tools

If you’d like to automatically download pics and videos from your Android phone to your Mac, this post is for you. All you need is a free Dropbox account and some elbow grease.

Here’s a simple guide on how to configure IntelliJ IDEA to use Karma/Jasmine to run Angular tests

Treadmill desks are becoming quite popular among the sitterati. A few months ago, spurred by a combination of back problems and the chorus of “sitting will kill you” articles, I decided to build one.

Every now and then I run across what I call forehead-slapping software. You know, the kind of software that makes you slap your forehead and exclaim “This is so simple, yet so awesome. Why didn’t I think of it first?!”. In this post…

Groovy and XSLT are two great options for working with XML. While both have their uses, I was curious about combining them to generate an XSLT transform with a Groovy script. It turns out that doing this is pretty straight forward,…

There’s a good variety of options available for transforming xml. In addition to the standards (XSLT and XQuery), Groovy has excellent XML manipulation support with MarkupBuilders and XMLSlurpers. I wanted to know how XSLT and Groovy…

Major password leaks are unfortunately becoming all too common. Each time a new batch of passwords becomes public knowledge, security experts pipe up with recommendations which basically boil down to two things: 1) don’t share…

For whatever reason, dark IDE themes are all the rage these days. Somewhat surprisingly, there aren’t a lot of great options available for IntelliJ IDEA. So, I decided to make one.

Here’s how to configure a Mac to debug web sites in IE

Microsoft’s new Visual Studio attempts to “engender the impression that VS feels lighter and less complex”. In other words, instead of radically rethinking what a great development experience would be like, they focused on obfuscating…

Hot on the heels of the iPhone 4S and a rumored TV, Apple is apparently building a car powered by its revolutionary Siri technology

I have a Mac Mini circa 2009 and it’s a great little computer.

I like to doodle. I do it frequently, mostly in meetings. Just to clear the air, my doodling during meetings does not mean that I’m not paying attention. In fact, it’s the opposite. (I’m apparently not alone in this: there was a study…

Among the gajillions of apps for the iPad, there are some real gems. Here’s a rundown of my favorite productivity apps. Enjoy! Noteshelf (iTunes link) I’ve tried quite a few note taking apps for the iPad, and Noteshelf really stands…

Here is a crazy prediction: In 5 years, most applications will be built using what I like to call the JHC triumvirate (JavaScript, HTML, CSS). I’ll give you a second to gather yourself. You ok? Good. Now, let’s talk about why this may…

Whenever I talk to my geek friends about how they keep up with their favorite sources of information, the obvious answer is RSS. Yet most non-geeks I know don’t seem to be aware of it, much less use it. So, in an effort to correct this…

I make it a point to back up as much data as I can into the Cloud. I didn’t always do this, but there were two compelling events that forced me to change. My path to the Cloud The first compelling event was actually two events.…