What have I been up to in the last couple of months?

Work

I have been working on a single-page web application built using RequireJS AMD modules on top of the KnockoutJS JavaScript framework. The web app is structured following the Model View ViewModel pattern.

Our team uses Visual Studio Online’s planning tools and Microsoft’s cloud code repository. Visual Studio Online was previously know as Microsoft Team Foundation Service.

The JavaScript application is unit-tested using Jasmine (Behaviour Driven Unit Testing) and the tests are run during builds using the Chutzpah Visual Studio extension. We apply NodeJS and LESS to compile the CSS code on top of PhantomJs, a headless browser running the Webkit engine.

Most images used in the application are SVG. We target only Internet Explorer 9 and upwards so we don’t have to worry about older browsers or have to load in many shims and polyfills.

The project is going strong for a year and we keep adding improvements and features.

Social

GDG and Webworkers meetups in Düsseldorf

The Google Developers Group is a great bunch of mostly German “computer geeks” who like to hang out and talk about programming, web technologies and gadgets.

The GDG Düsseldorf meetup happens at least once a month with a couple of bigger events during the year at Google I/O and the yearly full day DevFest.

I only recently started attending the WebWorkers Düsseldorf Meetup group.

Gear

Got a Surface Pro 3

Deciced not to get a Chromebook because of lack of performance in the portables, but go all in with Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 ultrabook/tablet device. Yep, it’s pricey but I believe the cost is justified.

I got it complete with the TypeCover and the Dock since I’m using it mostly as the replacement to my old Dell laptop at home. But since it’s an ultra-portable I can bring the machine along with me on my daily commutes without breaking my back.

So far, I’m a satisfied owner. It really is the all-purpose device one needs these days since it combines the best of the tablet and ultrabook features. I would call it an ultra-tablet. You can say that I love my Surface.

In fact I’ve installed Visual Studio Community 2013 and am planning to use this tool as my main IDE, since using the Ultimate Edition in my daily job is pretty neat and I do like the way Microsoft is moving. Of course I am going to use the community edition only for open source and studying.

Plan is to write out my experience with the device in future posts.

Other

Reading a lot of articles

So most of the time I have been collecting a lot of articles to “read later” in my Pocket account and Feedly feeds. I integrated IFTTT to add must-read feeds from other blogs and sites.