KrolTech

How I’m Learning: Elixir & Phoenix

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 16:20:19 +0000

Recently I’ve been spending a lot of my free time absorbing as much as I can about an exciting Functional Programming language called Elixir. For those of you that don’t know, Elixir is somewhat of a spiritual successor to Ruby, and therefore Phoenix (the web framework for Elixir) could be considered it’s Rails. Let’s take a look at my learning path and what you can do if you’re interested in becoming a proficient Elixir & Phoenix developer!

Getting started with React/Flux Node/MongoDB – Open Source

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 01:06:24 +0000

Almost a year ago I started an ambitious project to create a website from scratch using React and Flux (Redux) as well as Node.js and MongoDB. I was also writing a companion book parallel to writing the actual code for the project and made some really good progress. Since I basically stopped completely and just let the book sit and linger, I decided that I should at least open source the book so you can check it out and hopefully learn from it.

Kangaroo Pro Standing Desk Review

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 08:00:08 +0000

Being a full time remote worker for most of the past year, I realized that I had to get off my butt more so I took the plunge and started standing!

Free React.js/Flux course on Udemy.com!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Thu, 19 Nov 2015 14:43:19 +0000

The fine folks at Udemy.com have provided me with a coupon code for a free React.js/Flux course!

2nd Ed. of Web Development with MongoDB and NodeJS

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 15:08:56 +0000

Excited that the 2nd edition of my book has just been released!

Stateless Functional Components new in React 0.14

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 16 Oct 2015 14:19:48 +0000

React version 0.14 was recently released and introduced some breaking changes as well as a few new features worth pointing out.

Getting Started with React and Flux

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Thu, 15 Oct 2015 02:54:23 +0000

Big surprise, I’m jumping on the React/Flux bandwagon!

Launched my first Playstation 4 Video Streaming App!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Thu, 15 Oct 2015 02:43:34 +0000

Its been a while since I last posted, as Ive been hard at work putting the final touches on the Playstation 4 app that I created for DramaFever!

AngularJS Directive: Two ways to skin a cat

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 13:19:58 +0000

Let’s take a look at a recent directive I needed to create, and dissect the two completely different approaches I took to accomplish what I needed.

Improve your code quality

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 15 May 2015 19:33:58 +0000

One of the most important things when writing code is the quality with which you write it. Quality can be subjective so its important to adhere to a few basic standards and tools.

Testing Angular directives using events

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 15 May 2015 12:40:00 +0000

Testing directives can be somewhat painful at times. I specifically struggled with testing a keyDown event and passing specific keycodes.

Announcing PayWhatevs.com!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Mon, 13 Apr 2015 13:46:58 +0000

I’ve been working on a new project for almost a year now and I’m finally excited to announce its launch!

My new job at DramaFever.com!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 13:29:07 +0000

Its been a while since my last post, but a lot has been going on. I started a new job with DramaFever.com!

Request API node.js helper module

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 00:31:12 +0000

A convenient helper module for node.js and request when you regularly work with an API in your projects.

Webcast: Rapid Prototyping Web Applications Using Node.js and MongoDB 1/7/15

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 02 Jan 2015 23:05:32 +0000

Thanks to the awesome folks at O’Reilly I will be giving a live webcast about prototyping web applications using node.js and MongoDB.

Simple MongoDB node.js client module

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 02 Jan 2015 22:51:14 +0000

Here’s a simple MongoDB client module I use when prototyping projects in node.js.

My new book: Web Development with MongoDB and Node.js

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Thu, 09 Oct 2014 01:08:51 +0000

Introducing my new book; Web Development with MongoDB and Node.js! Its been a long 6 months of blood sweat and tears, but its finally released!

Quick Tip: Increase upload size in AWS Elastic Beanstalk (node.js env)

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sun, 14 Sep 2014 23:37:15 +0000

If you want to support larger file uploads and you’re hosting a node.js app via AWS which uses nginx, heres a trick that will make it pretty easy to change the default cap.

Automating Amazon.com login with Node.js and PhantomJS

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 20:02:19 +0000

My quest to make a better Kindle Direct Publishing report using their “nonpublic” API data.

Automate your (digital) life with ifttt.com

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 06 Jun 2014 20:54:28 +0000

I recently discovered ifttt.com (again) and the level of sophistication and life automation it delivers is unbelievably convenient. If you aren’t using it, start today!

Sanitizing XSS and HTML with Express middleware

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 30 May 2014 17:00:56 +0000

Lets take a look at a few different options for handling sanitizing user input fields in both node.js as well as the browser.

Quick Tip: Customize your Asana Theme Background image

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Thu, 15 May 2014 01:57:09 +0000

I started using Asana again for a personal project, and while I love the themes option I really wanted to be able to provide my own image. Stylebot Chrome extension to the rescue!

Continuous Integration with Travis-CI

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 17:55:00 +0000

Lets take a look at using Travis-CI for continuous integration specifically to track the build status for our node projects on GitHub.

Selling an eBook through Amazon.com

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 17:48:00 +0000

My experience experimenting with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing by selling a blog post as an eBook.

Use Grunt to push a Git tag

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 12:37:45 +0000

I use tags in git to version my code and push changes to production. Tagging is fairly simple using the git cli, but I’ve made it even easier using a simple Grunt task.

Review: Backbone.js Patterns and Best Practices

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 13:01:47 +0000

I was fortunate enough to receive a review copy of Backbone.js Patterns and Best Practices directly from the author. It’s a decent book, and a great ‘next step’ for anyone thats a budding Backbone developer that has got the basics down and wants to take their skills to the next level.

Node.js testing with Mocha, Chai, Sinon & Proxyquire

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 28 Feb 2014 20:09:17 +0000

Lets take a look at testing node.js using a few popular tools and frameworks for running and writing tests.

Highlight specific lines in a Github repo file

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 28 Feb 2014 14:57:04 +0000

Heres a quick and easy tip to highlight selected lines in a GitHub repo file when you link to it.

Organize your day, week, and beyond with EverNote

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 28 Feb 2014 02:49:09 +0000

Lets take a look at a quick and easy way to use EverNote to organize your daily, weekly and future lists of to dos!

Why aren’t you using IRC?

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 16:42:45 +0000

You may not realize it, but there’s a whole world of developers out there accessible in real-time on one of the oldest original “social networks”!

2014 Goals & Ambitions

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 23:38:10 +0000

Here’s my obligatory list of goals and ambitions for the year!

How to fork your own repo in Github

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 01:46:44 +0000

While forking your own repo sounds like it should be fairly obvious, its definitely not.

2013 Year in Review

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sun, 29 Dec 2013 15:56:45 +0000

Boilerplate web app using Backbone.js, ExpressJS, node.js, MongoDB

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sun, 29 Dec 2013 03:53:56 +0000

A boilerplate project for a complete web application written using Backbone.js & Marionette, node.js & ExpressJS, MongoDB & Mongoose, Handlebars, Grunt.js, Bower, and Browserify!

Mimic Mac Copy/Paste in Windows

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 23:48:05 +0000

With this quick tip, you can mimic one of the most commonly used keystrokes that’s completely different between Windows and Mac – Copy/Paste!

Any.do is a pretty awesome to do app

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sun, 08 Dec 2013 02:14:16 +0000

I’ve been trying to find the perfect “to do” app for quite some time and I think I might have finally found it!

MongoDB for Node.js Developers online training & certification

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sat, 07 Dec 2013 04:09:44 +0000

JavaScript TDD with Jasmine and Karma

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 18:17:43 +0000

We do rapid releases at AWeber so we’re constantly pushing code changes to our users. To be sure that we aren’t in a constant state of “fix 1 bug, introduce 2 more” we embrace TDD across our entire stack. This includes making sure our front-end JavaScript code has thorough test coverage.

My custom Bash shell prompt

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 02:20:59 +0000

Notes: Agile Development Training

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sun, 10 Nov 2013 14:58:18 +0000

Here are notes I took during a recent Agile training program at work. Not sure if any of this will be of any value or use to anyone, but here are they none-the-less.

Sublime Text – My New Favorite Editor!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 00:00:15 +0000

Getting started using Git with Windows

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sun, 13 Oct 2013 23:49:17 +0000

Peer Code Reviews

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sat, 28 Sep 2013 00:08:34 +0000

Connecting Chromecast to a Medialink router

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 23:12:48 +0000

Status update!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 00:56:34 +0000

My first week working at AWeber.com!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sat, 24 Aug 2013 04:37:10 +0000

AnimationFramework – simple scripted animations!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 03:22:07 +0000

A simple, yet flexible, animation framework to create scripted animations.

Kickstarter works – Shadowrun Returns!!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 02:02:46 +0000

Call me impressed. Looks like Kickstarter actually works! I backed the game Shadowrun Returns probably over a year ago, and if you hadn’t heard it actually released! And on top of that, its a damn fine game! Its exactly what I expected, although I don’t think some people fully knew what to expect so might have been disappointed with the game in the end (unfortunately, that’s more of a misunderstanding on their part or off-base/unrealistic expectations).

Starting a new job!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sat, 03 Aug 2013 02:55:03 +0000

Later this month I will be starting a new job, and really a new path in my career!

Remove URL from auto complete in Chrome

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 13:38:35 +0000

Every get frustrated when Chrome autocompletes a URL you frequent but it always suggests the wrong URL?! Here is a quick super simple way to remove those old URLs (or incorrectly preferred URLs) from the address bar.

Next-Gen Launch Titles: PS4 / Xbox One

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:43:47 +0000

Lets take a look at the current list of confirmed launch day titles exclusive to each of the next-gen consoles. Then I will list the remainder of the launch titles that you can get on either console.

PhotoFlipper.js – 3D flip your photo/gallery

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:09:12 +0000

I added another item to my github, a 3D css image rotator/randomizer.

ScrollToggle – detect scroll location and trigger events

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:53:58 +0000

Passing parameters to click event using trigger

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:44:40 +0000

I have a simple jQuery onClick event bound to a link. On the load of the page, I fetch existing data from a cookie and then call the onClick manually to setup the page (for returning visitors). There is some animation associated with the click – but when the page loads and all of the clicks are registered, the animations look odd and out of sync (and just logically dont make sense in that situation).

Tough Mudder Philadelphia 2013

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 15:11:28 +0000

I have successfully finished the Philadelphia Tough Mudder 2013! Not only did I finish, I completed every obstacle! My only problem was the distance / terrain – it was just way too rough and my knees failed me very early on which lead me to wind up walking more than half the course in incredible pain. But I completed the course!! I will say, honestly, I don’t think I ever would want to do it again.

Thoughts on the Xbox One reveal

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sat, 25 May 2013 02:47:39 +0000

I was very excited for the big reveal from Microsoft, and literally was counting down the days. When it finally arrived, I could hardly contain myself! My initial reaction was that I was somewhat underwhelmed, but generally excited and liked everything I saw during the presentation (even though I could very easily admit that they just didn’t show enough). The TV integration stuff I thought was very neat, and more importantly the pure speed of how everything worked on the system really wowed me and put to rest the biggest complaint I have with the current generation: how slow/long everything seems to take “using” the system.

Week in Review – 5/24/13

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sat, 25 May 2013 02:03:39 +0000

While I continue to work on the mobile application I’m creating for work, I rewrote the entire framework so that its much better organized. I also decided to integrate Marionette.js which was absolutely worth while. It took a little bit to figure it out, but the savings in time after the fact are huge! Writing simple views and collections now is a no brainer (almost to the point that I feel bad because it feels like cheating!

Starting Web Development with node.js/ExpressJS

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:26:42 +0000

For the past few months I’ve been seeing more and more about node.js popping up all over the place. I installed it and dabbled a few months ago, but never really spent more than an hour and honestly didn’t walk away very impressed (my own fault, really). This past week I decided to really give it another shot, really trying to dig into it and actually accomplish something. This also sparked by my discovery of Koding.

Discovering my love of “front-end” development / Being more pragmatic

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:30:56 +0000

Lately I’ve been noticing a trend with my skill set – its been increasing which is always great, but also starting to veer in directions that are alternate to that of a typical “.net developer”. I say this because, for all intents and purposes, I am a typical “.net developer”. Every recruiter I get a call from always has a “great .net opportunity that you would be perfect for!”. I’ve always prided myself on this notion, always considered myself a .

RegEx to convert urls in text to links (JavaScript)

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:48:13 +0000

Here’s a quick tip. If you have text that contains urls (i.e. tweets) and want the urls in the text to appear as actual links via HTML, use the following RegEx: [sourcecode lang=”javascript”] var message = “Here is some tweet text. Check out: http://www.google.com"; var exp = /(b(https?|ftp|file)://[-A-Z0-9+&@#/%?=~_|!:,.;]*[-A-Z0-9+&@#/%=~_|])/ig; message = message.replace(exp, “$1”); [/sourcecode] Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/37684/how-to-replace-plain-urls-with-links

Linux on my Chromebook, Cloud based IDEs

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 10 May 2013 21:17:49 +0000

Shortly after getting my Chromebook, I quickly realized that it was a bit lacking. Sure, I wrote earlier that its a great little device and perfect for surfing – but I also sort of wanted something a tiny bit more. So a little bit of searching lead me toan article explaining how you can very easily install Ubuntu Linux (well a port specifically for Chromebooks) on the device! The process itself was super painless and very easy.

Thoughts on Asus Chromebook

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:54:26 +0000

I’ve had a bug in my ear lately that I wanted something… different… than the iPad for general home usage and Internet surfing etc. I sort of wanted a laptop, but just didn’t want to pay the money for one. I was looking at some budget ultra-books but even those come in around $800+. There’s the Surface tablets, but the Pros are also $1200+ and the RT just seems like an iPad basically.

Mobile web “App” versus “app”, AngularJS, CSS Transforms, Electric Plum

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 13:45:16 +0000

Great article on why there aren’t more great “web apps” and the difference between an “App” and an “app”. Dan Whalin provides us an excellent introduction to AngularJS. The video is about 60 minutes, but covers a lot of ground and is a great introduction. After I’ve been spending some time with Backbone, I’ve been thinking more and more about maybe making the move onto Angular or Ember – a lot of the Microsoft evangelists seem to be pushing Angular lately – Pluralsight courses are coming very soon!

Condense your Bookmark bar

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:28:37 +0000

If you’re like me, you have a fair amount of sites that you visit on a daily basis. Personally, I love the Bookmark bar (on Chrome, Firefox, etc). However, you cant really fit a whole lot of sites before you hit the end (width) of the browser and typically get the double arrow “more” dropdown. Well a quick tip is to simply remove the text for all of the bookmarks that have a favicon set (which is probably 90% of them).

Fade in element on event using CSS3 & opacity

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 17:55:31 +0000

I’m working on a project, that requires a number of different animations based on user events. I recently switched all of the animations to CSS3 transforms and transitions versus jQuery animations. The improvement has been staggering, to say the least. However, I came across a weird issue today. When attempting to fade an element in after a click event, the element just kept popping into place. It wouldn’t fade. After some investigation I realized that my jQuery was setting the opacity to 1.

Mobile app prototype development

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:08:12 +0000

I’ve been working hard on preparing a mobile app prototype for a demonstration/proposal next week. The goal is to create a native app using HTML5 and PhoneGap. I’ve been building the app using Backbone primarily, and using Adobe’s PhoneGap Build. PhoneGap Build is a cloud based compilation tool that makes things VERY easy to get your app up and running natively. The build tool supports iOS, Android, Windows, Blackberry, HP, and a few others.

Mobile app development, Google Dev tools Code School, TekPub

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 19:03:10 +0000

I completed the Code School course on using Google Chrome Dev Tools. I highly recommend you complete this course – its super quick (probably no longer than 1 hour) and very easy. Yet, I learned a lot. Specifically with the more advanced topics of the dev tools like Profiling, Memory Leaks, Framerates, etc. Started writing my hybrid mobile app for work – learned quite a bit along the way. Working with jQuery Mobile, but its overhead and conventions/takeover is making it less than desirable – perhaps I’ll rewrite the transition animations manually and implement 3rd party Touch/Tap library.

Building a web app using Backbone.js and require.js – Part 1

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:15:19 +0000

A few requests for the full source code for this project have been made. Please feel free to download the full project files via this repo: https://github.com/jkat98/imgettinit_netmvc At the end of last year I set some goals for myself, one of which was to start using and become proficient in Backbone.js. I’ll be honest in saying that I struggled for a bit to really wrap my head around everything that was going on.

Building a web app using Backbone.js and require.js – Part 2

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:14:41 +0000

This post is the conclusion to the article Building a web app using Backbone.js and require.js – Part 1. Please be sure to read that article first before proceeding. In my previous post, we discussed the original idea for the project, outlined what its supposed to do, and started dissecting the project’s main.js and app.js files. Both of those files frequently referred to the “Games” Backbone view and collection, but never really explained them.

Barbell club session comes to an end

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:53:04 +0000

After 8 long weeks, my cycle with the Barbell Club at Crossfit Generation has come to an end. The entire experience was absolutely incredible, and being that it was my first exposure to true weightlifting I can definitely say without a doubt that I’m hooked. In this particular program, the cycle lasts 8 weeks with mandatory 2 days per week. My schedule was Thursday evenings at 6pm and Saturday mornings at 9am, same times every week.

Media queries with js, jStorage, native feeling web apps, Google Keep, and more!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:18:58 +0000

Found a neat little JavaScript tool (that’s right, Vanilla!) called Enquire.js for detecting Media Query triggers in CSS. This could be cool for triggering events (like animation) when you have certain components of your page depending on different media queries. Even though those triggers typically only occur on resize/resolution change – it could also be used to detect orientation change (i.e. iPad rotate from portrait to landscape). While researching some stuff for an upcoming mobile web app I need to create I found this handy JavaScript tool for storing to Local Storage called jStorage.

Maintaining minified .js files in Visual Studio 2012

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 16:39:52 +0000

Perhaps this is common knowledge, but I just figured it out (accidentally) and its pretty damn awesome! If you maintain a regular .js file, and then create a copy of it .min.js with a compressed copy of your code, Visual Studio will maintain that minified version automatically whenever you make changes to your original! It will create a .map file that it uses to keep track of the differences between your source and minified versions (variable names, etc).

Week in Review 3/15/13

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 19:53:09 +0000

Some teammates were surfing around looking for some inspiration and found an agency website that does some truly incredible work: http://nclud.com Notably are their BeerCamp websites they create: http://2012.beercamp.com, http://2013.beercamp.com – the 2013 website is actually a full on multiplayer game (similar to the original Mario Bros. game on Atari). Very inspirational!! While poking around the source code for the 2013 Beercamp website game I discovered Raphael.js, a simple JavaScript library that makes working with vector in HTML a breeze!

Video Game Review: Tomb Raider

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:30:57 +0000

I had been anticipating the new reboot of Tomb Raider for quite some time, pretty much since they originally revealed it. I thought it looked extremely impressive, and being touted as an Uncharted clone was perfectly fine with me! As always, I had my doubts because hype is getting worse and worse in the gaming industry, and honestly the last year has felt like nothing but letdown after letdown. Once I popped the game in and experienced the first hour all of my concerns were gone.

Raging Backbone.js coding and blog relaunch!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 16:25:08 +0000

I continue to plug away at my Backbone.js project (rewriting imgettin.it from scratch basically). I’ve hit a shitload of road blocks, but most of them were related to my having to completely rethink how to handle a certain area or aspect to make it more efficient – and then wrap my head around how to accomplish this new concept using Backbone.js. I would say its taken me probably a solid 4-6 nights of coding to get to the point that I don’t feel utterly lost and coding is coming more fluent now (versus stutters as with most new languages/concepts).

Single Page Application (SPA) Project Template

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 04:21:15 +0000

I started going through the process of deconstructing John Papa’s amazing CodeCamper Single Page Application project and trying to break it down to a basic stripped down project template. I love a lot of what was accomplished in that project (great DI, awesome Repositories and patterns, etc.)! While breaking down the project, I’ve learned quite a bit. I’ve posted the full source of the template to my github, but its still a work in progress.

Require.js, Knockback.js, A developer’s reaction (animated gif gallery)

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 21:52:25 +0000

While playing with the SPA project template (post forthcoming) I finally took some time to play around with Require.js. While its fairly easy to get started, it blew my mind how it almost instantly changed my mindset and habits with regard to organization of my code. At its most basic level, it allows you to break all of your code down into nice bite-sized chunks in individual files – but its so much more.

.Net Framework 2012.2, SPA templates, MGR: Revengeance, PS4, Working from home

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 02:38:42 +0000

The .Net framework 2012.2 update has been released. Most of this update has to do with a few minor tweaks and enhancements (color coding popular client-side templates, LESS support, etc) as well as some new templates. A great post on John Papa’s blog outlines the templates. Played Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and have to say I’m a little disappointed. Its definitely not Bayonetta, and I doubt Platinum will ever achieve the stunning awesomeness that was that game, but heres holding out hope (not much since last I heard Bayonetta 2 was WiiU exclusive).

First Backbone.js app, layoffs, Bleeding edge .net, SFIV

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 01:48:28 +0000

I’ve been working on a Backbone.js application for a few days now, and I really feel like I’m finally getting the hang of it. I’ve run into a few snags here and there but for the most part I’ve been pushing ahead and my application is coming together nicely. I hope to do a post with the entire source code and a heavy breakdown of each area of the code and functionality.

Pre-cache your for loops

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 18:59:22 +0000

While reading through the JavaScript Patterns book, I saw an item that totally stuck out as a crystal clear “duuhhh!!” moment. Why have I never seen/heard of that before and certainly why wasn’t I doing it regularly (and why hadn’t I thought of it to be honest). Instead of doing this: [sourcecode lang=”javascript”] for(var i=0; i < $(‘someselector li’).length; i++){ //loop through each LI in a UL, or any collection

JavaScript books, recent projects, Line rider!, Rock climbing

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 18:39:04 +0000

I went on a bit of a shopping spree on Amazon. Besides a few Kindle books (sci-fi, etc) I grabbed a few new JavaScript books as well: JavaScript Patterns – Stoyan Stefanov Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja – John Resig, Bear Bibeault If you are looking to utterly destroy an entire afternoon (or more), definitely check out the HTML5 version of an oldie but goodie, Free Rider HD!! (also know as Canvas Rider)

Week in Review 2/1/13

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 20:55:54 +0000

Was playing with animating some stuff on a page and started trying to work with animating box-shadow. I realized it wasn’t working and after some research figured out that it just doesn’t work. A super handy and easy plugin solves that problem though. The latest episode of the Suburban Strength Coach podcast is up! Started watching the Single Page Apps with HTML5, Web API, Knockout and jQuery on Pluralsight with my team at work.

Use “debugger;” in your JavaScript to trigger the browsers debug mode.

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 19:56:27 +0000

While watching the excellent course on Single Page Apps with HTML5, Web API, Knockout and jQuery by John Papa over at PluralSight, he dropped a nice little nugget of information that I was totally unaware of. You can add debugger; as a line by itself in your JavaScript and when your code gets executed by the browser, the browsers built in debugger will stop on that line. Think of it as a way to throw breakpoints right into your code.

Finishing Last…

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:53:29 +0000

I’ve been doing Crossfit for exactly 4 months now. In that time I have seen and experienced a tremendous improvement in my physical fitness and strength. However, I’m still a noob. And never is it more obvious than at the very end of each workout session. I always, consistently, finish in last place. While there is never a feeling of pressure or intense competition, they do post the scores on the whiteboard, and there are leader-boards and you just can’t help but notice when you finish last!

Wodify, Zen Coding, Backbone.js book, SimCity beta!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 02:49:39 +0000

Created a super basic/handy lift calculator – I’ll use this initially during my first bunch of sessions until I get comfortable doing the math on the fly. Its just painful trying to do percentage calculations while lifting, and then breaking down those results into how many different weights you need to add to each side of the bar! This tool will compute all of that in one shot! My Crossfit box started using Wodify.

First session of the CFG Barbell Club!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 03:35:26 +0000

I had my first session of the Barbell Club tonight and it was absolutely amazing! I hyped it up in my head for so long and then this past week started really getting nervous for it. My biggest fear was that, even though I’ve been doing Crossfit for 3 months, I haven’t spent any time doing the actual lifts. We covered the basics of the core lifts during on-ramp (my first month), but that was a crash course and 3 months ago!

ImGettin.it launch! DMC!!! JavaScript/Node.js/Backbone.js

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 03:18:17 +0000

Soft launched ImGettin.it over the weekend! By soft launch, I mean, bought and setup the domain, and got a test version of the site live. Login works, and the site “works” for the most part, but is very much not ready for prime time yet. I still need to get a lot of things working and most importantly I need a basic admin for the games database. The data that’s up right now is just test seed data – while pretty solid is far from complete or even valid.

Cats don’t like water!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 20:24:17 +0000

Up / Down HTML arrow characters (for sorting, etc)

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 02:57:05 +0000

I was searching for the opposite of the caret, or circumflex, character (^) and couldn’t really find one. Typically, in a pinch when I’m mocking, I would just use the caret ^ and a lowercase v – but they don’t look the same. There doesn’t seem to be a good opposite for the caret character – but I found 2 extremely useful HTML character codes to use instead: ∧ (∧) and ∨ (∨)

Crazy nested for loops (i.e. a Beautiful Mind)

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 18:57:51 +0000

I was working on a project today, that dealt with a large amount of JSON data. The project needed to allow the user to filter the data by a bunch of different filters and options within those filters. Initially I started using Underscore.js thinking this would help, but in the interest of time (had to get it done today!!!!) I decided to just do it quick and dirty. Well, I succeeded in the dirty department:

Barbell Club, Beard Contests, Tough Mudder!!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:10:09 +0000

5am wake up call!! Had to get up at 5 on Monday morning to make sure I was first to register online for the CFG Generation Barbell Club!! Its an 8 week program that focuses on weight training/lifting with an emphasis on technique and improved individual performance. Luckily I got up because by 9:30 all slots were full! I’ve been participating in a “Beard Contest” at work, and I can honestly say that I hate it.

Movie Review: Jack Reacher

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 03:36:26 +0000

One of the biggest surprises in casting news this year was the reveal of Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher. For some, the choice was obvious. Tom Cruise fills seats! And that’s pretty much all the movie studios want. For others, people like us that actually know the source material, the choice was a huge and obvious mistake. If you aren’t familiar with Jack Reacher, the character, he can generally be summarized as being a huge, foreboding, tank of a guy.

Remember QWOP?

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:30:09 +0000

What easy, sure-fire trick will help you stick to your (new) workout plan?

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 01:34:53 +0000

If you’re like most people, one of your New Year’s resolutions is to start working out! However, its no surprise that most local gym memberships skyrocket in January, but attendance is back to regular levels by February. I’ve tried working out on and off for years, and its just always been something I’ve struggled with and never ever succeeded at. I tried the local gym, I tried Xbox Kinect workout “games”, I tried in-home gyms, I tried running using Nike+, I tried just going to the local park.

Back to work! 1 day Hackathon! Design for developers.

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 21:33:10 +0000

Had a great Christmas/New Years break (well went back to work for 2 days in between there)!! Enjoyed the time off and just spending time with the little one and generally doing nothing productive! I did find time during the break to spend an entire day working with @Answer7 doing a little mini hackathon! This was something that we have been toying with for a while – the basic premise is that you and a few friends lock yourself in a room for an entire day and try to create something from scratch!

Remove vertical spacing around inline-block LI (list items)

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 15:40:52 +0000

I struggled with a minor issue in HTML for a few hours off an on during a project that was just really bothering me. Basically, I had a few LIs that I was displaying as inline-block (horizontally stacked side by side): [sourcecode lang=”html”] Item 1 Item 1 Item 1 [/sourcecode] When the rows would naturally wrap, there was a tiny gap between rows (as if there was a top margin or padding).

2013 Goals and Ambitions

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 20:22:06 +0000

This is probably going to be one of my last posts for 2012 so I decided to end with a list of my goals and ambitions for the next year! Personally, I think its very important to always have goals and something to look forward to, but also as something to continuously drive yourself to improve. A goal is a destination, and without a destination you’re just travelling aimlessly with no clear direction or indication of where to go so, ultimately, you wind up nowhere (or right back where you started).

2012 Year in Review

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 20:18:15 +0000

Wow! Looking back, this was quite literally a whirlwind year for me! Honestly, the main theme of this year really was self-discovery, learning, and growth! Where to begin… At the very end of last year, I personally felt that my passion for my business/partnership was on the downturn. I was struggling with if I even wanted to do it anymore. Then, one of our biggest clients basically told us they were hiring someone full-time and bringing all the work in-house.

Ember.js vs Backbone.js, Responsive Grid Systems, Kinect for Windows, Barbell Club!!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 15:43:56 +0000

So I spent most of 2 days working through trying to figure out Ember.js. (I know previously I said I was going to focus on Backbone, but I wanted to stick with Ember one more day and try to see it through.) Granted, I’m totally new to this whole MV* side of JavaScript. I had decided that Ember was just the way to go. Sadly, after 2 full days of playing around I’ve given up (for now) and decided to start focusing on Backbone.

JavaScript MV* Frameworks!!?, Far Cry 3 coop, Kinect development starting!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 02:48:17 +0000

Played through all of the co-op missions in Far Cry 3 with @AnswerSeven and that was a lot of fun. It was an honor being a part of his completing 1000⁄1000 in that game! Well done!! Looks like we might have a real project at work to use the Kinect with: our users group meeting we host every year, with over 5000 in attendance. I came up with an idea that I think might be pretty interesting, all really for the purposes of allowing me an opportunity to work with the Kinect.

Far Cry 3, NZBMatrix, jqEasing, Functions as parameters?!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 01:26:02 +0000

Forgot to mention I picked up Far Cry 3 last week and I’ve been playing it a lot. Its really a fun game. Very open ended, very sandbox. It seems like they finally nailed the balance with the island, the open ended gameplay, gun play, and fun action (I wanted so much to love Far Cry 2 but it just never happened). There are definitely moments where I’m reminded of Skyrim, which is a good thing!

Access your browsers saved password for your favorite sites

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 16:15:15 +0000

I’m sure you’ve encountered this problem: you visit one of your favorite sites, and your password is saved in the password box automatically by your browser, but you completely forget what that password actually is! Good thing your browser is synced and you don’t really need to worry about it. Well, here’s a quick tip that will allow you to access that password very easily. Using any current browser that has Developer tools, access those (F12 usually) and find the Inspector.

ShiftPanes.js – Shiftable content panes

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 20:39:54 +0000

My second JavaScript library in as many days! This new one is called ShiftPanes (like my original names huh?!). Basically, it allows you to declare a container that will hold “pageable” blocks of content within it. It is, again, pretty basic and no frills. Just declare a container with any class you want, and inside declare multiple containers each with the same (different from the container) class that will act as “panes” (or pages).

SlideIns.js – Animate content into a page

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 02:59:16 +0000

This is my first ever public JavaScript “library” and also my first GitHub! SlideIns.js is just simple jQuery code that allows you to have content on a page “slide in” from left, right, or middle (middle just fades in basically). This concept was taken from Apple.com pages, where they recently started having little subtle animations featured on their pages – for example as you scroll down an iPad or iPhone might slide in from the right of the screen.

Wrap your custom JavaScript code in Closure functions

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 02:02:17 +0000

I finally figured out how to use closures properly in JavaScript. This came as a result of my needing to make sure globals I was defining in different script files weren’t conflicting with same named globals in other files. My solution was rather simple, just wrap existing chunks of code in their own function wrapper: Original Code: Note that the variables globalVar and anotherGlobal are truly GLOBAL and any other javascript file(s) with the same variables declared will cause major issues for our code (or vise versa).

$(document).ready() versus $(window).load()

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 15:28:00 +0000

As a force of habit, I’ve always just wrapped my JavaScript code in a $(document).ready() and assumed/hoped for the best. I know that this is specifically for when the DOM is ready, and doesn’t have anything to do with images. However, 99% of the time I’ve never really been concerned about the status of loaded images. Today, I came across an issue where during the $(document).ready() I needed to get the TOP position property of an element.

Most anticipated games of 2013

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 00:43:42 +0000

My list of most anticipated games coming out in 2013 are as follows (most likely in release order): Anarchy Reigns DMC – Devil May Cry, the demo was awesome and haters can all suck it! Dead Space 3 – meh, its Dead Space… 3… Aliens: Colonial Marines – YES!!! I ordered the super deluxe Spec Ed with Power Loader figure! Metal Gear Rising Revengeance – YES!!!! The demo for this game was incredible and its from the creators of Bayonetta so need I say more!

Evil Dead Charlie Brown Remake

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 14:05:19 +0000

If this ever becomes available as a poster/print I’m ordering ASAP! From http://impsandmonsters.blogspot.com/

Most anticipated movies of 2013

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 01:06:48 +0000

I wrote this post for Fill the Part, but thought I’d post it here as well for posterity: (These are in release order.) Zero Dark Thirty I’m a sucker for anything military related, with Black Hawk Down being one of my top 5 movies I can watch over and over. Plus, while I didn’t absolutely love Hurt Locker, Point Break is another one of my all time favorites. A Good Day to Die Hard

Protein!, jQuery animation and easing, programming Android, Holiday party!!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 14:53:22 +0000

My continued use of My Fitness Pal (nutrition tracking app) has veered dangerously close to obsession! Literally, it’s become something of a game. I’m constantly looking at the details on every food and considering how it will effect my “stats” (seriously, as if I’m an MMO character or something)! Ultimately, that’s a good thing I guess. This past weekend alone I’ve been doing REALLY really well with my eating. I have a great schedule of meals lined up for the week too, with high protein days stacked for Tuesday and Thursday (Crossfit days).

Sprints (running not coding) and Supplements

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 14:53:56 +0000

Just when I started wondering about doing sprints (and in fact did some 2 weeks ago at the park) they posted on my Crossfit website about the benefits of sprinting and a link to this article. Sounds good to me! Will incorporate for sure on Saturday/Sunday mornings (my non-Crossfit “home based” workout day). Great blog post on vitamins and supplements to take pre/post workout as well as daily. After some research and discussing with one of the Crossfit coaches, this is my current plan:

Cinnamon Challenge – LOL

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 13:31:22 +0000

This one had me cracking up so much my sides hurt. I figured it deserved its own post:

MCSD, Texting from Chrome, Finally changed web hosting providers, Nutrition tracking

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 00:30:35 +0000

I’ve always been interested in some sort of Microsoft certification, and have always had it in the back of my mind to try to complete one of them. This morning I discovered a new track that is perfect and right up my alley; MCSD: Web Applications Developer. Most of the preparation for these exams can be completed via Pluralsight – so I’m definitely going to try to commit to at least attempting this certification.

Chrome pinned tabs – why to actually use them

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 02:30:47 +0000

Not many people realize the importance of Pinning tabs in Google Chrome. Sure, it makes the tab smaller and a little more out of the way, but is that it? Actually, the point of pinned tabs is to treat them like any other “app” you have open or running in your system. The important thing to note about pinned tabs is that they will open automatically with your browser the next time you launch it.

Interested in starting a blog? Start with a Google doc first!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 02:24:18 +0000

When I started my new job, a few months in I decided to start blogging. At first it really was just for my own personal use, a way for me to keep track of my accomplishments and new things I’d learned. I didn’t want to get too bogged down and distracted with the trouble of actually creating a blog and designing it – so instead I created a simple Google document and logged stuff daily and/or weekly.

The ‘Pilgrimage’, Nexus 4 in hand!, Giving Thanks

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 22:38:37 +0000

Got the Nexus 4 today and I’m completely blown away!! Coming from the iPhone4 its literally night and day! I spent probably 4 hours with it tonight just playing around with settings, tinkering with the live wallpapers, and getting my apps installed and all setup. The thing is VERY smooth, and runs like a champ. I’ve been using it so heavily that I can’t truly speak for the battery yet, as I’ve been killing it and watching it drain.

Web Essentials 1.7, Backbone.js, Google Nexus 4, Video game museum gets sold on ebay

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:37:03 +0000

Installed Web Essentials 1.7 for VS2012 at home and tried out Zen Coding. This is definitely something really awesome and something I wish was integrated a long time ago. As it stands, I don’t know how much “raw html” I will be coding in the near future to warrant using it all that much – but I guess any html coding is worth doing via Zen Coding! Finally spent some time and started doing the Pluralsight course on Backbone.

Crossfit, Obama!!, Zen Coding

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 22:35:45 +0000

Busted my ass in a major workout last night at Crossfit. The regular class is NO JOKE! Oh yeah, and Obama won (again)!!! Decided to try another stab at Angular.js this week. Going to try to lab something up at work using it, something real-world like article comments or something. Continued working on the new Nextgen.com framework. Got the shell set up pretty nicely and did a lot of organization of all Javascript and CSS and how it will be integrated globally and sitewide.

Hurricane Sandy, Windows 8, NFS: Most Wanted

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 22:34:40 +0000

Hurricane Sandy!!! Installed Windows 8 over the weekend. At first, it was a little jarring. The changes are sweeping. Im not sure how I feel still about basically the start menu being expanded to an entire screen – which is basically what happened. The live tiles concept is neat. I’m not really a fan of forcing “metro” style apps to run full screen – as I have a fairly large screen and typically development environments are the only programs I ever run maximized.

N-Tier development, iOS development, Doubled internet speeds!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 22:32:31 +0000

After a discussion about the advantages of N-tier archictecture with a coworker and finally truly understanding it all – I rewrote the backend for “Secret” website to fully utilize a Data, Services, Domain, UI architecture. Now it is coming together quite nicely. I’ve completed the basic groundwork for most of the backend, with the Data layer completed, the Repositories at a good start with most basic CRUD functionality complete, and the Services layer tapping into those repositories.

jQuery; use ON instead of LIVE

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 02:42:12 +0000

Just learned that jQuery’s .live() should now be replaced with: $(document).on(event,selector, function (e) {});

Started coding “Secret” website, Azure / hosting pains

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 22:30:24 +0000

Started coding “Secret” website (still not happy with the name)!! Going with a basic 3 tier structure for now – Domain, Services, and UX. Made good progress so far on the Domain model, and the underlying foundation for the Services layer. Found and worked with a great tiny little jQuery plugin for working with cookies. Was super easy to use and implemented, and even worked with jQuery 1.3 in a legacy system I needed it in!

Naming a startup, Dishonored and X-Com, PTM

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 22:28:37 +0000

Spent the weekend spec’ing the “Secret” website, outlining each page, functionality and features. Spent a little time working on the actual domain name, but need to work really hard on figuring that key component out. Found a great article on mashable that will help. Hoping to start coding before the end of the month, so I can focus a big part of November on getting the groundwork done. Dishonored and X-Com: Enemy Unknown both came out this week.

Crossfit, Kindle Paperwhite, Philly Code Camp

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 22:26:28 +0000

Finally wrapped up the big project at work. Had to have my laptop rebuilt since installing VS2012 broke AD authentication in our app. That made for an interesting debug scenario while we tried to push live and fix bugs! Started Crossfit! The first class of the on-ramp program really kicked my ass. I thought for sure I was going to throw up by the end, but I hung in there and honestly I think I did pretty well.

Nightmare work days, Post launch struggles (Fill the Part)

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 22:25:02 +0000

Absolute total nightmare at the end of the week as we pushed a new build to production and were impacted with a ton of problems. Mainly the issue resides in the fact that the current setup of the applications is a configuration/deployment nightmare – with way too many steps and settings involved leading to way too many opened ended possibilities for user error. Learned about the [attr] selector in jQuery – basically to detect the presense of an actual attribute in an html element.

Borderlands 2!!!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 22:24:19 +0000

Big item this week was Borderlands 2!!! Took the day off and raged all day with some friends. Was a great time and had a blast! Game is awesome and if you loved 1 you will love 2 (not much surprising there). Got sick later in the week and have just been feeling miserable. Going a little crazy at work as nothing seems to be working correctly.

First Philly Tech Meetup, Autocomplete

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 22:23:21 +0000

Attended a Philly Tech Meetup in Center City (Market Street – Science Center). Was very informative, and definitely will not be the last! Learned about autocomplete=”off” as an HTML attribute. Was having an issue with validation where the browser was prepopulating the New Password field in the form with what was saved for the users login credentials. This was throwing the error because New Password (auto completed) didnt match the corresponding Confirm Password (which was naturally blank).

JavaScript == is != to ===

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 23:44:26 +0000

Watching JavaScript fundamentals (Pluralsight) as a refresh and had my world rocked – apparently we should be using === and !== all this time and not == and != that’s just nutty!! Basically “” == 0 (true), “” === 0 (false), 1 == “1” (true) 1 === “1” (false).

MVC postback bug, Underscore.js, ===, Asana, Launched FillThePart.com!!, Visual Studio 2012

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 22:20:50 +0000

After being stumped for a while with a particularly interesting issue in MVC – I found the solution on Rick Strahl’s blog. Specifically I was trying to change the values of a view model from a controller action, after PostBack – yet my changes seemed to be ignored or simply refuse to stick. Turns out the HtmlHelpers refer to the actual POST data on page load after postback (seemingly ignoring the “model” even though you explicitly refer to the model when using HtmlHelpers).

Visual Event, REMs vs EMs, Clover, jsRender

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 22:19:10 +0000

An oldie but a goodie made a comeback and was proved useful – Visual Event, a bookmarklet that lets you view javascript events on a page with a nice visual overlay. Great article on using REMs instead of EMs when font sizing. Specifcally, the article goes into detail on ditching pixel specification altogether (except for sprites and very specific instances) and using %, em, and rem universally. Clover 2 is a nice small app that wraps Explorer and adds Chrome-like tabs to the interface.

Angular.js, new “Secret” website, Pluralsight

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 22:17:30 +0000

Learned about $http with Angular when calling external resources (like JSON) – need to test on TI.com implementation. Continued developing business plan for “Secret” website (created survey questions, etc.). Researched payment processing for site and discovered Amazon Payments offers better rates than Paypal once you get into the higher sales volume (greater than 10k). Completed Pluralsight course on N-Tier Development in C#.

Use ?? to set value if something is NOT null

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 02:47:09 +0000

Learned to use the ?? operator when checking for null. Use when you want something to = something else only when something else is not null: var myvar = something_else ?? “default_value”; myvar will be set to something_else only if something_else is not null, otherwise it will be “default_value” instead.

Launched TumblingInferno.com!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 22:16:05 +0000

Created and launched TumblingInferno.com. Was an awesome rapid prototype going from start to launch in 2 days. Implemented a lot of LINQ which was great experience as well as reacquainting myself with Entity Framework. Super excited that I was finally able to finish and launch something! Attempted to play with Angular.js, and was somewhat successful. Although didnt really work for the project the way I was hoping – and help online is scarce currently.

Slow week…

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 22:15:26 +0000

Did a lot of cleanup and additional (new) functionality for Fill the Part. Created a really need widget that loads activity stream every 25secs, loading newest at top with a sliding stack animation, while the bottom one slides up (squished). Continued to play with jsRender.

Angular.js, OOP js, Responsive Design, Twitter Bootstrap

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 22:13:38 +0000

Fresh on the heels of my failure with Knockout, I continued my OOP and data-bound JavaScript development. I also discovered Angular.js this week (by Google). This looks like it’s a much cleaner and easier (read: less clunky) way of doing what Knockout.js does. It also looks like this might be pretty easy for me to implement into my existing project. Also, from a staying power perspective, it’s probably safe to assume since Google is officially backing (and created) that it will be around for a while.

Knockout.js, jsRender, LESS, SquishIt

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 22:11:55 +0000

This week was all about Knockout.js and my seemingly total lack of understanding of javascript and jquery! After struggling with Knockout (rather, struggling to implement it into an existing project that might be a little too complex for my first attempt with KO) I decided to back burner it for a while. However I did learn a lot more about dealing with data, json, and oop in general with javascript and jquery.

Vacation!!!

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 22:02:59 +0000

VACATION!! Didn’t learn much, but did read up some more on XNA programming in general. Rode a wave runner (jet ski) for the first time and that was exhilarating! (Although it was extremely tiring, and very hard work!) Rode lots of rides, ate like shit, and had a great time!

XNA 4.0, Kinect, UI Labs

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 21:59:26 +0000

This week and the past have been spent a lot with XNA 4.0 (Xbox Live Indie game development). I did a little bit of work on a project and started looking for good sprite assets for a test game. My idea is to create a DayZ type game but overhead 2D using Zombies Ate My Neighbors! style graphics (in fact the actual sprite sheets from that game itself). Found some great resources for the sprites.

Blog launch, Twitter site integration

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 21:53:24 +0000

Welcome to my new blog! This blog is just going to be a weekly/daily journal of sorts, logging all of my discoveries and observations on the Internet and related to development in general. Of course, expect some anecdotes on gaming and life as well! Integrated a Twitter feed into the UGM website. Used a tiny bit of jQuery animate to slide the feed bar out from the left side of the screen.

Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect review

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 16:46:58 +0000

First let me get this out of the way to perhaps add some credibility to this review: I am a hardcore gamer and have nearly 30 titles in my Xbox 360 library. I also have a PS3 (although my primary gaming console is the 360). Ive been gaming since I can remember (got a NES for Christmas, had an Atari 2600 etc). With that being said, let me also mention that I have a 4 year old son who is absolutely addicted to Angry Birds on my iPhone, although he’s not really a fan of using a controller – just yet.

My completed reading list for 2010 (Fiction)

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 16:46:21 +0000

Here is a complete list of my Fiction reading list for 2010: Child of Fire – great – first in a new series! Oblivion Society – decent – post apocalyptic, very very strange and not sure if I liked this one. Some of the dialog was just cheesy and bad! Hunger Games – great – my first YA novel and a very very good one. (first part of a trilogy) Fragment – good – Crichton-esque book similar to Jurassic Park – although very much unbelievable but fun none the less.

PS3 fails to obtain an IP address when connecting to Wireless network

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:45:34 +0000

I just got a brand new PS3 (slim) last night! Needless to say I was excited and eager to get it setup and online. The actual setup was a breeze, thanks to HDMI cables and the quick and easy interface of the actual PS3. However, once I got to the network configuration part – what should have seemingly been a trivial experience quickly became an exercise in frustration! Essentially what kept happening was that I would scan for wireless networks, find my network, select it, enter a WEP key and then it would hang for about 3 minutes trying to obtain an IP address, but ultimately fail.

Around the web – various useful resources and links

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:44:06 +0000

I’m the type of person that tends to bookmark like crazy. To the point that my bookmarks is basically just a collection of every website on the internet. So when I come across a site that I _really _want to remember, I simply drag an icon to my desktop and have them horizontally aligned across the bottom of my second monitor. However, that list of icons is starting to grow. So I figured I would create a post whenever I clean up that stack of icons and share with the world!

About me

jkat98@gmail.com (Jason Krol) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hi! My name is Jason Krol and I’ve been programming for over 20 years! I absolutely love the feeling of solving something challenging I experience “programmers high” daily I love… my wife and son running movies reading video games Currently I am… Building the Boomerang.com OTT apps using Angular (Component Driven Architecture FTW!) Playing PSVR Painting miniatures Doing yard work ;) Favorites… Movies: Aliens Big Trouble in Little China Heat (1995) Die Hard Jurassic Park Terminator 2 The Abyss Legend (1985) Fifth Element Warrior Video Games: Bayonetta Ninja Gaiden 1 & 2 (Xbox) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Elder Scrolls Oblivion Grand Theft Auto III Super Mario 64 Books: Snowcrash Breach Trilogy Red Rising Trilogy Neuromancer Virtual Light Jurassic Park Music: Crystal Method The Prodigy Chemical Brothers Nine Inch Nails Basically any EDM