If you’re learning Spanish, you should check out this iOS app built by my friends over at Larkwire. It even comes with a conjugation trainer.
Weblog
Thoughts, resources, and links for UX designers and front-end web developers.
Polynesian people used binary numbers 600 years ago
Pure binary arithmetic works in base 2 rather than the conventional base 10, which many cultures have adopted possibly as a consequence of counting on ten fingers.
Seems reasonable.
https://www.nature.com/news/polynesian-people-used-binary-numbers-600-years-ago-1.14380
I decided to disable AMP on my site
Alex Kras:
I initially enabled AMP on my site for one reason only – ranking well in Google search results.
Shortly before AMP became a thing, Google announced that they will begin penalizing websites that did not render fast on mobile devices. My website had a responsive theme, but I wasn’t sure if that was “mobile friendly” enough. Therefore, when I learned that WordPress had an AMP plugin, I quickly enabled it. Even though Google has officially stated that AMP support does not affect site’s search ranking, I figured it wouldn’t hurt.
Another search ranking benefit of AMP, is that only AMP enabled sites are shown in Google’s carousel feature. While my site is not likely to make it into the carousel, getting featured there must be very important for big publishers.
I understand why at first glance AMP seems like a good deal to both big publishers and independent authors. People like websites that load quickly and Google makes this difficult task easy with AMP. The tradeoffs are huge though and how it’s currently implemented is heavily skewed towards Google’s favor. If you have AMP or are thinking about using it, read this article first.
https://www.alexkras.com/i-decided-to-disable-amp-on-my-site/
Tabs, spaces and your salary – how is it really?
A closer look at the data released by stackoverflow, which David Robinson used to draw the conclusion that developers who use spaces end up earning a higher salary than those who use tabs. http://evelinag.com/blog/2017/06-20-stackoverflow-tabs-spaces-and-salary/index.html/
Node 8 and npm 5
Node 8 and npm 5 were released last week.
Updating Node.js is probably a safe bet, but I wouldn’t rush it unless you’re really excited for its improved support for promises. It gets long term support (LTS) status in October.
I’ve been using yarn for several months and have a hard time seeing myself switching back to npm any time soon, although the latest release did add a new lockfile feature which likely came as result of the competition from yarn.
Ansible Playbook for WordPress on Nginx
Ansible is a tool to automate repetitive tasks like setting up and configuring servers or deploying updates.
It can automate tasks on multiple hosts, and has made my life simpler. When I tell other developers about it, I sometimes get the response that “Well I could just write a shell script for that” — and while yes you could, it’s much more flexible and is configured using YAML which is just a bit more readable. In addition to it being human readable it’s also cross platform and secure (it relies on open ssh and doesn’t depend on agents).
This is a small playbook to install WordPress running on Nginx for creating new local development environments and test servers: https://github.com/tucsonlabs/ansible-playbook-wordpress-nginx
Animated Bezier Curves
This is neat — an interactive website that shows how bezier curves work.
https://www.jasondavies.com/animated-bezier/
Node LTS and Stable
Node.js v5 is an intermediate feature release line that is best suited for users who have an easier time upgrading their Node.js installations, such as developers using the technology for front-end toolchains. This version will be supported for a maximum of only eight months and will be continually updated with new features and better performance; it is not supported under our LTS plan.
They’re calling the odd numbered version releases “stable”. Which is model similar to Ubuntu. I’m interested to see how well this plan plays out in the long run.
New logo for REI is more like a throwback
This will likely be unnoticed by most REI customers, but they’ve decided to redesign their logo taking visual cues from an older (possibly original) version. Even though REI may technically be a coop, I think many recognize it as a large, national brand — and with 140 stores in 33 states, it’s really lost the feeling of a co-op. Maybe this is a move to get back to their original co-op roots?
In related news the Capitol Hill Value Village is closing. This was once home to REI’s flagship store which I have fond memories of visiting as a child in the 1980s when it definitely felt like a co-op.
Modernizr 3.0
Really like the new design to accompany the 3.0 release of Modernizr — that initial flash of unstyled text (FOUT) does not make a great impression though. I’m surprised they let that get by.
