Posted by Chris Blackwell on Feb 28, 2009 in
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I tried my first ever automatic upgrade of WordPress a couple of weeks ago. While the upgrade seems to have gone smoothly, I always wonder what legacy stuff might have been left behind.
I would really like to know how the other website owners upgrade their WordPress installs. Do you upgrade manually or use the new automatic upgrade feature?
Please leave a comment explaining why you choose one method over the other.
Tags: upgrade, Web Development, wordpress
Posted by Chris Blackwell on Jan 6, 2009 in
Apple Last year my most popular post was My Top 10 Mac Applications. I have decided that since I am always changing my usage and trying out new applications that I should make this an annually updated article.
Below are my top 10 mac applications I am using as of this writing. I have placed a comment if the position of the application on the list has changed or remained the same. Please leave whatever applications you are using in the comments as I think we could all benefit from seeing everyone’s different usage.
- FireFox (1st in 2008) web browser is my first and foremost application on any computer, running any platform. This great open source application is a secure alternative to Internet Explorer on the Windows platform or Safari on the Mac platform. The browser is made by the company Mozilla which is dedicated to providing free open source software to the general public. FireFox has a huge community base and has thousands of extensions that are available to add to the functionality of the browser.
Price: FREE (Open Source)
- 1Passwd (4th in 2008) is a program that keeps track of all your usernames, passwords, and form data. The program not only keeps track of all your secure information but it also includes a secure password generator that automatically fills a password request field with a very secure password and then is remembered by the program. This allows you to do what you should be doing all along which is use a different password for each website. All you have to remember is your one master password and 1Passwd will remember the rest. It is completely encrypted using the keychain and can even be synced between your various mac computers using Apple’s Mobile Me.
Price: 30-Day Free Trial then $39.95 USD
- TextMate (new for 2009) is the text editor that has been missing all my life. I just discovered this little jem last year and I still can’t believe how I ever lived without it. TextMate provides syntax highlighting for just about every programming language in use today. Using a simple drop down menu on the program’s bottom bar, you can change between languages on the fly. TextMate also comes preloaded with hundreds of code snipplets too for quickly adding text or special character encodings in. There are simple too many features to fully go into detail in this post. Please give TextMate a try today if you do anything but edit the most basic forms of text.
Price: 30-Day Free Trial then €39
- Super Duper (10th in 2008) takes care of the task that all of us seem to avoid, BACKUP! SuperDupper can be setup to make a complete screen shot of your computer’s hard drive so you can be backup within minutes of a complete system failure. SuperDuper also allows for incremental updates so you don’t have to make a huge backup file every night. Super Duper was updated last year to work with Leopard’s Time Machine.
Price: Free for regular backup, $27.95 for advanced feature
- Transmit (new for 2009) by Panic is simply the best FTP program I have ever used on ANY platform. The ability to upload to Amazon S3 and Apple’s iDisk is fantastic. Transmit also allows you to sync between different folders, use tabbed site management, has dock status updates, and syncs your saved FTP sites with Mobile Me. This is a must have app for anyone who manages websites or needs remote file management.
Price: $29.95 USD
- Text Expander (6th in 2008) is a tiny application that runs quietly in the background of your Mac. It allows you to enter snipplets (small text phrases) that will expand into preset text or graphic strings. For example; say you keeping having to enter your email address like bob@something.com. You could setup a key so everytime you type bob@ the text is automatically replaced with bob@something.com. You can even program in complete email signatures, and photos to pop up, just about anything you can think of. This is a great time saving application that has saved me from a lot of excess typing.
Price: 30-Day Free Trial then $29.95 USD
- Adium (3rd in 2008) is a aggregator of all your instant messaging applications. Using Adium you can connect to Jabber, AIM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, ICQ, or Google Talk. The interface is quite impressive and allows you to have all your IM contacts in a single application. The program is also expendable through skins, themes, and other extensions.
Price: FREE
- Skype (8th in 2008) which is now owned by eBay is a cross platform application that allows free PC-to-PC calling (both video and audio). What makes this program so spectacular, versus just using a regular instant messaging service, is the amazing high quality video calling and conferencing you can do. Skype also allows you to dial-out to regular phones to bring anyone into your conversation. Whatever operating system or computer you are running you owe it to yourself to give Skype a chance, a great communication tool for keeping in touch with friends and family.
Price: Free for PC-to-PC, $9.95 a month for unlimited long distance worldwide.
- Transmission (9th in 2008) is a very lightweight BitTorrent client. The application is very simple and takes up little system resources so that you can continuing downloading while not bogging down your CPU’s cycles.
Price: FREE (Open Source)
- Parallels (5th in 2008) allows you to run other operating system (like Windows) natively on your Mac. Unlike Apple’s bootcamp, Parallels allows you to run other operating systems inside a window running in OSX. Parallels supports a shared folder option that will allow you to keep the same folder for Documents, Music, Videos, etc. the same on both the Windows and Mac side. This is one of the most important programs you can have if you still have to run Windows.
Price: $99.95 USD
Tags: Apple, applications, mac, osx, Software
Posted by Chris Blackwell on Jan 4, 2009 in
Movies This list was fairly hard to make this year. While I saw a lot of movies this year, few really excited me or were good enough to add to my Blu-Ray collection. Keep in mind that this list does not include two 2008 movies that I still am waiting to see, Valkyrie and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
- The Dark Knight - This was the clear winner for 2008. Once I saw this movie it was all over but for second place. This movie was an incredible success and I think Heath Ledger’s acting performance should be learnt in drama classrooms for all time.
- Iron Man - If any movie competed with Batman this year it was Iron Man. Robert Downey Jr. did not disappoint as the egotistically billionaire who fights evil in his mechanical suite.
- 21 - I love Math, I love numbers, I loved this movie. The casting in this movie was perfect and I really felt a part of the kids journey into the dark world of counting cards. Great movie, defiantly worth the addition to your DVD collection.
- Wanted - I had pretty high expectations for this movie going in given the all-star cast, and while I was not blown away, I was not disappointed either. The action sequences are great and the odd humor that is added in once in a while is quite funny.
- Tropic Thunder - Could we have any more stars in this movie? I can’t think of another movie this year who had so many big name actors in it. Strangely enough this did not detract from the comedy of the movie. In fact, sometimes because of the prestige of the stars, the parts were even funnier then if the cast had been lesser known actors.
- Charlie Wilson’s War - This is the movie that didn’t get it’s due in 2008. Tom Hanks gives an excellent performance, which is complemented by the FANTASTIC performance of Philip Seymour Hoffman. The only person who really looked out of place in this movie was Julia Roberts.
- The Incredible Hulk - This movie is everything the original Hulk movie should have been. We see more of the action sequences we wanted, and the good side of the Hulk is brought out more. I had no expectations at all for this movie, but find myself now looking forward to the next one.
- James Bond 22: Quantum of Solace - I love James Bond, I just don’t love this James Bond. While I enjoyed the movie overall, I find some of the features from a good old Bond movie missing. I can’t put my hand on it, but I never feel like I’m watching a bond movie.
- Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - I had very high expectations for this movie and I was very let down. Indiana Jones seems to have went from ordinary explorer to superhero (that fridge scene). Overall I had fun watching it, but I found myself thinking it could have been so much more.
- Love Guru - No movie surprised me more in 2008 then the Love Guru. I did not even want to see this movie and only went as a favour to a friend. However, I found myself having a lot of fun watching it. Justin Timberlake’s French Canadian acting was so funny and really made the movie for me. Worth a watch in my opinion, but I wouldn’t add it to your collection.
Tags: 2008, Movies
Posted by Chris Blackwell on Dec 9, 2008 in
Apple I love using Apple Mail both for it’s simplicity and for the rich viewing experience of email. The one thing I truly miss from the PC side is the 3-column view that Outlook offers. Most computer screens are now widescreen and yet the Mail App continues to lack the ability to take advantage of this extra screen realestate. This problem has now been solved with WideMail. Try out WideMail today if you are looking to expand your mail program to utilize that extra space on your Mac’s screen.
Apple Mail with WideMail
Tags: Apple, email, osx, outlook, productivity
Posted by Chris Blackwell on Dec 9, 2008 in
General Today I decided to change my blog design from the long standing white background with the snowy mountains, to the new desk mess theme with my beloved iPhone. This change however has created some problems and errors in the layout. The first issue is that a lot of the images I have used in past posts had white backgrounds and/or borders that are conflicting with this new design. The images are also not floating around the text because of some missing css properties.
Another problem is the margins on some of my “list posts” are non-existent, and will need to be fixed. I will be working hard this week to get these errors fixed and look forward to some new posts I have coming up in a few weeks. I will be renewing my top ten apple applications for the new 2009 year, as well as running down a list of my favorite websites and applications throughout the 2008 year. Please subscribe to my feed so you don’t miss a single post.
Thank you,
Chris Blackwell
Tags: css, General, usability, web design
