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iPad HTTP Debugging with Charles
After noticing that the caching in iPad Safari seemed a little funky, I made an effort to decipher some of the logic used by the browser cache. I didn’t get very far, but in the process I figured out...
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iPad View Source Bookmarklet
For a few years I’ve been using this little bookmarklet, written by Abe Fettig, on my iPhone to view page source in Mobile Safari. It works well, but unfortunately the output is not optimized for...
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IE 8 Charset Bug
Earlier today I was playing around with a performance test case when I noticed that stylesheets and scripts were being requested twice in IE8. Eventually I figured out that the problem had to do with...
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HTML5 Slideshow
Maybe it’s because I have weak PowerPoint computer hacking skills, but whenever I work on a presentation I find myself thinking, “Shouldn’t this be easier?” or “I’d rather be doing this with CSS.” So...
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Data URIs and Dynamic Stylesheets
This a quick follow-up to a post I wrote a few months ago about embedding data URIs in stylesheets and a potential performance hazard regarding the way non data URI images are positioned in the network...
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Tracking Code and Click Response Delays
Sometime last year I tried out Clicky, a web analytics service offering real-time1 traffic monitoring. I was really impressed with a few of the features, in particular the “Spy” feature, which provided...
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Getting Android to Recognize Apple Touch Icons
On the Twitters yesterday I saw this tweet about how Android 2.2 uses Apple Touch icons when you add a bookmarked page to the home screen. Did you know this? I didn’t. Some googling revealed that this...
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Editorial SEO: Introduction and Best Practices for Editors
In many ways SEO is about knowing all the tricks. It’s why SEO discussion can easily bounce around from keyword analysis to semantic HTML to site performance to inbound linking to whatever new thing...
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jQuery Peel Back Ad
On several occasions I’d have to set up a “peel back” (or “peel away”) ad, and each time I’ve used this old script that relies on a SWF file for the peel back animation. It’s a popular script and if...
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Responsive UX: Taking Responsive Design a Step Further
For the last year, the concept of responsive design has been a hot, hot topic in the design and front-end community. With the rapid growth of smart phones and tablets, websites must now accommodate an...
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Tracking Links with JavaScript
So you want to use JavaScript to track some links. Easy. Just attach a click handler and call some function that triggers a tracking beacon. Done. Oh, but what about the possible race condition between...
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How to install Node.js on WebFaction
Installing Node.js on WebFaction only takes a few minutes and a handful of commands. 1. In the WebFaction control panel, create a new “Custom app listening on port” application. Make a note of the port...
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Script downloading in Chrome
Yesterday I was testing the performance penalty of loading jQuery in the head element when I noticed something unexpected happening in Chrome. It appeared that having an external JavaScript reference...
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Getting JSON out of Google Spreadsheets
One of the nice features in Google Spreadsheets is the option to publish your data in various formats, including HTML, CSV, PDF, and XML. You’ll notice that list does not include everyone’s favorite,...
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Essential Web Tools for Online Editors
Over the next two posts there are two ideas I’d like to share concerning the workflows of editors who manage online content. The first is that there is a core set of web-based tools that combine to...
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Designing the Well-Tempered Web
In 1722, JS Bach put together a book of solo keyboard works intended as a collection of educational pieces for young musicians. The book contained 48 pieces — a prelude and fugue in every major and...
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Photoshop Grid Templates
For the last year or two, much of the discussion about grids in web design has focused on CSS frameworks for building flexible/responsive grids. And for good reason — designers are excited about...
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Responsive Design and Advertising
A few days ago Mark Boulton posted a tweet wondering why more people haven’t written about the conflict between responsive design and advertising. Having struggled with this problem in the past and...
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Responsive Ad Demos
My previous post was about some of the business challenges surrounding responsive design and advertising. I wrote it just after reading Mark Boulton’s excellent Responsive Advertising, which was...
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Watch and Compile LESS From the Command Line
Unlike SASS and Stylus, the command line compiler that comes with LESS does not include a watch option to automatically compile LESS files whenever changes are made. There are several GUI apps that...
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