Nicholson, Helen, 1958-

Ferrara, Helen

Nicholson, Helen, 1958-

Kempe, Andy

Eckersall, Peter, author

Hoffnung, Michele, author

Hayden Library - PQ3989.2.M217 P4813 2017

Hayden Library - GV1469.17.S63 F63 2014

Online Resource

Hayden Library - GV1469.15.S63 2016

Hayden Library - GV1469.3.F36 2017

MEDIA PhonCD H773 piamu

Hayden Library - PS169.P35 N46 2018

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Online Resource

Hughes, Helen, 1965- author

Online Resource

Online Resource

Hayden Library - P325.5.E96 E94 2018

Online Resource

Online Resource

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Barker Library - TK9185.A1 I578 2017

Callaghan, Lucy

Phillips, David, 1944 December 15- author

Online Resource

Hayden Library - BL2218.H37 2016

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Dewey Library - PR6115.Y49 G56 2019

Online Resource

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2011.

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Moderate rainfall at many places would commence from Nov 27 afternoon.

MJS 025: Helen V. Holmes

This episode features a My JavaScript story with Helen V. Holmes. Helen has never before been a guest on the show. She is both a designer and front-end programmer who previously worked for Mozilla. In January, she started her own freelancing business. Listen to Charles Max Wood and Helen discuss how she got into programming, what made her decide to open a freelance business, and more!

How did you get into programming?

Helen started by making themes for herself and friends in LiveJournal using other people's CSS themes. Once she got to college she realized that although this wasn't a career, it was an aspect of a career. She then majored in graphic design, going on to do internships in both front-end development and design. Since college, she has gone back and forth between front-end development and design work.

How long ago was that?

Helen graduated college in 2013.

Did you graduate in computer science?

Helen did not even minor in computer science. At the time, she was focused on making stuff. The computer science major was too heavily focused on theory. She did take a couple of classes in it, but the graphic design major was more focused on building prototypes. Her graphic design major didn't teach her how to do anything - she said that you're on your own, and you have to figure out how to show off your ideas. The major appealed to her at the time because of that reason. Now Helen thinks majoring in computer science would have been really helpful for her career.

Charles points out that you don't have to have a computer science degree to do this work. Helen agrees; it can be wasted on you if you don't have the right enthusiasm to learn everything. Both say that you can get the education you want through self-education. Helen explains that so much of successful programming is good communication - this can be learned in college, while the specifics of how to code can be learned later.

How do you get from a graphic design major to "serious programming?"

Helen doesn't know how serious the programming she does is now. Her first real job was at Capital One as a front-end developer on their design team. She was doing prototypes and communicating between the design and production/engineering teams. She realized that nobody knew how to write JavaScript when trying to communicate between the two teams, so she decided that she should learn. A lot of the engineers came to the same realization at the same time. She started to write React as she was leaving Capital One. Everyone was trying to improve his or her JavaScript chops at the same time.

Did you get into Angular or React at Capital One?

When she first started at Capital One everyone was writing Angular. She wrote a lot of Angular in the beginning of her work. Most of the prototypes could be solved with React. Near the end of her time, she started using a lot of React.

What do you see is the difference between Angular and React?

Angular solves a lot more problems than React. It brings logic to the client side. React is only about solving visual problems. That's why it appealed to Helen. The design team she worked with was all about solving visual problems.

Why did you choose the front end?

Helen mainly chose it because she was a graphic design major. She believes that because the web is so accessible that it is the easiest thing. She also thinks the front end is fun.

How'd you wind up at Mozilla?

She met James Long through a mutual friend. Once they met, he thought she'd be a good addition to their team. He told her why it'd be a good switch for her - they were doing React work and they were looking for someone to understand problems that engineers go through.

What do they use React on?

She was on the browser team. The front-end of the developer tools was a JavaScript application that wasn't Angular. They were working on moving it to become a more documented framework. They wanted to use Redux and React. The team was converting it panel by panel.

What made you decide you were going to go freelance?

Helen had been missing things that she had done in college such as branding and illustration work. She had done some illustration work while at Firefox. She ultimately wanted to do a variety of different things instead of just product work. What gave her courage to go into freelance work was that James Long was also going freelance at the same time, so she thought that she was in good company. She also is related to a lawyer, so it wasn't as scary filing the paperwork because she had someone to ask for help during the process.

What contributions do you feel like you've made to the JavaScript community?

Helen believes that the highest impact work she has done has been on the Firefox browser. She didn't write a lot of code, but feels like what she did write is being used by a lot of people. She is most proud of the CSS grid because she says that it is exciting for people who do layout stuff on the web.

What are you working on now?

Helen started her own business at the beginning of the year. She is figuring out how she wants her skills to grow and with what kind of clients she wants to work. She has a lot of side projects, one being what she calls an art project. She is translating JPEG to Pixel art. She is taking NeoPixels, which are little programmable LEDs, and taking a matrix of values and displaying them on a sight board.

With everything that's out there in JavaScript, how do you keep current?

Helen answers that she doesn't. She tries to stay current with the tools she is using, which is React. She doesn’t try to be good at everything because she is also a designer, so she says that she has to pick and choose what she stays current on. Charles says that is what he tells people to do. There is so much out there that there is no way that anyone is going to stay current on everything. He says to keep current on what you are doing specifically.

Picks         

Helen:

• Wonder Woman http://wonderwomanfilm.com
• Debt: The First 5,000 Years https://www.amazon.com/Debt-First-5-000-Years/dp/1612191290

Charles:

• JavaScript Jabber Slack Room https://devchat.tv/javascript-jabber-slack
• Monthly Webinars  https://devchat.tv/webinars
• Angular Remote Conf https://devchat.tv/conferences/angular-remote-conf-2017

Links

• Helen V Holmes Twitter https://twitter.com/helenvholmes

Panel:

• Aimee Knight
• AJ O’Neal
• Aaron Frost
• Christopher Ferdinandi

Special Guests: Christopher Buecheler

In this episode, the panel talks with Christopher Buecheler who is an author, blogger, web developer, and founder of CloseBrace. The panel and Christopher talk about stepping outside of your comfort zone. With a technological world that is ever changing, it is important to always be learning within your field. Check out today’s episode to learn more!

Show Topics:

0:00 – Advertisement: KENDO UI

1:08 – Aimee: Our guest is Christopher Buecheler – tell us about yourself and what you do.

1:22 – Guest: I run a site and help mid-career developers. I put out a weekly newsletter, too.

2:01 – Aimee: It says that you are a fan of “getting comfortable being uncomfortable”?

2:15 – Guest: I am a self-taught developer, so that means I am scrambling to learn new things all the time. You are often faced with learning new things. When I learned React I was dumped into it. The pain and the difficulty are necessary in order to improve. If you aren’t having that experience then you aren’t learning as much as you could be.

3:26 – Aimee: I borrow lessons that I learned from ice-skating to programming.

3:49 – Guest: I started running a few years ago for better health. It was exhausting and miserable at the start and wondered why I was doing it. Now I run 5 times a week, and there is always a level of being uncomfortable, but now it’s apart of the run. It’s an interesting comparison to coding. It’s this idea of pushing through.

5:01 – Aimee: If you are comfortable you probably aren’t growing that much. In our industry you always have to be learning because things change so much!

5:25 – Guest: Yes, exactly. If you are not careful you can miss opportunities.

6:33 – Panel: You have some ideas about frameworks and libraries – one thing that I am always anxious about is being able to make sense of “what are some new trends that I should pay attention to?” I remember interviewing with someone saying: this mobile thing is just a fad. I remember thinking that she is going to miss this opportunity. I am worried that I am going to be THAT guy. How do you figure out what sort of things you should / shouldn’t pay attention to?

7:47 – Guest: It is a super exhausting thing to keep up with – I agree. For me, a lot of what I pay attention to is the technology that has the backing of a multi-million dollar company then that shows that technology isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon. The other thing I would look at is how ACTIVE is the community around it?

9:15 – Panel: Is there a strategic way to approach this? There is so many different directions that you can grow and push yourself within your career? Do you have any kinds of thoughts/tips on how you want your career to evolve?

10:00 – Guest: I am trying to always communicate better to my newsletter audience. Also, a good approach, too, is what are people hiring for? 

11:06 – Aimee: Again, I would say: focus on learning.

11:30 – Panel: And I agree with Aimee – “learn it and learn it well!”

12:01 – Panel: I want to ask Chris – what is CloseBrace?

12:17 – Guest: I founded it in November 2016, and started work on it back in 2013.

14:20 – Panel: It was filled with a bunch of buzz worthy words/title.

14:32 – Guest continues his thoughts/comments on CloseBrace.

16:54 – Panel: How is the growth going?

17:00 – Guest: It is growing very well. I put out a massive, massive tutorial course – I wouldn’t necessarily advice that people do this b/c it can be overwhelming. However, growth this year I have focused on marketing. I haven’t shared numbers or anything but it’s increased 500%, and I am happy about it.

18:05 – Panel: Are you keeping in-house?

18:13 – Guest: I think it would be cool to expand, but now it is in-house. I don’t want to borrow Egg Head’s setup. I would love to cover MORE topics, though.

19:05 – Panel: You are only one person.

19:08 – Guest: If I can get the site creating more revenue than I can hire someone to do video editing, etc.

19:35 – Panel: I think you are overthinking it.

19:45 – Guest.

19:47 – Advertisement – Sentry.io

20:47 – Guest.

21:30 – Aimee: There are SO many resources out there right now. Where do you think you fit into this landscape?

21:44 – The landscape is cluttered, but I feel that I am different b/c of my thoroughness. I don’t always explain line by line, but I do say how and why things work. I think also is my VOICE. Not my radio voice, but the tone and the approach you take with it.

23:25 – Panel: I was trying to copy folks in the beginning of my career. And at some point I realized that I needed to find my own style. It always came down to the reasons WHY I am different rather than the similarities. Like, Chris, you have these quick hits on CloseBrace, but some people might feel like they don’t have the time to get through ALL of your content, because it’s a lot. For me, that’s what I love about your content.

24:46 – Christopher: Yeah, it was intentional.

25:36 – Panel: Good for you.

25:49 – Guest: I am super device agnostic: Android, Mac, PC, etc. I have a lot of people from India that are more Microsoft-base.

26:28 – Aimee: I think Egghead is pretty good about this...do you cover testing at all with these things that you are doing? It’s good to do a “Hello World” but most of these sites don’t get into MORE complex pieces. I think that’s where you can get into trouble. It’s nice to have some boiler point testing, too.

27:18 – Guest answers Aimee’s question.

28:43 – Aimee: We work with a consultancy and I asked them to write tests for the things that we work with. That’s the value of the testing. It’s the code that comes out.

29:10 – Panel: Can you explain this to me. Why do I need to write tests? It’s always working (my code) so why do I have to write a test?

29:39 – Guest: When working with AWS I was writing...

31:01 – Aimee: My biggest thing is that I have seen enough that the people don’t value testing are in a very bad place, and the people that value testing are in a good place. It even comes back to the customers, because the code gets so hard that you end up repeatedly releasing bugs. Customers will stop paying their bills if this happens too often for them.

33:00 – Panel: Aimee / Chris do you have a preferred tool? I have done testing before, but not as much as I should be doing.

33:25 – Aimee: I like JEST and PUPPETEER.

33:58 – Guest: I like JEST, too.

34:20 – Aimee: Let’s go to PICKS!

34:35 – Advertisement – eBook: Get a coder job!

Links:

• JavaScript
• jQuery
• React
• Elixir
• Elm
• Vue
• JEST
• Puppeteer
• Podflix
• Autojump
• Brutalist Web Design
• YouTube: Mac Miller
• Balloon Fiesta
• DocZ
• CloseBrace
• Christopher Buecheler’s Website
• Christopher Buecheler’s LinkedIn
• Christopher Buecheler’s GitHub
• Go Learn Things – Chris Ferdinandi

Sponsors:

• Kendo UI
• Sentry
• Cache Fly
• Get a Coder Job

Picks:

Aimee

• Podflix

Chris F.

• AutoJump 
• Brutalist Web Design
• Mac Miller Tiny Desk Concert

AJ

• Canada Dry with Lemonade

Aaron

• ABQ Ballon Festival
• Joe Eames DND Recording Channel

Christopher

• Docz
• South Reach Trilogy
• Jeff Vandermeer

Sponsors

• Sentry use the code “devchat” for 2 months free on Sentry small plan
• Clubhouse
• CacheFly 

Host: Charles Max Wood

Guest: Christopher Buecheler

Episode Summary

In this episode of My JavaScript Story, Charles hosts Christopher Buecheler, novelist, web developer and founder of CloseBrace, a JavaScript tutorial and resource site.

Christopher is a self-taught full-stack web developer with extensive experience in programming with JavaScript, jQuery, React.js, Angular.js, and much more. Listen to Christopher on the  JavaScript Jabber podcast.

Christopher started CloseBrace because he really enjoys helping people and giving back to the community. In his spare time, he writes science fiction novels and is also working on a web application for knitting called Stitchly with a friend.

Links

• https://devchat.tv/js-jabber/jsj-338-its-supposed-to-hurt-get-outside-of-your-comfort-zone-to-master-your-craft-with-christopher-buecheler/
• CloseBrace
• React.js
• https://twitter.com/closebracejs
• Christopher Buecheler’s Twitter
• Christopher Buecheler’s Website
• Christopher Buecheler’s LinkedIn
• Christopher Buecheler’s GitHub
• https://closebrace.com/categories/five-minute-react
• contact@closebrace.com
• http://stitchly.io/
• Christopher Buecheler's Amazon link
• Elixir by Christopher Buecheler
• https://devchat.tv/my-javascript-story/
• https://www.facebook.com/DevChattv
• https://www.facebook.com/javascriptjabber
• https://devchat.tv/my-javascript-story/

Picks

Christopher Buecheler:

• Bracket Pair Colorizer
• Highlight Matching Tag
• https://gitlens.amod.io/
• Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin

Charles Max Wood:

• Language Server Extension Guide
• RRU 015: Visual Studio Code with Rachel MacFarlane and Matt Bierner LIVE at Microsoft Build
• VoV 015: Visual Studio Code with Rachel MacFarlane and Matt Bierner LIVE at Microsoft Build

Dewey Library - PQ7070.C65 2018

Alegre, Helena, author

Hayden Library - TP573.5.M657 A58 2018