tripwire magazine » Tools

Now it is ready: Get Firefox 6 from secret link

Lars — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 17:05:38 +0000

Even though the next version of the Firefox is first planned to be released tomorrow you can get it right now.
The installation file for Firefox 6 is in fact already posted on Mozilla’s FTP server, although the website still refers to version 5 as the latest release.
We have tested the secret installation and have been using the fully functional Firefox 6 today.
Get Firefox 6 in EN-US for Windows , Mac or Linux (All other languages Windows, Mac or Linux).

So what is in the package?

It promises to be 20% faster than the already greatly improved Version 5. It also gets a facelift and a speed boost on Android. New features in Firefox 6 should also include being faster startup and new tools for Web developers. Finally it is highlighting domain names in the address bar – both Chrome and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 do something similar by boldfacing domain names.

The version number has now rushed up to 6 but it does not mean that there are huge changes and improvements in the latest version. Mozilla has chosen to release new versions much faster than before, which is underlined by the fact that Firefox 5 came out in June just months after version 4 was released. If this continues we’ll see version 7 pretty soon!

25+ Really Cool Photo Editing Online Services

Lars — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 19:57:00 +0000

Photo editing online is made possible using a wide range of free tools. Do you sometimes find Photoshop too expensive, too hard and time consuming to work with? Photoshop can certainly create the effects you can dream up, but it is expensive and not that easy to learn.

A large number of photo editing online services are available to help us all saving time or just having fun manipulating photos and creating effects instantly. Most of these are also free so you may get you graphical job done without investing in expensive tools. Of cause these tools have their limits but they are fun and can be useful some cases. Please post a comment if you know a great online photo service that I missed.

Photo editing online services

Fun Photo Box

Fun Photo Box is a really cool place. It has loads of stunning effects and a well designed interface to apply them. This is fun for hours!

Enjoy pic Photo editing online

EnjoyPic.com is an online photo editing tool where you can add funny photo effects to your pictures. It is very easy to use. What you need to do is to upload any picture or photo you like, and wait to see the reslut of magic.

PhotoFunia

PhotoFunia is a site with tons of creative backgrounds to play around with. With only a few click you can create very cool effects.

Simply select the effect you like and upload you image….and you’re done.

Photo505

Another wery cool photo effect service.

Dumpr

Create multiple interesting effects from your normal photos. The tools are good and simple to work with.

Photofacefun

Lots of nice free photo editing online services here

Loonapic Photo editing online

And just one more to have fun with. The services have different backgrounds so if you cant find what you’re looking for in one place you should just go to the next one…

Write On It

Easily create your fake pictures, captions and fake magazines and other funny jokes for you and your friends.

pato

More than 400 photo editing online effects

Picartia

Create a photo mosaic of your choice for free online. Only you fantasy sets the limits here. Here a Mosaic illustrating a pregnant woman created from baby images.

Imagechef Photo editing online

Imagechef have four interesting services. Sketchpad and Word Mosaic are both really cool.

picjoke

May may photo editing online effects found here!

PiZap

This service as awesome for making funny images. You may also use it for serious purposes like adding a text bobble .

Online editors

Need to do basic image editing like resize, crop, rotate etc.? You can do that for free online.

Photoshop Express

This may be the best online editor you will find. It’s a free online photo editor that’s not meant to replace Adobe’s current offerings, but "make Adobe imaging technology immediately accessible to large numbers of people.

anymaking Image Workshop

Simple image editing tools. You will also find a few photo effects.

Makeover tools

Some will hate these tools and some will love them…I will keep my opinion for myself!

Yearbook Yourself

Turn your face photo into yearbook alike black & white old school photo. The service is paused and will be back this Summer.

Hairmixer

Choose a photo for the left and right side and start mixing their hairs up. There’s a lot of celebrety photos you can choose from but really does it make sense to mix hair on people…. you decide. You can as well create a magazine cover with the end result photo.

Moron Face

Moronize yourself but be careful you’re not going to like the result

Revitalizer

This is a funny tool that allows you to retouch a face really easy. The interface is ok to work with but the results may not satisfy a professional photoshopper. Anyway it is quite fun.

Hollywood Hair Makeover

Love those celebrities’ look? Wear thier hair instantly and see how you look. You can also put on some makeup and see how it looks with a new color.

Create a magazine

Your own Wired Cover

This service is powered by Xerox, and it allows you to create your own Wired magazine cover. You can customize almost everything from titles, colors to photos.

Magmypic

Create different fake magazine covers from your photos.

5 Effective Tools for Marketing professionals

induk — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 16:50:13 +0000

Being a marketing professional is not easy, it’s a real challenge no matter what the economy is like. And there are lots of different tools for marketers to choose from to get their job done right. But sometimes it’s hard to know what is important and what isn’t, so here are a few tools which might help you to sell better.

Google Alerts

The first thing I’d recommend for marketing professionals trying to reach their customers is to create a set of Google Alerts. Google Alerts are email updates of the latest topic on the Internet, and that’s exactly what you want to do for the keywords (topics) that matter to you and your customers. You can set it up to receive daily alerts and once you’ve found a site that’s relevant you’ll want to engage and participate in in the blogs and forums that discuss these topics.

Google Analytics

I’m sure you’ll want to analyze your website traffic data. Google Analytics will give you fantastic insights into who is coming to your web site, all the other related pages, and how they’re getting there. It displays so much useful information, and with just a little training, you too will be able to use Google Analytics for your business.

Crazy Egg

Want to understand the behaviour of users? Crazy egg is a heat mapping tool allows you to easily understand user behaviour. Simply sign up with crazy egg and get a clear picture of where people have clicked and what they are doing on your site. In one word – visualize your visitors!!

Creately

Ever wondered how to create great looking PowerPoint presentations? A picture is worth a 1000 words, include Creately diagrams in your PowerPoint presentations to clearly communicate your information visually. With Creately you can create your flowcharts, mindmaps or just about anything visual, export them as an image and add them to your presentation. All kinds of diagrams for getting your message across clearly.

Camtasia

Videos are always hot and they go viral just too soon. So creating videos to showcase your product features are always the best ways to stay abreast of competition. Now with Camtasia you can record anything on your screen, edit and share then instantly. You’ll soon have a 100K visitors watching your video!

I know this is definitely a very short list. There is far more I could have added here. What other tools do you use? Do you have anything that has helped you better in getting your done easy and effectively? Let me know.

Author : Indu Kandasamy

Indu Kandasamy is the Marketing Maven at Creately.com, a collaborative diagramming software for teams. When she’s not working on marketing strategies for web start-ups, she paints and loves to create designs for printed textiles. You can read more of her writing on the Creately Blog or follow her on Twitter: @creately @induja

zbugs Compress Your JS and CSS Files

Lars — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:23:25 +0000

Speed is critical online as both human and electronic visitors consider load time as a key quality parameter. Google internal tests show that users spend less time on slow sites and therefore speed also matters in the search engine ranking algorithms. I have shared tips on website optimization and tools before and today I just learned about a new website, zbugs, that I believe provides an interesting service. zbugs simply help you decrease the size and number of the files your visitors need to download and as a concept this technique is really good for your sites load speed.

“Speed Up Your Website in a Single Click…”. Well that is the goal for this service, but it is not that simple. Downloading the compressed files is only the first step. This is how it looks when you use the analyze website feature. You need to sign up for a free account to use the service.

If you are not sure why it is important to reduce the file sizes and how to do it on your site I recommend you read some of these resources. The zbugs site is still a beta service and it is not explaining very well how to use the compressed files on your site.

Build Your Own Browser Theme

Lars — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:00:05 +0000

BT:Engage gives you the power to transform the drab, and kind of boring, browser into a beautiful engagement tool for your business or community. In moments, you can build your own custom browser theme with images that you upload and buttons you choose. It’s even easier if select from our vast library of images.

BT-Engage is developed by www.BrandThunder.com and it is currently in private beta. We have agreed with the developer to let 100 of our valued readers in. Use the code below to get access. Besides creating your own browser theme I recommend any webmaster to consider using a WordPress simple theme.

Go to: http://bt-engage.com
Click “Create an Account”
Enter code “tripwire”

35+ Desktop Utilities To Manage Your Code Snippets

Dustin Betonio — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 05:00:24 +0000

Do you have countless bits of HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and PHP rolling around in your head and on your hard drive? Do you keep on re-typing or copy/pasting commonly-used pieces of code over and over again? Which by repeatedly copying and pasting pieces of code into text files and the like is disorganized and wastes your precious time.

What is a snippet? It is a programming term for a small region of re-usable source code or text. Ordinarily, these are formally-defined operative units to incorporate into larger programming modules. Snippets are often used to clarify the meaning of an otherwise “cluttered” function, or to minimize the use of repeated code that is common to other functions.

Why not use Code Snippets utilities to help you organize, save your code snippets. It is a practical way to help you store your favorite snippets and, also make sharing with it others. This post features great utilities for Windows and Mac that are a great way to build a personal code repository that you can access from anywhere and easily share with others. They’re also great sites to find helpful snippets in a number of languages.

1. mySnippets

mySnippets is a a clean and simple application that makes your code snippets—as well as clippings and files—available at your fingertips. You just do a single click or press a single keystroke and you have your snippet. You can group and color-code your snippets however you want, you can quickly search and access recently-used snippets, and you can print and export your snippets.

2. jCodeCollector

jCodeCollector is a multiplatform application that helps you to manage your code snippets. It’s written in Java and it’s available for Mac OS X, Windows XP/Vista/7 and Linux.

3. Snippet Manager

Snippet Manager is a free utility for managing your code snippets in a variety of languages: VB, C++, C#, Java, SQL, ASP, PHP, HTML, even COBOL, Assembler and Fortran. You can also use Snippet Manager to manage plain ASCII text data. With the developer-focused search tool, you can find the code you need by using regular expressions or simple search criteria: language, category, dependencies, keywords or the actual code that you are looking for. You can also publish your snippets online for your personal or company use, and password-protect them so only those you want can access them.

4. Code Bank

Code Bank is a code snippit manager with support for a local database as well as a shared database (serverside application required). Code Bank also has syntax highlighting for multiple languges including C++, ActionScript, Flex, HTML and SQL to name a few.

5. Snipplr

With Snipplr you can keep all of your frequently used code snippets in one place that’s accessible from any computer. You can share your code with other visitors and use what they post, too.

6. Snippely

Snippely is a basic text and code organizational tool. Instead of storing bits of code, quick notes, and memos in text files all over your hard drive, this application will let you save and organize “snippets” in one convenient location.

7. CodeSnippets

Easily build up your personal collection of code snippets, categorize them with tags / keywords, and share them with the world.

8. byteMyCode

byteMyCode is a project designed to make the task of sharing source code easier. We have modeled a community around making it easy to find, share, revise, comment on, and rate code snippets. byteMyCode serves as a good organizational tool for those little code snippets that you never know when you will need. It also comes in handy when you need to send a code snippet to a friend or coworker, but don’t have the means to do so.

9. Php Snippets

PHP Snippets is a newly created blog with a rather simple goal: Publishing useful PHP code snippets on a daily basis.

10. codesnipp.it

Codesnipp.its are pieces of code, plugins, or anything developer related you’d love to share. These may be simple one to two line pieces of code you have trouble remembering, or something you’ve written completely from scratch.

11. CodeDogg

CodeDogg is a free, simple, fast program which stores your code snippets so you can use them anywhere. With CodeDogg, you can synchronize snippets with all of your computers and devices, so you always have the latest versions of your snippets handy. You simply create a free account at CodeDogg.com.

12. The Snippet Manager

The Snippet Manager is exactly what you’d think it is – it’s an application for managing snippets. That may sound a little basic, but it’s a feature–rich application for managing and searching public snippets, which have been shared by users worldwide.

13. Snippet Monkey

Snippet Monkey saves you countless hours monkeying around by allowing you to create shortcuts for phrases you frequently type. We call the phrases snippets and Snippet Monkey allows you to create new snippets from the clipboard or via our easy to use snippet editor.

14. Code Collector Pro

Code Collector Pro lets you easily organize, use and share code snippets using a clean Mac-like interface. You can store snippets of code and retrieve them with a few keystrokes. The coloring engine automatically colors your code snippets for faster viewing, tagging support lets you more easily search for the snippets you need, and importing lets you bring in your code from Coda, Snippet, Snippets, and TextExpander.

15. Snipt

Share source code on Twitter and the Web.

16. Smipple

Smipple is a social service for saving, storing, organizing, and sharing snippets of code with your friends and coworkers. Make friends. Improve your coding skills. Earn bragging rights.

17. Gist

Gist is a simple way to share snippets and pastes with others. All gists are git repositories, so they are automatically versioned, forkable and usable as a git repository.

18. Slexy 2.0

Slexy.org is a powerful, slick, and sexy pastebin designed with the user in mind. Use Slexy.org to paste errors for debugging, show off your code or your tech specs, or share anything else with other Internet users worldwide.

19. Code Barrel

Tracks revisions, supports commenting, and notifies you when a snippet has changed; Helps you bring new team members on board more quickly.

20. Copy Paste Code

Copy Paste Code allows you to publish your code with colored syntax for most popular programming languages out there. After publishing you can share your code to colleagues and friends, and they can debug and use your code snippets. You and others can also download the snippets, password-protect and publish revisions to snippets.

21. CodeTidy

A quick and easy, no-frills code sharing utility.

22. Pastebin

One of the most popular tools of this kind, Pastebin supports a huge list of languages.

23. Js Fiddle

JsFiddle is a playground for web developers, a tool which may be used in many ways. One can use it as an online editor for snippets build from HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The code can then be shared with others, embedded on a blog, etc. Using this approach, JavaScript developers can very easily isolate bugs. We aim to support all actively developed frameworks – it helps with testing compatibility.

24. Phrase Express

PhraseExpress organizes your frequently used text snippets in customizable categories for quick access.

25. JsBin

simple but rocks.

26. Droplr

it is a super easy way to share snippets of code. Just select some text and drag it to your menu bar. A URL will automatically be placed in your clipboard for you to paste in anywhere you want.

27. ClipMenu

ClipMenu can manage clipboard history. You can record 8 clipboard types, from plain text to image.

28. Code Box

CodeBox provides the best experience and user interface for managing snippets.

29. Snip it Pro

Snip-It Pro is a code snippet manager with features designed to make you a more productive programmer. It provides a single place where you can store all the useful bits of code that you ever came across. Your favorite JavaScript functions. Tricky CSS Hacks. Useful helper Classes. Esoteric configuration xml. Complex SQL Queries. No more searching through old project source code, or wasting time googling unproven code.

30. Snippshot

SnippShot is a code snippet tool like others but why it really stands out is because of its simplicity and speed of use. It is so minimalistic that you will love it.

31. Flikcode

Flikode gives you a bookmark style library to store all of your code snippets.

32. FastFox

FastFox is an easy to use text expander that can create and store keyboard shortcuts that expand to an entire phrase, paragraph or document instantly.

33. Typinator

Typinator boosts your productivity and eliminates errors by automating the process of inserting frequently used text and graphics and auto-correcting typing errors.

34. TextExpander

Save time and effort with TextExpander! Whether it’s a simple email signature or several paragraphs of a standard response, you’ll love how easy it is to use TextExpander to avoid typing the same thing over and over.

35. Fishcodelib

36. Code Pad

codepad is an online compiler/interpreter, and a simple collaboration tool.

Author : Dustin Betonio

Dustin Betonio is a Translation Management graduate at University of Mindanao. His earlier career was devoted on customer service outside the information highway. Currently studying Law in the same University.

40 Best and free useful Mac applications for Web Designers

Dustin Betonio — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 05:00:19 +0000

Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface. The original form of what Apple would later name the “Mac OS” was the integral and unnamed system software first introduced in 1984 with the original Macintosh, usually referred to simply as the System software.

When it comes to the world of Mac, free-ware is not common at all. For web designers and developers which require many applications (like an IDE, image editor, FTP and DB manager, etc.) to get their job done, all these applications can sum up to a serious cost. In this post, I have collected a list of really useful free Mac applications for web designers and developers.

1. Anxiety

Anxiety is a super-lightweight To-do list application for Mac OS X Leopard that synchronizes with iCal and Mail. Its aim is to provide a streamlined, easily accessible interface to add and check off your tasks, while remaining poised to melt into the background at a moments notice.

2. iTerm2

iTerm2 is a replacement for Terminal and the successor to iTerm. It works on Macs with Leopard or Snow Leopard. Its focus is on performance, internationalization, and supporting innovative features that make your life better.

3. Flaex

Compiled Flash files (.SWF) are normally locked and resources used inside can not be reached however this application is for extracting images, sounds, videos, etc… from any .SWF file

4. WidSense

Widsense is a small widget to be used with the Dashboard provided by Apple in Mac os X.4. This widget connects automatically to your Adsense account and gets the last update of your CSV file. Then, Widsense displays some statistics about the impressions, clicks and revenues for the current day, the 2 previous days and the current month. You can save your login and password, so that you do not need to mention it each time you launch the Dashboard.

5. Dashalytics

Dashalytics is a free Dashboard Widget for your Apple Mac that offers quick access to Google Analytics statistics.

6. FontDoc

A simple but very useful application for browsing the fonts installed.It can display all fonts with a custom text in any size and a must-have for anyone with a huge font collection.

7. Sequel Pro

A complete MySQL database manager that can connect to any number of databases and has features like:

a query editor
import/export of databases/tables
paginated data browsing
and much more.

8. VirtualBox

VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2.

9. LittleIpsum

A lorem ipsum generator which can create words, sentences or paragraphs and sits in the menu bar for quick access.

10. Less.app

{Less} extends CSS with variables, nested rules, operators and more. If you’re still building websites without it. This app makes it dead simple to use {Less} by automatically compiling *.less files into standard CSS.

11. Vico Editor

Another editor for programmers with integrated SFTP and powerful keyboard management.

12. Pencil

Pencil is an animation/drawing software for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. It lets you create traditional hand-drawn animation (cartoon) using both bitmap and vector graphics. Pencil is free and open source.

13. Inkscape

Inkscape is an open source vector graphics editor which works in all major platforms and offers the features of a high-quality vector drawing application.With a slick interface, the software supports lots of advanced SVG features (markers, clones, alpha blending, etc.) and editing nodes or performing complex path operations can be simply handled.

14. DrawBerry

With layers, powerful tools, inspectors and workspace, DrawBerry is a complete and easy-to-use drawing solution. Moreover, CoreImage filters, based on a great Apple technology, offer you new ways to improve your drawing, extending the possibilities to the infinite.Some great exclusive features, like the magnifying glass or the undo history, will help you to draw more and more accurately.

15. Blender

Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.

16. Pixen

A Mac OS X pixel editor that has a Photoshop-like interface and pretty lightweight.It has real time tiled editing and powerful palette control. Also, different tools can be assigned to left and right mouse control for a faster usage.

17. Google SketchUp

An easy-to-use and powerful 3D modeling program built by Google.It is possible to create anything from simple drawings to advanced ones and it comes with a 3D Warehouse that includes lots of free models.

18. NodeBox

NodeBox is a Mac OS X application that lets you create 2D visuals (static, animated or interactive) using Python programming code and export them as a PDF or a QuickTime movie. NodeBox is free and well-documented.

19. Colorate

Colorate is a utility for creation of harmonized color palettes and color schemes, aimed from hobbyist to professional designers.

20. Paintbrush

Paintbrush is a simple paint program for Mac OS X, reminiscent of Microsoft Paint and Apple’s own now-defunct MacPaint. It provides users with a means to make simple images quickly, something that has been noticeably absent from the Mac for years.

21. Seashore

Seashore is an open source image editor for Mac OS X’s Cocoa framework. It features gradients, textures and anti-aliasing for both text and brush strokes. It supports multiple layers and alpha channel editing. It is based around the GIMP’s technology and uses the same native file format.

22. Cyberduck

An open source application which enable us to manage files in almost any remote locations including FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Cloud Files, Amazon S3, Windows Azure and even Google Docs.

23. Chatbox

Chatbox is a free app for the popular file storage/sharing solution Dropbox for commenting and/or discussing about files.

24. FileZilla

One of the most popular free FTP applications around which supports FTP, FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SFTP.

25. SvnX

An open source interface for SVN for browsing working copies, browsing logs and revisions of the repositories.It supports all major SVN commands, drag ‘n’ drop between repository browser and Finder is possible and integrates with FileMerge.

26. OneButton FTP

OneButton FTP is a graphical FTP client for Mac OS X with a strong emphasis on simplicity, drag and drop usability, and file queuing. It allows you to easily transfer files to and from remote servers, such as the ones hosting your website, simply by dragging files to and from your computer.

27. Komodo Edit

Komodo Edit is a fast, smart, free and open-source code editor. Switching your trusty code editor is hard, but give Komodo Edit (or its big brother Komodo IDE) a try: it’ll be worth your while.

28. Aptana RadRails

Similar to Aptana Studio, RadRails is also a great code editor that is open source. With only one difference, it is focused on Ruby on Rails applications.It includes support for project navigation, smart code assistance, visual debugging and structure outlining.

29. Code::Blocks

Code::Blocks is a free C++ IDE built to meet the most demanding needs of its users. It is designed to be very extensible and fully configurable.

30. Simple CSS

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a good way to specify the styles of fonts and other page elements on your sites. It makes it easier for you to update styles too, because when done right, you only need to make a single change to update the styles on multiple pages and elements.

31. WebScripter

WebScripter IDE is for the web programer who demands a compact GUI and powerful editor which brings together all the elements of the trade into a single interface. Designed with the principal in mind: “everything you need, needs to be where you need it” WebScripter will help give you a place to work where you’re productive and comfortable because you’re surrounded by the tools you need to get the job done.

32. Geany

Geany is a text editor using the GTK2 toolkit with basic features of an integrated development environment. It was developed to provide a small and fast IDE, which has only a few dependencies from other packages. It supports many filetypes and has some nice features.

33. Kod

Kod is a text editor built for programmers with syntax highlighting, tabbed windows and an integrated scripting environment based on Node.js.The styling of the editor can be completely customized with CSS3.

34. Xcode

Xcode is the complete toolset for building Mac OS X and iOS applications — and with Xcode 4, the tools have been redesigned to be faster, easier to use, and more helpful than ever before. The Xcode IDE understands your project’s every detail, identifies mistakes in both syntax and logic, and will even fix your code for you. Quite simply, Xcode 4 will help you write better code.

35. Eclipse

Eclipse is a free, state-of-the-art Java development environment (there are also JS, PHP and C/C++ versions).It has a very active community and many open source plugins + developer tools built around the ecosystem.

36. NetBeans

It consists of an open-source IDE and an application platform that enable developers to rapidly create web, enterprise, desktop, and mobile applications. Java is the main platform and it also supports JavaFX, PHP, JavaScriptx, Ruby +Ruby on Rails, Groovy and Grails and C/C++.

37. GitX

GitX is a git GUI made for Mac OS X. It currently features a history viewer much like gitk and a commit GUI like git gui. But then in silky smooth OS X style!

38. MAMP

The abbreviation “MAMP” stands for: Macintosh, Apache, Mysql and PHP. With just a few mouse-clicks, you can install Apache, PHP and MySQL for Mac OS X. MAMP installs a local server environment in a matter of seconds on your Mac OS X computer, be it PowerBook or iMac. Like similar packages from the Windows- and Linux-world, MAMP comes free of charge.
MAMP is installed in the typical Mac fashion: very easily. MAMP will not compromise any existing Apache installation already running with your OS X. You can install Apache, PHP and MySQL without starting a script or having to change any configuration files.

39. Cocoalicious

Cocoalicious is a del.icio.us client for Mac OS X. It acts as a desktop interface to your del.icio.us bookmarks

Cocoalicious is open source, available under the terms of the BSD License. If happen to have an iPod (and who doesn’t these days?) and you’d like to support Cocoalicious development, you might consider purchasing an $8 license for PodWorks, my iPod song transfer application. Or, if you have an iPhone and use Twitter, you might check out Birdfeed, my iPhone Twitter client.

40. MochaCode

MochaCode is a Mac-exclusive Java IDE that earns its place on your dock by providing a distinctly “Mac” user experience. Text editors, keyboard shortcuts, toolbars, and more, all behave exactly as you’ve come to expect from a Mac application.

Author : Dustin Betonio

15 Useful Online Mind Mapping and Brainstorming Tools

Dustin Betonio — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 05:03:56 +0000

Concept mapping and Mind mapping software are used to create diagrams of relationships between concepts, ideas or other pieces of information. It has been suggested that the mind mapping technique can improve learning/study efficiency up to 15% over conventional note taking. It is also a popular planning technique with applications across all business sectors and industries. It is used by individuals, corporate teams, students and teachers alike for various purposes.

It is also great way to add structure to brainstorming sessions and visualize your ideas. The most obvious benefit of online collaboration is that it lets people who aren’t in the same location work together on a project. Since several companies have offices in multiple cities and countries, it’s important to find ways to keep all the people working on a project informed and engaged. It also makes team projects easier to manage. In this post, check out the best mind mapping and brainstorming web apps that will help you work as a group.

1. Spider scribe

SpiderScribe is a user friendly, free and online collaborative mind mapping tool for project management and brainstorming. With this flexible tool you can create freestyle and multi-directional maps – and combine them with elements such as images, text, files, calendar events and geographic locations.

2. Mindmeister

MindMeister is by far the most simplistic mind mapping tool in the top five, but its simplicity is definitely an asset. Once you’re logged into the service, you can create a fully functionalmind map using little more than the directional arrows and the Insert key to add new nodes to your map. Additional customizations like font size and node colors are available for when you want to go beyond the basics. In the upper right corner is a navigation window, handy for when your mind maps become larger than the display space. Exporting is also a strong point for MindMeister; you can export your files to a text outline, PDF, JPG, PNG, or GIF. MindMeister’s history function lets you view past versions of your mind map and revert to them if you desire. You can share your maps for public collaboration or hand-select collaborators.

3. Zoho

Zoho is web based software that helps you create online database apps to organize your business information. It is designed to offer an organized mechanism for storing, managing and retrieving business information over the web s it helps businesses and organizations get work done. The applications are delivered over the internet, requiring nothing but a browser.

4. WiseMapping

WiseMapping is a free online mindmapping and collaboration tool which helps in Creating mind maps online, invite friends as contributors, save maps as PDF, embed maps, and more. The drag’n’drop capabilities of WiseMapping make it easy to build up your diagram.

5. Think

Mind maps are very useful for visualizing and structuring ideas, brain storming, studying and much more. Think is an online tool that lets users create interlinked mind maps. You can use it to create, change and view mind maps. The simplicity of use is what makes Think unique.

6. Mind42

Cool mind mapping tool for creating highly customizable organization charts. Each chart node can be colored, converted to an image, supplemented with a custom icon, link, attachment and more.

7. Mindomo

Mindomo is an online mind map Software where users can create, view and share mind maps in their browser. Mindomo was first available in February 2007. Mindomo is offering the basic services for free, while charging for advanced features. Unregistered users can view the mind maps, while registered users are permitted to create and share mind maps.

8. Gliffy

Extremely powerful techy-oriented diagram creation and collaboration tool, create anything from basic flow-chart diagrams to well-documented troubleshooting guides.

9. Mindjet MindManager

The interface and feature set of MindManager are very polished, and the primary menus are set up like the Microsoft Office Ribbon. After the initial installation, MindManager walks you through the creation of a sample mind map—helpful both to familiarize you with the interface but also to show you features you may have overlooked.

10. XMind

The interface is simple and intuitive to use. You can quickly move through your entire mind map with only a handful of keystrokes or jump over to the outline view for even quicker navigation. In addition to a basic mind map you can also create fishbone, organizational, tree, and logic charts. You can export charts as HTML, images, or text, and XMind comes a free account on XMind.net which allows you to share your charts online and embed them into blogs and web sites.

11. Glinkr

Map and share your views of contents on the Web. See example on the right of a map of the debate “Which answer to the oil supply crisis?”. Glinkr is free, simple to use and aims a broad variety of usage.

12. Solvr

Solvr is an interesting group problem solving tool which allows a group of people collaboratively discuss problems and ideas over the net. The application provides a platform where a person can share thoughts or problems and then invite others to add ideas on how to solve them. Each suggested idea is presented as a separate branch and anyone can easily vote on it or add their own suggestions.

13. Bubbl.us

Mind mapping is a fantastic way to sketch out ideas and do some really productive brainstorming. Bubbl.us is a mind-mapping product aimed towards exactly anyone who needs help organizing their thoughts or any jumbled information. Powered by Flash, Bubbl.us makes it easy for anyone to quickly start planning and sorting out their ideas through the use of linked text bubbles.

14. iMindMap

iMindMap takes a different approach to mapping than the other applications in the list. Rather than create new nodes off the main idea by adding boxes, nodes are created by clicking in the center or the main idea and drawing away from it with the mouse. Each new idea is a branch off the center. Strangely, many of basic feature available in free mind-mapping software are only found in the more expensive versions of iMindMap, like the ability to expand and collapse branches. Mind maps created in iMindMap can be exported as PDF, JPG, PNG and text outline.

15. Comapping

Comapping is online mind mapping software to manage and share information. Use it to take notes, plan and organize. It’s a way to have one set of notes. One set of files. For everyone.

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Author : Dustin Betonio

25+ Useful Firefox Add ons that works perfectly with Firefox 4

Dustin Betonio — Mon, 02 May 2011 04:45:31 +0000

The long-awaited Firefox 4 is finally here, not only is Mozilla Firefox 4 fast, feature-rich, and secure, but it’s also the most customizable Firefox ever. Whether you’re an add-on aficionado or just getting started with personalization, the brand new Add-ons Manager, restartless Firefox add ons, and automatic updates make finding and using add-ons a breeze. And with hundreds of thousands of add-ons updated for this version, there’s no better time to make Firefox your own with a time-saving notifier or stylish.

Discovering, installing, and managing Firefox add ons is simple with the new Firefox add ons Manager in Firefox 4. The tab-based layout allows ample room to view your installed Firefox add ons and search for new ones. The Get Add-ons pane now features the favorite picks and even recommends add-ons for you based on those you currently use. In today’s post, I will feature some great and useful add-ons that works perfectly and compatible with Firefox 4.

Firefox add ons you will not like to miss

1. Personal Menu (Personal Firefox Button)

Personal Menu provides you a couple of new helpful items that available to be put into Firefox Menu: Bookmark Items, History Items, Configuration(about:config), Restart.
In addition, you may create toolbar-box (let you put toolbar-buttons inside), sub-menus and split-menus to organize your Firefox Menu!

2. Adblock Plus

Adblock Plus allows you to regain control of the internet and view the web the way you want to. The add-on is supported by over forty filter subscriptions in dozens of languages which automatically configure it for purposes ranging from removing online advertising to blocking all known malware domains. Adblock Plus also allows you to customize your filters with the assistance of a variety of useful features, including a context option for images, a block tab for Flash and Java objects, and a list of blockable items to remove scripts and stylesheets.

3. Barlesque

Barlesque is an extension for Mozilla Firefox 4.x that reclaims useful window space by collapsing the wide grey add-on bar into a neat set of add-on buttons. This extension is Firefox 4.x-only, as add-on bar is a new feature.

4. Tab Scope

Shows a popup on tabs and enables you to preview and navigate tab contents through popup. Major features are:

- Real-time preview of tab contents
- Navigate (Back/Forward/Reload/Stop) through popup
- Scroll pages or frames in preview with mouse wheel
- Click links or buttons directly in preview
- Automatically show preview for tabs opened in background

5. Status-4-Evar

That status bar was removed in Firefox 4.0. While some of the status bar items did find new homes, some did not, and you might not like where they ended up. Status-4-Evar aims to bring back (some of) the old status bar items, give you more control over the built-in Firefox features, and provide new alternatives.

6. Awesome Screenshot – Capture & Annotate

Capture the whole page or any portion, annotate it with rectangles, circles, arrows, lines and text, blur sensitive info, one-click upload to share.

7. Download Statusbar

Despite its compact size, Download Statusbar packs in more useful features than the standard download window. The fully customizable interface auto-hides when not in use, allowing full control without interruption.

8. Tab Badge

Adds a small badge to your tabs to alert you to (for example) new messages on Facebook. The badge is also visible when the tabs are pinned so you can see when there’s something new available.

9. Movable Firefox Button

Move Firefox Button to anywhere you want, and make it also available in Full Screen mode, or when Menu Bar is showing.

10. Mozilla Labs – Prospector – Query Stats

A simple restartless add-on that displays information about your search behavior that deactivates itself after running.

11. Web Developer

The Web Developer extension adds various web developer tools to a browser.

12. TabGroups Menu

This add on adds a menu showing all tabs grouped by tabgroups (panorama/tabcandy groups) to the menubar and to the tabview (panorama) button (for those who have the menubar hidden).

13. Vertical Toolbar

Vertical Toolbar is a Firefox extension which adds a vertical toolbar at the edge of the window. Major features are:

- Add vertical toolbar at the edge of the window
- Automatically hide the vertical toolbar
- Many additional toolbar buttons

14. Gmail Manager

The original Gmail notifier for multiple accounts. Allows you to receive new mail notifications along with viewing account details including unread messages, saved drafts, spam messages, labels with new mail, space used, and new mail snippets.

15. FoxySpider

FoxySpider is your personal web crawler! It can crawl into a given web site and retrieve what you really want (video clips, images, music files, etc.). FoxySpider displays the located items in a well-structured thumbnail gallery for ease of use.

16. Anti-Aliasing Tuner

The most important add-on to fix the blurry fonts issue in Firefox 4.

17. KwiClick

KwiClick delivers search results from your favorite services directly to you, so there is no need to open new tabs or go back and forth between pages. KwiClick helps you complete tasks more efficiently.

18. LastPass Password Manager

LastPass is a free online password manager and Form Filler that makes your web browsing easier and more secure. LastPass supports IE and Firefox as Plugins (Opera, Safari, Chrome, iPhone, Opera Mini via Bookmarklets), allows you to import from every major password storage vendor and export too, captures passwords that other managers won’t including many AJAX forms, and allows you to make strong passwords easily.

19. F1 by Mozilla Labs

F1 is a browser extension that allows you to share links in a fast and fun way. Share links from within the browser, from any webpage, using the same services you already know and love. F1 is made by Mozilla Messaging.

20. Apture Highlights

Apture Highlights is a free tool, built from the ground up to let you take the power of Google search, and the richness YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, and Wikipedia with you to any site. Just highlight a phrase on any site to reveal the web’s best content without ever leaving the page. Fast, powerful, and fun.

21. Shareaholic

Share links from within the browser, from any webpage, with anyone, using the same services you already know and love like Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Evernote, Delicious, Digg, and more from one simple all-in-one browser add-on.

23. Mozilla Labs – Prospector – Home Dash

This restartless add-on removes the usual location bar, search bar, and tabs to give the whole window to the web content. It provides the search functionality in a dashboard to find your top sites, tabs, history, and do web search.

24. Thumbnail Zoom

The add on shows a floating panel with the full size of a thumbnail, when hovering over an image or thumbnail from the following sites: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Amazon, Picasa, Flickr, LinkedIn, Hi5, Twitpic, deviantART, PhotoBucket, Tagged, Last.fm, Wikipedia, YouTube, DailyMile and Google Images.

25. Firefox 4 UI Fixer

Change location of Status Bar Icons, Firefox Menu Button and Menu Bar and more.

26. Quickfox Notes

QuickFox Notes is a multi-tab note taking add-on for Firefox that uses the integrated bookmarks system or a single sqlite database to store notes. Consequently, XMarks, Dropbox, or any other software can be employed to sync notes!

I hope you liked all of the above Firefox add ons and that you will drop a comment if your favorite add on was left out!

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Author : Dustin Betonio

20 Useful Web Design Feedback Solutions

Dustin Betonio — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 04:35:37 +0000

Designers create designs which will be used by lots of people, so to measure how well a content page performs with users, they need to get an outside perspective to spot issues and validate design choices. One of the most critical parts of a project is getting critiques and advice on how to improve designs. Thanks to the web’s ability to connect us to people from all over the world, getting feedback for a web design has never been easier.

Online annotation tools for collaboration and getting feedback for web design and development projects. They are very useful for commenting, review and debugging with client and as well as with the team members. There’s always a feedback stage in the web design process which requires intensive interaction. Using these tools will always be very helpful especially if you want people to judge your design. In today’s post i have listed several tools that will enable you to share your work and receive reviews of it.

1. Feedback Army

Feedback Army enables its users to gather a more focused discussion around the review of the design. When they submit a feedback request, they are able to pose 4-6 questions that they would like answered by reviewers.

Price: $15 for 10 reviews

2. ProofHQ

This web application streamlines how designers manage review, proofing and approval of designs, artwork, documents and images. ProofHQ converts web and graphic designs files into web-based proofs that users can collaboratively review and mark-up together online.

3. Critique The Site

This handy web tool allows you to gather feedback about a website’s design. The tool works simply by adding a left frame beside the subject web page where users can leave feedback. Reviewers must first log in using a popular web service such as Twitter, Gmail, Facebook, or OpenID before being able to post a review of the site.

This tool makes it convenient to share a site for critiquing and gathering feedback, relying on the social web’s unrestrained penchant for talking about things. This tool is, however, limited to the amount of people you have access to as it doesn’t have a base of reviewers at hand to review your site.

4. Please Critique Me

Please Critique Me is a web resource by web design agency OnWired, which offers free design critiques by one of its design critics. The website is not only great for getting users’ designs critiqued by professionals, but is also a way to learn about effective design principles by reading archived critiques.

5. Suggestion Box

The exciting new way to send suggestions and then watch ideas turn into action. The one place where individuals can share ideas with every company, group, organization, and product on the planet. The best part of a free individual membership is that it’s interactive. People can stay in the loop by tracking their ideas, connecting with people, and improving the things around them.

6. Concept Share

ConceptShare is a web-based design collaboration tool engineered for the unique needs of creative professionals whose final product is visual – design, application interface, graphics, advertisements, branding, video animation, etc. ConceptShare gives creative professionals the ability to share their print, web and video projects and engage in a richer level of collaboration and feedback with peers, clients and other stakeholders.

7. SitePoint

SitePoint, a premier online media company that publishes articles and e-books aimed at web designers and developers, has a forum specifically for getting design feedback from their huge 350,000+ registered users. In the Website Reviews forum, where designers can request feedback on their web design, there are over 5,000 threads and 95,000 posts, indicating the large activity and regular availability of the community to help their fellow designers out by providing feedback.

8. Bounce

Bounce is a simple web application that gives web designers a platform for soliciting ideas and feedback about their website. It is intuitive to use — plug in your web design’s URL and it generates a screenshot of the site which people can make comments on.

9. Five Second Test

As the name suggests, the 5-Second Test involves showing users a single content page for a quick 5 secondsto gather their initial impressions. Evaluation can be done in two ways: Memory test and click test. Memory tests shows users a web layout for five seconds, then asks them what they remember afterwards. Click tests ask participants to click on the most prominent items on the page, also within five seconds.

10. WebProof

Automatically translate a text, whether in a PDF or a comment, to and from 53 languages. A good feature for either doing brochures, catalogues, etc. in several languages or for giving a better communication, when commenting between different languages.

11. UserTesting.com

UserTesting.com provides you with a cost-effective way to conduct remote trials of your site. You will be able to get feedback about your design by way of a video of a visitor speaking as he or she goes through your site, as well as written summaries of the problems they have encountered.

12. Userfly

With Userfly you can analyze how people are using your website. The free service records a screencast of how your users are interacting with your user interface. With just one line of code plugged into your web pages, you’re good to go.

13. Usabilla

Usabilla is another platform for conducting usability testing. This is a useful tool for obtaining feedback if you already have a live site up or would like to analyze the performance of a site redesign. Usabilla collects feedback from your visitors via a built-in annotation tool and other features that measure task performance. The tool presents the user with an on-screen activity (such as “Click on the most prominent object on this page”) and records the time it takes to complete the task.

14. Notable

Notable lets you take any webpage screenshot, sketch or wireframe and exchange notes on specific details with your team. You can quickly reply, vote or suggest a better idea. Our goal is to help you arrive at the best solution in the shortest amount of time.

15. Click Tale

ClickTale is the industry leader in Customer Experience Analytics (CEA), providing businesses with revolutionary insights into their customers’ online behavior. Over 50,000 businesses rely on ClickTale to optimize website performance, improve usability and dramatically increase conversion rates. ClickTale tracks every mouse move, click and scroll, creating playable videos of customers’ entire browsing sessions as well as powerful visual heatmaps and behavioral reports that perfectly complement traditional web analytics. As a fully hosted subscription service, ClickTale is cost-effective and quick to set up.

16. Get Backboard

Simplify document feedback for your workgroup.Backboard automates the entire process — from upload to final approval — all from within your web browser.

17. Designer Talk

A forum for designers to discuss ideas and get feedback on graphic and web design.