Archive for the 'General' Category

I am by no means surprised, and I guess this post has been a long time coming but its been announced on the Netscape blog that support for Netscape web browsers is being discontinued. Security releases will end on February 1st 2008.

It is a shame, once one of the great leaders in the browser market now gone to the grave.

Oddly enough, ive always been a fan of Netscape Navigator whilst not necessarily using the product... which I guess is why its odd. Navigator9 has some pretty nifty tools included which are great for web developers alike. I guess their biggest problem was the lack of innovation achieved by the company over the years which essentially lead to the browsers death - in my opinion years ago.

Oh the bright side... thats one less browser us web developers have to worry about!

Posted by epic at 20:15pm Permalink

I was asked the other day what development environment I prefer and why.

Why is a hard question. Its mostly what I have been taught to use over the last few years and includes a collection of tools that are invaluable.

Im always adding and/or changing my development environment to suit the needs of whatever I am working on but it mostly consists of the following:

Hardware:

• Right now im working on a 2.4GHz Dual core AMD Athlon 64. Ive only got 1GB of RAM but it does the job. I gave my other gig stick away (for free) so that makes me a nice person.
• Ive got a double monitor setup. Any developer that tells you its un-necessary does not know what they are doing and needs a slap. Seriously though, double monitors are the way forward. Three would be the perfect setup but thats excessive and greedy. Documentation and browsers open on one, code open on the other.
• Wireless keyboard, wired mouse. But it makes no difference.
• UPS: Belkin un-interruptible power supply. Lasts 40min with everything switched on.

Software:

• Operating system is Windows XP (sp2) although I have Linux UBUNTU installed which I love using when I can.
• Eclipse with PHPEclipse plugin. PDT I will get around to trying one day. Development for PHPEclipse has pretty much ground to a halt so I will migrate away sooner rather than later. I have a few random Eclipse plugins installed but nothing that helps much with development.
• Browser of choice is Firefox. As a developer you should have other browsers such as Opera, IE (Of course) and Safari. The more the merrier.
• Firefox plugins: ColorZilla (great tool), British English Dictionary (corrects spelling), SearchStatus (Displays Google PageRank and Alexa ranking), Web Developer toolbar (YOU NEED THIS)
• FTP Client: I use FireFTP. Its okish...
• Image Editing: Adobe Photoshop (love it or hate it)
• Email: I use Mozilla Thunderbird. It is amazing.
• Other tools: UltraMon (Gives me multiple taskbars across both screens). Skype (Its good and cheap).
• Music: WinAMP. Cant live without it. Plus the Last.FM plugin to keep track of things.

Im always looking for new hardware/software that makes life and development easier so drop me a message if you think im missing something.

1. ColorZilla
2. Last.FM
3. Web Developers Toolbar
4. Winamp
5. Mozilla Thunderbird
6. Adobe Photoshop
7. Skype (VOIP)
8. Ultramon
9. FireFTP
10. SearchStatus
11. Firefox Add-ons: Dictionaries
12. Mozilla Firefox
13. Apple Safari
14. Opera
15. PHPEclipse
16. Eclipse PDT
17. Eclipse
18. Linux UBUNTU
19. Windows XP

Posted by epic at 14:28pm Permalink

I have recently completed an upgrade to the EpicArena system. The blogs have been rewritten so that it is now possible to easily post.

I have also added comments which is something I have been meaning to add for quite a while.

Ill try and start posting a little more frequently now!

Ollie

Posted by epic at 00:16am Permalink

Yes that's right.
Happy new year from me here at EpicArena.com...

Hope 2007 is a great year for anyone and everyone.

Its 6pm here in California of the USA and the Casino's are imminent.

HAPPY NEW 2007

Posted by OLLIE at 03:02am Permalink

Okie Dokey.

Im almost done on my current job working on MiniatureCube.com. An american based restaurant company. Most of the development work is done and a few admin updates are currently being finished before the site go's live.

If you want to check out the site and find bugs, or just use the site feel free. I suggest you become a member and create your own favorite lists as thats pretty kool.

Enjoy
Ollie

MiniatureCube.com

Posted by OLLIE at 00:52am Permalink