Eric Wendelin's Blog » Bookmarks

This month in bookmarks: August 2008

Eric Wendelin — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 03:14:58 +0000

Wow August was packed. I’ve trimmed off all but my best bookmarks for this one.

Hope you find some gems in here. If there was one that I missed, please link to it in the comments (unless of course it’s Google Chrome)!

Bash

Keyboard Shortcuts for Bash [the How-To Geek] – I have found many of the shortcuts here really helpful and it has totally made me more productive.

CSS

Override Inline Styles from the Stylesheet [Standards for Life] – Natalie Jost came up with a brilliant way to override inline styles from a stylesheet for IE7+, Firefox, Opera, and Safari. You’ll definitely want to save this technique for later. I wonder if this will work for Google Chrome…
7 Principles Of Clean And Optimized CSS Code [Smashing Magazine] – Some very good things to consider while writing and maintaining your CSS. I agree with most of these and I think they are good advice.
Date Badges and Comment Bubbles for Your Blog [CSS-Tricks] – Joost de Valk’s guest post on CSS-Tricks is a really nice way to add a bit of eye candy to your blog.

Firefox

Auto Dial [Firefox Add-ons] – This is definitely an add-on to watch. Taking ideas from Aza Raskin and perhaps the Aurora team, it fills blank tabs with useful bits like your most visited sites and has much more potential. I can’t wait to see where it goes.
Firefox Accessibility Extension [Firefox Add-ons] – I happened upon this great extension this month and have found it very useful for helping make my sites more usable. If you do web development I suggest you give this a try.
Ubiquity [Mozilla Labs] – OK, you probably did see this a week ago but I had to include it in the list because Ubiquity is just frickin’ cool!
Tracing the Web [Andreas Gal] – A very informative post about TraceMonkey, a JIT compiler for Javascript in Firefox (should be in version 3.1). I agree with Steve Yegge here that Javascript may be the next popular language, stay tuned folks.

Software

UNetbootin [Sourceforge] – Another mindlessly easy way to try out Ubuntu Linux, this time on a USB drive. I wonder how well it’d work with my iPod…

Javascript

Periodical Ajax Requests Using MooTools 1.2 [david walsh blog] – David presents a really simple (and hence maintainable) way to use MooTools for periodical ajax.

This month in bookmarks: July 2008

Eric Wendelin — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 05:00:12 +0000

Here are some of my best Delicious bookmarks from this July. Some especially good Javascript tidbits, and you’ll also notice some shell scripting goodness. Expect see it more often. I’m not trying to pick the most popular articles here, just the ones you might have missed.

Share your best link of July in the comments!

Shell

Working With History in Bash [TextMate Blog] – Allan Odgaard wrote a hugely useful tutorial to help us master bash history. I found this very useful and I’m sure you will, too.
Job scheduling with cron and at [IBM] – Automating repetitive tasks is obviously a huge productivity booster. Here is a good intro to scheduling tasks in Linux. You’ll want to stay tuned, though, as I’ll probably give you some better examples in an upcoming post ;)
Top 10 Command Line Tools [Lifehacker] – Some nifty tips here, especially in the comments. Please forgive the shameless plug as I did write 2 of the 10 articles mentioned, but hey I’m frickin’ proud of it, ok?

Mozilla

Firebug Lite 1.2 [Get Firebug] – Firebug Lite just got a lot cooler for IE, Opera, and Safari. You can use it to inspect HTML, CSS and JavaScript, keep track of your XHRs, and of course use the console. If you haven’t been using it then give it a try until Dragonfly/Drosera/etc. are done.
hyperstruct [MozLab] – I’ve been considering making some Firefox extensions for some time, and this suite of tools is exactly what will help. If you need some extra debugging power in Mozilla apps, you’re just an extension away now.
Firefox 3 features you may not know [Mozilla Links] – 8 really interesting features baked into Firefox 3 that I had no idea about. I love these little easter egg bits.

Productivity

No, your code is not so great that it doesn’t need comments [New Adventures in Software] – Dan Dyer gives some interesting points about why comments are necessary even for "self-documenting" code. I think of it this way: if 80% of the time your program is being maintained, you really need to make it as easy to understand as possible. True productivity means cumulative time saved and not just your time.
The Myth of the Interchangeable Programmer: Can’t We Just Offshore Him? [Datamation] – An insightful post about the reality of programming productivity when certain management formulas are applied. It makes a good point that smaller teams are better, and I agree.

Web Design

Tips to design your site for mobile devices [woork] – Antonio Lupetti really has gone out of his way to provide everything you need to make your site mobile friendly, from redirect scripts to template HTML/CSS to font support(!).
Script & Style – Friends Chris Coyier and David Walsh unveil a brand new place to post your best articles for CSS and Javascript. So far what I’ve seen of it has been great.

Javascript

DOM DocumentFragments [John Resig] – John yet again pulls out some arcane, forgotten Javascript feature and makes it useful. DocumentFragments dramatically decrease the time required to insert many DOM nodes into a document and are supported by IE6+ which means you can use it now!
What’s the Fastest Way to Code a Loop in JavaScript? [Gregory Reimer's Weblog] – An incredibly thorough set of tests for coding Javascript loop iteration for performance. I definitely learned a lot from all the examples given and now know the fastest way to iterate different collections etc. in different situations.
JavaScript Event Delegation is Easier than You Think [SitePoint] – I find that good knowledge of event handling is unfortunately rare in the web programmer world, since it is such a useful construct to know. SitePoint does a great job of introducing event bubbling and targeting here, something that you should give a read even if you think you have it down.

This month in bookmarks: June 2008

Eric Wendelin — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:08:53 +0000

June was a fairly lively month. Firefox 3 is now out! I see most of my viewers are now using FF3! Well done :). In all seriousness, I found some pretty cool stuff in the June bookmarks.

Firefox

Functional Firefox User Styles [Lifehacker] – There are some killer Firefox tweaks here. I know many of you readers have been asking about some of these so it’s definitely worth a look.
Jiffy [Firefox Add-ons] – A new extension for Firebug that seems very promising. I’ll be keeping my eye on this one.
Keyconfig for Firefox 3 [random($foo)] – The keyconfig Firefox extension didn’t support Firefox 3 until Leonard Lin updated it for us. Get it here!
Field Guide to Firefox 3 [dria.org] – An article containing a great list of new features in Firefox 3. Something that is great to send on to others undecided about upgrading (seriously, their only "reasonable" excuse is extension non-compatibility).

Web Design

Create a Slick iPhone/Mobile Interface from any RSS Feed [CSS-Tricks] – A thorough guide to creating an uber-sweet iPhone interface from your RSS feed. Chris Coyier worked hard to put together this awesome tutorial and shows us why he is highly respected in design-land.
Should Links Open In New Windows? [Smashing Magazine] – A good read that explains why I don’t force links on eriwen.com to open in a new window and why, in general, you shouldn’t either.

Productivity

Advanced GTD with Remember the Milk [Remember the Milk Blog] – Remember The Milk is my todo-list web application of choice. There are some really great ideas for managing your todo-lists here and I’m definitely going to be using some of these.

Javascript

Learning MooTools: MooTools Tutorials and Examples [Six Revisions] – In general, I don’t try to advocate one JavaScript library over another, but this is one of the best lists I’ve seen. MooTools genius David Walsh is featured a bunch here with some great stuff!
XSS (Cross Site Scripting) Cheat Sheet [ha.ckers] – Anyone that cares at all about securing their site needs to test every input with the patterns here. If you don’t know what XSS is then you are probably vulnerable!
MooTools 1.2 Tooltips: Customize Your Tips [David Walsh Blog] – I had to single this post out because the way David goes about is really informative. Even if you don’t care about tooltips, you will learn a lot about doing similar things in MooTools.

Tools

Announcing GNOME Do 0.5: "The Fighting 0.5" [David Siegel] – GNOME-Do is by far the coolest application launcher for open-source OSes. It looks exactly like Quicksilver and it’s functionality is almost equivalent.
the unofficial google shell [goosh.org] – What? A web command-line for searching? Sweet! GUIs are waaaaaay overrated :). Seriously, it is faster and has much more functionality that you’d think.

You can always keep up-to-date on the new technologies I’m following by Adding me to your del.icio.us network or simply checking my del.icio.us bookmarks once in awhile. If I like what you bookmark, I’ll add you back :)

This month in bookmarks: May 2008

Eric Wendelin — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 22:02:56 +0000

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!

This month in Bookmarks: April 2008

Eric Wendelin — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:14:42 +0000

April was a GREAT month for blog readers. I pulled some mostly under-recognized posts and blogs from my del.icio.us bookmarks to share them with you. You can add me to your del.icio.us network if you want to keep up on all my bookmarks in real-time.

Firefox

Restore Firefox 3 Smart Bookmarks – If you really miss having Smart Bookmarks for Firefox 3, here is a simple about:config tweak to fix you right up!

Tracking down Firefox plug-ins – With all these new versions of Firefox you are using, it may be hard to keep track of which Flash, Java, etc. plugin a particular install of Firefox is using. Check this out for simple steps to untangle the plug-in mess.

CSS

Dynamically Load Stylesheets Using MooTools 1.2 – David Walsh has really been rocking the MooTools blog world lately. This is one of the best and I encourage you to check out the others if you are interested at all in MooTools.

Web Design

960 Grid System – This is a really cool and free web-design package that I will personally be using to redesign eriwen.com. It has Photoshop/GIMP templates and HTML that you can use to kick start a design. 960px can easily be divided by 2,3,4,6,8,10,12… etc. allowing maximum flexibility and balance.

Ajaxian » Yahoo! releases new performance best practices – A list of really, really good bits for high-performance websites. How many of these can we put into YSlow?

Groovy

The Disco Blog – Andy Glover (an author of Groovy In Action) writes a stellar blog about Groovy and TDD. If you follow either of these things you will want to subscribe.

Gant – Groovy with ANT. The most painful thing about Ant is implementing good logic in your builds. This allows you to leverage the power of Groovy/Java to enhance your Ant build and it is easy as hell.

Productivity

Up or Out: Solving the IT Turnover Crisis – The Daily WTF – This is one of the best articles I have read about the Cravath System. If I ever manage you, know that I am a subscriber to many parts of this system. A must read.

Command Line Shell

The Definitive Guide to Bash Command Line History – This is THE BEST post I’ve seen on command-line history. If anyone uses a shell for anything then read this!

Would you add any? Comment it up!

This month in Bookmarks: March 2008

Eric Wendelin — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:00:24 +0000

Reviewing my bookmarks this month, I found some really great resources that I had to write about. In case you missed them, here are the best which (for the most part) went under-noticed. Enjoy!

HTML

You think you know HTML, don’t you? | kay lives here – An insightful opinion piece about front-end coding in general. Some good discussion is a bonus.

HTML Reference (beta) – SitePoint’s new HTML reference covering concepts, elements, attributes, compatibility and even microformats! You will want to bookmark this for future reference. A perfect complement for their CSS reference.

CSS

CSS Compatibility and Internet Explorer – It is made even more useful because you can see the selectors etc. that IE8 plans to support. Slightly exciting but also a bit disappointing. Good to know though :)

Javascript

MooTools Autocomplete Examples – A sweet looking autocomplete example using MooTools and the code you need to implement it. Wonder where I can use this….

Typography

101 Typography Resources for Web Designers | Vandelay Website Design – A massive list (obviously) of good typography resources. Probably the best roundup of typography resources I’ve seen. You should check it out.

Java

Kohsuke Kawaguchi’s Blog: Parsing command line options in JDK 5.0 style: args4j – A simple JAR that uses JDK 5 features for command-line arguments. I’ll take it.

Blogging

Set Up Your WordPress Blog To Allow Trackback Toggling – A really neat and fairly simple way you can make those trackbacks more user-friendly.

Mozilla

FoxieWire News site dedicated to everything Mozilla – Growing community around Mozilla’s most popular software. Definitely where you will want to look for updates and tweaks for our favorite browser.