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Top 10 Web Development Cheats/Tools/Tutorials/Software That I Can’t Live Without

// November 29th, 2009 // No Comments » // Web Marketing, Web Technology

I’m a web administrator by profession and a web geek by nature.  I don’t know everything, in fact, I barely know anything.  But, there’s some sites and software that I’ve ran across that have made my life so much easier.  They make my job quicker, easier, and less tedious.  Some are paid, but totally justified.  You will notice none of my links are affiliate links or garbage like that.  I’m listing things because I like them.  Nothing more, nothing less.

This list excludes my staples… because they’re obvious.  Before I get on with my list, my staples should be shared:  Adobe Dreamweaver CS4, Adobe Photoshop CS4, Globalscape CuteFTP, PuTTY SSH, Microsoft Expression Studio, phpSQLadmin.

Here’s some web dev tools that kick the llama’s ass:

1. Artisteer - A WYSIWYG CMS template builder.  Not terribly clean, but great for little contract jobs or quick personal sites.  The premium version comes in at 130 bucks, but can build Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, Blogger, and DotNetNuke.  As far as I know it’s the only WYSIWYG builder with a full feature set for these CMSs.  It’s pretty sweet.  Again, not recommended for professional sites or anything, but for a quick job, you really can’t beat it.  I can bang out a WordPress template in 10 minutes
2. Web Form Factory – I hate making forms.  I can do it off the top of my head, but it pisses me off.  Mostly because I inevitably capitalize a variable.  The Form Factory is awesome, and if you can code, you can strip out their advertisements.
3. OpenKapow – This may be replaced when Google Wave hits the mainstream… but it’s a great way to deploy personal homepages in about… hmmm… 5 seconds  Just an aggregator for widgets, feeds, and all sorts of cool little features.
4. A1 Sitemap Generator – Alright, I know what you’re thinking. There’s a billion sitemap generators out there and Google even has their own.  Hear me out.  Google is a pain in the ASS to install.  PAIN.  Once it gets wider support and utilizes something more than the Python platform, we can talk.  The A1 Sitemap Generator is a great on-the-fly solution to generate your sitemap file in all applicable formats, robots.txt file, everything.  It even uploads it for you.  Plug in your data and minimize it.  An hour or so later, you’re done.  Gotta love it.
5. WebCEO - GREAT analytics software. It provides competitor analysis and individual keyword ranking and change tracking.  Output is a nice, clean, graphical PDF.
6. Axure - Wireframing software.  An associate turned me onto it a few months ago and I’ve fallen in love.  It’s like Visio for web development on steroids.  It even outputs HTML for those customers who need to click their wireframes to “get it.”
7. Table2CSS - Want to be super lazy?  Throw something together in Photoshop, export the ugly table right from Photoshop, then pop it into the Table2CSS converter.  Bam… PSD to CSS in 20 minutes.  Heh, lazy, yes.  Will it have to be modded?  Yes.  But dear Lord is it quick.  It’s bad practice, and horrible to do though.  Don’t do it if your reputation is on the line or anything
8. MiniAjax - Quick, free Ajax scripts.  No one LIKES coding Ajax and your needs are mostly the same as everyone else’s  Check this site out.  It’s an awesome resource!
9. jQuery - I might… might… be pretty close to burning a small calf in honor of jQuery.  It’s a Javascript library that lets you do more CLEANER.  Building on this, jQuery UI is pretty hawt as well. It’s like a GUI for jQuery.  Limited, but nice in some situations.
10. DailyColorScheme - Keep your color themes interesting by adding the feed from this site to your reading list.

Internet Meme of the Week: Charlie the Unicorn

// September 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // Internet Meme

Hehe… if you weren’t twisted yet, this takes it to a new level!

SHUUUUUUNNNNNNN the non-believer!

Changing My All-In-ONE Im client: A Review of What’s Out There

// June 26th, 2009 // No Comments » // Computers, Geek, Web Technology

After almost 5 years of using Cerulean Studio’s Trillian, I’ve decided to make a change.  I even purchased the professional addition of Trillian, but I’m utterly sick of the CONSTANT dropping connection.  It drops the connection no matter which network I am on (work, home, Dad’s, public)… given, it restores it.  But it’s a real pain in the ass.  And I think there are better options out. 

Digsby

The first one which really appealed to me was Digsby.  I went to the site, looked pretty hot!  Downloaded it,  virus scan came back clean, go to install and I pause on the terms of service page.  Woah woah woah… It mentions some “I agree to the terms of blah blah blah installer.”  So I click on the terms and find the following:

2. Delivery of Advertising. By accessing the Sites and downloading the Content, you hereby grant us permission to display promotional information, advertisements, and offers for third party products or services (collectively "Advertising"). The Advertising may include, without limitation, content, offers for products or services, data, links, articles, graphic or video messages, text, software, music, sound, graphics or other materials or services. The timing, frequency, placement and extent of the Advertising changes is determined in our sole discretion. You further grant us permission to collect and use certain aggregate information in accord with our Privacy Policy.

 

3. MyFreeze Blog Posts. W3i allows you to post links and a personalized message to your existing blog. You must comply with your blog provider’s terms and conditions. You further agree that your personalized message will not contain any material that: (i) is indecent, misleading, defamatory, libelous, obscene, pornographic, hate speech, infringing, or otherwise objectionable; (ii) violates the copyright, trademark or other intellectual property rights of any other person; or (iii) is libelous, or an invasion of privacy or publicity rights or any other third party rights. W3i has no control over the material you post to your blog. Further, W3i assumes no responsibility or liability for the material you post and no obligation to monitor your posts.

Oh no, no, no you didn’t!!!!  Cancel the install… not even an option for consideration, unfortunately.  What pissed me off more as I saw lots of great consumer reviews for Digsby, and the install is deceptive.  No checkbox for the terms and conditions… you can just “Next” through it by clicking Agree, which is strategically placed in the lower right corner where the Next button usually is. 

If you click “Why is this free” in the lower left, you get this:

After clicking "Accept" you will be offered additional useful, quality software provided by our reputable partners. Your support of these software offers allows us to provide you with Free access to our software. All offers we present are 100% optional.

While that may very well be a portion of what makes it free, the MyFreeze Blog Posts and the “placement of advertisements.”   While this product may very well only offer you software during the installation, their terms and conditions state that they can deliver adds to you at ANY time.  And they can use your browsing information to “improve their product” or whatever the hell excuse companies are giving these days. 

The timing, frequency, placement and extent of the Advertising changes is determined in our sole discretion. You further grant us permission to collect and use certain aggregate information in accord with our Privacy Policy

Despite how pretty Digsby is, I had to cancel out the install at this point.  If they would revise their terms to specify that ads are only delivered during installation, I’d reconsider.  Unfortunately, their Terms and Conditions allow them a free license to deliver pop-ups, spyware, and anything else they want.

Pidgin

When compared with people who have been in the All-In-One game forever like Trillian, Pidgin seems relatively new.  It has a huge advantage over Trillian and Digsby, however:  IT IS OPEN SOURCE and covered by the GPL.  This means not only is the code transparent so you can see what you are installing, but the terms and conditions are really standard and the product is not ad-supported.

Not only has Pidgin stayed active for me, but it supports GoogleTalk!  Trillian does provide support for GoogleTalk but through the Jabber network, which is unreliable on its best day.  The interface is not super pretty or clean… BUT, it is fairly comprehensive.  

My connection is staying solid and the messages are going out and coming in very reliably.  But, so far, I have one major gripe… I do not think this will prevent me from using it, but it is a rather relevant complaint.  I cannot send pictures to users on MSN, Yahoo!, or Google Talk!  In fact, the only image sending it seems to support is through AIM. 

I’m not big on sending images except when I am at work, so again, I do not know if this is a deal breaker for  me.  One of the other nice features it allows me to do is check my email for every network.  This is especially nice for Google… I have 6 Gmail accounts with different identities and it is nice to see all of them at once, which is a feature GTalk itself does not even have.

Pidgin supports the following networks:   AIM, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber/XMPP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, QQ, Lotus Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE, MySpaceIM, and Zephyr.

The publically available API enables people to develop plug-ins for Pidgin.  There are literally hundreds available.

I think I’m going to stick with it for a while and see what happens…

Sims 3 Cheats

// June 5th, 2009 // No Comments » // Computers, Geek, Sims

Haven’t had a bunch of time to play it yet due to the crazy work schedule… but because I looked for hours… here they are!

Cheats
Cheat Console:
During gameplay press [ctrl]+[shift]+C to open the cheat console and type this in:

testingcheatsenabled – testing cheats on objects

After enabling the test cheats, you can use any of these cheats:

Kaching – 1,000 more Simoleons
Motherlode – 50,000 more Simoleons
moveObjects [on or off] – Hand tool can move any object in buy and build modes
constrainFloorElevation – Allows terrain adjustments regardless of objects/Sims/etc on them
disableSnappingToSlotsOnAlt [on or off] – When on, ojects will not snap to slots while holding ALT
enablellamas [on or off] – unknown result
fadeObjects [on or off] – Toggles whether objects fade when the camera gets close to them. Does not affect Sims
fullscreen [on or off] – Turns on / off fullscreen
hideHeadlineEffects [on or off] – Shows or hides talk/thought balloons above Sim heads
jokePlease – Prints a random joke to the console
moveObjects [on or off] – Removes limitations for placing / moving objects
quit – Exits the game
resetSim – Returns Sims to a safe, neutral state at their home location
slowMotionViz <0-8> – Puts visuals in slow motion. 0 = normal, 8=slowest. Does not affect the speed of time in-game
unlockOutfits [on or off] – This must be entered before going into CAS. Shows career outfits and service uniforms
testingCheatsenabled [true or false] – Enables testing cheats

My Top Ten Daily Essential Products (for today)

// June 5th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Geek, Lists

10. Laptop – Compaq CQ50 that is old but is JUST the way I like it and does what I need it to do.
9. Fructis Curl Construct Mouse – Oh god the agony of my frizz without!
8. Visa Check Card – Literally, I lose this thing and my world crubles around me.
7. Nintendo DS – for those boring moments
6. Diet Lipton Green Tea with Citrus – I’d bathe in it if I could
5. Cheddar Goldfish – I seriously eat them everyday
4. 32GB iPod Touch – <3 <3 <3 My music, apps, passwords, everything
3. My lovely lovable desktop computer
2. Google Reader – I’m only 3 days into it and I find it hard to imagine my life without it
1. Blackberry Curve 8330 – How I ever functioned, I cannot understand. It’s my email, IM, GPS, communication, cell phone, calendar, everything I need to be productive.