Monday, September 29, 2008

Browser Speed Tests: The Compiled, Up-to-Date Results [Performance Tests]



 
 

Sent to you by Ravi Kumar Gupta ~A.K.A~ "D'Maverick" via Google Reader:

 
 

via Lifehacker by Kevin Purdy on 9/26/08

Back when Firefox 3's final release candidate dropped, we ran some tests to compare its page-loading, memory use, and technical timing to Internet Explorer 7, Opera, and Safari for Windows. Then Google Chrome arrived, so we pitted it against the betas for Firefox 3.1 and Internet Explorer 8, and shared the results. The tests were by and large the same, but many commenters wisely asked to see all the results, betas or no betas. Well, today we've patched together all our data, thrown in a fresh test of the Opera 9.6 beta, and we're sharing all the graphy goodness. Read on to see a full comparison of the major browsers you can load on Windows.

The tests

You can read up on our testing methods in their entirety at the original testing feature. I've come to realize, however, that between all three rounds of testing involved, the "8-page load" test may be the most vulnerable to variables—some of the pages included are quite dynamic, so if, say, Gizmodo puts up a large number of videos or huge pictures, it could affect the total loading time. Other than that, though, the page-loading tests are run by a human watching a timer, the JavaScript from Sean Patrick Kane's web test, the CSS from a downloadable form, and memory use from checking Windows Vista's Task Manager.

Test 1: Page Loading—Winner: Opera (9.5)!

No surprise that Opera 9.6's beta performed just as well as the official release, on start-ups both both cold (right after boot-up) and warm (having launched at least once). I'm heartened to see comparable results between the first batch of browsers I tested and their newer betas.

The next speed test, loading eight pages from a bookmark folder, left me scratching my head. Why did the newer betas take so much longer to load a similar set of pages? As stated above, my best guess is the dynamic nature of at least one page in the group, but Opera was tested separately from the other betas, and didn't gain much in speed.

Test 2: JavaScript & CSS—Winner: Safari! (by a nose)

It's hard to beat Safari's performance in both Cascading Style Sheets and the JavaScript code that fronts so many webapps. It has to be noted, however, that most browsers, other than Internet Explorer, don't out-run one another by a huge stretch in JavaScript; Chrome and Safari, though, pull ahead on CSS.

Test 3: Memory Use—Winner: Firefox!

It's reassuring that Mozilla puts so much effort into memory usage in Firefox 3 releases—seeing as how most readers of this site are more than open to extension suggestions.

So that's all the testing data we have on the latest web browsers here at Lifehacker Labs. Got another set of test results you put faith in? Surprised at any of our outcomes? Tell us about it in the comments.



 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Find Out Where a Username is Already Registered [Identity]



 
 

Sent to you by Ravi Kumar Gupta ~A.K.A~ "D'Maverick" via Google Reader:

 
 

via Lifehacker by Gina Trapani on 9/24/08

When you think up that perfect new handle for storming social networks and other registration-only sites across the web, run it through UserNameCheck.com first. This webapp's purpose is simple: to tell you whether or not that name is already in use at a pretty impressive list of sites, from Delicious and Digg to eBay and Xbox Live. The developer explains:

This site is a quick and dirty solution to a question that I often lay awake at night worrying about. Do I have my username registered across every site that I should? What if the next internet humiliation meme just happens to share the username I've been using for years, and suddenly people are emailing me asking "hey, is this you ???". The site is simple. I have a stack of web app urls, the application pings the site using the username you want to check, if it returns a "no user name" error we return that.

The list of checks can take some time, so grab a cup of coffee or browse the news in another tab while UserNameCheck does its thing.



 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 

Add Yahoo Messenger to your Website & Chat With Visitors



 
 

Sent to you by Ravi Kumar Gupta ~A.K.A~ "D'Maverick" via Google Reader:

 
 


yahoo website chatYahoo! today introduced Yahoo! Messenger 9 and a new service called Pingbox which is like a live chat box (in the form of a Flash Widget) that you may embed in any website or blog including your MySpace page.

Like the Google Talk badge, site visitors can send your private messages via the Pingbox chat box without requiring any IM client. 

There are however some differences and the most noticeable one is that Yahoo! Pingbox embed inline in your website while Google Talk opens a pop-up window. The downside of Yahoo's approach is that it extend the loading time of web pages because the widget will always download with the page.

yahoo pingbox
Themes inside Yahoo! Pingbox Studio

Another difference is that you can customize the look-n-feel of your Yahoo! Pingbox through the dozen or so themes available in the Pingbox studio.

Thge Pingbox widget on the site will reflect the current status of your Yahoo! Messenger and will automatically become unavailable when you go offline or set your status as 'invisible.'

Related: Blog Add-onsEmbed Chat in your Blog

Add Yahoo Messenger to your Website & Chat With Visitors - Digital Inspiration


 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 

Monday, September 22, 2008

7 Open Source Version Control Systems Reviewed



 
 

Sent to you by Ravi Kumar Gupta ~A.K.A~ "D'Maverick" via Google Reader:

 
 

via Smashing Magazine by Glen Stansberry on 9/18/08

If you've ever collaborated with other people on a project, you know the frustration of constantly swapping files. Some do it by email, some through file upload services and some by other methods. It's a pain in the neck, and every designer and developer knows it. Revision control is an excellent way to combat the problem of sharing files between workers.

Most web-developers have probably worked with some sort of revision control system, but designers may find it a foreign concept. The most obvious benefit of using revision control is the ability to have an unlimited number of people working on the same code base, without having to constantly send files back and forth.

But designers and developers can both benefit from using revision control systems to keep copies of their files and designs. You can instantly browse previous "commits" to your repository and revert to earlier versions if something happens.

This article reviews some of the top open-source version control systems and tools that make setting up a version control system easy.

CVS

CVS is the grandfather of revision control systems. It was first released in 1986, and Google Code still hosts the original Usenet post announcing CVS. CVS is the de facto standard and is installed virtually everywhere. However, the code base isn't as fully featured as SVN or other solutions.

The learning curve isn't too steep for CVS, and it's a very simple system for making sure files and revisions are kept up to date. While CVS may be an older technology, it's still quite useful for any designer or developer for backing up and sharing files.

Tortoise CVS is a great client for CVS on Windows, and there are many different IDEs, such as Xcode (Mac), Eclipse, NetBeans and Emacs, that use CVS.

CVS Resources

SVN

Subversion is probably the version control system with the widest adoption. Most open-source projects use Subversion as a repository because other larger projects, such as SourceForge, Apache, Python, Ruby and many others, use it as well. Google Code uses Subversion exclusively to distribute code.

Because of Subversion's popularity, many different Subversion clients are available. If you're a Windows user, Tortoise SVN is a great file browser for viewing, editing and modifying your Subversion code base. If you're on a Mac, Versions is an elegant client that provides a "pleasant way to work with Subversion." Xcode is Apple's developer environment and Subversion client that ships with Leopard on a Mac.

SVN Resources

Git

Git is the new fast-rising star of version control systems. Initially developed by Linux kernel creator Linus Torvalds, Git has recently taken the Web development community by storm. Git offers a much different type of version control in that it's a distributed version control system. With a distributed version control system, there isn't one centralized code base to pull the code from. Different branches hold different parts of the code. Other version control systems, such as SVN and CVS, use centralized version control, meaning that only one master copy of the software is used.

Git prides itself on being a fast and efficient system, and many major open-source projects use Git to power their repositories; projects like:

GitHub has recently helped establish Git as a great version control system, providing a beautiful front end for many large projects, such as Rails and Prototype. However, Git isn't as easy to pick up as CVS or SVN, so it's much harder to use for a beginner.

Git Resources

Mercurial

Mercurial is another open-source distributed version control system, like Git. Mercurial was designed for larger projects, most likely outside the scope of designers and independent Web developers. That doesn't mean that small development teams can't or shouldn't use it. Mercurial is extremely fast, and the creators built the software with performance as the most important feature. The name "mercurial" is an adjective that means "Relating to or having characteristics (eloquence, swiftness, cleverness) attributed to the god Mercury."

Aside from being very fast and scalable, Mercurial is a much simpler system than Git, which is why it appeals to some developers. There aren't as many functions to learn, and the functions are similar to those in other CVS systems. It also comes equipped with a stand-alone Web interface and extensive documentation on understanding Mercurial if you have been using another system.

Resources for Mercurial

Bazaar

Bazaar is yet another distributed version control system, like Mercurial and Git, that offers a very friendly user experience. It calls itself "Version control for human beings." It supports many different types of workflows, from solo to centralized to decentralized, with many variations in between.

One of the main features of Bazaar is the fine-grained control you'll have over the setup. As shown with the workflows, you can use it to fit almost any scenario of users and setups. This is a great revision control system for nearly any project because it's so easy to modify. It's also embeddable, so you can add it to existing projects.

Bazaar also has a strong community that maintains things like plug-ins and lots of third-party tools, such as GUI software to add a graphical interface to the system.

Bazaar resources:

LibreSource

LibreSource is a Web portal used to manage collaborative projects. It's based on Java/J2EE and is more a set of visual collaborative tools to help facilitate projects and teams. While the other systems discussed so far have been designed more on a "command line" level, LibreSource is centered more on tools that don't have a big learning curve.

It has built-in features such as Wiki pages, forums, trackers, Synchronizers, Subversion repositories, files, download areas, drop boxes, forms, instant messaging and more. Think of LibreSource as a collaboration hub for project development.

LibreSource is perfect for the developer or designer who doesn't want to learn lots of technical jargon and wants to focus more on communication with the project's members. Just install the package and start collaborating, without facing much of a learning curve.

Resources for LibreSource

Monotone

Monotone is the baby of the distributed revision control bunch. While many of Monotone's peers focus on performance, Monotone places higher value on integrity than performance. In fact, it can take quite a bit of time for a new user of Monotone to simply download the initial repository due to the extensive validation and authentication required.

Monotone is fairly easy to learn if you're familiar with CVS systems, and it can import previous CVS projects. However, it's not quite as popular as other version control systems.

Monotone Resources

Version Control Tools

  • QCT GUI commit tool
    A version control commit tool that supports Mercurial, Bazaar, Cogito (Git), Subversion, Monotone, and CVS.
  • Meld is a merge and diff tool that allows you to compare two or three files and edit them in place, while updating automatically. It works with CVS, Subversion, Bazaar and Mercurial.
  • Push Me Pull You is another GUI for distributed version control systems. It works with Mercurial, Git, Bazaar and Darcs.

Version Control Resources


 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 

Monday, September 8, 2008

Google Chrome Features that we miss in other Web Browsers



 
 

Sent to you by Ravi Kumar Gupta ~A.K.A~ "D'Maverick" via Google Reader:

 
 

via Digital Inspiration by labnol on 9/3/08

google chrome icon Now that you have Google Chrome installed on your desktop, let's look at some of the unique features that are only available in Google Web Browser are you're seriously going to miss them in other popular browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Apple Safari or Opera.


1. Task Manager for Websites

While you are inside Google Chrome, press Shift+Escape and it will open up a 'task manager' with a list of all websites currently open inside Chrome.

chrom task manager

This will give you an idea about how much physical memory is consumed by different websites and if any particular page is causing your system to crawl, you can do an "end process" to close that tab directly from Task Manager.

2. Visual Browser History

This is a feature Chrome borrowed from Google Desktop / Google Web History. Type Ctrl+H to open your browser history and search for a term.

visual-history

In addition to matching pages, Google Chrome will also show you a small thumbnail image of that web pages in the history results. No need for any extensions.

chrome  contextual menu3. Super Clean Contextual Menus

I simply love this. You right click an hyperlink on a web page and you get only five relevant options to deal with that link.

The number comes down to four when you right click any image in Chrome. There's way too much clutter in Firefox menus.

4. Search Your Favorite Websites from the Address Bar

This is brilliant. If you visit a website that includes site search (for instance: search.labnol.org) - Chrome will automatically recognize and add that search engine for you so the next time you can perform a search on that site via the Chrome address bar itself.

chrome search

To see this in action, open cnn.com or search.labnol.org in your Chrome browser and then type cnn.com followed by the tab key to search CNN. Simple.

5. See Memory Used by Different Browsers

Open a new tab inside Chrome browser and type "about:memory" (without quotes) - somewhere at the top, you'll see a list of browser processes that are currently running on your system and the amount of memory they are using.

browser memory

6. Reopen Website tabs that you closed by mistake

Firefox 3 has this "Undo Closed Tab" option in the menu while you can open closed tabs in Opera via the Ctrl+Z shortcut.

closed-tabs

To re-open a closed tab in Google Chrome, just hit Ctrl+T and you'll see an option that says "Recently closed tabs" - click the one you closed by accident.

7. Launch Websites from the Start Menu / Quick Launch Bar

Desktop shortcuts for web pages are possible with other browsers as well but Google Chrome make the whole flow very easy. Open any site and choose "Create application shortcut" from the File menu.

web-shortcuts

This will essentially create a desktop shortcut that looks something like this:

C:\Users\labnol\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe     --app=http://www.labnol.org/

Clicking the shortcut will launch that web page in a new instance of Chrome that may not contain have any more new tabs.

Related Tutorial: How to Create User Profiles in Google Chrome

Chrome lets you move tabs around different windows but I didn't find this feature very useful. I like the Firefox approach better where you can drag tabs onto the desktop and turn them into web shortcuts.

Overall, I am pretty impressed with Chrome but did miss support for extensions especially Customize Google. But Chrome may be a good thing if you are web publisher as it has no adblock plus - good for Google as well.

google chrome error

Aw, Snap! - This is the default error page of Google Chrome

Google Chrome Features that we miss in other Web Browsers - Digital Inspiration


 
 

Things you can do from here: