Page 16 of 21 of the Unsolicited Advice Archives

1. On freelancing

   I don't trust easily and assume the worst. I rarely ever feel secure, safe, or happy. Asking for help embarrasses and intimidates me. Self-promotion makes me feel gross. I'm not sure people will like me. And I almost never believe things will ever work out. Somehow, despite all of this

2. An Introduction to IndexedDB

   'IndexedDB offers a powerful way to store and retrieve data in the browser. As with server-side databases, IndexedDB allows us to generate keys, search data, or sort it by a particular field. In this article, we’ll dig into the IndexedDB API by building a to-do list manager. But first, let’s look at some of the concepts around databases and IndexedDB.'

3. Subtitles and captions with WebVTT

   One drawback of HTML5 multimedia is accessibility. For hearing impaired users, audio and video content is nearly-useless without an alternative. This is where the track element and WebVTT come in handy. What WebVTT looks like when combined with `@font-face`. WebVTT, short for “Web Video Text Tracks”, can be used to

4. Faux placeholder clearing with CSS

   Maybe you're like me, and you're not crazy about the way the placeholder attribute works for text fields. I think the placeholder text should clear once the input has focus. Instead, the text only clears after the user starts typing. The good news is that we can modify this behavior

5. Date input in HTML5: Restricting dates, and a thought for working around limitations

   You probably know that HTML5 introduced a date input type, which constrains the value to a valid date string. largely eliminates the need for JavaScript-based date pickers such as the one found in jQuery UI. In browsers that support the type, we can pick a date using

6. Use IDL attributes to test support

   HTML5 input control types still have a ways to go before every type is supported in every browser. In the meantime, you may still find that you need to feature-test whether a particular type is supported. Do this by checking the value of the type IDL attribute. IDL attributes are

7. Range controls and padding in IE10+

   While working on a video player for a forthcoming book, I noticed a peculiar spacing issue with a range input control; that affected the layout of this player.

8. Getting to Know Mutation Observers

   'In this article, Tiffany Brown has a look at mutation observers, how they are different from mutation events, and how you can use them in your web applications.'

9. CSS 3D Transforms on Dev.Opera

   Though I am no longer with Opera, I do plan to keep contributing to their Dev.Opera site. As part of the launch of Opera 15 beta for desktop computers, they recently published a piece I wrote about CSS 3D transforms. Have a read, and feel free to ask questions