Get The Knowledge – a collation of online articles by the people at Techdept. » Web Development

WTF mobile web

TechDept — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 09:00:28 +0000

It’s like steroids for web developers

TechDept — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 09:00:03 +0000

CodeKit automatically compiles Less, Sass, Stylus & CoffeeScript files. It effortlessly combines, minifies and error-checks Javascript. It even optimizes images, auto-reloads your browser and lets you use the same files across many projects. And that’s just the first paragraph.

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Occupy flash

TechDept — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 09:00:04 +0000

Flash Player is dead. Its time has passed. It’s buggy. It crashes a lot. It requires constant security updates. It doesn’t work on most mobile devices. It’s a fossil, left over from the era of closed standards and unilateral corporate control of web technology. Websites that rely on Flash present a completely inconsistent (and often unusable) experience for fast-growing percentage of the users who don’t use a desktop browser. It introduces some scary security and privacy issues by way of Flash cookies.

Flash makes the web less accessible. At this point, it’s holding back the web.

The only way to truly force the web to embrace modern open standards is to invalidate old technology.

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Html5 mobile compatabilty chart

TechDept — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 12:53:29 +0000

With all our responsive design work we found this site handy:

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Mobile internet use nearing 50%

TechDept — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 09:00:43 +0000

Almost half of UK internet users are going online via mobile phone data connections, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Some 45% of people surveyed said they made use of the net while out and about, compared with 31% in 2010.

The most rapid growth was among younger people, where 71% of internet-connected 16 to 24-year-olds used mobiles.

For BBC News: Technology, 31 August 2011.

The evolution of the web

TechDept — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 09:00:57 +0000

The web today is a growing universe of interlinked web pages and web apps, teeming with videos, photos, and interactive content. What the average user doesn’t see is the interplay of web technologies and browsers that makes all this possible.

Over time web technologies have evolved to give web developers the ability to create new generations of useful and immersive web experiences. Today’s web is a result of the ongoing efforts of an open web community that helps define these web technologies, like HTML5, CSS3 and WebGL and ensure that they’re supported in all web browsers.

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Learn to be a coder!

TechDept — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 09:00:20 +0000

Codecademy is the easiest way to learn how to code. It’s interactive, fun, and you can do it with your friends.

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WordPress.com drops support for IE6

TechDept — Mon, 23 May 2011 11:17:05 +0000

As the Internet Explorer 6 Deathwatch continues, another web service — WordPress.com — has announced that it is ending support of the nearly decade-old web browser.

Citing “increasingly complex code trickery to make the WordPress dashboard work,” the company announced an end to IE6 support.

The dashboard will still load for IE6 users, it just won’t function very well. IE6 users will be alerted that their browser is outdated and given direct links to browser updates or to download an alternative browser via theBrowse Happy website.

By Christina Warren for Mashable, 20 May 2011.

AOL launches paid-for service tracking children’s online activity

TechDept — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 09:00:27 +0000

AOL UK has started to sell a social media monitoring service that provides parents with an overview of their children’s online activity.

SafeSocial alerts parents to any irregular or concerning behaviour, which arises from spending time on social networks. It requires consent from the child and aims to encourage positive dialogue between them and their parents.

The parent does not have to become friends with, or follow, the child in order to monitor their online activity, using the tool. It produces a report card of overall activity and identifies unusual behaviour.

By Sarah Shearman for Brand Republic, 17 Nov 2010.

Hackers and hippies: the origins of social networking

TechDept — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 09:00:37 +0000

People that have been to see last year’s blockbuster The Social Network, could be forgiven for thinking that the rise of sites like Facebook started just a few years ago.

But to find the true origins of social networking you have to go further back than 2004.

By Rory Cellan-Jones for BBC News; Technology, 25 Jan 2011.