Recent Blog Entries

  • HTML5 Brief: in a couple paragraphs

    HTML5 is a loaded term that covers a range of ideas, but here is an attempt to explain it. Explicitly, all that HTML5 stands for is the next version of HTML. After this version there will be no more versions of HTML. Instead they will evolve the spec slowly over time instead of using major revisions. The next gold standard was going to be XHTML2, but it got dumped because it was built on an unrealistic view of the web. The view was that the web could be a place that used perfect syntax if only you forced it to. A bunch of standards makers broke away from the W3C, and created the WHATWG which gave birth to, among other specs, HTML5. It's goal was the re-think how to derive standards, and it chose to look at how the web worked currently, versus what it could be. For that reason HTML5 has a lot of elements that we have today, but they have been codified some how. One example is progress bars, currently they are implemented as a hack, in HTML5 there is a progress bar element.

    Besides the standards way of looking at HTML5, it is also an umbrella term for the next evolution of the web: Web 2.0 meets HTML5. Besides HTML, the markup language, HTML5 is a movement that represents all that is new in Javascript, and CSS3. It even encompasses new distribution channels like TV, and mobile. HTML5 is more of a platform, and less of a presentation language.

    The bottom line is, HTML5 is going to be broadly accepted, and broadly distributed. It's time for web developers to cheer, and it should make developers of other platforms weak in the knee's. If a device has a HTML rendering engine it's going to have HTML5: computers, phones, tablets, TV's, and, yep, even cars. Some may dismiss HTML5 as a toy, but they are being shortsighted. For every nearsighted prognosticator there are a dozen web developers, who don't care about the platform wars, and instead just want to make apps. HTML5 is the logical next step for them. Even billion dollar companies are gearing up to invest big in HTML5. Wherever you fit in your organization, lone wolf, or CEO, HTML5 is what’s next.

  • Getting a javascript command line; using homebrew to get v8

    In writing my book I am constantly wanting to play with javascript to make sure my examples are correct. Or if I just want to figure out how and idea will work. I have been just opening up the console in firefox, and chrome to test these ideas out, but I thought wouldn't it be cool if I could just use an interactive command line like python has.

    Well, I guess I new this would workout somehow, but I had no idea how easy it would be. v8 comes in nice command line package, you can download, and compile it your self if you want, but if you have a mac it's even easier.

  • I am writing a book - like a real one.

    For a couple of months now I have been slowly moving forward a deal to write a book, and now with the contract is on the way to be signed, I just can't not say anything anymore. I was going to write this thing whether, or not I got a book "deal", but I didn't want to jinx it by starting it in some other form first.

    The details, it will be published by Packt Publishing, they do a lot of work with documenting open source projects.

  • How I, as low-ranking employee, am going to change Yahoo

    I don't know about you but at some point in time I had to start asking my self why am I working at Yahoo! I am still to this day filled with joy that I ever had the chance to work here in the first place. When I was 12 I can remember thinking how cool it would be to work in Silicon Valley, never once did I think that I could actually do it, and now on regular basis I drive past the Yahoo! sign on my way to work. That's cool, and will always be cool.

    Past the warm fuzzys I get working at Yahoo, there are some fun technical challenges.

  • Gruber is wrong about OpenAppMkt the fight for open is about distribution

    OpenAppMkt showed up in my stream today, thanks to Daring Fireball. It's a great idea, and well executed. They even support selling HTML5 Apps. One key feature is the ability to "route around" Apple.

    Daring Fireball is a great blog, and one that I respect, but Gruber made this statement today, " iOS’s support for mobile web apps — totally open, no gatekeeping — is by design." (source).

    All due respect, but this seems like basic misunderstanding of open.

  • I just read the most wonderful short story: Mr. Penumbra’s Twenty-Four-Hour Book Store

    here is the story

    My favorite part besides the book was that I started to read it as if it was a dudes blog post about working in a 24 hour book shop. I thought the whole thing was real.

    The story was based in San Francisco too, and I was going to go to the store and check it out. Near the end of the story though something happened that isn't real, and I realized it was a short story, and not a blog post, although it was written in the style of a longish blog post.

  • A simple Javascript MVC

    I am starting to work on a big project, and apart of that big project is that I need to start looking at MVC in JavaScript. I think that MVC is something that many app developers understand, and it's a great paradigm for creating most web applications. This extends to creating self-contained HTML5 Apps for the client.

    I set out to do a search and I found a couple of examples.

  • I am closing Stay Tuned In

    I am closing Stay Tuned In, the site was an idea of mine, but I never really had good data. If you were wondering good data would cost be $800 dollars a month, on a site that generated no revenue.

    Mayby the TV industry wants it this way, but they are killing innovation. By not figuring out how to ramp up small projects, many probably stop before they ever even sit down, and code.

    The hardest part about running Stay Tuned In was keeping the data stream up, and running. The user interface, and everything else was fairly simple.

  • The mosh pit and cognative surplus.

    I was caught off guard by an interesting compare/contrast over at snarkmarket. Two quotes from recent books, both disparaging looks at pre-internet life. The author, Tim Carmody, asks if these kinds of feelings are what are driving us to use our cognitive surplus towards creation.

    Maybe slightly, orthogonal to his original idea, was a thought that pop'ed into my head. Not just why are people leaving TV, but how.

  • Knowing your food; Palo Santo Marron beer from Dogfish Head.

    A couple years ago I read an article in the New Yorker about a brewery called Dogfish Head. In the article they talked about an interesting beer, Palo Santo Marron. Besides the beer they gave a rough history of the company including the fact that when Dogfish Head started brewing it was illegal in Delaware, the owner single handedly wrote the bill legalizing it, and got it passed.

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Who Am I

My name is Alex Kessinger. I work at Yahoo! as a front-end engineer. I code, write, and curate. I have interests that run the gamut, though what ends up on the blog is mostly tech, and working in tech related.

I am currently writing a book about HTML5 Apps.

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