West Region Team
Here are the resources for the “HTML5 for the Real World” Presentation given at SoCalCodeCamp on Saturday January 28th, 2012. Enjoy!
See the presentation here: HTML5 for the Real World
[HTML5 Demos]
How often are you asked something like:
"How good are you at…""Have you used…""What is your experience with…"
With regard to technical competency in a given area, what should you say? After giving this some thought, I feel there are three major aspects that come into play:
This is a two-part aspect. Knowledge refers to the specifics, while understanding relates to conceptual comprehension. For example, in HTML5 new elements have appeared such as <section> and <article>. Knowledge is awareness of these things and the proper syntax to use them. Understanding is knowing why and when we would use one over the other.
<section>
<article>
If all you have is the first aspect, then you only have is academics. You would be "all theory, no practice" as the saying goes. How much time you put into actually using the technology is commensurate with your expertise. And I am sure you will agree that the more time you spend on any technology, the more likely through "trial and error" you learn more too.
How you apply the technology is also a factor. Using HTML5 to create a friend's personal website will (likely) not give me the same challenges as a Fortune 500 company needing a new internet site. The context of the technologies surrounding a technology also comes into play. For example, loading a web page with static data vs. loading a data from a service in the cloud – both end up the same, but the level of skill to complete one or the other is considerably different. In this aspect the scale of use is also factored. Creating something to please 10 people is far different from creating something to please 10,000,000 people.
Any of the above aspects deserve much more explanation. This is just my rough-draft thinking. Imagine an algorithm that would put these into numerical measurement. Something like: TL = (A+E2)C Technical level equals context multiplied by the sum of academics and experience weighted twice important
TL = (A+E2)C
If each aspect were given a scale of 1 to 5, what would your technical level be?
The year 2011 was my first full year as a Microsoft blue-badge.
In looking back on all my blog stats, I unraveled a humorous irony as to what became my number one blog post of the year. Would the top blog of the year have something to do with HTML5? Would it be regarding a technical article? Would it be a blog post that stirred heated discussions? Would the top spot be a post of free resources such as online videos? Nope. Stay tuned… the number one blog post is revealed at the end.
For now, please join me in a walk down memory lane as I reveal my five most popular blog posts in descending order:
5 Camtasia Recorder Error: “Failed to start recording: Temp Folder Uninitialized”
No surprises here. Anytime I blog about a technical error with a product it usually ends up being found by the search engines.
4 A .NET Love Story
For a post that was originally written in 2005, it still remains my most viewed blog post of all time. Doesn’t that make sense? It is about love…
3 To MVP, or not to MVP…
This was a blog post in response to an ex-MVP who felt the MVP program at Microsoft had no value in his eyes. It was not the most viewed blog post, but it claims the prize for the most comments.
2 HTML5 “Web Camp” Videos
Confession time. I really was hoping this would post would land at number one. Coming in at number two is not bad considering I posted it in the latter part of 2011. Nonetheless, recording industry super-stars sharing secrets about HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript techniques still took a back seat to my number one blog post of the year…
1 How to Fix/Repair iPhone With Water Damage
Seriously? In my first year at Microsoft, my number one blog post is about how I fixed my wife’s iPhone? *sigh*