All Onboard

When in Nome General web mdp [github] is a command-line based markdown presentation tool. GitHub linker [github] is a Chrome extension to link NPM, bower, Composer and Duo dependencies to their respective GitHub repo, a helpful simplification. Here’s an introduction to SIMD.js [hacks.firefox], a joint venture from Intel, Google and Mozilla to facilitate performing single instructions on multiple data elements simulataneously, helpful in speeding up computation in graphics, audio, codecs, physics simulations and more. SoundKit [soundkit] is an attempt to make your UI’s sound as slick as its visuals. Nome [nomejs] is a JavaScript library to leverage HTML5 location data, allowing sites to become more context-driven. Dashboards [github] is a simple way to create pretty, and pretty responsive, dashboards in Bootstrap. Automately [automate.ly] is a platform to connect your apps to any website via JavaScript, allowing you to do stuff like order a pizza with JS via an app, which seems like a dangerous example to lead with, but OK!

All Onboard Design Walkway [github] is a library to help create smooth SVG animations with JavaScript. Here’s a guide to visualizing and managing CSS specificity [csswizardry]. And here’s a look at how Google onboards new users to its new email app Inbox [useronboard]. Pretty well, it turns out.

Stenosaurus SitePoint It’s been a while, as Staind would say [youtube], so here are a few great articles published on SitePoint since our last email. First, here’s a look at the top four reasons you’re not sourcing clients from social media. Then we had a great article introducing the concept of ChatOps, where essential work can be accomplished in a chat window. The world we live in! Then there’s this, a guide for clients, who can finally learn what you go through when you create a website and why it takes so long. And then, here’s a quick little article teaching you the “one weird trick” behind writing at 240 words per minute. To avoid clickbait accusations, we can reveal it involves stenography, Arduinos, and an open source kit called Plover.

Fighting Fit News/business So this is, by now, old news, but it’s also good news, so we’re gonna include it here anyway: Tim Cook came out last week [businessweek] in what was a stunningly well-written piece for Bloomberg Businessweek. His sexuality was well-known in the tech and media fields, but it’s still a big deal for a business leader like him to make such a move. Hopefully one day it won’t be! Meanwhile, Microsoft got into the fitness tracker space last week. Here’s a look at what it’s like to wear one of their Bands [theverge], and here’s a head-to-head [time] with all the other fitness trackers currently available (and some that aren’t). Monitorbook [monitorbook] is a service to keep track of almost any element on any website. You can use it to track the price of stuff you want to buy, for example.

Coin Operated Off-topic The Internet Archive, one of the most-useful and most-great sites around, just became even better, with the creation of The Internet Arcade [archive], a collection of 900 classic arcade games recreated in JavaScript. We apologize in advance for your sharply declined productivity. To finish up, here’s a fascinating look at Google X’s plans to produce the equivalent of Star Trek’s tricorder [medium]. Apparently we’ll soon be swallowing pills full of special nanoparticles and they’ll send out signals to our health wristbands in the event of our becoming sick. Seems a bit conservative.