vevmedia.net/blog

My favorite Chromium Extensions…

vevmesteren — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:09:31 +0000

…so far anyways. Having been running Chromium for a while now, I have really grown quite fond of this browser and the speed at which the web comes so readily available to me. One thing that they definitely got right is the library of extensions, which is rapidly catching up with the Add-On library that Firefox (that still leads by a mile though). And no matter how many of you out there want to sell me the speed of Opera (on a complete that side-note), ‘Opera just don’t got it’. That whole floating widget thing just never caught on with me. But maybe I am just a creature of habbit. And my habit has always been against Opera. Enough about them, as I am not here to write about them. My focus are the Extensions I use. Before I do though, a word of appreciation when it comes to Chromium as such. Setting aside speed and slick integration into my Ubuntu Karmic Koala OS. There is one thing that Chrome actually took from IE, I am almost surprised to say this, but the fact that the Extensions in no way are adding any toolbars to the most important part of the browser really goes to show that even MicroS with IE got at least one right. Nor are there any Menus that are impeding visually, oh let’s not forget about the ‘New Incognito Window’ function either, allowing you to surf the web cache-less. Very awesome during a website launch. On to my favorite extensions in no particular order of appreciation…

Chrome SEO by Sean Bannister

“The Google Chrome SEO Extension. Make your SEO tasks easier with Chrome SEO Tools, includes ‘all’ the stats and data you need.” These are their own words. I like using it to write down initial numbers, then showing off new ones at a later stage. In general a great tool to evaluate SEO efficiency (Or the lack there off when in a pitch).

Webpage Screenshot by Amina

I remember way back when I was at a web shop that shall remain unnamed (but not unlinked off course) there was a brilliant colleague of mine (again unnamed and this time unlinked) that had this awesome tool that would allow him to send any URL into it, and on the other end, lo and behold, a jpeg (maybe a PDF I don’t quite remember) would come out, and not only of what was visible in the crummy browser window, no the entire page. Head to footer. Well this tool does the same, great when doing a round of QA any type of HTML and CSS.

Pendule by Christian Frey

Is there any developer can really make their way around without the Web Developer tool bar extending so many Firefox Browsers out there? I would think not. And the amount of times that I have tried convincing a colleague about the speed advantage of Chromium, but being told that the web developer tool bar is missing. Well the Pendule extension holds most of the tools I appreciated so greatly from the Web Developer Toolbar.

Firebug Lite by andrei.pervychine

Continuing down the same line, many developers can not do without Firebug either. Though I have never really needed it, as I am a CharlesProxy kind of guy. But just to stuff you on that one two, there is a Firebug for Chromium as well. As a matter of fact there are two separate developers working on an adaptation (maybe time to join forces guys)?

My Shortcuts by Thomas Hunsaker

Though I am still not convinced of the whole cloud hype (now that even Balmer swears to it, something fishy must be going on) I have been using GoogleDocs for a while now, just for it’s portability. Being able to move docs from one workplace to the other without any machine, being able to collaborate on docs etc really speaks for itself. This extensions just ads customizable dropdown of shortcuts to my favorite apps in the google cloud.

Chromed Bird by cezarsa

By far my favorite Twitter client for Chromium. Simple slick, and it does the job, enough said about that. Few words for the extension I have probably been the most faithful to.

goo.gl URL Shortener by giakomino

Why did I choose this URL shortner over the others you ask, well because it was there. And it, like the extension above, does the job. The Options I just started exploring a few days ago, so I will leave it at that.

On a closing note there is one essential extension that I am still looking for. I am looking for a proper delicious implementation. There are, obviously heaps and loads of those that claim they can please me. But so far no good. Yahoo’s own Firefox extension is still the one to measure by, but for Chromium there just isn’t one yet. If you know of any, let me know, also any other extensions you think I should use, please feel free to share…

Trying very hard not to be evil

vevmesteren — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:47:59 +0000

What must be said, though, they are propagating my blog, as well as this very video. So I guess they really are trying.

TED : The year open data went worldwide

vevmesteren — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:10:57 +0000

Wonderfully nerdy talk by Tim Berners-Lee given at TED about how data has been taken control of by the Open Source Community.

At TED2009, Tim Berners-Lee called for “raw data now” — for governments, scientists and institutions to make their data openly available on the web. At TED University in 2010, he shows a few of the interesting results when the data gets linked up.

BigBlueButton – Open Source Video Conferencing

vevmesteren — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:32:37 +0000

Promising Video conferencing tool that I stumbled across this weekend. It looks perfect for creating an online classroom, a small play ground for a dispersed development team, or pretty much anything else you can think of for this type of application. I tested it a bit with four people, and it ran really quite smoothly. The three roles are viewer, presenter, and moderator.

Viewer: are users who have no authority within the conference; their primary role is to view the presentation as well as chat amongst other participants. In a course the viewer would be the students.

Presenter: has all the same capabilities as a participant, with the added features of uploading presentations and sharing their desktop

Moderator: has all the capabilities as a participant, with the added features of uploading presentations and sharing their desktop.

And the beauty of it all being that is open source and free.

VIA

Pretty shitty city

vevmesteren — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:08:08 +0000

I just stumbled across this online documentary. It seems that a lot of things can be said about Swansea. The rule-britannia documentary is well worth checking out. I am still wrestling with the idea if I should go to Swansea or not.

Swansea Love Story @ vbs.tv

I am also sharing my first introduction to Swansea:

Now go watch the documentary Swansea Love Story

3 is not always a crowd

vevmesteren — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:27:42 +0000

This tutorial is like a KinderSurprise. It has three things, an introduction to Flash Builder, an introduction to Flex and finally a great introduction to connecting to an AMF service.

Also looks like there will finally be something to replace the oh-so-missed class generator that existed back in the previous AMFPHP versions.

Seeing Flash Builderm I am still not clear as to what the difference is between the Flex builder and Flash builder. Especially seeing a Flex app being built in Flash Builder. but I am sold on the whole Catalyst/Builder concept since first seeing it over at the labs. Yeas I admit it, I have been dabbling around without in my freetime. No matter what some people say, Flash is not about to die just yet.

VIA

Hollywood’s last ditch effort to hold on to the cinema model?

vevmesteren — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:53:14 +0000

Interesting discussion over on the guardian.co.uk to check out.

Will 3D change cinema for ever?

The Observer conversation: James Cameron’s Avatar is the biggest box office draw in history and is expected to triumph at the Oscars on Sunday. But how much of its success is due to the fact it was shot entirely in 3D? And what does this mean for the future of entertainment?

Participating:
John Lyus – heyuguys.co.uk
Matt Bochenski – littlewhitelies.co.uk
(the forver/still young) Jonathan Cresswell – britishgaming.co.uk

On a completely (and not so) different note, I would, at this point, like to ask the guardian.co.uk to allow embedding of their videos.

VIA

documentary pod’s

vevmesteren — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:39:03 +0000

Every now and then I mention a documentary podcast that I just listened to. Most of the times they will be something I heard on the BBC Documentary Archive Podcast by far the best podcast to subscribe to. Anyone with a player, add it to your list.

Sometimes on news, sometimes on Technology and the sometimes like one I embedded here (or like the last one released “Spanning the World”), a slice of life. Do check out the Virtual Revolution series as well.

Thank’s to the BBC for sharing…

a declaration of a independence : bright idea indeed

vevmesteren — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:03:02 +0000

Googling for John Perry’s online manifesto brought up this article and interview with Jaron Lanier. Well worth reading and listening into.

As for the declaration of independence itself, here you go:

Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.

– John Perry Barlow, “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace”

…taken from wikipedia

where did I hear of it, you ask? Why, in a bbc documentary of course…

Students? Really, Google?

vevmesteren — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:04:14 +0000

Just stumbled across this article, claiming that US officials and/or Google are closing in on the hacker(s) responsible for hacking their service. The news being that it probably was a student from a university. I just find that to be such an easy answer (like the “mentally deranged” person that attacks a public figure – there is always someone behind that person that is the instigator). Having run several large online contests, in 100 % of the cases, where people have attempted to break into my servers, the attempts came from University servers. And I am certain this is not because of impoverished students trying just about anything to get a little more material goods in their life, but rather, a proof of the inherit insecurity of these huge public networks, and students not having been thought the importance of securing their own usernames and passwords. Also, the hack happened because of a loophole in IE, and what better place to propagate a trojan horse like this then on a university campus network.
Anyways, maybe it’s just me…but I just never believe lone-gunmen stories, and in addition to that, the fact that he published bits of his own code on a traceable forum?

Come on, give us a bit of credit…

VIA