I don't know about others, but every morning I take my time to read a little. We all get .NET magazines at home and buy nice books ( Wrox, rest in peace..), but not everyone can afford the time it takes to read all of it. Books are used as reference as it is hard to really spend time reading them.
Today I was reading asp.netPRO (http://www.aspnetPRO.com) in my morning reading time and found an article about some interesting little tools. I thought it could be a good start for this blog to share a little of what is there.
Most of my projects are either B2B or intranet targeted, which generally allows me to assume IE5 or later will be the client and 800x600 is the target resolution. I code with dual 19" monitors, and the resolution is 2560x1024. Screen sizing is a pain in the neck. asp.netPRO mentions this "Sizer" app, available at http://www.brianapps.net/sizer.html. I have NOT tried it, but certainly will.
If you live more "in" the web then out of it you need the GOOGLE TOOLBAR. (http://toolbar.google.com) Better yet, you probably already have it. It does a great job blocking pop ups, as well as keeping a Google search box handy. There are better arrangements for searching tools, but the pop up blocker saves the day. If you don't have it, give it a try.
Examdiff Pro is another utility mentioned on the asp.netPRO article. If you are an old-school developer ( like me ) you will remember the DOS utility COMP. It shows difference betweens files. When coding your COBOL, BASIC or CLIPPER files that was the way to compare. Currently when I want to compare files ( for example comparing IE HTML source code ) what I do is open VSS, right click on a file, choose show differences and browse on windows folders to the HTML files I want to compare. Now that is horrible. Let me know if you find a better way. asp.netPRO mentions this tool. IT should make comparing files easier. I'll give it a try. (VS.NET should do it! !! )
Check my next post for UI concepts ( datagrid and more) I want to share and get your opinion.