smashingmagazine.com · Domains

Re:"Bottomless" web pages by Jetstream · 2017-07-16 12:20 · Score: 1 · on Ask Slashdot: What Software (Or Hardware) Glitch Makes You Angry?

Answering my own comment.... Even though I wasn't sure what to search for, I tried Googling this issue anyway. For anyone else who might be annoyed by this, it's called "infinite scrolling" & appears to be have been around for much longer than I thought. Here's info on it: https://www.smashingmagazine.c...

And a couple of attempted solutions (imperfect, it seems):

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/kill-infinite-scroll/

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/noscript/

Re:YAM2C (Yet Another My Two Cents) by rgbe · 2016-05-24 08:58 · Score: 1 · on Ask Slashdot: Have You Migrated To Node.js?

Good point. The reason I like to use JS everywhere is that I only need to learn one language. And it means I can learn it really well. Until I did full-stack JavaScript I had only done front-end JS and it was pretty wonky. Using Node.js means that you need to learn some of the great parts of JS well (closures, async, etc). This drastically improved my front-end JS. If you used the LAMP method for full stack development, you would need to learn Apache config (although once it's running it's okay), PHP, JavaScript and SQL, and I would not have the time to learn the subtleties of each language.

I agree that the object model and patterns for MongoDB are different, the object mode and patterns for front-end and back-end are very similar in many cases, there is a big overlap. Things you use on all three are:
- Callbacks
- Closures
- Prototypical inheritance (front-end and back-end)
- Event emitters (front-end and back-end)
- And many more like described here: https://www.smashingmagazine.c...

Code re-usability is useful at times, I was able to write a library (https://github.com/psiphi75/web-remote-control) that was used on the server, on the front-end and on an embedded device and I guess around 80% of the code is shared across all three. Imagine writing and debugging that code in three different languages.

Re:This is worth a Slashdot article? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-13 12:06 · Score: 0 · on Background Javascript Compilation Boosts Chrome Performance

Except Java and Javascript share common letters in their name.

I like to say that java:javascript::ham:hamster. OK, yeah, I stole it.

Suddenly I am intrigued by the prospect of raising very large hamsters...

Re:This is worth a Slashdot article? by khellendros1984 · 2014-02-13 11:50 · Score: 1 · on Background Javascript Compilation Boosts Chrome Performance

Except Java and Javascript share common letters in their name.

I like to say that java:javascript::ham:hamster. OK, yeah, I stole it.

article about HTML5 sections & why div sucks by globaljustin · 2013-10-03 09:06 · Score: 1 · on Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Approve Work On DRM For HTML 5.1

hey, I am new to web development, and I felt like I didn't do a good job explaining why the div element needed to be replaced by HTML5's section elements...

I found this article: http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2013/01/18/the-importance-of-sections/

and it actually explains where I'm coming from...look down in the article at the examples...how h1, h2, h3 actually were used as section headings with dangling #footers that could belong to any of the h's...then everything gets wrapped in div's...it was an ugly mess!

look at the development of HTML5...the W3C fought to keep the div like it was their 'precious'...really getting rid of the div nonsense as decribed in the article was absolutely necessary dont you think?

Re:Why not just 0? by dbIII · 2013-05-14 12:24 · Score: 1 · on NTSB Recommends Lower Drunk Driving Threshold Nationwide: 0.05 BAC

http://media.smashingmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/uploader/images/signs/tired-drivers-die/full_tired_drivers_die.jpg

Re:How will this affect the industry? by UnknownSoldier · 2013-01-08 09:26 · Score: 4, Informative · on Adobe's Strange Software Giveaway: Goof, Or Clever Marketing?

> The most recent GIMP release lacks important high-end photography features that even ancient CS2 has:

I concur 100%! I have a .PSD file I created back in ~2006 and sadly GIMP 2.8 _still_ can't open it properly. Every year it gets a little closer though!

GIMP 2.8 is still incomplete / broken WRT:

* nested layer groups is partially broken - doesn't show Layer Effects as sub-groups
* no native Layer Styles (FX Blend Modes) - they still don't properly work when loading a .PSD file that uses them
see: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/photoshop/cs/using/WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-789ba.html
* no native option to set the default hotkeys to Photoshop
* stupid English name

Note: While GIMP has a layer blend modes that PS lacks, namely: Subtraction, Grain Merge, Grain Extract, Value) that is not the same as the Layer Styles.

Basically this page lists all the ways that GIMP functionality is lacking compared to PS.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/04/03/8-handy-tweaks-to-make-gimp-replace-photoshop/

The fact that you GIMP doesn't work out-of-the-box the same way PS does and you need half a dozen plugins to get the equivalent functionality already built into PS CS2 tells me that GIMP is still immature.

Hoping one day GIMP will become a viable PS replacement.

References:
Blending Modes supported in PS and GIMP
* http://emptyeasel.com/2008/10/31/explaining-blending-modes-in-photoshop-and-gimp-multiply-divide-overlay-screen/

Re:Pry XP from cold, stiff fingers by Nilzor · 2012-10-22 10:29 · Score: 1 · on Microsoft Urges Businesses To Get Off XP

a) it is fast even on old hardware, No it isn't. If you upgrade XP it runs slow. Slow Hardware runs slow.

Yes it is. Although it doesn't beat XP on all metrics, it sure is fast enough, and significantly faster on some important aspects like startup/shutdown and javascript execution to name a couple.

I work in a programming department for a large company... when people have problems with IE, we ask them to use a different browser - we don't officially support IE in any way. Our supervisors and managers already realized how much time and money we wasted trying to.

Really? I find that horribly unprofessional. It's time to stop blaming Internet Explorer (not my blog but relevant). The only two valid reasons not to support IE9/10 are laziness or incompetence.

Doesn't seem right by SilenceBE · 2012-07-29 09:43 · Score: 5, Interesting · on Author Claims Apple Won't Carry Her ebook Because It Mentions Amazon

I have bought some eBooks (usability bundle) by Smashing Magazinethat also are available on the Apple iBookstore and Amazon (and other competitors) have been mentioned multiple times in those books.

I'm beginning to question that there is much more to this story and it has been spin doctored to create some free extra publicity by riding on the iHate wave.

Re:Ice shows? by camperdave · 2012-06-01 05:44 · Score: 1 · on Canadian Copyright Board To Charge For Music At Weddings, Parades

Well... There are shows like that as well

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/icemain.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boscobridalexpos/2584212567/
http://jetsetta.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/ice-sculpture-1.jpg

Don't focus on the language! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-06 13:12 · Score: 0 · on Ask Slashdot: What Language Should a Former Coder Dig Into?

Find an awesome framework that a) follows a coding philosophy you believe in, and b) is maintained by a thriving community of good people.

The language that software is written in can change, but the quality of the code will always be based on who is writing it.

This article, Frameworks Round-Up: When To Use, How To Choose..., looks appropriate.
I will honorably mention my own favorite, Drupal.

Don't focus on the language! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-06 12:04 · Score: 0 · on Ask Slashdot: What Language Should a Former Coder Dig Into?

Find an awesome framework that a) follows a coding philosophy you believe in, and b) is maintained by a thriving community of good people.

The language that software is written in can change, but the quality of the code will always be based on who is writing it.

This article, Frameworks Round-Up: When To Use, How To Choose..., looks appropriate.
I will honorably mention my own favorite, Drupal.

Re:CMYK by flyingfsck · 2012-05-03 06:32 · Score: 2 · on Gimp 2.8 Finally Released

Here you go: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/04/03/8-handy-tweaks-to-make-gimp-replace-photoshop/

Re:Perhaps a little better context for the feature by WebManWalking · 2011-08-19 09:12 · Score: 1 · on Hard Truths About HTML5

...One more thing: In addition to screen readers for the blind, outliners can read the new tags and generate outlines of the content:

http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2011/08/16/html5-and-the-document-outlining-algorithm/

This will allow generating Tables of Contents for documentation, addressing a major nuisance with using HTML instead of more full-featured word processing applications.

Re:Ribbons? by theArtificial · 2011-04-26 16:27 · Score: 5, Insightful · on Another Windows 8 Pre-Beta Surfaces

Ribbons in applications and O/S are not like tabs in browsers.

Quite right! However they do roughly provide functionality similar to tabs and if you were to explain the ribbon interface to someone from 1998 or to a lay person the tab anology would be one effective way. I googled "tab navigation" and one of the first results provides a great example of what are commonly referred to as "tabs".

Browsers show the same functional tools regardless of what tab you are on (similar to a sheet in excel). On the other hand ribbons hide different tools behinds 6-8 separate ribbon sections that are usually clicked through where all the buttons have a similar background and 'icons' making it hard to search through as opposed to a File - menu - list with text that a person can scan through in about 2 seconds.

Browsers tabs feature a description (typically the meta title) much like the ribbon interface. The content area below the title area changes when different "tabs" are selected, this functionality is present in both UI. I appreciate your comparison and you're correct with many details yet you do not seem to recognize these interface elements as tabs. Another example: We still have the start menu dynamic from Windows 95 today in Windows 7 (and similar features found in several popular window managers) whose interaction and function have changed little. Bar at the bottom featuring a button, click the button and a menu pops up, select items etc.

One can enable an overlay of key short cuts over the ribbon interface so you do not have to use the mouse however the search time still takes just as long unless you knew the key-binding shortcuts from previous versions.

Change is hard. One is more productive with a tool one is familiar with... perhaps you're not the target audience for these largely superficial changes. It also is apparent you're familiar with efficient usage (keyboard shortcuts) and these largely superficial changes shouldn't be difficult to figure out.

Microsoft Mock Funeral for IE6 by WebManWalking · 2011-03-04 13:10 · Score: 2 · on Even Microsoft Wants IE6 Dead

Microsoft's Giorgio Sardo begins his "HTML 5 and Internet Explorer 9" video with a mock funeral for IE 6 at http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/07/17/seven-must-see-videos-and-presentations-for-web-app-developers/

Re:Keygen by theArtificial · 2011-01-21 08:02 · Score: 1 · on Sony Planning Serial Keys For PS3 Games?

I agree. It's alarming the trend of DLC (*cough* addons, mods?) and microtransactions. Slightly off topic but it's even coming to the web. Look at the services for @font-face renderers and services that resize photos (for a fee of course) so they display on any platform.

Smashing Magazine has plugs for these services.

The plus side is some rocking titles have come out from indy developers. Minecraft and Angry Birds come to mind.

Re:Thank you by mcgrew · 2010-02-26 08:59 · Score: 1 · on The Smashing Book

I looked at a sample article, and it was well written and informative. The site isn't smashingmag.com, it's smashingmagazine.com. It is a bit unfortunate that it won't work well in IE6. I wouldn't care about IE6 except my employer uses it. I personally don't care if a site is ugly, I only want the content (slashdot is kinda ugly itself, especially the idlized sections). But the two articles I looked at (one at the link and another one yesterday about buttons) were well written and informative, even though the site itself doesn't seem to use screen space effectively. It appears that the articles are aggregated from other sites.

Your complaint about phones is valid: I just tried to get to it on my phone and got a 500 error, but I get that on a lot of sites; it could be my cheap phone (i776). Hopefully the site's owners will see your comment and correct the problem.

Jacob Nielson's useability site useit.com is good, albeit a little ugly. If your site is clean, minimalist, and useable and doesn't resort to a lot of java or flash or other nonessential webfuckery it should work well on a phone.

webpagesthatsuck.com is a valuable and entertaining site as well, that one's been around almost forever.

Very detailed, comprehensive and objective review by SmashingMag · 2010-02-24 20:42 · Score: 1 · on The Smashing Book

Michael, thank you very much for the very detailed and comprehensive review. Your points are brilliant and we will make sure to improve the quality of the book in the future. Also, please notice that it was our decision to make the Smashing Book available exclusively on Smashing Magazine's website which is why the book is not available in book stores and doesn't have an ISBN number.

Apart from that, as you can read in the post we published in January:

"Many things have been happening with and around The Smashing Book in recent weeks. You must have read or heard that it would fall apart immediately upon being opened (okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration). In fact, the pages loosened quickly, and the reading experience was anything but ideal (the adhesive binding was the culprit). The verdict from many users was thus: brilliant content, very poor binding. And yes, let’s face facts: we indeed did a poor job in our first attempt at offline publishing, but we are willing to learn from our experience and do it better the next time. In fact, the next time has already come.
We have thoroughly monitored the feedback and heard your complaints, which is why we have produced a Corrected Edition of the book, with stable, high-quality stitched binding. Nothing will fall apart here guaranteed. [...] Please know that we are grateful for every order we have received. But enough excuses: next time, everything will work better promise."

Again, thank you for your review. We really appreciate it. We just updated the Smashing Links page.

Re:Smashing Magazine is of little value as is.. by SmashingMag · 2010-02-24 20:26 · Score: 1 · on The Smashing Book

I am sorry, but I am afraid that I can not agree with you. We always apprecate constructive criticism and when it comes to our monthly wallpapers selection, we feature the best designs that we receive over 30 days. And when we evaluate them, we consider many different points: not only the visual design, but the idea behind it, motivation, the message of the wallpaper. It is simply wrong to reduce the quality of the wallpaper to its visual appeal.

Also, we invest a lot of time, money and other resources into preparing the articles published on Smashing Magazine. Have you ever seen our case-studies? What about articles written by high-profile designers and developers like Christian Heilmann or Luke Wroblewski (more prominent writers are soon to be featured in the magazine)? What about the Global Web Design series? We have many new formats and we try to publish very high quality content. Just take a look around at design section or coding section. Here are examples of some of the recent articles we published:

Would you really say that all this articles are of little value to the professional designer? Also, we release freebies and we feature some of the most useful and relevant stories of the design community in our Network section.Also, please let us know what we can do to improve the magazine. We want to be useful for the design community. And we would appreciate your feedback on how we can get better.