Link archive: July 13th, 2012

Stephen Wolfram in The European magazine: I Like to Build Alien Artifacts

Thoughts on artificial intelligence, computation and complexity.

Derek Powazek - What If Social Networks Just Aren’t Profitable?

I think Derek is on to something here. Maybe online communities and profit are simply incompatible?

The bigger you go, the harder the road. Meanwhile, small, focused, and yes, exclusionary community sites flourish.

You know what? I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all.

We’ll tell you what you really want: Mobile context, top tasks, and organization-centric thinking | Sara Wachter-Boettcher, Content Strategist

An excellent follow-up to the recent posts on the myth of mobile context.

You often hear about cutting content to cut clutter. I support this—if you’re cutting the clutter from everywhere, not just a mobile experience.

Maybe the answer isn’t cutting. Maybe it’s learning better skills for designing and structuring complex information to be usable and enjoyable in small spaces.

Implementing Responsive Design | Building sites for an anywhere, everywhere web

Tim’s book is ready for pre-order. Looks like it’s going to be good one.

» 13 July 2012, baked by Bruce Lawson @ The Pastry Box Project

More on View Source, this time from Bruce.

The Web has thrived on people viewing source, copying and pasting, then tweaking until they get the page they want.

The Interview — Anne’s Blog

I wish more tech bloggers wrote like this.

Things that compile to JavaScript

Stuart on the importance of View Source.

Bringing a knife to a gunfight — my slide deck from An Event Apart, Austin 2012 | Stuff & Nonsense

Andy remarks on the same synchronicity I talked about at An Event Apart Austin:

Every An Event Apart conference feels special, but at this one the (unplanned) recurring themes were spooky.

Uncle Dave’s Ol’ Padded Box - Dave Rupert

Yet another brilliant technique from Dave. The only caveat is that it uses background images rather than img elements, but it’s still very powerful (and very clever).

Client/Agency Engagement is F*cked, Waterfall UX Design is a Symptom | disambiguity

Leisa nails it. The real stumbling block with trying to change the waterfall-esque nature of agency work (of which Clearleft has certainly been guilty) can be summed up in two words: sign off.

And from a client’s perspective, this emphasis on sign-off is completely understandable.

It takes a special kind of client to take the risk and develop the level of trust and integration required to work the way that Mr Popoff-Walker any many, many other inhabitants of agency world would like to work.

On the Road by Jack Kerouac on Map Tales

This in-depth map tale really works as a way of exploring Kerouac’s most famous work.