The Internet, the Web and an Old Book

Not long ago, I was explaining to a translator the difference between the Internet and the Web. Understandably they thought they were the same thing, as most people do. Jump forward a few weeks and I’m packing boxes ready to move house, wondering what I can throw out. A dusty edition of Running Linux from 1996 — … Continue reading The Internet, the Web and an Old Book →

Joining the W3C!

I’m delighted to announce that from today, I’m officially joining the W3C! After four wonderful years at Opera it was difficult to think what could follow it but being able to contribute to the open web as part of the W3C and still remain in Japan is as close to a dream-come-true as it gets. I’m … Continue reading Joining the W3C! →

How to Convert Videos to WebM With FFmpeg/AVConv

After lots of trial and error each time I convert a video to WebM, I finally got around to posting this so I don’t forget next time. In a nutshell, here’s the conversion command that works for me: avconv -i myvideo.mp4 -acodec libvorbis -aq 5 -ac 2 -qmax 25 -threads 2 myvideo.webm What is this … Continue reading How to Convert Videos to WebM With FFmpeg/AVConv →

Web API Design: A Definitive Guide

“Web API” is a confusing term. It can refer to interfaces to be implemented by web software such as browsers, for example the W3C geolocation API, etc. It can also refer to how a web service exposes its data, and it’s in this context that Brian Mulloy has written what I hope will become the bible of REST-based … Continue reading Web API Design: A Definitive Guide →

Privacy-respecting Social Media “Share” Buttons

Sometimes you want a “share” link in your website or email newsletter but you don’t want the extra JavaScript and iframes that come with the standard social media buttons. Here’s how to do it, giving your users faster page loading times and a bit more privacy. Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Pinterest Google+ Hatena Bookmarks Twitter Firstly … Continue reading Privacy-respecting Social Media “Share” Buttons →

Readability for Android

So you want Readability bookmarklets on your Android device, huh? Not so fast! At the time of writing, it’s not possible to access the official Readability bookmarklets on Android but there is a workaround. Here’s how to do it in three easy steps. Step 1: Copy the Readability script In Opera Mobile or Mini (I don’t think this works … Continue reading Readability for Android →

Free HTML5 Template

After being asked for a bit of advice by a colleague, I decided to make a very simple starter template for creating an HTML5 page. You can download it here: Download HTML5 template Notes The tricky part is making sure it works in older browsers, for which I used the following two steps: 1. Normalize.css(Click on … Continue reading Free HTML5 Template →

On Vendor Prefixes — An Interview With Dr. Stanley Dards

At last, the existence of vendor prefixes, one of my pet peeves, is under the spotlight. Also at last, the fact that not all modern browsers are WebKit (shock!) is getting some attention. I (personally) believe vendor prefixes cause more harm than the problem they were designed to solve, namely how to elegantly introduce experimental … Continue reading On Vendor Prefixes — An Interview With Dr. Stanley Dards →

Song: Web Guru

♫ “I wanna be a billionaire…” ♫ Yeah, it’s not a bad song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aRor905cCw), but a billionaire? Is that all? I wanna be something a bit more… special. https://www.youtube.com/embed/jdgXT0wEuFU Video URL (with captions): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdgXT0wEuFU Downloads For your downloading pleasure, here are the video and audio–only. Video (WebM): web-guru.webm (10.8 MB) Audio (Ogg): web-guru.ogg (1.1 MB) License is Creative Commons … Continue reading Song: Web Guru →

Song: Web Conference Blues

You know that lonely feeling, where all the hip web designers and developers gather at the coolest conference and you’re stuck at your desk? Here’s a song for those of us that miss out on all the glamour. https://www.youtube.com/embed/u_gAPRJmEWs The original song, by the way, is Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash. Video URL (with captions): www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_gAPRJmEWs … Continue reading Song: Web Conference Blues →