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How I Use CleanMyMac X
21.5.2019
[Chris]: I'm a lifelong Mac user. Ever since our family upgraded from a Commodore 128 to an Apple Macintosh Performa 636 (CD) when I was in middle school, I've never owned or worked on anything other than a Mac. I'm pretty dedicated to running a clean, fast, optimized, safe, and organized machine....
Change Color of SVG on Hover
13.5.2019
There are a lot of different ways to use SVG. Depending on which way, the tactic for recoloring that SVG in different states or conditions — :hover, :active, :focus, class name change, etc. — is different.
Let's look at the ways.
Inline SVG
Inline SVG is my favorite way to use...
A CSS Golfing Exercise
6.5.2019
Code golfing is a type of programming where the goal is to accomplish a task using as few bytes as possible. CSSBattle is a code golfing battleground where players complete to recreate target images using CSS and HTML.
The rules are fairly simple:
No external resources (sorry, no <img...
Making the Move from jQuery to Vue
3.5.2019
As someone who has used jQuery for many. years and has recently become a Vue convert, I thought it would be an interesting topic to discuss the migration process of working with one to the other.
Before I begin though, I want to ensure one thing is crystal clear. I am not, in any way whatsoever...
The Many Ways of Getting Data Into Charts
1.5.2019
Data is available everywhere nowadays, whether it’s in a plain text file, a REST API, an online Google sheet… you name it! It’s that variety of context that makes building graphs more than simply having a database in your local project — where there is data, there is a way.
That’s pretty much what...
An Introduction To Storybook: Organize How You Build JS Components
24.4.2019
What is Storybook?
Storybook is an open source tool for developing UI components in isolation and it integrates pretty well with most front end fram
Using the Web Speech API for Multilingual Translations
12.4.2019
Since the early days of science fiction, we have fantasized about machines that talk to us. Today it is commonplace. Even so, the technology for making websites talk is still pretty new.
We can make our pages on the web talk using the SpeechSynthesis part of the Web Speech API. This is still...
Inline SVG… Cached
12.4.2019
I wrote that using inline <svg> icons makes for the best icon system. I still think that's true. It's the easiest possible way to drop an icon onto a page. No network request, perfectly styleable.
But inlining code has some drawbacks, one of which is that it doesn't take advantage...
How to Reverse a Video
9.4.2019
One of my favorite media utilities is ffmpeg. This command line utility allows us to do some pretty amazing stuff like; Slice videos Convert video formats Modify video speed Combine audio and video Every once in a while I see a meme or funny video that reverses a video for effect. Since ffmpeg does...
Fixed Headers, On-Page Links, and Overlapping Content, Oh My!
3.4.2019
Let's take a basic on-page link:
<a href="#section-two">Section Two</a>
When clicked, the browser will scroll itself to the element with that ID: <section id="section-two"></section>. A browser feature as old as browsers themselves, just about.
But as soon as...
Better Than Native
27.3.2019
Andy Bell wrote up his thoughts about the whole web versus native app debate which I think is super interesting. It was hard to make it through the post because I was nodding so aggressively as I read:
The whole idea of competing with native apps seems pretty daft to me, too. The web gives us...
All About mailto: Links
22.3.2019
You can make a garden variety anchor link (<a>) open up a new email. Let's take a little journey into this feature. It's pretty easy to use, but as with anything web, there are lots of things to consider.
The basic functionality
<a href="mailto:someone@yoursite.com">Email...
It’s pretty cool how Netlify CMS works with any flat file site generator
21.3.2019
Little confession here: when I first saw Netlify CMS at a glance, I thought: cool, maybe I'll try that someday when I'm exploring CMSs for a new project. Then as I looked at it with fresh eyes: I can already use this! It's a true CMS in that it adds a content management UI on top of any static site...
The Whole Spreadsheets as Databases Thing is Pretty Cool
18.3.2019
A spreadsheet has always been a strong (if fairly literal) analogy for a database. A database has tables, which is like a single spreadsheet. Imagine a spreadsheet for tracking RSVPs for a wedding. Across the top, column titles like First Name, Last Name, Address, and Attending?. Those titles...
Recreating the Facebook Messenger Gradient Effect with CSS
1.3.2019
One Sunday morning, I woke up a little earlier than I would’ve liked to, thanks to the persistent buzzing of my phone. I reached out, tapped into Facebook Messenger, and joined the conversation. Pretty soon my attention went from the actual conversations to the funky gradient effect of the message...
Control Icons with Font Size
27.2.2019
Here’s a nifty trick from Andy Bell that now seems a little obvious in hindsight: if you set an SVG to have a width and height of 1em then you can change the size of it with the font-size property.
Try and change the font-size on the body element below to see the icon scale with the text:
...
iconsvg.xyz
25.2.2019
There is a lot to like about Gaddafi Rusli's ICONSVG.
It provides inline <svg>, which is the most generically useful way to deliver them, and probably how they should be used anyway. Each icon is a tiny amount of SVG and I'd bet they were all hand-golfed.
They are all stroke-based, so they...
Serverless CloudFlare Workers Are Pretty Awesome
21.2.2019
Serverless is the new black. I mean everybody I know is moving to the serverless platforms or launching one. OK, maybe not everyone but CloudFlare is definitely moving in this direction with an aud
instant.page
18.2.2019
instant.page is a pretty cool project from Alexandre Dieulot. Alexandre has been at this idea for half a decade now, as InstantClick is his and is essentially the same exact idea.
The idea is that there is a significant delay between hovering over a link and clicking that link. Say it takes...
Getting to Grips with the Airtable API
14.2.2019
The Airtable web app is pretty neat. You can use it like a spreadsheet but it’s useful for all sorts of other things too. The neatest thing about it for me is that it has an API so that you can treat it like a database.
I’ve been thinking about making weekly notes for the different teams I work...