Venkat Subramaniam
Central Iowa Software Symposium
Des Moines · August 2 - 4, 2013
Founder @ Agile Developer, Inc.
Dr. Venkat Subramaniam is an award-winning author, founder of Agile Developer, Inc., creator of agilelearner.com, and an instructional professor at the University of Houston.
He has trained and mentored thousands of software developers in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia, and is a regularly-invited speaker at several international conferences. Venkat helps his clients effectively apply and succeed with sustainable agile practices on their software projects.
Venkat is a (co)author of multiple technical books, including the 2007 Jolt Productivity award winning book Practices of an Agile Developer. You can find a list of his books at agiledeveloper.com. You can reach him by email at venkats@agiledeveloper.com or on twitter at @venkat_s.
Presentations
Java 8 Language Capabilities - What's in it for you?
There is a good amount of excitement about the new version of Java. The big
evolution of course is the lambda expressions. In this presentation we will dive into the language features in Java 8, take a look at some of their nuances, and look at ways to put them to good use.
Demystifying invokedynamic
Invoke dynamic is a Java 7 feature that had the most impact at the bytecode level and also in terms of performance. First perceived as a feature to help dynamically typed languages on the JVM, it turned into a powerful feature that has been exploited quite a bit in the implementation of features in the Java
language itself.
Understanding the "NO" in NoSQL
Relational databases have ruled the world since the dawn of time (or so it appears). They power our enterprises and for many in the corporate world, it may be hard to imagine life without them. Each decade a novel idea would challenge the status quo and make a case to deviate for the tradition. A flock of enthusiastic programmers, like your humble speaker back in the early 90s, would throw their support around it, only to be crushed eventually by the large vendors and enterprise standards. But, the excitement around NoSQL has shown that enterprise data is not the only thing that's persistent.
The Art of Simplicity
We've been told to keep things simple. It turns out, that's easily said than done. Creating something simple is, well, not really that simple. If simple was sitting next to us, would we even recognize it? Is my design simple, is yours simple? How can we tell?
Sever-side programming with JavaScript
JavaScript is the dark horse of programming languages. It's one of the
most misunderstood languages and yet most pervasive in client-side
web development. This adolescent language is gaining recognition once
again, but surprisingly in server side programming.
CoffeeScript for recovering JavaScript programmers
Saying JavaScript is powerful is an understatement. The problem is it is way too powerful and dangerously flexible. Programmers often have trouble reaping its benefits due to its uncontrolled flexibility and, to a certain extent, lack of structure. One approach is to learn to tame the beast, like the authors of complex JavaScript libraries have done. Fortunately there is an alternative. CoffeeScript is JavaScript created in a humane way. In this session we will learn how, using CoffeeScript, we can reap all the benefits of JavaScript, but without losing our sanity in the process.
Programming with HTML 5
Developing a rich user interface for web applications is both exciting and challenging. HTML 5 has closed the gaps and once again brought new vibe into programming the web tier. Come to this session to learn how you can make use of HTML 5 to create stellar applications.
Developing Offline Applications with HTML 5
Mobile devices are gaining popularity but the diversity of these devices poses a challenge for development. HTML 5 promises to bring a consistent API to program the client side for both desktop and diverse mobile devices. One additional challenge with mobile devices is network connectivity, or the lack of it. Mobile devices are often taken into remote areas with low or no connectivity. While a native app can run on the device anytime, a web based application by default depends on having connectivity, unless of course we use the offline capabilities of HTML 5. Come to this presentation to learn how to create applications that can switch seamlessly between connected and offline mode.
A dozen cool things we can do with popular JVM Languages
Languages offer a lot more than syntax and compilers. They often have supporting libraries and special facilities that set them apart from other languages. Some languages offer special compiler support for a particular construct, like tail call optimization, for example. Others provide interesting library support or capabilities.
HTML 5 Animations - building true richness on the web
User experience and rich interaction is top in the list of things that influence the success and adoption of applications. Such richness and interactions were owned by desktop and native applications in the past. Over the recent years the web has become increasingly interactive, but the true richness was still lacking. But all that has changed with HTML 5 canvas and animation techniques.
10 Commandments of Technical Presentations
We all have to do that at some point, giving presentations, to a group of audience, in public or at work. You've seen presentations and most likely have given some. You've prepared well on the technical topic, yet you're nervous presenting it. You ask what should you do to prepare? How do you deliver a great presentation?