Linkdump 10 - Art, Design, Programming, UX, Web Development, ...

It has been a few months since my previous linkdump. As a result I have accumulated quite a few links. This is going to be the biggest linkdump so far. I've split up the links a bit to make it easier for you to find your favorites.

Art

• The Schweizer Guide to Spotting Tangents - Read this if you want to improve your compositions.
• Step by Step Reprise and Video - See the magnificent Nathan Fowkes at work.
• Marshall Vandruff's Animal Anatomy - Some info on Marshall's new video on comparative animal anatomy

Computer Graphics

• Learning Modern 3D Graphics Programming - A free book!
• Procedural Textures in HTML5 Canvas - Some golden oldies ported to Canvas.

CSS

• DON'T READ this Less CSS tutorial (highly addictive) - Don't read this. Just avoid.
• Things It Might Be Fun/Useful to Try the Universal (*) Selector On - Esp. the box model point seems interesting. By default it's a bit weird. Why not to set it to use more intuitive "border-box" model by default?
• Star Ratings with Very Little CSS - Common problem, simple solution.
• (Better) Tabs with Round Out Borders - Another one of those little tweaks that make the difference.
• Public Service Announcement: Watch Your @font-face font-weight - Check this out if you use web fonts.

Design

• Adding Depth with Pixel Perfect Line Work - It's those small touches that make the difference between a good and an excellent design.
• 12 Must See Presentations on Interaction Design - Just slides but still interesting to browse.
• How to Create a Unique Selling Point for Your Home Page - Nice tips on effective site design.
• 6 Tips to Help You Build a Great Web Application - Pro tip: use the thing between your ears. That helps too.
• 25 Useful and Free Fonts to Download - Nice ones there.

Programming

• Seven habits of effective text editing - Insightful article by Bram Moolenaar of Vim fame.
• Escape From the Ivory Tower: The Haskell Journey, From 1990 to 2011 - A great presentation from Simon Peyton Jones.
• A Taste of Haskell - More Haskell from the man himself.
• JavaScript RegExp - Presentation slides.

UX

• A Flexible ID Field Helps Forgetful Users Log In - A small touch that means a lot to the user.
• Are You Meeting the User Experience Hierarchy of Needs? - So, are you?
• Innovative Navigation Techniques to Save You Header Space - Minimize header, maximize content.

Web Development

• Dochub - Various API docs (HTML, CSS, JS, jQuery, PHP) wrapped in a sweet UI.
• RESTful API Design - Presentation slides.
• The Reality of HTML5 Game Development and making money from it - Read this before making those hip HTML5 games.

LiveReload = Instant Productivity Win

It's always fun to discover something that bumps up your productivity a notch. In this post I'm going to share one of those discoveries. I've always found it awkward to refresh browser during development. Thanks to LiveReload I don't have to do that anymore.

LiveReload - Better Than Batman and Robin

Batman and Robin by MrSchuReads (CC BY-NC-SA)

LiveReload is an OS X app (~$10). It watches the directories you give to it and then refreshes your browser if its contents get modified. In order to do this you'll need a browser plugin. You will also need to connect your browser to the host app. After this you are good to go.

What makes the app cool is that it can perform a precompilation step for your files. So if you are a CoffeeScripter, it will convert those to JavaScript. Same goes for your CSS. It is possible to implement plugins for any system that might not be supported yet.

It is also possible to run some custom script of your own before refreshing the browser. I use this to compile my project using RequireJS builder.

Conclusion

Apparently some people tend to favor CodeKit instead of LiveReload. This fine article has more insight on that. I'm sure there are some other alternatives out there as well. It's definitely worth your time to research and find some solution like this. The investment is bound to repay itself in form of improved productivity. Getting more done with less effort is always good.

Ellipsis jQuery plugin + Events at Jyväskylä

I just released a small ellipsis plugin for jQuery. I had some long lists that needed shortening so that did the trick. It works with various other elements too. It's possible to animate that as well.

A lot has been happening around here lately. Here's a brief summary:

• The very first agile conference of Jyväskylä, AgileJkl, will be held at April. A similar event, Scandinavian Agile Conference, will be held around March at Helsinki.
• Geek Collision meetings have continued. So far we haven't had any special events. Just a few (ten or so) geeks and something to drink. Try organizing something like this around there too!
• A demo scene event, Instanssi (Finnish only), will be held at March.  Some members of the co-op I'm involved in will demonstrate their technology there.
• Our very own Hacklab (Finnish only) will have an open doors night at 14.2.
• Koodilehto, the co-op I'm involved with, just received a new site. Check it out to figure out what we're doing at the moment. You might also want to check out the source. There are some custom bits in it. This article covers the concept and some of the technology used.