Over time, I collect links on my desktop that I'd like to share. Typically, I do this so that during times when content is slow I'll have some backup material to post. Sometimes, though, I go a little too far and collect a little too much stuff. My desktop ends up covered in links. One of the biggest problems with that is that some of the content is time sensitive, that is it becomes less relevant and more moldy the longer I wait to post it.
In any case, consider this a link queue purge. The following are things I found interesting, and you might too...
- How to set up your own Certificate Authority using OpenSSL on Windows: A great and useful tutorial for those who want to have an SSL certificate but don't want to buy it from verisign. The drawback to this method is that some browsers alert the user to the fact that the cert in question isn't signed by a major cert granting authority. The connection is still encrypted, though, so with a proper explanation, your consumers should still feel safe and you'll have some extra cash to do something else... Like buy a beer...
- A while back, Blizzard published a short interview with Harley D. Huggins II, Ghost Cinematics Project Lead to discuss some of the aspects on the cinematic creation process used in Blizzard games. There are some storyboard examples and a video that shows some of the development process. At 6.84mb, the video takes a little bit to download on a modem, but it's great to get a better look at the creation process used by one of the better game development companies out there.
- Over at Zoode.org, Ahmet is a geek's geek. Smarter than smart, his blog has a lot of information about programming, everything from java to ActionScript. Here's a post about Duff's Device, a way of optimizing loops by unrolling them and using switch statements. I've heard of and used these techniques before, but Ahmet has a port to ActionScript that he says works as advertised. Definitely worth a bookmark.
- Anti-Aliasing and Anti-Anti-Aliasing, both by John Gruber, discuss the anti-aliasing differences between various OS X browsers. Although the article has a heavy Mac slant (it is a mac oriented site), there's a lot of useful information in here if a) you don't know what anti-aliasing is, or b) you're a "font nerd".
- Ever want to write a Movable Type Plugin? The MT system is extremely powerful as is, but the wide variety of system hooks and strong plugin API allow for an infinite number of extensions. Developing Movable Type Plug-ins by Timothy Appnel gets into the nitty-gritty of using the different features of the MT plugin API and is a good way to get started if you want to add new features to what I think is one of the best personal content management systems around.