Link archive: April, 2014

Staring down colliders

Craig recounts the time we visited the LHCb at CERN. It’s a lovely bit of writing. I wish it were on his own website.

Paul Downey - just doodling - YouTube

A lovely little profile of Paul and his sketches.

The Web Is Agreement! The URI Is The Thing!

Incomplete List of Mistakes in the Design of CSS [CSS Working Group Wiki]

I think I concur with this list. Although I guess it’s worth remembering that, given the size of the CSS spec, this isn’t an overly-long list.

It’s interesting that quite a few of them are about how things are named. It’s almost as if that’s one of the, say, two hardest things in computer science.

The Cassette Tape as Responsive Design

This is an interesting observation about the design of cassette inlays. It reminds of Paul’s presentation at the Responsive Day Out when he looked at the “responsiveness” of television idents.

Why the Indie Web movement is so important

Well, this is pretty bloody brilliant—Dan Gillmor has published an article on Slate about the Indie Web movement …but the canonical URL is on his own site.

We’re in danger of losing what’s made the Internet the most important medium in history – a decentralized platform where the people at the edges of the networks – that would be you and me – don’t need permission to communicate, create and innovate.

This isn’t a knock on social networks’ legitimacy, or their considerable utility. But when we use centralized services like social media sites, however helpful and convenient they may be, we are handing over ultimate control to third parties that profit from our work, material that exists on their sites only as long as they allow.

Where Time Comes From on Vimeo

A profile of Demetrios Matsakis, keeper of time at U.S. Naval Observatory, America’s equivalent to Greenwich in its importance for timekeeping in the modern world.

And They All Look Just the Same

Greg isn’t just lamenting a perceived “sameness” in web design here. He’s taking a long-zoom view and pointing out that there’s always a sameness …and you can choose to go along with it or you can choose to differentiate.

Anti-Net-Neutrality “Fast Lanes” Are Bullshit – Marco.org

An astute takedown of the political language in a New York Times article.

George Lakoff would be proud.

Labelmask | Brad Frost Web

I really like this interface idea from Brad that provides the utility of input masks but without the accessibility problems.

Data attributes and progressive enhancement - Simply Accessible

Derek’s excellent advice on avoiding over-reliance on data attributes has this brilliant nugget of insight:

In the web front-end stack — HTML, CSS, JS, and ARIA — if you can solve a problem with a simpler solution lower in the stack, you should. It’s less fragile, more foolproof, and just works

Responsive design testing tool – Viewport Resizer

A handy little bookmarklet for quickly checking how a site might look at different screen sizes, and you can customise it to use whichever screen sizes you like.

Learn CSS Selectors interactively

This visual approach to demonstrating how CSS selectors work is really handy.

Peter Nixey - How to be a great software developer

I’m not sure if I agree completely with every point, but this is a great shortlist of things you can do to make your code more resilient and understandable (thereby making you, by any sensible definition, a better programmer).

How America’s Leading Science Fiction Authors Are Shaping Your Future

Eileen Gunn writes in the Smithsonian magazine on the influence of science fiction.

Science fiction, at its best, engenders the sort of flexible thinking that not only inspires us, but compels us to consider the myriad potential consequences of our actions.

The Indieweb | Parallel Transport

or: how I learnt to stop worrying and love the blog.

This is a really nice introduction to the basics of the Indie Web …with nice illustrations too.

webcompat.com

I like this idea. It would be nice to see it catch on…

1. Report a bug for any website or browser.
2. Our team of volunteers diagnoses the bug.
3. We send a fix to the site owner or browser.

Mediating Music by Rudiger Meyer

A thoughtful in-depth piece that pulls together my hobby horses of independent publishing, responsive design, and digital preservation, all seen through the lens of music:

Music, Publishing, Art and Memory in the Age of the Internet

New product opportunities for the Internet of Normal Things | Berg Blog

I like Matt’s observation here that the simple combination of a barebones data format like HTML delivered over HTTP is a good-enough low-level API for joining up all kinds of internet-connected things.

In the last 60 years, the biggest software platform for interop and integration – for new products, services, businesses, and value creation – has not been Android, or iOS, or Windows, or the PDP-11. The biggest and best platform has been the web.

One implication is that successful products are not necessarily those with seamless, beautiful, tightly-controlled “experiences”, but rather the ones that are capable of talking to each other.

Small things, loosely joined.

James Bridle — Where You Are

The GPS system is a monumental network that provides a permanent “YouAreHere” sign hanging in the sky, its signal a constant, synchronised timecode.

Wearables versus there-ables.

Some interesting thoughts that follow on nicely from Scott Jenson’s ideas around just-in-time interactions:

What if the technology was actually already in the room when we got there? Maybe that’s the kind of Internet-of-things that will be more sustainable and will win long-term.

Using Photoshop in Responsive Workflows - Web Standards Sherpa

A nice summation by Dan of when it makes sense to use a graphic design tool like Photoshop and when it makes sense to use a web browser.

The Sticky Pagination Fixer

If you insist on having a fixed header on your site, please, please, please add this script to your site. I often use the spacebar to page down so this would be a life-saver.

Avoiding ‘words to avoid’ | Inside GOV.UK

I love the thinking behind this plugin that highlights the weasel words that politicians are so found of.

Designing in the Borderlands by Frank Chimero

This is a wonderful piece of writing and thinking from Frank. A wonderful piece of design, then.

A personal view on generalists and trans-media design

Tobias Frere-Jones: My Kind of Neighborhood

Some sleuthing uncovers an interesting twist in New York’s psychogeography:

All of the buildings have been demolished, and in some cases the entire street has since been erased. But a startling picture still emerged: New York once had a neighborhood for typography.

Meyrin: CERN Terminal Font « optional.is/required

Here’s the font that Brian created at the line-mode browser hack day at CERN.

Dr. Easy on Vimeo

I finally got around to reading Red Men by Matthew De Abaitua recently. It’s like Nick Harkaway crossed with Jeff Noon.

Here’s hoping that this short film will be developed into a full-length feature.

Creating Style Guides · An A List Apart Article

A great article by Susan on getting started with creating a styleguide for any project.

I’ve seen firsthand how style guides save development time, make communication regarding your front end smoother, and keep both code and design consistent throughout the site.

Airbag Intl. / Archives

Greg says:

We need a web design museum.

I am, unsurprisingly, in complete agreement. And let’s make lots of copies while we’re at it.

Daring Fireball: Rethinking What We Mean by ‘Mobile Web’

John echoes some of my recent thinking about what qualifies as a web browser and, by extension, what qualifies as the web:

We shouldn’t think of “the web” as only what renders in web browsers. We should think of the web as anything transmitted using HTTP and HTTPS. Apps and websites are peers, not competitors. They’re all just clients to the same services.

That said, I think he is perhaps underestimating the power of URLs. Addressability—particularly over an extended time period—remains the powerful feature of the web.

Google Night Walk

A nice stroll around Marseilles at night without any of the traditional danger.

FIRST web page viewed by “FIRST” browser via c.1965 modem and terminal - YouTube

What a wonderful way to go online!