Welcome to the end of another week, and to our regular wrap-up of the pick of posts from across the SitePoint network. Once more, we’ve got a diverse selection of articles that are sure to interest you.
GeekGames: the Opening Ceremony
Calling all gamers: we’ve got the site for you. Get stuck in to the GeekGames! It’s our brand new destination for web-fuelled leisure time; and let’s face it, we could all do with a bit more of that, right? Our first three games are Mouse-Questrian, Spam-Shoot and Pong-Long. Sign up, and fire away! And if your manager thinks you’re wasting time, you’re researching Canvas and JavaScript and stuff …
How About a smaller iPad?
Rumors abound concerning Apple bringing out a streamlined, less chunky iPad. It’s Apple — rumors always abound. That’s what they do well. But seriously, what implications would a shrunken tablet have for developers? How would it affect user experience? And what would the fanboys think?
Everyone Loves Cookies
HTTP is a stateless protocol, so how does a server identify you uniquely? This is where cookies come in: they maintain user state and interaction between the web browser and the web server. If you’ve ever wondered what developers are on about when they mention these tasty tidbits, check this post out.
30 Free Photoshop Patterns and Textures
Free stuff! In this case, wood and metal Photoshop patterns. Jazz up your button elements or grunge up an image. Add these 30 funky tools to your portfolio of design elements, and make your sites shine.
Welcome to the Event Machine
No, Event Machine is not a proto-electronica Krautrock outfit from the early 70s. It’s a really useful library that brings event-based, non-blocking IO to Ruby. It negates waiting for events to fire, and concurrency becomes much easier. Check out the article, and see how you can use it.
Opa: an Open-source Cloud Language
Node.js allows for rapid development of scalable applications, but is not immune to the security vulnerabilities. Opa addresses these issues through automation, and generates cloud apps free from security vulnerabilities such as XSS and SQL injection, as well as apps that are performance-optimized and truly scalable. Definitely worth investigating!
Tom MusethTom is the online managing editor at SitePoint. His working day consists of arming himself with an assembly line of long blacks and overseeing the curation of content and flow of traffic across the SitePoint network. His passions include bargain vinyl bins, yoga, juggling sci-fi novels with classic literature, and axolotls. He's currently wading into the world of Android development and HTML5 gaming.
