I learned about progressive enhancement as a way to take a simple html site and add styles and scripting to enhance its appearance and functionality, as needed, without interfering with the basic purpose of the site. This keeps it simple, fast, and compatible. If bandwidth and browser supports a feature, it will display it, but these enhancements should never interfere with the basic purpose of the site.
[Read more…]Time Machine Speed-Up Tip
If you’re like me, Time Machine tends to run slowly most of the time, or maybe you are trying to do a large initial Time Machine backup and want to squeeze some more performance out of it. A simple tip: Quit the Finder.
Sync Bookmarks Across Browsers
Testing web pages in different browsers is part of my daily routine and I start with Safari, Chrome, and Firefox. It’s handy to have the same set of bookmarks always at-the-ready no matter which browser I am using at the moment. This used to be done simply with the Xmarks browser extension but after that service went away I could not find a simple replacement. With a little work you can use iCloud bookmark syncing to do this for you.
Bad App Alert
Bad App Alert? You could take this to mean that I’m alerting you of a problem with an app or that I’m showing you how to be notified when an app is behaving badly. It’s a little of both.
iOS 10 Public Beta Joke
Public betas are terrific and makes everyone happy. The public is happy to be able to play with the next version way ahead of everyone else. The system owners are happy to get valuable feedback of beta systems hoisted upon masses without being liable for their quirks, issues, and just plain not-quite-there-yet (see Apple Maps launch with iOS 6). However, after participiating in the iOS 9 Public Beta it feels like a joke to be asked to participate again.
QuickTime for Windows is Emblematic
Apple recently discontinued QuickTime for Windows after it was reported to have security issues. Here is a letter I wrote to Tim Cook.
My Personal Three S’s of Development
In the lead-up to Apple’s WWDC next week with the supposed focus on quality I thought this would be a timely topic.
Over the years I feel like I’ve learned a thing or two about building new systems. “New systems” is a generic term you can apply to just about anything you do. This could apply to adding a new feature to a car, or coming up with a new idea for an app, or anything in your field of interest or expertise. While the shiny and whiz-bang features get all the attention, none of it matters one bit if the development of this new thing doesn’t start with the following three S’s.