This works fine, just open the resulting .mm file and you can convert tab indented text files into Freemind mind maps

"This redesign is a response to ebooks, to web type, to mobile, and to wonderful applications like Instapaper and Readability that address the problem of most websites’ pointlessly cluttered interfaces and content-hostile text layouts by actually removing the designer from the equation."

Great stuff. Text is the new whitespace. Via daringfireball

"In elevators I see people swiping back and forth between their home screens. On the sidewalk I see people reading and walking, headphones in, bumping into people and barely dodging more dangerous obstacles."

OK it is longer than 2 weeks, but there appears to be no box number yet.

"I now clearly see that with respect to technology–specifically Internet-connected devices–we are still in a state of nature. Our relationship to technology is totally unsophisticated. We lack balance and harmony. We are natural over-consumers on a path to technological obesity. I unequivocally think that technology is a good thing, but I am equally convinced that if we do not develop a sophisticated relationship to technology, we will suffer consequences small and large, physical and mental, personal and interpersonal."

Interesting, via Richard, thanks for the link

I'll give this about 3 weeks? Just think about the software updates after he reconnects.

20Gb per day is a huge bandwidth allocation compared to most Web hosting accounts. And that is on the free accounts, it is 200Gb per day on a paid account. You could run a pretty big site off that. I have no intention of testing the question, but the wording suggests that the limit is 20Gb per day per link.

"His mystique in the design world only deepened when, at the height of his career, he gave up Web work to learn to make movies with a handheld video camera."

Link is to a good example.

"In fairness to Darlene, she had come to a near-total halt on first encountering the word "Brzezinski" and never fully regained her stride."
...

"For a while, I was a little worried about what they would come up with, especially after my father-in-law called to ask how important it was that I be able to use both upper- and lower-case letters."

When people started word-processing their own work. This chap had a *custom* word-processor made. Via Shaun Blank

"As a result of this project,my future now seem bright and I have started getting a lot of opportunities that I did not have before.If you find yourself in a position like me ,don’t lost hope instead start a project and tell people about it ,it doesn’t have to perfect and use all the resources you can get."

Zimbabwe based Web programmer.

"The point is, humans seek novelty yet are pattern-recognition machines. What you put out will initially work quite well as they check it out for the first time, but afterwards, they will learn to filter your marketing efforts out unless they are genuinely useful (more on that later)."

Via HN. Some really clever people are trying to get us to look at things. Continuous novelty is a good one for teaching as well (but within a secure framework).

"Many of the most important banner ad best practices focus on conspicuity. Some examples include using bright, standout colors in your ads, using big buttons to make the ad look more clickable, and creating strong, concise calls to action."

And a page full of 'conspicuity' is when I click the readability button...

"But if it turns out that programming is like driving a car, and everyone can do it, and lots of people actually do it -- I would be very pleased. Because people who are making software for themselves are hard to push around. And they will demand real computers, not the limited kind ... that are becoming popular...."

Dave Winer, on the popularity of learning to program. I think 'end user' languages could become popular; R, puredata, macros, a subset of Javascript (perhaps using a library)

Wonderful!

"In the IPv4 world, you have one internet addressable IP address and the rest of your network lives in a non-routable space. Your internal network is on the other end of a NAT firewall, subnetted and organized into something that makes sense for the local sysadmins. 
If you need to change your internet service provider for any reason, that's perfectly okay. Your external address changes, a few firewall rules are changed and life moves on. If you need to reorganize your address space internally, no problem! You execute the change, and the outside world is none the wiser. Simple, easy and convenient.

In an IPv6 world, this is a no-no. There is no NAT; it was deemed heretical by the priestly caste of network engineers running the holy church of the IETF. Blasphemers are chastened and belittled. "

Let's take something basically manageable and make it hard...

"...we are running Access in Wine in X11 on Linux in an isolated user account on our server slice that revision controls your Access database in git, and we're displaying it using VNC in your web browser in flash..."

Amazing, but true

"Under the direction of the PhD students, the undergraduates were writing computer programs to haul millions of pages of publicly available digital chatter – from Facebook, Twitter, blogs and news stories – into a real-time archive which could be analysed for signs of the public mood, particularly in regard to financial markets"

Pretty neat idea...

"Salem said that the average US 21-year-old has sent over 250,000 emails, text messages, and IM sessions, has spent over 14,000 hours online, and doesn't accept information from a single source, but checks with his or her network instead. "

Englebart's report in a nicely formatted Web version. Annoying table of contents list that 'follows' you as you scroll. Readability version gets rid of the table of contents but also gets rid of the images.

Boxology in Windows 8.

This is simplified...

"If you don’t like Metro, WOA won’t let you seek refuge in the more conventional Windows desktop. That’s because while WOA will have a desktop option, just two apps can use it – Microsoft’s Office 2015 and Internet Explorer 10."

This one is going to be fun. People have got more used to devices over the last few years, but still...

One for the Business Studies students, a good reason to get interested in statistics.

"The big deal is that privacy and security is not a big deal in Silicon Valley. While technorati tripped over themselves to congratulate Mr. Morin on finessing the bad publicity, a number of concerned engineers e-mailed me noting that the data collection was not an accident. It would have taken programmers weeks to write the code necessary to copy and organize someone’s address book. Many said Apple was at fault, too, for approving Path for its App Store when it appears to violate its rules."

Via Scripting News

Tradecraft in the networked era, Smiley would be impressed. Via Daringfireball. Gruber makes the point that copy/pasting a password is still vulnerable to keyloggers.

Avoid these, I do most of them

This extension allows you to save all the slides in a Libreoffice Impress presentation as single images. Use the instructions in one of the comments to find the macro and add it to your File menu once you have added the extension. Works fine

Doing a Windows 7 laptop for a relative. Hacker News tip off that Microsoft's own anti-virus is better than AVG and the commercial ones and costs nowt. Also slows system less.

I'm so glad I work in a place where IT are a couple of floors up. Yup, they do use remote desktop most of the time but f something is hard to describe, they just pop down to have a look.

Via HN

You write an equation with a tablet or whiteboard pen. The application recognises the formula and renders it as LaTeX markup with a visual rendition. Needs saving as image.

Via HN

"If consumers continue to demand low-cost and high-quality products, their vendors will demand that component suppliers do more for less. And they will."

I can't do much about this, but I buy recycled electronics (3 year old laptop and 4 year old HP Xeon workstation) to extract the maximum use I can from hardware, and to reduce the amount of electronics that ends up being stripped of rare earths in third world countries.

Looks fun, need to compile on Linux

Downloads easily and gives me a 'traditional' pop3/smtp client on my blackberry. The smtp problem remains though. t-mobile won't allow access to their t-email smtp server from mobile devices because of spam. If I use the gmail authenticated smtp server, then the email looks as if it has originated from my gmail account.

At this rate it could be putty and ssh for non-google email on the phone...

"WordPress is the best blogging platform I, or indeed we, have ever used… but as a CMS is falling far behind the alternatives."

Then perhaps the software should be used for the purpose for which it was designed?

"In fact everything about the company is in version control, from code to notes to contracts to legal documents."

Interesting idea - commit log gives a journal of the context behind the documents and decisions. A GUI that was optimised for non coding records might be an idea...

"Your 1920x1080 TV takes a 1920x1080 signal, chops the edges off it and then stretches the rest to fit the screen because of decisions made in the 1930s."

Strange, but true

CSS and js zooming presentation application emulating prezzi without the Flash. Via hacker news. Works best in Chrome/Safari. Slow in Firefox 10

And the Man's own web site looks more professional and inviting than the newspaper that published the article about his work...

The history of writing on computers is being written by the look of it...

program or be programmed example. Note the html hiccup (manual mark up added on top of a programmed template)

I'm not sure that rounding errors of 2% make that much difference, but I stand to be corrected. Application of arithmetic involving Golden Section to column width and line spacing on a Web page

Finding a simple language to teach people who might be interested in learning programming is not easy these days. BASIC isn't around, and most languages have advanced features, which get used fully in production code. The Khan Academy is going for JavaScript.

"Most of the design decisions at RIM are made by 50 something engineers, otherwise highly accomplished and credible in the field of engineering. But since they've lived most of their lives in the rural areas of Southern Ontario, and don't have any real background or even social sensibility for culture, design and such issues, they're woefully unqualified for the task of aesthetic judgement."

Well, I'm 50 something as well, and I rather like my Blackberry 9300. It does what I need. Love the e-mail.

Really nice implementation. A version of this for GCSE Maths would be wicked.

Beta channel for Firefox

A practical example of a persona being used

Old school editor tutorial. Good hints and the Web page uses a very nice style for keyboard characters <kbd>

Another python html template library. Like buses, none for ages then three come along at once. From Hacker News discussion.

Read this for the code

"What happens is that when you order a Kindle Fire - which differs from the Kindle reader by allowing users to browse the web, play games, video and music - it comes with your Amazon account information preloaded, along with "1-Click" ordering. That means anyone who is holding that device can place an order, whether it's their account or not. No prompts come up to confirm the purchase or ask for a password."

Someone *really* thought through their user personae when they were designing this product. Via Daringfireball

(My electric ink Kindle needed some kind of registration with the web site but that could be because we are in the UK, or possibly because I did not have one-click enabled in the main account.)

Fat fingers

Scanners and searchers

"Quick, what's full of security holes, constantly needing to be patched, piggish enough to make your laptop sound like a jet engine, and yet probably installed everywhere?"

Begins with F

"Our grandparents grew up with very little. They valued every possession. I know this because I live in my grandparents’ old house and I’m still finding balls of odd-lengthed twine in the basement. In fact, we humans evolved with very little. We were always starving for food, short of objects, desperate for information."

Essay about the role of libraries and what they should be archiving for the future.

One html page with self-contained js. Could hack the headings and turn it into a simple task tracker.

"Talking to The Reg this month, Bachman reckons his dyslexia may have worked to his advantage: "I found reading harder than writing so I've always been in a situation where I was writing the forward-looking article because I didn't know what others were doing.""

IDS designer - how you process 275 Million transactions a day.

"At work I have a laptop stand made out of an old cardboard box, made by tracing/cutting around an existing cardboard laptop stand, and slotting it together. I pirated my laptop stand."

Brit uses Ubuntu and pirates his hardware

Via Hacker News: suggestion that end user programming was seen as disruptive to the market.

Film about digital tools and their relationship to creativity.

"But the problem, according to those campaigning for change, begins at school with ICT - a subject seen by its detractors as teaching clerical skills rather than any real understanding of computing."

Yup, but LOGO back in the primary schools.

Book with a javascript console built in. Nice. Via Hacker News (ycombinator)

"Researchers, however, have come up with an intriguing option for that wasted heat: putting it to good use in people’s homes."

Used to be swimming pools in the 1960s heated by mainframes...

2560 dice, and the back of the portrait is a negative image.

"However, often, I find it much easier to get into the zone when I’m just using the laptop unadorned. It’s something about hunching over the small screen, I think."

I'm noticing this as well for certain tasks (text entry) but not for others (anything that needs several windows).

Thought provoking and another data point that suggests I keep the site as simple and design free as possible

Not surprising to me at all. Simple, serial, linear fits most people's reading style. Tables should have a reason for being tables as they impose a cognitive load, i.e. categories across top and down side.

What they need is launchpad...

Some references and materials for learning a popular client side library/front end for JavaScript

"If you’re not paying for something, you have no reason to expect it to be there tomorrow."

I think I like the text size - certainly makes a statement on a large screen and looks fine on mobile opera. Via The Setup

"Those who control where that text box shows up - and where the text entered into it gets squirreled off to, and how it's ultimately used - are still exercising supremacy. Unless we can build our own software, or at least realize we're not fully in control of that text, we're at their mercy."

Perhaps we all need our own Shiva Plug based Web server next to the router as well, as Dave Winer is always suggesting.

Really useful page.

python resource including easter eggs

Tangle library for making parts of Web pages interactive. See link below this one

Very nice illustrated essay. The embedded simulations are produced using a javascript library that the author provides.Via Hacker News (Ycombinator)

If we are going to have 'frictionless' social web, then I suppose we need to do it properly and have granular tagging of media. Via Hacker News

A style sheet from twitter with a nice clean appearance. Fixed width, two column and multicolumn layouts. Via Scripting news

The Jobs video tribute. I also really like the grid layout on this page with the heading class in the middle of each graphic.

"What's remarkable is that a loose coalition of 10 or so people has managed to design a system on a chip and get that integrated into a production board to create a sellable product, all under the open-source banner. We were impressed when the NanoNote could be viable with a production run of 3,000, but to create any product with a viable production run of 80 is an impressive step towards entirely bespoke hardware."

Bring this on! Bespoke hardware, customizable software, small businesses making devices that run business apps to collect data. Imagine marking registers and having all your student data available from an encrypted central server on one of these.

Amazing

"Traits that make great software testers — intense focus, comfort with repetition, memory for detail — also happen to be characteristics of autism. People with Asperger's syndrome, a mild form of autism, have normal to high intelligence and often are highly skilled with computers."

Customised graph paper web application