C#, VB.Net, XML and mass consumption of coffee.

FireFox has been my browser of choice for quite some time. I am the kind of guy who likes customization. There is a certain ways my computer has to be set up, its just the kind of person I am. Perhaps for me the most important feature of FireFox would be plug-ins. This is the best tool for customization of your browser. Now, I have been impressed with newest Internet Explorer, add-ons are step in the right direction, but at this point there are no add-ons to help with coding, but when it comes to FireFox, well, let me just list some:

Most obvious - Web Developer – lets just say that this is a must have if you are coding for web. List of features is just too long and I am just to lazy to list everything, lets just say without it any kind of coding for web would just take too long.

Firebug - simply put one of the best tools for debugging your web site. Add YSlow and get in depth analysis of what is going on with your project.

Pencil – free and quite powerful tool for UI prototyping and diagrams, try it out. It won’t replace industry standard software, I for one prefer Visio or coffee shop napkins and black pen, depends on where the idea strikes me, but if you need to do something quick, Pencil would do just fine.

FireFTP I can’t really count number of times I needed to ftp something quickly. FireFTP serves just that purpose. I can’t really recommend it for transferring bunch of files, keeps on timing out, but then again, I have not really played with all settings to affect that.

Codetch - an IDE like plugin which lets you work with your files in a manner similar to Dreamweaver. Once again, for a full blown project I would use a stand alone IDE, most likely Visual Studio or Komodo Edit, but for a quick change Codetch does the job.

There are more, much more. These are the things that I use quite often. Now, with all that great functionality, would I consider FireFox as a development platform? The answer is no. There are tools that are designed specifically for development purposes, while FireFox is a browser. It might be handy to keep a jump drive with overloaded FireFox installed handy for some quick coding while your machine is unavailable, but for full blow development project, there are tools that can do the job much better.

Tweet, tweet, tweeeeeeet just keep the 140 char limit in mind. Looks like everyone and their grandma has drank the kool-aid on this twitter trend. I know this is supposed to be cool and useful, and at times it is, but this article is a prime example of why twitter is complete waste of time and effort for the most parts. Jennifer Von Grove goes on to explore some extraordinary examples of how to use twitter, honestly the use of the word “extraordinary” in this article is as appropriate as describing a process of passing a kidney stone using the same term. Let’s look at those, shall we? Read more…

At work I design and code tools that work with data. This data is collected from various sources, mainly people who don’t mind being interrupted at dinner time when data collectors call and ask questions. The issue with this approach in my view is that the data itself can’t be considered 100% reliable. After all, we tend to exaggerate some aspects of our lives even in front of a complete stranger. Human condition; makes you feel more important I guess.

One of the key things that analysts who work with this data are constantly looking for would be up-to-date information. Let’s face it; some things are fluid, changing all the time. If you would want to keep track of the population of a major city, lets say New York, how would you go about doing it? Keep on updating the data manually as new results come in? Have an intern whose job it would be to check daily if those numbers have changed? Well, if you can afford interns, then I guess you can afford some kind of integrated system build based on latest statistical data, but what about the rest of us?

Ever changing data is what sets apart current information from outdated. Consider that some heavy decisions are based on this data; I would imagine that it is important to always be up-to-speed. I am not going to say that GoogleLookup is THE solution, it is A solution, but this is a step in the right direction. Makes me want to consider giving Google Docs another look, despite the worries I have about having my documents indexed.

To me things like that are what make on-line based office solutions more attractive to businesses and simple users. Have a look at documentation, try this for yourself – all I can say, I am thoroughly impressed. For complete list of functions click here.

Have 10 invites left for vark.com, if you are interested, contact me. All I need is your first name, your email and 3 fields that you consider yourself to be an expert in. This is a very interesting concept, might as well give it a try.

Update – all invites are gone now.

I came across this video which gives a brief overview of Script# from Gojko Adzic . I liked the idea for the product – take C# code and translate it into a JavaScript, I guess this is in responce to Google Web Toolkit, trying to establish something similar on the .Net side of things. What I found useful is ability to use Visual Studio to do your work, let’s face it, Visual Studio is a great IDE which is full of neat things that can help developers being more productive. The tool is not really an open source, but apparently is free. This is not a short video, and i feel that the intro is way too long, but still a good thing to watch. Enjoy. Read more…

This has been a quick and strange announcement.  I had read about it in the morning – actually watched that whole set of comics as I found the whole concept of explaining a new product through use of popuralized medium such as comics highly interesting.  First thing I thought of – what about FireFox – after all Google and Mozilla have been working together for quite some time.  I do understand the intention of Google to actually go and do their own thing – sometimes you have to do this to satisfy the need.  

As I was about to go home, I got a link to download the Chrome in it’s beta form.  Well, I have to admit – thins thing is great.  At least so far I am very happy with what they have done.  UI is simple and to the point – at first I thought having your tabs above the address bar is bizarre, but after couple of minutes I realized that this is where they are supposed to be – after all that’s a tab, and it has it’s own address bar and the rest.  By placing it above the rest of the window, that whole point is just emphasized.  According to the comics, the main thing was having multi threaded browser, where javascript would not lock up your browser, and I guess they’ve got that figured out.  There are couple of sites out there where I had to switch to IE just to view the content, as FireFox would take forever to load it – with Chrome this is not an issue.  Chrome is supposed to be a great platform for use with web apps as static HTML is a thing of the past, and that is a great point.  Web is not going anywhere, complexity of web apps are growing exponentially and will continue to do so in the future, we need to have a new browser to accommodate these trends.

There are couple of things that I think could have been done better, but after all this is beta, and I am sure the product will be improved.  For instance – after install I had to go through the dialog on importing settings from FireFox.  Passwords and usernames are fine, but my bookmarks from FireFox are nowhere to be found, although to be fair I have not really conducted extensive search.

Overall Chrome is great and it will become even better as it will mature

I came across this and I could not agree with the message more. It is a royal pain in the back side to keep all those outdated browsers in mind when creating web sites. Everyone will benefit from upgrading. It’s not just cosmetic changes that are being released.