Networking Tip - Clone Mac Address
While visiting my parents I needed to get wireless internet working. After a half hour of investigation with the ISP tech support, they said, "it is your linksys router, call the manufacturer". Well, I know my router is just fine because I used it earlier that day at my house.
So basically, what was happening is that if I hooked up the cable modem to the main PC, it worked. But if I tried to connect up the cable modem to the router, it wasn't working because the router was not getting an IP address from the ISP.
I did some digging around in the control panel and found something new to me, "Clone Your PC's Mac" address:
This makes your router look like your PC to the ISP and allowed me to connect just fine. Try it sometime if you are having problems connecting your router to the internet.
Arsenal of Web Development Tools
First, I want to preface this article by saying that this is not just another big list of every web development tool on the internet. This is a list of tools that I rely on for my job as a web developer and I use these tools every day!
This arsenal of web development tools was gathered from my computer at work (Windows XP) and is a little more current than my previous post on tools to get the job done.
Coding Tools
- E Text Editor - My favorite text editor. Basically a textmate clone with a few added features. I use this for quick edits, HTML documents and helpful code macros. $30
- Aptana - This is my PHP/HTML/JS/CSS project editor for larger projects. In order to edit PHP, you have to install the PHP plugin. The standalone version is faster than the eclipse plugin version.
- Eclipse (Java EE) - For editing Java and JSP projects.
- Winmerge - Use in conjunction with CVS and SVN to merge and compare files.
- MySQL Browser - Editor for MySQL tables.
- WAMP - Creates a local server with Apache, MySQL and PHP. Some nice features for quickly editing server settings.
Utilities
- 7zip - Archive extraction (ZIP, RAR, ...).
- Filezilla - FTP tool.
- putty - SSH tool.
- Texter - Set up macros to avoid typing the same things over and over.
- Taskbar Shuffle - Allow re-organizing your active taskbar items.
Communication
- Pidgin - All-in-one instant messaging. I use it for Google talk, MSN, AIM and Yahoo.
- Hydra IRC - For chatting with other programmers. I hang out in irc.freenode.net, mostly in the room #cakephp.
Music
- Last.fm - Auto creates radio station and has improved drastically. I used to hate the songs that it plays based on my music taste, but now I love them. This is a must have for music lovers.
- Winamp - I use the light version for quickly listening to audio files. It is just so quick, compared to iTunes which is a bloated monster.
Web Utilities
- jRuler - Quick measuring tool, I use this constantly to line up my HTML/CSS layouts perfectly with the design documents.
- Multi IE (IE6 & IE7) - To master the ways of IE6 you must have this nowadays.
Firefox Addons
- Firebug - This is the #1 most useful tool for web development. You can inspect element properties, log JavaScript messages, pretty much the everything and the kitchen sink for web development.
- Firecookie - Use this firebug extension to add cookie debugging, I always wondered why firebug didn't have this by default.
- Delicious Bookmarks - Instead of putting all my bookmarks in folders, I now use delicious bookmarks toolbar. I can search my bookmarks, tag bookmarks, etc all from a sidebar of my browser.
- Colorzilla - Picking colors is so necessary, and Colorzilla makes it easy to copy colors from web pages into my design programs. My friend, Royal, told me about Pixie because it is browser independent, maybe I will switch to this eventually.
- Web Developer Toolbar - I use this as a shortcut to disable JavaScript, since firebug has replaced a lot of its uses this isn't as useful to me.
Design
- Fireworks - I recently ditched Photoshop as my main web design tool, because for layouts it is so much faster. The combination of Vector + Bitmap is a nice hybrid tool to get the job done.
- Photoshop - It took me 4+ years to feel like I know this program, but once you learn it you can't live without it for photo and high-quality bitmap editing.
- Flash - Even with JavaScript doing so much animation these days, you just can't beat flash for rendering nice animations on the web.
I hope you've found something useful in this arsenal of web development tools. It is amazing that I need so many tools, but everything has its place. Most of these tools are free, and now looking at them in retrospect I should probably go through and donate to each tool's author. They have made a serious impact on my ability to get things done.
Screencast: 5 Windows XP Productivity Tips
Here are five of my favorite Windows XP Productivity tips. If you are reading via RSS, visit this page to view the screencast.
Screencast Notes
1. Quick Launch on Double Layer Taskbar
- Right Click on Start Button -> Properties
- Taskbar tab -> Check Show Quick Launch
- Right Click Taskbar -> Unlock and move taskbar items
2. Taskbar Shortcuts Group
- Right Click Taskbar -> Toolbars -> New Toolbar -> Choose Folder with Shortcuts in it
4. Tabbed Windows Explorer [QT Tab]
5. Texter
If you would like me to make more of these screencasts let me know.
Taskbar Shuffle
I've always wanted to be able to re-order my taskbar while I'm working and this little program does it. A simple but extremely useful tool. Taskbar Shuffle (Windows)
Open Source Anti-Virus
Today I finally uninstalled Norton because it told me that I needed to renew my subscription. Needless to say, I was annoyed that the software I paid for was asking me for more money. Plus Norton is a system resource hog and is incredibly slow.
I researched for open source anti-virus software solution and decided on ClamWin (Windows). Overall I feel great about my decision. I am happy to rid my computer of the "Norton system resource hog" virus.
Zoom In and Marker Tool
Zoom it! (Windows) is a very click way of zooming in. It also comes with a marker that you could use in a presentation or something. A simple hotkey (Control+1 by default) will take you into zoom mode which you can zoom in and out with the mouse scroll wheel. I feel like another level of control has been added to my computer with zoom it!
Tools For Getting the Job Done
A newer version of this article has been written title, "Arsenal of Web Development Tools".
People often ask me, "What program are you using to do that?" So here is a list of all of the tools I have on my work computer.
Web Browsing
- FireFox 2 - The extensions make FireFox a far superior browser to any other for web development and testing code.
- Internet Explorer 7 - I use IE7 when FireFox doesn't work (usually Microsoft pages) or when I am developing with ASP.NET 2.0.
FireFox Extensions
- ColorZilla - Pick the color of any pixel in FireFox.
- IE Tab - View how IE will render a page from within FireFox.
- Download StatusBar - Inline downloads status instead of a pop-up.
- Firebug - Inspect the DOM and debug Javascript (This is my favorite extension).
- Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer - Backup your bookmarks and synchronize them accross multiple computers.
- Google Pagerank Status - Displays the pagerank of the page you are viewing on the statusbar.
- SEO for FireFox - Lookup various SEO-related information about any page.
- Web Developer Toolbar - Tons of tools to help you debug your page.
Music
- iTunes - Podcasts, internet radio, syncs with iPod, need I say more?
- Last FM - Dynamically creates a internet radio station based on the music you like.
- Winamp Lite - A compact music player that doesn't touch your system resources.
Web Development
- Notepad++ - Highlights your code in a TON of different languages, tabbed interface, macros... all sorts of cool stuff that made me stop using notepad and switch to notepad++.
- Dreamweaver - Great file management that allows me to switch between projects quickly. Definitions of PHP functions built right into the editor.
- Flash - Interactive internet media development tool that is far superior to anything else I have seen.
- Visual Web Developer Express - Free for commercial use and a great development environment for ASP.NET 2.0. Formats code when I am cleaning up sloppy unnested code (Control+K, Control+D).
- Netbeans 5.5 - Java/JSP development environment that has built-in Tomcat server for fast local development.
- MySQL Query Browser - View, edit and update MySQL databases.
- Tortoise CVS - Repository for versioning files in the development processs.
Graphics
Other Useful Tools
- JRuler - Measure the size of anything in pixels.
- Filezilla - Fast and lite FTP program.
- Texter - No more repetative typing! Setup hotkeys to stop typing the same thing over and over.
- Multiple IEs - Debug websites in old versions of IE.
- GAIM - Alternative to AOL Intant Messanger. It is basically AIM without the advertisments.
- IE7 Inline Search - Module that adds inline search to IE7 instead of a pop-up.
Whew, *wipes sweat off forehead*, that is my entire list of applications I use to get the job done. I hope you discover something in here that will make your day more productive and smooth!
Run Multiple Versions of IE!
A friend sent me an standalone version of IE6 (Eolas version) today. I booted IE6 up on my machine with ease and my first question was, "Is this legal"? Well, I did some research and I was astonished by what I found!
Tredosoft's Install multiple versions of IE on your PC - YES, thats right, you can install IE3 IE4.01 IE5 IE5.5 and IE6 on your computer! Now you can see what grandma sees when she checks her email with IE 4.01! I'm kidding - of course the main purpose of these older editions is for testing and fixing old IE bugs.
All of the versions of IE were installed on my computer in a minute. The only stipulation that I found was this:
Microsoft supplemental EULA says : IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A VALID EULA FOR ANY "OS PRODUCT", YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO INSTALL, COPY, OR OTHERWISE USE THE OS COMPONENTS AND YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS UNDER THIS SUPPLEMENTAL EULA.
Download Multiple IE Installer (EXE)
I am truly amazed.