Stop using Android task killers

This is a brief extract from this article, explaining why we should no longer use Task Killers.

Hello, friends. This is an Android Public Service Announcement regarding the overuse of “task killer” apps in the Android community. Almost everyone has experimented or used one of these apps at one point in their Android life. I wont judge you. In some cases, these apps might have been installed even without your knowledge. I know for a fact that reps at carrier retail stores will download and install these upon buying any of their Android phones. But why? It’s largely in part because of this HUGE misconception that Android needs these apps in order to run properly. But this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Chrome Dev Tools reloaded

Very useful video by the Google Chrome Dev Tools guys.


I've learned quite a few cool things I did not know.

how to emulate CSS3 pseudo-classes and attribute selectors in IE6-8

selectivizr is a JavaScript utility that emulates CSS3 pseudo-classes and attribute selectors in Internet Explorer 6-8

For anyone who has to suffer under the curse of Microsoft's gift to the world, otherwise known as Internet Exploder6, suffer no more. selectivizr will help with a few things anyway.


Have you heard the one about No-idea, i mean Nokia and Microshaft getting together and combining (well, MS is giving Nookia a barelful of money anyway)   their smartphone platforms?

Yeap, same as adding 2 turkeys and expecting an eagle.

HTML5, CSS3, SVG and other standards support in various browsers

This web site is for everyone who does web work.

(sorry corporate guys that only write for IE6... your world is very simple...just follow the herd)


The site allows you to specify a number of criteria upon which the results will be based, such as brand, version(s) etc. See image below.

Once the criteria has been specified, pressing the 'Compatibility tables' button will bring up the following page, which shows all the relevant info.Note the areas I've highlighted in red. They are above the section describing
the capability being compared and provide links to other relevant info.
Sometimes they also point to workaround for IE6 etc.

How to recover after your email password is compromised

This article is a must-read!

Remember, your gmail account is the gateway to many services which may contain confidential data!

(GDocs and GContacts for example!)

Go programming language

Jörg Walter has written a fantastic article on Go, the new Google programming language.

For comparative purposes, he also briefly describes C, C++, Objective-C, Java, Javascript and a brief mention of C#.

His article has also been updated to reflect (quite a lot of) input from readers.

Bitcoin: inside the encrypted, peer-to-peer digital currency

Bitcoin is a virtual currency, designed to allow people to buy and sell without centralized control by banks or governments, and it allows for pseudonymous transactions which aren't tied to a real identity. In keeping with the hacker ethos, Bitcoin has no need to trust any central authority; every aspect of the currency is confirmed and secured through the use of strong cryptography.

Read the full article

Virtualised browsers - Safari,Chrome, FF, Opera and IE as standalone EXEs

There just wasn't enough room in the title to say it all!

One of the main issues a web developer is faced with, is to ensure that his (hers too!) work renders correctly in all (most) of the browsers in use.

Of course, there is always the wonderful browsershots.org, to which you can submit your URL(s) and it will show you what your page will look like any every single browser known to man!

But if you wanted instant gratification, you could, say, install all 'other' browsers on your desktop and then pick one version of IE to work with. You could never use more than one.

However, since the advent of 'virtual application' tools, such as VMWare's ThinApp and Xenocode, things have changed!

You can now wrap up an app, such as IE6 (also known as Internet Embarassment or the curse of MS upon web developers) into a single EXE that is, in effect, a standalone application.

And that is exactly what Xenocode have done. They have wrapped up Safari, Firefox, Chrome and IE6, 7 and8 into standalone EXEs which you can download and run, without having to install anything!!!

And you can run all of the Internet Embarassment versions at once!

For more info, visit Xenocode

[Update 6 june 2011] It all seems to have gone to the doghouse. The EXEs have long since been removed.

The new website is called Spoon.net...]