December 2004 - Posts
starvingartist:
I needed a small, fully-featured and easy-to-use color picker with an efficient user interface for my web design work. Switch's wonderful skinning ability is extremely flexible and enabled me to modify it to my needs. I've been using this daily now, and it makes my life so much easier. Maybe you'll find it useful too. =)
The program's color picker and zoom functions gain the main focus now. RGB, HSL and HEX values also get full attention below. Gone are the space-hogging and hardly used OLE values. In the main title bar are "Options" (the Switch icon), "Stay on Top" and "Close" respectively. Also included are eye dropper and magnifying glass cursors.
Download Antiseptic
Antispetic is a fantastic new Switch skin, especially designed for the web designer in you. Get it now.
It's the little tools that I find most helpful in doing most things with the computer. The great thing is that most of the little tools are free. If you aren't using a free one, you should be able to find a free one that basically does the same thing.
I mainly use these tools for development related tasks, but this is definitely not an exhaustive list. These are just a few of the tools that I always install:
- AudioGrabber - MP3 ripper.
- Dependency Walker - Finds dependencies (great for non .Net app development).
- Process Explorer - Process management utility .
- Reflector - Assembly browser and de-compiler for .NET components.
- Resource Hacker - Great for modifying existing dll resources.
- SQL Scripter - Generates scripts of an existing SQL Server database.
- NSIS - Scriptable installer.
- CDBurnerXP Pro - CD/DVD burner. I had heaps of issues with the one that came with the laptop. This one rocks!
- Sauce Reader - Feed reader. Doesn't have some features I want, but covers most.
- Avast - Anti-virus. I'll never use Norton's again; it kept deleting my emails. You may crash, but you may NEVER delete my emails!
- ieSpell - Spell checker integrated in IE. Great for spell checking blog posts etc.
If you haven't come across some of these before, I hope you find them helpful.
I am quite saddened by the news of the earthquake and tidal wave tragedy a few days ago. The full extent of the loss of life still isn't known as the number of people killed is quickly rising to 24,000. The numbers of people who have been affected by this event is simply unbelievable.
I have read many stories of what people experienced and witnessed. I don't want to add any links to news articles like the common blog because there is enough out there and it is just too sad.
Updated:
Can you believe that the death toll is now over 70,000 and expected to rise well beyond 100,000?
It's that time of year again. Merry Christmas. I hope you have/had a great Christmas day and hopefully a bit of a holiday too. I have just had a Christmas lunch and am ready for a sleep (a family tradition).
Over the last few weeks, I have read a lot of first blog entries by technically minded people. More and more people seem to be getting on this bandwagon. These people seem to do one of two things for their first entry. They either write about themselves and what they want to achieve with the blog (world domination, programming advice etc etc), or they do a 'Hello World' post.
To be honest, I really can't stand the 'Hello World' phenomenon. Am I the only one??? You might think that such a stance would push me to the other side of the fence and talk about what I want to do through this blog. Unfortunately, I don't have much time at the moment so self-centred promotion will have to wait a little........... but I do hope you get something out of this.
I have made some major updates to the site. Among other things, there is now a Weblog and comments (moderated) can be made against most items in the site. There are also several RSS feeds available. All the RSS feeds are listed in the OPML file linked at the bottom of the page. Depending on the type of items displayed in the current page (applications, news, skins etc), the RSS link at the bottom of the page will point to the most relevant feed.
Please let me know if you find any problems with the site.
Do you ever have issues with your host provider? I used to have terrible problems a couple of years ago. The people who I were using were cheap (happens to be a requirement when the site doesn't make money) and that was represented by their quality of service.
I was recently reminded of how good my hosting provider is. I have been with M6.net for a couple of years and the service has always been spot on. The care of their customers is always a top priority to them (it seems more important than the bottom line) and they aren't afraid to admit a mistake. Hey, mistakes happen, but most companies say it didn't happen or point the finger elsewhere. These are the two characteristics of my hoster that I think set them apart from the rest. No wonder they have grown so much.
I have nothing but respect for M6 and I am honoured that they are sponsoring this site. If you need a great host, check them out.