Node.js is a software platform for writing fast and scalable network applications. It is event driven and uses non-blocking I/O. Due to it's use of non-blocking I/O, it can handle many requests with a single process.

Ruby example code used in the episode:

contents = File.read('myfile.txt')
puts contents

JavaScript example code used in the episode:

var fs = require('fs');

fs.readFile('myfile.txt', 'utf8', function(error, data) {
  console.log(data);
})

console.log("That's the contents of the file.")