How about both?

Expect some more of these Field Notes sketches to flow through the site over the next few weeks.

I am cranking through some code examples and plenty of research for this thing. It should kick incredible amounts of JavaScript ass. Come to think of it, it's a ninety minute presentation, so it better kick ass I'm going to look at load times, execution times, ySlow scores, codebase and add pure editorial commentary for several popular libraries (at minimum, jQuery, YUI, Prototype, and Dojo), as well as pure JavaScript and my own bare-bones library.

If you're a Boston JavaScript nerd, I hope to see you there.

Here's the description:

Our next JavaScript Meetup will be held on Thursday, April 30th at Microsoft Research Center located at One Memorial Drive in Cambridge. You should come to the 11th floor to be let in. There is also parking available at a cheap evening rate in the building.

Rob Larsen , Principal Presentation Engineer at Cramer, will demonstrate comparisons between raw JavaScript and utilizing the more popular JavaScript libraries currently available.

After the presentation | demonstration, we will go around the room introducing ourselves and asking the group for advice | opinions on any JavaScript-related issues members are facing.

Microsoft will provide pizza again. What a nice company!

Please RSVP and bring guests. We always have lots of pizza left over.

And the meetup.com link:

April Boston JavaScript Meetup Meeting – JavaScript Library Comparisons – The Boston JavaScript Meetup Group Cambridge, MA – Meetup.com

Specifically he knew all about the snake oil selling, self-proclaimed "social media experts" and "internet marketers"* shilling their eBooks and "guaranteed income streams" that still populate a depressingly large percentage of the Twitter user base.

Okay, he was actually writing about lepers, but it works remarkably well given the current state of things. The conversation is between two monks in the year 1357 and it goes like this:

William: "… Have you sometimes seen groups of lepers [Social Media Experts] in the countryside?"

Adso: "Yes, I once saw a hundred together. Misshapen, their flesh decaying and all whitish, hobbling on thei crutches, with swollen eyelids, bleeding eyes. They didn't speak or shout; they twittered, like mice."

Which just about describes how I feel about the worst of them. Pyramid-scheming, snake-oil selling, unemployed illiterates trying to sell me ebooks and "exclusive webinars" on the "secrets" of social media and internet marketing.

*which isn't to say there aren't people who can call themselves those things without the quotes (for full disclosure's sake- I was once referred to as a "social media specialist"- in a print magazine, no less). There definitely are. To give some local love, look at people like Chris Brogan or Laura Fitton (AKA @Pistachio.)

It's just this spammy subset of the people that follow me on Twitter that I absolutely despise.

They're typified by an auto-DM when you follow back (because I do follow back anyone that seems human) saying something like:

Thanks for the follow! Learn how to get 10,000 followers on Twitter in 90 days & Make Money doing it http://spammyebook.example.com/

It's at that point I desperately wish there was a way to punch people in the face over the Internet.

The topic will be a hands on comparison JavaScript libraries. I'm going to write the same functionality (probably a Twitter search) in plain JavaScript and several popular libraries. I'll discuss the anecdotal findings of using all the different libraries for the task and I'll also offer up numerical analysis of the different pages- execution time, page load time, etc.

More info as I get it. Should be fun if it happens. It'll be a little bit of work as I'll have to prep for it, the work itself looks like it will be a lot of fun.

Good times.

Much to digest, and I haven't even downloaded it yet, so the best thing I've seen so far is this viral ad they're running to support the launch:

They've got a whole youtube channel set up. It's funny stuff.

Beyond that, as I announced on Twitter today, I'm no longer supporting IE6 for future development. Obviously at work I'll have to support whatever I'll have to support, but on my own projects I'll be ignoring IE6 completely from here on in and I couldn't be happier.

Congrats to the IE team.