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Pssst! Wanna read something scary for Halloween? Well, this should make you shit your pants.
Seriously though, if the event described here turn out to be true, it is one of the most frightening moments in the history of our species.
An interactive map of the world’s undersea cables, to accompany Nicole Starosielski’s book The Undersea Network.
Critical thinking without hope is cynicism. Hope without critical thinking is naïveté.
Echoing Margaret Atwood’s observation:
If we abandon hope, we’re cooked. If we rely on nothing but hope, we’re cooked. So I would say judicious hope is necessary.
The full transcript of Scott’s excellent presentation on performance and progressive enhancement.
The sad history of input elements.
I wish I could share in the closing optimism:
Now imagine the future where Web Components are supported natively, and someone else is allowed to write a <better-input>, an element that is a real, encapsulated DOM element, and not just a div soup. Imagine using this <better-input> that isn’t implemented differently in each browser, that looks the same everywhere, and that probably also knows how to bake you a cherry pie.
But I all I can think is:
Now imagine the future where Web Components are supported natively, and everyone is allowed to write a million variations of <my-idea-of-a-better-input>, an element that is an inaccessible div soup under the hood.
I really like the way that you can literally flip between the source code and the output in this styleguide for The Toast.
There are Inception-like layers of nostalgia here: firstly, this web series of web pages made by Matt are a throwback to an earlier era, and secondly, the story being told goes all the way back to the birth of the ARPAnet.
I was talking to Charlotte recently about public speaking, confidence, and overcoming fear. She really hit the nail on the head when she said “I need to get comfortable with feeling like an idiot.”
Words to live by—especially if you’re working on the web.
This is something that has been bugging me ever since reading the book:
While Andy Weir does a good job of representing the risks faced by Mark Watney, stranded on Mars and confronting one life-threatening challenge after another, he is silent on the threat of radiation, not just to Mark but particularly to the crew of the Hermes as they contemplate executing a daring rescue mission that more than doubles their time in deep space.
Well, this paper answers all my questions.
Aaron has created a nice straightforward way to allow to POSSE posts from your Jekyll website to Medium.
There’s going to be a conference about progressive enhancement. It’ll happen in London in March of next year. You should speak at it.
You’ve got until December 20th to submit your proposal. What have you got to lose?
This profile of GCHQ’s “Karma Police” programme is as maddening as it is insightful: the sheer unashamed brazenness of these bastards deserves our collective anger …not the collective apathy which has been the UK’s response so far.
There is one glimmer of hope in this litany of affronts to decency:
In recent years, the biggest barrier to GCHQ’s mass collection of data does not appear to have come in the form of legal or policy restrictions. Rather, it is the increased use of encryption technology that protects the privacy of communications that has posed the biggest potential hindrance to the agency’s activities.
I concur with this sentiment:
If you are starting a new blog, or have one already, the best thing you can do is turn off all analytics.
Especially true for your own personal site:
Just turn them off now. Then, write about whatever the fuck you want to write about.
Another take on the kind of quantity queries that Charlotte has been experimenting with for a while now. It all goes back to the nth-child stuff that Heydon was talking about at Responsive Day Out
This is such a delightful story of a brilliant mistake—true typographic nerdery and nostalgia.
Read all the way through for a free gift.
There’s something quite Kafkaesque about reading through the comments on Jeff Atwood’s request for an alternative to Ember.js …for rendering some text on a screen.
Every now and then someone pipes up with “server-rendered HTML?”, there’s a pause, and then a response of “naahhhhh.”
Surreal.
I’m loving Ellen’s thoughts on taking storytelling to the next level.
Let’s say that we’ve got a lot of useful storytelling models for design now. Achievement unlocked. Let’s move on to discuss narrative structure, in space, over time.
Combining the molecules of narrative tropes to create stories.
Andy P. is taking the reigns for the next UX Brighton event and it’s going to feature an ensemble cast delivering 5 minute lightning talks. Got something you want to talk about? Don’t be scared! Drop Andy a line.
A fascinating guest post by Brian McConnell on Centauri Dreams: what if there’s a galactic equivalent to the internet, allowing civilisations to communicate with a system analogous to packet switching.
Unfortunately this kind of focussed signalling would be hard to detect. But on the other hand, it could explain the Fermi paradox.
My sister-in-law is causing quite a stir. Go Helen!
Need an arbitrary—but not random—number? Here you go.
No numbers available? Top up the stock by providing some arbitrary numbers.
The inaugural London accessibility meet-up is happening on October 28th with two great presenters: Robin Christopherson and Julie Howell—that’s right; she’s coming out of retirement for one last talk!
A short story by Ian McDonald set in the same universe as his new novel Luna: New Moon.
Why Atavist is betting on the web. See also:
Lessons From Five Years in Mobile News Apps: #1 Don’t have a news app.
Andy examines Google’s AMP project from a performance perspective and is left puzzled by its reliance on JavaScript and custom elements for rendering media.
But he shares my hope that AMP could serve as a demo of what the web could be if we developers had the will and political clout to see it through:
I wonder if what AMP really does is remind us how we’ve failed to build a performant web… we know how to, but all too often we just choose not to (or lose the argument) and fill our sites with cruft that kills performance, and with it our visitors’ experience.
Yeah, you’re jealous.
It’s official: hash bang URLs are an anti-pattern, and if you want your content indexed by Google, use progressive enhancement:
Since the assumptions for our 2009 proposal are no longer valid, we recommend following the principles of progressive enhancement.
The significant challenges in archiving audio.
A handy little for calculating your performance budget based on how long you want your page to take to load on a particular connection.
A profile—published on Ada Lovelace Day—of Margaret Hamilton’s work on the Apollo project.
Maciej has created a version the AMP Project homepage that’s faster, more performant, and more …um …straight-talkin’.
The promise of the web is that Alexandria’s library might be resurrected for the modern world. But today’s great library is being destroyed even as it is being built.
A fascinating account of one story’s linkrot that mirrors the woeful state of our attitude to cultural preservation on the web.
Historians and digital preservationists agree on this fact: The early web, today’s web, will be mostly lost to time.
Tom’s thoughts on what AMP means for developers and publishers. He was initially sceptical but now he’s cautiously optimistic. Like me, he’s hoping that AMP can force the hand of those third-party advertisers to get their act together.
Publisher’s development teams are very capable of creating fast experiences for mobile users, but they don’t have the clout to coordinate all the additional cruft that is added to the page. However, if all the different publishers dev team’s got together and put their weight behind a single implementation, then we can force third parties to change their habits.
All the videos from the excellent Responsive Field Day are now available. Even better, the audio is also available for your huffduffing pleasure!
All the presentations and panels were great. Sophie Shepherd’s terrific talk has really stuck with me.
Here’s the 20 minute talk I gave at the inaugural Responsive Field Day in Portland.
A great little primer on the origins of the internet and the web, by Aleks.
The most interesting anomaly uncovered by a Zooniverse project since Hanny’s Voorwerp.
I really like this comparison between Waldsterben and the current situation with the web after years of pervasive tracking.
An alternate version of AMP HTML that works in more parsers and user agents.
The AMP project have “A new approach to web performance” making your website dependent on Google. The Be Nice AMP Project follow the old approach: Make your site fast following best practice guidelines and be independent of Google.
You read a lot and like the idea of writing. You know the best way to get better at writing is to write, so write!
A nice navigable timeline of historical events from Wikipedia.
Paul compares publishing on the web to publish on proprietary platforms, and concludes that things aren’t looking great right now.
Performance is the number one selling point for each of these new content platforms.
But we are promised and shown a world where technology is gorgeous and streamlined and helpful and light and unobtrusive. We don’t live in that world. That world is a fantasy. The hope that the Internet of Things will allow us to be free from daily headaches and logistical errors is naive.
Have a read through all of Remy’s posts on his frustrating—but still rewarding—time running JS Bin.
Kyle Halleman completed one hundred days of writing one hundred words. Respect! I know how hard that is.
Have a read from the first entry onwards.
Just when I think that I don’t get the point of Medium, along comes Dan to show me the light. This thought-provoking thinkpiece isn’t quite on the same level of his seminal groundbreaking kittens work, but I guarantee it will stay with you.
I absolutely love the way that my archive is presented here. Matt and Hannah have set the bar in how to shut down a service in an honest, dignified way.
Websites should not come with minimum software requirements.
