Resources
This is a list of articles that I have either read and found valuable, or I have only skimmed and and to refer back to at some point in the future.
Instead of using a service such a Delicious, I decided to curate a list on my own website. This provides several advantages — I can control the look and feel of my content 100%, and I can add comments and analysis to each entry as I see fit, and I can edit off-line.
The list is still relatively short at this time, so I have left it all on a single page. Soon enough I will design a way to pull each section apart to allow for the links to be more browsable!
Git
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Quality guide going over the basics of Git in an intelligible way. Also covers advanced topics including SSH Keys, Gitosis, submodules, customization, and internals.
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A Note About Git Commit Messages
Present tense (“Add” not “Added”) 50 character or less summary, followed by more details if needed (wrap to 72 characters). Describes how to set both Vim and TextMate to wrap at 72 chars.
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The Git Workflow (NuGet/NuGetGallery)
A best-practice list of steps for contributing to a project on Github.
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Another step-by-step walkthrough on contributing to open source.
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git add -p: The most powerful git feature you’re not using yet
Introduces the git patch mode, why/how it should be used, and includes a video on basic usage, and another on more advanced editing of hunks.
Database
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Analysis on Heroku’s Postgres.app, MySQL show stoppers, PostgreSQL killer features.
Design
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Best Practices of Combining Typefaces
Covers many dos and don’ts regarding combining typefaces. Good inspirational combinations of fonts.
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A List Apart: Responsive Web Design
Seminal article on response web design, introducing CSS3 media queries.
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CSS transitions & media queries
More media query examples with animated transitions (note the transitions are applied to an element, not to everything) of both body and images.
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Secret Symphony: The Ultimate Guide to Readable Web Typography
I was reminded of this article when I went searching for examples of
line-height
in response to a post on Hacker News. It covers line-height, line width, proportions, and finishes with some golden ratio analysis to find the optimum line-height and width for a given font size. -
Mind Your En And Em Dashes: Typographic Etiquette
Setting body copy (indent vs. break, avoid justified in favor of flush left). One space after a period. The Hyphen (punctuation used primarily to hyphenate words in justified type). En-dash (–), em-dash (—), smart quotes, prime (′), double prime (″), math symbols (×, −, ½), ellipsis, accents (acute and grave), and ligatures.
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Creative Web Typography Styles
Unique and interesting looking web typography for headings and even navigational situations.
Python
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An Extended Introduction to the nose Unit Testing Framework
Overview of nose unit tests for Python (October 2006).
Javascript
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Backbone.js: Hacker’s Guide (Part 2) (Part 3)
Breaks down Backbone.js section by section, explaining what each does
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Demo apps, beginner and imtermediate tutorials, and external tutorial listing.
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Step by step from jQuery to Backbone
From a jQuery background, Florian Störkle describes how to make the jump to Background.js, using proper models, collections, views and events.
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The Plight of Pinocchio: JavaScript’s quest to become a real language
Using Design Patterns and Testing with Javascript.
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JavaScript library used to create responsive user interfaces with an attached data model. Dependency tracking, declarative bindings, and easy to extend.
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Podcasts: NodeUp — A Node.js Podcast, JavaScript Jabber
Various updated podcasts I have stumbled upon.
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Taking Baby Steps with Node.js — Introduction
Many, many blogs posts about Node.js, starting from the very basics.
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Sup, Angular JS? By Glen Maddern
A presentation with slides (also done in AngularJS) about AngularJS. Includes live demos of basics, collections, and $http.
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Ember 101: Learn Ember One Video at a Time
Videos teaching
ember.js
. (April 2013) -
Code Organization in Large AngularJS and JavaScript Applications
Gives examples of different canonical ways JavaScript code is often organized, and presents a modularized structure based on functional areas to make it easier to grok what is going on. (April 2013)
HTML5 / Authoring
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Short overview of the new
<time>
tag, including formatting, durations, and the currently removed-from-spec pubdate. -
HTML5 Accessibility Chops: the figure and figcaption elements
Explains the
<figure>
and<figurecaption>
HTML5 tags with examples. -
Better overview of Markdown syntax than on Gruber’s own site, including many useful explicit examples of nested structures.
Networking
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Secure your browsing using a home VPN
By Sriram Krishnan. (August 2011)
Coffee ☕
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World AeroPress Championship 2012 Recipes
Title says it all (via marco.org).
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How to make great iced coffee with an AeroPress
Good step-by-step with specific weighs of coffee, and dilution instructions.
Food
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The Burger Lab: How Often Should You Flip a Burger?
As the frequency of burger flips increases, the amount of overcooked meat decreases asymptotically to what appears to be 25% (as opposed to 50% for a single flip).
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Cook Your Meat in a Beer Cooler: The World’s Best (and Cheapest) Sous-Vide Hack
Trying this soon.
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Sous-Vide Steaks, Perfect Pan Seared Steaks
Companion recipes to the other seriouseats.com articles.
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The Food Lab: More Tips For Perfect Steaks
Goes over salting, searing, and poking.
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A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking
Detailed article, including pictures, videos, and charts of temperatures and times for poultry, lamb, beef, pork, and fish.
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DIY Sous Vide Heating Immersion Circulator For About $75
Professional/DIY-hacking hybrid looking sous-vide cooker!
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Rodney Sparks:Think, Eat, Create
Cooking meat with sous-vide, and tri-tip recipes.
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DIY sauerkraut!
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The Food Lab: The Best Way To Grill Sausages
Grilling sausages — best method is to pile them into an aluminum pan stocked with sauerkraut, beer, thyme, and whole grain mustard. Cook slowly.
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The Food Lab: Make Crisp, Juicy Carnitas — Without a Bucket of Lard
Carnitas — my absolute favorite mexican meat!
Grammar
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The Oxford Comma and the Internet
Uses the oxford comma (i.e. “first, second, and third”) as an example of about how the Internet is an echo-chamber, and about the disparity between how easy it is to write/tweet/criticize something as opposed to actually reading/thinking/comprehending.