May 17, 2012 — E-commerce runs on secrets. Those secrets let you update your blog, shop at Amazon and share code on GitHub. Computer security is all about keeping your secrets known only to you and the people you choose to share them with. We’ve been sharing secrets for centuries, but the Internet runs on a special kind of secret sharing called public-key cryptography. Most secret messages depend on a shared secret—a key or password that everyone agrees on ahead of time. Public-key cryptography shares secret messages without a shared secret key and makes technologies like SSL possible. Read more…

May 16, 2012 — In my nearly two decades as an information architect, I’ve seen my clients flush away millions upon millions of dollars on worthless, pointless, “fix it once and for all” website redesigns. All types of organizations are guilty: large government agencies, Fortune 500s, not-for-profits and (especially) institutions of higher education. Read more…

May 16, 2012 — This Mobile section of Smashing Magazine is curated by our editor Derek Allard and features articles on best and emerging practices for responsive Web design, Web apps and native apps. While the mobile Web is still in its infancy, we can learn from the experiences of professionals who are working on mobile every day. Read more…

May 15, 2012 — The idea behind this project was to produce a consistent set of buttons that could be used for the range of social actions frequently taken in Web applications. These actions are often important goals for users, such as connecting third-party accounts or sharing content to third-party platforms, so their appearance has to be attractive and clear. Read more…

May 14, 2012 — I had thought of terms like “intellectual property” or “intellectual theft” as being of fairly recent provenance, so my eye was caught by the latter’s use in a headline of a 1930 edition of the American trade journal The American Printer. Read more…

May 12, 2012 — Myths have developed around and researchers have studied how the human brain juggles creativity and organization. Popular theory tells us that the left brain is structured and logical, while the right brain is artistic and imaginative, and that all human beings use predominantly one side of the other. Read more…

May 11, 2012 — All over the world people are getting together to talk about WordPress. Developers, designers, bloggers, writers, small-business owners, software engineers, system admins, mobile developers, BuddyPress developers, SEO experts, consultants, people ranging from absolute beginners to WordPress ninjas, and everyone in between. Read more…

May 10, 2012 — Interaction designers create wireframes in tools such as Adobe Illustrator, OmniGraffle and Microsoft Visio. However, emailing your old static designs will feel old fashioned once you see what these new tools can do. Read more…

May 9, 2012 — The Web has become increasingly interactive over the years. This trend is set to continue with the next generation of applications driven by the real-time Web. Read more…

May 8, 2012 — The new Smashing Book #3 has finally arrived—freshly printed, neatly packed and ready to be shipped to you, our dear reader. Read more…