Imon Stevenson

Like many Millennials, I’m on Rap Genius all the time. Sometimes because I want be able to sing along with Drake or Yeezus, but mostly because I’m trying to understand the dis being made by someone (ahem, Kendrick). It’s just so hard to keep up with the rap game, you know? No, I’m not a Scholar and no, I don’t have a high Rap IQ, but I love Rap G (are we on a nickname basis yet?) just as much as DMoneyBX. So when I decided to give the website an update, a much-needed facelift, one might say, it was out of admiration.

I’ll be adding screenshots over the next few days. You can find the actual RG version here.

It’s officially official that the first version of MeetUp has been released. MeetUp is designed to help people find each other. If you’ve ever searched for someone in a crowded place to no avail, or just want to allow people to keep tabs on you, then MeetUp is your solution! It’s designed with simplicity, performance, and usability in mind. Taking advantage of HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and jQuery, it works on desktops and major mobile platforms. For now, it’s hosted on Heroku here, but I’ll give my dedicated readers a preview.

By clicking on the “Get My Location” button your geolocation is being identified and shown on the map. This allows you to ensure an accurate location will be shown once the “Share My Location” button is clicked. When you share your location you’ll notice the URL has changed. This new path is a unique limited access code, so only the person/people you send the link to will be able to see your location. These people can optionally share their location also.

There were definitely some challenges with this project. One of the biggest was using Leaflet.js. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great! I love that it allows for some level of customization for map images through CloudMade. It was just a little too heavy for my use case. Though some confusion would’ve been eliminated if I’d just used the Google Maps API, which I was already familiar with, I’m glad that I dove into something new.

It’s currently open source, so if you want to get involved with MeetUp’s development, checkout its repo. I’ll be adding more functionality in the near future, so be on the lookout for MeetUp updates!

On Monday we started our capstone projects. This week has been very productive thanks to the 48 hour sprints we’ve been doing. My project is an app designed to help you meet up with friends. Or really just anyone. Right now there are some basic features and functionality: a map with your pinpointed location, zoom animation, user login/logout, an “About” page, and a contact section. It’s also accessible from desktop or mobile. I’m using Leaflet.js, the JavaScript Geolocation API, and CloudMade for the map images.

Like koalas? Check this out.

Currently on a sugar high from Halloween, so this post may be lengthy…or short. I can’t believe it; I truly cannot believe that my seventh week at the ‘Stack is coming to a close. When I was asked Kyle what week it was and he replied, “The seventh!”, my reaction was like. This week I was busy, busy, busy. We continued with JavaScript on a project designed to create daily intineraries called “Trip Planner”, and started jQuery, JSON, AJAX, and got an intro to Backbone.js for next week’s project.

Yes. I feel it in the air—the (more) fun part of web programming is beginning. This week we did some HTML and CSS and built a Bootstrapesque theme, but without using Bootstrap, duh. It was called Shoestring. Get it? Then we started JavaScript! It’s cool, really cool. Yesterday we began a project called the Game of Life, Conway’s Game of Life. Here’s a tricked out version of what we made.

How do I feel now that I’m multilingual, you ask? Well, it’s tough. At least right now it is. I’m excited for the time when I’ll be able to switch between languages seamlessly.

If pre-Fullstack me met current me, I don’t think I’d believe I was me! I wouldn’t have even been able to fathom my current self’s knowledge. That may seem obvious, but it’s weird to think about. Also, I’ve never felt so close with my computer. I am one with my box. And no, I haven’t remapped my caps lock key. I’m a proud caps lock user.

P.S. The software of the week is f.lux. Check it out. (Thanks, Nimit)

Andddd another week comes to a close at Fullstack. This week we worked in groups of four on a project where we created a group funding app similar to something like Kickstarter or Crowdtilt. We called ours LateStarter. The task was not only to create this app, but also to use the Scrum Development process. We had sprints, Scrum masters, and used Trello to keep track of the product backlog, sprint backlog, and completed sprint tasks. It was pretty invigorating!

On Monday, Andy Brett came in to talk to us and let us in on what it’s like to be a coder AND have a traveling lifestyle. He travels all over the world, running in marathons, exploring, but he still works and has projects. I’m not quite as adventurous as he is, but it’s inspiring to know that it’s realistic. Who knows, one day I might have the urge to go hang out in Florence for six weeks.

I say this every week, but… this week flew by. As the title gave away, on Monday we started Ruby on Rails. We didn’t just jump into it though; the exercises and projects from the previous three weeks were building blocks for the powerful RoR. Now I understand the method to the madness.

Last night as I was listening to the “23 (CAKED UP Remix)” on SoundCloud, I recognized a very familiar URL pattern. I then found out that SoundCloud is based on this simple setup:

Hey, I understand that! Having built projects using a less structured approach, I can tell that I like the more formatted style of Rails. I also have a better understanding of why Rails works the way it does. Though I’m not completely used to Rails yet, I feel it all coming together. Oh! And now I know what it means that Rails and other MVC Web frameworks aren’t actually MVC, but Model2. Woo hoo!

I cannot believe I’m at the end of my third week at Fullstack! The time here has flown by. Let’s see, this week we covered ActiveRecord and used it to query IMDB, I gained a deeper understanding of Internet Technology, I made my first web app, called “Imon Town”, and started using Regex.

My favorite topic was the Internet! I’ve grown up with it, I’ve used it nearly every single day of my post-toddler life, but until two days ago I didn’t really know how it worked. For those of you lacking the knowledge that I once did too, poor thing, listen up (please?). The Worldwide Web we all know of is essentially a big network of servers. What is a web server and how does it work, you ask? Well, when you search something on Google, you’re asking for a request to be sent. This request travels through the Internet until it reaches a Web Server, which is a server that serves web requests. The server then comes up with a response and sends it back to your computer.

After our group discussion about the Internet, I did a little digging on my own and learned about how WiFi works. And yes, yes I’ll tell you all about it. So, WiFi stands for Wireless Fidelity. That makes sense, right? Because it’s like a continuous and faithful connection with the Internet, wirelessly! Ethernet connections are so ten years ago. Anywho, Wifi works when your wireless router receives data from the Internet. The router then translates that information into a radio wave in order for your Wifi-enabled device to receive it. The higher the frequency of the radio signal, the more data that can be carried.

So now you know what I know about the Internet. Twins!

P.S. Don’t forget to check in next week; I hear week four is going to be pretty fun.

The week’s topics included Test-Driven Development, Databases, and SQL. Within our pairs, we created a Blackjack Engine which mimicked thousands of blackjack games based on different strategies. Next, we got into databases; specifically, the International Movie Database (IMDB). I learned why we should use them, some examples of databases that I was already familiar with (e.g. an Excel spreadsheet or my iPhone contacts), and how to extract actual data from them using SQL. The next project was to build our own SimpleRecord within pairs. Using Ruby and SQL, we interacted with IMDB to query a SQLite database containing IMDB data.

We ended the week by doing a Teach to Learn exercise in groups of seven. The topics: classes versus instances, class methods versus instance methods, inheritance & the method lookup chain, classes versus modules, instance attributes, and arrays versus hashes. Within the groups, each person presented what he or she knew about the given topics. Though this was a simple exercise, it helped me so much. It was awesome to hear different ways of thinking about things; I was able to understand these concepts better by hearing things repeated again and again.

My time at Fullstack thus far has been unusual. For the first time in my 13-year career as a student am I being challenged beyond what I’d think to be a regular challenge. But that’s why I’m here, to learn something new, something previously foreign to me. Though I find myself a little frustrated at times, it’s a good kind of frustrated—an exciting kind. Week three, here I come.

This first week at Fullstack has been filled with all kinds of fun stuff; from using GitHub to writing a program which creates Haikus (see below for my favorite Haiku so far). And though I’ve learned a lot in the past five days, I’d have to say that the most interesting thing I learned about was ERB for the OctoMailer project. I even had a dream about it last night! Well, at least I think I did. I don’t remember the specifics, but I remember waking up in the middle of the night thinking, “Whoa, Nimit said that this would happen”.

I’ve begun to realize that the most important thing for me is to make sure I ask questions. Too often I’m weary of asking something because I don’t want to waste the group’s time. Also, I need to start taking more breaks, especially toward the end of the day. I find that when I get up and walk around, even for 30 seconds, my focus improves. And as for pair programming, I really liked it!

This week has been great, and I’m looking forward to the next eleven.

BestMost Confusing Haiku Ever
Undeniable
Territoriality
Accumulation