My favourite code editor is Macromedia (not Adobe!) Dreamweaver 8 – it has coloured syntax highlighting, FTP, code hints, and an incredibly powerful search function (I especially like the ability to perform a search and replace on an entire local directory). I’ve recently switched to Windows 7 64 bit on my main desktop, and have found a simple solution to stop the random crashes that occur with Dreamweaver 8 on Windows 7.

1. Get the 8.0.2 update from Adobe here. <<< Link updated!
2. Unzip it, preferably to somewhere that you can navigate to easily via a command prompt.
3. Type “cmd” (without quotes) into the Start Menu search bar, do NOT press enter, then right click on the cmd.exe icon and select “Run as administrator”.
4. Navigate to the directory where you extracted the update, and type this:
   msiexec /update patchpackage.msp
5. Press enter, and follow the update prompts.
6. You are now running Macromedia Dreamweaver 8.0.2, hopefully without the random crashes.

Everyone knows that you can display RSS feeds on your website using third party widgets, but you usually won’t have much control over how the feed content is blended in with your own page, and if the widget goes offline, or goes out of business, then you’re in trouble.

Most hosts now provide cURL and PHP5, which makes displaying RSS feeds on your website easy enough to do it yourself.
Here’s a really simple example that pulls in the Yahoo news feed, grabs the title and story as variables, and then spits them back out – displaying the title in bold, followed by the story:
Continue reading…

Jonathan Snook has written an elegant little jQuery slideshow (20 lines!) with nothing more than a simple fading transition. It allows you to specify the static ‘wait’ time and also the transition speed, and that’s about it. Which is exactly what some of us are looking for. Get it here.

After spending 15+ years using various “executive” office chairs, I recently decided to try something different and bought myself an exercise ball (aka stability ball or yoga ball) to use as a computer chair. I know a few professional authors that use exercise balls as chairs, they spend as much time on their computers as I do, but they don’t complain about bad backs and computer fatigue as much as my programmer friends do. After using my friend’s exercise ball computer chair for a few hours, I was convinced it was worth trying – and eventually ended up buying my own. I’ve only had it for about 2 weeks, but so far, I’m 100% sold on the idea.

I can easily sit at my computer for three to four hours and not even notice that I’ve been gently bouncing around – which is good for my spine, circulation and brain. And when I stand up, I don’t have any back pain or leg fatigue. The unconscious bouncing (yes, it’s exercise!) gets even more pronounced when I’m listening to music. I’m now officially one of Leo Laporte’s bouncing ball converts. My expensive executive office chair is still in my office, but it’s slowly getting kicked towards the door.

I’ve just been trying out MeeGo (Intel/Nokia) on my EeePC 901. It runs very very fast, has a lovely snappy UI… but is just a little bit too cutesy for me. They should have called it Katamari OS. Other than being just a little too simple (which will probably be a plus for tablets and in-car computers), I had a lot of trouble keeping a connection to my home WiFi OR my wired LAN. And frankly, I’m still not having a lot of fun using Chrome.

MeeGo is an open source, Linux project which brings together the Moblin project, headed up by Intel, and Maemo, by Nokia, into a single open source activity. MeeGo currently targets platforms such as netbooks/entry-level desktops, handheld computing and communications devices, in-vehicle infotainment devices, connected TVs, and media phones.

Other than the overly cutesy factor, and my personal WiFi problems, MeeGo is probably worth trying. The MeeGo website has very simple instructions on doing a ‘byte-exact copy’ of the img file to an SD card – so you can easily try it out ‘live’ without screwing with your current OS.

Personally, I’m sticking with Mint.

If Facebook is going to recommend friends that I should add, the least they could do is not threaten to disable my account if I follow their suggestions.