Awesomeness.
Category: internet
How to center stuff in CSS with no hacks
Linked because I keep on forgetting how this works and it’s driving me crazy!! 😉
Flexible grid & flexible images
Open this web page and resize it – from iPhone-size to XXL. Notice how the design changes based on how much space is available. Notice how the images scale based on big your screen is. Explained here and here (thanks A List Apart!).
Business plans
I think I’ve had this conversation… let’s say… ehm… regularly? If only they would accept my equity 😉
Microsoft’s tablet: surprisingly good
This prototype of a Microsoft iPad-alternative looks surprisingly useful and well-designed. This video is dated before Apple’s announcement, so it’s not a iPad clone.
Given this video and their pretty decent IE9 preview release, can we conclude that Microsoft is not really going extinct after all?
Web typography solved
When choosing a font for use on a website, you are restricted to one of the 15 or so “web fonts“. That sucks. The only way you can use a different font is by resorting to hacks such as Cufon, sIFR or FLIR.
But if you do that, you’ve only solved half the problem. You’re still in muddy waters regarding the licensing of the fonts you’re using, possibly opening yourself to future litigation. And, whether you choose Cufon, sIFR or FLIR, the text that’s in a different font will behave differently than ‘regular’ text. You can’t select it, copy it or edit it like ‘regular’ text. That’s because it’s not regular text. It’s a Javascript image, Flash movie, or plain image – respectively. That sucks!
Fortunately, there’s a solution for that: the CSS3 @font-face tag. It allows you to set the font of any given text on your web page. If the user does not have the font you indicated, it will be downloaded and used. It even works cross-browser.
So only the legal issue remains. Obviously, you can’t redistribute high quality commercial fonts like Minion or ITC Franklin Gothic. The companies holding the rights won’t allow it, and probably rightfully so.
So what to do? As Mark Pilgrim so eloquently stated: Fuck the foundries. If we can’t legally use their fonts on a web page, then we’ll have to look for high quality fonts that we CAN use on a web page.
And that’s when I came across Font Squirrel, and I must say: I LOVE IT! Free high quality fonts that you can use on your website. 100% free for commercial use. No licensing issues! Just what web typography needed 🙂
Response times
An interesting read on the performance of web sites and the impact on usability.
Wikipedia
This is what a hardcopy of Wikipedia looks like:
The art & science of seductive interactions
Stephen Anderson talks about creating seductive interactions and how to create passionate users. Highly recommended.
I accidentally…
This guy is sooo messing with the other guy 🙂
It is called the “I accidentally”-meme and it’s quite funny actually 🙂
6 secrets of persuasion
(in dutch)
Lees “De zes geheimen van verleiding“. Verplichte kost!
History of the user agent string
If you’re developing a website, or a web application, you sometimes need to know which web browser you’re dealing with. So how do you know?
That’s what the user agent string is for, but it has become a complete mess, as described in this hilarious article.
The $300 million button
Change one button and earn another $300 million in revenue? Here’s how to do it.
An eye-opener and great business argument that shows the real value of usability.
Why are these people in my LinkedIn network?
So I know people who have friends that met Barack Obama? Cool.
Building a 3D game-engine in Javascript
Jacob Seidelin over at Opera.com has a very interesting write-up on how to create the basics of a 3D game engine in Javascript. The final result is here (move around by using the arrow keys) and looks like this:
While it may not look like much, it’s still a Wolfenstein-quality 3D-engine in Javascript – and I think that’s quite impressive.
Fantastic contraption
Fantastic Contraption is a fun online flash game where you need to use the laws of physics to move an object to the target area, like this (click ‘play’, ‘continue’, and finally ‘start’ to set things in motion).
TinEye
With this you can take a picture of an album cover, and find it in an online shop or on Wikipedia.
Made with the technology from this post (by the same guys (again)).
Image search 2.0
Is this is bound to revolutionize image search?
I think so.
EDIT: Nope, this is:
And guess what? It’s the same guys.
The Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory
Attributed to John Gabriel, found on Penny Arcade.
15 cool websites
Ok, not all, but still 🙂 I really dig YouLove.us and Volll, but the others seem promising as well.
Nice visualizations
Zefrank has a nice online tool to create stunning visualizations. Try it!
The end of the Internet
I like this error message: link 🙂
Booting a computer in your web browser
This is a screenshot of a computer booting inside your web browser. Imagine the possibilities 🙂
link so you can try it yourself.
PicLens Firefox add-ons
PicLens is quite possibly the most shiny Firefox add-on I’ve ever seen. Oh, and it’s quite cool too 🙂
Great site for developers
WebAppers is a great site for web application developers – like me. It highlights great open source web application projects, like the AtMail project I blogged about earlier.
New & flashy open source webmail
I really like this new & open source webmail project called AtMail:
13 tips for building a successful online product
“Much of the online literature about starting up is focused on how to create some fantastic product which will gather millions of visitors and make you a billionaire, and the “new wave”, so to speak, proposes that rather than taking a 1 in 10’000 bet that you can make billions, it is better to take a 1 in 10 bet that you can make millions.
Since I have started two such businesses already, here are thirteen tips from my own experience.”
Link – very worth a read
15 great examples of web typography
Take a look at this beautiful text-only website.
More examples here.