Windows/Mac/Linux: Doit.im is a free, attractive, cross-platform task management application built on the principles of productivity guru David Allen’s Getting Things Done. It syncs to the web, it’s easy to use, and soon it’ll sync to your phone, too.

(Click the image above for a closer look.)

Once you install the app and register for an account, you can start adding items to your inbox, creating projects, and scheduling your tasks. A lot of the organizational tools will be familiar to GTD followers: notice the Projects and Someday inboxes, as well as the next actions section for arranging your tasks. You can easily drag and drop tasks into any bucket across the application, and while I ran into a snag on my first run, everything seemed smooth sailing after I started it up again.

Doit.im is a free download for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, requires Adobe AIR. The developer claims mobile versions for the iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, and Symbian devices are underway, which would be a real boon for accessing your tasks anywhere, especially since they’d sync with your desktop. If you’re looking for a new task manager and you’re keen on GTD, Doit.im is certainly worth a look.

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Doit.im Is a Cross-Platform GTD Task Management App [Downloads] originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 16, 2009.

TinyBox is a lightweight (3.5kb) and standalone modal window script – does not depend on any JavaScript frameworks.

At only 3.5KB it doesn’t include any slideshow capabilities built-in but allows for any AJAX or HTML content. It can also be used for images and auto hiding alerts. The popups fade in/out and dynamically size based on the content if enabled. The styling is completely customizable through the simple CSS.

Click here for the TinyBox demo

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TinyBox – a Lightweight and Standalone Modal Window Script originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 16, 2009.

Windows/Mac/Linux: If you’ve been sporting the same desktop wallpaper since the Bush administration, it might be time to mix it up a little. Wally is a lightweight wallpaper changer that pulls images from a wide pool of sources.

For a simple wallpaper refresh, you can simply point Wally at a folder on your computer and set the interval at which you want the wallpaper to refresh. If you don’t have a huge stash of wallpaper, or you’re tired of your collection, you can have Wally pull pictures from remote directories via FTP or from any of ten available sources like Bing, SmugMug, Picasa, Buzznet, Photobucket, Pike, Panoramio, Yahoo!, or Flickr.

You can adjust various settings like auto-rotation based on EXIF data, photo selection only if photos are bigger than the desktop and/or landscape as well as how frequently the wallpaper will change and how pictures will be positioned.

Wally is freeware and available for Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. Have a favorite wallpaper tool or source for great wallpapers? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

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Keep Your Wallpaper Fresh with Cross-Platform Wally [Downloads] originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 14, 2009.

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Portable XLS Converter 1.7.3 originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 13, 2009.

You've always wanted to learn how to build software yourself—or just whip up an occasional script—but never knew where to start. Luckily, the web is full of free resources that can turn you into a programmer in no time.

Since the invention of the internet, programmers have been using it to discuss software development techniques, publish tutorials, and share code samples for others to learn from and use online. If you’re curious about how to become a programmer, you can get off to a running start using tons of great free web-based tutorials and resources.

First Things First: Don’t Get Hung Up on Choosing a Language

A common pitfall for beginners is getting stuck figuring out which programming language is best to learn first. There are a lot of opinions out there, but there's no one "best" language. Here's the thing: In the end, language doesn't matter THAT much. Understanding data and control structures and design patterns does matter very much. Every language—even a simple scripting language—will have elements that you'll use in other languages as well and will help you learn. In classes I took to get my degree in Computer Science, I programmed in Pascal, Assembly, and C—languages I never actually got paid to program in professionally. I taught myself every language I've used in my career, reusing concepts I already knew, and referring to documentation and books to learn its syntax. So, don't get hung up on what language to learn first. Pick the kind of development you want to do, and just get started using one that works.

There are several different kinds of software development you can do for various platforms, from the web to your desktop to your smartphone to a command line. In this article, we’ll outline some of our favorite starter tutorials and resources for teaching yourself how to program for each major platform. We’re going to assume you’re a savvy user, but a newb when it comes to wrangling code snippets, so we’ll keep things at the beginner level. Even just following through a beginner programming tutorial, you’ll be happy to see how far you can get.

Desktop Scripting

The easiest way to try your hand at programming for your Windows or Mac desktop is to start with a scripting or macro program like AutoHotkey (for Windows) or Automator (for Mac). Right now hardcore coders throughout the Lifehacker readership are yelling at their monitors, saying that AHK or AppleScript are not "real" programming. That may be true—technically these types of tools just do high-level scripting. But for those new to programming who just want to get their feet wet, automating actions on their desktop, these free tools are a fantastic way to start—and you'd be surprised at how much you can do with them.

For example, Adam developed the standalone Windows application we all know and love, Texter, using AutoHotkey, so this scripting language is capable of far more than just small-scale automation projects. To get started with AutoHotkey, check out Adam’s tutorial on how to turn any action into a keyboard shortcut using AutoHotkey. (Then, check out the source code for Texter to see the innards of a full-fledged AHK-based Windows application.)

Web Development

Instead of being bound to specific programming languages and the look and feel of a particular operating system, you can put your killer application in the browser and run it in the cloud, as a webapp. Welcome to the wonderful world of web development.

HTML and CSS: The first thing you need to know to build any web site is HTML (the page markup that makes up web pages) and CSS (the style information that makes that markup look pretty). HTML and CSS are not true programming languages—they're just page structure and style information. However, you should be able to author simple HTML and CSS by hand before you begin building web applications, because a web page is the frontend to every webapp. This HTML tutorial is a good place to start.

JavaScript: Now that you can lay out a static web page with HTML and CSS, things get fun—because it's time to learn JavaScript. JavaScript is the programming language of the web browser, the magic that makes dynamic in-page effects go. JavaScript is also the stuff of bookmarklets, Greasemonkey user scripts, and Ajax, so it’s the key to making all sorts of web goodies. Start learning JavaScript here.

Server-side scripting: Once you're good at making things happen inside a web page, you're going to need to put some dynamic server action behind it—and for that, you'll need to move into a server-side scripting language, like PHP, Python, Perl, or Ruby. For example, to make a web-based contact form that sends an email somewhere based on what a user entered, a server-side script is required. Scripting languages like PHP can talk to a database on your web server as well, so if you want to make a site where users can log in and store information, that's the way to go. Excellent web development site Webmonkey is full of tutorials for various web programming languages. See their PHP Tutorial for Beginners. When you’re ready, check out how to use PHP to talk to a database in WebMonkey’s PHP and MySQL tutorial. PHP’s online documentation and function reference is the best on the web. Each entry (like this one on the strlen function) includes user comments at the bottom which are often as helpful as the documentation itself. (I happen to be partial to PHP, but there are plenty of other server-side scripting languages you might decide to go with instead.)

Web frameworks: Over the years, web developers have had to solve and resolve the same problems and rewrite similar code to build dynamic web sites. To avoid making everyone reinvent the wheel for every new web development project, some programmers have come up with development frameworks that do some repetitive work for you. The popular Ruby on Rails framework, for example, takes the Ruby programming language and offers a web-specific structure for getting common web application tasks done. In fact, Adam used Rails to build his first serious (and impressive!) web application, MixTape.me. Here’s his take on how to build a web site from scratch with no experience. Other popular web development frameworks include CakePHP (for PHP programmers), Django (for Python programmers), and jQuery (for JavaScript).

Web APIs: An API (Application programming interface) is a programmatic way for different pieces of software to talk to one another. For example, if you want to put a dynamic map on your web site, you want to use a Google Map instead of building your own custom map. The Google Maps API makes it easy to programmatically include a map in a page with JavaScript. Almost every modern web service you know and love has an API that lets you include data and widgets from it in your application, like Twitter, Facebook, Google Docs, Google Maps, and the list goes on. Integrating other webapps into your web application via API’s is the final frontier of rich web development. Every good, major web service API offers thorough documentation and some sort of quick start guide to try it out (here’s Twitter’s, for example). Go crazy.

Command Line Scripting

If you want to write a program that takes textual or file input and outputs something useful, the command line is the right place to do it. While the command line isn’t as sexy or good-looking as a webapp or desktop app, for rapid development of quick scripts that automate processes, you can’t beat it.

Several scripting languages that work on a Linux-based web server also work at the command line, like Perl, Python, and PHP—so learning one of those baddies makes you conversant in two contexts. My path never took me too far down the Perl road, but I taught myself Python using the excellent and free online book, Dive into Python.

If becoming a Unix ninja is one of your programmer goals, you absolutely must get good at shell scripting with bash. Bash is the command line scripting language of a *nix environment, and it can do everything from help you set up automated backups of your database and files to building out a full-fledged application with user interaction. Without any experience writing bash scripts beyond a dozen lines, I wound up developing a full-on personal to-do list manager in bash, Todo.txt CLI.

Add-ons

Nowadays, modern webapps and browsers are extensible with with bits of software that bolt onto them and add features. Add-on development is gaining in popularity as more developers look at existing software, like Firefox or WordPress, and think “But if only it could do THIS…”

You can do a whole lot in any web browser with just a mastery of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Bookmarklets, Greasemonkey user scripts, and Stylish user styles are created with the same bits of code that make regular web pages, so they’re worth learning even if you just want to tweak an existing site with a small snippet of code.

More advanced browser add-ons, like Firefox extensions, let you do more. Developing Firefox extensions, for example, requires that you’re conversant in JavaScript and XML (markup that’s similar to HTML, but way more strict in format). Back in 2007 I ran down how to build a Firefox extension, a skill I picked up after I stumbled upon a free tutorial.

Many free and well-loved web applications offer an extension framework as well, like WordPress and MediaWiki. Both of those apps are written in PHP, so comfort with PHP is a prerequisite for getting started. Here’s how to write a plug-in for WordPress. Developers who want to ride the cutting edge of Google Wave can get started writing gadgets and bots in HTML, JavaScript, Java, and Python. I wrote my first Wave bot following this quick start tutorial in one afternoon.

Web Development for the Desktop

The best part about getting started programming in one context is when you can take those skills and apply them elsewhere. Learning web development first is a great way to start because now there are ways to put those skills to work on desktop applications, too. For example, Adobe AIR is a cross-platform run-time environment that lets you build your app once and release it to run on the desktop for every operating system AIR runs on. AIR apps are written in HTML, Flash, or Flex, so it lets you apply your web development skills in a desktop context. AIR is a great option for deploying desktop apps like one of our top 10 apps worth installing Adobe AIR for.

Mobile App Development

Mobile applications like the ones you run on your iPhone or Android smartphone are all the rage right now, so you may have dreams of striking it rich in the iTunes App Store with the next killer app. However, for the new coder, diving headfirst into mobile development can be a rough learning curve, since it requires comfort with advanced programming languages like Java and Objective C. However, it’s worth checking out what iPhone and Android development looks like. Check out this simple iPhone application development example to get a taste of what iPhone developers do. Android apps are written in Java, and here’s a friendly video tutorial of what building a “Hello Android” application workflow looks like.

Patience, Elbow Grease, Trial and Error

Good coders are a special breed of persistent problem-solvers who are addicted to the small victories that come along a long path of trial and error. Learning how to program is very rewarding, but it can also be a frustrating and solitary experience. If you can, get a buddy to work with you along the way. Getting really good at programming, like anything else, is a matter of sticking with it, trying things out, and getting experience as you go.

This article is just one self-taught programmer’s top-of-mind recommendations for beginners. Experienced programmers: What did I miss? No matter your skill level, add your thoughts and recommendations for beginners to the comments.

Gina Trapani, Lifehacker’s founding editor, thinks the best programmers are self-taught. Her weekly feature, Smarterware, appears every Wednesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Smarterware tag feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

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Programmer 101: Teach Yourself How to Code [Programming] originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 12, 2009.

Filed under: OS, Software, Odds and ends

From time to time we have shared hidden settings in applications which can be used to “tweak” an app’s behavior, such as forcing Snow Leopard’s dictionary to reuse the same window or make the print dialog expanded by default. These settings are normally changed using the Terminal.app which can be daunting to some.

Secrets is a (free!) preference panel which has collected a bunch of these settings and made changing them as simple as checking a box or choosing from a drop-down panel of possible choices. It includes settings for about 40 different applications, from Apple applications such as Mail, iCal, iChat, Finder, Front Row, Keynote, DVD Player (and more) to third-party applications including Adium, Audio Hijack Pro, BBedit, EyeTV, VMware Fusion, and TextMate (just to name a few). Some applications have a lot of hidden settings, and some have only one or two.

If you see a setting but don’t know what it does, click it and Secrets will show a brief explanation (these are also available on the Secrets website, but they are easier to read in the preference panel). If you change a setting which requires you to restart the application, Secrets will tell you, and even give you a “Quit This” button. (It’s usually best to make these changes when the app isn’t running.)

Unfortunately at least one of the secret settings from 10.5 doesn’t seem to work in 10.6. That is, the setting to turn HelpViewer into a regular (instead of floating) window. There may be others.

I’m off to explore and see what new goodies Alcor (the developer of Secrets, who you may also know as the creator of Quicksilver) has uncovered.

Thanks to the recently-revived Hawk Wings site for bringing this to my attention. If you use Apple’s Mail.app, Hawk Wings is a great site for tips and information.

Update: We seem to have taken down the Secrets website (oops!) but you can download the preference panel from a mirror (zip) (166kb).

TUAWSecrets preference panel updated for Snow Leopard originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Secrets preference panel updated for Snow Leopard originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 12, 2009.

Windows/Linux: One of the most irritating things about reinstalling your operating system is installing all the non-OS applications you love. Allmyapps lets you select all your favorite apps and roll them into a bulk installer to make rebuilding easy.

At Allmyapps you can browse over a hundred popular applications in a dozen categories to build a master list of applications you want to install. You don’t have to install immediately after building your list, you can save your list for later installation. Check out the video below to see how Allmyapps works:

For another great time-saving bulk installation tool, check out previously reviewed Ninite. Have a way to get your favorite apps installed quickly? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

Allmyapps is a free web-based service and provides bulk-installation on both Windows and Ubuntu Linux.

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Allmyapps Bulk-Installs Your Favorite Apps, Makes System Rebuilding Less Painful [Installation] originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 8, 2009.

The nightly builds of Google Chrome’s open-source foundation, Chromium, includes a feature that might mean great things for Greasemonkey fans. Click on a user script file, such as at UserScripts.org, and Chromium asks to install it as a working extension.

Judging from the developers’ discussions at the Chromium wiki, Greasemonkey, or at least some kind of user script support beyond the current, very geeky installation method has been a hot topic. The latest builds tackle user script support by re-mapping them into extensions, automatically activated at their relevant sites. You can give it a test by installing the latest Chromium build in Windows. We’ll assume this feature will make its way very soon to those keeping updated on Chromium builds for Mac and Linux.

Before you get too amped, though, it must be said that support is still rudimentary. Scripts that mostly replace one thing on a page with another seem to work fine, but those that pull off custom themes and page manipulations are touch and go. In other words, the more Greasemonkey-specific functions appear in a script, the less likely it is to work in Chromium. That said, it’s reassuring to see some of the great Grease realm opened up to the up-and-coming browser.

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Chromium Installs User Scripts as Extensions, Bodes Great Things for Chrome [User Scripts] originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 8, 2009.

Windows XP: If your Windows XP installation is acting up, sometimes a fix is as simple as tweaking a registry key. Rather than muck about in your registry looking for it, use XP Quick Fix Plus to patch things up.

XP Quick Fix Plus is a tiny portable application that presents 40 quick fixes arranged in a push-button chart. Press the button for the problem you’re having like CDs not autoplaying, file associations grayed out, the boot.ini tab missing in MSCONFIG, or any of the other 40 common problems, and XP Quick Fix Plus will patch the registry key for the problem you’re having and get things back in working order.

Not sure if the button covers the problem you’re having? Mousing over the buttons gives you a detailed description of the problem. Have a favorite quick-fix tool to share? Let’s hear about it in the comments. XP Quick Fix Plus is freeware, Windows only.

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XP Quick Fix Plus Repairs Common Windows XP Errors [Downloads] originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 7, 2009.

Filed under: Features, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Google, Browsers, Lists

We’ve already mentioned other ways to power up Google Chrome. Before extensions arrived on the developer channel, Userscripts and bookmarklets were your only options. Both are still great ways to add some kick-ass functionality to Chrome. If you’re running the stable or beta builds, you may want to stick to them for now.

• 10 handy Userscripts for Google Chrome users
• 15+ handy bookmarklets for Google Chrome (and other browsers, too!)

Now, onto the extensions!

If you have a favorite that I left off, feel free to share it in the comments!
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15+ great Google Chrome extensions originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Chrome – Google – Linux – Microsoft Windows – Macintosh

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15+ great Google Chrome extensions originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 5, 2009.