Archive for the ‘Software’ Category

Gifts in Kind Tools for Web Design

Monday, June 13th, 2011

I genuinely enjoy working at NAEIR as the “Web Administrator”. Although the title is a bit misleading, I am actually more of a Software Architect who works on the web. Working at a gifts in kind such as NAIER, Inc, an organization that takes in donations from companies around the United States and distributes the donated products to U.S. nonprofits. NAIER can provide the donated products either independently or as a “kit” of related products when a nonprofit has made a request.

This is where it gets real exciting! Currently, I’ve been assessing our technology capabilities to completely redo our online catalog. I can state that our infrastructure needs some work and some re-alignment but all in due time. However, in my assessment and planning for a new ecommerce system my tool set is pretty awesome and I look forward to coming to work every day to solve business problems that require a technology solution. Couple that with the tools I get to use and the people of NAEIR and it’s easy to see how one can look forward to everyday at work. NAEIR employees are helpful, customer focused, genuine, and very nice.

The software that I require consists of being able to support our needs for database design and development, software development and social media management. With so many tools it can sometimes be daunting at the onset but as one begins to find the shortcuts in the software it’s amazing what any one person can get done. The ramp is a little more deliberate but efficiencies are gained over time:

Oracle 11g: Database used to store some online content.
OpenVMS (Alpha): Database used as the system of record.
JDeveloper (latest rev): Used to query the Oracle and Alpha database.
Microsoft Visio 2010: Used to reverse engineer current databases and plan for new ones. Also used as the software modeling tool to establish object oriented framework and incorporating design patterns.
Microsoft Visual Studio Express (Web and Basic): Used for desktop and web development.
ColdFusion Builder: Used to support current online catalog request system.
NotePad++: Light-weight editor for quick viewing of various file formats.
DreamWeaver CS5: The de facto standard for web design.
Photoshop CS5: Used for image manipulation such as creating wireframes and mockups/comps of site designs.
Flash CS5: Animation tool.
SmarTerm: The interface to create BASIC programs, data entry screens and to work in an OpenVMS environment.
TweetDeck: A central tool that is used to share communication to various online social media sites.
Social Media Sites: Facebook, twitter, foursquare, linkedin, and flickr are the tools that we use to create an online personality of our company and to then monitor our reputation and share information to our community.
Google Analytics: Track the effectiveness of our online presence.
5 Leading Browsers: Used to verify and assess HTML and CSS accuracy.
Fiddler: Used to monitor and track what’s coming across the network to my PC for trouble shooting and debugging.
Various Browser Plug-ins: Used to assess things like file size, web site download speeds, seo monitoring, and anything else that will allow for a more efficient assessment of what is being developed.
Others that I’ll we need will be HP’s LoadRunner and TeamQuest’s Analyzer and Reporter.

Posted in Front Page, Plugins, Professional, social media, Software, Technology | No Comments »

IE6 being pushed out by Google…FINALLY!

Monday, February 1st, 2010

Someone finally stands up to IE6.

Here’s the email I recieved:

Dear Google Apps admin,

In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology. This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5. As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.

We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010. After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.

Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.

Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser. We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.

In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience. We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.

Thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,

The Google Apps team

Email preferences: You have received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your Google Apps product or account.

Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

and heres a link to an article for it: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/feb/01/google-docs-dropping-ie6-support

Posted in Google, ie6, internet explorer, Online, Recent News, Software, Technology | No Comments »

Web Developer Firefox Plug-ins

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

Firefox Addons

As a web developer I often need a “fix”. No, not caffeine. Ok, well maybe I don’t need “the fix” but some of the web sites I inherit do or a new feature being implemented may have some conflicts so I need to do some debugging in order for the site to work correctly and in many browser types and versions. Alas, I have a little army of grunt software that gets me from point a to point z much more quickly than sys.outs or alert messages. I’ve saved numerous hours using the following set of Firefox Plugins. I’ll briefly outline them and provide a link. My favorite is Firebug and YSlow is pretty damn cool also!

Firefox Plugins

Firebug: You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page. Website http://getfirebug.com/

FireFTP: FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers. Website: http://fireftp.mozdev.org/

FoxyProxy: FoxyProxy is a set of proxy management tools for Firefox, Thunderbird, Seamonkey, and Songbird: Website: http://foxyproxy.mozdev.org/

GreaseMonkey: Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript. Website: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748

IE Tab: This is a great tool for web developers, since you can easily see how your web page displayed in IE with just one click and then switch back to Firefox. Website: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419

Screengrab: It will capture what you can see in the window, the entire page, just a selection, a particular frame… basically it saves webpages as images – either to a file, or to the clipboard. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1146

Web Developer Toolbar: The Web Developer extension adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools. Website: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60

YSlow: YSlow analyzes web pages and suggests ways to improve their performance based on a set of rules for high performance web pages. Website: http://developer.yahoo.com/yslow/

Below is a view of the FireBug console.

Firebug Plugin

Posted in add-on, firebug, firefox, foxyprox, greasemonky, ie tab, javascript, Online, plugin, Plugins, Professional, Recent News, screengrab, Software, Technology, toolbar, web developer, yslwo | No Comments »

Google’s Gmail Pop3 refresh script

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

Finally, I’m not going to have to manually fetch my POP3 accounts I setup in Gmail! The hell you say? Ok, here’s the deal, I often get time sensitive emails I need to respond to and I only want to manage one email interface. Gmail has the ability to connect my non-gmail email and set them up to the Gmail Inbox using the Settings > Accounts & Imports.

Google Gmail Settings

Although an awesome feature I have to go to this page a number of times throughout the day because there is no way to configure the fetch to occur more or less frequently. When I forget to do check I may get an important email 45 prior to an auto-fetch when the email required a quick response. That’s where the solution comes in.

The solution does not configure an increase in auto-fetch of pop3 accounts in gmail but rather provides functionality to the Gmail Inbox interface so I can push one button to fetch (refresh) my Inbox page. Thanks to the script called GMAIL POP3 Quick Checker written by Tim Smart http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/51516 I can now effeciently keep up with all my emails. This script will add a “Refresh Pop3 Accounts” link just above the first email in Gmail’s Inbox of your account.

Gmail POP3 Quick Checker Link

You first need to add the Firefox plugin from GreaseMonkey https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748 and then go to the script and click the install button.

Posted in fetch, gmail, Google, greasemonkey, Online, Plugins, pop3, Professional, Recent News, script, Software, Technology | No Comments »

EditPlus no longer free after 30 Days

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

Back in 2000 when I started programming for The True Value Company I was introduced to an powerful but light weight editor called EditPlus. When ever I was working at an organization where I required the use of EditPlus it was always purchased but for my personal use I never paid for it. It’s reason like this that the developer of EditPlus has an “optional” patch that, unknowingly to me, disallows the use of EditPlus after the evaluation period. I downloaded and installed it thinking I was applying a possible security patch as it’s available without a description or purpose (sneeky bastard). Anyway, one of the few times I thanked Microsoft because the restore feature un-applied (not sure that’s proper english) the patch! Now I can use EditPlus forever and ever and ever… for free!

EditPlus Beyond Evaluation Period

Posted in editor, editplus, Recent News, Software, Technology | No Comments »

Google Calendar for Holidays and Sports

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

Some of you may have noticed that Google has updated a Calendar feature. Google provides holidays for a number of countries that you can add to your personal calendar. You can also add your favorite teams to your calendar so you don’t miss a game! Simply go to your Google Calendar and in the upper right corner you will see a link in red called New Sports Calendar. Click on that link and you’ll see a screen in your browser similar to the one below. It will have three tabs called holidays, sports and more.

Available Team Schedules in Google Calendar

Once you find the team you want to incorporate into your calendar simply click subscribe and watch the magic happen!

Chicanog Bears Schedule in My Google Calendar

Posted in Blog, Calendar, Google, Online, Recent News, Software, Technology | No Comments »

TweetDeck

Saturday, October 3rd, 2009

As everyone around me seems to be using tweetdeck I figured I begin to see learn more about the software and see how others are using it. To download it go to http://tweetdeck.com/beta/