fair to say that stuff got complicated, and quickly.

All this is to say that with more practice, I’m sure the decisions one must make in building a given app will become painfully obvious, thus ramping up development efficiency

Twitter Bootstrap

I should start by saying that to date, I’ve only worked on sites/apps that were small enough to warrant hand-written CSS (by way of Stylus/nib).  Which basically means, I’ve never used any style frameworks (960.gs comes to mind) – if for no other reason than I didn’t really need to.  Also, in my attempt to become a world-class developer/software engineer, I knew that shortcuts wouldn’t help me really, truly, learn CSS basics.

Playing with Twitter Bootstrap, I noticed the following:

• It’s pretty amazingly easy to get started – literally just include the stylesheet(s) of your choice and the extra JavaScript library (if you want it), and you’re all set and ready to go
• It’s fairly overkill if you’re just trying to do something simple
• You can’t just use Twitter Bootstrap – you’re probably going to have to add your own styles as well (unless you’re okay with your app looking like every other app that uses Twitter Bootstrap!)

All in all, Twitter Bootstrap is a good option for folks who are: a) in a hurry, b) not super familiar with CSS, and/or c) looking for easily-achieved styling consistency (with cross-browser compatibility and responsive-ness, to boot!).

There isn’t much more to say about Twitter Bootstrap – you really just plug it in and go.  But again, if you’re just fixing up a personal site or a fairly simple little web app, you might not need it.  On the other hand, if you’re just interested in putting together something fairly professional-looking without too much effort, then Twitter Bootstrap might be just the right CSS framework for you.

Conclusions

I need a bit more time and practice before I will feel completely awesome at Backbone.js.  And I’m still deciding if Twitter Bootstrap is 100% worth it.  But all in all, I really enjoyed the few hours I spent playing with them!  On to the next project!!

Have questions/comments/suggestions? Feel free to comment!

Robots and I have had a fun ride over the last 10 years – we courted, we dated, we broke up… we courted again, we moved in together, we broke up… And while I’m not sure where this relationship is ultimately headed, I know that despite this past year of playing with node.js and becoming a better JavaScript developer, robots will always be a part of my life.

So I’m going to try something new.  I’ve already hinted that I’m playing around in the space between JavaScript and robots.  And I have even submitted a talk on the next level of JavaScript and robots to JSConf US.  In short: let’s do this.

:: cue music ::

To start things off, I’d like to introduce vektor – a robotics-based linear algebra module for node.js.  When I started working on vektor a couple of months ago, there weren’t any useful linear algebra modules.  Upon publishing the module today*, there are actually quite a few – though, in true OSS fashion, they’re all slightly different and are useful for slightly different things.  So vektor is specifically for robots, and I’ll pretty much be keeping it that way for now.

The functionality that lies within vektor is critical for robot kinematics and planning – my two areas of expertise.

There’s obviously a lot more work to be done: it’s a pretty big project, adapting/redefining robotics theory in a non-traditional language like JavaScript. But stay tuned! Exciting stuff is sure to come, and I can’t wait to share it with you!

* I would have gotten vektor done sooner, except, you know, life. I’ll try not to let it happen again.

Despite being a roboticist and a trained mechanical engineer, I…

…am afraid of circuits.

THERE.  I SAID IT.  HAPPY NOW?!

But that fear ends now.  NOW, I SAY.

Now that Johnny-Five has come out and my husband now has 3 (three!) Arduinos, there’s really no reason not to at least dig in, hack around, and slowly overcome my fear of the magic smoke.

Watch this space, as I’m pretty pumped about sharing whatever awesomeness I come up with here!

(FYI: I’m starting with the Johnny-Five series on the Bocoup blog, starring Rick Waldron and Rebecca Murphey.  I highly recommend it!)

Convene is like CrowdNotes, but completely re-imagined.  We’re still focusing on conferences and events, but instead of keeping everything entirely locked into the system, the app uses Twitter for all social communication.

The user flow goes something like this:

• Organizers
  • Create a new event, include all event info (hashtags, description, location, time/day, etc)
  • Invite speakers
• Speakers
  • Fill out their talk(s) for the conference, include talk info (title, hashtags, description)
• Participants
  • Comment on the conference/talks with tweets using the appropriate hashtags (do it all through the app)
  • Vote on other peoples’ tweets (with an upvote or downvote), which affects the color of tweets, talks, and conferences

All of it happens in real time (which is why it’s a really great project for node!), so participants can easily see (via the changing colors) what’s hot and what’s not.  Organizers get realtime feedback on how the conference is going, speakers can immediately see what kind of impact they had on their audience members, both objectively and subjectively, and participants can focus their energies on talks and conferences that are worthwhile!  (Plus, anyone can go back and see what happened at a conference X days ago, whereas Twitter only lets you search the last 30 days’ worth of tweets.)

I honestly think it’s a great product idea – I just wish we had a bit more time to pull it off

Instead, the Twitter API gave us quite a bit of trouble (and only lets users sign in right now), we ran out of time for visualizing the data (though you can see the up/down vote counter sort of working), and the whole site could use a bit of polish on the front end (which was my main responsibility).

In a perfect world, I’d take some time to make Convene the app it really is meant to be (along with my teammates, of course!), but given how hectic my life has been the last month and the upcoming holidays, I can’t honestly say it’ll get done before the end of the year.  That said, the next run of conferences start up in the spring, so maybe I’ll have some time to work on it by then!

BTW: Voting ends today – if you manage to see this before voting closes and want to give the app a big ol’ thumbs up, please do!  Vote here: http://cnvne.com/about

I won’t go into the exact details of what went down, since you can read about that by fellow camp-mate Tim Caswell in his blog post about the event.

But here’s what I can say: I had a blast!

Day 1 was all about meeting members of the community.  I’m not afraid to say I had serious Node crushes on some of the Core Contributors (aka The Nodility – ha!), but I know I wasn’t alone  I’d say there were about 100 of us at camp, of which approximately 15 or so were on the Significant Others track.  The rest of us were there because we love to Node and want to take the language to the next level.  The biggest thing that I noticed was that everyone was at a different stage of Node ability.  Certainly there were the guys who had been Noding since version 0.0.2.  But there were also a few people who had just started (one who was even just getting started in JavaScript!), and everyone in between.  (I consider myself in the in-between camp.)  I know not everyone likes to network as much as I do, but spending the first day getting to know the other attendees really helped lay a solid foundation for conversations that I would have later at camp.  (Also, bonus: as one of only 2 non-SO females attending the conference, I got a WHOLE room to myself!)

Day 2 made my brain hurt.  I’ll be honest: I went into the conference with the expectation that I would be learning lots of tips and tricks to help enhance my own Node abilities.  Instead, I got a rare, insider’s view of the process of taking a programming language to the next level.  The talks were about hearing from the community – what does it need, what does it want, and what can it do without.  The Core Contributors listened intently, explaining why they made the decisions they did, what they were (planning on) working on, and what the community could do to help them out (hint: it’s Open Source!  Do it yourself. ;-))

Unfortunately, most of the talks were over my head.  At my level, I haven’t needed streams or domains or many of the other topics that were discussed.  And there were certainly moments when I felt like I was in the wrong place.  But on the plus side, I now have a really good idea of what’s in store for me as my Node ability progresses.  It’s like having a treasure map before anyone else knows that there’s even any treasure… mwahaha!

By lunchtime, I knew that if I was going to get anything out of the conference, I was going to have to step up my own game and start asking questions.  (Those who have met me know – I’m not shy when it comes to getting information!)  Given that my goal for the experience was to walk out knowing how to up my Node game, I started asking around:

1. How do I get better?
2. What do I need to do/know to improve?
3. Are there any shortcuts?
4. (And, specifically to the Core Contributors:)  How do I get to be as good as you?  (It’s like the adult way of asking, “Can I be you when I grow up?”)

Here are the answers:

1. Code. Hack. Read.
2. Code. Hack. Read.
3. No. Code. Hack. Read.
4. Code. Hack. Read. All. The. Time.

More specifically, though, here are some of my tweets from the conference:

Callbacks, Events, Streams: know them all, and you’ll be able to go through node core and understand what’s going on. @nodeconf #summercamp

— Raquel Velez (@rockbot) September 5, 2012

Callbacks are level 1, events are level 2, streams are level 3. @nodeconf #summercamp

— Raquel Velez (@rockbot) September 5, 2012

Lessons learned from @nodeconf #summercamp so far: I need to hack more, *everything* is debateable/changeable, and this community is awesome

— Raquel Velez (@rockbot) September 5, 2012

I think that last tweet just about sums it all.

Day 3 was bittersweet.  We had a morning of hacking (read: final conversations with the ridiculously awesome people who attended), followed by a bus ride back to San Francisco.  Armed with the knowledge that I need to code more, hack more, and read more, I spent a non-insignificant amount of time collecting reading materials.  I finally got a copy of “The Crockford Book”, downloaded the Node source code onto my iPhone, and tagged a bunch of modules that were mentioned more than 10 times throughout the conference.  I’ve got a LOT of reading to do!

So, all in all, I had a great time.  Thanks in particular to @mikeal and his awesome wife @annaemaier for organizing!  And thanks also to all the Core Contributors and community members who helped this young Noder stay on the path to being awesome!

Now, if only I could get myself back on east coast time… hmph.