It's only 11:21 . . .

It's about 11:21 PM right now on this 5th day of September. Not much happens at night. 'Cept of course the occasional street-race in the distance. I noticed it got a lot cooler lately. I'm okay with that so long as it doesn't change every five minutes. Then I would get sick and we all know how that is. For those of you who don't know, Chula Vista has been the victim of some actually very interesting heat wave patterns. I can't go into great detail but it's no Santa-Ana weather (if you've ever experienced Santa-Ana, you know what I mean). So here I am wanting to do something [that doesn't concern homework] and I end up downloading some programs for my computer to keep up with my assignments in school. I'm doing a web-development class that uses Dreamweaver CS3. I'll explain the CS3 for you, Macromedia got owned. Case closed. Anyhow I'm looking up some free programs and this is the lineup I downloaded:

1. Seamonkey:
This is a web browser/html editing client developed by our friends over at Mozilla. I still like Firefox and Seamonkey seems to operate on the same line as Firefox does with the exception that you can edit and view HTML right within the Seamonkey system. I used Seamonkey for about 5 minutes when I realized I had a problem. It would line up my code to the left every time I opened it, whether or not the code was formatted in any specific layout. Everything got pushed left and it became a pain to re-do my code every time.

So after another look around Download.com I came across my next piece of freeware,

2. Smultron:
Don't let the name fool you. Or the logo. The designer of this program did a really good job putting it together. I actually came to believe it was originally a Mac type program (Yes, I'm a Mac user. No, I don't like Vista). Aside from the looky-loo part of the program it handled really well. It featured a tag recognizing system that colors your code accordingly, much like Dreamweaver so you can see everything a lot better, and it keeps the format of the code you create. So if you made indents and such to put ease on your eyes (why wouldn't you) it stayed there when you opened your file again. What I found a little difficult about the program is that you couldn't really do a template with all the heading stuff at the top - but then after some familiarization with the program (about 2 minutes of clicking just to see what such-and-such does) I found that you can upload helpful templates with the heading stuff at the top! You may not get as many options as Dreamweaver, but Smultron definately gets the job done. Also similar to Dreamweaver's split-view-mode, you can view the changes you make to the code with a separate preview window. It's a bit of a pain, it being un-attached to the code window, but it means you can move it around to where you want it. The window very easiliy show the changes you've made as long as you save your file first, then hit the reload button in the preview window. There is a split view however it shows code in both windows. Don't know why I'd wanna do that. I'm only running Version 2.2.6 so that may be it. Smultron in a nutshell...


Aside from my habits of risking the life of my computer to discover new things, I stumbled across a new web browser. So on to my next review.

3. Shiira:
I really like the name of it clearly because I have no idea what it means. But that's just me. The browser itself is very on par with Safari and is just as - if not faster than - Safari itself. It's built using a popular Cocoa system e.g.: letting you customize certain browsing features like side drawers on the window for bookmarks and such. Although I have no idea what Cocoa or alot of other techno gumbo means I feel confident with this new browser. It gets the job done. There's a tidbit that bugs me though. When you download attatchments through yahoo mail, your file is labeled as "secure download". And from there you can add a tag to make it open in the appropriate program. I don't know if this goes for all downloaded files, but we'll find out soon enough. If I can't make you download this browser, just do it anyway. It looks cool, it's fast, it works, and heck, the logo rocks.


So here I am, 11:59 PM - check that, it's now zero hour... and I'm up typing for what I feel is a good cause. Ms. Naomi if you read this, I'll get to my homework . . . eventually. If I wake up tomorrow, I mean today, I mean, nevermind. I'm losing it and I'm typing with one of my eyes wandering off. So that was another trip into my mind. See you next time in the net!

Jonathan. out.




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