With the JavaScript Admirers meeting falling during OSCon, and there being a large contingent of JavaScript developers in town, it becomes obvious that a Beer.js needs to occur.

Someone set up an RSVP here: http://inv.ly/mPQf

The monthly meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We host presentations and discussions on everything JavaScript-related - including JavaScript frameworks, node.js, CoffeeScript, and whatever else comes up.

On the agenda for this meeting:

• A Fork in the Road: a look at the Node.js / Io.js split (presented by Jim Kogler)

• What really goes on in a virtual DOM? Let's find out by writing an implementation live (presented by Jesse Hallett)

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

If you're interested in making a presentation at this or at a future meet-up, please e-mail Jesse Hallett .

Come hang out and work on your JavaScript skills. Whether you are just getting into programming, or you have been programming for a while and want to learn new things, you are encouraged to attend.

The format will be one-on-one instruction. Find someone who knows stuff that you don't and learn, or find someone to teach. If you are looking for a JavaScript mentor or a mentee, this is the place to find one.

If you have a laptop handy, please bring it along. Ideally laptops should be set up with Firefox running Firebug.

The August Meeting of Portland's JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We will discuss topics ranging from client-side web frameworks and features, to functional and prototypal programming theory.

  Topics will be announced on the mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs. If you would like to give a presentation, or have a suggestion for a topic, please send a message to [email protected].

  Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

The meeting will be at Jive Software, 915 SW Stark St., Suite 400.

The July Meeting of Portland's JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We will discuss topics ranging from client-side web frameworks and features, to functional and prototypal programming theory.

  Topics will be announced on the mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs. If you would like to give a presentation, or have a suggestion for a topic, please send a message to [email protected].

  Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

The June Meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We will discuss topics ranging from client-side web frameworks and features, to functional and prototypal programming theory.

  Topics will be announced on the mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs. If you would like to give a presentation, or have a suggestion for a topic, please send a message to [email protected].

  Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

The May Meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We will discuss topics ranging from client-side web frameworks and features, to functional and prototypal programming theory.

  Topics will be announced on the mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs. If you would like to give a presentation, or have a suggestion for a topic, please send a message to [email protected].

  Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

The April Meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We will discuss topics ranging from client-side web frameworks, to functional and prototypal programming theory.

Topics will be announced on the mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs. If you would like to give a presentation, or have a suggestion for a topic, please send a message to [email protected].

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

The February Meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We discuss topics ranging from client- and server-side web frameworks, to functional and prototypal programming theory.

"Web Development in the Cloud" - The availability of Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions and a new breed of languages makes web development in the cloud a viable option for any project.

At this meeting, Mike Leach will demonstrate use of the Force.com platform using Eclipse, Apex, AJAX, and JQuery to develop an application that is developed and managed in the cloud.

We are also likely to have more talks on node.js.

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

The topics for this meeting are:

• node.js - evented I/O for JavaScript on the server
• Google Closure Tools - everything you need to build a Google-class web app
• Testing asynchronous code with Screw.Unit and Blue Ridge

Bring a laptop if you have one. This will be an activity night.

There will be pizza, kindly provided by Jive Software. Plus we will have essentials on hand for celebrating the JavaScript Admirers' first birthday.

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

This month we are having lightning talks! Everyone is encouraged to give a talk - especially if you have not given a talk before. This is a chance to practice giving a presentation without having to worry about filling up a lot of time, and in front of an understanding audience (because everyone else will also be concerned about how well their talk will go :)).

Lightning talks are five minutes or less. They can be on any topic that you like. Remember that five minutes go by fast, so try to keep your presentation simple. If you want to use slides, try to stick to ten or fewer screens - and fewer is better. For some advice, see:
http://software.ac.uk/home/cw11/giving-good-lightning-talk

If you are willing to give a talk, please sign up on the signup sheet.

You can give a talk even if you do not sign up in advance - but people who do sign up will get priority in case we run short on time.

If you have slides, it would be very helpful if you can post a link in the signup sheet or send them to me, so that we can queue up everyone's presentations on one computer. But feel free to sign up first, and add the link to your slides later when they are ready.

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

If you're interested in making a presentation at a future meet-up, please e-mail Jesse Hallett .

The monthly meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We host presentations and discussions on everything JavaScript-related - including JavaScript frameworks, node.js, CoffeeScript, and whatever else comes up.

This is the meeting where we will have LIGHTNING TALKS!

I encourage everyone to give a talk—especially anyone who has not given a talk at a user group meeting before. This is a great opportunity to practice speaking with a bite-size time slot. I (Jesse) have found that giving presentations is a good way to get name/face recognition, which has opened a lot of doors for me. And this will be a context where there will be other people speaking who have also not given a talk before.

Talks will be 5 minute presentations, with or without slides or other visual aids of your choosing. Choose any topic that interests you—so long as it is safe-for-work.

If you would like to give a talk, send an email to Jesse Hallett ([email protected]) to be added to the list. If you are going to use slides please send a copy to the same address so that we can have everybody's presentations ready to go on one computer. Sign up first and send the slides later if you need time to make the slides. Slots will be first-come, first-served. We have time for 12–14 presentations.

I wanted to include some tips for anyone who has not given a lightning talk before:

• Practice! Do your talk out loud a few times in front a friend, mirror, an empty room, or whatever. Time yourself while practicing. You will feel silly doing this. But it is the only way to make sure that you are prepared to get the most use out of your five minutes. That is a very short time slot. Practicing will help you to focus on important points, and will help you to avoid points that you might otherwise stumble over.

• Speak slowly, and take pauses while you are speaking. When I am in front of a room full of people, I have a tendency to worry that I am wasting a lot of people's time, which makes me want to rush and to talk too fast. I think that this is a common reaction. You can give a better talk by resisting the temptation to hurry. Pausing between points, or when you need a moment to collect your thoughts, will give your audience opportunity to digest your points. Remember that a pause that feels long and awkward to you probably does not feel that way to your audience.

• If you use slides, my suggestion is to use at most 10 slides. That is one slide for every 30 seconds of speaking time. Your slide count is one way to estimate whether you are trying to fit in too much material for the given time.

• It is preferable to cover one point well than to go over five points hastily. Think about what the core point of your talk is, and how much you can take out while still conveying that point.

• Have some water handy—public speaking tends to lead to cottonmouth.

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

If you're interested in making a presentation at this or at a future meet-up, please e-mail and Jesse Hallett ([email protected]).

The March Meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We discuss topics ranging from client-side web frameworks, to functional and prototypal programming theory.

The agenda for this meeting is still open. Talks will be posted on the mailing list.

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

The March Meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We will discuss topics ranging from client-side web frameworks, to functional and prototypal programming theory.

Topics will be announced on the mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs. If you would like to give a presentation, or have a suggestion for a topic, please send a message to [email protected].

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

The monthly meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We host presentations and discussions on everything JavaScript-related - including JavaScript frameworks, node.js, CoffeeScript, and whatever else comes up.

This month we will have David Garrett (@akaDavidGarrett) in town to speak about Raphael.js, an SVG library, with opportunities to socialize afterwards. 

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

The monthly meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We host presentations and discussions on everything JavaScript-related - including JavaScript frameworks, node.js, CoffeeScript, and whatever else comes up.

This month we will be having a hack night. Bring your laptop, project idea, or just come to learn about projects and technology stacks that others are using. After all this time talking about code, we will split into small groups and actually write some code!

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

If you're interested in making a presentation at this or at a future meet-up, please e-mail Jesse Hallett .

The monthly meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We host presentations and discussions on everything JavaScript-related - including JavaScript frameworks, node.js, CoffeeScript, and whatever else comes up.

The presentation this month:

Using WebGL to run arbitrary calculations on the GPU, presented by Seth Samuel

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

If you're interested in making a presentation at this or at a future meet-up, please e-mail Jesse Hallett .

The monthly meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We host presentations and discussions on everything JavaScript-related - including JavaScript frameworks, node.js, CoffeeScript, and whatever else comes up.

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

If you're interested in making a presentation at this or at a future meet-up, please e-mail Jesse Hallett .

The monthly meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We host presentations and discussions on everything JavaScript-related - including JavaScript frameworks, node.js, CoffeeScript, and whatever else comes up.

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

This month:

• Our own Faddah Wolf will introduce us to Github's Atom Editor, which is now in full release (and is in fact at 1.0.7!)

• Ben Jones will be speaking on Meteor

If you're interested in making a presentation at this or at a future meet-up, please e-mail Jesse Hallett .

The monthly meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We host presentations and discussions on everything JavaScript-related - including JavaScript frameworks, node.js, CoffeeScript, and whatever else comes up.

On the agenda for this month:

• A new, post-MVC reference app for comparing frontend frameworks, by Jim Kogler

• Introducing SunshineJS, a frontend framework based on Flux, reactive programming, and type safety, by Jesse Hallett

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

If you're interested in making a presentation at this or at a future meet-up, please e-mail Jesse Hallett and Jim Kogler.

The monthly meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We host presentations and discussions on everything JavaScript-related - including JavaScript frameworks, node.js, CoffeeScript, and whatever else comes up.

This month we will have:

• Eric Drechsel on loading JS modules in the browser using SystemJS and JSPM, discussing the history of approaches to JS modularity, a consideration of delivery strategies, and a look towards the future.

• Ben Jones with an introduction to Meteor.js

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

If you're interested in making a presentation at this or at a future meet-up, please e-mail Jesse Hallett.

The monthly meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We host presentations and discussions on everything JavaScript-related - including JavaScript frameworks, node.js, CoffeeScript, and whatever else comes up.

This month:

• James Churchill will present an Introduction to TypeScript

• Hayley Swimelar will talk about learning JavaScript using spaced repetition software

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs. if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

If you're interested in making a presentation at this or at a future meet-up, please e-mail Jesse Hallett.

The monthly meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We host presentations and discussions on everything JavaScript-related - including JavaScript frameworks, node.js, CoffeeScript, and whatever else comes up.

On the agenda this month:

Mentor night!  Bring a laptop if you can.  We will break into small groups, pairing people up with mentors, to work on some simple JavaScript projects.

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

If you're interested in making a presentation at this or at a future meet-up, please e-mail Jesse Hallett .

The monthly meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We host presentations and discussions on everything JavaScript-related - including JavaScript frameworks, node.js, CoffeeScript, and whatever else comes up.

On the agenda this month:

• Jim Kogler will introduce some 'new wave' SPA frameworks, including Ampersand, Mithril, and Vue.

• Jesse Hallett will talk about type-checking JavaScript with Flow.

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

If you're interested in making a presentation at this or at a future meet-up, please e-mail Jesse Hallett <[masked]>.

The monthly meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We host presentations and discussions on everything JavaScript-related - including JavaScript frameworks, node.js, CoffeeScript, and whatever else comes up.

On the agenda this month:

• Daniel Johnson will talk about his use of postMessage when embedding YouTube and Vimeo.

• Brian Mock will talk about writing parsers in JavaScript

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

If you're interested in making a presentation at this or at a future meet-up, please e-mail Luc Perkins ([email protected]) and Jesse Hallett ([email protected]).

The monthly meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We host presentations and discussions on everything JavaScript-related - including JavaScript frameworks, node.js, CoffeeScript, and whatever else comes up.

We have two talks on the schedule this month:

• Sean Adkinson will show us webpack, a module bundler. webpack takes modular code, css, and so forth and produces bundled static assets.
• Jim Kogler will follow up on his previous talk on Grunt - this month he will talk about plugins for Gulp, and perhaps also for Broccoli. It will be a confluence of the web's greatest build tools!

Pizza will be provided, thanks to Odyssey Science Innovations.

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

If you're interested in making a presentation at this or at a future meet-up, please e-mail Jesse Hallett ([email protected]).

The monthly meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We host presentations and discussions on everything JavaScript-related - including JavaScript frameworks, node.js, CoffeeScript, and whatever else comes up.

This month Jesse Hallett will talk about React and the Virtual DOM. React is a library for building HTML views in a less stateful, more functional way than is done with many other frameworks. Under the hood it uses a virtual DOM representation, which makes page updates really fast.

Thanks go to PubNub for sponsoring pizza, and to Janrain for providing meeting space.

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

If you're interested in making a presentation at this or at a future meet-up, please e-mail Jesse Hallett ([email protected]).

The monthly meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We host presentations and discussions on everything JavaScript-related - including JavaScript frameworks, node.js, CoffeeScript, and whatever else comes up.

There will be two talks at this meeting:

• zuul, multi-framework javascript browser testing, presented by Jon Eisen
• Grunt Basics, an introduction to the powerful build system implemented with NodeJs, presented by Jim Kogler

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

If you're interested in making a presentation at this or at a future meet-up, please e-mail Luc Perkins ([email protected]) and Jesse Hallett ([email protected]).

The monthly meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We host presentations and discussions on everything JavaScript-related - including JavaScript frameworks, node.js, CoffeeScript, and whatever else comes up.

THIS IS NOT OUR USUAL LOCATION! This month only, the meeting will be at Elemental Technologies.

We have three presentations on the agenda this month:

JavaScript, Hardware and the Internet of Things, presented by Gerald Aden

Internet of Things has become a huge opportunity for software, hardware and designers alike to create solutions for both consumers and businesses. We'll explore how to get started using JavaScript/Node.js, a Raspberry PI and the Cloud to easily get started developing for this exciting space.

RactiveJS, presented by Marty Nelson

Ractive.js is a template-driven UI library. Unlike other tools that generate inert HTML, it transforms your templates into blueprints for apps that are interactive by default. Ractive was originally created at theguardian.com by Rich Harris to produce news applications. These apps are heavily interactive, combine HTML and SVG, and are developed under extreme deadline pressure. It has to work reliably across browsers, and perform well even on mobile devices.

Ractive is a library, not a framework. Where some tools force you to learn a new vocabulary and structure your app in a particular way, Ractive works for you, not the other way around – and it plays well with other libraries. In this talk, we'll go over the main features of Ractive.js, and also show possible integrations that highlight the varied approaches to working with Ractive.

Marty Nelson is a contributor to the Ractive open-source project. A 15 year veteran (survivor?) of enterprise software development he has been a developer, manager and lead architect. The last few years he has been focused on javascript, both in node and the browser, and web and mobile app development with HTML5.

Mystery bonus presentation

We may or may not be able to get to the final presentation. So for now it will remain a mysterious secret!

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

If you're interested in making a presentation at this or at a future meet-up, please e-mail Luc Perkins ([email protected]) and Jesse Hallett ([email protected]).

The monthly meeting of Portland's first JavaScript and ECMAscript users' group. We host presentations and discussions on everything JavaScript-related - including JavaScript frameworks, node.js, CoffeeScript, and whatever else comes up.

We have three talks scheduled for this meeting:

• A demo of WebRTC, presented by Ken Stowell
• Escaping callback hell with generators, presented by Jacob Rothstein
• Mob Programming: what works, what doesn't, presented by Cameron Knight

Feel free to join our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/pdxjs if you too are a JavaScript admirer. Or visit our web site for more information at http://pdxjs.com/.

If you're interested in making a presentation at this or at a future meet-up, please e-mail Jesse Hallett ([email protected]).