Tips and Tricks About Computers, Web Development, Linux, the Internet and the Like
Organization
Reducing pageweight by compressing production css and js files
Sep 4th
I’ve been a little obsessed with improving the speed of web pages via minified javascript and css files. YUI’s team not only agrees with this, they recommend gzipping your minified js and css files. For a while I’ve been calling YUI Compressor inside my push to production scripts to do the deed. However, with this new mention of gzipping, I think might be exploring other options such as the method mentioned on the page which originally linked me to that awesome YUI writeup; minifying and gzipping javascript and css on the fly using php.
Redmine for software project management
May 25th
Back in 2008, I posted about the project management system, Project Pier, which was a fork of Active Collab. The system served my groups and I well for a while… but it was limited in different areas. Overall I thought it too slow and not so much tailored for software development as the new system I’m been using Redmine.
Redmine is a Ruby “clone” of the python based Trac system, which is also pretty good. I say clone because it’s really just influenced by I Trac, there goals were different than the Trac project. I decided on Redmine because it seemed to fit the bill for my group’s needs.
- It supported SVN and git browser integration.
- Per project wiki
- Per project user levels
- Issue tracking
- lightweight
- extendible (already some nice modules for download)
I haven’t had much hands on experience with Ruby but my buddy Dan Kinsley is a big advocate of RoR and after installing this, I can see why. The install was smooth and professional, largely done through the terminal. It went through without a hitch and immediately after logging into the newly setup system, I noticed how fast it was. This application makes good use of javascript and AJAX.
I was able to get SVN and git repos hooked in pretty quickly with specific projects and so far it’s been helping me manage tasks and layout projects better and faster than Project Pier.
Ubuntu System Panel – A 'start menu' for the power-user
May 7th
Ubuntu System Panel (USP) is a replacement for the standard three menus (Applications, Places, System) that come with Ubuntu in the top left. USP condenses these three menus into one easily filtered menu system. You can either navigate the list by clicking buttons related to the type of application you’re looking for (e.g. Accessories, Games, System Tools) or just start typing the name of what you want for a live filter search (my preferred method).
There are many extra tweaks, as seen above I’ve “pimped” mine out a bit with the options. The preferences dialog, you can get to by right clicking system and choosing preferences, has a lot to be desired as it’s interface is a bit O.o. If you play around for a while though, you’ll be able to figure it out.
Optionally, I’ve provided my configuration file which you can apply to your USP by selecting “restore” in the bottom right of the preferences dialog.
Read the installation documentation to get started.
Firefox Download Box, Controlling Your Annoying Friend.
Feb 6th
A majority of my readers use Firefox to browse the web. I myself happen to be a big fan of Firefox, as some of my previous posts have indicated. Always striving for efficiency, I have made a few tweaks to lower my frustration and increase the enjoyment of my web browsing experience. Amongst these changes, one of the first things I do on a new install is to change the way the download dialog (ctrl+j) behaves.
To clarify, I don’t like the downloads box to pop-up when I start a download and I want to choose where to save my file. To achieve this, I go to Firefox options:
and select your options as noted below:
To access the infamous download box in the future, use the ctrl+j hotkey combination:
Free Project Management System – activeCollab Now Costs Money
Jan 25th
When I do group projects at school, I like to keep the team in check with a project management system to keep a centralized collection of work, including conversation and various files about said work. In the past I had been a big fan of the (once open-source) Base Camp clone, activeCollab. However, as many of you reading this may know, activeCollab is no longer free.
Fear not my friends! There exists a fork called Project Pier, which picks up where the the free version left off.
In my opinion, the default theme shies away from the clean cut web 2.0 freshness that was activeCollab but the folks at Project Pier were friendly enough to bundle some slick themes for those who are as nitpicky as I.
Wentworth Institute of TECHNOLOGY
Jan 14th
Checking your class schedule is easy at Wentworth Institute of Technology. So easy in fact, I’ve decided to share this web experience with you.
Step One: go to http://lconnect.wit.edu
Step Two: Be told that Firefox is out of date because this web application is using some new crazy technologies that your browser may not be able to support like “javascript, cookies and java”.
Step Three: Click continue to go to the ‘real login page’, which if you note is ipsca.com secured. Solamente el mejor para Wentworth.
Step Four: Click Leopardweb-Banner (whatever the hell that means! More confusion to the end user than anything IMHO).
Step Five: LOL
Step Six: Click Student and Finical Aid
Step Seven: Click Registration
Step Eight: Your choice. ‘Week at a Glance’ or ‘Student Detail Schedule’. H3LL Y34H B0Y, TH4T’5 L337! I hope my browser can support the technologies that are able to give me two options on how to view my schedule O.o.
So, do think your school can top this?
Sungard Higher Education may be the solution for you!
One of these a day to keep the stress away
Jan 11th
I’ve talked about mind overflow before. You know the stuff that your brain wants to remember but it can’t because you’re trying to focus on too much information at once and it stresses you out because you forget some things and blah blah blah? If this sounds at all familiar to you, check out my makeshift solution that’s sort of a precursor to TSO which I haven’t gotten developed yet.
I take a 5x8in piece of paper and fold it in half then in half again to make myself a little ‘book’.
Then I label the sections (imagine pages 1,2,3,4) as ‘todo’, blank, ‘ideas’, ‘remember’ respectively.
I do this because to me, TODO is the most important (front), then Remember (back), then ideas (inside right), then blank space for who knows what (inside left). If I ever run out of space, I have the whol inside to use, wheee! So all day, I just have this with a pen in my pocket and write down / cross out whatever I need.
To manage my mind overflow further, I use a three ring binder to manage the overflow of the 5×8 overflow so I can move todos, ideas, remembers and whatever else to new days without losing track.
List the contents of a zip file
Jan 3rd
I post a lot of zip files on forums to trade information with my fellow gamers, programmers, internetards and what have you. As such, I like to tell them what the zip contains. Now the title of this post is a bit of a misnomer as I haven’t really created the zip yet… but I figured it would be just as helpful. The only extra step you would have in doing an actual zip file would be to extract the files to a folder but enough of the intro, lets dive in.
Step one: Have a folder with the files you want to list
(Whats with your image icons d00d? My images are associated with irfanview)
Step two: Open the Command prompt.
Do this by going to start -> Run… and typing in “cmd”
Step three: Navigate to your folder with “cd” (change directory) and list the files without any attributes using “dir /b”
Step four: Right click anywhere in the black and choose, “Mark“, this allows you to highlight the outputted text.
Highlight your filelist
When you right click again, the text is copied to your clipboard and you can paste it anywhere you’d like
