Detailing every Doctor Who adventure from ‘An Unearthly Child’ in 1963 right up to ‘The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe’ Christmas Special.
remember, there are still 106 episodes missing from the BBC archives.
I wish we had a time machine.
Where you’ll find designer, author and speaker Andy Clarke. The bastard.
Every Doctor Who Story 1963 to Now
Detailing every Doctor Who adventure from ‘An Unearthly Child’ in 1963 right up to ‘The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe’ Christmas Special.
remember, there are still 106 episodes missing from the BBC archives.
I wish we had a time machine.
Responsive design testing bookmarklet
Benjamin Keen has made a bookmarklet based on Lennart Schoors’ responsive design test page I linked to last week.
Simple responsive design test page
Just drop this HTML document in the same folder as your index page and open it – it’s dead simple, really!
File this under “why didn’t I think of that?”
Like, I guess, many people, we leave our computers running when we’re not using them. We keep apps like iChat and Skype running too, with the sound turned up, in case anyone should call.
So I’m sitting in the studio, alone, this morning, listening to The Talk Show while I get my head clear for a day’s work, when the Mac behind me starts to talk (video below.)
It turns out it’s repeating, recorded spam, coming through Skype.
How can this even happen?
Out of curiosity, I typed w w w dot pee gee em ess gee dot com into my browser. I’ve seen this type of fake virus scanner before, and I use a Mac so I can just laugh at them. Most interesting though is how these tricksters managed to talk to me over Skype without my permission.
It turns out this is old news for some people. As you were.
The new (and hopefully final) linear gradient syntax
Peter Gasston on the updated syntaxes for CSS3 gradients. Time to update those LESS mixins fellas.
It’s only three weeks until I’ll be flying down under to Australia to escape the British winter. While I’m there I’m hosting four Fashionably Flexible Responsive Web Design workshops — one in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
This Fashionably Flexible Responsive Web Design workshop’s completely new and I’m excited because as well as talking about hot responsive topics, I’m putting the focus of this workshop onto design. In particular we’ll cover how to make the design decisions that designers (and developers) need to make everyday in the responsive workflow:
This workshop will be more hands-on than anything I’ve done in the past. There’ll be plenty of practical tasks to get involved with, plenty of sketching and even some light coding so we can experiment with what you make. I’ve been evolving the format over the last few months at private events for NRK and Finn.no, both in Oslo, and if the reaction of those folks is anything to go by, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane will be a blast.
“Thank you for a great day. It really inspired our developers and we’ve just rolled out the first of our responsive pages already. If our developers get this excited every time you’re, here I think we’ll need to have you come over every other month.”
Espen Dalløkken — Finn, Oslo, Norway.
For the next few weeks, I’ll be refining the workshop’s content some more and building some brand new boilerplates for attendees to take away. While I’ve been busy, my friends at Web Directions have extended the Early Bird price until January 15th. Book before then and save a lovely $100AUS off the regular $549AUS price.
I hope I’ll see you there.
Orangutans could video chat between zoos via iPads
Orangutans at a Milwaukee zoo could soon be video-calling their primate friends via tablet computers. The hairy tech fans have been playing with iPads since they were first introduced to them in May.
So, when apes rise, you’ll know whose fault it was.
Leaving Old Internet Explorer Behind
Instead of enabling media queries in the browsers that don’t support them, like Internet Explorer 6–8, I chose to simply serve them the Narrow Layout.
It’s an approach that’s very similar to how I’ve chosen to handle old IE’s lack of support for Media Queries. As in accept that browsers are built differently and don’t polyfil to try and make them act the same.
Looking back at A List Too Far Apart?
I’m spending this week writing content for my Fashionably flexible responsive web design workshops in Australia in February and an article on a related topic for Smashing Magazine. Digging through the archives, I found something Jeremy wrote back in 2005 in response to the (then new, now current) A List Apart design.
When you nail a layout to a set number of pixels, you’re bound to alienate some people. It’s inevitable.
Sometimes it’s just nostalgic to read old articles, but you can find real gems. This is one. Read it in the context of what we now call responsive design.
I can’t quite believe that it’s been six years since Drew MacLellan first published 24 ways. Now ably assisted by a talented team of volunteers, Drew’s made his magazine a web designer’s stable read.
I’ve had the honour of writing a little something for it every year. My contribution, There’s No Formula for Great Designs is out today.
Andy Clarke re-examines the formula used to convert static to fluid grids, and describes how he adapts it within his own custom grids to maintain connectedness in designs across devices. Like great design, there’s a perfect Christmas out there somewhere, but there’s no formula for it.
Every year, I agonise over what I write for 24 ways, because the overall quality of articles just keeps on getting better. My top pick of this year has to be Front-end Style Guides by Anna Debenham.
24 ways is a shining example of people volunteering their knowledge and time, giving back to our industry to help others. I’m proud to have contributed again.
(I’ve gathered links to all my articles, including past writing for 24 ways, onto one new page.)
“What have you bought this time?” she asked, handing me the heavy box that the courier had just handed her. I’m sure I looked surprised because, for once, I hadn’t ordered anything.
What did you think about …?
Frameless Grid
From Joni Korpi, designer of Golden Grid System and Less Framework:
Give your grid an infinite number of columns, so that no matter how wide you make your viewport, more and more columns come into view. Imagine you’re looking at an infinitely wide honeycomb filled with columns instead of hexagons.
How many times can I like this way of thinking about design?
KLM to let airline travelers choose seating partners based on social media profiles
Dutch airline KLM is taking some of the surprise out of air travel with Meet & Seat, a new program that will let passengers pick who they sit next to using social networking tools.
Good job I’m not on Facebook.
I’ve just come off stage at An Event Apart San Francisco where I delivered ‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes’, my talk about CSS3 animations, for the last time. The talk uses a a mad, mad, mad, mad manimation as vehicle to explain CSS3 animations and encourage people to use them (and other emerging CSS properties) for more than for cool, edge case demonstrations. For everyone not at An Event Apart this year, I’ve uploaded my slides on Speaker Deck.
Missing Doctor Who episodes discovered
On the BBC:
The 1965 and 1967 episodes star William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton, the first two actors to play The Doctor. They are among more than 100 instalments which were not retained by the BBC.
Great news for Doctor Who fans.
Cosmonaut stylus for touchscreens
I’ve tried several sketching apps and styli, but this one looks like a winner. I ordered one earlier. I’ll let you know how I get on.
Via Marco Arment, who’s written a review too.
Five Simple Steps are holding a Christmas sale, with 30% of all their books in all formats. There’s plenty of gifts for all the family, but you know what everyone wants, don’t you? That’s right. Hardboiled Web Design.
The Hardboiled Web Design Digital Edition (PDF, ePub & mobi) is only £12:00, but there’s nothing quite like the smell of print on Christmas morning. So get the one you love the Paperback & Digital Edition for only £29:00.
Ho, ho, ho.
HTML 5 new target for cybercriminals
Jane Wakefield, writing for the BBC.
An increasingly popular web language will be the next big target for cybercriminals, according to a security firm. HTML 5 is being developed to improve the look of websites, remove the need for plug-ins such as Java and Flash, and bring the storage capacity of the cloud to the browser.
Emphasis mine.
This is potentially going to be quite painful,” said James Lyne, director of technology strategy at the security firm (Sophos). The fact that HTML 5 allows more data to be stored in the browser means firms and cybercriminals could create super-cookies to track people’s web behaviour.
You mean like Facebook?
Andy Clarke’s been called many things since he started designing for the web, but he’s most proud that Jeffrey Zeldman (the Godfather of web standards) once called him a (triple talented) “bastard.”
How the latest technologies and techniques will make your websites more creative, flexible and adaptable. Get hardboiled in all formats from Five Simple Steps. Digital formats also available at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and the iBooks store.
We’ve deconstructed this site to focus on content while we restyle. Expect wonkiness during the transition.