75 Online Resources for Geeks

Lidija — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:03:10 +0000

As a gift to our readers, and to bring in the New Year, we’ve compiled a list of what we think are some of the best online resources and tools to make your life in tech easier. Please feel free to share any or all of your favorites with your own community – just copy and paste. Happy 2010!

Coding

1. PHP Anywhere
PHPanywhere enables users to develop and maintain their php/html projects online using any standard Web browser

2. HTML Form Builder
Create HTML forms in seconds.

3. Bespin – Code in the Cloud
Bespin is a Mozilla Labs experiment on how to build an extensible Web code editor using HTML 5 technology.

4. CSS Typeset
Interactive CSS code generator.

5. AskApche’s Compress CSS
Compresses CSS using either URL, file upload or raw CSS

6. The JavaScript Code Quality Tool
An online JavaScript program that looks for problems in JavaScript programs – Warning – It will hurt your feelings.

7. JavaScript Lint
With JavaScript Lint, you can check all your JavaScript source code for common mistakes without actually running the script or opening the web page. Offline and online versions available.

8. YUI Compressor
Offline tool for compressing CSS and JavaScript files.

9. JavaScript Compressor and Comparison Utility
Compares JSMin, Dojo shrinksafe, Packer and the YUI Compressor, with or without gzip.

10. Lottery Post’s Online CSS Compressor
Compact your CSS style sheets into the smallest size possible

11. Lottery Post’s Online JavaScript Compressor
Compact your JavaScript code into the smallest size possible using either Microsoft’s Ajax Minifier or YUI Compressor.

12. Google Closure Tools

The Closure tools include:

A JavaScript optimizer – Compiles JavaScript into compact, high-performance code.
A comprehensive JavaScript library – A broad, well-tested, modular, and cross-browser JavaScript library.
Templating – Simplifies the task of dynamically generating HTML on the server and client.

13. Online code beautifier
Beautifies PHP, Java, C++, C, Perl, JavaScript, CSS.

14. .htaccess Editor
Easily create .htaccess files online.

15. Favicon Generator
Creates a favicon (favorites icon) from any (square) image.

16. XML and HTML Character Entities
Lists the numeric values and names of the available XML and HTML entities, such as the copyright, Pound, Yen and Euro symbols.

17. ASCII Table
lists the ASCII characters and their decimal, octal and hexadecimal numbers.

18. HTML Color Names
Lists the available HTML color names, including their hex codes and matching colors.

Decoding Utilities

19. Base64 Online
Base64 encode or decode text or files.

20. Online string encoder/decoder – Base64, URL, XML
Encode and decode strings easily.

21. Unix Time Decoding
Convert Unix timestamps to local or UTC readable version.

Testing

22. Browser Sandbox – Run any browser from the web
Test your Web sites using different versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari or Opera.

23. MFC MAPI
GUI which allows access to Microsoft Outlook MAPI based stores.

24. Notes Peek
GUI which allows access to Lotus Notes databases.

25. Adobe BrowserLab
Cross-browser testing: Preview and test your web pages on leading browsers and operating systems.

26. Browsershots
An open-source, online service that takes screenshots of your site and presents them as viewed by different browsers

27. Blind Text Generator
Dummy text: To occupy the space which will later be filled with ‘real’ content.

28. Lipsum Generator
Generate various length texts using the standard ‘Lorem Ipsum’ text.

29. HTML Ipsum
Lorem ipsum text in a variety of HTML formats (paragraphs, forms, lists, etc.)

30. Load Impact
A load testing service that lets you load- and stress test your website over the Internet.

31. Pingdom Full Page Test
Loads a complete HTML page including all objects (images, CSS, JavaScripts, RSS, Flash and frames/iframes), and provides general statistics about the loaded page such as the total number of objects, total load time, and size including all objects.

Data Sets

32. Internet World Stats
World population and Internet usage statistics.

33. GeoLite Country
Free version of MaxMind’s GeoIP Country database – Updated monthly and 99.5% accurate

34. GeoLite City
Free version of MaxMind’s GeoIP City database – Updated monthly and 79% accurate

Firefox Extensions

35. Firebug
Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of web development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.

36. Yahoo! YSlow
YSlow analyzes web pages and suggests ways to improve their performance based on a set of rules.

37. Greasemonkey
Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension that allows you to customize the way Web pages look and function. Hundreds of scripts are already available for free.

38. Update Scanner
A Firefox extension to monitor web pages for updates. Useful for websites that don’t provide Atom or RSS feeds.

39. FireFTP
FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers.

Tools for Images

40. Photoshop Online
Part of the Photoshop family, Photoshop Online lets you upload, organize, edit and share images

41. Gimp
GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.

42. Inkscape
An Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.

43. PicNik
Online editing tool Picnik makes it easy to tweak your images and add effects, fonts, shapes, and frames.

44. SplashUp
Real Time editing tool and photo manager

45. Pic Markr
PicMarkr lets you to add custom watermarks to your images. Useful when you need to protect your copyright.

46. Closr.it
An online tool to let you share and zoom into images

47. Color Scheme Designer
Easily create color schemes and preview via mockup sites.

48. Colour Lovers
COLOURlovers is an international community of designers and artists of all kinds who visit the site to get color inspiration, ideas and feedback for both their professional and personal projects.

49. Icon Finder
Search engine for Icons: Search through 126,063 icons or browse 340 icon sets

50. Shrink O’Matic
Easily resize and convert images.

51. Ajax Loading GIF Generator
Create your own “loading” GIF image.

52. Super Screenshot
Create an image of a full Web page.

53. ASCII Art
ASCII art generator.

Security Tools

54. Cain & Abel v4.9.35
Password recovery tool for Microsoft Operating Systems

55. The Password Meter
Accesses the strength of your passwords as you type. Offline version can be downloaded.

56. Microsoft’s Password Checker
Test the strength of your passwords as you type.

57. Javascript Password Strength Meter
Tests the strength of your passwords as you type and also breaks down its scoring system so you can see what makes a password stronger.

Converters

58. PX to EM
Pixels to EM Conversion

59. Binary to Base 64
Create data streams for embedding images (or any type of file) in (X)HTML, CSS and XML

60. Text to Voice
Create an MP3 of a voice reading your text

61. Free PDF online conversion
Converts various files (DOC, PUB, RTF, XLS, PPT, HTML, JPG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, WMF, EMF, GIF etc.), to PDF online, then e-mails you the PDF

62. Web 2 PDF
Allow your visitors to create PDFs of any Web page

63. Text to Hex converter
Write your name in hex

W3C Validators

64. W3C Link Checker
Checks links and anchors in Web pages or full Web sites.

65. W3C Feed Validation Service
Checks the syntax of Atom or RSS feeds.

66. W3C mobileOK checker
Determines the friendliness of Web sites for mobile appliances.

67. W3C Markup Validation Service
Checks the markup of Web documents (HTML, XHTML etc)

68. W3C CSS Validation Service
Checks CSS and (X)HTML documents with style sheets.

Resources for Site Owners

69. FTC Guidelines for Bloggers Note: PDF
FTC guidelines concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising.

70. Embedit.in
Allows you to embed any file into your website or blog easily

71. Domainr
Queries 280 top-level domains and another 2,014 second-level domains and helps you find unique Web addresses using real English words.

72. Tynt
Tracks copy and paste activity on your site, and automatically adds a link back to your content when it is pasted somewhere else.

73. Montastic
Know when your site is down before your customer (or your boss) tells you.

Collaboration/Brainstorming Tools

74. Dabbleboard
An online whiteboard that lets you think and collaborate visually

75. iPlotz
Helps you quickly create clickable, navigable mockups and wireframes for prototyping websites and software applications.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this list. If you know of any tools we should have included, do let us know in the comments; we’ll check them out and add them if they’re great!

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