Last week I was lucky enough to get to attend Full Frontal 2009 in Brighton with a whole bunch of my colleagues to lend a bit of support to friend and fellow Glow developer, Jake, after his previous highly successful first foray into the world of speaking at last year's @media ajax.
The range of topics was excellent. It was really good to see some more people speaking about server-side JavaScript and it seems that Simon Willison's talk and demo of node.js was a particular highlight for a lot of people and certainly seemed inspiring (which is possibly why he's always such a good last speaker).
I'm never terribly good at taking notes, but I didn't think there was an off session of the day. PPK wowed us with the frankly impossible task that is mobile browser testing, Todd Kloots did one of the better and more thorough introductions to ARIA and accessible JavaScript development talks I've seen (and it's a shame he ran out of time), and Robert Nyman did a gallant job of explaining closures and currying (amongst other things, via the inexplicable medium of Ben Affleck) - both of which I think are akin to explaining string-theory to primary-schoolers.
Of course, I'm slightly biased and I really want to tell you everyone else is just being kind and he actually sucked, but even though I'd already seen Jake's "Optimising where it hurts" practice run-throughs and had already heard many of his jokes and examples, I still laughed throughout and thoroughly enjoyed his animated way of explaining the topic (which he does fluently and coherantly) and thought he stole the day.
Generally, I thought the day was a total success. The venue was lovely (although it's a shame it wasn't a slight bit more central, and the rain always sucks) as it was a fully-functional cinema - seats were comfortable and the quality of the screen and sound were excellent. Everything seemed to be organised extremely well and can't really fault it, so big congrats to Remy and his lovely wife, and all the helpers. I really hope they organise one again next year - I'll definitely be there.
Not bad. Slightly underwhelmed and the sudden demise of the set was a let-down.
The Decemberists
Something very special. The beautifully orchestrated first set complete play-through of the new album, The Hazards of Love, then a second set of eclectic favourites from the past played by the massively multi-talented group was a sensation.
Now we've got Glow 1.7 out the door, our minds are turning towards planning for version 2, our next major release which will be out in the new year. We're planning a significant overhaul, and as the major version increment indicates this will include a fundamental rewrite of large portions of the library.
Now is also a great time for users and contributors to get involved. Please tell us what you've liked and disliked about version 1, and what features you'd most like to see in version 2.
We have produced a set of four themes that we'd like to explore in Glow 2. These might get you thinking about what your perfect desert island library would contain, or maybe you think we've missed something vital?
Accessibility - provide a step-change in accessible and usable widgets
Performance - reduce load and execution times to the bare minimum
Design - build widgets that look fantastic alone or in combination
Community - open up the project and help the community thrive
We really want to hear what you think. If you'd like to talk to us about your ideas then join us on our mailing list, chat with us on IRC or you can send @bbcglow a message on twitter or by adding the hastag #bbcglow2 - we'll do our best to respond to everyone who sends us a suggestion.
Pretty cute set. Twangy plucked acoustic guitar and simple lyrics.
The Cheek
Deritive dullness. Felt like I should have been watching them reherse in their parents' garage. If they lost a superfluous guitarist and that too-cool-for-school vocalist/keyboardist* (*if you can call someone who pushes half a dozen keys in a set one) they might be able to sort themselves out a bit.
Slow Club
See previous gushing posts. I'm totally starting to get into the obligatory sing-a-long. Last mention though before this blog becomes about them exclusively.
