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Thursday, April 15. 2010
20Couch - A new web-based Twitter Client
Note: My review is of version 1.02, and the current version is already at either 1.06 or 1.07, fixing a few of the issues I had described in my discussion.
I've had the luxury recently to test out an application recently built to make it easier to follow along with our Twitter conversations. It's taken me about 4 weeks to finally get my review up on the web. Why? Because video/screen capture recording programs suck, that's why. After trying 3 different applications and trying to fix the video from one of them after-the-fact (which I took 2 days alone trying to fix it), I gave up and downloaded the trial of Camtasia Studio. Ironically, Camtasia crashed on me during post-processing. Thankfully I saved the project moments before.
Anyway... I did a video review so that I could talk freely for as long as I wanted without posting 20 odd pictures and causing huge scrolling. Unfortunately because the video was 20 minutes long, I couldn't upload it to Youtube (I couldn't get Camtasia to recognize my Youtube account information to upload it for me anyway), so it's currently an external link hosted on my own website.
Check it out here!
Update: I'm happy to announce that since I've skipped 5 minor versions (1.02 -> 1.07), 20Couch now has the ability to mark posts as read by a set timeframe:
- all
- older than 6 hours
- older than a day
- older than 2 days
- older than a week
Still no individual markings, but this is loads better. Also, this week was a code-storm week for Matt, developing one minor release each day of the week. Thanks for all of the hard work, Matt. Might I suggest some documentation on plugin and skin support?
I've had the luxury recently to test out an application recently built to make it easier to follow along with our Twitter conversations. It's taken me about 4 weeks to finally get my review up on the web. Why? Because video/screen capture recording programs suck, that's why. After trying 3 different applications and trying to fix the video from one of them after-the-fact (which I took 2 days alone trying to fix it), I gave up and downloaded the trial of Camtasia Studio. Ironically, Camtasia crashed on me during post-processing. Thankfully I saved the project moments before.
Anyway... I did a video review so that I could talk freely for as long as I wanted without posting 20 odd pictures and causing huge scrolling. Unfortunately because the video was 20 minutes long, I couldn't upload it to Youtube (I couldn't get Camtasia to recognize my Youtube account information to upload it for me anyway), so it's currently an external link hosted on my own website.
Check it out here!
Update: I'm happy to announce that since I've skipped 5 minor versions (1.02 -> 1.07), 20Couch now has the ability to mark posts as read by a set timeframe:
- all
- older than 6 hours
- older than a day
- older than 2 days
- older than a week
Still no individual markings, but this is loads better. Also, this week was a code-storm week for Matt, developing one minor release each day of the week. Thanks for all of the hard work, Matt. Might I suggest some documentation on plugin and skin support?
Tuesday, September 1. 2009
CSS Inline Edit for IE6 (and above)
I use IE6 in my primary installation for testing against web browser compatibility. Because IE6 has so many more issues than the other browsers, I leave it without the "required" updates for Microsoft. I have Virtual PC installations for IE7 and IE8. Typically, once IE6 and Firefox compatibility is reached, fixing IE7 and IE8 to look and behave as expected is a breeze (read: typically).
The one thing that is a hassle, is the lack of a good development tool for IE6 to mess around with CSS style definitions and see them updated in the document in real time. Firefox has the Web Development Toolbar, or Firebug - both do a similar job in this regard. If you need to add a selector, then WDT is your choice, if you just need to set some new attributes, I prefer the interface of Firebug...regardless of your choice, they both work very well.
IE6's Developer Toolbar helps us out, but it just does not get us quite to the level that would be very helpful, and I have noticed at times that options I have set do not actually render as expected (I cannot recall what they were, sorry Microsoft developers!). I just now found two tools that supposedly help out with this.
DebugBar v5.x is a tool that gives a very nice and neat interface for seeing exactly how Internet Explorer sees your CSS/JS and the DOM. It doesn't let you edit documents live, but it may be useful in seeing how it interacts with your site. However, beyond this information (and the handy "Drag to Target" identifier), I didn't find this option all that useful for live editing. It still is kind of handy though, so I thought I'd mention it.
More importantly, I found a slightly less "smooth" (interface-wise) toolbar that will allow me to edit the CSS of the document in real time. This works almost the same way Firefox's Web Development Toolbar's "Edit CSS" option works. You can get this tool, "DOM Helper", at the following address:
http://www.hairy-spider.com/2006/02/24/AnnouncingDOMHelperANewAndImprovedCSSEditor.aspx. However, I found that the installation command given did not work for my version of IE. In order to get it working, I had to also register the other included DLL in the zip file. But, lo and behold, I now have inline CSS editing in Internet Explorer! YAY!
Note: The author of DOM Helper also has a tool that lets you modify scripts in real time, however getting it installed would require a recompilation of source code that you would have to do yourself. This is beyond my needs, and therefore, beyond my ability to assist with such requests - fair warning, if you ask I won't be able to help with that.
The one thing that is a hassle, is the lack of a good development tool for IE6 to mess around with CSS style definitions and see them updated in the document in real time. Firefox has the Web Development Toolbar, or Firebug - both do a similar job in this regard. If you need to add a selector, then WDT is your choice, if you just need to set some new attributes, I prefer the interface of Firebug...regardless of your choice, they both work very well.
IE6's Developer Toolbar helps us out, but it just does not get us quite to the level that would be very helpful, and I have noticed at times that options I have set do not actually render as expected (I cannot recall what they were, sorry Microsoft developers!). I just now found two tools that supposedly help out with this.
DebugBar v5.x is a tool that gives a very nice and neat interface for seeing exactly how Internet Explorer sees your CSS/JS and the DOM. It doesn't let you edit documents live, but it may be useful in seeing how it interacts with your site. However, beyond this information (and the handy "Drag to Target" identifier), I didn't find this option all that useful for live editing. It still is kind of handy though, so I thought I'd mention it.
More importantly, I found a slightly less "smooth" (interface-wise) toolbar that will allow me to edit the CSS of the document in real time. This works almost the same way Firefox's Web Development Toolbar's "Edit CSS" option works. You can get this tool, "DOM Helper", at the following address:
http://www.hairy-spider.com/2006/02/24/AnnouncingDOMHelperANewAndImprovedCSSEditor.aspx. However, I found that the installation command given did not work for my version of IE. In order to get it working, I had to also register the other included DLL in the zip file. But, lo and behold, I now have inline CSS editing in Internet Explorer! YAY!
Note: The author of DOM Helper also has a tool that lets you modify scripts in real time, however getting it installed would require a recompilation of source code that you would have to do yourself. This is beyond my needs, and therefore, beyond my ability to assist with such requests - fair warning, if you ask I won't be able to help with that.
Tuesday, June 17. 2008
Firefox Download Day
Today is the release of Firefox version 3.0. The world over plans to celebrate the release by pledging to download the browser in an attempt to create a Guinness Book of World Records entry for most downloads of a single product on its release day. Although there are no other holders for this entry, the Mozilla Corporation intend to beat Firefox 2's record set a few years back. Join in if you are a Firefox user!
In other news, Opera v9.5 is out, and is sporting some fancy CSS3 additions!
In other news, Opera v9.5 is out, and is sporting some fancy CSS3 additions!
Wednesday, January 16. 2008
Microsoft System Restore and Apache
Just a note in case anyone else has this problem...
DO NOT RUN SYSTEM RESTORE IF YOU'RE RUNNING AN APACHE SERVER ON YOUR MACHINE AS A SERVICE. Apparently, Windows perceives the document files as system files when run as a service and will also undo any changes on these files... I have yet to find the saved/backed up version of my newer files to get back without undoing my restore. It was bad enough the restore messed up my Symantec Client installation; that took a good hour or so to fix (uninstall, clean registry, remove services, restart 6 times, NoNav, reinstall, restart, etc...).
I thought this might be a nice warning for anyone else.
Guess you have to backup your webserver files before using the system restore (only when you run Apache as a service).
Update and Correction: It wasn't until after I was unable to find my updated folder structure (searched on a specific folder name) and ran an undo on my restoration that I realized...the files were still gone! ...or more correctly, they weren't gone, but for some ungodly and unknown reason the folder structure was migrated back to the way it was originally (when I ran the restore) and System Restore simply GUESSED (using some algorithm of sorts) where it thought all my files belonged. Upon my "undo", it was not restored to the way it was. I almost broke a ton of things around me until I noticed some of my files were just in the wrongly named directory. Either way, I still strongly suggest backing up webserver files before doing a system restore - especially if you've done any folder modifications recently. (I know, you should back up your stuff anyway, but what the heck...not gonna do a full system backup before a system restore from a week ago when it's not supposed to touch non-system files or folders anyway.)
DO NOT RUN SYSTEM RESTORE IF YOU'RE RUNNING AN APACHE SERVER ON YOUR MACHINE AS A SERVICE. Apparently, Windows perceives the document files as system files when run as a service and will also undo any changes on these files... I have yet to find the saved/backed up version of my newer files to get back without undoing my restore. It was bad enough the restore messed up my Symantec Client installation; that took a good hour or so to fix (uninstall, clean registry, remove services, restart 6 times, NoNav, reinstall, restart, etc...).
I thought this might be a nice warning for anyone else.
Guess you have to backup your webserver files before using the system restore (only when you run Apache as a service).Update and Correction: It wasn't until after I was unable to find my updated folder structure (searched on a specific folder name) and ran an undo on my restoration that I realized...the files were still gone! ...or more correctly, they weren't gone, but for some ungodly and unknown reason the folder structure was migrated back to the way it was originally (when I ran the restore) and System Restore simply GUESSED (using some algorithm of sorts) where it thought all my files belonged. Upon my "undo", it was not restored to the way it was. I almost broke a ton of things around me until I noticed some of my files were just in the wrongly named directory. Either way, I still strongly suggest backing up webserver files before doing a system restore - especially if you've done any folder modifications recently. (I know, you should back up your stuff anyway, but what the heck...not gonna do a full system backup before a system restore from a week ago when it's not supposed to touch non-system files or folders anyway.)
Monday, August 27. 2007
Thank you, Microsoft! Thank you, Adobe!
As is common on the wide open internet, there are often simple online contests that people may enter to win some sort of software (or other) prize, and it can be as simple as signing up for a free service, entering an email, coming up with a catchy comment in a blog post, etc...
Microsoft recently had a contest that I was made aware of due to having a specific type of profile with my Microsoft Live! account. In order to enter the contest, all that had to be done was either subscribe to the Microsoft MSDN Flash Newsletter, or customize my MSDN Flash Newsletter. Since I was already subscribed to the newsletter and wanted to enter the contest (the grand prize was a trip to New Zealand), I decided a customization was in order...
Well, a couple weeks ago, I got the following in the mail:
...and of course, there was also a thin cardboard CD booklet that contained my very own Vista OS. I can also use this to upgrade to Vista Ultimate (which I plan to do, I've seen Business Edition, there's no Solitaire!) later on. I wasn't originally planning on upgrading when I created my new computer, but thanks to Microsoft's contest, I now will not only install Vista, but they'll be getting another ~$170 from me for the Vista Ultimate upgrade. Win/Win! Thanks, Microsoft!
Adobe: I'm in love with Photoshop CS3. I got my copy of the Adobe Creative Suite CS3 (why do they call it Creative Suite CS...seems a bit monotonous) Web Premium. So far I've only tried out Photoshop and Acrobat (though not purposefully with Acrobat, it loaded a PDF by default). Regardless, I was able to learn at least 5 new things right from the start to make my photographs look even more stunning than they were. I'm very pleased. It's much better than my old Photoshop version 5.1 that I was using. So: Thank you, Adobe! I'll be sure to try out the rest of the suite (and get my money's worth)!
Microsoft recently had a contest that I was made aware of due to having a specific type of profile with my Microsoft Live! account. In order to enter the contest, all that had to be done was either subscribe to the Microsoft MSDN Flash Newsletter, or customize my MSDN Flash Newsletter. Since I was already subscribed to the newsletter and wanted to enter the contest (the grand prize was a trip to New Zealand), I decided a customization was in order...
Well, a couple weeks ago, I got the following in the mail:
Enclosed is your copy of Microsoft Windows Vista™ Business.
Congratulations again on being a winner in the Microsoft MSDN Flash Promotion sweepstakes for signing up and/or customizing your MSDN newsletter.
Thank you for being a part of the MSDN community!
Sincerely,
Mike Hartmann
Microsoft Corporation
...and of course, there was also a thin cardboard CD booklet that contained my very own Vista OS. I can also use this to upgrade to Vista Ultimate (which I plan to do, I've seen Business Edition, there's no Solitaire!) later on. I wasn't originally planning on upgrading when I created my new computer, but thanks to Microsoft's contest, I now will not only install Vista, but they'll be getting another ~$170 from me for the Vista Ultimate upgrade. Win/Win! Thanks, Microsoft!
Adobe: I'm in love with Photoshop CS3. I got my copy of the Adobe Creative Suite CS3 (why do they call it Creative Suite CS...seems a bit monotonous) Web Premium. So far I've only tried out Photoshop and Acrobat (though not purposefully with Acrobat, it loaded a PDF by default). Regardless, I was able to learn at least 5 new things right from the start to make my photographs look even more stunning than they were. I'm very pleased. It's much better than my old Photoshop version 5.1 that I was using. So: Thank you, Adobe! I'll be sure to try out the rest of the suite (and get my money's worth)!