A quick comparison on different code editors. Afterall I stick with Dreamweaver, it’s worth it’s price. jEdit has a lot of functionalities but it relies on Java. PSPad is small, flexible and portable. Notepad++ has a ton of features and it’s light too.

What’s your favourite software for coding?

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No te gusta el multitasking que ha implementado Apple en su nueva versión del sistema operativo del iPhone? Es tu iPhone 3G muy lento con multitarea? Desactiva la multitarea siguiendo estos simples pasos sin necesidad de hacer jailbreak otra vez…

Mediante SSH navega al siguiente directorio “/System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app” y busca el archivo “N82AP.plist“. Ábrelo con el bloc de notas, busca la palabra “multitasking” y cambia el valor de <multitasking> de <true/> a <false/>. Reinicia el iPhone y ya está!

Gracias a Pony-Ony por el truco!

SnippShot is an online code snippet collector tool. It loads hyper fast:

• Just one server request
• Doesn’t use any images at all (CSS3 for the gradients and an embedded Base 64 image in the style sheet for the favicon)
• Everything is loaded dynamically through AJAX and JSON/XHTML calls

The interface is excellent, just what you see. The UX too, everything is very intuitive.

It has been coded using PHP, MySQL, jQuery, XHTML and CSS3.

How to use SnippShot

Search

Type in at the top left box to search automatically as you type .

Create

Type in at the top left box and press enter.

Rename

Double click the name in the list and a window will show.

Delete

Double click the name in the list and rename it to nothing. Confirm.

Load

Just click on it, the code will load on the right panel.

Edit

Edit the code and it will be saved real-time.

(There is no need to press any Save and you can close the window at any time without worrying when you edit the code this will turn red, wait two seconds until the text turns black and it will be saved)

Bookmarklet

At the right top there is a link called “snippshot”. Drag and drop it to your bookmarks folder to create a Bookmarklet.

License of SnippShot

The source code is released under a GPL license so that everyone can edit it and improve it. It will be published to GitHub once I figure out how it works :P

PeliculasOnlineWiki is an online movie link database powered by users. The submission process has been optimized so that users just need to fill two fields (the name of the movie and the link to the external website).

Through public APIs, PeliculasOnlineWiki gathers all the necessary data (exact movie title, synopsis, movie image, genre and rating) plus the system generates all the necessary image thumbnails to fit in every page automatically.

The development of the website is done in PHP, MySQL, jQuery, XHTML and CSS. The template is liquid which allows users to view the website as big as they want without wasting space. As the browser is resized, the website adapts to show more or less content.

Sleep Cycle is one of the coolest apps in the Apple Store. It allows you to monitor your sleep cicles and has an alarm that wakes you up at the best time you need to wake up hence you always wake up fresh and without that tired sensation of having slept a lot but not rested at all.
The app is only supported for the iPhone since the screen in the iPod Touch doesn’t dim and the device can become hot. I have been using it in my iPod Touch (it’s the 32GB version) for more than two weeks and it works great. I use a case to protect my iPod Touch and still doesn’t get hot at all during the night.

Instructions

To use Sleep Cycle in your iPod Touch follow these steps:

1. Update the iPod Touch to its latest OS version (4.0 or higher (currently available 4.1))
2. Go to Settings > General > Auto-Lock and select Never
   (Don’t worry, disabling auto-lock will not disable the password lock feature in your device)
3. Go to the iTunes Store and buy Sleep Cycle
4. Just to be sure, leave Sleep Cycle running during the day to see if the device becomes hot.
5. Before going to sleep, close all the other apps running in the background (specially Skype).
6. Do not put the iPod Touch under the pillow.
7. Put your device to charge and go to sleep. The app will wake you up in your lightest sleeping phase :)

The first two days the app will “learn” your sleeping patterns so results may not be very accurate. Although it works perfect for me (and many other people commenting about it on the Internet) I cannot guarantee that it will work for everyone so please download the app at your own risk. If it doesn’t work it’s just £1.

By the way, there are also more professional sleep phase alarm clocks which work much better, they’re about £100-200 but if having a good rest is important to you consider getting one.

Photo by orangeacid.

As an occasional freelance worker and a passionate in GTD it’s been a while since I started reading about how to optimize my time while providing my best services. Yesterday I watched Hamids’ video explaining SCRUM in 10 minutes.

What is Agile SCRUM?

The video is really inspiring for all those people like me that try to get its productivity to the next level and hadn’t heard about or where reluctant to adopt such a professional project management method for simple solo or very small team projects.

Considering the methodology of SCRUM I’ve designed a Google Spreadsheet for freelancers or small teams ready to use. It is very basic but gives you an overall idea and accuracy in a fast and simple way on how the project is evolving during its process.

Simple Agile SCRUM template for freelancers

How to use it

First column includes all the tasks involved in the project, then the estimate timing and the remaining time to finish the tasks.

Next there is the calendar, there is an orange column that indicates the end of a Sprint (in this example, since the project is small it just means the deadline). Cells in the calendar in yellow are estimates on days that need to be dedicated to which tasks.

The graph shows in red the estimates and in blue the current progress.

At the bottom, there’s the total of hours done and left to do as well as the estimates.

NOTE: Blue and grey cells should not be edited.

Download

SCRUM Google Spreadsheet template

Feedback welcome! If you wish to add some modifications or come up with an improved design please let me know and I’ll add it to the post.

Photo by Alan Dayley

Dreamweaver CS3 had some minor bugs which were not that bad, with CS4 some more errors but CS5 version is just unbearable. These are the bugs I’ve spotted so far (all of them are regarding the code view or the FTP, I rarely use the Design view, CSS GUI editor, Live view and other features so expect some more bugs):

Related files bug (CS5 version)

This feature doesn’t work well at all but what most bugs me is that it even blocks saving documents!

So you need to wait some minutes for the program to stop searching for related files (which 80% of the time can’t actually find none). Once it’s done, you will be able to save the file (after loosing hair and patience).

To disable Dreamweaver Related files feature go to Preferences > General and deselect Enable related files. You will need to restart the computer after applying the changes.

Files buttons get disabled randomly (CS4 and CS5 versions)

Sometimes the Check in/out and Put/Get buttons get disabled although Dreamweaver is not working with any server:

The solution is still to be found but for now it works to click around, close some files, restart…

Syntax error notification (CS5)

A new addition to CS5 that helps spot some syntax errors like missing parenthesis and so on. The problem is that the message (the yellow bar) pops in suddenly and moves all the code one line down so if you are just about to click somewhere else everything will be moved down and you will click the incorrect line.

Also, when correcting the error the message disappears hence moving everything up one line again…

Interacting with a server bug (CS4 and CS5)

The thing that bugs me most is when trying to Put or Get files to the server. Sometimes it looks like Dreamweaver stays connected to a server and it doesn’t allow you to interact with the server at all until you click several buttons and files, wait one hour or restart the software.

Code highlighting (CS3, CS4 and CS5)

Sometimes code highlighting stops working for no apparent reason:

Solution is to edit a bit of the code there.

Incorrect PHP highlighting (CS3, CS4 and CS5)

This is a specific issue with some PHP syntax specially when using regex strings which I can understand due to the amount of symbols in it, the code works when processed by Apache but it looks odd:

Still no .htaccess code highlighting (all versions)

Isn’t .htaccess such an important file (as well as other Apache files)?
Dreamweaver still doesn’t detect its syntax:

Code font size changes when you least expect it

I don’t know why but although I’ve specified a fixed font size to view my code, some files keep opening in a damn small font. I use to code from an iMac which has very small pixels but anyway it is quite unreadable. Compare the following image:

Both files where opened at the same time. Can you read the last one easily?… And spend 8 hours a day reading that???

Not able to close Dreamweaver

After these many bugs there’s one that amuses me most. I try to restart Dreamweaver so everything starts fresh but… it won’t allow me to close it!

Crash

Update (2 hours later): We shouldn’t forget about Dreamweaver crashing completely. Just happened now.

And more, sadly much much more…

I’ve written this post from scratch in a couple hours and have been experiencing all these bugs, there are many more like this I can’t remember right now but keep encountering them when using Dreamweaver, specifically CS5, CS4 has got some bugs but not as many, same with CS3. It looks like Adobe has been implementing nice new features but with the new features new bugs came along. Every new version gets more buggier…

What surprises me is that these errors may be simple to fix but no update has arrived yet and regarding the price of the software (£378, 450€ or $570) they should do something fast…

In my case, I love Dreamweaver’s syntax colouring since I have been using it for several years and I’m used to it, but when the program starts acting crazy I just switch to my favourite alternatives:

1. jEdit (free, open source): A free, open-source code editor with tons of plugins. It is AMAZING and has a thousand times more features than Dreamweaver so give it a try. All the developers at LOVEFiLM use it and every day I like it more. jEdit website
2. Coda ($100, £65 or 78€): Only for Mac but nice UX and simple interface. The FTP is quite limited and you will need to buy another program from the same company if you need more FTP control. Coda website

Have you experienced more bugs with the new CS5 version? Know any solutions to these ones? Send them through and I’ll update the post with them.
These bugs appear in Adobe Dreamweaver for Mac OSX Snow Leopard

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Are you one of those unitask fans? Is your iPhone 3G too slow with multitask? Disable Multitasking by following these simple steps, no need to jailbreak again…

SSH to the following dir “/System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app” search for the following file “N82AP.plist” and the open it with notepad and search for “multitasking” and change the <multitasking> value from <true/> to <false/>. Restart Iphone and you’re done.

Thanks to Pony-Ony for the trick!

To switch to a background app (multitask) in your iPhone or iPod Touch iOS4 press the square button twice fast:

The four most recently used  apps will appear at the bottom of the screen. You can scroll your finger to right and left to view more opened apps and control the music player too.

Apps that are not multitasking compatible will still need to be started again. Some of the apps that I’ve got working on multitask right now are WordPress, LinkedIn or Dropbox. While Skype, Twitter, TeamViewer or MobileRSS haven’t been updated yet.

To close an app tap the app without releasing and wait 2 seconds, then click the red rounded button.

Launchlist es un servicio gratis que nos muestra una lista de las cosas que debemos tener en cuenta antes de publicar un sitio web. Nos permite enviarla por correo una vez terminado para poder imprimirlo y modificarla para anadirle lo que queramos.

Empezamos rellenando los datos del proyecto y a quien queremos enviarle el informe una vez terminado.

Y pasamos a decir Si o No a los diferentes aspectos (se pueden deshabilitar items y anadir comentarios):

Una vez terminemos de contestar clicamos en Submit Report y nos aparece el mensaje de confirmacion:

En nuestra direccion de correo recibiremos el informe:

Funciona muy bien aunque seria fantastico que se pudieran guardar los proyectos y poder actualizar la lista a medida que avanza el proyecto.

La web de Launchlist: launchlist.net