Tilt: a Firefox Addon for Viewing, Debugging and Editing Webpages in 3D

Are you a web developer and is Firefox your main browser? Then I suggest taking a look at Tilt: an addon that enables you to view the structure of a webpage in 3D. Not only does this look truly awesome but it is also very helpful and educating when used to view existing websites.

You can even use it with Firebug and Style Editor at the same time. Here is a quote from Mozilla blog post, which is linked below:

Because Tilt is able to detect when a webpage’s DOM structure changes or when a repaint is necessary, integration is seamless with existing Developer Tools. Using Tilt and Firebug or Style Editor at the same time is easy. One can enable or disable CSS properties, changing the style of a node, and the visualization changes accordingly.

Tilt can be extremely useful for solving nesting problems:

Tilt is useful when searching problems in the HTML structure (like finding unclosed DIV elements for example) by providing the extra third dimension, layering each node based on nesting in the DOM tree. Stacks of elements visually represent branches in the DOM, and each node can be inspected for the inner HTML contents, its computed CSS style and the attributes.

For a detailed explanation of the addon and a couple of cool videos that demonstrate it, click the link below.

Link : hacks.mozilla.org – Debugging and editing webpages in 3D

Audiotool: Create and Mix Music in Your Browser

Do you like electronic music? Yes? Good. Ever thought of creating or mixing this music yourself and feel like the next Tiësto or Armin van Buuren? Check. But do you have the equipment to get started? No? Then read on!

Audiotool is a music creation and mixing tool that works right in your browser. It is a Flash-based web application. Just visit  Audiotool’s website, start with a blank workspace or choose a template and get started.

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Fizy: Simplistic Online Music Search Engine and Player

Fizy is probably the most simplistic and powerful online, browser-based music search engine with integrated music player I have seen yet. Just visit Fizy’s website, enter your favorite artist and start playing the tracks it finds. If there is a video available for the track it will play that as well.

Signing up is not necessary, but if you do you will have some extra features at your disposal like creating playlists, scrobbling tracks to Last.fm and enabling an RSS feed that keeps track of the music you have played.

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Lastify: Last.fm Recommendations in a Spotify Playlist

Lastify is a great way to discover new bands and new music within Spotify by using the recommendations from your Last.fm profile and turning them into playlists. As a fan of both Last.fm and Spotify I immediately liked this website.

After entering your Last.fm username on Lastify’s website, a playlist is generated for you based on the artists that Last.fm recommends to you. After the playlist has been generated, you can subscribe to it in Spotify.

The playlist will be refreshed automatically every 24 hours. When you listen to tracks from your generated playlist from time to time, Last.fm will come up with new recommendations after a while, so over time the artists in your generated playlist will change.

I hope that Spotify will implement functionality like this and put it in their software. Until that moment comes, Lastify is a great tool I will surely keep on using.

4 Must-Have Books for Beginning iPhone and iPad Developers

Photo by Blake Patterson
In April 2010 Apple launched the iPad: the first tablet computer that was embraced by a large audience around the world. The moment I saw the keynote video where Steve Jobs introduced the iPad, I knew this device was going to be a big hit. I knew I wanted one. And I would have to wait until July before I could get my hands on one myself.

A few weeks after that keynote I also knew something else: that I would love to be able to develop apps for the iPad. After doing some research and visiting a seminar on mobile application development I realized that there was an awful lot to learn. First I would have to learn a programming language that was totally new to me: Objective-C. Then I would have to dive into the iPhone SDK and learn how to work with Xcode, Apple’s development tool.

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OS X Tip: Prevent iTunes from Opening when Pressing Play/Pause Key

People that own a Mac and use Spotify must have noticed the same annoying behavior of iTunes as I did. When you press the Play/Pause key on your keyboard, not only will Spotify start/stop playback of your music, but iTunes will open and start playing music as well. I don’t know if Apple sees this as an intended feature of iTunes but what I do know is that it’s incredibly annoying to say the least.

After looking around for a while on the Internet for a solution I found a workaround that is very elegant and does not need any additional programs to be installed or any scripts to be run.

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iTunes Tip: Keyboard Shortcut for the Search Field

As long as I have been using iTunes on the Mac I have been looking for a keyboard shortcut that puts the cursor in the search field in the upper right corner of the iTunes window. There is absolutely no mention of this shortcut key in the help files or in the menus. Even the official keyboard shortcuts overview for iTunes on Apple’s website does not list it.

After googling for a solution numerous times, trying out lots of key combinations and asking questions on Twitter a couple of times I finally found the answer on a forum:

Command + Option + F

Terrific!

Update January 8th, 2011:
In the Windows version of iTunes, use

CTRL + ALT + F

(Kudos to Stefaan for mentioning this in the comments)

How to Upgrade Your WordPress Site to Use Asynchronous Google Analytics Tracking

The following article gives a clear explanation of Google’s improved tracking method by using asynchronous tracking. The steps to upgrade your WordPress site are very simple, especially if you use one of the two plugins mentioned in the article.

If you don’t use the new tracking code yet then I recommend doing it as it will make your web pages load faster and enhance the collection of analytics data.

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TotalFinder for Mac OS X: Tabs and Folders Always on Top

Update September 27th, 2010:
As of today TotalFinder launched commercially. You may try the tool for free for 14 days. After the trial period you can buy a license for $15.

About four months ago I switched to a Mac after using a Windows machine for more than 15 years. I did this for a couple of reasons. The most important ones are the outstanding hardware and software for home studio recording that are available for the Mac and the fact that OS X is the only platform that can be used for app development for the iPhone, iPod and iPad, which I am putting a lot of effort in to learn. (More on that subject later in an other post.)

One thing I still find hard to get used to is the Finder application on OS X. Not that it is bad software, but because the folders are sorted alphabetically together with the files. This is a real pain in the ass since I am used to having the folders displayed first and the rest of the files below the folders in Explorer on Windows.

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Website Tip: Is It Down for Everyone or Just Me?

Have you ever tried to open a website and couldn’t reach it? You probably have, lots of times.

But what if you wanted to know if the problem is on your end or not? For example: is your own domain unreachable for you because of a firewall issue? Or is your favorite social media site unreachable because it is blocked by your company network?

Here’s a tip: go to “Down for everyone or just me?” at http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/, enter the domain you are having problems with and click on the link.

Simple or what?

Android App Tip: Visual Task Switcher

The following Android app was brought to my attention by Rachid, who maintains the blog DroidDen. Visual Task Switcher is a great app that gives you the ability to switch between running apps by pressing the Home key. Long-pressing an app will (force) stop the application.

Make sure you visit DroidDen for more Android tips and stories.

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Tips for Better Productivity and Training to Focus

“How to Focus” is an interesting article with useful tips to help you focus better and train to lengthen your attention span.

Now everyone close your Twitter clients, shutdown your email, disconnect that second monitor and get to work!

Tips for Loyal Windows XP Users That Want to Stick with This OS for As Long As Possible

I was in the same camp actually as the audience this article is addressed to. My current opinion is: move to Windows 7 as soon as you can.

Or buy a Mac… 😉

Microsoft’s support for Windows XP may be fading, but a loyal horde of XP users plans to stick with this venerable OS for as long as possible.

If that’s your long-term goal, there are a number of steps you can take now to ensure a finely tuned XP system for months — possibly years — to come.

Link : Windows Secrets – Preparing Windows XP for the long haul