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

• Git Book

  Quality guide going over the basics of Git in an intelligible way. Also covers advanced topics including SSH Keys, Gitosis, submodules, customization, and internals.

• 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.

• The Git Workflow (NuGet/NuGetGallery)

  A best-practice list of steps for contributing to a project on Github.

• Get involved in Open Source today - How to contribute a patch to a GitHub hosted Open Source project like Code 52

  Another step-by-step walkthrough on contributing to open source.

• 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

• PostgreSQL Rising

  Analysis on Heroku’s Postgres.app, MySQL show stoppers, PostgreSQL killer features.

Design

• Best Practices of Combining Typefaces

  Covers many dos and don’ts regarding combining typefaces. Good inspirational combinations of fonts.

• A List Apart: Responsive Web Design

  Seminal article on response web design, introducing CSS3 media queries.

• 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.

• 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.

• Creative Web Typography Styles

  Unique and interesting looking web typography for headings and even navigational situations.

Python

• An Extended Introduction to the nose Unit Testing Framework

  Overview of nose unit tests for Python (October 2006).

Javascript

• Backbone.js: Hacker’s Guide (Part 2) (Part 3)

  Breaks down Backbone.js section by section, explaining what each does

• Backbone Tutorials

  Demo apps, beginner and imtermediate tutorials, and external tutorial listing.

• 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.

• The Plight of Pinocchio: JavaScript’s quest to become a real language

  Using Design Patterns and Testing with Javascript.

• Knockout.js Introduction

  JavaScript library used to create responsive user interfaces with an attached data model. Dependency tracking, declarative bindings, and easy to extend.

• Podcasts: NodeUp — A Node.js Podcast, JavaScript Jabber

  Various updated podcasts I have stumbled upon.

• Taking Baby Steps with Node.js — Introduction

  Many, many blogs posts about Node.js, starting from the very basics.

• Sup, Angular JS? By Glen Maddern

  A presentation with slides (also done in AngularJS) about AngularJS. Includes live demos of basics, collections, and $http.

• 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

• The best of <time>s

  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.

• StackOverflow Markdown help

  Better overview of Markdown syntax than on Gruber’s own site, including many useful explicit examples of nested structures.

Networking

• Secure your browsing using a home VPN

  By Sriram Krishnan. (August 2011)

Coffee ☕

• World AeroPress Championship 2012 Recipes

  Title says it all (via marco.org).

• How to make great iced coffee with an AeroPress

  Good step-by-step with specific weighs of coffee, and dilution instructions.

Food

• 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).

• Cook Your Meat in a Beer Cooler: The World’s Best (and Cheapest) Sous-Vide Hack

  Trying this soon.

• Sous-Vide Steaks, Perfect Pan Seared Steaks

  Companion recipes to the other seriouseats.com articles.

• The Food Lab: More Tips For Perfect Steaks

  Goes over salting, searing, and poking.

• 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.

• DIY Sous Vide Heating Immersion Circulator For About $75

  Professional/DIY-hacking hybrid looking sous-vide cooker!

• Rodney Sparks:Think, Eat, Create

  Cooking meat with sous-vide, and tri-tip recipes.

• Small Batch Sauerkraut

  DIY sauerkraut!

• 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.

• The Food Lab: Make Crisp, Juicy Carnitas — Without a Bucket of Lard

  Carnitas — my absolute favorite mexican meat!

Grammar

• 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.