companion

Apr 27 2009

Web Developer First-Aid

Brought to you by: James

wde Web Developer First Aid

The Web Developer Extension is an extension which adds popular wed development tools to Firefox. If you’re a fan of compatibility and/or CSS, then this extension is a must as a both a companion for your current web development application and as first-aid for later. Here are some of the more prominent features.

standards Web Developer First Aid

Quickly check for standards compliance.

jserrors Web Developer First Aid

Quickly check for javascript errors.

editcss Web Developer First Aid

Edit CSS and check results before applying the changes. This a must for almost all CSS users. It removes the tedious task of repetitively applying and checking your changes, which can really confuse and/or annoy your readers if you have a popular site.

outline Web Developer First Aid

Outline almost any field.

resolution Web Developer First Aid

View your site at any resolution.

disable Web Developer First Aid

Disable almost any site feature.

As already stated, this extension is a must for almost any web designer. If you still don’t believe me, try it for yourself.

If you’re just looking to get started in the wonderful world of web design, then take a look at NVU.

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Apr 27 2009

mini Speed Backup

Don’t toss that old Mac or PC yet. Yes, I know you’d be hard pressed to fit a slice of processed cheese in the tiny case of the Mac mini, but expansion isn’t limited to the mini’s tiny interior.

In this tutorial, we’ll take advantage of the speed and power of Firewire to turn your mini in to a fast, powerful backup machine. And we’ll do it using hardware you didn’t even realize you had.

minibackup mini Speed Backup

Hardware

For this tutorial you’ll need one of the following:

  • If you have an old internal hard drive from your old Mac or PC, you’ll want to grab a Firewire hard drive enclosure, like MacAlly’s PHR-100AF 3.5 inch enclosure (MSRP is $69, but Amazon has it for $37 and free shipping)
  • Don’t have an old drive? You have two options. Buy a drive on sale and get an enclosure or just get a Firewire drive like LaCie’s slick (and reasonably priced) Porsche 80 GB or 160 GB Firewire drive for $115 and $144 at Amazon (again, shipped free). I have the 80 and it’s great.

Either way, you’ll have an external companion to your mini that is almost as stylish as the mini itself.

Salvaging the Drive

Now, unless you opted for a new drive you’ll have some surgery to do. The regular warnings are applicable. I’m not responsible for damage, blah blah blah. That said, this is cake. If you’re de-braining a PC tower, you have six screws to get the case off, then you’ll find the old drive under the CD-ROM held in a bracket. If you’re digging in a Mac (like an old CRT iMac) you search may be harder, but again, you’ll find the drive under the optical drive. Unplug it (DON’T cut any wires) and stick it in your arm-pit (kidding).

Now, all you have to do is put the drive in the enclosure, plug in the ribbon and power cable and close it up. So, what do you do with this thing? This is where the fun begins.

Software

With a Firewire drive you can not only back up your system quickly, you can create bootable backups of your OS X install. Unlike USB 2.0, you can boot your Mac directly from your Firewire drive (hold down the Option key at startup) to recover from problems.

I use Carbon Copy Cloner, an excellent shareware application from Mike Bombich ($5). Super Duper from Shirt Pocket adds some extra features, with the same base functionality for $20. Either will work for out purposes.

ccc mini Speed Backup

As you can see, were going to back up our main system to a Firewire drive. This will give us a full backup that, in a pinch, we’ll be able to boot from. CCC will backup any of your mounted volumes, and can archive OS 9 and Windows installs. Even the drive icon gets backed up.

Now, if your Firewire drive is big enough to hold you backup and then some, you might consider partitioning it. An extra few gigabytes can become home to your iTunes music library or other media files and free up space on your boot disk.

With a bootable backup, you’re ready to live dangerously.

Brian

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Apr 27 2009

Corporate Contacts

This week we’ll take a look at freeware that will keep you in touch with your business contacts via Thunderbird, Firefox and free chat networks.

LinkedIn Firefox Companion

Are you LinkedIn? This free webservice can connect you with potential employers and partners. With this extension you have quick access to your account allowing you to search your contacts, recent pages you’ve viewed on LinkedIn and even inside job postings.

BitWise IM

Sure there’s chat, but BitWise cross-platform chat which includes a secure business option and a whiteboard solution.

bitwiseim Corporate Contacts

You can draw, type and upload graphics for chatters to view and edit on Mac, Linux and Windows.

Plaxo Toolbar for Thunderbird

Plaxo gives you web-access to your contacts, calendar and tasks and features an auto-update feature for your contacts that are also members of Plaxo.

plaxotb Corporate Contacts

The toolbar for Thunderbird lets you sync your Thunderbird contacts with your Plaxo account. A word of warning – constant requests of your contacts to update their info can be considered spamming. Use the update feature VERY sparingly (especially if I am on your contacts list).

Peerflix

Take a break from work, and swap DVDs with your peers. This low-cost alternative to NetFlix allows you to list and swap DVDs you already own. DVDs are a buck each to order and the first one’s free.

Thanks for joining me for another episode. I’ll be back next week with more free downloads!

Brian

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