

A Screencast On Refactoring JavaScript - derickbailey
http://watchmecode.net/refactoring-javascript

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johnohara
A high school teacher in the U.S., with 10+ years of experience, makes about
$65,000 per year -- on average.

There are generally 180 days of school per year.

Let's say she teaches 5 classes per day, 20 students per class.

That works out to ~$3.60 per student per class. Classes run about 40 minutes
each or ~$0.09 per minute.

I know there are many variables affecting this calculation but if
screencasting is about delivering consise, high quality instruction,
consistently, then $0.10 - $0.15 per minute does not seem unreasonable.

Nor should $0.20 per minute ($12.00 per hour). But it's interesting that it
does.

Compare that to what an undergraduate student pays per minute for a lecture
given by a TA to he and 200 of his closest friends.

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petercooper
Sorry for the tangent but is 20 students per class typical for the US? Here in
the UK my classes in high school were typically 30. 35 in science! :-) With 5
classes of an hour each. That, to my surprise, drops the 9c/m to 4c/m(!)

~~~
johnohara
Most K-12 schools in the U.S. _try_ to keep class sizes below 30. 20-25 is a
good representative sample. Class size and the length of the school day are
always negotiation points.

As you probably experienced, class sizes above 30 are challenging even for the
best of teachers.

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robryan
Seems to be a trend that most screen casts are paid whereas most text based
equivalents aren't. I guess this might be because people have expressed a
willingness to pay for this type of content whereas text based blog type
articles and tutorials are a lot harder to convince people to pay.

~~~
ez77
Absolutely. I’ve expressed my idea a few times while trying not to spam HN. I,
for one, would be most interested in paying to be able to see how an
experienced coder _gets a typical project up and running from scratch_. Now, I
gather most professionals have highly-customized templates, which may involve
scripts, special setups and what not, so this may be a pedagogical challenge,
but seeing a knowledgeable coder at work, preferably on bite-sized objectives
and full of informal comments, would be an absolute plus for me. (I’m sure I’m
not alone.)

~~~
derickbailey
Interesting that you say that... I've often though exactly the opposite on
what I want to see.

In my experience, a project set up is such an un-common occurrence (it only
happens once per project, after all) that there is really nothing special or
customized about doing it. When I set up a project, I download and install
everything as if I had never done it before. I don't use any special tools or
scripts. I just use whatever the framework and plugin system I choose comes
with.

My intention with this screencast was specifically not to show project setup,
but to show the later stages of a project. I find most of the breakdown and
slog through code happens after something has been in place for a while, and
now needs to change - hence the need for refactoring.

... but, I do have some ideas that would play well in to what you're wanting.
I'll definitely keep this in mind as I'm looking at what I'm going to work on
next.

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xutopia
Considering that PeepCode sells their videos 9$ each and has cheaper options
if you purchase a plan I find 14$ a bit steep for a video from someone I don't
know as well.

~~~
derickbailey
It is a risk buying from someone that you don't know. At one point, no one
knew who PeepCode was either. Geoffrey grew his brand and became well known.

As for the price - PeeCode sells all their recent videos at $12 each, for ~1hr
of content. So, $14 seemed reasonable to me (also based on the price I've paid
at Tekpub, DestroyAllSoftware and other screencasting sites) considering the
length of the content that I've produced.

But, you may be right. Maybe I should drop it since I am an unknown person in
the screencasting world.

~~~
Udo
I'm not a customer of coding tutorial videos, I don't know either you or
PeepCode. As an outsider looking into this market, I'd like to offer my
totally unqualified opinion as follows: Upwards of $10 is too high. Yeah,
you'll probably sell a few, but I believe the sweet spot for those kind of
purchases is around the price equivalent to a cup of coffee in a decent coffee
shop. It should be low enough that people don't have to think about the price-
to-risk ratio, it's something they buy on impulse just to see someone do stuff
with code. I believe you'll probably get way more exposure and, ultimately,
sales from being low cost.

Also, consider putting up some short but useful videos (not teasers) for free,
so people get to know your style and trust your expertise. Charge for the
longer, premium content.

~~~
derickbailey
Re: short videos - great idea.

I've got a few 5 or 10 minute videos on getting started with Test-Driven
JavaScript using the Jasmine framework. I can give those away and then have a
much longer episode on really diving deep into Jasmine. Hopefully I'll be able
to get this done soon.

~~~
peteysd
I think this is the way to go. Offer folks one or two shorter examples of your
work for free, and they will be more comfortable with purchasing your longer
works.

If the free examples are solid, then they will be linked to and shared. This
will help establish your name and expertise in the subject matter, and will
bring many more eyeballs to your site, which will hopefully convert into
sales.

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dmix
I found this blog post that seems to provide a more in depth look at what is
covered in the screencast:
[http://lostechies.com/derickbailey/2011/10/25/rebuilding-
my-...](http://lostechies.com/derickbailey/2011/10/25/rebuilding-my-backbone-
js-plugins-with-modules-srp-and-more/)

~~~
derickbailey
Yeah, that blog post is a companion to the screencast. The purpose of the post
is to provide some additional thoughts on the high level refactorings that I
did, while the screencast is intended to show _how_ to do the refactorings
instead of just why.

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derickbailey
FYI - I had been incorrectly advertising the screencast as 120 minutes. It's
actually 1:21 - 1 hour, 20 minutes. I'm terribly sorry about that. I've
corrected the site.

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derickbailey
FYI - I've knocked the price down to $9 for the next few days. :)

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dzejkej
Just FYI - price is on $9 for next 3 1/2 days :).

