13 Mar 2012

Bumper Link Dump

BRIANMAY.COM - New-User Guide

Note: this is not a spoof.

L.E.D. Surfer

A great idea executed really beautifully.

* { box-sizing: border-box } FTW

This technique is particularly useful when dealing with percentage-width columns, and I’ll consider using it across all sites & elements when I eventually drop IE7 support.

IKIJI

One of the prettiest examples of the stuff-happens-when-you-scroll-a-long-page approach. See also: jQuery Scroll Path

Working In A Crowd, Video Gamers Build A Better Protein Than Scientists

This leaves me wondering whether there are other useful challenges that can be successfully ‘gamified’.

Whitney Wonga

A somewhat, er, edgy bit of ad scheduling there.

Original Hover Effects with CSS3

Unfortunately, these examples haven’t been coded to degrade nicely in less capable browsers, which is often the trickiest aspect.

Lost & Taken

Free textures, browsable via a gallery.

Using the Fullscreen API in web browsers

The browser APIs differ at the moment, but it’s only a matter of time before it’s (ab)used by advertisers.

Contrast Rebellion

I try to avoid this, but a high percentage of client-supplied designs contain low-contrast elements.

Cursorjacking again

This is so simple, and yet so hard to prevent once browsers allow the cursor to be switched off.

A Beginners Guide to HTML & CSS

This looks really good and relevant to modern web development practices.

Gumroad; GoCardless

A couple of interesting new payment systems.

Building Games that Run on Poor Mobile Connections

Making realtime web apps that cope well when things go wrong is hard.

Folding Websites

It’s a bit glitchy, but an interesting idea.

Channel 4 continuity announcers mispronounce The Simpsons

I made the mistake of reading some of the idiotic, squabbling YouTube comments below this. D’OH!

FitText

A jQuery plugin for making headlines scalable.

UNCENSORED - A personal experience with DMCA - UMG vs Veoh

Those with deep pockets don’t need to win court cases, they can simply drag them out until the opposition runs out of money or morale.

Search by Image

This is amazing, I love the way it stabilises then bursts into life again.

Bad O2!; O2 mobile numbers and web browsing

They fixed the immediate issue, but it’s annoying that the mobile number is still included in headers for “trusted partners”, especially as it’s a crude & sloppy solution for identifying users.

WebGL playground gallery

I rather like this one. See also: Seriously.js

Nick Kwiatek

Surely the only home page with an ASCII fluid simulation in the background.

Hey Girl, I know you think this meme has jumped the shark, but that won’t stop me from loving it

“And the Oscar for Best Ryan Gosling Tumblr goes to…”

Android Design

A decent attempt by Google to get developers thinking about UI more, but as long as manufacturers & carriers customise Android it’s inevitably going to be a bit messy as a platform.

140byt.es

Tweet-sized JavaScript.

Insights on Symbol Design, by Jon Hicks

Some useful tips, including one that many designers overlook: that precise pixels still matter.

Start 2012 by Taking 2 Minutes to Clean Your Apps Permissions

If you’ve allowed any third party services to access your email, stop and think about how insanely risky that is.

Playfic

Play & create text adventures using the Inform system.

Zocial CSS3 Button Set

Is there an online service for creating custom dingbat fonts, as used for the icons in this?

Fountain

A markup language for screenwriting, similar in approach to Markdown.

HTML5 Please

Recommendations based on current browser compatibility.

Real Prince of Persia!

They got the movements spot-on.

JavaScript as a First Language

With early home computers, when you switched them on you usually got a BASIC prompt. JavaScript offers the nearest modern equivalent to this immediacy.

Hashbang Conversation

Twitter is abandoning its stupid-idea-in-the-first-place ‘hashbang’ URLs.

Google Bypassing User Privacy Settings

Basically they’re getting around a weak privacy measure by presenting a P3P policy that states it’s not a P3P policy.

Unhear it

Get rid of a song that’s stuck in your head… by replacing it with another one.

How I Helped Destroy Star Wars Galaxies

Yet another tale of exploiting a virtual economy.

24/192 Music Downloads Are Very Silly Indeed

Audiophiles do get a bit carried away with these things.