If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed so that you never miss a beat. Thanks for visiting!

Yeah, I just use an alliteration for a title.  I’ve read that they draw readers in.  So, we’ll see about that.

Anyway, on to the actually article.  This article is about FireFTP.  FireFTP is a free, open source FTP client that allows you to access FTP servers right inside of Firefox.  Since Firefox is cross-platform, so is FireFTP, allowing you to use it on Windows, Linux, and Mac machines.  FireFTP is a full functioning FTP client that not only allows you to transfer files, it allow you to sync directories while you’re working, and CHMOD (change file permissions on web servers).  So, if you’ve been looking for a solid FTP client, give FireFTP a try.  I doubt you’ll be disappointed.

A couple of friends of mine (Linux enthusiasts) asked me the other day why the screen shots I was showing them were in Windows.  And they had that betrayed friend look on their face. I actually felt bad for using it when they asked the question.  But when I went to explain my reason to them, I found that it was legitimate and could not be helped.

I’m really into programming and development and all that.  And I know what all you Linux advocates are going to say.  We have IDEs!  We have everything you need to program!  Yes, that’s true.  Linux does have programming IDEs, and everything I need to program.  But, there’s a difference between needs and wants.  Linux doesn’t have everything I want to program.  It quite simply doesn’t have a Visual Studio equivalent.

As a programming noob, I enjoy writing my C# with code completion.  I enjoy visually designing my programs.  I enjoy the ease of usability customized with great functionality and customizability.  Those are all the reasons I love Linux, but are the same reasons I can’t be on it every second of my programming life.

I’m also very into game development, and one of my favorite programs is RPG Maker XP, which I wrote a post about earlier.  This program is only available on Windows,  so in order to work on my game I have to be on my Windows partition.

Another program I use is Paint.NET.  I use this to do Pixel Art for my games.  This too, is only available for Windows.  Some of you may say, “What about The GIMP!?” LEt me tell you about The GIMP.  If I have to go to the taskbar one more time to select a tool, because The GIMP runs five different windows, I’m going to have a nervous breakdown.  Doing that just causes me so much frustration.

When it comes down to it.  The three programs that I use the most besides a web browser, can only be used on Windows.  So why wouldn’t I use it?

Email is by far the easiest way to communicate with people. But, it is also, by far, the most shallow way to communicate with people. When communicating through Email, people miss the body language and tone of your voice. This can lead to many misunderstandings, and pointless bickering over a simple joke that would have been picked up in a face-to-face conversation.

These are seven horrible habits than can kill your Email conversation, and how you can fix them to avoid stupid arguments or worse:

1) Hanging Questions

Any and every Email that is a request or question must have an answer, this is the same in face-to-face conversations. The person won’t know that your listening unless you respond to them in some way. So Email the person back, even if your response is a simple “OK.” Really, how long could that take? If you don’t have time to think about your response, tell them right away. You could say “Hey, I don’t have time to really think this through right now. I’ll get back to you later.” Or something to that effect.

2) Buried Requests

Burying a request is when a question is stuffed in the middle of a paragraph of text. If you reiterate your question in a separate paragraph after your main paragraph, the reader will be sure to notice it.

3) Wrong Medium

I hate sitting at my computer desk Emailing someone back and forth for an hour, it wasn’t meant for conversations like that. I refuse to do it, its pointlessly slow. Ask someone to have an in-person conversation, or if in-person can’t be done, try Skype, or if that doesn’t work out either, go with MSN Messenger.

4) Sarcasm

Sarcasm hardly works in Emails, so don’t use it. You might tick someone off, and then you’ll be in trouble, and chances are you won’t know why.

5) Sending Urgent Requests Through E-Mail

I only check my Email 5 times a day. I write all my Emails at one time during the day, this is whenever I can fit the time in. So, what if someone expects an answer within the day. Well, they’ll be disappointed. Its not like they could blame me though, you can’t expect an answer within less than 5 days, so keep that in mind when Emailing someone. Call them if it is urgent, if you are not able to call that person, be sure to give them as much notice as possible when sending a request.

6) Lengthy Paragraphs

No one reads on the the internet anymore, they scan and skim. You probably shouldn’t write eight sentence paragraphs, keep them to five lines at most. If you have important imformation, make sure it stands out from the rest of the text. Maybe put it in boldface, or put it on a separate line. Utilize lists, bulleted, or numbered, it doesn’t matter.

7) E-Mail Tag

Email isn’t meant for immediate responses. Its sort of a “Well, when you get a round to reading this” kinda thing. Of course, I’m talking about personal Email, work is completely different. But, for personal Email, you should have set times that you check your inbox, and not leave it open all day, waiting for your next Email. It will cause distractions and disruptions from what you are doing. Trust me, I have a major problem with this.

I asked this question over at the Ubuntu Forums, but I wanted to elaborate more on the subject here. In case you don’t know what Ubuntu is, it is one of the many distributions of Linux. Ubuntu, just like Linux, also has many flavors. There is Linux Mint (a distro aimed at noobs), Ubuntu Studio (a distro aimed at the arts), Mythbuntu, and more.

I have been thinking, and apparently, so have other people in the Ubuntu Idea Pool. There isn’t much of anything for developers and programmers in terms of out-of-the-box usage in Ubuntu, which has lead to the idea of Devbuntu. Devbuntu would be a new flavor of Ubuntu aimed at developers and programmers. The reason for creating a seperate distro is simple, including many programming applications would only bog down Ubuntu for the regular desktop users. Here’s a list of the features I hope would be included in such a distro:

• Specialized packages that are streamlined and optimized for specific use with Devbuntu.
• Supports all modern development languages, and include the option to add on old, outdated languages for the hobbyists out there.
• Includes all the best development libraries, and has the option of installing others.
• Includes testing frameworks such as junit and phpunit.
• Includes the best IDEs for each language, plus the ability to install others.
• Include the best GUIs for FTP, SFTP, SSH, etc.
• Ability to install virtual machines, they would bog down the machine if they come pre-installed.
• GUIs for SVN and CVS.
• Team collaborating tool, which would sync all the code together, including the revision number, who made it, live chat, and maybe more.
• Include the option for various syntax highlighting code writing apps, such as jedit.
• Create one repository that would allow Ubuntu users to easily upgrade to Devbuntu by adding the Devbuntu repository, similar to Ubuntu Studio.
• Cuts out all the fluff included in Ubuntu and creates a basic programming environment with no eye-candy or distractions, but allows the user to install the features if desired.
• Includes the best GTD and mind-mapping software.

That’s all I can think of for now. I might add some features to this later. Tell me what you think of it, and also tell me if you would like to help out with this project, because if there is enough demand for this distro, I will certainly go ahead with creating it.   Also, which windows manager should be installed by default, KDE, Gnome, etc…?

Screamer Radio is a program that I’ve recently found that allows you to listen to many different internet radio stations and record music off them.  I’ve been listening to it for hours now, and I have to say that it is very useful when it comes to discovering new music.  I listen to music constantly, so I sometimes get tired of my usual library.  That’s where Screamer Radio comes in.  With it, I can tune into many different internet radio stations encompassing every genre known to man.  I can also record the songs that I like in an mp3, wma, aac, or an ogg file.

This great windows only app was created by David Zidar, a systems developer in Stockholm, Sweden.  I’d like to extend a public thank you to him, for creating this app and making it freeware.  As the Windows world has been missing quality free programs.  Make sure you check out this great free internet radio program for Windows, and aid David in his quest to dominate the world.