This month in bookmarks: May 2008
May was quite a busy month this year wasn’t it? We had NFJS, JavaOne, Firefox 3 is starting to be adopted much more rapidly… phew. Therefore, this month a have a bit larger list of links than usual (and trimmed it down a bunch). All great resources that may not have gotten all the attention they deserved:
CSS
CSS Qualified Selectors [ShaunInman.com] - There could be a proposal to the CSS Working Group for this, and I think that this would be an incredibly useful addition to CSS.
Tomorrow’s CSS today: 8 Techniques They Don’t Want You To Know [Sitepoint] - This article shows 8 really cool CSS selectors for progressive enhancment. Most of these involve variations of the attribute selector (which is not supported by IE6), but there are some very cool ways to decorate elements, especially links, with these techniques.
How To: Resizeable Background Image [CSS-Tricks] - Chris Coyier compares three ways to apply a resize-able background to an HTML element, the best one being a purely CSS solution that is really neat. A good read.
JavaScript
SocialHistory.js: See Which Sites Your Users Visit [RWW] - You may have seen scripts around this topic popping up lately, but Aza Raskin has pulled into a bit of JavaScript so you can include it on your site and provide a better user experience.
HTML
Fix Your Site With the Right DOCTYPE! [A List Apart] - The DOCTYPE you choose determines a LOT about how your site gets rendered. This article raised list of valid points that I didn’t even really think about when I choose one. I think it will be helpful to you too.
Typography
Complete Guide to Pre-Installed Fonts in Linux, Mac, and Windows [A Padded Cell] - They mean it. It gives some good insight about the kinds of fonts you can and can’t expect on each operating system. Good to know when choosing for your design.
Usability
10 Usability Nightmares You Should Be Aware Of [Smashing Magazine] - A pretty useful list of things I still see on MAJOR websites and I know that my readers would never do when they can avoid it ;).
Java
JavaOne Technical Sessions Slides [JavaOne Online] - It looks like most of the technical session slides are available from JavaOne over at Sun. I know I am very happy to finally see slides for the sessions I missed and review those I did see.
Shell Programming
UNIX tips: Learn 10 more good UNIX usage habits - A great list of shell commands that I now use regularly. Very informative for anyone who does any non-Windows command-line programming.
Programming Tools
IETester - A tool that allows you to test your site with the JavaScript and rendering engines of IE5.5, IE6, IE7, and IE8b1 without virtualization! You can even keep your current IE install. It’s not perfect yet but it has great potential.
Thunderbird 3 (Shredder) Preview - Want to see what’s coming for Thunderbird? This is just a sneak peek and definitely not usable yet but something to keep your eye on.
Firefox
Firefox 3: Color profile support [dira.org] - Browsers don’t display photographs (read: "colors") correctly. That is, until Firefox 3 came around allowing color profile support. This is not enabled by default, so check this out on how to enable it.
Create Your Own Smart Bookmarks in Firefox 3 [CyberNotes] - A great way to enhance your productivity with Firefox 3. Use this technique to create dynamic bookmarks with lists of most visited and most recent sites/bookmarks with additional filters. I see some brilliant uses for something like this…
Firebug 1.2 beta - Yes, technically Firebug 1.1 is also beta, bet the Firebug team is so great that they develop to 2 betas at once! Version 1.2 has some really cool improvements and works with FF3.
Scala
scala-lang.org - To invest in your knowledge, you should learn a new language every year. Scala is an upcoming language that runs on the JVM and there was a lot of excitement about it at NFJS and JavaOne. You should check it out.
What did you find in May that you want to share. Hope to see in the comments!
A 25 year-old programmer for