Alan Hogan

"English professors, and other troublemakers"

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:52:11 -0700

“English professors, and other troublemakers”

- Head Case

"Certainly, The Guardian was in full celebratory mode last week. “Twitter’s detractors are used to..."

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:24:54 -0700

“Certainly, The Guardian was in full celebratory mode last week. “Twitter’s detractors are used to sneering that nothing of value can be said in 140 characters,” Mr. Rusbridger wrote about his initial tweet. “My 104 characters did just fine.””

- Link by Link - In Trafigura Case, The Guardian and Twitter Untie Gag Order - NYTimes.com

"This irrational offer lasts until pi day (3/14/2010)."

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:39:00 -0700

“This irrational offer lasts until pi day (3/14/2010).”

- Dada Mail hits version 4.

Julian Casablancas hasn’t made me cry yet. But damned if it hasn’t gotten close. (Also, his album is...

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:40:00 -0700

Julian Casablancas hasn’t made me cry yet. But damned if it hasn’t gotten close. (Also, his album is only $5 on Amazon. Yes, that’s an affiliate link. No, I’m not posting this for the 1¢ I might make off my two followers.)

"Complicated mammals on the wings of robots"

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:18:16 -0700

“Complicated mammals on the wings of robots”

- Julian Casablancas — “11th Dimension”

"Take all your fears, pretend they’re all true. Take all your plans, pretend they fell..."

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:00:00 -0700

“Take all your fears, pretend they’re all true.
Take all your plans, pretend they fell through.
But that’s what it’s like
That’s what it’s like for most people in this world.”

- Julian Casablancas, Out of the Blue
lyrics

jQuery confirmation dialogs

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:26:42 -0700

The coolest jQuery snippet I wrote in a while (sorry about the wrapping):

$('.users form.delete, .user form.delete'
).submit(function(){
    var name = jQuery(this).parents('.user-details').find('.user-name'
    ).text().replace(/^\s*(.*\S)\s*$/,'$1');
    if(name==''){name='this';}
    return window.confirm('Are you sure you want to delete '+
    name+'?');
}).append('Delete'
).children('input[type=submit]').hide();
$('form.delete a.delete_btn_surrogate').click(function(){
    jQuery(this).parents('form').submit();
});

It looks for the name of the person (user) being deleted, in the markup, and inserts it into confirm() dialog box. This works on two completely different pages, the list of many people, and the specific page view for one person. It feels like I invented my own microformat.

Browser market share

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:36:00 -0700

Internet at large: <10% Webkit* traffic
My website: 40% Webkit traffic

The point is, when someone like FontFont says that by covering IE and Firefox, they have compatibility with 90% of the Internet, that in no way means they have compatibility with 90% of your target market or visitors.**

* Safari and Chrome are the primary Webkit browsers.
** They do however have a TypeKit partnership to cover Webkit.

Short URLs in Markup with rel-shortlink

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 04:49:48 -0700

Short URLs in Markup with rel-shortlink:

Everything you need to know about rel-shortlink

Authors and administrators can and should use rel="shortlink" to indicate their preferred short URL¹ for a piece of content. Below, I discuss…

Google Buzz is Already Dead

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 22:38:17 -0700

Google Buzz is Already Dead:

There is no way Google Buzz will be a successful product. Why not? Here’s a hint: It’s more than those massive security blunders. It’s already fixing those.

Reading updates feels like an…

Fat City - The Atlantic (March 2007)

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:13:45 -0700

Fat City - The Atlantic (March 2007):

Why I’m not a libertarian — and why I sometimes lean that way, regardless — can be culled from this informative piece.

"After the lecture I was so annoyed and insulted by the lack of talent and amazing luck this..."

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:43:07 -0700

“After the lecture I was so annoyed and insulted by the lack of talent and amazing luck this [well-known] designer had, I remember saying to myself as I walked back to my car “if this guy can do it, I sure as hell can.” I went home, picked up the Fontographer manual and spent the night sketching my first two type families that would later be released by T-26.”

- Neil Summerour, quoted in Creative Characters

"Daring Fireball gets about twice as many page views from MobileSafari as all versions of Internet..."

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:18:20 -0700

“Daring Fireball gets about twice as many page views from MobileSafari as all versions of Internet Explorer combined on a typical weekday.”

- John Gruber

curvedwhite: The Clock Clock by Humans Since 1982 It is...

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 16:11:29 -0700

curvedwhite:

The Clock Clock by Humans Since 1982

It is impossible for the “Clock Clock” to show times that require the digits 3, 6, 8, or 9 very well (without adding a third hand to the clocks). Even the time in this shot has a rather sad-looking 9, if one looks closely.

Usher and a Goat

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 16:00:07 -0700

Usher and a Goat:

trainque:

If you play Usher and a recording of a goat braying at the same time, the results are better than the sum of its parts.

Probably a cheap shot, but hilarious nonetheless.

I enjoy the times when an unknown doesn’t really matter. Is your profile picture sideways, dear...

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:40:57 -0700

I enjoy the times when an unknown doesn’t really matter.

Is your profile picture sideways, dear 20-something MySpace user, because you are too unintelligent to rotate it properly, or because you think it’s cool that way?

It doesn’t matter. I’ll judge you a little bit either way.