Jay Robinson

Murk Avenue: I Found Ice Cube’s “Good Day” →

As in, “Today was a…” Some of the best pop-culture investagatory journalism ever via Murk Avenue.

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Learn HTML & CSS Book

I am frequently asked what the best book is to learn HTML and CSS. I’ve usually recommended a book by Dan Cederholm, but even his material can presuppose an understanding of the basics of what makes a webpage work.

This beautifully designed book by Jon Duckett looks like a perfect guide for a beginner to learn HTML and CSS.

Seems like a steal at only $15 on Amazon. I might even pick up one or two myself.

Swizz Beatz Owns MegaUpload →

I did not know this.

(Source: spaceagehustle)

The Unprecedented Audacity of the iBooks Author EULA →

Important dissection of the iBooks Author EULA by Dan Wineman:

PLEASE READ THIS SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT (“LICENSE”) CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THE APPLE SOFTWARE. BY USING THE APPLE SOFTWARE, YOU ARE AGREEING TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE, DO NOT INSTALL AND/OR USE THE SOFTWARE.

But that language is in the EULA itself, a contract of adhesion which I was not required to sign (or even indicate my agreement to by clicking) before installing the software.

Update: Should have noted this before, but this has an easy fix. Remove “do not install” from the last sentence as you must install from the Mac App Store which doesn’t present EULAs before purchase. Then, present the EULA at first run.

Of course, everyone reads the terms before clicking agree, right?

Music That Makes You Dumb by Virgil Griffith →

Caltech student Virgil Griffith correlated musical interests with SAT scores.

The method is highly unscientific, but the grouped by genre graphic makes the most sense. People who list Outkast in their favorite music on Facebook tend to score higher than those who list Lil Wayne.

“The Art of Listening” by John Carey →

When was the last time you sat or laid down to listen to an album all the way through, start to finish? Just you, the music, the environment you are in, and maybe a significant other. …

Many people seem to think it is unreasonable to do something like this because of the amount of time it takes to devote to the process. Odd thing is that most of us wouldn’t think twice when deciding to watch a two hour film yet when asked to devote 45 minutes to an hour with a collection of songs it seems like a far fetched notion, a waste of valuable time.

A good album can read like a book if you let yourself fall in.

Requires a hi-fi, headphones, comfortable chair, and one of the following albums: Dark Side of the Moon, Pet Sounds, Teen Dream.

Prefixr beta · Cross-Browser CSS in Seconds →

Nice little one-trick web app. Example: You write border-radius: 5px it outputs the same with -moz, -ms, -o, and -webkit prefixes. Even includes Microsoft CSS filters for opacity and background gradients in IE.

Listenr 1.3 Available now. And it's FREE. →

Ethan Sherbondy:

Listenr app:

That’s right. I’ve decided to make the app free for the time being. The plan is to add some super awesome paid features in upcoming releases, but the core functionality of Listenr will remain available pro bono. Much thanks to everyone who supported me by purchasing the app over the last few months. Now on to the new features:

The two big ones this time are Last.fm Scrobbling and Search. Also, all avatars and post metadata is stored locally on your phone, so this should result in a snappier experience.

Huzzah! And I’m working on reblog support, among other things, as I type this.

Been beta-testing this since it first came out, and it is much improved. It was worth it then at a buck ninety-nine; now that it’s free, it’s a no-brainer. Congratulations to Ethan for his hard work. (You have to appreciate a developer who writes code at the same time that he blogs.)

Go download Listenr and start listening to your Tumblr Dashboard.

Curation, Community and the Future of News →

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University concludes:

People are clearly overwhelmed by the growing volume and weight of digital content and messaging that they feel compelled to process.

To deal with this, I’ve been very mindful of where I put my attention of late, especially when it comes to my Twitter and Tumblr follows.

CSS3 Text-Decoration →

Well, this was a new one on me. Part of the CSS3 Text spec includes text-underline-position:

With this property, you can control, for example, whether the underline should cross the text’s descenders or not: auto, before-edge, alphabetic and after-edge.

Currently you can use border-bottom to imitate underlined links; however this proposes a more sensible default.

HTML Tidy →

This is the HTML Tidy tool I use. It is especially useful for finding and correcting errors in deeply nested HTML.

Which one do you use?

Aha! Moments When Learning Git →

Fave: git checkout foo.txt (Undo local changes)

Often forget that you can just target individual files in this way.

Everything you ever wanted to know about unquoted attribute values in HTML and CSS →

Mathias Bynens writes about the intricacies of unquoted attribute values in HTML and CSS.

Even though it may seem HTML5-chic to throw loose attributes in your markup, there are enough edge cases that it’s better just to steer clear.