Perl/catalyst blog

Despite being a new blog, Jamie has got the name perldev.blogspot.com, and in it describes some woes with Catalyst installation.

Firebug equivalent for IE

I've been using Firebug for "debugging" web pages for a while now. I came across a sort of equivalent for IE - the IE Developer toolbar. Update: see below for IE 8 and above.

It's not quite as slick. I turned on the outlining of DIV elements and it spent the next half hour putting flickering boxes all over the screen until I killed IE. I won't do that again. At least IE7 remembers what was on each tab.

Update: This is by far and away my most popular blog post. So I figured I ought to update it for IE 8 and 9: IE 8 and 9 has built in developer tools, which look as good as firebug, though I haven't looked in depth. Press F12 to find them.

Shameless plug: Are you a Christian web developer? Why not work for Wycliffe? or find out more about IT in Wycliffe.

Shameless plug 2: You can find good answers to HTML, CSS and Javascript questions at stackoverflow.com, or webmaster type questions at webmasters.stackexchange.com.

evhead: Notes to self after time away/big changes

Ev writes in evhead: Notes to self after time away/big changes about things to think about doing in the future, e.g. "Unsubscribe from as many things as possible".

I've just got back after two weeks and my list is:

• Try to do one thing well, rather than two badly.
• Find ways of making boring things interested, rather than trying to do something else interesting at the same time.
• Tackle the big rewrite a bit at a time alongside other stuff.
  

Blackbaud labs

In case you haven't heard from another source, Blackbaud have a labs website where they preview new stuff:
http://labs.blackbaud.com/

Very interesting.

Virtual hosting

I've been recommended slicehost.com for virtual hosting. Prices start at $20/month, so you for twice or three times what you may pay for shared hosting you get a virtual server to yourself. I haven't used them myself, so I can't personally vouch for them, but it looks good.

One warning though, you may have to wait up to about 5 weeks if you pay 3 months in advance - pay 12 months in advance and it should be less than a week.

Finding volunteers to write code

I've been pondering how to find volunteers to work on a project I'm looking after. I figured that there are thousands of people writing open source code (incidentally, if you find any good surveys or something that says what sort of people do that, I'd be interested - what are their day jobs? how much time to they spend? what's their motivation?) and as this project is for Bible Translation I'd look for some Christian open source coders. After a bit of googling I came across the Christian Open Development Network which has LightSys behind it, whom I've come across before. I also found Emptycrate.com, "Bringing Together the Christian Open Source Community".

Both sites have an air of abandonment about them, although the astute owners of these sites might come across this blog entry and beg to differ. Of course the coders don't have to be Christians, but they do have to be motivated to do the work.

Catalyst and dreamhost

Continuing my adventures with the Perl Catalyst Framework. I've spent a few days trying to get it to work on Dreamhost. There are references to it out there, and some pointers, but no sign that anyone's actually managed to get it working under FastCGI.

So now I'm pondering whether to risk another shared hosting company, or pay the extra for a virtual server, with more control.

Microsoft security newsletter

"The internet service certificate is not trusted. Do you want to take corrective action now?"
Do I trust Microsoft's security newsletter? Do I trust Lotus Notes? Hmmm.