It has fantastic User Interface entirely developed using the JavaScript Framework MooTools and some more stuff collectively known as Mocha UI. It’s released under MIT license and is freely available from the site mentioned above to download and use.

They’ve hosted a Visually Appealing Demo to test the capabilities of Mocha UI which is quite a head turner.

Next time you consider Adobe Flex, consider something much lighter like this.

As my previous post on SharpDevelop explained, SharpDevelop in many ways a better alternative to Visual Studio. However, the significant differences between these two and the advantages or disadvantages over each other are explained here.

Advantages of SharpDevelop over Visual Studio:

1. Open Source (Full Source Code available freely)
2. Completely Free to use for both Commercial and Personal use
3. Supports all .NET Framework, Compact Framework, WinForms (with excellent extra GTK# for X-Window based systems), Console Application, Direct3D (wow, Game Development anyone?), WPF, and Windows and Web Services.
4. Supports additional languages like Boo, F#, ILAsm and Python (very good)  out of box apart from C# and VB.NET.
5. Supports Installer Creation (a very likable feature works better than VS in my opinion)
6. Light on Resources and faster on Building (refer Point 8 below). The last time I checked, has only 80 KB of RAM with 0.x% CPU Usage even after opening a bulky WinForms project and keeping couple of forms open in design mode. (A relief from VS’s usual 128 KB or more RAM and 4-5% CPU Usage)
7. Inbuilt Re-factoring Engine (you’ll need the paid software JetBrains ReSharper if you want this in Visual Studio)
8. Parallel Build support for Multi-core machines (faster building, very likable feature which is sadly not available in VS as of 2005)
9. Supports important Visual Studio add-ons like FxCop, StyleCop, NUnit, PartCover etc.
10. Version Controlling with Subversion (which is far better a solution than VSS. I’ll post another post soon explaining the benefits of SVN over VSS. You can of course use AnkhSVN to get this in Visual Studio though.)
11. Wide range of very useful Add-ons (as the case with most Open Source projects)
12. Inbuilt Documentation Generator (Sandcastle, SHFB)
13. Very likable Class Diagram and Code Coverage views
14. Very likable F# Interactive, Boo Interpreter and Python Console
15. Supports Mono (the alternative .NET 2.0 Framework for Linux, BSD and Mac OS X)

What I see as disadvantages of SharpDevelop:

1. Code Editor has some minor glitches (I’ve seen some glitches on code folding and unfolding though it’s just visual not physical)
2. Lack of VSS Support (though I’m not looking forward to it as it’s a proprietary version control system to be included in any open source project like this)
3. Lack of Visual Studio like Object Browser (I miss that one here, though #Develop has very good Class Browser)
4. Somewhat Buggy (I’ve seen it crashing sometimes but understandable due to its Open Source nature)

But apart from this, programmatically speaking, you can do everything that you can do in VS with #Develop. It’s pretty impressive for a Open Source project.

So, many websites and/or vendors who provide downloadable softwares include a digitally encrypted signature to identify the contents of the file at any time. All you need to do is just use the signature to verify the integrity of the downloaded file before you execute the same.

This also provides a fail-proof way of distributing original files and helps us to identify cracked or hacked ones from the original files. Even if a single bit changed in the original file, the signature verification will fail giving you a clear warning that the file you downloaded is not the same as it claims to be.

To give your own digitally encrypted file signatures and to verify file signatures of downloaded files, there exists a cool freeware utility called Crypto Helper which you can download from its official website here.

But at last, I found a perfect solution to these problems. It’s Beyond Compare a quality software product from Scooter Software which does amazing things like magic.

It supports a wide range of features as follows:

• Compare Text Files (including color highlighting for program text files)
• Compare Folders, Zip Archives and FTP Sites
• Supports Network Drives and Network Compare
• Merge Code Changes (just like a Version Control System. )
• Compare Program Output (awesome feature)
• Display Filters
• Session and State saving and retrieval

and much more can be found here.

First of all, Google Reader, didn’t accepted my OPML file which I exported from RSS Bandit. So, I tried manually adding some of the RSS feeds and had a go. It’s really awesome.

Google seems to be making very good use of AJAX. Which really made their Web Based reader a pleasant experience.

I strongly recommend those of you guys who think a Web Reader is not good to see Google Reader.

First of all, find all of the below listed Google Firefox Extensions here.

Google Toolbar 2.1 for Firefox

An excellent rework of Google Toolbar originally developed for Internet Explorer. Helped me a lot when I was a die hard IE fan. But now, it adds more cool features to Firefox and making me right in taking the decision on getting rid of Internet Explorer for good.

Google Browser Sync

The BEST class of Extension can ONLY given by Google! It’s simply superb. It saves everything from your Browser Settings, Bookmarks, History, Persistent Cookies, Saved Passwords and even your Tabs and Windows into the centralized Google Server and enables you to access them from any other computer any time by just using this extension in the target computer’s Firefox browser. It’s amazing thing. It’s really a life saver for me who find it very difficult to synchronize between my Office PC, my Home Desktop PC and my Laptop PC always as I keep on sitting in different places. This really saved my life by synchronizing everything across these three PC’s which shown me as though I’m working on the single computer. I want these cool guys sitting in Google to come up a solution like this for Windows Files also. Then, I won’t even need to worry about carrying my Memory Sticks and Flash Drives for moving data in and out. Actually, that I was able to solve by using one excellent tool from Microsoft named Groove. It comes as part of MS Office 2007 Beta 2. As I’m their Beta Tester, they’ve sent me this and it’s really awesome product. I will put one more Post on that software. As of now, I use Groove to synchronize my files and Google Browser Sync to synchronize my surfing things.

Google Notebook

Another handy tool from Google. Enables me to take quick notes on various web pages and sites. Man, really these tools will make me a real blogger hereafter I guess.

Blogger Web Comments

Supposed to be a COOL extension. But the only problem is, it ONLY supports Blogger. That’s the saddest thing. I use WordPress on my own hosting for my blogging. So, this won’t suit me. Anyways, if you guys are using Blogger for blogging, this is an excellent extension that allows you to post comments and view others comments on any website using Blogger.

Google Send to Phone

Another cool-but-not-useful-for-me kind of extension. Because, it currently supports ONLY US Mobile Numbers. If any of you guys are browsing this blog from USA (If so, I will be thrilled. ), I strongly recommend you use this for your MobiLog (Mobile Blogging) by sending snippets of web pages to your Phone via SMS.

But the all new Firefox 2.0 changed me entirely. I’ve even ended up in uninstalling my IE plug-in based Avant Browser which I found the most convenient replacement for boring IE interface. Actually the Avant Browser people call it the Swiss Knife Browser as it had a lot of cool utilities. But now, I don’t think this term is really means anything for Avant Browser than Firefox 2.0!

Actually the normal Firefox (with the DOM Inspector in custom installation) hasn’t given me much relief and isn’t the reason I wrote this Post. It’s after I found some cool extensions for Firefox from internet and applied it. It became so useful that I really ended up in using ONLY Firefox. I upgraded my Internet Explorer to 7.0 version as it’s now highly stable and supported old version (IE 6) websites also. But after I found a extension in Firefox that enabled me to use IE engine (the plug-in used by Avant Browser like IE replacements) in any Tabs as I wish gave me an easier way of switching the engines, I fall in LOVE with Firefox. It’s now the ultimate Developer Tool. If you’re interested, a Web Developer, and a dedicated fan of IE (like me), please read further about the extensions I used on Firefox 2.0 that made me forget IE forever.

Aging Tabs 0.4

This is a cool extension that shows different colors of tabs based on the usage. If you left a Tab unvisited for a period of time or new url loading or cycling, it will change the color of that Tab. This really helped me a lot in identifying which tab I visited when.

AI RoboForm Tool bar for Firefox 6.8.0

This is actually used in conjunction with RoboForm, an Excellent tool for Windows that stores your logins and automatically logins to them if you want. It also supports Form filling, Automatic Login, and encryption. This toolbar is meant for Firefox 2.0 and supports cool features integrated with Firefox for auto filling almost everything. (You can forget Firefox’s Form and Password remembering features).

Codetch 0.4

Real Developer Tool. This is actually can be considered as a Web Page editor. But acts simply as a separate tab in Firefox and enables you to edit pages while previewing your changes. It’s like Dreamweaver. It also supports WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) mode of editing. It’s really wonderful.

DOM Inspector 1.8.1

This is another Developer Tool. This extension comes preloaded with Firefox installation. You need to choose Custom mode while installing and select this. If you haven’t installed it already, you can visit the plug-in link given in the title and download it. This shows a status bar icon which, when clicked, immediately shows the errors in your web page.

FireBug 0.4.1

Another cool Developer Tool which gives great control over the JavaScript and CSS you use in your Web pages. A clear winner on top of IE which doesn’t have any kind of software like this.

FireFTP 0.94.6

Actually, I couldn’t believe Firefox is this much customizable that by just installing an extension, you can use Firefox as a new Software itself. This is just 102 KB (unbelievable!) and gives an entire FTP client in a Tab of Firefox 2.0. Enables you to do all FTP operations as you do in any FTP client software. A clear winner over IE as IE is having the boring integrated FTP client that shows files in Windows Explorer mode.

IE Tab 1.1.1.4

This is the Extension that finally made me write this Post! This cool extension allows you to use IE engine for a Tab (a Web Page). Which is amazingly cool feature that is NOT supported in any other Browser (as far as I know). It gives a cool icon in status bar (or you can drag & drop a button of this next to Go button which gives very convenient way) which, on click changes the engine of the currently displayed web page from Firefox and IE which enables you to test your web pages how it will look in Firefox and IE by just a click of mouse.

lori (Life-of-request info) 0.1.0

Another Developer Tool. It just creates three boxes in the Status Bar which shows the accurate time each page took for rendering from Web Server. The ultimate thing any Web developer wants to know is how long his page is taking to load from Live! That’s solved by this amazing extension.

MeasureIt 0.3.6

Another excellent tool (cool isn’t enough). This gives me another box in the left corner of Status Bar which upon click, dims the current web page and allows you to draw a rectangle over any area which shows it’s measurement in Pixels. I can say, this is another ultimate thing any Web Page Designer will look for.

MetaProducts Integration 1.1.3

Another Software based extension like AI RoboForm. It comes with Mass Downloader, an excellent tool for mass downloading. Allows faster downloads by just downloading the same file from ten different connections and integrating internally for a single file output. I liked this Tool very much and using this for almost 2 years. Now, I found this extension which enabled easy way of integrating Mass Downloader with Firefox.

Session Manager 0.4.3 (Hacked for supporting Firefox 2.0)

This another cool extension which enabled me completely get rid of Avant Browser. Because, the ultimate feature of Avant Browser is saving all the open tabs under any crash or manual close of Browser and giving an option to restore them in next open of the Browser. This feature is not really integrated in Firefox though it supports restoration of tabs under Crashes only. But that flaw is gone away by this excellent extension. This enabled me not only save the session, it actually enabled me to keep track of closed tabs (I can specify the limit also) and allows me restore them individually. Also, supports saving the contents of the Tab (preserving anything I might’ve entered in that page), another cool reason to go for this.

Only one problem with the extension is it is not supported in Firefox 2.0. While searching in Internet, I found the work around for this and given that link in the title of this extension here. If you are using older Firefox and want this extension, it is available here.

Tab Catalog 1.1.2006

Excellent feature that enabled me forget IE7. IE 7 came with a cool feature of previewing the open tabs as Thumbnails and also a Drop down list of currently opened tabs. Both of these features and also another feature where by pressing Ctrl+Tab you can navigate through the open tabs by using Thumbnails of them (just like Alt+Tab functionality in Windows that shows only icons of open Programs) are included in this extension.

Total Validator 3.1

Another Developer friendly Tool. Validates everything (HTML, CSS, XHTML, etc) of a web page. Only problem is, it’s not offline validation (not Software based). It goes to their website for validating. And their website sometimes seems to be hanging.

XML Developer Toolbar 0.2

Best XML Developer Tool disguised as a extension here. Another amazing feature of Firefox. This tool enables me to work around XML just like HTML with validations and everything.