I just lost all my code snippets just a month ago and a little bit disappointed because I didn't have any means of backup. Well I sort of did by having my snippets sync up to my thumb drive. One day when I was doing some type of "clean up" on my laptop, I accidentally must have deleted it since when I tried accessing my code snippets via the desktop shortcut, the shortcut link is broken. When a short cut link is broken, it means that the path to a specific directory or executable has been moved/removed. I checked everywhere (USB drive, online, etc.) with no sign and hope of code remains. Fortunately, I saved half of them (consisting of SQL scripts) in my SQL Server Management Studio as templates. These scripts are far more important than the other half that were lost, so I feel a little better but still in search of a better solution.
Web and Desktop Snippets Integration
Now that I'm starting over again, where do I start? I know several web code snippets sites and have used a few of them but none can compare to the convenience that my local drive has to offer. If I need to reference something, I would rather open up a notepad than having to go to a website and finding that specific code entry. My wish in this regard is to have a web app that has a full sync capability that allows me to edit a code snippet and have it backed up into the server. The server then always keeps the most up-to-date file/code that can be retrieved with some sort of desktop application on any PC. Since everything is web-based, losing a host of code snippets shouldn't be a worry anymore.
Greasemonkey Scripts for Gmail and Google Reader
I love all-in-one app that's fully integrated with one another. While looking around for a good GreaseMonkey scripts for Firefox, I discovered a Gmail add-on that allows you to view Google Reader on the same interfaceas Gmail. With this script, you don't need two tabs in order to view GMail and GReader at the same time. Speaking of productivity, this is what an all-in-one app is all about and I hope that the Google team implements a similar feature in the future without the use of scripts. As you can see from the screenshot below, the GMail module lays on top apparently since this is a Gmail script while the GReader sits as a separate module below the "inbox". See screenshot below:
If you really want a pimped out version of GReader, then you can take it up a notch and have it colorized. This script separates read and unread articles by means of color-separation. Also, when viewing a folder or a tag consisting of multiple site subscriptions, it separates each site by means of color as well.
If you want a less-cluttered GReader, then you might want to downoad this script. Essentially, it gets rid of all the junk that is on the screen such as menus, etc. to give you just a much simpler interface. This allows you to have a bigger screen to read the articles and with less distractions. This is a must in my opinion if you only want to install a single script out of a bunch.
Lastly but not the least is a GReader subscriber script. This script adds a little RSS icon on the top right of your browser window whenever a site has an available feed that's ready for subscription. By clicking this small icon, the "feed" opens up the Google Reader interface and goes straight to their feeds. From there, you can review their site contents and examine it if it's worthy enough to subscribe to. If it is, then just click on the "subscribe" button and if not, then you can just move on and browse somewhere else. This is good if you want to view all the site's articles without having to commit into subscribing to their feeds before being able to access the articles. Aside from this functionality, the small icon in the top right corner also shows a "check" mark if in case you are already subscribed to that feed. Since GReader doesn't check for duplicate subscription entries, this eliminates duplicate entries in your list of subscriptions to prevent you from subscribing to the same site.
I will be posting more scripts here in the future as I find new ones. If you know of any good ones, please leave a comment of message me.
- Dennis