Extra Future

MESS in a browser!

2012-05-10T00:43:24Z

A project attempting to port the MESS emulation framework to JavaScript. This is noble work.

"MESS in a browser!" was originally posted by Phil Nelson on Extra Future. All rights are reserved by the author.

DVDs and Blu-rays will now carry two unskippable government warnings

2012-05-09T21:12:50Z

Guess who doesn’t have to watch these warnings? Pirates. ICE is essentially penalizing people who already pay money for DVDs and Blu-Ray by making them watch two stupid videos before they can watch their legally-obtained DVDs. Pathetic.

"DVDs and Blu-rays will now carry two unskippable government warnings" was originally posted by Phil Nelson on Extra Future. All rights are reserved by the author.

How Deep Can You Dig Dug?

2012-05-03T17:34:59Z

Don Hodges fixes Dig Dug’s kill screen. Either you’re interested in someone fixing a 20+ year-old video game’s biggest bug, or you aren’t.

"How Deep Can You Dig Dug?" was originally posted by Phil Nelson on Extra Future. All rights are reserved by the author.

Opera confirms WebKit prefix usage

2012-04-25T17:02:07Z

Mozilla, Microsoft, and Opera are none too happy about Webkit’s prefixes becoming a sort of organic standard, especially on mobile:

Opera, along with Microsoft and Mozilla, announced at a CSS Working Group meeting that we would support some WebKit prefixes. This is because too many authors of mobile sites only use the WebKit-prefixed version, and not even the standard, unprefixed one, when it is available. This leads to a reduced user experience on Opera, Mobile Firefox and Mobile IE, which don’t receive the same shiny effects, such as transitions, gradients and the like, even if the browser supports those effects.

The problem to me seems to be one of education and tools. Authors don’t use -o prefix because they either don’t know about it, or they don’t have a significant Opera user base. Ditto the other browsers. iOS is king of the castle on mobile, and that means Safari, and that means WebKit.

"Opera confirms WebKit prefix usage" was originally posted by Phil Nelson on Extra Future. All rights are reserved by the author.

PNGPress

2012-04-24T01:02:00Z

PNGPress, my PNG image compressor for Mac OS X, is available on the Mac App Store worldwide.

Good developers know that making images for the web is a constant battle between quality and file size. Great developers use PNGPress.

Try it and see for yourself. Here are some promo codes:

WHW94KHHE6A4 TNEMH4JKHP3M HXJEMTHHPLHW 3XFE7AWMYJMX 6ALNJWWWYJJ4

"PNGPress" was originally posted by Phil Nelson on Extra Future. All rights are reserved by the author.

Twitter Introduces the Innovator’s Patent Agreement

2012-04-17T17:18:14Z

Good news on this Tuesday morning:

The IPA is a new way to do patent assignment that keeps control in the hands of engineers and designers. It is a commitment from Twitter to our employees that patents can only be used for defensive purposes. We will not use the patents from employees’ inventions in offensive litigation without their permission. What’s more, this control flows with the patents, so if we sold them to others, they could only use them as the inventor intended.

Software patents are a menace, but it’s understandable for companies to hoard them when the cost for not doing so could take down their entire business. This sounds like a pretty reasonable solution. For now.

"Twitter Introduces the Innovator’s Patent Agreement" was originally posted by Phil Nelson on Extra Future. All rights are reserved by the author.

Josh Clark .vs. Jakob Nielsen on Mobile Usability

2012-04-12T16:25:49Z

Kid gloves are off, and I’m with Clark:

For all of Jakob Nielsen’s many great contributions to web usability over the years, his advice for mobile is just 180-degrees backward. His latest guidelines perpetuate several stubborn mobile myths that have led too many to create ‘lite’ mobile experiences that patronise users, undermine business goals, and soak up design and tech resources.

There are no mobile browsers, just browsers. Handicapping your site on “mobile” is a good way to bug your users and make your site less useful to them.

"Josh Clark .vs. Jakob Nielsen on Mobile Usability" was originally posted by Phil Nelson on Extra Future. All rights are reserved by the author.

Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Tips on How to Write a Great Story

2012-04-11T19:07:01Z

Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.

I’m a complete sucker for Vonnegut.

"Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Tips on How to Write a Great Story" was originally posted by Phil Nelson on Extra Future. All rights are reserved by the author.

James Bridle’s Coverage of The New Aesthetic Panel at SXSW 2012

2012-04-07T16:44:19Z

At SXSW this year, I asked four people to comment on the New Aesthetic, which if you don’t know is an investigation / project / tumblr looking at technologically-enabled novelty in the world.

Consider it a companion / primer to the Bruce Sterling essay linked here previously.

"James Bridle’s Coverage of The New Aesthetic Panel at SXSW 2012" was originally posted by Phil Nelson on Extra Future. All rights are reserved by the author.

Bruce Sterling’s Essay on the New Aesthetic

2012-04-07T16:40:37Z

I’ve spent an embarrassingly large portion of this week parsing Bruce’s 5000-word ramblerant on The New Aesthetic. Consider it required reading for anyone who makes or designs.

"Bruce Sterling’s Essay on the New Aesthetic" was originally posted by Phil Nelson on Extra Future. All rights are reserved by the author.

Stanley Kubrick’s Alternate Titles For Dr. Strangelove

2012-04-06T16:36:12Z

Personal favorite: DR. DOOMSDAY AND HIS NUCLEAR WISEMEN, which sounds a lot like a Warren Ellis story.

"Stanley Kubrick’s Alternate Titles For Dr. Strangelove" was originally posted by Phil Nelson on Extra Future. All rights are reserved by the author.

aws – simple access to Amazon EC2 and S3

2012-03-30T19:38:33Z

A working and feature-rich command-line interface for Amazon S3 and EC2. Pretty cool. via @joshu

"aws – simple access to Amazon EC2 and S3" was originally posted by Phil Nelson on Extra Future. All rights are reserved by the author.

Beautiful web type

2012-03-29T22:16:59Z

A collection / demo of the “best” typefaces from Google’s web font directory. Well-curated and paired nicely. This is a great resource.

"Beautiful web type" was originally posted by Phil Nelson on Extra Future. All rights are reserved by the author.

Apple’s Solution To Image Resolution On The Web

2012-03-28T16:38:05Z

The image-set() function, which was submitted to the css4-images public mailing list earlier this year.

"Apple’s Solution To Image Resolution On The Web" was originally posted by Phil Nelson on Extra Future. All rights are reserved by the author.

BrowserQuest

2012-03-27T22:45:46Z

An HTML5-based massively multiplayer game using WebSockets. I’ve been wishing for something like this to exist for years now.

"BrowserQuest" was originally posted by Phil Nelson on Extra Future. All rights are reserved by the author.

The importance of a response.

2012-03-22T20:08:14Z

Authentic Jobs is adding a user-viewable metric for the response rates of potential employers. I love these guys.

"The importance of a response." was originally posted by Phil Nelson on Extra Future. All rights are reserved by the author.

Adobe Shadow

2012-03-21T21:41:07Z

A new iOS app from Adobe which helps you test websites you are developing locally on your mobile devices more easily. Currently free in the App Store.

"Adobe Shadow" was originally posted by Phil Nelson on Extra Future. All rights are reserved by the author.

Community Returns With Wins Over American Idol

2012-03-16T18:38:58Z

Community is my favorite show on TV right now not titled “Archer” or “The Venture Bros.” and despite how little I care about ratings, it’s good to see the hard (and great) work of the cast & crew rewarded in the ratings.

"Community Returns With Wins Over American Idol" was originally posted by Phil Nelson on Extra Future. All rights are reserved by the author.

BERG’s Matt Webb on “Products”

2012-03-12T22:54:14Z

Ruminations on what a product is and how to think about it. Lots of fairly big thoughts, here, and I like it.

"BERG’s Matt Webb on “Products”" was originally posted by Phil Nelson on Extra Future. All rights are reserved by the author.

Alex Bilbie’s MongoDB Library for CodeIgniter 2

2012-03-06T18:14:38Z

Easy to use, and v2 can be implemented in ANY PHP application, not just CodeIgniter. CodeIgniter as a platform just keeps getting better.

"Alex Bilbie’s MongoDB Library for CodeIgniter 2" was originally posted by Phil Nelson on Extra Future. All rights are reserved by the author.