Net Renderer-Testing IE Compatibility in Mac OS X

I do all my web development on a Mac. This has worked out quite well so far as most of the tools available for Windows Based PCs are available on the Mac platform as well. One problem that I often run into though is browser compatibility esp. with Internet Explorer 7. Today I was showing a colleague a website that I just finished up and all was well until I went back to my desk and open the site in IE 7. A letter that should have been in my sidebar was floating over to the right just a wee bit much. Anyway, I came home and decided I would see what was up since all was well in the other browsers that I tested. As it turns out I had an image fighting with some text because I did not explicitly specify the alignment of either. Since Microsoft dumped IE development for the Mac platform I went searching for some tools to help. After a bit of googling I came across Netrenderer. This tool allowed me to type in my URL return a screenshot of my site within seconds. I know it works because I tested the site before and after I made the changes and noted the difference. Anyway, Netrenderer allows you to see how your site will be rendered in Internet Explorer 5.5 to 7. Its fast and it works that’s all there is left to say.

Free Apps for Mac OS X

I recently participated in Macheist 2- basically you purchase a bundle of Mac applications for under $50 and 25 % is donated to a charity of your choice. The more apps they sell the more apps they add to the bundle. This year there were 14 apps and although I already owned three of them in the bundle , I participated anyway since I was interested in a couple of the other apps I didn’t own. However, now I find myself with extra copies of : Pixelmator- an easy to use, fast, image editor, Cha-Ching- a quicken like app that makes budgets, bills and checkbook balancing a fun activity, and AppZapper- The easiest way to uninstall apps from your Mac (this takes care of those associated files scattered around your hard drive). I’ve decided to be charitable and pass these apps on as I’m no longer in need of them. That’s right you can have any of the apps for free just by leaving a comment about anything you like on this blog entry (please refrain from lewd and rude comments). One app per person so please don’t ask for all of them. BTW this should be obvious but you need at least Mac OS 10.4 to run these apps and they are all Leopard (10.5) friendly.

Slainte

No more O’Soy Yogurt for me!

I have an unfortunate sensitivity to dairy products so I try to be as careful as possible b/c if I’m not, pain ensue upon consumption. This means that grocery shopping is an adventure for me because I have to read every label. I was looking for yogurt that I could have and came upon Stoneyfield Farm’s O’Soy yogurt. I was very excited and bought some right away and it soon became my favorite snack. I tried it for some time but at some point I noticed that my stomach was becoming irritable so I stayed away from it for a while. Recently I started missing the blueberry flavor so I decided to buy a few and give it another go. I had one last night and this afternoon there was much pain and suffering. I was thinking weird what could have caused this it was never this bad not even when I ate more than 2 in one day what is the deal? As I usually do when I have problems with a product. I flipped over the back and decided to check if I had missed something… Well! there in fine print were the words that I either missed or they were recently added “contains milk (our live active cultures are milk based).” Odd that this wasn’t there before at least I did not notice it. Milk usually stands out on a label for me. I did not find the mention of milk on their site for the cultures but then again they did not say that it was Vegan derived either. Now that I know I won’t be buying anymore of it. I just have to figure out what to do with the other two that I have left. Thank goodness for my ginger tea remedy at least now my stomach no longer hurts, etc. I guess that’s what I get for being cheap and not sticking to Whole Soy which uses Vegan instead of milk based cultures in its Soy Yogurt. Nancy’s Soy Yogurt also uses vegan cultures instead of milk based one so I’ll be checking that out also.

AirMail

Once in a while I shamelessly promote a product so consider this post a shameless plug for the select few of you out there who can actually afford to get your hot hands on one of those new MacBook Air in a couple of weeks (me not included I’m on a gadget fast ). So to go with your nice shiny new MacBook Air for $29.95 more you can get your hands on a handmade AirMail. The AirMail is a handmade case for the MacBook Air that looks like one of those inter-office manilla folders. It even has a red string closure just like the real thing. I actually saw a blue inter-office folder today and thought it would be cool if they made it in blue with little stripes on it. BTW I will not in anyway benefit from the sales of any of the aforementioned products I think if you have enough money to blow on a MB Air why not blow a little more on the case and help some newbies out.

Reaction to the Macworld ‘08 Keynote

So yesterday was the big Steve Jobs Keynote speech and as always I was at work at the time and had to follow along via several live blogs during my lunch hour. After coming home and watching the keynote last night, I must say that I enjoyed Steve Job’s performance. He’s an excellent presenter and really gets excited about the content. I have a thing or two to learn there. The content however, was not much of a surprise. There were more than a few predictions and some leaks on the Mac blogs that I frequent so the whole icons shaking thing with the iPhone release and new features in maps were no big surprise at all. Worst of all the very name MacBook Air made it out of Cupertino although I wasn’t quite expecting a laptop that would fit in one of those brown inter-office envelopes… I was quite blown away when he took it out of the envelope.. I was shocked at the price a bit, the 1.6 GHz machine starts at $1799 and the 1.8 GHz machine starts at $3,098. A bit too steep IMHO. My major gripe though is that current iPod touch owners have to pay $20 to get the extra apps that Apple will be including on newly shipped units. Seems to me that they ought to get this for free for being early adopters and all. BTW the movie rentals were long predicted and currently there is not much in the store to rent. Most of the movies I haven’t seen has buy and no rental button there. I noticed all of those movies are distributed by Paramount, I thought Apple had all the major studios on board what’s up with that?

Time Machine Scheduler

One of the features of Apple’s new OS Leopard that i like is Time Machine. It is one of the easiest ways to do a backup. However, I’m a bit of a control freak and I don’t like the fact that TM runs every hour. I prefer every 3 hours or so or at least to have the control to specify the frequency of the backups. My external HD is also not a Terabyte like some people’s so I have to be careful not to fill it up to quickly. Although, I think Apple should add the ability to control the TM scheduler for folks like myself who like to tinker, someone from the Mac community has stepped up to the challenge and provided a free program call “TimeMachineScheduler” that allows you to set the backup interval of TM from 1-12 hours. You can also run backups on load and a few other things.

Money Challenge 2008

I have to admit that I spend way too much money on frivolous things and as a result I have gotten myself in debt in the past and came close to going hungry more than a few times. One of my resolutions this year is to make a budget and stick to it. Now that I’ve gotten past a major debt I don’t want to fall back in and its time to build some equity so I’ve decided to sit my but down and use the nice software that I have sitting on my computer to make a budget and stick to it. In line with the Money Saving Mom financial shape in 2008 challenge I’ve decided to get in financial shape for the year. If she can do it by golly so can I! I don’t have a lot of the expenses that she’s got in her budget for one (although my grocery bill will be significantly higher due to cost of living in this area and special dieting requirements). Well, there goes the software budget. That means no new post Macworld fancy toy from Apple either. Check out Money Saving Mom if you haven’t she’s got coupons and lots of money saving tips.

Happy New Year

I know its a bit later but since I slept in this morning I didn’t turn on my computer until this afternoon. Just sending out some New Years greeting to all of you. Wow another year has gone by. I’m thankful that I’m still around to see it and is looking forward to all the blessings that this year will bring. Hope you all have a wonderful New Year, may all your New Year’s resolutions be resolved. May you live, work, play and love as God intended and may your dreams come true according to God’s plan and purpose for your lives.

Slainte

-Catt