Category Archives: Tech

Google Pages – Free, web page building and hosting

[1]: http://pages.google.com/
[2]: http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/02/make_your_own_sites_with_googl.html
[3]: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewVideo?id=110920435&p=121609704&s=143441

I have this image of Google as a benevolent servant robot from 1940s science fiction that is ever-learning what its masters want and cheerfully providing it. Until, one day, its brilliant master plan becomes evident only via the repentant hindsight of mankind’s subjugation.

That said, hey, look at this [cool new thing Google’s built][1]! ([via][2]) Google Page Creator, which will allow you to build and host web pages for free. I’m sure there are other services like this, but there are other map services, too, and “Google Maps is the best!” “True that!” “[Double True!][3]”

It’s down momentarily right now, but I’m going to play with this later. Stay tuned, fellow Google-food.

Great looking weather app

I’ve been interested in weather since I was a little kid with my little home weather station. I know. Dweeb. Anyway, some years ago, I got to mix that interest with my geek work while I was working for Digital Cyclone helping build different bits of [My-Cast][2], which I still use daily.

Well, something new is courting me for daily attention: [Seasonality][1]. So many nice bits of information, well displayed, and easy to use. Great sunrise/sunset display. Satellite photos with radar and satellite transparently laid over (user definable transparency). Ooo, graphs.

There’s a free demo; check it out!

Don’t worry, DCI; I can’t [run it on my phone][3]. :)

[1]: http://www.gauchosoft.com/Software/Seasonality/
[2]: http://www.my-cast.com/
[3]: http://www.digitalcyclone.com/mobile.html

Brilliant CSS application

[Xyle Scope][1] is pretty much everything I’ve ever wanted in a CSS app. Minus the little feature requests I’ve now already asked for. :)

A great tool for examination and troubleshooting, learning, and live editing and correcting. Exporting reformatted style sheets is sweet. I will finally be cracking open my legendarily tight wallet and ponying up for this one. Perhaps only my second shareware ever. The first? [CD Finder][2].

It beats Mozilla’s Web Developer because it shows pre-rendered CSS. It beats GoLive because it’s on live, post-PHP pages. Nice cascade display. Nice DOM views. It’s ginger peachy.

What is it about Germans and the great software? (I’m including [Adobe GoLive][3] in that, Jens, Lars, Veronika, et al.)

[1]: http://www.culturedcode.com/xyle/
[2]: http://www.cdfinder.de/
[3]: http://www.adobe.com/products/golive/main.html

Back in!

Somehow, between WebSTAR, MySQL, phpMyAdmin, and Safari, I got locked out of this blog. It wouldn’t take my password. I couldn’t get in even through a “back door”. Ugh!

Well, it’s fixed. And I’m being more vigilant to see if I can discover what happened.

My MacWorld prediction

I had to get this “out there”. Everyone figures on seeing an Intel-based machine – maybe a laptop. And a more media-center-ish Mac. I’m throwing a Bluetooth-enable iPod in the mix, too. Seems like a no-brainer.

**UPDATE:** Shows what I know. :)

Grrr. Where is the Media Mac?! Well, anyway, [check out the newest][1] if you’re interested. Nice to see things get faster, but in general… I dunno… yawn.

[1]: http://www.apple.com

Crashes!

Well, it turns out this page was crashing for my mom and Helen; both on Mac OS 10.3 using Safari. I thought it might be the Greek text via Unicode below, but it turns out it was the [graphic of Jack (below)][1] which I’d saved from Apple’s Preview! Bad JPEG. Hmph. Well, it’s fixed now. FYI.

[1]: http://php.kpmartin.com/wordpress/#post-4