Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of web development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.

Firebug Extension for FireFox

One of the main reasons for me to use Firefox over Chrome is for the extensions. Normally I am all about speed and would be running Chrome all day,except I am just too used to using my FireFox extensions, in particular Firebug.

There are many reasons to use Firebug, but for me the main reason is to debug the code on my website. I try to keep my code valid and clean, when possible. But, with WordPress plugins there is a lot of code that gets inserted into your pages while they are loading, give us little control. But thanks to Firebug I can check out the code that was inserted, and find out which ID’s and Classes they are so that I can change their appearance using  CSS or jQuery.

Firebug even allows you to see any data that you are passing through forms, so you can check to make sure your data is being sent properly. No web developer should be without this extension.

Here are a few links to introduce you to Firebug

Firebug Links

• Introduction to Firebug
• Overview of Firebug
• John Barton’s introduction to the Firebug source

Firebug Videos

• Jim Plush’s Firebug screencasts
• Joe Hewitt gives a talk on advanced features of Firebug

Post from: Jim Gaudet

Firebug for Web Development

I am so lucky to have this apartment. Today was just a perfect day. I started my day at 4:20am (coincidence?) and saw a beautiful sunrise. Then I get to see the sky change into a great sunset. Here is a slideshow of tonight’s sunset.

The best pictures are  at the end! My favorite is number 8

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 9

Post from: Jim Gaudet

Costa Rica Sunset | July 12 2009

Why Windows 7?

I know, what the fuck is wrong with me? Why on earth would I install a release candidate version of Windows 7 and possibly purchase it when I can install Ubuntu, Linux or even wait for the free Google OS? Well, unfortunately I still have clients who will never switch to these operating systems so I am forced to use them myself so that I may better support my clients.

Don’t get me wrong I am not a Microsoft hater (I do hate Internet Explorer though), I just think open source is the best way to go. Believe it or not, but I have been an MCSE since 1996 and Microsoft has been a great help to my pockets.

Fix Skype on Windows 7

I installed Windows 7 with no problems. After the updates all hardware was working great and I am pretty satisfied with the speed. Installing all my applications took some time as always and I only had one issue at the end of the day, Skype would not connect….

The install of Skype was smooth with no errors, but when you try to login the screen just sits there…Doing some  searches on Google quickly made me realize a lot of people have had this problem. So here is my fix and it was pretty easy.

Since this is a release candidate of Windows 7, I really have no settings on this computer that I have to worry about, but if you have special Windows Firewall settings make sure to back them up before proceeding!

There is only one step here, restore the default Windows Firewall Policy

Open your Control Panel, System and Security, Windows Firewall

Find Advanced Settings on the left and click that

Find Restore Default Policy on the right and click that

Finished!

That was all I needed to do and when I tried Skype again I logged in with no problems.

Hope that helps.

Post from: Jim Gaudet

Fix Skype on Windows 7 Build 7100

clear-costa-rica-morning

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 8

Post from: Jim Gaudet

Costa Rica Mountains in the Morning | Photos

Tweetmeme is a service which aggregates all the popular links on twitter to determine which links are popular. Tweetmeme is able to categorize these links into categories and subcategories, making it easy to filter out the noise to find what your interested in.

Retweet

What is that, really? Well, I am not going to rewrite something that is already perfect, so if you don’t know what it is check out the ReTweet Guide over at Mashable.com. Ben Parr gives a great intro to re-tweeting and which programs you can use to get started with Twitter.

Ben says;

“Retweeting is an integral part of the Twitter experience. The retweet (or “RT”) allows Twitter users to share the best links, tweets, and gems they find from others using the service. But for beginners, it’s not immediately obvious what retweets are, or what tools to use to make retweeting easier.”

Retweet Button

Install the Tweetmeme WordPress Plugin and get a cool little retweet button like I have in the top right of this post.

The retweet button is for website and blog publishers that want to encourage their audience to retweet their content on twitter.

I have spent many hours on sites like Digg, Reddit, Mixx and StumbleUpon, but now I feel that I don’t need them any more. With Twitter (using Seesmic Desktop) I get all the same information I would want from those sites, and more!

If you do not have this plugin, or another way to retweet your content you are falling behind fast, IMO.

Post from: Jim Gaudet

Tweetmeme Wordpress Plugin | ReTweet Button

Honduras Coup

Recently deposed Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, arrived on a military jet at Juan Santamaria airport outside of San Jose around 8:10 am, Sunday morning.

He was still wearing his pajamas.

President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica greeted his Honduran counterpart at the airport and called on the international community to continue recognizing Zelaya as Honduras’ president and to condemn the military coup, Central America’s first in more than 15 years.

“I regret there are civilians, political leaders and part of the population in Honduras who applaud a coup d’état, just because they disagree with the government in office,” Arias said.

After a brief press conference at the airport, Mr. Zelaya was moved to the DoubleTree Cariari hotel where he stayed for most of the day until a jet provided by Venezuelan president, Hugo Chaves, arrived to transport him to Managua. The Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) met in Managua to give their support to Zelaya.

Post from: Jim Gaudet

President of Honduras Kidnapped | Sent to Costa Rica

Improve Pagerank

A while back I wrote a post “How to say I Love You over the Internet” about using the Lucia Link Love plugin to spread the link love to the commenter’s who frequent your blog. This was a nice plugin and I had been using it for a while, until I redesigned my blog and tried to trim down the plugin usage. Now I am back to putting in plugins and hoping they don’t ruin my validation.

Now, I am going to use the new WordPress comments plugin, HOBO Custom Link Love, which is an updated custom version of the Lucia Link Love plugin. Here’s what the Hobo’s have to say about their plugin;

From Improve Pagerank: Custom Link Love For Wordpress Comments Plugin..

So Basically;

• Regular commentors will get a dofollow link that passes link love – with this, you really reward regular contributors
• Those with less than say 3 comments will not get a link at all (although you can modify this) but when they do hit 3 comments, hey presto, link love, and with anchor text value!
• Pagerank won’t evaporate through nofollowed links from link droppers because they won’t be links

I am DOFOLLOW again

Since this is a custom (newer) version of the comment link plugin from Lucia I decided to install this one instead of the original, sorry Lucia. Something about it being newer, even though I don’t see too much different at the moment.

So, all you faithful followers who make comments on my blog, know that I have a Google Page Rank 3 and think that it should be shared with those who are networking with me. So if you have something (semi)intelligent to say, say it. BUT, know that I am not keeping “one-liner” comments any more, and I am going to delete all the older comments that I do not think are worthy anymore.

Download the plugin here: HOBO Custom Link Love

Post from: Jim Gaudet

I am a DOFOLLOW Blog | HOBO Custom Link Love

As fellow blogger John Hoff said;
“The first thing you should understand is that people are looking to hack your site.“

Blog Security

Far too many people will grab an open source piece of software, such as WordPress, and think that a standard install will be just fine. Security never pops into their minds. I am here to tell you that you can take 5 minutes of your time and help secure your WordPress blog.

Why not spend a couple minutes and follow these simple instructions to help keep those hackers away from your blog?

Disclaimer: Nothing is 100 percent full proof, but you can make it harder for someone to hack your blog!!

Secure your WordPress Blog in 5 Minutes

Step One

Install the WordPress Firewall Plugin. I am sure you know how to install Plugins, just follow the instructions from the plugin website. This is very simple to setup, just be sure to add your IP address to the Whitelist and you will be all set.

Step Two

Edit your .HTACCESS file using the 4G Blacklist. Editing your .HTACCESS is pretty easy. You should be familiar with FTP (since you installed your plugin) so just connect to your server and download the .HTACCESS file from the root directory of your blog. Edit this file with a text editor, I use Notepad++.

Add the code from the site below to the end of your .HTACCESS file.

The Perishable Press 4G Blacklist

The 4G Blacklist is a next-generation protective firewall that secures your website against a wide range of malicious activity.

Step Three

Keep your WordPress installation up to date. The easiest way is to make sure you have the WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin..

I hope this thwarts some hackers away… Good luck!

Post from: Jim Gaudet

Secure your WordPress Blog in 5 Minutes

The three great elemental sounds in nature are the sound of rain, the sound of wind in a primeval wood, and the sound of outer ocean on a beach — Henry Beston

I Love the Rain

Seriously, there isn’t anything more relaxing then listening to the rain. In my post “Why Costa Rica” I spoke about how the weather here is 75 degrees every month on average. There is also two seasons, “dry season” and “green season“. Where I live, close to Heredia, the weather is pretty nice and 75 is about right. By the beaches it can get really hot and that is why I like it here better.

During the rain season, or green season, you can expect to have a beautiful sunny morning until around noon time and then the clouds roll in and there are few storms. At about 8 or 9pm the rain is gone and we start all over.

Do you like listening to the rain?

More Costa Rica Information

From frommers.com

Climate

Costa Rica is a tropical country and has distinct wet and dry seasons. However, some regions are rainy all year, and others are very dry and sunny for most of the year. Temperatures vary primarily with elevations, not with seasons: On the coasts it’s hot all year; in the mountains it can be cool at night any time of year. Frost is common at the highest elevations (3,000-3,600m/9,840-11,808 ft.).

Generally, the rainy season (or “green season”) is from May to mid-November. Costa Ricans call this wet time of year their winter. The dry season, considered summer by Costa Ricans, is from mid-November to April. In Guanacaste, the dry northwestern province, the dry season lasts several weeks longer than in other places. Even in the rainy season, days often start sunny, with rain falling in the afternoon and evening. On the Caribbean coast, especially south of Limón, you can count on rain year-round, although this area gets less rain in September and October than the rest of the country.

In general, the best time of year to visit weather-wise is in December and January, when everything is still green from the rains, but the sky is clear.

• Costa Rica Weather Climate
• Costa Rica Rainfall and Weather Map

Post from: Jim Gaudet

Costa Rica Rain Season Information

When I first started using Adobe DreamWeaver for developing websites, the first thing I did was change my view to Code View. I instantly pick Code View since I like to work in HTML more than dragging and dropping things, as you would using Designer View. I never really thought about it too much, but there really is a difference between a designer and a coder.

I’m a coder…

I spend more time cleaning up my code than anything else. I want it to be easy to read so I can track down issues, like when a WordPress plug-in is updated and ruins my HTML or CSS validation. One of the benefits to writing web pages and blog posts using code, IMO, is that you know exactly what is going on.

With this knowledge, you can help Google make the web faster!

Google is out there trying to help us web coders / designers to improve our users experience by making your site as fast as it can be. If you are interested in speeding up the Internet, your website specifically, then you should go check out Google Code.

Google Code Tutorials

From the Google Code Tutorials website;

There are plenty of ways to make websites run faster. In this section, you can discover performance best practices that real web professionals employ in their everyday work. These practices have improved the user experience for millions of users and we hope they are going to be useful for other web developers.

Google Code Downloads

From the Google Code Downloads website;

There are many variables that affect a site’s performance. The tools listed below can help you discover and improve your site. We recommend that you experiment with these tools. Multiple simple changes can improve the experience for your users around the world by several seconds.

So, are you a Coder or a Designer? Do you care about making the web faster?

Post from: Jim Gaudet

Google Code | Let’s Make the Web Faster