Category: Technology

Top 10 Developer Software packages…

Today Bob Balfe posted about his top 10 Open Source developer tools, so I thought I would follow suit. Here are my top 10 open source developer tools not in any particular order: Eclipse – This is a great open source programming tool. With it’s many plug-ins you can develop in just about any language. I use it for Java, PHP, HTML, CSS and SQL programming. As Bob mentioned there are several commercial applications built on top of Eclipse and I thought I would mention another such as XMind TextWrangler – This is a feature rich text editor which has formatting capabilities for most web languages. It’s a great tool to

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Today Bob Balfe posted about his top 10 Open Source developer tools, so I thought I would follow suit. Here are my top 10 open source developer tools not in any particular order: Eclipse – This is a great open source programming tool. With it’s many plug-ins you can develop in just about any language. I use it for Java, PHP, HTML, CSS and SQL programming. As Bob mentioned there are several commercial applications built on top of Eclipse and I thought I would mention another such as XMind TextWrangler – This is a feature rich text editor which has formatting capabilities for most web languages. It’s a great tool to

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Posted in Eclipse, Lotus Notes, Mind Mapping, OpenSource, Technology

Google Abandoning Google Gears?

In an LA Times article Google states We are excited that much of the technology in Gears, including offline support and geolocation APIs, are being incorporated into the HTML5 spec as an open standard supported across browsers, and see that as the logical next step for developers looking to include these features in their websites We’re continuing to support Gears so that nothing breaks for sites that use it. But we expect developers to use HTML5 for these features moving forward as it’s a standards-based approach that will be available across all browsers. I know that they say they will continue to support Gears so that it doesn’t break applications, but

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In an LA Times article Google states We are excited that much of the technology in Gears, including offline support and geolocation APIs, are being incorporated into the HTML5 spec as an open standard supported across browsers, and see that as the logical next step for developers looking to include these features in their websites We’re continuing to support Gears so that nothing breaks for sites that use it. But we expect developers to use HTML5 for these features moving forward as it’s a standards-based approach that will be available across all browsers. I know that they say they will continue to support Gears so that it doesn’t break applications, but

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Posted in Google, Misc, Technology

Google Chrome OS – Preview

I downloaded the Chrome OS image the other day and started playing around with Chrome OS. I installed the image into Virtual Box and it runs fine, I wasn’t so lucky with Parallels. So far, the OS is very minimal, not really a whole lot to play with. It’s basically just the Chrome browser running everything. If you close all the browser tabs, it relaunches the browser. The OS itself is very clean looking and minimalistic, which seeing as how it’s from Google, would you expect anything else? As for the apps, seems that they are only links to web applications but the ability to add more has been disabled, at

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I downloaded the Chrome OS image the other day and started playing around with Chrome OS. I installed the image into Virtual Box and it runs fine, I wasn’t so lucky with Parallels. So far, the OS is very minimal, not really a whole lot to play with. It’s basically just the Chrome browser running everything. If you close all the browser tabs, it relaunches the browser. The OS itself is very clean looking and minimalistic, which seeing as how it’s from Google, would you expect anything else? As for the apps, seems that they are only links to web applications but the ability to add more has been disabled, at

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Posted in Google, Technology

Android 2.0 – Google Maps Navigation

From Lifehacker today they outline the new Google Maps with turn by turn navigation which will be available on all Android powered phones. This is really cool and should help me find my way quite nicely. If it works as well as shown in the video then it’ll be better than the built in GPS in my Wife’s vehicle, as long as you stay in a service area for your phone I assume. Hopefully this was thought of when developing it to at least keep giving directions while disconnected by storing the data on your phone somewhere. Share This:

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From Lifehacker today they outline the new Google Maps with turn by turn navigation which will be available on all Android powered phones. This is really cool and should help me find my way quite nicely. If it works as well as shown in the video then it’ll be better than the built in GPS in my Wife’s vehicle, as long as you stay in a service area for your phone I assume. Hopefully this was thought of when developing it to at least keep giving directions while disconnected by storing the data on your phone somewhere. Share This:

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Posted in Android, Technology

First Glimpse at What the Chrome Browser May Look Like in Chrome OS

From LifeHacker : Over the weekend someone stumbled onto a Chrome browser build for Chrome OS on Google’s servers. We’ve seen several false-alarm looks at Chrome OS, and while it is only the browser, it provides a glimpse into the direction Google’s going. the Chrome browser would likely be the main, basic windowing system for Chrome OS. Here’s the link for the entire post. I thought this was interesting, plus I think what is said about Google Chrome being the basic windowing system for Chrome OS is a new approach, though I’m not sure how well it would work if you needed to do something that you couldn’t/wouldn’t normally do on

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From LifeHacker : Over the weekend someone stumbled onto a Chrome browser build for Chrome OS on Google’s servers. We’ve seen several false-alarm looks at Chrome OS, and while it is only the browser, it provides a glimpse into the direction Google’s going. the Chrome browser would likely be the main, basic windowing system for Chrome OS. Here’s the link for the entire post. I thought this was interesting, plus I think what is said about Google Chrome being the basic windowing system for Chrome OS is a new approach, though I’m not sure how well it would work if you needed to do something that you couldn’t/wouldn’t normally do on

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Posted in Technology

Cool CSS Menu generator

While working on a request for a customer the other day he had the need for a drop down menu in one of the products I developed for him. Now, I’ve attempted to do these menus before without much success. I can get it to work in Firefox, Opera and Safari with no problems, but can never get it to work in IE. So, I started searching the web and came across the CSS Menu Generator. This is a very cool tool to use to come up with a CSS driven drop down menu. You pick your template by clicking the customize link underneath the menu you desire to modify and

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While working on a request for a customer the other day he had the need for a drop down menu in one of the products I developed for him. Now, I’ve attempted to do these menus before without much success. I can get it to work in Firefox, Opera and Safari with no problems, but can never get it to work in IE. So, I started searching the web and came across the CSS Menu Generator. This is a very cool tool to use to come up with a CSS driven drop down menu. You pick your template by clicking the customize link underneath the menu you desire to modify and

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Posted in Technology

TouchPal for Android

I had been looking for a different software keyboard for my new Android powered phone I spoke about the other day. As I mentioned, the delete key was giving me some problems, actually all the keys along the edge of the screen were giving me issues, which is why I was looking for a replacement keyboard. I just happened across TouchPal while browsing the market and I started reading about it. All the reviews I read were positive so I decided to give it a try. I’ve been playing with the differences between TouchPal and the default keyboard and I must say that the TouchPal soft keyboard is great. It’s predicative

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I had been looking for a different software keyboard for my new Android powered phone I spoke about the other day. As I mentioned, the delete key was giving me some problems, actually all the keys along the edge of the screen were giving me issues, which is why I was looking for a replacement keyboard. I just happened across TouchPal while browsing the market and I started reading about it. All the reviews I read were positive so I decided to give it a try. I’ve been playing with the differences between TouchPal and the default keyboard and I must say that the TouchPal soft keyboard is great. It’s predicative

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Posted in Android, Technology

First day with T-Mobile myTouch (aka HTC Magic)

My wife got me a T-Mobile myTouch Saturday night as my Blackberry Pearl was starting to show it’s age (Thanks Baby!). You know, buttons not working intermittently, loose buttons, been dropped and had a cracked screen on the very edge, etc. Not to mention that since I now work from my home I really have no need for for a blackberry anymore, most of my phone usage now is based on just having a phone with a little bit of fun thrown in now and again. I had been wanting to get an iPhone but really didn’t want to deal with AT&T plus we like the service we get from T-Mobile,

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My wife got me a T-Mobile myTouch Saturday night as my Blackberry Pearl was starting to show it’s age (Thanks Baby!). You know, buttons not working intermittently, loose buttons, been dropped and had a cracked screen on the very edge, etc. Not to mention that since I now work from my home I really have no need for for a blackberry anymore, most of my phone usage now is based on just having a phone with a little bit of fun thrown in now and again. I had been wanting to get an iPhone but really didn’t want to deal with AT&T plus we like the service we get from T-Mobile,

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Posted in Technology

XMind – Mind Mapping software

The other day while looking for a Mind Manager replacement I stumbled across XMind. This is an Eclipse based application that has all the features I frequently used in Mind Manager. I had tried using Mind Meister but I just couldn’t get past the way you modify your mind map, it just took too long. But the feature set for XMind is great, it includes many features that you only find in the “pay for” apps. Best of all it’s Open Source. Some of the features I’ve found most useful in starting to migrate to XMind are: Import of Mindjet Mind Manager maps, among others Using the “Summary” connector – This

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The other day while looking for a Mind Manager replacement I stumbled across XMind. This is an Eclipse based application that has all the features I frequently used in Mind Manager. I had tried using Mind Meister but I just couldn’t get past the way you modify your mind map, it just took too long. But the feature set for XMind is great, it includes many features that you only find in the “pay for” apps. Best of all it’s Open Source. Some of the features I’ve found most useful in starting to migrate to XMind are: Import of Mindjet Mind Manager maps, among others Using the “Summary” connector – This

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Posted in Mac, Mind Mapping, OpenSource, Technology

Funny Chat spam (This is not spam…)

The below chat came across my screen stating that it isn’t spam. Let’s see, it’s from someone I don’t know and who isn’t in my contact list, I didn’t ask for the interruption and it’s trying to get me to try a product. I would classify this as spam. Some people. Share This:

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The below chat came across my screen stating that it isn’t spam. Let’s see, it’s from someone I don’t know and who isn’t in my contact list, I didn’t ask for the interruption and it’s trying to get me to try a product. I would classify this as spam. Some people. Share This:

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Posted in Technology