The blind programmers who created screen readers - The Verge
A fascinating account of the history of JAWS and NVDA.
Link tags: aws
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The Laboratorium (2d ser.) (I Do Not Think That NFT Means What You Think It…)
The bottom line is that almost everything NFT advocates want to do on a blockchain can be done more easily and efficiently without one, and the legal infrastructure needed to make NFTs work defeats the point of using a blockchain in the first place.
An Idea from Computer Science That Can Change Your Life – Jorge Arango
Applying Postel’s Law to relationships:
I aspire to be conservative in what and how I share (i.e., avoid drama) while understanding that other people will say all sorts of unmindful things.
The Art of Whaling: Illustrations from the Logbooks of Nantucket Whaleships – The Public Domain Review
Scrimshaws and sketches.
Feels like a Zooniverse project waiting to happen.
Our Last-Minute, Extremely Online Gift Guide - The New York Times
Chindogu gone wild.
The 3 Laws of Serverless - Burke Holland
“Serverless”, is a buzzword. We can’t seem to agree on what it actaully means, so it ends up meaning nothing at all. Much like “cloud” or “dynamic” or “synergy”. You just wait for the right time in a meeting to drop it, walk to the board and draw a Venn Diagram, and then just sit back and wait for your well-deserved promotion.
That’s very true, and I do not like the term “serverless” for the rather obvious reason that it’s all about servers (someone else’s servers, that is). But these three principles are handy for figuring out if you’re building with in a serverlessy kind of way:
- You have no knowledge of the underlying system where your code runs.
- Scaling is an intrinsic attribute of the technology; so much so that it just happens automatically.
- You only pay for what you use.
Abstraction; scale; consumption.
Designing, laws, and attitudes. — Ethan Marcotte
Ethan ponders what the web might be like if the kind of legal sticks that exist for accessibility in some countries also existed for performance.
Design Laws in Nature by Jordan Moore
A deep, deep dive into biomicry in digital design.
Nature is our outsourced research and development department. Observing problems solved by nature can help inform how we approach problems in digital design. Nature doesn’t like arbitrary features. It finds a way to shed unnecessary elements in advancing long-term goals over vast systems.
The Eponymous Laws of Tech - daverupert.com
Dave has curated a handy list of eponymous laws.
Laws of UX
- Fitts’s Law
- Hick’s Law
- Jakob’s Law
- Law of Prägnanz
- Law of Proximity
- Miller’s Law
- Parkinson’s Law
- Serial Position Effect
- Tesler’s Law
- Van Restorff Effect
Not listed:
- Murphy’s Law
- Sturgeon’s Law
Back to Bradshaw’s / Paul Robert Lloyd
I really like getting Paul’s insights into building his Bradshaw’s Guide project. Here he shares his process for typography, images and geolocation.
Setting up CloudFront and TLS (HTTPS) with Jekyll – olivermak.es
Remember when I mentioned that you can get free certificates from Amazon now? Well, Oliver has written an in-depth step-by-step description of how he got his static site all set up with HTTPS.
More of this please! Share your experiences with moving to TLS—the more, the better.
New – AWS Certificate Manager – Deploy SSL/TLS-Based Apps on AWS | AWS Official Blog
If you’re hosting with Amazon, you now get HTTPS for free.
The Tink Tank » Understanding screen reader interaction modes
Léonie gives a great, clear description of how screen readers switch modes as they traverse the DOM snapshot.
Bradshaw’s Guide For Tourists in Great Britain
Keep it under your hat, but Paul has soft-launch his Project Portillo. And very nice it is too.
Like A Rounded Corner (Bruce and The Standardettes) - YouTube
Bravo, Bruce, bravo.
I heard Glen Campbell’s “Like A Rhinestone Cowboy” on the radio and began absent-mindedly singing “Like a rounded corner” to it.
Google, Microsoft, Apple sued over preview icons | Business Tech - CNET News
Further proof, as if any were needed, that the patent system turns into a steaming pile of shit as soon as it has dealings with software.
IESB Sues Over Unauthorized Use of Spy Photo in Iron Man - Film Junk
Here's a depressing counterpoint to my feel-good story about Iron Man: someone else who's picture was used in the film (in good faith) decided to sic the lawyers on Jon Favreau.
AJAX and Screen Readers - Content Access Issues - The Paciello Group Blog
Steve Faulkner gives a rundown of the current state of play between screen readers and Ajax.
PawSense helps you catproof your computer.
Ingenious.