A Stylish Treat for Mailplane Users
With the move of everything back to jimmitchell.org, I decided to use the Google Apps Standard Edition (free) to manage my email, calendaring, et al. The one thing that bugged me the most was the extra ads and other fluff in Gmail that was visually distracting. Because of that, I resorted to using Firefox with the Better Gmail add-on, or Google Chrome with the Better Gmail extension. While they were great, I still wanted my email in a separate app, mostly because I have a habit of quitting my browser when I’m done using it (this goes back to my System 6 days probably).
I’ve been a long time user of the very awesome Mailplane by Ruben Bakker, but was always a little bugged by the afore mentioned ads and other fluff. Because of it, I’d flop back and forth between browser and Mailplane use.
I’m happy to say that I’ve finally solved this dilemma by releasing my very own Mailplane Clean CSS style sheet. This is basically a rework of some styles that are part of the Google Chrome Better Gmail (Unofficial) extension, with the addition of others that I wanted (like making the bottom button bar go away).
The best way to see what it does is download the stylesheet archive, and set Mailplane to use the custom stylesheet in “Preferences > Tweak UI > Custom Stylesheet.” Then restart Mailplane and bask in the awesome goodness. I promise, if you’re a Mailplane user, you’ll like this stylesheet. It makes everything about the Gmail UI so much cleaner.
I will probably add the file to the “mailplaneapp” Google Group in the near future, so keep an eye out for it there if you prefer. If you have any questions or comments about the stylesheet, drop me a line through my contact page.
NetNewsWire Theme "uni" Updated
A very quick note to let those who use my “uni” theme for NetNewsWire — one of my 10 must-have apps — know that I gave it a point update today, which addresses the use of the “pre” and “code” html tags in articles. Click to download the updated skin if you use it. To install, simply double-click the theme in the Finder & NNW does the rest.
New Yasu on the Way
A minor bug was found in the 2.0.3 version of Yasu that would throw an AppleScript error on faster machines when the application would close the main window for restart or shutdown while still trying to write to the preferences file after the maintenance pass had finished.
I’ve been able to track the problem down thanks to the help of Gregor Rittinger and Peter Gillies. A new version has been built and is ready to be released first thing tomorrow morning.
Keep an eye out for it…
Cache Out X Problems
For those of you who are suddenly having trouble with Cache Out X, it would seem there are some authentication problems that have recently popped up.
I’ve not been paying attention, but there must have been a 10.3 security update recently that broke this. It would also appear that COX is suffering the same cache path woes as Yasu 1.3.6 did. I’ll address both of these over the weekend.
[UPDATE] – I’m in the process of setting up a test machine to look into this problem. But, it being the holiday weekend and all, family commitments are not going to allow the time to work on the issue until after the long weekend.
It's Beta Test Time!
I’m so beat, it’s not even funny. The past 5 days have been a huge push to get Yasu wrapped up to the point of being testable by those who have volunteered. I will be sending them what they need tonight.
I’m hoping for a week or two of good testing and fixing (if needed), with a release ready to hit the streets no later than mid-September. I can’t believe it’s finally to this point. Of course, I’ve done more work in the last week than I have in the 8 months since I announced development began. Even I was beginning to think that Yv2 was going to be vaporware.
For those who are curious, a few details about the new release;
It’s Tiger only, for now. I
willmight be able to make it a Jaguar thru Tiger app, but decided not to do that yet in order to not hold up the release. Besides, I need somewhere to go from here, right?Yes, it’s shareware now, but it’s the cheapest shareware you’ll ever have to buy. At a recommended minimum donation of $3.50, even starving students can afford it. My goal is to be able to eventually buy a Mac Book from the proceeds. I know some will opt to use one of the free options instead. I understand, and that’s cool. We all have to do what we have to do.
Though some options have changed, and extra features have been added, it’s still the same old Yasu you’re used to. I almost went with a tabbed interface, but realized that would kill the true spirit of what the application is. I’m glad I came to my senses.
That’s it for now. I put it all in the hands of the testers…
Here's a Great CSS Trick
While I’m handing out tips, I think I’ll share a CSS trick that I picked up somewhere (but can’t remember where) not too long ago. This cool little method will pre-load the images for your site theme without the need for any JavaScript. It’s too simple not to use it!
First, add an id selector to your stylesheet similar to the following:
#preload {
width: 0;
height: 0;
display: inline;
background-image: url(images/background.gif);
background-image: url(images/banner.gif);
background-image: url(images/logo.gif);
background-image: url();
}
The critical thing here is the size (width/height: 0), to display it inline (no box of it’s own) and that the last background image url be empty so nothing shows as a background (even though the width/height is 0).
Then in your page, right after the “<body>” tag, add an empty div element as such;
<div id="preload"></div>
That’s it. As soon as your page loads, the style images are downloaded and stored in the browser cache. No need for a JavaScript function to do it anymore. Slick, huh? Works great for those who prefer to browse with JS disabled too.
Yes, it adds just a little superfluous code to the page, but it’s far less cumbersome than the JS alternative, and far more manageable when you want to add or remove images.
There you have it. Enjoy!
One for the WordPress Users
Here’s a little hint for the WordPress users that smacked me square between the eyes yesterday in one of those “a-hah!” moments while dinking with the theme files for my site.
A lot of people will tuck an “All content © 2003-2006 So-and-so” or similar notice in the footer of their site. If you’re one of those who do, and you’re bugged by the fact that you have to change (or forget to change) the latter year every time a new year rolls around, there’s a quick and simple solution for you.
It dawned on me, since WordPress themes are based on the PHP language (this works with any PHP based template system really), why not just tuck the date function into my template footer in place of the latter year? That way it will automatically change when it’s supposed to, and I won’t have to remember anything. So, in place of the following:
<p>All content © 2004-2006 jimmitchell.org</p>
I simply did this:
<p>All content © 2004-<?php echo date("Y") ?> jimmitchell.org</p>
Yippie! No more having to remember to change the footer on January 1st.
Overly simple? Yes. Painfully obvious? Only to those further along the path to web development enlightenment than myself. To the other neophytes like me, it’s one of those moments where we start to wonder “If I can do that, could I do this?” I hope this helps to bring one of those moments to your own work, be it for fun or profit.
Some Public Opinion…
As I round the bend on Yasu 2 development, I’m wrestling with the thought of browser cache removal. Version 1.x simply has a single button to click for all browsers to clear either their cache, downloads, cookies. However, Cache Out X has the option to select individual browsers. A single click option is quick and painless (development wise). A popup selection option is more work on my part, but more flexible for the end user.
Which would you, the user, prefer? A simple one click method that wipes it all out, or a more refined, troubleshooting friendly method of selecting individual browsers of your choice?
I’ll put it to a vote-by-comment census. The majority opinion wins here, so start posting ‘em…
Yasu 1.3.9 Released
A quick note to say Yasu 1.3.9 is released that fixes the recent Intel/PPC app problems. Go grab yours here.
It’s a recommended update for all Tiger users, both Intel and PPC.
New Yasu Release This Evening
If you’ve been following my posts over at the Yasu development weblog, you know that a show-stopper issue was reported a couple of weeks ago with Intel machines and PPC apps (Rosetta). Basically, after running Yasu on an Intel machine, certain PPC based apps (Photoshop, MS Word) would not launch anymore, requiring a complete application reinstall to solve the problem. My apologies to any and all this may have affected.
I’m happy to announce that the bug has been squashed with the help of some daring individuals, and that a new version of Yasu (1.3.9) for Tiger will be released this evening. I’d do it now, but I’m in the office and don’t have the necessary files to make my disk image for distribution.
This will be the final release of the Yasu 1.x branch, unless some other end-of-the-world bug is discovered before I can get v2 wrapped up.
