HTML CSS JavaScript

There's always a slide about performance in my presentations. This time? Every slide will be about performance. I'm chomping at the bit to get started on this one.

The Bocoup guys were crazy enough to invite me down to talk about my favorite topic- front end performance. Here's the write up:

Front End Performance for the Common Man: Practical Strategies to Speed Up Your Site

Day: Wednesday May 19th 2010
Time: 6:30pm – 8pm
Cost: Free

Rob Larsen will examine the core concepts and techniques behind the performance of the web's fastest sites and will translate them into practical examples. This talk will cut across several technologies (JavaScript, CSS, Ant, Apache and more) to present a suite of tools any developer can use to speed up their site- no matter the size or budget. RSVP to The Event Page.

It's going to be a really good talk- full of practical examples and advice for every flavor and level of web developer. You should totally go.

Actually, you should just go to all the Bocoup talks. Smart people talking about killer technology = fun times. I'll be a regular there.

You've all seen this, but now here it is from the official channel.

Speaking of WordPress and HTML5, I'm knee deep in the process of getting DrunkenFist.com relaunched and I've been doing the WordPress component for the past few days. It's super complicated. Which means, of course, I'm having a blast with it

Here's the link I promised:

JavaScript 101: Adding Interactivity to Your Site Using the World's Most Popular Programming Language

*A note on the title- I'm just repeating what Douglas Crockford said. To remix the quote about IBM, no JavaScript developer ever got fired for quoting Douglas Crockford**

**Don't quote me on that

Again, I want to thank everyone that came out. It's always fun to attend the Boston JS Meetups and presenting there is even cooler.

And here it is:

Slides.

Just in time for me to do it all over again tonight at the Boston JavaScript Meetup. Well, not completely all over again as it's a new presentation tonight, but it'll still be two times at NERD this week.

Check it out:

JavaScript 101: Using JavaScript to Add Interactivity to Your Web Site

Rob Larsen will lead an interactive session outlining the basic steps to getting started with using JavaScript using modern techniques. For the beginner it will serve as a road map to using JavaScript with confidence. For the more advanced user it will serve and a forum to discuss fundamental best practices as Rob will be soliciting feedback and discussion throughout.

It'll be basically a step by step on getting JavaScript onto a page, in a modern, "best practices" way. Starting with attaching the script to the page using the script tag all the way through writing a function and attaching it to an element. Each step will be split into three levels of discussion:

1. For the beginners each will simply be presented as "this is how you do it"
2. For the intermediate user it will be "this is why we do it this way"
3. For the advanced user it will be a question- "where does this fall apart and how can we make it better"

It should be fun. I hope to see you there.

Owing to the contrast on the A/V system, my last slide was illegible, so here are all the links that folks couldn't see.

The presentation itself:
HTML5 + WordPress

And the resource links:

The working group
http://www.whatwg.org/
Mark Pilgrim's HTML5 book
Dive into HTML5
The Modernizr library
Modernizr
The outliner
http://gsnedders.html5.org/outliner/
The post talking about Kubrick
I’m Messing Around With an HTML5 Version of the Default WordPress Theme

My other sites:
DrunkenFist.com (art portfolio)
@robreact

I'll have video of the presentation up shortly (I hope!)

WordCamp Boston is less than a week away, and as part of my presentation I wanted to show the new elements in an environment that basically everyone that works on WordPress sites will recognize- the default theme. To that end, I mocked up a functioning HTML5ized version of the home page to use as an example. That was both easy and fun.
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Looking to 2010, these are the big things I'm hoping to accomplish (tech wise):
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Crockford on JavaScript: a Public Lecture Series on JavaScript

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I'm excited to announce that I'm going to be speaking at the 1st WordCamp Boston. I'll be talking about the marriage of two of my favorite technologies: WordPress and HTML5.

The Future is Now: WP Themes With HTML 5

Excited about HTML5? Wish you could start using the new semantic elements right now? You can. In this presentation Rob Larsen will show you how to create cross-browser, HTML5 enhanced WordPress themes using nothing more than a little extra JavaScript, basic WordPress knowledge and some knowledge of the new elements.

Check out the rest of the program.

It takes place January 23, 2010 and is being held at:

Microsoft New England Research and Development Center
1 Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA 02142

Thanks once again to Microsoft for hosting pretty much every technology group in the area