Web and nappies: Without standards we all come unstuck
Standards are needed in all walks of life, the web and everything.
Web design & Free Software
Free Software tools & technologies for web design & front-end development.
Jake Rayson
A web designer since the 20th century, I am a pragmatic advocate of Free Software and I use proprietary software when appropriate. I made the full-time switch to Linux back in 2007, and my desktop tools of choice are Linux Mint, Inkscape, GIMP and Sublime Text. As a Front End Developer, my core skills are HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery, and my working life reflects my commitment to open standards and accessible websites (ie accessible by everyone, regardless of browser, platform, ability or technology). For web publishing platforms, I use WordPress for ease of use and Drupal for more complex solutions. I am also learning about Ruby, Rails, Sinatra and CoffeeScript. I like the minimalist Ruby Way. To this end, my personal portfolio website is built with NestaCMS.
Latest Posts
Free open-source software: My take on its inexorable rise
Free software is making its presence felt in all walks of life — not just on the desktop
How software can learn a lot from the way nature works
Permaculture and the way natural systems function have many parallels with the software ecosystem and lessons for those who work in developing code
Responsive web design? Today's tools just aren't up to the job
The weaknesses in web design tools and processes are being exposed by responsive web design. But until a truly native web design tool arrives, there are ways to ease the transition
Six steps to hosting heaven for web designers
A blow-by-blow account of how to set up web hosting for fairly non-technical folk
Better Sublime Text workflow
Developers are well known for their mild-mannered manners and their softly spoken opinions. But get them on the topic of The Best Text Editor and all hell breaks loose.
Pixel bloody perfect
A big bonus of contract web dev work is the sheer number of handy tips, workflows and new technologies that you come across.At my last project, Tim opened my eyes to the delights of the CodeKit local webdev processor by Bryan and the Tower visual Git client for the mac.
Native apps with HTML5?
A colleague flagged up Trigger as an interesting development platform for creating native Android and iOS apps with HTML5, as you can apparently access real native User Interface components, rather than “faking” them with disguised web components. The Trigger websiteWell worth a play, I thought, and also of interest is their pricing structure.
I’ve had enough of Ubuntu Unity!
Everyone I know who’s used Ubuntu of late can’t stick the Unity interface. Admittedly, a dozen people does not maketh a statistically coherent sample.