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Twig – WordPress Twitter Integrator
I just put together my first release of Twig, a plugin for WordPress that will pull your tweets from Twitter, cache them in a database, and display them chronologically intermingled with your WordPress posts. It the first version, so there are bound to be bugs with it. I hope to add more features soon, but I wanted to get an initial version out the door before the scope creeps into oblivion.
If you’re brave enough to try this initial release, please let me know if you encounter any bugs, as well as ideas for feature enhancements you might have. Cheers!
- Download Twig 0.1
- Documentation
- Plugin Page @ WordPress.org
Skyfire, mobile browsing unleashed
I have been looking for a decent web browser for my Windows Mobile phone lately. For the life of me, I can’t comprehend why Windows Mobile 6 came with IE 6. It’s quite frustrating to use – slow, featureless, clunky, and did I mention slow? I tried Minimo, and although it supports tabs, I thought the navigation on my Motorola Q9c was clunky. I went to download Opera Mobile, but the download page says it’s for touchscreen Windows Mobile only, so that wouldn’t work for me. I then did a Google search for “windows mobile web browser” and one of the early hits was for Skyfire.
I downloaded and installed it on my phone. I was nervous, because I forgot my SD card and my internal storage was very low. Amazingly, the download was a little over 500k, and there was enough room on my phone for it to install.
I launched the browser and was pleasantly surprised. It was fast, easy to navigate, and the rendering was phenomenal. I had always thought the download speed on my phone was slow, but I think it was a problem with IE 6, since pages render very quickly on Skyfire.
The only problem I had was when the installer asked if I wanted to install a search widget onto my home screen. I approved, since it sounded handy, however, it totally mangled my theme, so I eventually switched back to my previous theme (easy fix). Beyond that, I think the browser is great!
December 24th, 2008 
Mobile, Software 
Tags: browser, Mobile, skyfire, smartphone, web, windows mobile, more... Ubuntu – Linux for Human Beings
Ok, the “human beings” thing might be a stretch. I’ve found Xandros Deluxe to be more newbie friendly, mostly because it offers Windows emulation via CrossOver Office. However, you have to pay for it, and it costs about the same as Windows XP Home upgrade. I have no problem with that, but I perfer a free as in beer distro for home, because I’m cheap.
For the average techie who wants to make the transition to Linux, I’ve found Ubuntu to be fantastic (and it’s free as in beer and speech). It’s a fairly simple and straightforward distribution, and has good community support. I’m also a big fan of Debian (at least on the server), which Ubuntu is based on. On my spare machine, I actually run Kubuntu, which is the KDE version of Ubuntu (which uses Gnome), because I find myself more comfortable with KDE.
I’ve been trying to make the switch from Windows for several years, but there are just a few killer apps that have kept me on Windows. I’ve tried Fedora, SuSE, Ubuntu, Mandriva, and Xandros on the desktop. I really like Fedora, but Ubuntu is gaining more and more of my attention. As the article says, it just works (at least as much as can be expected from a modern Linux distro). I’m still light years away from making the switch, and since I’m currently an ASP.NET developer, I may never make the switch (yes, I’m aware of Mono). But it’s a cool distro to play with.
I’m also fond of Win4lin, which allows you to run Windows in a virtual environment on Linux. However, the standard and home versions only run Windows 9x. The Pro version, which allows Windows 2000 and XP costs $70. Not too bad of a price, but it slightly diminishes the value of switching to Linux in the first place. CrossOver Office Standard costs only $40, but it doesn’t give me the flexibility of Win4lin for doing real testing, and I dislike dual-booting.
Remote Desktop Through Firewall
We had the problem of allowing vendors and contractors to remotely connect to some of our systems through the firewall. We had tried solutions like WebEx, which is very robust but extremely expensive. Looking for a cheaper or free solution, I did some research. I figured there had to be some sort of VNC-like client that would connect to an intermediary server to allow communication through a firewall, just like Webex. Perhaps there was a piece of server software that I could install on an external server to do just that.
That’s when I stumbled across TeamViewer – free, open source, based on VNC, and extremely simple to use and setup (which is nice, so you don’t have to send complex instructions to the remote user). Both clients download a small executable and run it. You are given a connection ID (which looks like an ICQ number). You give the remote user your connection ID and they click connect. Simple as that, and it works through a firewall. It’s a little slow, but it works great for a remote desktop connection through a firewall.
Adobe Buys Macromedia
As many geeks already know, Adobe Systems, Inc. has agreed to buy Macromedia for $3.4B in stock. I have mixed feelings about this. Although both companies make some good products (and some bad ones), I fear the future of Macromedia products like Flash, Fireworks, and FlashPaper. Will Flash become as bloated as Adobe Reader? Will Fireworks be discontinued or merged into ImageReady? Will FlashPaper be discontinued in favor of PDF technology? FlashPaper is pretty cool, if you haven’t tried it. It basically converts documents to Flash applets, similar to PDF but viewable with the Flash plugin. It’s fairly fast and has a nice user interface.
In the end, however, it’s probably better that Adobe purchased it than the likes of Microsoft, since Adobe at least has some support for other platforms. A purchase by Microsoft would almost guarantee the death of any sort of future for Macromedia products on Linux, and stagnating development on the Macintosh line (not to mention Microsoft’s history of “embracing and extending” products into proprietary oblivion).
Many others are worried about the future of ColdFusion and DreamWeaver with Adobe. I don’t use ColdFusion, so I don’t really care, but I think it would bolster the company’s server offerings. Although I don’t use DreamWeaver, I simply hate GoLive (which I lovingly pronounce as if it rhymed with “olive”). Merging DW into GoLive would be a mistake, as it’s probably the most robust WYSIWYG web development tool on the market. Perhaps it would allow Nvu to get more recognition and development time, though.
April 19th, 2005
News & Current Events, Software Tags: adobe, evil, macromedia, merger, pdf, more... Ximian Evolution – The Outlook Killer
Finally, a project has been announced to port Ximian Evolution to Windows! This is actually significant, as Evolution is one of the few “Outlook Killers” that support Exchange and GroupWise e-mail and calendar support! This is great news for those stuck on Microsoft Outlook or GroupWise because they need the calendar and/or advanced e-mail features they provide. I personally still like Thunderbird better for my needs, but this will be a capable alternative to MS Outlook in the enterprise. Although, Evolution does allow you to post to a folder without sending an e-mail to yourself 
Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 Released
Joy and rapture! My e-mail client of choice, Mozilla Thunderbird, has reached its 1.0 release. Get it while it’s hot (and while you can connect to the servers).
- Link: Mozilla Thunderbird
- Save their bandwidth: BitTorrent Download
- Vote for a my feature request: The ability to POST messages to Thunderbird folders
Mozilla Firefox 1.0 Released!
The day is finally here – the long-awaited 1.0 release of Mozilla Firefox has arrived.
Firefox News
Well, anyone who follows Slashdot already knows that Firefox RC1 was released today, although it still contains the Slashdot rendering bug. However, it is apparently not an actual release candidate as the version number suggests, but merely an interim version. While skimming the comments on Slashdot, I found a link to processor-specific optimized Firefox and Thunderbird builds. The trunk versions fix the Slashdot bug, but have the old Find (Control-F) design. It’s unfortunate I have to choose between my preferred Find method and proper rendering of Slashdot, but I guess you get what you pay for. Right now I’m running the MOOX M3 optimized build of RC1. Not too shabby.
Sim City 3000 for Linux for Sale
I have a rare copy of Sim City 3000 for Linux for sale on eBay. Since Loki Games went out of business, this edition is no longer manufacturered. Bid and play your favorite game on Linux today!
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