After The Deadline is a project of Automattic (the creator of Wordpress) which checks:

• spelling
• grammar
• styles (finds complex phrases, cliches, bias-language & suggests simple ones)
• and detects misused words (has a database of 1500 most misused words & suggestions)

The software used to come as a plugin for several projects (like Wordpress, RoundCube, PHP List) but it is now open source and anybody can embed it to their own code.

Besides the artificial intelligence it already has, it is possible to add new rules & improve the application.

The project also has libraries for jQuery, Ruby & Python to make developing new plugins easier.

Few days ago, the JavaScript Framework Matrix, which enables you to make a detailed comparison of JS frameworks, was shared at WRD.

Bestwebframeworks has a wider look with less detail & makes comparing PHP, JavaScript, Ruby & CSS frameworks easier.

Frameworks are listed very clearly and shows:

• their licenses
• requirements
• features
• compatibility

depending on the category viewed.

Also, it is possible to hide any framework & sort titles for a quicker comparison.

LESS is a Ruby gem which compiles the LESS code to CSS & extends css by adding variables, mixins, operations and nested rules.

It uses the existing CSS syntax. So, it is very easy to convert current CSS files to LESS files & there is almost no learning curve.

To help understand better, here is an example:

@brand_color: #4D926F;
#header {
  color: @brand_color;
}
h2 {
  color: @brand_color;
}

LESS is well-documented & source can be found here.

When sharing codes on a website, even they are wrapped with code tags or styled differently, it is always a challenge to read them without syntax highlighting.

There are various syntax highlighters which can format the codes & color them appropriately according to the languages used. Whether it is a HTML page or runs on PHP, Ruby, Python, ASP, there is a suitable syntax highlighter.

And, here is a collection of 11 Syntax Highlighters To Beautify Code Presentation:

GeSHi (Generic Syntax Highlighter – With PHP)

GeSHi is a powerful syntax highlighter script that supports almost every language.

It is first created for phpBB forum system but became a project itself. It requires PHP to run (there is also a hack to make it work under ASP).

SyntaxHighlighter (With JS)

This is a flexible & extensible syntax highlighter built with JavaScript. It supports a wide range of languages from CSS to PHP or C++ to SQL.

SyntaxHighlighter offers ready-to-use themes an new ones can be created easily for a custom presentation.

It has support for 3rd party applications like Blogger, Wordpress, Joomla & many others.

Read the rest of this entry »

Compass is a stylesheet framework (and not only a collection of classes) for Ruby.

Using Compass, you can still use the other css frameworks -blueprint, yui, 960- that are ported to Sass and they are ready to be used in your ruby-based web application or stand-alone via a simple command-line interface.

The framework comes with a detailed documentation on:

• supported frameworks
  
• best practices
• patterns & more..

You can also watch the podcast on how Compass works.

Ruby on Rails is a powerful web framework that helps creating web applications easier, faster & writing an organized code.

There are lots of websites that use it including popular ones like Twitter, Basecamp, AboutUs & many more.

Also, Ruby on Rails powers some amazing open source web applications which you may want to use directly or improve further.

Here is a well-categorized 23 open source Ruby on Rails applications:

(Note: There are few Merb apps. in the list too which we believe is ok considering Rails & Merb are getting into the same package with Rails 3.)

Project, Task & Time Management

Notes

Notes is an easy to use to-do-list & notes manager application.

It is possible to create pages & make them public (if wanted) or create simple notes. With the Jabber listener support, you can eevn add new notes from your Google Talk by chatting with a bot.

Reminders can be set for each note that can be sent to you by e-mail or SMS (via a Twitter bridge).

Tracks

A to-do-list manager with a clean interface. Tracks lets you to categorize, prioritize, schedule & star items for a better usability (see WRD post).

Interface is Ajaxed & many tasks are done by drag’n drops. The application has multi-user support & comes with a built-in web-server for user who want to install it to their computers.

ClockingIT

It allows keeping track of all your tasks and the time you spend on them. With just a click, the timer can be started (see WRD post).

But not only that. There is a built-in project management system with milestones, reports & tasks.

ClockingIT tracks/logs every change to the documents & can send notifications via e-mail, RSS or iCal.

It is normally a free hosted application & source can be found here.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tracks is a web based, advanced & open source to-do-list (getting things done) application built with Ruby on Rails.

It comes with a built-in web server (WEbrick) which makes it easier to run on your own computer or it can be installed to any Ruby on Rails enabled web server.

Application has a very slick interface & offers a high usability with drag’n drops & Ajaxed actions.

Tracks is a multi-user to-do-list application where everyone can have their own tasks.

Items can be categorized, proritized, scheduled & starred (for reaching them easier).

With a chart-supported statistics page, you can see the progress of your tasks, analyze them better like finding out which are your productive days, which task took more then expected & more.

The application has a powerful feed support (text, iCal and RSS). You can subscribe to a list & get status updates for them.

Tracks also makes it possible to getting integrated with other apps. with its API. And, it provides a lightweight interface for mobile phones at  http://tarcksurl/mobile/.

Protecting images online is a difficult, almost impossible, mission to accomplish. At the end, the image is there and a "print screenshot" command can grab it & no way to stop this.

But, there are various ways to harden the process & make it not worth trying like disabling right clicks, using images as backgrounds, adding watermarks to them & more.

Here are the good practices of these options:

Hide The Images

Put A Blank File Over The Real Image

This method will make the real image unreachable unless checked from the source.

You can use the original image as a background & put a transparent-blank file over it that matches the size of the real image.

For ex:

<div id="image1" style="background-image: url(originalImage.jpg);">
    <img src="blank.gif" height="250px" width="300px">
</div>

So, when the image is right-clicked, it will be the blank.gif that can be reached.

There are also 2 JavaScript framework ready solutions for this:

• dwProtector for MooTools
• dwProtector for jQuery

Read the rest of this entry »

Bluff is an open source JavaScript graphing solution that uses canvas tags.

It is a JavaScript port to the Gruff graphing library for Ruby.

Bluff has only 2 dependencies:

• JS.Class (2kb), which is a class for making JavaScript act like Ruby (which is definitely handy).
• Google’s ExCanvas, for canvas support in IE6.

Creating good looking graphs is very easy with this graphing library & it has a well-documented API that is supported with examples.

Panda is an open source solution that handles uploading, encoding & streaming videos.

All the process is completed via an elegant REST API.

Panda is designed to run in the cloud using Amazon’s array of web services.

The application runs on a customised EC2 instance with everything pre-installed, including FFmpeg and an plethora of codecs.

SimpleDB is used to store all of data for video, encoding, accounts and encoding profiles. Uploaded and encoded video files are then stored on S3.

Other features of Panda:

• Everything contained within one elegant Merb application.
• Support for FLV, h264 for Flash, iPhone formats & more.
• Panda gem for painless integration with Ruby on Rails and Merb.
• Lovely little admin dashboard for managing your videos.

By default, Panda uses the JW FLV player but you can switch to any other video player easily.