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In this episode we interview a long time fan of the Treehouse Show, and amazing Treehouse student Moses Finlay! Also, he's 11.
Hi, I'm Craig,
welcome to the Treehouse Show.
0:00
The treehouse show is our weekly
conversation with the Treehouse community.
0:02
We have a very special guest on
the show today, Moses Finlay.
0:09
He is a student and
a longtime fan of the Treehouse Show, and
0:13
the creator of many applications.
0:16
Most notably,
the video note taking site, vdnote.com.
0:18
Yeah, did I forget to mention?
0:22
He's 11.
0:24
Moses, I am so
happy to have you on the show today.
0:25
>> Yeah, it's good to be here.
0:28
I'm really excited.
0:29
>> Yeah,
I heard that you're a fan of the show.
0:30
>> Yes, I am.
0:33
I watch it, like, almost every week.
0:33
>> That's awesome!
0:35
>> Yeah.
>> So, we're so
0:36
lucky to have you on the show.
0:37
>> Yeah!
>> I have a question for you.
0:38
How did you get started in technology?
0:41
>> Okay, well, for
0:43
all my life I've always loved knowing,
building things and knowing how they work.
0:45
>> Okay.
0:50
>> And one day my dad was like, hey,
you should get into programming.
0:51
>> Okay.
0:54
>> And I'm like, okay,
that sounds really cool.
0:55
What is it?
0:57
>> How old were you?
0:58
>> I think I was, maybe eight.
1:00
>> Okay.
1:02
>> Yeah, so then he was like, okay,
just basically, where are you?
1:03
Tell the computer what to do and you
can build websites and stuff like that.
1:08
So we found this place
called codecademy and
1:12
I started learning on there for
a little while, and then,
1:14
I started playing on Treehouse because I
found out and I'm like, this is amazing.
1:18
>> Okay.
>> So, I've just been doing Treehouse for
1:23
the past year and a half, I think.
1:25
>> Wow!
>> Or two years, yeah.
1:27
>> And so how old are you now?
1:28
>> I'm 11.
>> You're 11 now, wow.
1:30
Okay, so you've got a lot of
experience under your belt.
1:32
What are you taking on Treehouse?
1:36
>> So right now I'm learning JavaScript.
1:37
>> Okay.
>> I'm going through the full stack
1:40
JavaScript track, yep.
1:41
>> Okay.
Awesome, so
1:43
you have two years experience there.
1:43
So what sort of advice would you give to
students that are learning JavaScript?
1:45
>> Okay, so, well first I would say
find a great place to learn, Treehouse.
1:50
Treehouse is a great place.
1:54
Also, sometimes you might be down, and
1:56
I just say, if you have any
questions just go to a forum.
1:59
>> Okay.
>> Like Stack Overflow is a great one and
2:03
just ask questions.
2:05
Also sometimes you just
need to just take a break.
2:07
>> That's a great,
taking a break is great advice.
2:13
>> Yup.
Taking a break, yeah.
2:15
Mm-hm.
Yeah, just take a break and yeah.
2:16
>> Do you ever get frustrated?
2:19
>> [LAUGH] Yeah sometimes, but I just,
if I have a question I just ask it and
2:21
then usually when I'm frustrated I
just put it away, thing about it, and
2:28
then you know, once it comes to me or
once I figure out the problem,
2:33
I'll go back-
>> Right.
2:38
>> And it works!
2:39
>> Isn't that funny how that works?
2:40
>> Yeah, I know.
2:41
>> Like when you're really upset about
something and you're focusing on it, but
2:41
when you walk away that's usually when it-
>> One time,
2:44
there was this big bug in my program and
I was like, what?
2:47
What's going on?
2:51
And then I just put it away,
I went to bed, next morning light bulb.
2:53
A typo.
2:59
>> A typo, wow.
3:00
>> I was like thinking about my code and
then like, it's a typo.
3:01
Or I just like typing the wrong thing
out or I'm not doing it the right way.
3:07
You just.
3:11
Yeah, I usually just think about it and
there's also lots of great experienced
3:12
programmers and
I usually ask questions from them.
3:17
>> That's great.
3:20
Asking questions, I think,
is a great advice and a lot of people,
3:21
sometimes feel like maybe you shouldn't
ask questions, but you should.
3:23
>> Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.
3:26
Don't feel like you shouldn't
ask questions because, yeah.
3:28
>> Its kind of, is it easy to pick up?
3:33
Did you think it was easy?
3:35
>> Yes.
3:36
>> Okay.
3:37
>> Well no.
3:38
Sometimes I'd spend like a couple
of hours just trying to figure
3:39
out-
>> Okay.
3:42
>> Like something.
3:43
Because so like there would
be like a bug in my code and
3:43
I'd like start digging through it.
3:48
>> Okay.
>> And I eventually find out and
3:51
then that kind of just like
helped me gets stronger.
3:53
>> Okay.
>> And then like next time I'd be like.
3:57
>> How did you-
>> That's easy, yeah.
3:59
>> So how did you find that,
how did you keep going?
4:01
That's the advice that I was
kind of looking for, but
4:03
I think you probably have some.
4:05
>> Like, like.
>> You might not have thought of it
4:06
as advice before.
4:07
How do you keep going?
4:10
How do you keep going after [CROSSTALK]
>> I don't know.
4:10
I love it, I love it a ton.
4:13
>> Okay.
>> And.
4:15
I don't know, it just comes to me.
4:17
I just do it all the time.
4:19
>> Okay, why do you love it at time?
4:22
What do you love about programming?
4:23
>> Okay, you can build things.
4:25
You can tell the computer what to do and
4:26
the computer is a very,
very powerful tool and it's just.
4:27
I just love it, because you can tell
it what you do and build things, and
4:31
you know how it works.
4:35
And if you learn enough
you can build anything.
4:36
>> Right.
Anything.
4:38
Do you have a dream of,
what would you like to build if you could?
4:39
>> Well, I don't know,
maybe a social media.
4:44
>> Okay.
>> That would be really cool.
4:49
>> Okay.
4:51
So, you showed me a little bit earlier
a project that you were working on.
4:52
Can you talk about that?
4:56
>> Yeah, so
I built this project called VDnote.
4:57
>> VDnote.
5:01
>> vdnote.com.
5:02
>> You got a website?
5:04
>> Yep it's on a website yep.
5:04
>> Wow.
>> So, basically,
5:05
you can watch videos on my website
by pasting the YouTube URL.
5:08
>> Okay.
>> And then you can take notes
5:13
based on that.
5:14
>> So it plays the video in your
website and you take notes with it.
5:15
>> Yep, and you can email the notes
to yourself if you want and
5:18
I'm working on adding new features and
stuff, so.
5:21
Yeah.
5:24
>> Wow, that's super cool.
5:24
What technology did you use?
5:26
>> Okay, so I used html,
5:27
CSS just to build the website
structure and then I used JavaScript.
5:30
>> Okay.
And did you learn all that stuff here?
5:34
>> Yes all of it.
5:37
>> Wow, that's super neat.
5:39
That's cool.
5:40
And so you're taking notes on any video.
5:41
>> Any video.
>> Because you can paste any video
5:44
in there.
5:46
>> Yeah.
Any video off YouTube.
5:47
I'm gonna work on adding other
videos from other websites.
5:48
>> Okay.
>> But currently just YouTube.
5:51
>> Cool, that is super neat.
5:53
So when you were building that app.
5:55
When you were building this VDNote.com,
which is awesome that you have a website.
5:56
>> Yeah.
>> Did you run into any problems?
6:00
>> Yes, so for the email thing.
6:03
So like you could add notes and
6:06
then if you remove a note,
it would still show up in the email.
6:08
So I had to turn each thing into,
just give it its own little ID.
6:13
So you could access that ID.
6:19
Every time you removed it you would
completely remove it from the program.
6:21
>> Cool!
>> And then it would remove it from
6:25
the email too.
6:26
>> Wow!
6:27
>> So, then it, yeah, so it works now, so-
>> Nice!
6:28
>> Yeah.
6:31
>> Awesome!
>> Yeah.
6:31
>> So, if you could do me a favor and
users of vdnote.com, what's
6:32
something that they wouldn't know about
you from just using your application?
6:38
>> You mean like me personally?
6:43
>> You personally, yeah.
6:45
>> Yeah, okay.
6:46
Well, I live in Hawaii.
6:46
>> Okay.
6:48
>> And I go surfing almost every day.
6:49
>> You go surfing?
6:50
Wow, okay.
6:51
>> Yeah, so yeah.
6:52
And I'm home schooled.
6:54
>> You're home schooled.
6:55
Awesome.
6:56
>> Yeah.
>> Awesome, awesome.
6:56
>> Yeah.
>> Have you built other apps,
6:58
other than your video?
7:00
>> Well, I'm working on getting
some other ideas for apps.
7:03
>> Okay.
>> But I do have my website.
7:06
>> Okay.
>> Well, kind of like my portfolio website
7:08
where I post my projects in there.
7:10
>> Nice, awesome.
7:12
>> Yeah so-
>> Let's share that out.
7:13
>> MosesFinlay.com.
7:15
>> MosesFinlay.com all right awesome.
7:16
>> Yeah.
7:17
>> Cool great.
7:18
When you see things like technology
where it's headed right now,
7:19
so you see the self driving cars and
7:24
things like that do you have any ideas
on what you'd like to see happen?
7:26
>> Well one thing that would be cool is
like the computer could make programs and
7:31
make things just by itself.
7:35
>> Write itself.
7:37
>> That would be cool.
7:38
Have you seen those movies?
7:39
>> No, I don't think so.
7:41
>> Okay, cuz it gets kind of scary.
7:42
[LAUGH]
>> Yeah.
7:44
Yeah.
7:46
>> Awesome.
So, they could write their own thing.
7:49
>> I think that would be cool.
7:50
Yeah.
>> Like, the computer makes its
7:52
own Facebook.
7:53
>> Yeah.
Well, maybe not that.
7:54
>> So they could chat with each other.
7:55
>> That would be also be really
complicated, but yeah, probably.
7:57
>> Right.
>> That would be kind of cool.
8:00
>> Do you think the robots need
to have a social media app?
8:01
[LAUGH]
>> That would be like one of the coolest
8:04
things ever, like texting,
what did you do today?
8:09
>> [LAUGH]
>> Yeah, that would be really cool.
8:12
>> That's awesome.
8:15
All right, I really want to say
thank you for being on the show.
8:17
You are such an inspiration to
see you sticking with it and
8:20
being so, just showing that you
can do it and stick with it.
8:23
I'm really excited to have you on here.
8:26
And please keep us updated
on what you're doing
8:29
>> Okay, I will, yeah.
8:32
>> Because it's amazing.
8:32
I'm so impressed with everything you do.
8:33
>> Thank you.
8:35
>> Thanks for watching The Treehouse Show.
8:35
To get in touch with the show,
reach out to me on Twitter or
8:37
hit us up in The Treehouse community.
8:39
See you next time.
8:41
Since Moses was in the office,
8:42
we figured we'd let him take
a spin doing a screen cast.
8:43
Is there anything this kid can't do?
8:46
>> Hi everyone, my name is Moses and
this is my website.
8:48
Right here, and I have some
projects that you can view here.
8:53
What I really wanted to show you guys is
this note taking app I made for videos.
8:58
And you can paste any YouTube URL for
9:01
any video you want, and
can take notes based on that video.
9:04
So I have a video up here that I'll copy.
9:08
And then we can go over here,
and paste that in here.
9:12
So then, the video shows up right here.
9:17
So now you can take notes
based on the video.
9:22
You can take notes based on the video like
this and then it just pops down here.
9:29
So you can just like basically
take notes on any video you want.
9:33
Also I had a little bit
of trouble making this,
9:36
like you could add notes like this and
then when you would.
9:40
See.
So when you look at this, there,
9:47
you could remove a note like this but
it won't show up on email.
9:51
And I had to like give each
note specifically an ID or
9:56
something to basically identify it.
10:00
So that when you would send the notes,
they would pop up right here, even though,
10:03
I removed all those.
10:07
So, yeah, that's basically it.
10:08
So, yep.
10:10
[SOUND]
10:11
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