Jan 4, 2012 | ∞
Stephanie Rieger wrote a fantastic walk-through of the Barack Obama campaign website’s failure to function or display effectively on multiple devices — another example of designing and developing for the most capable browsers first, and nearly last.
She also explains how she approached a similar challenge using progressive enhancement to build a bulletproof product.
More like this, please.
Jan 3, 2012 | ∞
Regarding my piece yesterday about a lack of modesty in the developer community, a family member responded with a much more suitable term: Humility.
He points me to a fantastic piece by Derek Ouellette in which he describes the danger of getting wound up by your brilliance in a specific area:
To summarize this, Dickson writes:
“True experts ought to be more conscious of their limitations than most. Knowing a lot in one area should, in theory, underline just how much there is to know outside of your specialty.”
Experts should know this more than the rest of us because they are experts. But the lesson is one we should all remind ourselves of regularly. Next time we get into a discussion with someone about something we believe in contention to something they believe, remember that what we know about that subject (even if we are experts in it) is far out weighted by what we don’t know.
I know I jab my fist in the air nearly every time I solve some complex scripting problem and declare, “I am a genius!” Sure, I’m joking. But I’m also guilty of later thinking that whatever smarts I used to solve that problem would be good for everyone.
They’re not. What I’m good at isn’t “the new literacy.”
Jan 2, 2012
Like iOS and Mac developer Guy English, I’ve noticed a growing sentiment in the web development community that “writing code” or “programming” is somehow approaching a level of importance similar to writing a novel, essay or research paper.
WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg, for example, is fond of saying, “scripting is the new literacy.”
Unlike Guy English, I’d like to echo his response to this sentiment with a “me too.”
There’s a dusting of ego in the air, I think, when developers are suggesting that the near future will demand that most everyone know how to “write code,” just as they need to write English.
Writing software is a craft. I’m quite good at it. Brent and Jalkut are also very successful at our craft. But it’s a craft. It’s something we’re really good at but, in my opinion, it’s not something that everyone needs to care about.
Without a doubt, improving our world’s infrastructure through scripting will be one of the most important efforts of our lifetime. Designers, developers — people that write code — are, and will continue to be, in enormous demand. Their scripting literacy will be, in many ways, as valuable to them as their English, Spanish or German literacy.
But elevating that value to the level of general literacy (something we expect of everybody), rather than recognizing its place in our industry, is a mistake. I’d hate to see our community be disregarded as behaving too self-important.
UPDATE: I wrote a follow up to this piece regarding “humility,” a much more applicable term for this matter.
Jan 2, 2012 | ∞
While I understand iOS developer Steven Troughton-Smith’s intent here was primarily technical achievement, I can’t help but wonder if Apple TV critics’ clamoring for App Store support on the device is misguided.
I’ve yet to hear a desirable use case for third-party apps on Apple TV when, in my view, a simple directory submission process for content creators (like the iTunes Podcast directory) would fill in the device’s current gaps.
Why not just open the door for users to add content sources to their menu? In effect, allow users to replace or add to the sources currently listed under “Internet,” like Wall Street Journal or NBA?
It’s a TV-watching tool, after all, no?
/ via cnet
