Entries Tagged as “Software”
Apple's Obsession With Removing Buttons
It seams that as of late, Apple has been obsessed with removing buttons from their devices. They are acting like the crazy parents obsessed with removing all sharp corners from their house when they have a child. Was Steve Jobs attacked and injured as a child from a rogue button?
In the last two years Apple has been grooming consumers for a buttonless revolution. The iPhone, though having buttons itself focuses more or non tactile usability. Earlier this year we saw the laptops go buttonless. Now the iPod Shuffle.
I personally did not care much for the buttonless laptop. I felt the system did not work as good and needed more time being tested for usability. Apple has always been on the forefront of design and usability and being able to put them into the same package has always been a strong point for them. This time around I am not so sure. I know I would feel more comfortable recommending an last years model to someone purchasing a laptop for the first time.
The 3rd generation iPod announced today really makes me wonder if it's really necessary to reinvent the wheel? Unless of course your making a better wheel. Maybe I am being quick to conclusions as I have not actually seen the new iPod Shuffle but let me point out a few things that I noticed right away. A few things that have me concerned about this product.
Why on earth would you take the buttons off of the device and put them on to the headphone cord? I don't know about you, but I personally think the earbuds are mediocre at best. The first thing I did when I got my iPod was buy some real headphones. Putting the controls on the cord just means that if you buy a shuffle you have to stick to the earbuds supplied until third party manufactures catch up and ship an alternate product. No doubt you will have to pay a premium for them to boot. Do we really need another iPhone headphone debacle? Didn't we learn something from this or do we need to do it all over again.
→ Respond NowTags: Design · Software · usability
SideNote: A Free Mango Blog Plugin
Back when I used BlogFusion as a CMS, it had a very simple utility called notes. Its function was simple. It added a note to your sidebar. I found this really useful when you need to alert your users to a new update or some problem without having to create a blog post about it. I wanted that feature back in mango blog so I created a very simple plugin called SideNote. It allows you to add html to your sidebar so you can use it however you want. Use SideNote to add an alert about upcoming maintenance or an outage, or maybe you need a donate now button? It's up to you.
Update
Thanks to the feedback, I have updated SideNote to include support for the WYSIWYG editor. You can now turn it off and on by clicking the toggle editor icon just like you can in the posts and pages editor. Now you can enjoy SideNote with a simpler more efficient editing experience.
Download SideNote Plugin
- Plugin version:
- 1.2
- Last Updated:
- 2009-10-13
- Requires:
- Mango Blog 1.3+
- Auto-install URL:
- http://www.visual28.com/assets/content/mango/sideNote-1.2.zip
→ Respond NowTags: Freebies · Mango Blog · Plugins · Software
Synchronize Your Life
If your like me, you have more than one computer. I have at least 6 computers that I use on a daily basis - 9 if you count the ones that I use off and on while I am traveling and away from home or office. Don't get me started with shared calendars with my wife's' computers too. Keeping your contacts, emails, calendar, and bookmarks in sync can be a real pain in the you know what.
Fortunately I have found a suite of tools that allow me to keep synced at all times across all of my computers both at home and at work. I wish there were a single application to rule them all, but for now at least there is hope that with a little elbow grease it can be done.
→ Respond NowTags: General · Software
Customizing Dreamweaver
I love Dreamweaver, it's my code editor of choice, but sometimes the default settings totally stink. I couldn't help but feel that space was being wasted, and that there were features missing from a seasoned application like Dreamweaver. I have picked up a few things to tweak Dreamweaver to my liking. Some things are simple, while others require a bit more wrenching under the hood. Now, anytime you go messing with core application files I highly recommend you make a copy of them first and store them in a safe location. Making a mistake could cause Dreamweaver to stop working. Though these tweaks are pretty easy, consider yourself warned.
→ Respond NowTags: Code · General · Inspiration · Software
IISPassword can play well with others
In my last post I mentioned briefly that I was having a lot of problems for a few days with my site not responding, being locked out, or not linking to articles. I had a heck of a time chasing down the problem. I eventually did figure it out. The solution is pretty easy but certainly was not too obvious at first.
I am using ISAPI_Rewrite 3.0 for url rewriting. Then needed to add password protection to a folder. I hate creating accounts on windows as it's such a pain in the ass. I really liked IISPassword by IIS Tools. Unfortunately, both programs use an .htaccess file and neither one understand each other. Every time I changed one setting, it would overwrite the .htaccess file and this went back and forth for a few days.
There is a solution and I think it's pretty easy to make both applications work in harmony. IISPassword allows you to change the file where the settings are stored. They must have anticipated these types of issues and accounted for it.
To change the file used by IISPassword, simply follow these steps.
- stop the IIS server. Open the IIS Manager
- Select your "Web Sites" node and right click to open it's properties.
- Select the tab for IISPassword.
- Check the radio button for "Create new". In the textfield for "Access File Name" change the file to .iispassword
- Click the change button. Give it a moment to propagate for all your sites.
- Start IIS and thats it.
It's so easy but the docs don't mention anything about it. So if you need to password protect a folder through the system then IISPassword is a really great application and easy to use baring any issues with other .htaccess files.
→ Respond NowTags: General · Software
