List of videos

In the summer of 2019, a somewhat out-of-shape software developer had a terrible idea — to use JavaScript to derive the algorithm that powers Washington DC’s bikeshare system and then try to set a one day record helping other people get where they want to go. In this talk, we’ll learn about how humans can deduce machine learning, how you can turn yourself into your own API, and about how 250 years of history and a few million years of geology influences everyone that lives, works, and plays in our nation’s capital. Can our heroic speaker overcome DC’s climate, the L’Enfant Plan, AND his own laziness to break a world record? Probably not, but let’s find out together!

Trans and non-binary people are becoming increasingly visible in the workplace, as well as in community spaces such as meetups and conferences. Most managers and event organizers want to be inclusive and welcoming but frequently, in spite of their best intentions, often come up short. Wouldn’t it be nice to have an actual non-binary trans person just tell you what you should be doing and why? VOILA! Allow me to swoop in and fix your interview process, your community event, even your office space! Can you believe? Shamazing!

Component libraries and design systems are becoming popular and more complex. They abstract our UI to make us more productive. Why can’t they do the same with end-to-end tests? In this talk, we’ll explore how our component libraries can export UI test helpers to make testing easier, faster and more reliable in downstream applications.

It's 2019, audio packets from streaming services are swirling all around us. Yet, as JavaScript enthusiasts, we are often so focused on the application layer that we miss out on all the quirks that exist in the layers below. Let's journey from the browser down to the physical layer (and back up) to see how a single audio file travels over the wires and into our lives. This talk will look at audio codecs, compression techniques, and the use of TCP congestion control algorithms (like BBR) to help manage packet loss.

Some things in web development just work; they do what they are supposed to do day in and day out, and we don't ever have to worry about them. It's the "little engine that could" story: it's reliable, it stable, it's trustworthy. The Focus subsystem is one such system... reliable, stable, trustworthy, but is it good... does it meet the needs of modern web development? This talk delves into the Focus subsystem for Web Browsers and asks us to consider is there more it could be doing and how do we make it happen?

When it comes to accessibility, in the Javascript community we often forget to talk about what it takes to get on the internet in the first place, yet the Federal Communications Commission estimates that 34 million Americans don’t have access to the internet. Where do these people go when they need to check their email, turn in their homework, or apply for a job? To the original open archive for information: public libraries! In this talk we will peer into the digital divide and learn about what public libraries across the United States are doing to support their communities access to the world wide web. We will discuss how hardware constraints, PC reservation software, browser access, and broadband speeds affect user experience and what we can do to help librarians and the Digital Inclusion movement.

Software is the most malleable building material we've ever created, and yet Technical Debt continues to plague the choices we make when building applications. When we talk about starting new projects, there's always a debate over getting something out the door knowing we're taking on Technical Debt in order to "move faster" versus taking our time to build it properly and risk over-engineering and possibly overfitting our application to an unknown problem. Can we avoid this Kobayashi Maru? Like what Docker did to decouple the Infrastructure Layer from the Application Layer, we can decouple the Business Application from its Technical Architecture. From 20 years of experience building software applications for different domains, I'll use many code samples and example applications to show how we can change the technical architectural choices of without affecting the business logic, and prove it's possible to decouple the application from the architecture so we can be fast and build it right.

More and more art incorporates LEDs these days, and for good reason. They're eye-catching and can be controlled cheaply by a Raspberry Pi. The question of course is: how do we animate them from JavaScript? The answer is more complicated than just figuring out how to turn LEDs on and off. Animating LEDs smoothly requires math! This talk will dive into the theory and practice of using different color spaces combined with some clever math to create beautiful LED animations for your JavaScript-powered art piece.

I often worry that my colleagues are smarter than me and one day they'll discover how incompetent I really am. I try to learn everything I can and keep up with the latest technology, but is it enough? They always seem to know more. Why do I always fear my success is dependent on my ranking against others? In this talk, we'll explore techniques I've found to build confidence as a developer. We'll discuss how to honestly inventory our skills, reframe goals, and take an authentic look at our own journey. Our increased confidence will let us escape the alluring imposter syndrome sinkhole and liberate us to maximize our contribution.