CodeMyUI
July 20, 2015Handpicked code snippets you can use in your web projects. Find web design inspiration with code samples.
A nice collection of Tutorials and Code Snippets from all around the web.
Even if 18 months from now, one set date is the only way to disentangle the dependencies and upgrade the whole ecosystem at once.
— Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) July 12, 2015
Yes please!
The Verge: Facebook’s new chief security officer wants to set a date to kill Flash
Reasons to switch to HTTPS
July 11, 2015A collection of 10 reasons why a switch to HTTPS is a good idea, for any page.
Today, however, there are more reasons than ever to switch to HTTPS — even for a news site, corporate site, or any site that doesn’t consider itself at the top of the security food chain. HTTPS adoption grew 80% last year alone, much faster than previous years, but we’re still very far from encryption being the norm.
If you’re not convinced HTTPS is right for you, or need ammo to convince your peers and bosses, here are 10 good reasons to go HTTPS.
Up until now, i was a bit hesitant to flip the switch on my own and also on client pages, mostly because i have no idea where to start and the certificates aren’t cheap. But i’m looking forward to the possibilities with upcoming free initiatives like Let’s Encrypt, which should be available by September 2015.
When we went to Hungary during the Christmas period last year I bought a 1GB data plan on a prepaid card. However, soon after I went online with my laptop the entire data allowance was used up. Strangely, I wasn’t able to add another data package. Instead, T-Mobile limited my internet access to 32kbps till the end of the month.
Since there was no easy way to fix it and I had nothing critical to do I decided to embrace the situation as an opportunity to understand how it feels to be on a slow network most of the time. I had already started reading the book Responsible Responsive Design at that time anyway so I was curious.
To be on a slow connection for a longer period of time can really be an eye opening thing if you work on the web. As Gabor mentions in his post it’s not only that pages load slowly, but some just won’t load at all.
I experienced the exact same thing in the last weeks when we were on vacation in Spain after WordCamp Europe. I had a 200 MB mobile data package, and at our AirBnB apartment we had a very slow WiFi. So i had to choose between a moody and sluggish WiFi or the tiny bit faster but crazy expensive mobile connection.
It was frustrating, to say the least. But if you work on the web, you should force yourself into this situation while developing. Gabor recommends to turn on device mode in Chrome and simulate a slow connection right from the beginning, because as he puts it:
I need to feel the pain as soon as possible so that I immediately notice the changes that are bad for performance.
This should be an exercise we should do on a regular basis and – even better – we should integrate them into our project workflows. Imagine if everyone involved, from your client, project manager, boss to the content creators would have experienced a few weeks of bad connection first hand.
I’m sure performance wouldn’t be an afterthought anymore.
Three takeaways for web developers after two weeks of painfully slow internet
Improving Code Quality
July 9, 2015If you’re building things with WordPress, it’s important to deliver quality code. Especially if it’s going to be released to the public or used by a client. There’s a good post on the WPMUDEV Blog covering many aspects from HTML/CSS, JavaScript or PHP to the WordPress Coding Standards or Accessibility.
It’s a great starting point if you are unsure how to improve your code but also a good reminder for experienced developers.
Stop Cowboy Coding: 10 Tips for Improving the Quality of Your WordPress Themes and Plugins
Cloud Source Repositories by Google
July 8, 2015Fully-featured private Git repositories hosted on Google Cloud Platform. Browse, edit and commit repository files in our integrated source editor. Activate the Cloud Debugger to debug hosted applications during runtime.
Google quietly launched a GitHub competitor. Could be an interesting option, if you need hosting for private repositories and don’t want or can’t pay for a GitHub Account.
W3C Mobile Checker
June 28, 2015The Mobile Checker is a tool for Web developers who want to make their Web page or Web app work better on mobile devices.
The W3C released a tool to check your mobile websites. Pretty sweet.
JavaScript.com
June 16, 2015
Code School just launched JavaScript.com, a page dedicated to all things JS. Basically, the page is split into Resources and News, which can also be subscribed to via an Email Newsletter called FiveJS (5 Minutes of JavaScript).
First thought: Heck, i wanna to know what they paid for this domain.
Second thought while looking through the news and resources: After all these years working with the web it still amazes me how much knowledge you can get for free.
A great article about growing revenue as a Startup, especially with a SaaS product. He talks about a lot of points that many startups get wrong or struggle with, from being too cheap (or free) to early split-testing, what metrics to use and missed marketing opportunities.
And, above all, how important it is to charge for your product as soon as possible:
Charging is a powerful indicator that you’re building something people want. If you’re not charging, you’re likely spending money (development time = money) building features your users don’t really want. People who pay you have opinions about what to build next. Making them happy will lead to more people like them paying you (with this caveat: Don’t build a Galapagos product)
It’s a very refreshing post which debunks some of the popular truisms about pricing or startup business in general. Worth a read.
Daniel Bishop on Building a Homecooked Device Lab
June 13, 2015Daniel Bishop shares how he built his custom Device Lab to mount Mobile Devices for Testing. Maybe i should give this a try somewhen, too.