Off I Go To MIX11/Las Vegas!

Just a friendly reminder that I'll be attending Microsoft's MIX11 Conference next week in Las Vegas (April 11th-14th).

The conference officially starts on April 12th but as previously mentioned, I'll be attending two boot camps (intensive programming classes) the day before: the HTML5 one and jQuery one. For the other three days, there are three to five session blocks per day. Each block contains a variety of classes to choose from, with the ones that I chose listed below.

There are some sessions that I wish I could go to but conflict with the ones I feel I have to take. Those are mentioned below as well. The good news is, MIX11 will be posting videos of all the keynotes and conference sessions for online viewing or download about 24 hours after they run. So my missing sessions won't be the end of the world.

This is all subject to change.

Tuesday

• Hot from the Labs: HTML5 WebSockets

I'm at about 85% there in terms of creating HTML5 page layouts according to the HTML5 spec, but need to further my knowledge of HTML5 application development. This session, centered around cross-device communication using HTML5, should help me out.

I almost chose the "Designing Infographics for Web Applications" that's going on at the same time because, as any regular Mashable reader will tell you, infographics are all the rage with the cool kids these days. In the end though, the WebSockets one is better-suited for me.

Side note: the Infographics Showcase has some great infographic examples.

• 50 Performance Tricks to Make Your HTML5 Web Sites Faster

  Since HTML5 Boilerplate came bundled with a build script that minifies the template files, I've been focusing on site optimization a lot more, toying with YSlow and Page Speed. My hope is that this session will cover site optimization overall and not just from an HTML5 point of view, but I'll learn something either way.

  Two other sessions going on at the same time looked good as well: the ["Fonts, Form and Function: A Primer on Digital Typography"][14] and the "Microformats and Semantic Markup". If I change my mind and switch things around, I'll pick the latter session over the former one.

• (Undecided) Either JavaScript: The Language or Building Adaptive HTML5 Applications

  Don't know what to do here…

  On one hand, my taking the JavaScript session makes the most sense. I have a better-than-basic understanding of JavaScript and would like to increase that to a more-than-basic one…this session will help. And a discussion about the new ECMAScript5 language is included, so there's another plus.

  But on the other hand, HTML5 apps depend on JavaScript more so than any other object-oriented programming language. Therefore, it stands to reason that the HTML5 app session will cover at least some JavaScript, meaning I may be able to kill two birds with one stone.

  The truth is, this session block has too many great options to choose from. The "Pragmatic JavaScript, jQuery & AJAX with ASP.NET" looks pretty good as does the "Inspiring UX – UX Lightning Series". I'll admit that the former is in the running for me to attend, but it's in a distant third place.

  Again, I have no idea what to do here so I may make a decision at the last minute. Anyone care to provide their input?

Wednesday

• Deep Dive Into HTML5

  HTML5's functionality has little browser support but people love it and it can do a lot of cool things. Plus, the coding syntax is quite similar to Flash's Drawing API and I know that pretty well, so I'll go to this one. The "ECMAScript 5: The New Parts" session that's also going on during this session block looked good as well, but I can wait a little bit before diving into that. Also at the same time is the "An Overview of the MS Web Stack of Love" session. It's a bit over my head but attending it would be a chance to hear one of the masters speak since Scott Hanselman is running it. I thought about attending that one for a hot second but decided against it in the end.

• Interactive Panel: JavaScript

  This is more of a Q&A panel on JavaScript…no coding talk but, again, I want to up my JavaScript knowledge. I'm sure I'll get something out of this one.

  In the same session block is the "Crafty UX – UX Lightning Series" session, which looks interesting, but not enough for me to blow off the JavaScript one.

• Back to Square One

  I'm about halfway through The Pragmatic Programmer as of this article so I'm gaining perspective on how programmers actually think. This session seems to lean that way, discussing why projects fail and will draw answers "from fields like philosophy, psychology, economics, art, even religion." Ok, I'm curious.

  No other courses really excited me for this session block.

• The View of the World Depends on the Glasses I Wear

There will be two 25-minute "mini-sessions" this day. I was going to skip them as I don't think 25 minutes is enough to learn anything, but this media query course was announced at the last minute. I may check this one out.

Thursday

• Designer and Developer: A Case for the Hybrid

  This is another "think" session and somewhat relates to Cameron Chapman's famed Smashing Magazine article, which I not only loved but also presented my point of view on her theory. I'm really looking forward to this one.

  I did take a peek at "The Future of HTML5" that's happening at the same time, but I have my own opinions on this subject so I passed. The "Writing Maintainable JavaScript" does look good and there's a slight chance that I may do this one instead.

• Filling the HTML5 Gaps with Polyfills and Shims

  Polyfills and shims, code which extends certain functionality to browsers that don't support said functionality, are extremely important to front-end web developers nowadays: think Selectivizr, CSS3 Pie, and the king of all polyfill/shim scripts, Modernizr. I understand this for the most part but I can always learn more.

  No other course in this session block appeals to me more than this one.

• Modernizing Your Website: SVG Meets HTML5

  Scalable Vector Graphics are images created with lines and curves instead of pixel-based bitmaps. Wide adoption would make all of our lives easier, especially if applied to a responsive web design so I'm going to this one. The session promises to teach us how to "create content that is interoperable across browsers and devices:" honestly, I'm a little skeptical about this, but we'll see.

  Speaking of being skeptical, the "HTML5 for Skeptics" session is also in this session block and looked interesting, but I'm no HTML5 skeptic. So no go for me on this one.

• Then I have to catch an early flight back and miss the last two session blocks. If I could, I would attend these sessions:

  • Second-to-Last Session: either the Data in an HTML5 World session or the CSS3 Takes on the World session.
  • Last Session: Designing Great Experiences for SharePoint 2010.

I don't plan to do any live blogging for MIX11 right now, although I may change my mind. I might do an overall recap at the end though.

I will, however, be unleashing a boatload of Twitter updates under the #MIX11 hashtag, so follow me over at @kaidez and feel free to tweet me if you want to meet up!

Also, my next article will be the 50th one for my blog! I'll be using that space as perspective on my learning experience as well as how this blog is doing. This article will be mostly personal and not really talk about coding. It will also be long-winded…just a heads-up!