Three things I haven’t had time to write about

I’ve been a bit busy lately, and therefore haven’t written about things I wanted to. So here’s a little sum-up of three things I think deserve mentioning:

Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar Beta
I’ve used it for a little while, and it offers functionality as good as the one that can be found in the Web Developer Extension for Mozilla-based web browsers. However, what I really like about this one is the screen ruler; it’s a great way to fast measure an element’s size or similar, without resolving to making a screen dump and check it in Photoshop or to have a third-party program. What I also love with it is to automatically get an outline for elements, only when hovered with the mouse. The two gripes I have, however, are lack of keyboard shortcuts for tasks like validating the code (or hell, even View Source!) and that if I have displayed the screen ruler, it sometimes seem to hijack the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + R after that (which I use for reloading a page).
The Apple video iPod
I’m sure it’s a cool product and a great gadget, but it disturbs me that Steve Jobs for a long time has said that he doesn’t believe in it, the last time in a statement two weeks before its release.
The value of a blog
There’s a very hypothetical way to calculate how much a blog is really worth. Nevertheless, it’s always interesting to speculate! πŸ™‚
Apparently, this blog is worth somewhere between $ 40 000 and $ 65 000. A decent amount for having written it for seven months in my spare time, purely out of interest. πŸ™‚

10 Comments

  • I completely agree with you about the IE Web Developer Toolbar. While the screen ruler is nice, it still falls very short of the tools available in the Firefox Web Developer Toolbar. Of course, this is still considered a Beta…although I don't recall extensive "Beta-ing" (is that a word?) of the Firefox Extension.

    On the Apple iPod and Steve Jobs comments: First of all the article you are citing is clearly marked "Opinion". Second, last time I checked, "The Inquirer" was not generally considered a credible source. IMHO, you may be judging too quickly.

    Lastly – thanks for publishing an informative and regular blog. I've especially enjoyed the pieces on .NET and Web Standards.

  • Try MeasureIt, it's a nice ruler extension for Firefox.

  • IE Dev Toolbar

    Develop in IE? Not sure I like the sound of that, besides, I mostly use Mac.

    Video iPod

    Legit or not (I think Shane is right about The Inquirer), Jobs may have said *that* and he'd be right – and *still* be right to launch the video iPod. It will pave the way for a *decent* video iPod… 720p output – where's the queue? πŸ™‚

    Blog $

    What would you buy with the cash if you had to spent it all at once?

  • Robert Nyman says:

    Shane,

    Lastly – thanks for publishing an informative and regular blog. I’ve especially enjoyed the pieces on .NET and Web Standards.

    Thank you, it makes me happy to hear that!

    Shane, Steve,

    Regarding Steve Jobs, I remember reading it in a lot of other places too, that was just the first link I got about it. Not my normal source of information! πŸ™‚

    Nevertheless, let them try it, I hope it becomes a hit.

    Per,

    Thanks for the tip! But isn't that the one that requires Java?

    Steve,

    What would you buy with the cash if you had to spent it all at once?

    Well, if you want an honest (and boring) reply, I probably would put them into my house and for furniture. What I would like to do with them is travel. πŸ™‚

  • I'd say that I've spent enough time on 456 Berea Street over the last couple of years to justify a value of between USD 455,664.48 and 729,059.94. πŸ˜‰

  • Hi Robert, I'm very sorry but I have the suspect that the Theory is not valid anymore.

    Today I was in front of a coffee dispenser,

    I tried to insert some links and it doesn't work! πŸ˜€

  • Henrik says:

    Hovering and outlining objects can be done in firefox by

    Aardvark (which of course can do A LOT more – like removing elements and boxes from the viewport, on the fly!)
    http://www.karmatics.com/aardvark/

  • Robert Nyman says:

    Roger,

    I believe you have! But give me some time, and I'll get a higher value… πŸ˜‰

    Marco,

    Oh no, too bad! πŸ™‚

    Still, it's nice to speculate, you know, the "what if" thoughts…

    Henrik,

    Thanks for the tip, it really looks worth checking out!

  • MeasureIt doesn't require Java. You're thinking of Screen grabber which can save a web page as an image, even if the whole page isn't visible. That extension is also nice. I needed to install the latest JRE to get it working.

    Just a minute ago I had to disable the IE Dev Toolbar, it hijacked Shift + R. I could probably live with losing Ctrl + R, but I really want to be able to type a capital R.

  • Robert Nyman says:

    Per,

    Ah, now I remember.

    And yes, the toolbar seems to hijack <code>Shift + R</code> as well! Not so much fun when I want to type my name… πŸ™‚

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