thoughts on life, design and technology
I’ve been playing with Microsoft’s Virtual Earth Map Control SDK and so far, I’ve managed to connect to the map control and display a basic map of my location using latitude and longitude coordinates. As it turns out, my coordinates are 47.4925, -122.278
My goal with this effort is to learn how to use the SDK and implement the technology in one of my web applications. I can think of a couple of projects that can benefit from a mapping feature.
here is my first stab at manipulating the API
I ran across this editor while looking for plugins on the mozilla website. Codetch is a plugin for Firefox, which means that the application runs on your web browser! The current version is 0.4.0.
Pros:
Tabs, line numbers, ability to switch between code and live preview, Codetch lives on the web! (no need to open another program)
Cons:
while editing an HTML file, I found the editor a bit slow — meaning that everytime I typed something (e.g. a long sentence), the editor would let me type, but the letters appeared on the screen a few seconds after I typed them.
You can find out more by visiting the official website, http://www.codetch.com
Mario Seijo
web designer
www.openElements.info
I’ve decided to test a few open source editors. I’ll start with gedit, version 2.15.9. www.gedit.org
This is a pretty cool tool that allows you to add plugins. The plugins range from indenting lines to adding snippets of code. Other goodies include color coding of tags and attributes, document tabs, line numbers, an interactive search feature and highlighting abilities.
Here is a screenshot of the editor in action.
I am starting to enjoy the Linux side of computing, I can browse the web, check e-mail and perform a few other tasks, but when it comes down to it, I still depend on my laptop that runs Windows XP, for mission critical work, such as editing web pages with Dreamweaver, building rich animations with Flash and manipulating images with Photoshop and Illustrator. These are the industry standards where I come from.
I’ve used these windows applications for years and have grown accustomed to them. I know them well enough to know that they are part of my comfort zone. If I were asked to do a web job, I know that I can pull it off. All I need is my laptop.
The Challenge:
I know the open source community has just as many quality tools, if not more than Microsoft and Adobe put together. With that said; I’m on the hunt for an open source, standards compliant HTML and script editor with a rich GUI. Something like Dreamweaver… is that even possible?
Mario Seijo
web designer
www.openElements.info
Last month, my girlfriend gave me a Linux Troubleshooting book so that I could troubleshoot my current Linux system. The book is focused on Red Hat’s Fedora Core distribution and I my current Linux system runs Novel’s openSUSE (a minor difference).
Since I don’t use Fedora Core 6 (FC6), I decided to wipe clean my Windows Vista machine and install Fedora on it so that I could better utilize my Linux book.
Installation:
The installation process is intuitive and straight forward. With this installation, I decided to accept all the defaults which means that you get Gnome as your desktop environment. With just a few clicks I was done!
Looks:
Fedora Core 6 looks awesome and feels solid. I like the Gnome interface, primarily because it is streamlined. The desktop is very minimal with only a few essential icons.
Next Steps:
FC6 comes bundled with Open Office 2.0, Gimp, Evolution and Firefox 1.5 and much much more. My next obvious task is to install Firefox 2.0 along with some themes and plug-ins. So far, I am very excited to work with this Linux distro. The Fedora Core line of products is known for being on the bleeding edge of technology. This should be fun, and if it doesn’t work out, I can always go back to Windows Vista.
Mario Seijo
web designer
www.openElements.info
I have been toying with creating a mobile web application for personal use, and I’m at a point where it is starting to become useful. My web app is called “Seattle AA Meeting Locator”.
My goal is to be able to find a meeting around the Seattle area from my mobile device; this way, when I am out and about, I can just look it up without having to lug around a laptop or find a WiFi signal. This little web holds approx 1300 records in a database; which can be quite powerful when you need to find a meeting in a pinch.
While testing my newly created website with Microsoft’s IE Mobile browser, I discovered that IE was preventing some of my code to run. It rendered the page, but no action. What a bummer!
Then I decided to test it with Opera Mini and things worked as expected. I still ended up with an alignment issue, but that is very minor and common for mobile browsers. On Opera, the application manages to display the meetings and calls up the next page when a user makes a selection.
I am really surprised that IE Mobile doesn’t render my application correctly, especially since I am using ASP.NET and built this whole app with Microsoft Expression Web Designer.
Here is a picture of my mobile app on Opera Mini.
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