Web Design: Mine Sweeper

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Mine Sweeper

Appreciating the Vue

Front-end

A guide to recreating the GitHub contribution graph using CSS Grid [bitsofco.de].

A proof of concept for creating website analytics/tracking with CSS, no JavaScript needed [github/jbtronics].

How and when to support old browsers

How to design a good download link [css-tricks].

SVGator [svgator] makes it easy to animate SVGs.

"10 things I love about Vue

Curated links for help building a Progressive Web App [dev].

Mine Sweeper

Mobile/back-end/programming

Swiper [github/nolimits4web] is a free mobile touch slider with great transitions and native behavior.

Portier [portier.github] is an email-based, passwordless authentication that you can host yourself.

A look at the Rubymine IDE, useful for Ruby and Rails development [sitepoint].

Sorry, yesterday’s edition somehow didn’t have a promised link in it. As Daft Punk would say: One More Time. Here, again is a guide to automated testing with the Web Driver API [smashingmagazine].

A GraphQL primer and a look at the evolution of API design [smashingmagazine].

How to go from zero to a Kubernetes cluster, real quick [blog.alexellis].

An open source implementation of the AlphaGoZero algorithm [github/tensorflow].

The 12 types of DDoS attacks about which you should know [incapsula].

Issues with the upcoming iOS 11.3 implementation of PWAs [medium/@firt].

Pigments in a Blanket

Design/UX/product

Pigment [pigment.shapefactory] lets you check out a wide variety of colors using lighting and pigment. Also, if you just scroll quickly, the bright colors moving quickly will wake you up!

Some free cryptocurrency icons [designmodo].

A hacky, useful way of building complex data tables in Sketch [medium/sketch-app-sources].

A great piece on striking the balance between larger company goals and incremental product improvements [hackernoon].

Swipe Out

News/business

Facebook’s lost daily active users in the United States and Canada for the first time ever [recode]. And that’s even with all the fake ones!

Unrelated to the previous story, I’m sure: if you haven’t used the service in a while, Facebook’s now going to great - slightly phishy? - lengths to bring you back [bloomberg].

Tinder can no longer force older users to pay more for Pro features [arstechnica]. That seems fair: the company shouldn’t practice age discrimination, that’s really up to the users.

Ikea just bought TaskRabbit [recode]. Which is weird, do they know they could’ve just contracted them?

The Venezuelan government certainly is modernizing. And by “modernizing”, I mean it’s doing an Ethereum token sale to support its new cryptocurrency [motherboard.vice].

Hackers are now able to exploit gas stations [motherboard.vice].

Want to hack stuff but lack the knowhow? No worries, this tool has your back [motherboard.vice].

Memory AI [timelyapp] offers fully automated time-tracking for freelancers.

A Whale of a Time

Everything else (apps, fun tools, gaming, culture, funny stuff)

Switchboard [switchboardaudio] turns your phone into an intercom.

Why you forget the books you read [theatlantic]. Not the newsletters though, right?!

If you’ve ever wanted to travel the world - by foot, even - Vendenskortet is your best bet [atlastobscura]. It’s a walkable map of the world, about the size of a football field. I love when stuff is the size of a football field! Especially a football field-sized football field.

Finally, listen to this orca doing a pretty good job of imitating human speech. Also, making fart noises [motherboard.vice].

There it is, Versioning for another day! Like an orca farting, an impressive and entertaining specimen!

First thing: thank you so so so much for everyone who helped out by filling in the survey yesterday. You’re all legends and many of your responses were heart-warming and/or hilarious.

We’re kinda halfway through the transition to the new platform (boring launch stuff to sort through), so I sent this from the old service BUT you can view the online, Substack version of the newsletter here. Cool huh? We’re still decorating and unpacking, but the bones of the place are excellent, and it’s got a nice feel to it. Great North-facing windows, too. More on this as we properly move in!

I’ll have some more for you tomorrow!