jQuery file upload plugin

I have been using jQuery for quite a while now and I still consider it to be one of the best tools for javascript development. There are bigger js libraries around, as well as ones that offer more eye candy but i still find the simplicity, easy-of-use and power of jQuery, extremely useful.


I have seen an explosion of component becoming available for jQuery (sometimes, it is too hard trying to catch up with all the new ones that keep coming out).


One component I have always wanted, is a multi-file upload dialog that also offers visual feedback. There have been a few but they never did seem to hit the spot for me.
Now, there is a new one, called jQuery file upload plugin, by Ronnie Garcia, that seems to have got all the right answers.


Visit Ronnie's site and have a look at it.


If you enjoy what you see, leave Ronnie some feedback of appreciation.

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• 29 Best And Useful jQuery Plugins Of June 2010 (savedelete.com)

30 useful open source apps

Jacob Gube has a great article on 30 useful open source apps, with links to web editors, graphics editors and other misc utilities.

Head over to his blog and look at http://sixrevisions.com/tools/30-useful-open-source-apps-for-web-designers/

Well done Jacob, I found some goodies in there myself!

Handy web-design plugin for Firefox and IE

It is always a bit of a problem trying to determine if a web page will look ok on a user's screen, given that there are so many different resolutions around.


This plugin makes it easy to resize your browser window (Firefox or IE) to one of the standard resolutions and see how your page would look like.


Simply, right-click on your browser window and select Resize Window.

System Explorer - A great utility

A new system utility has just popped up in my radar! It is System Explorer and it combines the best of a number of similar utilities.
It is part TaskManager, ProcessExplorer, ProcessMonitor, AutoStarts etc.

Here is what the main screen looks like:


It has many tabs that show info on:

• running tasks
• processes
• modules
• performance (shown above)
• windows (shown above)
• process history (including connection history). Can be logged to file and auto-cleaned too.
• opened files list
• list of open connections, by application
• snapshots! Allows you to take snapshots of your system files and/or registry. It also allows you to compare snapshots!!!

The 3 features I find the best out of it are:

• Ctrl-Alt-Ins brings up SE immediately.
• I can close files that are locked by a process (with caution!) so they can be renamed, deleted etc. I used to use Unlocker for that.
  
• Alt-Space brings up a NewTask dialog

Further, if you right-click on the tray icon, you get this handy menu

One of the handy sub-menus is that of SystemUtilities which brings up this window:


This is only a glimpse of what this neat app does; visit the web site to get all the info.
Enjoy!

Handy Firefox keyboard shortcuts

Here is a list of some time-saving keyboard shortcuts for Firefox.

Firstly, the very handy URL-completion shortcuts:

If you type dooda in the address bar and then press
Control Enter it will convert it to www.dooda.com Alt Shift Enter it will convert it to www.dooda.net
Ctrl Shift Enter it will convert it to www.dooda.org

btw, to get to the address bar quickly, type Alt D

If you use tabs (why wouldn't you???), here are some more handy shortcuts:
Ctrl Tab Go to next tab (Ctrl Page Down does the same)
Shift Ctrl Tab Go to previous tab (Ctrl Page Up does the same)
Ctrl T Create a new tab
Ctrl N Create a new window
Ctrl F4 Close current tab
Ctrl Shift T Re-open the last-closed tab.

Enjoy!

ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!

Find out what is using up space on your hard disk

This neat, free utility, called DriveSpacio will show you what is taking up space on your hard disk.

It will also, optionally, hook into Windows Explorer so that you can simply right-click on a disk or folder and see what is taking up space there.

There is a standard installer for it, which hooks itself into Windows.

There is also a portable version that comes in a ZIP. Simply extract into a folder and run the EXE.

In the chart shown here, if you hover the mouse over the chart (away from the folders shown), you will get an up-arrow pointer. When you click during this, you will be taken up a folder level.




If you hover over the folder names, you will get an un-intrusive popup with info on that folder.
If you click on the folder name, it will zoom-in on that folder.

Also, while hovering over a folder, you can perform the following functions:
- Open Containing Folder
- Open Folder
- Delete Folder



Visit the author's web site for downloads and more screenshots.


As Mike pointed out, there is another app that is similar to this and which is open-source and has a little more eye-candy.


ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!

still looking for my next DSLR

I think I am getting closer to choosing my first DSLR!

It will probably be the Canon EOS 50D!

You can find a review here and here.

btw, do you have any comments on this camera?

Some of the highlights are:

Sensor: 15MP CMOS, self-cleaning

Image sizes: 4752 x 3168, 3456 x 2304, 2353 x 1568

ISO: 100 - 3200, extendable to 6400 and 12800!!!

Continuous shooting: 6.3 fps

LCD monitor: 3" with 920k pixels and an anti-glare system that works.
The camera also uses the full LCD resolution during Live View and it does so at 30fps! (This is better than the Nikon D300, D700 and D3 cameras which only do it at 15fps).

Price: recommended approx US$1300, expected to be less than that...

As for a lens, I think this one would do just nicely:

It is a Tamron AF 28-300mm (35mm equivalent) f3.5-6.3 XR Di (IF) lens, costing AUS$529.

ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!