a gthing science project

Posted by Sam at August 17th, 2007

Posted by Sam at August 16th, 2007

Two pieces of Mac software have really been coming through for me lately: CyberDuck and Smultron.

Whenever I look for a software package to solve some problem I am having, I first look for a free option. I don’t like pirating software, and I generally don’t pay for software unless I feel it is really exceptional. I often can’t justify spending ~$50 or more for something I may use only a couple of times. So when I wanted to replace Textedit, Apple’s built-in text editor (that’s notepad for all you Windows users), I began searching in the usual places I find free software first: Freemacware.com, sourceforge, etc.

I tried a bunch of different options. Textwrangler was one I liked particularly well, but I hated it every time I ran it because of the name and dorky icon. I know, I can get bothered by the weirdest things. I actually renamed textwrangler to notepad and changed the icon for a little while, but still - there was the name “Text Wrangler” up there in the title bar making me think of cowboys, big hats, and jeans that were tight in all the wrong places.

Others came and went, and then I found Smultron. The first thing I liked about Smultron is that it is a plain text editor. Textedit can do plain text, but you have to set the option every time, as it defaults to rich text format. When I think “notepad” I think down, dirty, simple text editing, nothing more - and that’s what I got from Smultron.

One of the things I liked right off the bat was the little tray to the side that could hold multiple documents in it. I could have ten text files open at once, all in a single window - like tabs with Firefox. I also appreciated that it was fast and simple.

As time went on I began to like Smultron more and more. The name took a little getting used to, but it’s not nearly as bad as Textwrangler or some of the others I tried. Once I had used it a few times it became my default editor without a second thought.

Recently I have been getting more and more into coding and have discovered that Smultron is even more powerful than I had anticipated. With features like syntax highlighting for TONS of types of code, split window view, and remote server file editing, I have even left Dreamweaver behind. The only thing I miss from Dreamweaver is auto-complete, which helped me many a time when struggling to remember an operator or a certain command’s syntax. Other than that, Smultron delivers everything I need and more.

One feature that stands out to me is snippets. If I come up with an interesting method of doing something in PHP, I can save it as a snippet and call it up almost immediately when I need it again. It’s great for pieces of code you use over and over again. Smultron also has templates, which can outline and entire webpage for you so you spend less time setting things up and more time designing and publishing.

But the greatest thing ever ever ever that I discovered last night, is that Smultron can be used to edit files on a remote server, say your web server. No longer do I need to download index.html, make an edit, re-save it, upload and overwrite the old copy to make a simple change. This is where CyberDuck comes into play.

CyberDuck allows you to directly edit documents and you can choose from a handful of text editors in the preferences pain. TextWrangler is on the list, to be fair, so it can accomplish the same task. Then, when I’ve browsed to the file I want in CyberDuck, I can just hit the Smultron icon in the toolbar and my document opens up ready to be edited. Fantastic!

I’m really digging the whole setup. If you are in the market for a new text editor, check out Smultron - and if you do any web development use it with CyberDuck. You’ll be amazed. Smultron even has auto-complete html tags (cmd+t) and matching braces highlighting.

I just noticed I’m a whole version number behind on Smultron, so I gotta go play with the new version!

Resources:
Smultron
CyberDuck
Text Wrangler

Posted by Sam at August 13th, 2007

A few of my friends are on an ongoing mission to learn how to use the *nix/BSD shell. For those interested, here is a handy cheat sheet for shell commands. Click on it for a PDF.

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Posted by Sam at August 12th, 2007

People have been telling me my RSS feed is broken for quite some time.

Well it’s fixed now. You can now subscribe to A GThing Science Project by clicking the little RSS icon in your location bar or using a bookmarklet, or whatever method you use for subscribing to feeds.

For the record, the RSS feed for this site is located here: http://gthing.net/feed/

Posted by Sam at August 8th, 2007

I recently moved to a new place and was excited when they advertised broadband Internet. As you can tell by my last post, having a speedy Internet connection is important to me, and is a factor when deciding where to live. This is understandable considering that my livelihood is directly related to me being able to be online.

One of the first questions I asked the head of the HOA was who the Internet connection was through. Actually, it wasn’t one of the first questions, it WAS the first question, and it was the only question. He told be it was through Utah Broadband. Hmm… Never heard of them. A little research and I was disappointed to find out they were a wireless ISP. Judging by what I knew of Digis and others, I wasn’t at all excited about the download speeds I was expecting to get.

To my pleasant surprise, I ran a bandwidth test as soon as I could, and found the connection to be quite adequate. Not as fast as Comcast or any of the local fiber offerings, but fast enough to suit my needs. I went on about my business a happy camper.

Then I actually tried to download something. After a few minutes I noticed my speed drop down to almost nothing. I reset the connection, reboot the router, but still I was stuck at this turtle download pace. A call to Utah Broadband’s customer service confirmed what I feared - they traffic shape any connection which uses it’s full bandwidth for five minutes.

I asked if I could throttle my bandwidth down to a certain level to avoid being cut off, or if I could close the connection for one minute out of five, or if I could simply pay more to have the restriction removed. No such luck. Apparently the restriction is a network wide policy. What’s worse is that I live in an HOA so I have no other options.

I have resorted for now to using my cellphone data connection, which is actually faster than Utah broadband when they throttle me down. But I care enough about it that I will probably start getting involved in the HOA so I can try to get everyone on board to change to another carrier. I can’t live in a place with slow Internet for long - either it goes or I go.

Posted by Sam at August 7th, 2007

Once again the time has come for serious contemplation on the topic of leaving Utah behind. I won’t get into the reasons here, suffice it to say that Utah just plain sucks.

So where are Sam’s top destinations? I require only fast internet, a reasonable social scene, and less hyper-annoying/dramatic people than Utah. It would be nice to be able to afford it, too.

Sam’s Top Destination Picks:

1. Seattle, WA

It seems like a high percentage of the people I meet from the north-west (read: Seattle and Portland) are pretty cool. They might be smelly hippies, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Apparently since grunge rock died out, the social scene has been lacking somewhat, but it’s still rated among the best cities for young people. Seattle also gets an easy A for technology with so many big tech. companies nearby (read: Microsoft).

Canada Factor: Seattle is so close to Canada that you can hop the border, try to scam some free health care and be back in time for dinner.

2. Portland, OR

Portland seems like Seattle’s little brother. Overlooked by majestic Mount Hood, the citizens of Portland enjoy sales-tax free shopping and moderate temperatures year round. Actually, Portland is on average 1 degree warmer than Seattle, and has less extreme weather due to the surrounding mountains.

Trail factor: High possibility of dying of dysentery while on trails in Oregon. (Anyone?)

3. Pheonix, AZ

After seeing the images that come up on a Google search for “Phoenix, AZ,” I’m rethinking even having this city on the list. Although Forbes seems to think it’s a great place for young people as far as finding jobs and a reasonable social environment, it’s hotter than the surface of the sun and apparently their city is full of cacti. On the other hand, I have also met a lot of pretty cool people from Arizona.

Arizona Factor: Arizona stopped making their piña-colada drink, and I really liked that.

4. Boston, MA

Boston is the dark horse in the where-to-live race. Rated best for technology-centric cities in the United States, the chances of having a great Internet connection seem to be high. There’s also water there. That’s about all I know about Boston except that it has a high chance of being ground zero in any upcoming Armageddon that may or may not be happening.

Oh, and it’s really, really far away and probably humid.

Texas factor: Rhymes with “Austin” - could cause visiting relatives to end up in the wrong state.

5. Chicago, IL

Chicago is layed out like a grid, much like Utah, Denver, and some other cities. That means it’s easier to find stuff. However, Chicago is very, very cold. It also has some weird version of pizza that really should be called something other than pizza. I’m only putting it on the list because I have a friend who wants me to move there with him, but between you and me, it’s a distant runner-up due to the wind-chill factor.

Annoying factor: Overly religious people are replaced by insane sports fanatics.

So let’s put it to vote readers, where should I live?

Posted by Sam at August 6th, 2007

Posted by Sam at August 2nd, 2007

Put the power of 6 black men to work for you.

Posted by Sam at August 1st, 2007

This is a comic-life re-enactment of an actual conversation I just had with Jon. I hope you enjoy it.

(Click for full size)