Ancient Mayan prophecies foretell the end of ads.
HOT LINKS
What we're reading this week
Adam: Lots of talk about ad blockers this week with the release of iOS 9. Nilay Patel explains how this is less about Apple caring about a better experience for users, but rather money, power and a fight for control amongst big tech companies.
Ben: A first-generation Pokemon talks about the sad state of web development, and comes to the conclusion that PHP has so many users because it just works.
Kaeti: Welcome to the (ad) block party.
Ryan: Take Lauren Rabaino's advice for fostering a happy, productive team.
Bert: Is Google's 418 error page actually served by a teapot?
This Week's Guest Contributor: Thomas Thoren, open data reporter at The Lens.
Drudge Report, the news aggregation site created by Matt Drudge, is known for its conservative stance and its bare-bones web design. The site looks like something that might have come out of a "Hello world" beginner HTML lesson. Its famous siren would fit right in on a late '90s GeoCities page.
Jason Fried, founder and CEO of Basecamp, argues that this seemingly oversimplified news site actually does a lot right. In an era of bloated websites, the stripped-down Drudge Report is a breath of fresh air. It doesn't try to do anything more than give you headlines, so it excels in getting you your news and getting out of your way. By hardly changing its design over the past two decades, it has a distinct style that readers can rely on. It exists as a single web page that requires little technical knowledge, allowing Matt Drudge to focus most of his time on the content of the page instead of fighting with a content management system.
While your editor might not appreciate any future design mockups that offer little more than black text on a white background, it's worth remembering that simpler is almost always better.
Each week we ask someone from outside our team to contribute a link, tool or idea. Are you our next guest star? We think you might be. Send us a note at nerds@inn.org.
SHOUT OUT
Work we admire by our journalism peers
More than 2,000 enslaved fishermen have been set free as a result of an Associated Press investigation.
GET A JOB
Work for people we admire
The Sunlight Foundation is hiring a director for Sunlight Labs.
Chalkbeat is hiring a Director of Product and Growth.
Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism is hiring a Data and Visual Director.
INN's tech team is hiring a contract WordPress developer, and applications are open for spring 2015 apprenticeships.
If you're posting jobs, let us know!
SOME OTHER STUFF
Gather ye rosebuds
LISTEN: How about a mashup?
COOK: Summer's almost over, but there's still time to make sorbet.
WATCH: Where CSS color names come from.
GIF: Enjoy your weekend!
