Might Morphin'

Redraft General web This is pretty crazy. A demonstration of the 3D amazingness possible with HTML, CSS, the canvas element, and a bunch of other stuff [keithclark]. This is from January last year, but we were sent it today and it really caught our attention (thanks James!) Here’s a great blog post from the people behind npm about what can be done with their tool, directly clarifying where npm fits in with front-end development [blog.npmjs]. If you use Google Docs to write, there’s now a tool to “play back” your writing and see how a draft unfolded over time [features.jsomers]. Creepy and great. tictic [github] is a JavaScript pregnancy tracker! Interview Cake [interviewcake] is a newsletter that will send you one coding interview per week.

Mighty Morphin’ Design uiGIFs [uigifs] is a weekly newsletter that’ll send you animated GIFs of inspirational UI elements. Here’s some Material Design morphing icons for ya [codepen]. Inspirograph [nathanfriend] is a browser-based Spirograph emulator thing.Remember Spirographs [wikipedia]!? Good times. Here’s a guide to making your CSS shapes blobby [css-tricks]. And lastly for this section, an argument for designers needing to code differently [medium].

Bittersweet Symfony SitePoint First up on SitePoint today, we have a guide to automating the task of sending email, via Node.js. Then we have a look at the hoo-ha surrounding the HTML5 specification becoming a W3C recommendation. When it comes to blogging software, what’s better: WordPress or Jekyll? Here’s an attempt to settle the matter. And here’s a guide to getting started with Symfony 2 route annotations.

F for Fake News/business It’s not exactly news, but this Ars Technica [arstechnica] feature on smartphones sharing info with everyone via wi-fi requests. Meanwhile, here’s an interview with the people who create fake Apple designs [yahoo]. Turns out they just want attention. And this is an interesting — and well-written — post from astronaut Chris Hadfield on the meaning, impact and legal challenges of his famous “Space Oddity” video [chrishadfield], which is now back up on YouTube after being removed last May.

Division of Labor Off-topic If you only read one link from today’s newsletter, make it this one, an incredible essay from Paul Ford on emulation, the history of networks, and the experience of losing a friend [medium]. Really, it’s very good. If you have an iPhone, run Chrome, and want to relive your childhood, try Produck Hunt, a crazy impressive port of Duck Hunt using your phone as a gun. Remember a few weeks ago when Will.i.am announced his new smartwatch (or “smartcuff”) and everyone was like, “wow, it kinda seems like Will.i.am knows what he's doing.” Yeah, not so much [theverge]. This is an interesting post on automation and human error [radar.oreilly]. Finally, if you ever need to divide things fairly, here’s a site to help you do it properly [spliddit].