Jack Bishop and I gave a presentation at BK.js a few weeks ago about progressive enhancement for the mobile web (thanks Marco Carag!) During the Q&A, someone asked “With all this diversity and inconsistent/shaky support for this Javascript for mobile browsers, why don’t we just rely more on HTML?” EXACTLY. Yet it was asked as a question.

There’s a mentality that in order to do create functional experiences in the browser, especially for mobile, you need to use some hardcore JS framework, rewrite the scrolling logic, add a bunch of interstitial animations, create overlays and add swipes. I have nothing against frameworks or these techniques, but for whatever reason people think they’re a prerequisite for creating mobile web experiences. They’re not.

With the release of his latest standup special Live at the Beacon Theater, comedian Louis C.K. went straight to his core audience with a cheap, easy-to-stream and easy-to-download distribution strategy. He asked interested viewers to pay just $5 via PayPal and in exchange they were given access to two streams of the show and two downloads of the show.

I hope this works out for him (and I’d like to see others try it is he is successful).

Boing Boing: Congressional staffers behind SOPA get shiny new jobs as entertainment industry lobbyists http://goo.gl/mag/bVxEH

Responsive Web Design (RWD) Overview

• Responsive Web Design – Ethan Marcotte
• Responsive Web Design book – Ethan Marcotte
• Responsive Web Design: What It Is and How To Use It – Kayla Knight
• Multi-Device Web Design: An Evolution – Luke Wroblewski
• Media Queries RWD Showcase

Image Solutions

• Responsive IMGs — Part 1 – Jason Grigsby
• Responsive IMGs Part 2 — In-depth Look at Techniques – Jason Grigsby
• Adaptive Images for Responsive Designs – Matt Wilcox

Tricks and Tools

• 25 jQuery Plugins to help with Responsive Layouts – Paul Andrew
• Responsive Web Design Toolbox: 50 Handy Tools and Services – AndrewG
• Conditional Loading for Responsive Designs – Jeremy Keith

Here’s a guitar-only version of Hammer In My Heart.

In the real world, responsive design is nothing new. Products adapt to our needs. Technology monitors local environments to adjust lighting, temperature and even physical spaces. But what about web? In designing with words, the desire to bind content to a device has been around as long as there have been books. Mark will take you from desire to implementation, from theory to practice. How can we build upon what we know from literally hundreds of years of responsive design practice to define a new era of online publishing? An era where we strive for the same level of human / technology connection that started with the monks.

View his slides, listen to his talk.

A Bay Area employee described what happened last year when he and about a dozen co-workers realized employees with years of service were being paid less than new hires doing the same work. Agitated about the situation but concerned about retaliation, the workers committed to a plan: during the approaching round of annual one-on-one meetings between workers and managers, they would each ask about pay disparities.

Those workers who did ask received a consistent response: “Money shouldn’t be an issue when you’re employed at Apple.” Instead, managers said, the chance to work at Apple “should be looked at as an experience.” “You can’t live off of experience,” said the worker interviewed.

One of the perks is rediscovering music I’ve loved in the past, but have let drop out of my internal jukebox. Take, for example, Material Issue. I was a big fan early on, and the International Pop Overthrow album was a favorite for quite a while. They were standard bearers of that muscular kind of Chicago power pop – great hooks and harmonies, strong beats, master showmen. Take a listen to a gem from a 1992 concert, the first single from their second album:

(If you’d like the whole show, Power Pop Criminals has you covered.)

Sadly, most of Material Issue’s stuff is out of print. The surviving members of the band (Jim Ellison passed away, tragically, in 1996) released a 20th anniversary edition of the first album this year. I urge you to pick it up.

See larger image International Pop Overthrow 20th Anniversary Edition (MP3 Music) New From: $11.49 In Stock Release date April 5, 2011.