Computers: March 2008 Archives
coda & ecto
One of the things about having a new platform is getting to try a bunch of new tools. I've tried a few different tools over the last day, and I imagine I'll be trying a few more in the weeks to come. Today I played around with coda and ecto.
coda
One of the tools tried was Coda, a web development tool developed by Panic software. When I first saw Coda, I thought it was a bit gimmicky. I'm wary of 'all in one' tools, and Coda seemed very much along those lines. I'm pretty impressed with it, though. I may even have to lay out the cash to get a licensed copy.
Coda makes editing files on a remote site really, really easy. Coda works around the idea of 'sites', you set up the site to connect via FTP, SFTP(ssh), FTP with SSL extensions, and WebDAV. You can also set up a terminal profile, which configures SSH connection information specific for that profile. Panic understands that sometimes you just have to get onto the server; it's nice that they've included an embedded shell that lets you do just that.
ecto
Another tool I have heard about recently is ecto, a blog editor. The tool is meant as a client-side editor for blogging that interfaces with several blogging applications like Blogger and Movable Type. Again, seems a bit gimmicky, but worth checking out (not the least because I'm a scholar of blogging, so it's kinda within my research interests to look at the tool).
I'm using it right now, and I'm not entirely sure the real benefit of it. I can see it being useful for writing posts when offline, say in an airport or (as I plan on using it tomorrow) sitting in a garage. But offline editing is only so useful. After all, if you're like me, you're hitting the web while you're writing your post.
I have the bestest people ever.
A new computer came into existence in our house yesterday. Kirsten got together with her family and our friend Aida to raise funds for a Macbook for me (Thank you again, Carol, John, Nat, Del, and Aida!). I've spent the day yesterday getting files off of my Windows box and onto this computer, as I expect it to become my primary machine. I've named it "Eames" in honour of its genesis, the completion of my thesis. It'll also help me to keep in mind one of the reasons I wanted a laptop in the first place -- to do more writing.
Not a moment too soon
As it turns out, the Macbook couldn't have come a moment too soon. Part of the impetus for getting me this computer was the frustration I was expressing with Windows. On Friday, I started having problems with my Windows computer, luckyfrog. It started out simple enough - stuttery performance. But it started getting a little weirder; suddenly it was looping into a failed installation of the Logitech Setpoint software. It didn't matter that I was trying to install a completely different program - it insisted on trying to install Setpoint. And, of course, Setpoint failed during installation because it was trying to install itself to 2E:\. That's not a typo (at least on my part); it really did want to install itself to the drive 2E:.
After I got the files I needed off of the Windows computer, I decided that it was probably time to reinstall Windows. And this is where things started getting much, much worse. First, it wouldn't write the the drive (I was going to just do an 'upgrade' to XP SP2, using a slipstreamed CD). I tried formatting the drive, and it failed about 40% through.
Things went downhill from there. Now, the computer started rebooting shortly after starting off the CD. Thinking that maybe the CD had become scratched, etc, I pulled out the Linux CDs. It started rebooting there too; it would start scanning hardware and reboot during that scan.
Think I know the problem though.
At this point, I'm thinking the motherboard has gone. It's really the only thing that might be causing the problem. I'll have to get a new motherboard on Monday, and replace the one that's in there now.