ConfPad

"The future is now. Or then. Or it will be soon be now, but now is then. JavaScript and its ecosystem is ever evolving and JS fatigue can be real. It's a lot to keep up with. Staying up to date on the ever moving system feels like a fool's errand and to some degree it can be. But in this talk we're going to chat about a few things: what's new and important n…

Marketing folk almost always insist that we build in WordPress. And it’s great for informational sites. But we refuse to build custom web apps upon the WordPress ecosystem. But sometimes we’re asked to and we can at least appear to comply… Thus we launched a Hybrid experiment. An attempt to build React apps that seamlessly blended together and worked along s…

JavaScript is the assembly language of the web, but that hasn't prevented it from being the punchline of jokes for the last decade or more because of its weird quirks and browser implementations. It doesn't have to be this way. Modern browsers and Node.JS support ES6 and beyond. This isn't the JavaScript of the early 90's, 00's, or even ten years ago, and if…

Take your old scratched Les Paul or Stratocaster from the case and fill all the space around with warm riffs. I’m going to show how to transform the code into Kirk Hammett’s wah-wah, Stevie Ray Vaughan’s overdrive and Kurt Cobain’s distortion. You’ll learn how to parse audio input in real-time using JavaScript and the Web Audio API. I’ll be jamming live on s…

Auth is a a daunting concept to grok, especially for the uninitiated. In addition to the many authentication strategies to choose from, there are also many cloud based authentication services available. Deciding the best authentication strategy for your application can be an incredibly overwhelming decision. In this session, we journey through the steps of s…

We’re pretty used to drones flying around us by now. Until now most of these drones were still controlled by a human operator. But what if we could control them solely using our code? In this talk I will show how to control multiple drones using JavaScript. With the help of Node.js we’ll send commands to the drones and read back their telemetry. I will talk …

You could argue that web accessibility is the most important consideration when building web applications. Web accessibility enables an inclusive experience for all. Yet it tends to be overlooked due to its complex nature. Let’s change that! Recently, I was tasked with creating a company-wide web accessibility plan. I drafted a plan, collaborated with the te…

Have you considered using TypeScript but can’t bring yourself to take the plunge? Are you worried that the cost will outweigh the benefits? As someone who has gone all in on TypeScript I’ll detail my journey from TypeScript skeptic to TypeScript fanboy using examples from real world usage at NPR. Tommy O'Keefe is a full stack developer at NPR, formerly a ful…

You can choose to be a code executer and keep spending your time running code that other people wrote. But a true Jedi developer knows how to use the power of the source. In this session, we will peek under the hood of a famous library and see how much we can learn from it. By the end of this session, you will get both practical tips and motivation to explor…

In 1985 pop music was mesmerized by the a-ha “Take on me” music video. It’s been almost 35 years since then, the world needs new catchy tunes with impressive video animations… on the web. Let’s learn how we can edit videos and create immersive experiences worthy of the ‘80s using JavaScript and CSS.