[Launch School] Community Update - December 15, 2022

Hello everyone. It's Clare again, with my second Community Update for Launch School! Just as I was getting back into a routine of studying, [Advent of Code]( came along! I really loved doing it last year with Ruby, but by day 15 I had to choose between LS and AoC, and LS won. This year, I'm attempting to complete the challenges in JavaScript. I have convinced myself this is studying and I'm going to try to get at least as far as I did last year (although I am seriously missing all the really useful methods I had learnt in Ruby that I don't (yet!) know how to replicate in JS). We have a really supportive community doing AoC this year, so please join in if you enjoy coding challenges: [AoC slack channel](. The community have created spoiler threads for each day so that we can share our solutions. This has been great for me as I can see how people are coding solutions for JS and I'm picking up some great tips. We've also been having a lot of fun (if you know, you know!). [aoc_day5] Enough AoC, let's get on with Launch School news! --------------------------------------------------------------- Important Updates Updated Salaries Page If you’re looking to have more clarity about the start of your career in the software industry, check out [the updated Salaries page](! The team has launched a new Capstone salaries and results page, which aims to: After speaking with many prospective and current students and alumni, we've launched our new Capstone salaries and results page. The main changes we made were: - provide more clarity around job placement numbers and percentages - focus on displaying more data-driven Capstone Information - break down salaries with more granularity If you’re just looking for the 2021 data, check it out [here](. Otherwise, the [complete article]( will fill you in on all the details. New Podcast Episode: S4E7 Bytes: Biggest Takeaways This Year In this bytes episode Karis asks Chris and the Launch School community "What was some of their biggest takeaways this year at Launch School?" After the students and staff share their takeways, Karis closes with some Launch School announcements and upcoming events. Listen to the episode here: [S4E7 Bytes: Biggest Takeaways This Year]( Winter Holidays That time of year is fast approaching - who's bought and wrapped all their presents? (I had to make room for AoC somehow!!!) For Launch School, this means things will be a little quiet from December 17th, 2022, through January 2nd, 2023. TAs will still be around, but we may not get back to you as quickly as we usually would. Please see this [post]( for more information. Don't forget to check out Launch School's new [shop](. There are lots of gift ideas that I'm sure loved ones would appreciate, including hot-off-the-press holiday t-shirts! If any of my family are reading this, the images below can be taken as a hint... [christmas_t-shirts] Capstone Presentations We're in the midst of a great series of amazing Capstone presentations, with several coming up. These are a must-attend if you are interested in Capstone and want to learn more about what the program comprises! They also give you a great idea of what can be achieved after Core. So far, we've had the following presentations. Follow the links to see the recordings: - December 8th @ 2pm Eastern - [Bard]( an open-source, easy-to-use session replay tool that enables viewing and analyzing user sessions, from Aaron, Anthony, Gene and Marcin. - December 8th @ 4pm Eastern - [Skopos]( an open-source API monitoring tool designed for multi-step API testing and running collections of tests in parallel, built by Gagan, Hans, Katherine and Nykaela. - December 9th @ 4pm Eastern - [Triage]( an open-source consumer proxy that solves head-of-line blocking for Kafka consumers, using a dead letter store and parallelism, developed by Aashish, Aryan, Jordan and Michael. - December 12th @ 4pm Eastern - [Constellation]( an open-source, serverless, end-to-end framework that aims to simplify the challenges of geographically distributed API load testing, built by Andrew, Jason, Jake and Steven. Still to come are: - December 16th @ 12pm Eastern - [Cascade](, an open-source deployment solution for containerized applications with built-in support for observability, developed by Anne, Natalie, Rona and Yueun. - December 16th @ 2pm Eastern - [Armada](, a tool for instructors to deliver multiple pre-configured development environments to students, complete with a working code editor, file system, and a way for students to save their data between sessions. This has been built by Dean, Joey, Natalie and Sergio. Finally, we should have videos up for the remaining 3 presentations soon. Check our [Videos]( page over the next few days: - December 12th @ 12pm Eastern - Trellis, an open-source, low-configuration and team-oriented deployment pipeline for serverless applications hosted on AWS, from Cody, forMarcos, Martin and Mohamed. - December 14th @ 12pm Eastern - Nexus, an open-source framework that creates an instant GraphQL API from multiple data sources and automates deployment to AWS, developed by Benjamin, Felicia, Kim and Matthew. - December 14th @ 2pm Eastern - Firefly, an open-source observability framework for serverless functions. It provides key insights into serverless function health through the use of metrics and traces. This was created by Carolina, Julia, Marcus and William. [capstone_medley_dec] Many congratulations to all the Capstone students on their fantastic achievements! I'm really looking forward to seeing what you have all created. I'll be watching those I've missed at my leisure (as a reward after completing an AoC challenge for extra incentive 😉) and catching the next few ones live. --------------------------------------------------------------- Routine Updates Student articles The tradition of students writing great articles about their programming and studying exploits continues. Lucas has created a command line chess game in pure Ruby. This is an impressive feat. (Between AoC challenges) I have managed to fit in the odd chess game here and there using Lucas's app - it really is a joy to play. Even better, Lucas is writing a series of articles to explain his coding process and you can check them out [here](lucas.sorribes/nostromo-my-ruby-chess-journey-part-i-7ef544b547a5). These articles are beautifully written and provide many insights into the strategies Lucas used, including following his core principles of: 'Do It Yourself', 'Imaginative Design' and 'Hierarchy of values: readability > consistency > beauty > performance'. Another interesting article has been created by Zach on [JavaScript Primer: Unlocking Scope](zachmorgan97/javascript-primer-unlocking-scope-4e7ccff93b77). It's a great read, easy to follow and demystifies the intricacies of scope in Javascript. Zach has been prolific, and has also created articles on [Hoisting](zachmorgan97/javascript-primer-hoisting-eaa7c5e7ff9e) and [Comprehending Closures](zachmorgan97/javascript-primer-comprehending-closures-9c9933012da7). These have been really handy for me, because hoisting is exactly where I am in my studies and I need all the help I can get with understanding this tricky concept! Meetups There have been some great in-person meetups this month: - There was a well attended meetup in New York [2022.11.19_ls_nyc_meetup] - Another one in Chicago, where they met in Chinatown [chicago_dec] - A meetup in Las Vegas, where Kyle, Tess and Smilja went to a Polish violin duo concert at a local library [Las Vegas Dec2022] - And lastly, a meetup in Ho Chi Minh City, in what looks Iike a pretty posh venue! [ho_chi_minh_city_dec] For upcoming meetups, it's also worth looking through the (numerous) Slack channels to see if there's something planned for a region near you. If there isn't feel free to try and start one up! Women's Group We had our regular Launch School Women's Group Virtual meeting this past weekend. We had a discussion guided by thought provoking questions to help us all reflect on our experiences over the last year, as well as a chance to socialize and ask questions. Mince pies were optional 😉. For more information about future meetings, keep an eye on the General forum. I'm worried mince pies are a UK-specific thing and you'll think I chowed down on some beef, so [check this out]( from the good old BBC for a tried and tested recipe - we add extra nuts in our household, because that's how we roll! [mincemeat] --------------------------------------------------------------- That's all for the community update. Keep up the hard work, and in case you didn't get the hint, don't forget to check out [AoC](! And remember, it's ok to be a piggie during the winter holidays! [Teddy_with_parsley] (The parsley is blurred because of how swiftly it was being devoured 😋.) Whatever winter holidays you celebrate, everybody at Launch School hopes you have a wonderful time! --------------------------------------------------------------- If you wish to stop receiving emails from us, you can use the one-click link below to unsubscribe. 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