Sam’s random musings

IMG_7773
Originally uploaded by sdevore.

So there is snow in the desert sometimes… Can you believe that this morning they swam in a swim meet (outdoor pool)

Prototype 1.5.0 announcement

So as you may of heard 1.5.0 is officially out and has a long needed and well done documentation site!

(Via Snook.ca.)

Ajax Debugging with Firebug

Joe Hewitt somehow managed to find the time to write an article on Ajax Debugging with Firebug, which he created.

It is great and you will probably learn a lot about it even if you already use it, this version is wicked

CrashPlan:

Features:

• It’s automatic
• No monthly fees
• Backup to any computer, yours or your friends!
• Offsite Security
• Cross Platform (Mac, PC, Linux)

Now this seems like a really cool idea, and I’m going to try it out. But my first impressions are not so good. The desktop client is slow, and by slow I mean it is slow in geologic time.

Read the rest of this entry »

Compressing JavaScript and CSS:

When your building fancy AJAX websites one thing that tends to happen is you end up loading amounts of JavaScript and CSS on your pages. And while browsers are smart and do a lot of client side caching you can’t get rid of that weight on your first page load.

Very worth a read and check some things off….

(Via There and Back Again.)

Taming Mac OS X File Systems:

Posted by Amit Singh, Mac Engineering Manager

Google is a fantastic company to work for. I could cite numerous reasons why. Take the concept of “20 percent time.” Google engineers are encouraged to spend 20 percent of their time pursuing projects they’re passionate about. I started one such exciting project some time back, and I’m pleased to announce that Google is releasing the fruits of this project as an open source contribution to the Macintosh community. That project is MacFUSE, a Mac OS X version of the popular FUSE (File System in User Space) mechanism, which was created for Linux and subsequently ported to FreeBSD.

This is so very cool, I wish I had the time to play with this (and knew enough to make it worth it…….

(Via Official Google Mac Blog.)

Interface Builder Tip:

It’s easy to beat up on Interface Builder, which until 10.5 ships, still feels a little crufty. It’s lagged behind Xcode in the major overhaul department. But sometimes I discover features that suprise me, like this tidbit from Apple’s Technical Q&A:

Q&A 1323: Interface element identification in Interface Builder

(Link compliments of Justin Anderson)

What the Q&A describes is a way to quickly identify the UI corresponding with any UI instance in IB’s hierarchical instance view. Just hold down control-shift and click an item:

Scott Stevenson’s recent bindings visualization discoveries, there seem to be a heap of features that I simply haven’t noticed. I guess I better keep my mouth shut before lambasting it too hard… nah!

Can’t wait for the next iteration of xCode as well, bring it on and call me an early (as possible) adopter

(Via Red Sweater Blog.)

Prototype 1.5.0 Cheat Sheet:

I’ve gone through and detailed the methods and properties of each of the modules within the Prototype JavaScript library.

I decided to revisit the cheat sheet. A couple people had been asking about it and with the final release of 1.5.0 just around the corner, now seemed as a good a time as any. I’ve done things a little differently this time. The first time around, I really just wanted to see how everything was connected and what did what. This time, though, I wanted something a little more practical for me.

Very nice overview of the methods in this library which is becoming so ubiquitous.

(Via snook.ca - a collection of tips, tricks and bookmarks in web development.)