Thord D. Hedengren

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  • Håkon Wium Lie talks about CSS

    Håkon Wium Lie is the father of CSS. Opera recently published an interview with him to commemorate CSS’s 20th birthday.

    Bert Bos reviewed my intial proposal. His background and focus was a bit different from mine, but when he wrote up his own proposal we quickly realized that two proposals could be combined into one. At that point, the web project was being kicked out of CERN and W3C was formed. I was starting up the European branch of W3C at INRIA and Bert was hired immediately. Most of CSS1 was hammered out on a whiteboard in Sophia-Antipolis in July 1995. Bert is still working for W3C in Sophia-Antipolis. Whenever I’m struggling with a difficult technical problem, I wish Bert and the whiteboard were there.

    There are some interesting tidbits in there, so check it out if you want to learn a little web history.

  • Jag förutspår Apples oktoberevent

    Den 16 oktober ska Apple övertyga oss om att köpa nya iPad-modeller, samt säkerligen Macar och annat. Jag har skrivit en essä om saken på TDH.me.

    The tagline, “It’s been way too long”, hints at a new iMac, I think. The fact that Apple’s using the rainbow colors makes me think there’ll be color variations of the new iMac yet again. All speculation of course. I’d also expect a Mac mini, but I don’t think there’ll be anything particularly interesting in terms of design there, just a bump and possibly some minor tweaks.

  • Predictions for Apple's October event

    Predictions for Apple's October event

    There’ll be an Apple event on October 16, and it’ll be livestreamed for all to see. The previous event, announcing the iPhone 6 models and showing off the Apple Watch, was a major fuckup for most viewers, so Apple’ll want to get this one right.

    The tagline, “It’s been way too long”, hints at a new iMac, I think. The fact that Apple’s using the rainbow colors makes me think there’ll be color variations of the new iMac yet again. All speculation of course. I’d also expect a Mac mini, but I don’t think there’ll be anything particularly interesting in terms of design there, just a bump and possibly some minor tweaks.

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  • Archer drops ISIS

    There’ll be no more ISIS in the excellent animated FX series Archer. Series creator Adam Reed, in piece at The Daily Beast:

    “We won’t say ISIS anymore, and the only visual representation of it will be that sign rolling off the show,” said exec producer Thompson. “It’s just the most awful thing, and we didn’t want to have anything to do with it. There were people online saying that we should address it and say, ‘Oh, I can’t believe these guys have co-opted our name.’ That’s the way South Park would do it, coming after them and saying, ‘These assholes stole our name,’ but that’s not the way the Archer universe works, where it’s all our own creations. In our universe, they don’t exist.”

    Reed also said that they were hoping ISIS would just go away. No such luck unfortunately.

    I was wondering how long Archer would keep the ISIS name, given the headlines and horrors that most people associate with it these days.

  • How to beard

    I was steered onto a short but possibly helpful piece on beard care, as in that thing that covers every male hipster’s face. There are some gems there if you’re struggling to grow a beard.

    Everyone grows a different beard, some have a fuller beard and some have patches where there is no hair growing at all. If that’s the case, embrace the way YOUR beard is growing. It’s your own style. If you have patches, embrace them and make the look your own! I always hated that I have a slightly red beard as well as that my mustache is completely white/blond compared to the rest of my beard — I always thought it looks bad, now I’m trying to embrace it. Every beard is unique & special on it’s own.

    It should come as no surprise that this was via Jim Dalrymple…

  • Snart kan du registrera domän.com.se

    15:00 den 15 oktober kan du registrera domäner av typen domän.com.se. Jag har svårt att se vitsen med detta, men motiveringen från domänens webbplats är väl lika god som någon:

    Är .com och .se upptagen? Varför inte .com.se? Det finns ett antal miljoner .com och .se-adresser och det blir svårt att hitta bra lediga namn. Nu kommer en ny chans.

    Är du intresserad så hittar du registrarer (läs: återförsäljare av domänen) här. Själva domänen hanteras av ett brittiskt bolag.

  • Amazon to open store in New York

    Paywalled WSJ report says that Amazon will open a physical store in New York in time for the holidays.

    Amazon’s space at 7 West 34th St., across from the Empire State Building in Midtown, would function as a mini-warehouse, with limited inventory for same-day delivery within New York, product returns and exchanges, and pickups of online orders.

    It’s probably more about marketing than actual sales.

  • Jennifer Lawrence and revenge porn

    Columnist Violet Blue thinks Jennifer Lawrence is, or perhaps just should be, the new face of revenge porn. From a Playboy column:

    Lawrence can count her lucky stars that ‘the fappening’ went the way it did, compared to the typical victim of online sexual assault. Most women who come to the website Without My Consent, which supports victims of online harassment, don’t have the money or resources to fight their attackers in court, to get the images taken down, or to pay for reputation repair. They lose their jobs, sometimes even custody of their kids. They file complaints with Facebook, only to wait for months for the images to come down. They don’t get special treatment by Google. They’re not contacted by Vanity Fair and given “a chance to get the last word.” Meanwhile, mental health can collapse; more than one young woman has committed suicide after comparable assaults this past year.

    Unless you’ve had the uniquely gut-ravaging, anxiety-provoking experience of watching intimate photos of you passed around and commented on online without your consent, there’s no way to understand what this feels like. But Lawrence can relate to these women on an emotional level. I know a lot of revenge porn victims saw this happen to celebrities and thought, “Finally, it’s happened to someone who can do something about it. Maybe something will change.”

    I’m not sure the correlation of leaking nude photos of celebreties and revenge porn, as in blackmail and we might take down the photos that are ruining your life, really exists, but Violet Blue is no doubt more well versed in these things than my meagre research has made me. Either way, this photo hack is a nasty mess, and anything that can limit such invasion of privacy in the future should be done. Assuming it doesn’t involve limiting our freedom, of course. That might be what many’ll see as the only option, and those are muddy waters we should stay clear of.

  • Outlining methods

    Outlining methods

    I’ve written about outlining before, but I’ve left out how I do my outlining. While the basic premises are the same no matter what, and the whole there are no rules thing still stands, I do have some thoughts to share on the matter.

    For me, outlining is help along the way, something that keeps me focused on the task at hand. It’s the guiding light that makes sure I don’t delve into some dark cave where brain fungus live, forcing me to tell you about the time I found an enchanted ring of cheese, which of course was a metaphor for the Moon High And Bright, and… Yeah. Outlining’s a good idea no matter how you do it.

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  • The Magazine shuts down with hardcover anthology

    The Magazine, originally created by Marco Arment but nowadays run by the excellent Glenn Fleishman, is shutting down. It’s no big surprise, iOS magazines are said to be struggling all the time (and I wonder how The Loop Magazine is doing), but a shame nonetheless. The final issue will be out on December 17 this year.

    Glenn explains:

    So we lasted as long as we could while turning a buck so that I could make an increasingly smaller portion of my living from it, while enjoying the heck out of working with so many great writers and publishing stories about so many people and things, historical and present, geeky and sweet, sad and hilarious. It’s been great.

    There’ll be a new hardcover anthology, raising money on Kickstarter, and Glenn says he “may produce some ebooks or special projects” after shutting down the actual magazine.

  • There'll be an Iron Man 4

    This is a pretty funny way to confirm Iron Man 4, don’t you think? Robert Downey Jr yapping about negotiations is an instant classic.

    Given that the movie isn’t on Marvels list of upcoming titles, I’d wager we’ll have to wait until after The Avengers 3 before this hits the theaters. Probably a good idea too, because although I’ve enjoyed all three Iron Man movies, I do think a break from things is a good idea.

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  • Apple CarPlay tested

    9to5mac gives CarPlay a spin, through an update if a Pioneer aftermarket dashboard, and the iOS 8.1 beta. It’s not a review as such, but it gives you a nice insight into what to expect, along with some images. It’ll be interesting to see this in action sometime next year on actual embedded systems.

  • Plex released for Xbox One

    Plex is coming to Xbox One, and soon Xbox 360, natively. From the Plex announcement:

    Each of these apps has been crafted to feel right at home on the Xbox, complete with voice and gesture control, and you are going to love them. They’ll be available for free for Plex Pass members on Tuesday Oct 7th for the Xbox One, and shortly after that for the Xbox 360. […] If you don’t have a Plex Pass, you’ll be able to purchase the apps with a one-time fee after the Plex Pass preview period.

    This is great news for Microsoft, because Plex is a great media center alternative, definitely a better option than the built in Windows sharing alternatives. The initial release isn’t complete though, you’ll just get videos for now, but music and photos are around the corner.

    This is something of coming full circle. Plex is a fork of XBMC, another media center alternative, that in turn originally was for the first Xbox. It’s funny how these things go.

  • Benefits of the fitness band

    Benefits of the fitness band

    I’ve been wearing Jawbone’s fitness tracker UP24 for a couple of weeks now, and it’s been an enlightening experience. First of all, this thing is bulky compared to the rock n’ roll bracelets I wear from time to time, but that didn’t stop it from being completely forgotten after a few hours. It’s the design, which not only makes it blend in with whatever clothing you wear, or said bracelets for that matter. The only thing that’d look weird with this thing is a classy watch, but then again you’ve got two wrists, right?

    In all seriousness, I’m impressed by this thing. The UP24 really does blend in, and it’s not as annoying as a lot of jewelry can be. The wavy decoration on the UP24 makes it look a little more exciting, without being extravagant, assuming you didn’t go with one of the garish colors. Which look nice too, I’ll have to add, although I prefer the black one. I’m a bit surprised by the size of this thing though, as in girth, because I’m wearing the large one, and my wrists aren’t exactly thick as logs. My less than slender father tried it on while I visited, and it did fit, but it looked ridiculously strained, clearly not meant for such a wrist. Weird thing that, the sizing, but then again I guess it makes sense to not make fitness bands tailored to larger people as, I’m sure some marketer deduced, they’re less likely to buy a fitness band in the first place. Nevermind that they might be a great target audience for a product such as this.

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  • iOS 8 needs to pick up the pace

    The iOS 8 adoption rate is lagging behind iOS 7. From 9to5mac:

    iOS 8 gained only 1 point from 46% to 47% since September 21st which should have well exceeded 1% gain by the millions of new iPhone 6/Plus shipments alone – even if not one person had updated their iPhone 5/s/c. Even more confusing is that the “Earlier” category of iOS 6 and before devices actually grew in percentage from 5% to 6% over the previous two week period.

    I’m not sure if this is such a big deal just yet. There are a lot of 16 GB phones out there, and they tend to be pretty jampacked with apps, photos, and movies. That makes the iOS 8 update tough to install, since it’s requiring some 6 GB, at least in some cases. Still, if developer feels they can’t rely on iOS 8 growth similar to that of previous versions, then they won’t dare to rely on iOS 8 features exclusively. That’d be a shame, because iOS 8 is an under the hood release and it’s in all our best interest to see it widespread.