Foiling Ads and Trackers on the Web

Posted on March 10, 2018. Comments

uBlock Origin is a free and open source, cross-platform browser extension for content-filtering, including ad-blocking.

uBlock Origin is NOT an "ad blocker": it is a wide-spectrum blocker – which happens to be able to function as a mere "ad blocker". The default behavior of uBlock Origin when newly installed is to block ads, trackers and malware sites.

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Secure Email Provider from Norway

Posted on February 6, 2018. Comments

Runbox Solutions is an independent employee-owned Norwegian company headquartered in Oslo, Norway offering secure email services. Norway is a pioneer in privacy and consumer rights, and in 1980 was the first country to establish an independent body to enforce personal data legislation which continue to be some of the strongest in the world.

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Windows Web Development Tools

Posted on April 12, 2013. Comments

We have been using the following tools for several years now. They have proved themselves to be reasonably reliable and up to the tasks they were developed for.

Tool Purpose Author
ColorZilla Advanced eyedropper, color picker, color analyzer, and gradient generator for Firefox and Chrome by Alex Sirota
JSONLint Web-based JSON validator by Arc90 Lab
Notepad++ A free source code editor and Notepad replacement for Windows that supports several languages such as PHP, HTML, XML, and JavaScript Don Ho
smtp4dev A free dummy SMTP server for Windows that sits in the system tray and does not deliver the received messages by Robert Wood
WinMerge A free differencing and merging tool for Windows Development led by Kimmo Varis
WinSCP A free graphical SFTP and FTP client for Windows by Martin Prikryl
XVI32 A no-cost hex editor running under Windows; useful for debugging unicode/utf-8 issues by Christian Maas

Automated Backup on Windows 7

Posted on March 11, 2013. Comments

Windows 7 comes with a built-in Backup and Restore tool. Windows Task Scheduler can be set to wake up the computer at a preset time (when it is not in) to start Windows Backup. Task scheduler can also be set to email or display a backup success or failure notification.

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Best Practices: HTML Markup

Posted on February 27, 2013. Comments

Validation

  1. Please validate your markup using the W3C Markup Validation Service.
  2. In terms of portability and re-use potential for your content it helps if your HTML5 pages are XML-compliant. This also ensures that you do not inadvertently omit end tags or nest improperly.

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Design Guidelines for Creative Agencies

Posted on February 5, 2011. Comments

  1. A sitemap is required and should answer these questions:
    • How many pages exist in the Website?
    • How each page is reached?
    • Which template does each page use?
  2. Mockups submitted for review must be in PDF format.
  3. Mockups submitted as final design must be in PSD or AI format.
  4. Rasterize text layers which have to be cut as graphic. Text layers that are not reasterized would be kept as HTML text.
  5. All fonts that are not default Windows or Mac fonts must be submitted in TrueType or OpenType formats. See a list of fonts that do not require submission here.
  6. Use pixel as unit of measurement in your design comps.
  7. Use rounded pixel values in your layout. For example instead of making a sidebar 179px wide, make it 180px wide.
  8. If there is more than one page mocked up in a single Photoshop file, then assign a layer comp to each page. This would make it easy for developers to see each page and bring that page to initial state after they have changed layers settings during slicing.

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HTML5 for Web Designers

Posted on July 23, 2010. Comments

Jeremy Keith's new book "HTML5 For Web Designers" is now available for purchase from A Book Apart's online store.