Extra Future

Hi, I’m Phil Nelson, a writer, developer, and audio-visual maker of stuff. I have been making stuff online for over 25 years. I run RetroStrange and Set Side B. Good to see you.

Blog Archives

Month: February 2014

  • “How I Judge the Quality of Documentation in 30 Seconds”

    A quick-ish post buy Eric Holscher, of [Read the Docs][rtd]. [I agree with all of this, therefore I am linking to it.][link] tl;dr: Have a website, not a directory of text files. Use prose, not auto-generated bullshit. Use permalinks. Have the language and version # in your URLs. Keep docs keyed to version #s.

    [link]: http://ericholscher.com/blog/2014/feb/27/how-i-judge-documentation-quality/ “How I Judge the Quality of Documentation in 30 Seconds — Surfing in Kansas”
    [rtd]: http://readthedocs.org “Read the Docs”

  • CSS Performance metrics from the creator of Bootstrap

    [A reasonable, if unscientific, look at the performance of various common CSS methods][link], comparing things like Attribute .vs. Class-based selectors, box-sizing resets, floats .vs. flexbox .vs. inline-block, and a lot more.

    Love that someone took the time to do this so I don’t have to.

    [link]: https://github.com/mdo/css-perf “mdo/css-perf”

  • Float Labels with CSS

    [Slick technique that is worth looking into for many applications.][link] As someone who deals with a lot of form inputs both as a user and a designer, there are some useful ideas here.

    [link]: http://css-tricks.com/float-labels-css/ “Float Labels with CSS | CSS-Tricks”

  • tinytype – a table showing all of the available default system fonts across different mobile platforms

    [No surprise that Android has the fewest, with a grand total of FOUR.][link]

    [link]: http://www.jordanm.co.uk/tinytype “tinytype”

  • Blur and Bleed: Running Games on a TV

    [Mattias Gustavsson is working on a hell of a good CRT filter][link]:

    >Don’t think it is your mind playing tricks on you. In some ways, things DID look better back in the days. When hooked up to old worn-down TV’s with yesteryears technology, usually by means of a coaxial cable, the video output of the old home computers was severely degraded. Today, we wouldn’t find that image quality anywhere near acceptable, but back then it was the norm. And the weird thing is, in some ways it made the graphics look better than it really was.

    The example images in the link above give me some serious, dizzy, nostalgia.

    [link]: http://mattiasgustavsson.com/Blog/blur-and-bleed-running-games-on-a-tv/ “Blur and Bleed: Running Games on a TV”

  • Override global .gitconfig

    If you work for an organization with their own internal Git server and need to override your global .gitconfig info for name or email, this snippet will work if put in the .git/config of each repo you need to override that setting on:

    [user]
        name = Your Name
        email = [email protected]

  • Twitter Breaks Rank, Threatens to Fight NSA Gag Orders

    [Good on them][link]:

    >Twitter threatened to launch a legal battle with the Obama administration on Thursday over gag orders that prevent it from disclosing information about surveillance of its users.
    >
    >The statement puts Twitter at odds with other technology giants including Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Facebook, who all struck a deal with the government last month to drop their lawsuits in exchange for looser secrecy rules.

    Bad on Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook. Fuck them for laying down when they should fight for their users.

    [link]: http://www.nationaljournal.com/technology/twitter-breaks-rank-threatens-to-fight-nsa-gag-orders-20140206 “Twitter Breaks Rank, Threatens to Fight NSA Gag Orders – NationalJournal.com”

  • The Day We Fight Back – February 11th 2014

    [February 11th is a unified day of internet action][link]. From the site:

    >DEAR USERS OF THE INTERNET,
    >
    >In January 2012 we defeated the SOPA and PIPA censorship legislation with the largest Internet protest in history. Today we face another critical threat, one that again undermines the Internet and the notion that any of us live in a genuinely free society: mass surveillance.
    >
    >In celebration of the win against SOPA and PIPA two years ago, and in memory of one of it’s leaders, Aaron Swartz, we are planning a day of protest against mass surveillance, to take place this February 11th.
    >
    >Together we will push back against powers that seek to observe, collect, and analyze our every digital action. Together, we will make it clear that such behavior is not compatible with democratic governance. Together, if we persist, we will win this fight.

    Fight on if you want an internet that is still, at least, a little bit “free.”

    [link]: https://thedaywefightback.org/ “The Day We Fight Back – February 11th 2014”

  • Typeset In The Future

    [A blog dedicated to identifying fonts in science fiction.][link]

    [link]: http://typesetinthefuture.com/ “Typeset In The Future | Dedicated to fonts in sci-fi”