I ran into a weird bug recently that I hope no one else ever experiences.  I use Telerik’s Rad Controls for ASP.NET AJAX because they’re powerful, pretty and developer friendly.  I recommend them to ALL .NET developers.  I had just put together a server control that used several of Telerik’s controls and my own Rounded DIV Container control as well.  It looked great in all browsers.  I was happy.   I added another Rounded DIV to the page.  When I refreshed the page, all of my styles were gone.  I know the CSS is good, because I was using the control elsewhere.  Was it possible I had an unclosed tag somewhere?  I tried the page in Firefox…perfect, then Safari…perfect, then Google Chrome…perfect.

Scratching head…

At this point, I know it’s a browser issue, but I’m still not sure what’s causing it.  After digging around and playing with the Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar, I noticed that the page seemed to lose it’s style whenever there were more than 30 registers resources on a page (i.e. CSS & JavaScript file references).  I probably had too many CSS files as it was.  On top of that, I was dynamically referencing js files.  Telerik also register javascript and css files via the WebResource.axd (embedded .NET resources).

Here’s how you can check how many resources are registered for a given page:

1. Check your markup
   1. Look for all instances of registered resources (CSS, JS, etc)
      <link id=”cssStyleSheet” rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” runat=”server” /> — each one of these counts as 1
   2. If you’ve got a lot of these, consider consolidating into fewer resources
2. Use the IE Developer Toolbar, ChromeBug (Google Chrome) or FireBug (the best) to check for registered resources in WebResource.axd
   1. Firebug (ChromeBug is similar)
      1. Once the page is loaded, highlight the CSS tab and click the resource drop down list just below it
         
      2. Do the same thing on the “Script” tab (ASP.NET is close to 30! Watch out! )
         
   2. IE Developer Toolbar
      1. In IE, press F12 to bring up the Developer Tools
      2. Click on CSS and count the items in the drop down list
      3. Do the same for Script
         

I hope you don’t have this many registered resources.   But if you do, and things look weird in IE 7 and IE 8, now you know why.  Time to consolidate!

I logged onto Facebook this morning and one of my “friends” had posted a link to something he thought was funny.  It had profanity in the title.  I’m not a fan of profanity, but didn’t want to flat out block my friend, so I went in search of a profanity filter at UserScripts.org. To my delight, I found one and it works great!  For the script to work, you’ll need Firefox, Greasemonkey and the Profanity Filter (install in that order).

I’ve been a devout Firefox convert for a couple years now.  While impressed with Chrome and Safari, I just can’t leave Firefox.  I’ll even concede that, “in my humble opinion”, IE 8 SEEMS FASTER THAN FIREFOX?!  GASP!!! Dare I say?  Nevertheless, the “Add On” features of Firefox will keep me a Firefox user unless the competition does something about it.  Here are my top 5 “Can’t Live Without” add-ons:

1. AdBlock Plus – I haven’t seen an ad on a website in a couple years.  I bet I wouldn’t recognize half the sites I visit if this add-on was disabled!
2. Firebug – a web developer MUST have (features in Safari and IE are comparable, but not up to par)
3. GreaseMonkey – Runner user scripts to make the net more enjoyable.  Here are a few of my favorite scripts:
   1. ExpertsExhangeFilter
   2. Google Account Multi-Logon
   3. PROFANITY FILTER (keep reading)
   4. Facebook Purity: For those annoying survey results on Facebook…blah!
4. CoolIris – The coolest way to search Craigslist!
5. TwitterFox (recently renamed to Echofon, horrible name!) / TinyURL Generator – used in conjunction!

While I’m on the “safe browsing” kick, please check out OpenDNS.org.  Thank you OpenDNS.org, Mozilla, Greasemonkey and the countless open source developers for helping me keep the garbage out of my house!  Surfing without OpenDNS, AdBlock plus and Profanity Filter is like driving without your seat belt fastened.

UPDATE:  This Profanity Filter script for Greasemonkey seems to work with far less latency than the aforementioned.  It also allows for customized replacement strings.

In their own words, Cooliris “…transforms your browser into a lightning fast cinematic way to enjoy photos and videos from the web or your desktop.” I’ve been using it as a Firefox plug-in for about a year; though it is available for Internet Explorer and Safari as well. Whether searching for new desktop wallpaper or stock images for a website, I would use Cooliris to quickly browse thousands of photos with an Apple “CoverFlow” feel.

Recent Cooliris updates make for a GREAT way to search Craigslist. Previous versions of Cooliris appeared to open as a full screen, modal pop-up which you could “escape” out of. Their latest version actually opens a new browser tab; allowing you to bookmark your favorite image searches. Combine this with Craigslist, and you’ve got a very efficient way to peruse the world’s largest yard-sale!

I’m a musician. So, naturally, I browse Craigslist.com looking for instruments and miscellaneous recording gear at bargain basement prices. I don’t waste time looking at ads that don’t have pictures. This morning, I decided to search for musical instruments for sale in my area and noticed the Cooliris icon was illuminated. One click took me to a magical, Craigslist wonderland! And better yet, when I clicked on the images to get a closer view, the item description was listed along with all other item photos. Here’s how:

1. Download and install Cooliris
2. Browse to your local flavor or Craigslist.com
3. Drill-down to your category of choice
4. Search for listings that have images by checking the “has image’ check box (leave the search text box empty)
5. Click search and then click the illuminated Cooliris icon
6. Bookmark the Cooliris page that opens, rinse and repeat

Here are a couple screenshots I took:

My wife and I share the iMAC in the office. We both blog…she on Blogger and me on Wordpress. We both check the finances with a single login. And we both check email on our respective Gmail accounts. The problem is that I have to log her out and log myself in whenever I sit down to use the computer…and vice versa. There are dozens of solutions; none of which I liked for various reasons. Here’s a few examples:

1. Use different browsers
   1. This allows each browser to have a cookie – one for my account in Safari and one for hers in Firefox
   2. This is lame because we both love Firefox
2. Use an email client app like Mail, Outlook, Thunerbird, etc
   1. I really dig the Google interface…so does my wife
3. Firefox Add-ons…DUH!
   1. This one is really nice
   2. However, I use Firefox’s Master Password, so this would require me to enter my Master Password each time I launch the browser

So that brings us to the solution of the day…drum roll please….

I said…drum roll!

Firefox GreaseMonkey Add-On with a script from UserScripts.org

1. Install the GreaseMonkey add-on here.
2. Relaunch Firefox and look for the monkey face in the bottom, right hand corner of your browser:
   
3. Now, browse here and click on the “Install” link.
4. Login to your Gmail account and notice the new drop down list in place of the “Sign Out” link:
   
5. Follow the instructions in the drop down list and you’re golden!

Many thanks to Jarett for this great script.  Now I need one for Facebook!  Perhaps I’ll try my hand at my first Greasemonkey script and blog about the pain later.