5 Useful Browser Extensions for Web Developers

jsonview, stylish, 1password

On the theme of productivity and effiecency... I´d like to share the extensions I use daily to get more productive and do less stuff, while achieving even more.

Most extensions that I´ve installed tend to fade away and never gets used. These are the grain of gold of browser extensions for programmers that has stayed with me.

What makes a good Web API?

Building a great API is a hard task. There are many pitfalls to avoid to succeed and since (hopefully) your API will be a dependency for many systems, you will want to try to hit it hard right from the start.

During QCon San Francisco 2011 Evan Cooke, co founder of Twilio presents a great talk involving Web API's and how to make them awesome.

Continuation

We are working hard to get to Form Analytics out of the door into the real world. Early mornings and late nights. We put a large part of our life into something we cannot physically touch or hold in our hands. We are creating something new that hopefully brings a huge value to our customers. Every now and then, a bit of doubt comes knocking at our door, while happiness and satisfaction comes knocking the next day. Creating something innovative is an emotional rollercoster.

Using VIM Buffers

Thinking of buffers in vim as tabs when using Textmate just made so much sense. So much sense that I wanted to write down the basics for me to come back to. Here are some few tips on how to use them to work efficient in VIM.

Prowl Node.js API

PUSH notifications are all good and all. But do our products in RevRise really need them? We´re in the middle of making the last couple of changes to Form Analytics and I´m evaluating a couple of additions to it.

Tagging version in Git

As the work with the Node.js wrapper for our public API at RevRise has got on, I just realized that tagging versions in git is super important in the aspect of package managers.

Decision Making

Everybody have to make them, we make them all the time, some turn out to be the right ones and other do not. Decisions are there to make them.

Decisions! Can't make them. Can't not make them. Can't not not make them.

— Eric Wahlforss (@ericw) November 7, 2011

The Nine Month Entrepreneur

Today exactly one year ago I was on the same flight as I am now, meeting up with the same friend down in Stockholm as I was then, on the same trip to Chamonix, France as I was then. There is only two major differences from one year ago. I'm staying in Chamonix and my friend has just made his first exit.

Saying No

The hardest thing is, when you think about focusing, is saying no.

~ Steve Jobs

Some may have realized this a long time ago. But I know quite a few freelancers in my business having a hard time keeping a balance of work load. This includes me.

Keeping work load down and having a balanced schedule is key to keep happiness, health and well being.

'load' vs 'require' in Ruby

Another 'note to self'. This time it's about Ruby.

Minimal Rake Deploy Task

A great professor that I had during my studies at JTH always said that while a Volvo kept on running smoothly, a Ferrari would need service every 500 kilometer just because of its refined design of the engine and other parts.

I think the same goes for code. Basically, whenever you bring in an extra third party library or a gem as we, ruby people, might call them, you tend to add complexity and dependencies.

Autocompiling Coffeescript on Save in VIM

There are two problems with keeping a "daemon" compiling coffeescript and those are error handling and always having to initialize that daemon. However, there is a simpler way.

File Type Icons for Links with CSS

First of all, there is a github repo which I'm referring mostly referring to down below. There is all you need to install this CSS module.

This is a "plugin" essentially consisting of an image (a sprite image) and a stylesheet for you to add nice little icons to the right of hyperlinks that lead to a file with a certain extension. Like my non-existing pdf-file for example.

Git Submodule Guide

Sometimes you may have to keep third party libraries included in you project up to date in an easy way. Submodules in Git makes this as simple as a pimple.

Using variables in Ruby Regular Expressions

An easy way to deal with variating Regular Expressions.

Distribute your Rails App with a One Click .exe

Ever wondered how to distribute you rails application to a window instance. This is how:

Super Simpler SPAM Protection in Ruby on Rails

SPAM bots usually fill in all of the fields in a form, especially those who a user would normally fill in. The plan is to simply trick the bot into filling in a form element, call it "comment", that is hidden from the real users. When the form is submitted, we will detect if it is filled in. If it is, well, then we have our SPAM bot.

How to Become an Efficient Programmer

Good programmers usually have one thing in common. They work efficiently. These are my own rules on how to get better and foremost more efficient when it comes to programming stuff. Whether you do C#, Ruby or even LOLCode, these rules apply to all of them. Sure, you can be a master of Zen in one or two languages, but that doesn't mean that you are an efficient and good programmer overall. Do give me feedback if you know something this post lacks!

Custom jQuery selectors

I find that a lot of times you want to use jQuery selectors that are a bit messy on a couple of places. Making your own selectors tidies your code and makes it DRY.

Deploy your Jekyll Site Directly from TextMate

Jekyll is the "engine for static blogs" that I'm using here when blogging. You simply write your posts in any text editor (preferably TextMate if you are on a Mac) and then process the blog posts that are written in Markdown or Textile formats via the Liquid Templating Language.