A while back, I wrote an article on the importance of cloud computing. A few people posted some good comments and feedback, but last night I got such a long and well thought out comment that I thought it deserved it’s own post. So, without further adieu, here are the thoughts of Daniel Kadosh. Read the rest of this entry »
Just wanted to write a quick post to let everyone know I haven’t lost interest in writing or fallen off the face of the planet… I’ve just been incredibly busy with other things. Also, frankly, I can’t think of anything compelling to write about. I used to think it was important to try and get articles up at some set frequency, but I find that the quality of my stuff falls short if I’m forcing myself to do so. Anyway, I’m basically now of the mind that I’ll write about stuff whenever I come up with something… could be twice a week, could be once in three months. Part of my major hang-up is that I don’t like to write articles that cover topics that have been thoroughly covered elsewhere, unless I’ve got something new to add to the mix.
Now, all that being said, I’m more than happy to take suggestions from anyone if they’ve got them. If there’s something you’d like to know more about, or you just have a cool idea for an article, drop me a line in the comments. Otherwise, stay tuned for new stuff whenever I think of it 
Also, you can always follow me on twitter, or subscribe to my RSS feed as I post various interesting links and randomness in both places.
I know this doesn’t really fit into the general theme of this site, but I thought this was really cool and wanted to share it anyway. Not much else to say, so enjoy!
Ubuntu 8.10 has a massive bug in the xorg window code at the moment. Originally reported in November when 8.10 shipped, the lack of action on this is kind of unusual for the generally excellent Linux community.
However I’ve worked out a minimally intrusive hacktastic workaround.
Read the rest of this entry »
Just a quick post letting everyone know that we’re asking the developer community for their input on the Aptana Studio…. what do you like, what do you hate, and what do you want. Per the survey page:
We want to make Aptana Studio better for YOU.
To do that, we need to understand what you do, how you work, what you like about Studio, and what drives you nuts. Whether you’re a regular Studio user or you’ve only tried it once or twice, we want to know what’s working for you and what’s not, what features you can’t find, and what features you can’t live without.
From now until January 10, you can help us determine our direction for the next year and beyond by taking a few minutes to give us your thoughts.
Take a few minutes and share your thoughts:
2009 Aptana User Survey
Welcome to Gen X Design. The name’s a little corny, I know, but it’s one of those things I’ve used since I was a kid.
Anyway, I built this site for me (and some friends) to share their thoughts and ideas. I love all things web 2.0, shiny icons, and gradients. I live in the San Francisco Bay area, work for eMeter, and am sometimes available for contract work.
Mozilla announced a new feature for add-ons today: collections. It also looks like they’re getting the ball rolling with several useful collections, such as the Web Developer Collection. It includes all sorts of goodness like Firebug, ySlow, GreaseMonkey, ColorZilla, and many more. Well worth a quick visit.
FireFox Web Developer Collection
David Walsh has put together a really handy plugin for MooTools called ScrollSpy. What impressed me the most was the automatic display of a “Return to Top” link on your page once you’ve scrolled beyond a certain boundary. There are also a handful of other neat demos worth checking out. Sounds simple, but if you think about it, there are tons of great applications for this plugin.
http://davidwalsh.name/scrollspy
It’s been said a thousand times I’m sure, but picking the right JavaScript framework is a pain. There are all sorts of biased arguments for one vs. another, but there’s really nothing subjective out there… until now. Arguably, jQuery is probably the most popular JS framework out in the wild, but that doesn’t always mean it’s the best choice. What you choose should really depend on what you’re trying to do. Aaron Newton of Clientcide has put together a really impressive look at jQuery vs. MooTools, which doesn’t categorically say one is better than the other, but, rather, goes into detail about why one framework is better than the other based on your needs. Definitely worth a read:
www.jqueryvsmootools.com
ORM is certainly a very popular concept these days, but I haven’t really come across any PHP implementations that I found worth-while. Sure, big frameworks like CakePHP may have ORM functionality, but I’m not a fan of huge frameworks. I’ve also dabbled in my own implementations, but never got too far, as I’m not a fan of re-inventing the wheel. At any rate, I stumbled across Doctrine by accident (good ol’ RSS readers), and am impressed, mostly because it’s something that can be integrated into existing projects / frameworks.
www.doctrine-project.org
Ajaxload.info used to be the site of choice when it came to generating preloader images… unfortunately, I think it’s been bested. Preloaders.net allows you to generate not only the standard set of preloaders, but even 3D ones! You also get much more control (size, speed, etc.) and the quality of the final images is impressive. Definitely worth checking out.
www.preloaders.net
