Forem: Brian Gershon

Regional Air Quality with Arduino Explore IoT Kit

Brian Gershon — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 05:33:38 +0000

Arduino just released their new cloud-enabled "Explore IoT Kit" with a board full of sensors and actuators.

I had the opportunity to work with the kit beforehand in a workshop sponsored by Heroku as part of the CascadiaJS 2020 remote conference.

In my Regional Air Quality with Arduino Explore IoT Kit blog article, I'll walk through what the kit contains, how to get started, provide links to example code, discuss some helpful information I found along the way, and wrap up with a Thank You to the workshop organizers.

The Importance of Community

Brian Gershon — Thu, 16 Jul 2020 22:36:10 +0000

I discovered the very first CascadiaJS event in 2012 and have made this my annual pilgrimage since.

You come for JavaScript and front-end tech knowledge share, but stay for the community and opportunities to connect with friends. You get to hear inspiring talks, challenge your assumptions, and meet a new generation of developers, designers and entrepreneurs. To me, that type of community is incredible and one I get to experience year after year.

At the 2019 event, I ran into friends I hadn't seen in a couple of years.

What's in store for CascadiaJS 2020?

There are a few events that are part of CascadiaJS this year that are a bit different than years previous. Beyond it being in cyberspace, there are pre-events!

July Prefunk (July 15, 2020) -- CascadiaJS is hosting a pre-conference meetup. Tickets are free though if you choose to pay all proceeds will support the Opportunity Scholarship Program.
August Prefunk -- Stay tuned for announcement of an additional pre-conference event in August.
Conference Week (August 31 - September 4, 2020) -- This week begins with a job fair, followed by two days of conference, followed by two days of workshops! See schedule.

Learning and Growth Opportunities

One thing that is really important to me, is helping others find success in a welcoming community, like I was able to.

In 2010 I made a dramatic shift to JavaScript and front-end development. Prior to that I was focused on back-end work (Python and Django), and then native mobile development for awhile.

For context, Node.js was just entering the scene in 2009 and the first NodeConf was in 2012 at the same time as CascadiaJS began. I has the opportunity to made the trek down to Portland to attend. JavaScript was starting to be everywhere.

To ease (more like leap) into this new front-end lifestyle, I had been attending the national JSConf at the peak of my tech transition, and went for several years. The conferences were fantastic, however they were so popular that tickets would sell out in about 15 seconds.

When I heard of a new Pacific Northwest conference starting up, I was thrilled -- a chance to meet and work with people in our local community.

The Community Opportunity

Fast-forward to this year: I have the opportunity to volunteer as part of the conference organizing committee! So far I have participated in reviewing the talks during the "Call for Presenters" process, as well as helping with scholarships.

CascadiaJS also offers an Opportunity Scholarship Program to make the conference more accessible to a broader group of people. Conference attendees may apply for a scholarship here. If you'd like to contribute to the Scholarship Fund, you can do so when buying a ticket for the conference, the prefunk events, or via sponsorship.

You can learn more about the conference by visiting CascadiaJS 2020 for the speaker line-up, social events, and how to join the community on Slack and Twitter.

I'm thankful for the opportunity to contribute to the Cascadia community, and look forward to seeing you at the events!

Code Katas

Brian Gershon — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 15:38:59 +0000

There are many ways to grow your software engineering skills. Learning algorithms, building tools, creating websites, crafting games.

Earn Engineering Honor

One method I've been enjoying lately is participating in codewars.com.

You earn honor by solving problems ("Katas") and contributing to the community. Some Katas take 15 minutes to solve, some require researching the internet and paging through your favorite algorithm book.

The gamified platform provides a web-based editor, a test framework and thousands of problems to choose from.

Want to learn JavaScript, Python, Go or Elixir? Katas exist for 50+ languages.

Once you've solved a problem, you unlock all the solutions that others created. You learn a lot from all the various approaches.

Monthly Code Katas

This is even more fun when run as a social event.

I participating in a "Code Katas" session hosted by the SeattleJS Hackers Meetup.

This is now a 100% remote event anyone can attend via Zoom -- the March 2020 event was the first one held remotely due to COVID-19.

Here's how it works:

Justin Oliver Lee (@JustinOliverLee) and Jon Borgonia (@theRemix) who lead the meetup, offer an initial "get to know each other" session for socializing. Classroom space and pizza is often provided by Galvanize.
Then the introductory round of Katas start with Justin posting one coding problem in Slack. Everyone works on it for 20 minutes. Justin has solved many of these problems previously, so is happy to help.
As people finish, they post their solutions back to a public Slack channel.
At the end of the round, each person in turn walks through their approaches with the rest of the group. Almost every solution is different -- sometimes in small ways and sometimes in large ways -- but you learn from it.
After the warm-up, it's time for a second round. Two Katas are posted -- choose one or both to work on. Then there's a third round.

In addition to having fun participating, you've earned some honor on Codewars along the way.

Next Steps

To find the next scheduled "Code Katas" event, visit the SeattleJS Hackers Meetup. If latest event not yet posted, here's the March 2020 meetup as an example of what to expect.

In-between events, keep working away on new challenges at home or with others.

I look forward to seeing you on Codewars.

Start a new VanillaJS, React, Node.js, Eleventy or Svelte project with minimal dependencies

Brian Gershon — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 15:27:46 +0000

Each time I start a project I want a minimal template to get going. "Minimal" meaning least complicated and smallest number of dependencies while still having features every JavaScript project needs.

These repositories are all Github templates, so you can create a fresh repo using them.

Vanilla JavaScript starter

github.com/briangershon/vanilla-js-minimal with minimal dependencies. Support for ECMAScript modules, hot reloading, lint and unit testing. Plus Github CI workflow.

React Starter

github.com/briangershon/react-minimal with minimal dependencies. Support for ECMAScript modules, hot reloading, lint and unit testing. Plus Github CI workflow.

Node.js Starter

github.com/briangershon/nodejs-minimal with minimal dependencies. Support for ECMAScript modules, lint and unit testing. Plus Github CI workflow. Does not require Babel nor a bundler.

Eleventy Site Generator Starter

github.com/briangershon/eleventy-minimal is the most minimal Eleventy site, created as part of my Choose Your Own Adventure with Eleventy presentation.

Svelte Component Library Starter

github.com/briangershon/svelte-minimal compiles Svelte components into ES5 and bundles as an ECMAScript module with minimal dependencies. Support for hot reloading, lint and testing. Plus Github CI workflow.