Ian Dunn » Miscellaneous

Discouraging Trolls

Ian — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:17:53 +0000

Jeff Atwood wrote a fascinating article on different methods to use to discourage trolling on social websites, including some discussion of their ethical merits. I wasn’t aware of slowbanning and hellbanning before, but I think they’re very clever ideas.

Introduction to Shared GitHub Repositories

Ian — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:55:50 +0000

Michael Botsko has a good writeup on cloning and pushing updates to shared GitHub repositories, as opposed to the traditional method of forking a repository.

Exotic Data Visualization Techniques

Ian — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:02:35 +0000

Check out A Tour Through the Visualization Zoo for a good introduction to the concept of data visualization and some interesting examples of the more exotic techniques being used to describe complicated data sets.

Podcasting Guide

Ian — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 03:53:55 +0000

PoducateMe has created a comprehensive guide to podcasting that covers planning, equipment, recording, editing, hosting, feeds, etc. I think it’s just the right depth of information to get started with; it touches on all the major topics and gives some practical recommendations, but doesn’t overwhelm you with too much information.

Update: The Reel Reviews podcast has an episode dedicated to how the show is recorded, and it contains a lot of practical information.

Why RSS is Important

Ian — Mon, 09 May 2011 20:08:56 +0000

Kroc Camen makes a good argument for why RSS is important and points out how web browsers can better support it.

How to Backup Placemarks in Google Maps

Ian — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 23:32:09 +0000

Google doesn’t give you a link to export placemarks that you add to a saved map, but you can change the ‘output’ parameter in the iframe URL from ‘embed’ to ‘kml’ to download an XML file with all of the map details, including the placemarks and custom icons. I got an error when trying to open the URL directly in a browser, but it worked fine when calling it inside an iframe tag.

Software Bloat

Ian — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 00:33:23 +0000

“A Printer driver is a folder with one ‘.ini’ file, and a couple of ‘.dll’s and that’s it. It is not a 50 MB download. It is not an IE Toolbar, and Side Pane. It is not half-baked photo software. It is not a splash screen when your computer starts. It is not a tray icon.” - Kroc Camen... [more]

Choosing a Video Format for the Web

Ian — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 00:36:35 +0000

Nettuts+ has a good article detailing the current state of the various video codecs supported by desktop and mobile browsers. Basically, there’s still no single format with universal support; Flash is still the best option for the desktop, and H.264 is the only option for mobile devices. In the future browsers will natively support HTML5′s video element through WebM/VP8.

How to Find a Twitter User’s RSS Feed

Ian — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 08:11:13 +0000

Twitter has always offered RSS feeds for user’s tweets, but unfortunately they stopped publishing the URLs awhile back. The feeds are still active, though, so you just have to manually figure out the URL.

The first thing you’ll need to do is use this website to find their ID based on their username. Then, just insert that ID into this URL: http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/[ID].rss.

Developing Mobile Sites

Ian — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 21:24:53 +0000

If a client wants their site to be mobile-friendly (and is actually willing to pay for it), then the best way is to create a separate site designed specifically with mobile users in mind. Little Springs Design discusses this in their article about Mobilizing vs Miniaturizing.

If the client’s on a tight budget then you’ll need to try and make the same site work in all environments by adding an extra stylesheet for mobile browsers. A List Apart has a good breakdown of the different browser capabilities and a method for cajoling them into working in a consistent way. Additionally, Perishable Press has some quick tips that also come in handy.