The Best Of The Internets

With the holidays, I completely missed this announcement from IE team. In IE for Windows 10, we’re getting:

1. All public (i.e. non-intranet) sites will render in “Edge mode” meaning they get the latest standards implementation. Note: It will ignore X-UA-Compatible version targeting.
2. CSS Preserve-3D
3. Content Security Policy 1.0 sandboxing
4. CSS Interaction Media Queries (Level 4) - pointer type & hover testing!
5. Gamepad API
6. Selection API
7. ECMAScript 6 features including classes, promises, iterators, the arrow function, Math utility functions, Number utility functions, Object utility functions, String utility functions, Object literal enhancements, spread, template strings, symbols, proxies, and weak set.

Pretty awesome stuff! What do you want to see in future versions of IE? You can post your thoughts and votes on UserVoice.

If—like me—you’re on a Mac, you can run the latest version of IE via RemoteIE. Haven’t heard of it? Rey Bango has a great write-up of how to set up RemoteIE on Macs, iOS, and even Android.

So earlier, when I said the only way we could trust that the content we delivered was what we sent was via HTTPS? I stand corrected. Even HTTPS can’t guarantee it.

I often talk about the negative performance impact of using front-end MVC frameworks like Angular and Ember to generate your HTML. It should be pretty obvious why: a framework must be downloaded, interpreted, and executed before any HTML is generated and eventually rendered in the browser. The one thing I had yet to do was actually see how the various frameworks stack up side-by-side. Now the Filament Group has done just that.

If you are using or are considering a front-end Javascript framework, you need to read this report.

This is a fantastic overview of the modular architecture Lonely Planet is using to run their website and their style guide, keeping both perfectly in sync. The system that drives all of this, Rizzo, is available on Github.

I love this!

The world we live in isn’t defined by two versions of reality. There isn’t the “normal” reality for all the normal people, and the slightly skewed reality for all of the rest of us who yearn for normalcy. Our fiction should reflect that. King George VI wasn’t any less of a powerful speaker or ruler for all of his stuttering. Odetta Holmes wasn’t slowed down by her wheelchair.

I’m not broken and neither are you.

Honestly, it’s probably good to get into the habit of updating your SSH keys regularly anyway, but in case you needed a reminder:

Back in February, we improved the security audit trail for SSH keys. Soon, organizations will be able to block access for SSH keys that were created prior to those improvements. If your application relies on deploy keys or user keys for repository access, we recommend replacing any keys created before February 24, 2014.

As usual, Jeremy sums up my thoughts perfectly:

Personally, I don’t think there’s any reason to have variables in the CSS language; it’s enough to have them in pre-processing tools. Variables add enormous value for developers, and no value at all for end users.

We were promised flying cars; we were added to mailing lists.

Our screens act like windows to content of variable size and scale, demanding an awful lot of abstract thinking to design for. Sometimes we’re successful, revising content, designing modern day deliverables and embracing compromise like we know in our hearts we should. Other times…

Great piece on how to carve out time while still working & living.

We find the time for those things we place importance on. ‘Finding the time’ often relies upon having a goal that is meaningful and important to you; a goal that is valuable enough to make a priority. If you consistently don’t have time to make progress on your project, take a reality check: is this something you really want to achieve? If you feel it really is a priority for you, move forward by fitting it in with the priorities you share with the people in your life.