ThinkLemon

Category: Development

Development related stuff

  • Get Firebug!

    if ((bWebDeveloper || bWebDesigner) && bFirefox) {

  try {

    var oNewExtension = new cExtension();
    oNewExtension.fetchXPI = fnFetchURL("www.getfirebug.com");
    oNewExtension.installXPI();

    if (oNewExtension.success) {
      console.log("Firebug installed successfully.");
      var oFurtherOptions = getElementById("divTellUser");
      oFurtherOptions.innerHTML = "About FireBug"
      oFurtherOptions.innerHTML += "FireBug Screencast"
      oFurtherOptions.innerHTML += "FireBug Overview"
    }

  }
  catch(e) {

    throw "Next time Gadget, next time!" // Take a look at the lower right corner...

  }

}

    Now if only I were able to debug that… 😉

  • Visualising the DOM for fun

    The Document Object Model, or DOM as it is known better, is usually visualised as a tree. For instance with the Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar or DOM Inspector / Firebug for Firefox. But there are other more fun ways, like Aharef did.

    Thinklemon DOM graph

    (more…)

  • Pizza in Europe?

    Google Maps Logo Lately there has been some news surrounding Google Maps. As a result I’m obliged to sum things up. ThinkLemon style, surely.

    First, it was called Google Maps (beta), then Local, and now Maps again. Probably because everyone was calling it Maps anyhow. The Google Blog explains more.

    Second, Maps has expanded to continental Europe. Finally I’d say.
    Not only are there more high-res images available, but also streetlevel maps where there used to be ‘greyness’. Take for instance this spot on the Dutch coast (Scheveningen). One could almost spot the make of the cars. Btw, Earth also features these high-res aerials and you can zoom in a wee bit more. 🙂

    And now for *drumroll* the pizza-test! (more…)

  • Firefox ACID2 compliance on its way

    ACID2 Reference image Now, after Safari, iCab, Konqueror & Opera 9 beta, it’s Firefox’ turn to comply with the ACID2 test. David Baron has built a special development version of Firefox that fixes some rendering issues that kept it from complying before. You can see the screenshot of ACID2 in action on his Flickr account.

    Now, why is seeing a smily face a good thing? Well, hopefully, this will bring about full cross-browser handling of CSS. And hopefully the times of hacking around for browser differences is coming to an end. IE7 fixes a lot of CSS-bugs, but apparently is not fully compliant to all CSS-standards. So the questions remaining: When will it be incorporated in the regular Firefox? When will IE(7) comply?

  • Google Earth: Suspected Earth Impact Sites March 2006 update (KML)

    SEIS database legendThe IFSG released a new database containing all the known suspected earth impact craters. I could not stay behind and updated the collection for Google Earth.

    Google Earth KML Download the March 2006 edition of the SEIS database (200KB KML).

    So if you happen to discover some craters yourself, now you can check if it’s in the collection of suspected and/or confirmed craters.

    Addendum (2006-03-14): A few people noticed that some craters are far off from where they’re ‘supposed’ to be. Just take a look at the crowd at 0 lat. & 0 lon. or ‘Hongkong’ in the middle of Africa. It’s all because the positioning in the original database is sometimes missing or just plainly wrong. It was my deliberate choice to include all structures and not filter out the bad ones.
    I’m slowly trying to find the right spot for some craters, but with 500+ structures it isn’t easy it’s quite a puzzle. 🙂 Especially if there are no visible cues on the ground. So if you have any suggestion as to where each crater really belongs, use the comment box below and I’ll update ASAP. Thanks!
    Added note: It looks like the conversion from Excel to KML introduced some errors as well. My bad, sorry.

  • Photoshop + Fireworks: Where to from here?

    John Nack on Adobe: Photoshop + Fireworks: Where to from here?:

    Now that Adobe and Macromedia have come together, we’re busily planning our next moves, and it would be great to get your input.

    If you’re a webdesigner/-developer this is an interesting read. Lots of thought for food here.

    (BTW, John Nack is the Senior Product Manager, Adobe Photoshop. So let him have it. ;-))

  • Extend Firefox Contest Winners

    The grand prize winners of the Extend Firefox competition are in. One of them is the one I use on a daily basis. In fact it’s the biggest reason why I’m using Firefox as my main browser. Props to Chris! 🙂
    But IMHO the Web Developer toolbar is only usefull for us web developers (and people who are affiliated to them). Anyway, here are the three winners:

    Grand Prize Category Winners:

    I’ve installed Reveal and am evaluating as of writing. Can’t say I like it. It’s … just bizarre. 🙂

  • Ask.com Maps & Directions

    The latest addition to the online mapping frenzy comes from none other than ask.com (that search engine that fired its card-bored butler remember?).

    At map.ask.com you can find maps and directions. A first glance may remind you of that other mapping solution. But … this one is aware of roads in the rest of the world, outside of the U.S.A. (& UK), as Tagzania found out before me. Kudos to them. 🙂

    Playing around with it though, this one caught my eye. An obscure censoring of a piece of The Hague, The Netherlands.
    Ask.com censored part of the Netherlands.

    As far as I know there aren’t any military, civilian or government installations in that area. Why anyone wants to censor a normal residential area with a kindergarten inside? Beats me.
    Google does show the contents BTW.

    Come to think about it. Currently there’s a lot of construction work going on in that park that’s being obscured… ahemmm

    Update (2006-04-24): It seems that the latest image update of Google (Maps & Earth) also censors this specific block. Albeit in a more gentle way. Nonetheless, it still baffles me why. Maybe it’s a trap street?

  • Google Page Creator (Beta of course)

    Googe Page Creator BetaNormally I wouldn’t blog about yet another new Google product release. Now would I? 😉 Hey, I’m not the Googleblog you know.
    But this time they’ve released a product that lets my mother create webpages in no-time, although I doubt if anyone’s waiting for another bridge-site. (Sorry mom. :-))

    So what is it?

    It’s an easy-to-use webpage publishing system. It’s easy as point & click to start creating pages, all with the familiar Google GUI as used in GMail/Base/Reader/etc. The site is currently coupled with your GMail account, meaning your mail username is also used to address the site. You’ll get a 100MB of space, so that should be enough to build a photoalbum or the likes. Uploads are handled beautifully by the way. And linking to other pages or sites is automatically checked, so it’s hard to make a mistake there.

    (more…)

  • PocketMod, Hipster PDA or Ductster PDA

    The PDA* market is becoming quite competitive it seems. Once a small niche, it looks to be ready for main-stream. There have been no mergers, buy-outs or busts … yet. But hey, it’s still an emerging market. Here’s the short-list:

    • PocketMod: The Free Disposable Personal Organizer: Nice pocket-sized, folding design, but takes a while to ‘install’. Comes with a multimedia instruction video and even offers a PDF-converter. Somewhat active userbase.
    • The Hipster PDA: Easy clip-on design. Multitude of organising possibilities. Active user community.
    • Ductster PDA: Spin-off from the Hipster PDATM. Improved (weather-)durability. Excellent for more extreme environments than just the office. Rather complicated ‘install’.

    Not convinced? Take a look at this Yahoo! Finance article.

    An expanding market makes choosing rather difficult. How much effort is one willing to take to ‘install’ his/hers PDA*? Oh what the heck, I’ll take’m all then!

    Contributions to expand the short-list are welcome. 🙂

    *PDA meaning ‘Paperbased Diary Assistant’.