The coolest browser feature you probably don't have

See that image on the left? When I do a "view source" in Safari, that's what's at the top of the document window. Chances are, you don't have it. I'm not even entirely sure why I have it — so far as I can tell, it showed up after I installed Xcode 2.1.

But whatever the reason, I have to say that this is darn cool. It makes tracking down errors on Web pages (especially other people's Web pages!) incredibly easy. Modify the page in the source window, click "Apply," and see the result in the original browser window. Check it out.

Later note: some sleuthing around discovered that it was actually Hetima's SafariStand that installed it. This, along with SafariStand's syntax coloring and its price (free), makes it (imo) a must-have for Safari-based Web dev. You know what to do.

Friday Cat Blogging

Skeptical cat edition.

Widget Machine launches

There's been a lot of talk in the Dashboard Widget world about whether or not a site can successfully sell widgets. Widget Machine is the first site to launch that aims to do just that. I don't like their UI (hint: "download" means "download the free demo version"), and I have some doubts about how many people will pay for widgets, but it's definitely worth checking out the site.

Two thoughts about scripting

Two things that may or may not go together, except that they showed up on my radar at the same time:

• Susan pointed me towards Brendan Eich writing about JavaScript 1, 2, and in between. I've been hearing about JavaScript 2 since, what?, 1998 maybe, so I'm not holding my breath here, but Brendan's the guy that invented JS, so he's always worth listening to.

• According to PPK in his piece You should've been @media:

The JavaScript revolution started on Saturday 1 June at about 3pm (16:00 Central European time) in a fitting setting: a smoky London pub cellar that contained most of the UK's strategic beer reserve.

Yeah, another conference that I think I should have been at, except that I wasn't invited. That's not uncommon, and I ain't griping about that. Or at least not just that. What I am noticing is that the @media conference was one of what appears to be an increasing trend: a conference where I'm cited in the keynote as influential, but not invited. I'm mostly putting this down as a tracker for the future, because this isn't the first time this has happened.

Last call for books

If you're from Apple, and you're thinking about taking me up on the free JavaScript book offer, this is your last call. The books are going fast and there are only a few left, so if you haven't contacted me yet, you better do it soon. Details are all at that link, so tell your co-workers.