

Ask HN: What's a good topic for a technical presentation? - presidentender

My company holds a monthly lunch/technical presentation, with the lecture given by an employee. Four of my clients have yet to approve hours, so next week is my turn. What topic can I talk about that won't put a group of custom software and web programmers to sleep?
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shmichael
Javascript is always a nice topic to discuss. Depending on the technical
level, you could take it in different directions:

* "good" paradigms in Javascript (using concepts of functional programming). I always recommend Crockford's Javascript: The Good Parts - <http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596517748>

* Demonstrate some interesting JS libraries such as mootools or Raphaël - <http://raphaeljs.com/>

* For less technical folks, you could demonstrate new JS graphical capabilities, such as the porting of Quake and the chrome experiments gallery - <http://www.chromeexperiments.com/>

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presidentender
Javascript is particularly good because we have a lot of it kicking around,
but nobody seems to like to read or write it (copying and pasting javascript
is much more popular).

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HeyLaughingBoy
Avoid languages. I have yet to see a language presentation that didn't devolve
into a discussion of some esoteric "feature" that was cool but almost
completely useless.

Instead choose concepts, e.g., functional programming and use a well known
language to illustrate its benefits.

Or choose a new, interesting _and relevant_ technology to discuss.

What would _I_ like to see? A presentation on what it takes, from start to
finish, to develop and release a simple iPad application, along with a short
sample app you've written for illustration. Fit that in an hour and you'll
have a packed room.

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frossie
Lunchtime? As in, people are eating? The sleep risk is real with those. War
stories, whether they had a happy ending ("I fixed it") or not ("I learned
from it"). If you don't have your own, you can walk though someone else's
provided enough technical information is available - for example the lost NASA
Mars Rover is a good way to explain race conditions, depending on your
audience.

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xox
Your thoughts on some language or technology that you are interested in but
that is not used at your office.

~~~
presidentender
That's a good idea. My concern is losing or boring people.

