The map was interesting to build. We wanted it to be fast, look good on all browsers (including mobile and tablets) and communicate the reach we have being on 14 million websites and reaching 1.3 billion (yes, with a B) users every month. To do this, I looked at options using Canvas and SVG, but ultimately decided that good old-fashioned HTML and JavaScript would do the job best. We do use SVG and Canvas for it though, just not in the traditional in browser way.

The map itself is built using Protovis which while no longer actively developed, includes multiple map projections out of the box. We then use PhantomJS to create a png from the SVG that Protovis spits out. The share icons are built in a similar manner. They are canvas circles that we build into a sprite and then use PhantomJS for the actual sprite construction. By scripting the generating of these two key images, we were able to tweak and play with colors simply and with real data. No need for our design team to fire up photoshop and send over an image. Change some CSS or JS, run the build script and everything is ready to go.

Take a look at the rest of the site. Our entire team did a killer job with these new features and styling. Will, Foo, Jeff, and Jim all wrote up other pieces of this launch. Greg also highlighted how to user the new Trending Content Tool in WordPress. Exciting times here at AddThis.

Check out my Flickr to see more pictures

• A Google HTML5 slide template
• Impress.js, one of the coolest looking options available
• Slippy
• deck.js, which has many plugins
• The classic s5 from eric Meyer.
• Shower
• S9, a ruby based html/js slideshow generator

I’m sure I missed some options, let me know in the comments so I can check them out and add them to the list.

Twenty eight was a good year.  I achieved some of the goals I had set out for myself, but not all.  I do feel as though it was a year of great professional and personal growth. A year later and i am much more confident in what I want, both personally and professionally and feel like I am on track to achieve my long term goals.

For twenty eight I set seven goals for myself:

• Ship more code – which I beat my success metric tremendously.  Overhauling many parts of main projects release process certainly helped.
• Visit a foreign country – I failed at this one and I don’t have a good reason for it.
• Finish watching Battlestar Galactica – I continued with the second season but soon lost interest
• Read more books – I aimed for 10 and did 12. A lot of the credit for this goes to me getting hooked on the hunger games trilogy and finishing all three in about two weeks.

Of my secret goals, I achieved one and de-prioritized the other two in favor of some other project.

For twenty nine I am setting an couple goals again.

• Post 500 pictures online. I have 63 items on flickr right now. One year from now I want that to be 563 (or more!)
• Read 13 books. Since I read 12 last year, I want to aim for one more
• Better blog my workflows. I want to post at least 7 posts on the tools and procedures I use to get things done

Secret goals are ftl, ldc and wcdc.

Twenty Nine is the final year of my twenties. I want to go out strong. The twenties have been absolutely better then the teens. I want to end them on a high note.

My Wish List if you are so inclined

autojump

Drew Stephens turned me on to autojump. It learns the directories I go to and makes it simpler to go from one folder to another. It has learned that if I am typing vie, I am probably going to the views folder of a certain site that is about 9 levels off my home directory. It saves me keystrokes multiple times a day.

autolint

It’s really easy to write ugly code. autolint keeps me a bit more honest by providing growl notifications on save for any errors in formatting, style and syntax of JavaScript files. It can be a pain taking old files and putting them through this, but it is very beneficial for all new files.

Those are the two latest tool in my programming tool change. What are some of the ones you’ve found recently and loved?

Sidenote: Red cabbage should really be called purple cabbage, since that’s the color my hand turned handling it.

If you’ve never made your own bitters, it is as complex or simple as you want it to be. You can put everything in a single container or use separate containers. Once you combine your herbs, spices or fruits with high-proof alcohol, all you need to do is store them in a dark space agitate the bottle every day or two. I highly recommend getting glass containers. I went with a variety of Mason style jars in four, eight and thirty-two ounces. For the apple pie bitters, I used three different extractions.

The first extraction is of apples. I took a few apple and skinned them. I then aged them for about a month in high-proof rum. Overall, they ended up being a beautiful red, but didn’t have as much of an apple taste as I had hoped. I think next time I’ll try using dried apples in addition or in place of the fresh.

The second extraction was mulling spices. These really came alive with flavor. Two weeks in a mix of high-proof rum and neutral grain spirit and these smelled and tasted fantastic. There wasn’t much of a color change, but I think that might be more due to the length of time that they spent. There was a reddish tint, but not nearly as much as the apples.

The final component is a general bitter mix that I am using for all the varieties. The liqueur is all neutral grain spirit. I used Green cardamom, Gentian Root, Birch Bark, Calamus Root, WormWood, and Humulus Lupulus. This might be the most bitter thing I have ever tasted and if it was possible for something to smell bitter, this would do it. A bit goes a long way and I think I used a bit too much this time around. It has a beautiful green color.

The final mixture is equal parts all three tinctures. The bitter green, light red and deep red combined to form a beautiful brown. I think next time I’ll cut the amount of bitter mixture in half and also increase the percent of apples. Next up is the more adventurous Fruit Punch Bitters. Ever since deciding to try that one I’ve been wondering what to mix it with. We will see how they come out.

Bottled up, with rye and sugar ready for an old fashioned.