Dispatches From The Internets

• Rethinking CSS Grids
  Some great ideas from @MarkBoulton.
• Screen reader support for abbr and span on mobile
  Thanks for doing this research @iheni!
• @JonathanStark’s Starbucks Card
  An awesome idea (and API).
• Web Actions: Identifying A New Building Block For The Web
  Sounds amazing. Let’s get it done!
• Your Chrome browser might not be using HTTP anymore
  Wow. Just wow.
• Redesigning the browser window
  I’d love to see something like this.
• Forget WiFi, It’s LiFi: Internet Through Lightbulbs
  Sounds awesome!
• Bagchecking in the Command Line
  API-out. This is how we do things.
• $1 chip tests for HIV in 15 minutes flat, fits in your wallet
  Pretty amazing.
• Media Queries and Asset Downloading
  This really helps us better understand how browsers work with media queries.
• Anatomy of a HTML5 Mobile App
  A fantastic overview from @fling.
• Braid - A simple way to manage Git submodules
  Looks pretty simple. I’ll have to try it out.
• Sparse checkout example in Git 1.7.0
  I’m so glad Git has this option. I was missing it when I changed from Subversion.
• Why the ‘Ok’ Button is No Longer Okay
  Instead of giving users the Ok button to confirm the action they want to do, it’s more efficient and effective to give users a button that’s labeled with the specific action.
• A Box You Want to Uncheck on LinkedIn
  Thanks for the heads-up @ryanirelan!
• Extending native JavaScript objects. Evil or not?
  An interesting discussion of the pros and cons.
• Intranet Remains Poor Stepchild Of Corporate Websites
  No big surprise there.
• Kindle Cloud Reader
  Bye bye Apple!

As a content-focused web development firm, we’re frequently called on to design and build content management systems for our clients. More often than not, that involves using some form of in-browser rich text editor (RTE) to more easily allow users to add and edit content. Over the years we’ve used a number of different scripts and libraries to do this—everything from TinyMCE and CK Editor to our own home-grown solutions. The thing is that we’ve never felt 100% happy with any software we’ve used.

Last week the U.S. teetered on the brink of economic collapse, but there were lots of goodies to think about and share too. Here’s a smattering of things to check out on the topics of design, development, and social commentary:

• Why designers should seek chaos and complexity first
  From order emerges chaos…
• Reckless web practices encourage idiots
  The first draft of Chapter 1 of my book went a little something like this.
• TokBox
  These guys are doing some pretty amazing stuff with webpage-based video conferencing.
• HTML5 Shows Promise, While Android Tablets Confuse, Developer Survey Finds
  More fuel for the HTML-based app fire. Via @thisisladychris.
• Useful List of International Address Formats
  Just what it says. Via @sniffles.
• Baker Ebook Framework 2.0
  Could be an interesting way to build interactive books for iOS if you don’t want to go the ePub route.
• 10K Apart (Responsive Edition)
  Now with eCSStender (and yours truly as a judge).
• Infrastructure woes take toll on US economy
  We need a major public works project!
• Debt-reduction politics: Why not let each party choose the other’s supercommittee members?
  Sounds intriguing to me.
• JavaScript - Optimising Where it Hurts
  I had almost forgotten about this great presentation. Thanks for the reminder @brucel!
• Flexbox & WebOS UI Development
  A good overview of how flexbox works and how it can be used in Enyo.
• Loading Typekit fonts asynchronously
   Awesome!

In preparation for the launch of 10K Apart (Responsive Edition) from Mix Online and An Event Apart, I’ve been feverishly working on a modest implementation of the proposed CSS3 Grid Layout module (also referred to as Grid Alignment in alternate drafts) using eCSStender. As you might imagine, it was a pretty massive undertaking, but it’s been pretty rewarding to use eCSStender for it’s original intent: prototyping implementations of proposed specifications.

Awesome stuff last week from the worlds of typography, mobile, customer service, and design.

• Responsive Images, sans markup adjustments (by @MattWilcox)
  Definitely a good start.
• CSSFrag Safari Extension
  A neat idea.
• A Quick & Comprehensive Type Guide
  Useful stuff for lovers of typography.
• Lorem Ipsum Me! Usable and quick dummy text
  Nice work Zach!
• Consumers losing patience with the slow mobile web
  Mobile is where it’s at. Are you there yet?
• True HTML5 Fullscreen Video
  Awesome!
• Ralph Nader Gets A Refund From US Airways
  And now you can too!
• Typekit improves font rendering on Windows
  Excellent news. Republish your fonts!
• On Safety: A Word From Airbnb
  A quick and timely response.
• Think Outside the Box, but Don’t Forget the Box Exists
  Consistency!
• Which Are More Legible: Serif or Sans Serif Typefaces? (via @tuna)
  Excellent work Alex!
• Reviewing the user experience of HP’s WebOS TouchPad
  A great review of what looks like an awesome OS.
• Google Offers To Re-Write Your Webpages On The Fly… for Performance
  Looks interesting.
• Android Leaves Apple iOS In The Dust
  Android’s total market share in the U.S. tope 39% (to Apple’s 28%).
• Beautiful Swear Words
  Hilarious and gorgeous.
• The Racial Wealth Gap Grew Significantly in the New Recession
  We’ve known for a while now that the wealth disparities in this country are inextricably linked to racial disparities. Sadly, the new recession is only augmenting that problem.
• Progressive Enhancement 2.0
  A fantastic presentation from @slicknet.
• Unsolicited Redesigns
  Excellent reaction piece by @khoi.
• Visual Designers Are Just As Important As UX Designers
  Great thinking from @andybudd (as always)

We found some awesome links last week:

• Content Choreography
  Some great thinking from Trent Walton.
• .net Asks: How much do you value formal web design education?
  Featuring answers from yours truly and many more.
• W3C Internationalization Checker
  Destined to become a handy tool, I reckon.
• Blitz
  For load- and performance-testing your apps.
• How SEO Can Work with Content Strategy
  An excellent overview on the intersection of these two disciplines. Notable quote: “I’m a fan of optimizing for customers before search engines.”
• The Top 15 Most Popular @ Damn You Auto Correct
  I cry each time I read these.
• If the World’s Population Lived in One City
  Amazing visualization. Glad I don’t live in Houston.
• Google Labs is closing
  Stick a fork in it…
• Responsive Web Design Techniques, Tools & Design Strategies
  A good survey of the work that’s being done out there.
• Making Desktop Webapps in Lion
  Bye, bye Fluid.
• Google Deletes Last 7 Years of Digital User’s Life, Shrugs
  Proof you shouldn’t put all of your eggs in one basket.

Hot links last week:

• CSS Border Image Generator
  A fantastic tool for getting more familiar with CSS3 border images.
• On Mobile Context
  Great thinking from Jason Grigsby.
• Three Girls Sweep Google’s Science Fair
  An awesome day for science!
• Edward Tufte’s “Slopegraphs”
  An analysis of one of Tufte’s less-often used visualizations.
• JavaScript & HTML5 Charts and Graphs
  Yet another option for dynamic charting.
• Why the Past Matters for the Future of Fish
  Bleak.
• Fractal
  Test for HTML/CSS support in emails.
• Is it Better to Provide Health Food or to Eliminate Junk Food?
  It’s a tough question with some great new research.
• oCanvas
  An alternative canvas API.
• The Latest in HTML5
  There’s some awesome stuff in here, but it’s Chrome only.

First off, this post has been way too long in the making. I should have written it a couple months ago, but that’s the thing about running things, you don’t always have time to come up for air. Anyway, without further ado…

I find a lot of cool links throughout the week and I usually bookmark them on some service, like Pinboard, but for some reason I never considered posting them to the blog. I’m recitfying that as of today.

Here are last week’s finds:

• HTML5 Pattern
  A user-generated collection of helpful regular expressions for using HTML5’s form validation pattern attribute.
• Mobile Web Design 2.0 (PDF, 61K)
  Cameron Moll’s tongue-in-cheek second edition of his popular mobile guidebook.
• Design and UX Books I Have Loved (Articles, Too!)
  Zeldman recounts his favorites for Rosenfeld Media’s blog. A few of mine are in there.
• CSS Summit
  3rd Annual CSS conference from Environments for Humans. 
• Designing for Content: Creating a Message Hierarchy
  Steph Hay’s inaugural piece for Web Standards Sherpa. Hint: she started out with a bang.
• Monkey steals camera to snap himself
  Pure craziness. 

Over the last five years, one of the most frequent questions I’ve gotten has been “When are you going to write a book?”