web development | Extra Future - Part 9

Megaman II’s Intro Animation In HTML

Phil Nelson 06 February 2010 0 Comments

Created by yours truly. No Flash, just CSS, HTML5, and jQuery. The animation is very not smooth in Firefox, but works great in Safari and Chrome.

You can check it out here.

Using the scrollbar to bring the view upward was a stylistic choice, it could’ve just as (if not more) easily done in a single “screen”, but what’s the fun in that? The demo uses the jQuery backgroundPosition-Effect plugin to achieve the parallax scrolling effect, and the new Javascript audio capabilities introduced by the HTML5 group. The timing may not work very well on older machines.

MPEGLA Announces H.264 To Remain Royalty-Free (For Free Content) Until 2016

Phil Nelson 03 February 2010 0 Comments

This is a good thing, for now, but licensing-wise H.264 is actually probably worse than Flash. It works great with a hardware decoder, but why should I trust the MPEGLA to not pull the rug out from under the internet in 6 years? Of note: The 2016 deadline only applies to “Internet Video that is Free to End Users.” Who gets to define “free?”

The press release should’ve been subtitled “Your Move, Adobe.”

HipHop for PHP

Phil Nelson 02 February 2010 0 Comments

What appears to be a PHP/C++ cross-compiler. This could be some serious mojo for PHP. That name is awful, though.

Jeffrey Zeldman on Flash, the iPad, and Standards

Phil Nelson 01 February 2010 0 Comments

You can always count on Zeldman to say things like

As the percentage of web users on non-Flash-capable platforms grows, developers who currently create Flash experiences with no fallbacks will have to rethink their strategy and start with the basics before adding a Flash layer. They will need to ensure that content and experience are delivered with or without Flash.

But it’s still good to have him say them.

Ed Bott: It’s time to stop using IE6

Phil Nelson 19 January 2010 0 Comments

The idea that anyone doesn’t know what this guy is saying makes me wonder why the US financial system doesn’t collapse more often due to the fucking insane IT systems in place at it’s major corporations.

In other words: I hear next week he’s going to say it’s time to stop using floppy disks.

The Details Are Everything

Phil Nelson 16 January 2010 0 Comments

A new tumblr created by Me, available from now: The Details Are Everything, sifting the user interfaces and experiences I come into contact with in daily life. It is A) An excuse to write more about semi-work-involved things and B) something I’ve been threatening to do for long enough that I needed to either start it, or shut up.

Gordon, A Flash Runtime Written in JavaScript

Phil Nelson 13 January 2010 0 Comments

The demos are pretty impressive, for what it is. Works on iPhone.

“Quit trying to make pigs out of sausage.”

Phil Nelson 13 January 2010 0 Comments

This way of thinking about writing jibes with a lot of how I think about web development. Especially:

When you’re ready, dive into a blank page and start making a big mess in order to find out what you really think

A Form of Madness

Phil Nelson 04 January 2010 0 Comments

The latest addition to Mark Pilgrim’s quickly-becoming-essential “Dive Into HTML5” series is about forms, and it is (as one might expect) the most cogent description of HTML5’s new form attributes and types that I’ve seen so far.

There Is No Fold

Phil Nelson 18 December 2009 0 Comments

Tumblr Joins WordPress.com In Implementing Twitter API Features

Phil Nelson 17 December 2009 0 Comments

The new features allow users to post and read friends posts via Twitter clients such as Tweetie and Twitteriffic. This is very clever.

The Survey, 2009

Phil Nelson 15 December 2009 0 Comments

A List Apart’s 2009 web worker survey is up. It’s the closest thing we have to a census.

“Google waving goodbye to Gears, hello to HTML5”

Phil Nelson 02 December 2009 0 Comments

In other words, full-steam ahead for Chrome and HTML5,, and I’m glad.

Pie Guy, a free web game for your iPhone by Neven Mrgan

Phil Nelson 26 November 2009 0 Comments

Pure HTML, CSS and Javascript, no App Store required. Play it.

Bring Down IE 6

Phil Nelson 25 November 2009 0 Comments

Together, we can finally put the ‘ol bastard to bed.

The Best Free Icon Sets of 2009

Phil Nelson 12 November 2009 0 Comments

Always good to have some of these in your quiver. None of them are really competition for the (still) king of web icons packs, FamFamFam’s Silk icon set, which is now over 3 years old.

Another World Ported to JavaScript

Phil Nelson 09 November 2009 0 Comments

To go with the pure-JS NES and GameBoy emulators, here’s a port of the 1991 classic Another World in plain ‘ol JavaScript. Impressive. For now, it shares the same problem as the aforementioned emulators: No sound support.

It’s The Same Here, Too

Phil Nelson 06 November 2009 0 Comments

At least half of all writing involves just sitting and staring into space. Letting your brain out to hunt down ideas, bringing them back all warm and bloody between its teeth.

— Warren Ellis, on his mailing list BAD SIGNAL

Using Helvetica Neue Light In Firefox + Safari

Phil Nelson 22 October 2009 0 Comments

Great tip from Guillermo Esteves. Worked a charm on this very site.

Raphaël — JavaScript Library

Phil Nelson 16 October 2009 0 Comments

Looks great, supports every major browser including iPhone’s WebKit, and:

Raphaël uses the SVG W3C Recommendation and VML as a base for creating graphics. This means every graphical object you create is also a DOM object, so you can attach JavaScript event handlers or modify them later. Raphaël’s goal is to provide an adapter that will make drawing vector art compatible cross-browser and easy.

Forest Quest

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Set Side B, A New Independent Gaming Blog

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