ajax analysis api apple atom automator backpack browsers camping cheatsheets code console editors ergonomics gems google helipad hpricot internationalisation javascript lies mac optimisation patterns performance personal php plugins productivity programming prototype rails rapidrails rsi rss ruby server snippets standards sysadmin terminal testing textile textmate theory tips tools vim workshops writing xslt
Helipad is a little web notepad I wrote to throw to-do lists, notes, ideas and bits of code at. My idea was to make the perfect partner for my actual physical notepad.
Like everything I do, it has an API, and that allowed me to do something that I’ve found amazingly useful: load my vimrc remotely.
I know there’s a million other ways to do this, but I think it illustrates something unexpected and interesting that you can do with web application APIs. And, on the same topic, the AmbientClock uses your Google Calendar to change its colour according to how busy you are.
I’d love to h…
A text editor is the programmer’s lathe, but unlike traditional engineering we can have limitless tools. The question is: how much time do you have to learn about them all?
I’ve used vim a lot over the years, mainly because I spent a long time using Linux and it was there so I used it. The choice was obvious: vim or vi were on almost every machine I had access to, and worked excellently both locally and remotely. Once I’d learnt the basics I was set, I knew enough to get my work done.
Then I found TextMate for Mac OS. The immediacy of TextMate made it easy to get started with, and i…
