Powder: making Pow even easier!
May 25, 2011 § 5 Comments
Pow is the hot new zero-config server released by the benevolent guys at 37signals. They created it to make all of our lives easier because you no longer have to think about application servers in development with Pow. Obviously thin, unicorn, passenger or whatever your choice of production server is are still important, but Pow makes your local environment easier to deal with.
But is it really easy enough?
Faster Rails tests with Hydra
May 18, 2011 § 6 Comments
When working on a large Rails app, the feedback loop between writing code, running tests and finding out about failures can become too long. Hydra is a distributed testing framework that helps speed things up. « Read the rest of this entry »
AssetHat 0.4: Load CSS and JS faster. Your assets are covered.
May 6, 2011 § 7 Comments
You don’t have to read too far through before finding this simple principle:
Every millisecond counts. Nothing is more valuable than people’s time.
For front-end developers, this means making CSS, JS, and images load at top speed. “But,” you exclaim, “why should I care, when my 96-core computer with an SSD and fiber optic internet already loads everything ridiculously quickly?!”
Think about the commuter who is loading your website over 3G (or worse, EDGE). Or the coffee shop hipster who is loading your website over slow, unhip public wifi. Or the desk employee who is loading your website with an ancient desktop tower that the company can’t/won’t upgrade. As caring, responsible front-end web devs, we have to help users make the best of their hardware and network connections, which are often beyond their control.
As Google has noted, . If your website is also selling something, you’ll surely want to move users through checkout swiftly. « Read the rest of this entry »