Who put this on? ... I dunno. Some random.

Firebug

noreply@blogger.com (Bunsen) — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 03:04:00 +0000

One of my favourite tools for web development is the Firefox extension Firebug. Put simply it’s one of the best free tools for general web development. It has a focus on AJAX development but if you are at all interested in what happens to your site when it’s sitting in the client browser then it will be of some use to you.

Firebug’s creator, Joe Hewitt, has just released an article on using Firebug when writing AJAX websites. It provides a great introduction to the tool and I strongly recommend reading it if you are new to Firebug and need an overview of what it’s capable of. Or even if you have been using it for a while as it might show you something new.

One of Firebug’s best areas is javascript. Now, I used to hate javascript. I still know a lot of developers for whom one mention of it generates the response: “Oh no. I hate javascript!” Usually accompanied by a face that looks like they took a big bite out of a lemon.

Recently I am learning to love it and that is in no small part due to Firebug. Most hatred of javascript seems to stem from the fact that it’s a pain to work with because of the lack of decent debugging tools. There are a few that seem to do their job well enough and suit some people but I’ve never found any that I really like working with (nods to Venkman, Aptana and Microsoft Script Editor). Firebug turns Firefox into a seriously good tool for the development of websites that utilise javascript. It was recently released as a v1 beta and the improvements over the already impressive v0.4 beta were extensive.

If you build websites and ever write javascript, or even if you don’t, just go and get it now. You won’t regret it.

Trying out Performancing....

noreply@blogger.com (Bunsen) — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 19:21:00 +0000

Earlier today I was looking at dzone.com and found a reference to the Performancing blogging extension for Firefox. It's undergoing a name change to Scrybefire. Now I'm pretty new to blogging (only writing them, been reading the things for ages and subscribe to more than I can handle) so I'd not heard of the extension, so off I went and dutifully installed it. This will be my first attempt at using it and I'll update this post with some first impressions when I've used it for a while. Not sure I can see a spell check, which for me could be a killer (my spelling's rubbish) but otherwise so far so good.

I'm also going to try out Flock. I had a look at Flock when it first came out but didn't have a blog then so it didn't stand out as having any benefit for me. Again I'll post some first impressions when I've had a bit of time to play with it.

Now, I don't know if anyone actually reads any of this but I'd really like to hear from others as to what they recommend as the best blogging tools. I'm using blogger and apart from the tools mentioned in this post that's about as far as I've got. If you know of anything that could make my life easier then I'm all ears so please add a comment with your recommendations.

Update: that 'powered by' footer thing is annoying as I didn't put it there, don't know why but those kind of things really bug me

Scrybe

noreply@blogger.com (Bunsen) — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 11:08:00 +0000

If you're into productivty tools, web development, GTD or are generally just technical and like playing with new toys then you'll probably have heard about Scrybe.

Although it's currently still in a fairly exclusive beta invite stage of the release process you can see what it's capable of by checking out the video on their home page.

I signed up for an invite weeks ago and am hoping it will come soon, they promise to have the first full release by the end of January so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

This site ticks so many boxes for me it's difficult to know where to start. Productivity tools like this can be a great help at work and generally just helping sort out your life. I've used several but none have quite hit the mark for me and the way I like to work. Scrybe looks like it just might be exactly what I'm looking for. Also I love the user interface and the technical and useability aspects of the application really look like they know what they are doing and are pushing forward the boundries of what a website can deliver. It's probably the most exciting thing I've personally seen on the web im some time.

Submit your email address now and hopefully the invites should start appearing soon.

To sum up, I can't wait.

Box.net

noreply@blogger.com (Bunsen) — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 10:43:00 +0000

On my previous post I linked to file that I have stored in my box.net account. I had heard about box.net previously but hadn't got round to signing up and giving it a go. Now that I've used it for a few days I can wholeheartedly recommend it. The ability to share files and make them public and also the bulk upload capabilities are the winning elements for me - although there are bound to be a number of features that I've not discovered yet. The interface looks great, is intuitive and easy to use and they have a free 1GB of storage. I can easily see myself using this more and more until I need to upgrade to one of the paid options but won't mind when it comes as it's a great service.

I sign up to a lot of new sites that fall into the category of: "Web 2.0 Site With a Free Basic User Account". Most of these I try out and they fall by the wayside pretty quickly. Any new ones I come across I'll post about here and at some point I'll put together the inevitable tools list that will have the ones that I currently use.

If you don't already have an account then click on the image below to go get one.

update:

They also provide the functionality to generate the file widget you should see on the right hand side. Very easy to add in, just some cut and paste action and you're there. It lists everything I put into a public folder in my account. It will also link directly into blogger (and others) so you can post a file directly to the blog from within the box.net interface. Nice.

Australian Compact Calendar

noreply@blogger.com (Bunsen) — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 16:39:00 +0000

David Seah, for those people who don't know is the creator of the amazing Printable CEO series. If you've not seen the productivity tools that David creates I can strongly recommend checking them out.

Many of his tools are there to make the inherently fiddly and frustrating into the almost obvious and straightforward - and they look lovely too. They do it very well and there are enough there for you to pick and choose those that suit you best.

One of his recent creations is the Compact Calendar. Now, I live in Australia and there wasn't a version with Australian national holidays, so I updated it to create one. I live in New South Wales but because I was feeling all warm and fuzzy inside I did the other states too. If you want it you can get it here.

So far I've only done the version with the week starting Monday. If anyone wants the week to start on Sunday, let me know and I'll do that version too. Let me know in the comments if you find it useful.

Snap.com

noreply@blogger.com (Bunsen) — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 14:34:00 +0000

Snap.com has a service that provides those lovely little preview bubbles that are becoming more and more common on websites. Personally I think they are a great way of giving a user a better idea about what they will find if they follow a link. Snap's offering lets you cut and paste in a little code and you're done.

It's blindingly easy to set up and very effective. Just hover the link below and you'll see what I mean.

www.snap.com

I've added it to the template of this blog and so far it's worked flawlessly.

This is a kind of test I guess....

noreply@blogger.com (Bunsen) — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 13:33:00 +0000

I thought I'd try starting a blog. This is it. I don't really know why but I can guess a few subjects that might appear: Sydney, food, films, photos, wildlife and techy stuff like productivity tools and web development tips and tricks... who knows.

This is just the start so there's not a whole lot to see yet - but give it time.

The interesting thing will be to see if I ever update the thing, that's what the test will be. To see if this dies on it's arse.

I'm not famous for my ability to stick with things so this may stagnate into my ever expanding puddle of ignored half projects - we all have a puddle... don't we?

Anyway, let's see what happens........