There's little question that creating and maintaining a website should usually be done with a visual editor such as Adobe's Dreamweaver, but that doesn't mean that Dreamweaver is right for every person all the time. Sometimes using a non-visual editor makes a lot of sense.
What are the alternatives? I'm thinking of non-visual editors such as Bluefish, an open-source application that runs on Windows, Linux, and MacOS. While it's true that writing code is a lot slower than designing a site visually, there are advantages -- particularly for those who are just learning HTML or CSS or PHP. The primary advantage in that case is that you see and learn exactly how the magic works.
There's one other case that comes to mind. Dreamweaver creates certain protected bits of code in templates and libraries. These are components that are intended to be repeated on nearly all pages (such as the overall site design that's the same on every page that's controlled by a template) and components that will be used on multiple pages (such as library items that contain contact information or an explanatory item like the I use to remind visitors how to see larger views of small site images).
<!-- #BeginLibraryItem "/Library/Click for View 2017 - Wide.lbi" -->
<p class="grey-background" style="font-size:12px; color:#FFFFFF"> <strong>Click any of the smaller images for a full-size view. To dismiss the larger image, press ESC or tap outside the image.</strong></p>
<!-- #EndLibraryItem -->
This library item is what creates this reminder that you'll see on many TechByter pages:
Click any of the smaller images for a full-size view. To dismiss the larger image, press ESC or tap outside the image.
Editing a library item or a template must be accomplished by opening the library item or the template. Any attempt to edit one of these items on a page will be rejected, even in code view. That's intentional and it's a good idea, but occasionally Dreamweaver gets confused: It allows a change to be made to a non-protected area in code view, but then warns that the change will not be saved because it was in a protected component. And this is where a non-visual editor is useful.
If you know that what you want to change really isn't in a protected area, you can make the change with another editor. If you learned earlier how to read and interpret code on a website page by starting with a non-visual editor, you'll be able to easily confirm that what you're about to change is safe. Then, using the non-visual editor, you can make the change and re-open the page in Dreamweaver. The analogy I've heard to describe such an operation goes like this: Your car may have an automatic transmission, but the tow truck that pulls you out of the ditch will have a manual transmission. While I suspect that many tow trucks today have automatic transmissions, the idea behind the analogy remains valid.
Bluefish includes color coding and limited hinting for many useful languages that are needed for website design. From HTML, PHP, Javascript, and Cascading Style Sheets to Python, Perl, Java Server Pages, and SQL. Using an editor such as Bluefish is a 2-part operation. In the first part, the user writes and visualizes what the page will look like. Maybe you're creating some tabular data with columns and rows, so you start with a table tag and specify whether there will be a border and whether cells will include any additional spacing or margins. Then you create the tags that will render the rows and columns. And finally you add the information that you want to display in the table. Part two involves saving the page and opening it in a web browser to confirm that the code you wrote displays properly.
The Bluefish illustration shows (1) a form that the user fills out to create a table structure and (2) a similar dialog box that creates a component in a form. Even with the built-in helps, it's still a manual operation that depends on the user to know how things work.
Dreamweaver makes development easy by making it possible to create a page that contains placeholders for many elements with just a few clicks.
Given the highly visual aspect of today's websites, you'll quickly outrun the capabilities of a non-visual editor. Some coding masters are capable of writing fully adaptive websites that are filled with complex page regions in non-visual editors, but most of us will probably be ready to move on to Dreamweaver once we've learned the basics of at least two coding languages: HTML5, which controls the content of the page, and CSS3, which controls the formatting. One additional language is all but essential today, too -- PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor -- yes, it's one of those recursive names that developers are so fond of). Other programming languages are helpful, but PHP is a good one to learn initially.
Bluefish installers are available for Ubuntu Linux, Debian Linux, Fedora Linux, MacOS, and Windows. As an open-source project, Bluefish's source code is also available for those who prefer to compile their own.
The latest version of Bluefish is 2.2.3 and some of the new features are described in a short video created by the developers in Netherlands.
In addition to being an editor for websites, Bluefish is a good editor for Ada, C and C++, Java, Pascal, and many others. The installer can be downloaded from the Bluefish project on OpenOffice.nl.
Researchers at the University of Michigan and Zhejiang University say that certain kinds of computers can be physically damaged by sound waves played by the computer itself. That sounds dangerous and maybe even scary, but it sounds worse than it is.
To be affected, the computer needs to be small and equipped with a standard mechanical hard drive that's near to the computer's speakers. That significantly limits the pool of vulnerable computers.
The research says that certain audible sounds can create vibration that exceeds design specifications in the mechanical disk drive. Additionally, some ultrasonic sounds can "cause false positives in the shock sensor, which is designed to prevent a head crash." The ultrasonic sound spectrum starts at about 20 KHz. If the shock sensor is fooled, it will shut down the disk drive until the user reboots the computer. The researchers say that they have verified that drives from Seagate, Western Digital, and Toshiba (the primary manufacturers of disk drives) are susceptible.
The full report (a PDF document) is on the University of Michigan website.
Sound required to do damage needs to be loud. So loud, in fact, that it's surprising a small computer could produce sound that loud. Some experiments showed data loss using a 5Khz sound (well within the audible range) at 115 to 117 decibels (dB). That's the loudness you would experience while using a leaf blower or attending a rock concert.
Researchers say that they created a successful attack using Chrome, so theoretically an attacker would not need physical access to a computer. The test involved a video surveillance system and the attack caused some data loss when the internal disk drive stopped recording data until the computer was rebooted.
So although these kinds of attacks can cause damage, the actual risk appears to be minimal. An attacker who wants your data or your money will use different methods. And any attacker whose only goal is to damage the computer will probably use other methods that aren't limited by conditions such as disk drive type and proximity to the internal speakers.
Once upon a time, doctors made house calls. Few do now and that hasn't been common for decades, but sometimes home health care can save money and insurers are looking at technology that can limit what are considered to be unnecessary hospital admissions.
Patients with diseases such as congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and diabetes are often treated at a hospital, released, and then readmitted. That's a situation that's not good for anyone concerned. Research suggests that nearly 30% of readmissions within 30 days could have been avoided.
Home healthcare providers are supposed to monitor patients for early warning signs of problems that can be treated at home. A San Diego company, Homestead Health, has developed technology it refers to as NurseCaller for companies that provide in-home healthcare. The devices are similar to ones marketed using catch phrases such as "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up." Instead of just connecting a call center, these connect to home healthcare providers.
Homestead Home Health director Kathleen Holohan says hospitalized patients rely on the nurse call button to request immediate assistance. At home, though, that's not possible. The NurseCaller technology aims to correct that problem and to reduce avoidable patient readmissions by allowing a patient to contact a visiting nurse, home health provider, or nurse assist hot-line.
The provider can answer questions about medical conditions, confirm medications, schedule or reschedule follow-up appointments, or assess a worsening condition. The goal is to involve a home health provider before the patient's condition requires an EMS dispatch and a visit to the hospital's emergency department.
Holohan says the $20 monthly fee for NurseCaller "can easily save tens of thousands of dollars for each avoidable admission or readmission."
A browser flaw, initially described as something that's aimed at Facebook users could actually be used on any website. Although the researchers said that they found vulnerabilities in both Chrome and Firefox, they said that Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, and Safari appeared not to be affected.
Before you decide to scrap Firefox and Chrome, though, let's consider the rest of the story.
When used on Facebook, the exploit would allow a malicious website to grab the user's Facebook profile picture, name, and a list of pages the user has liked. It's done via a cross-site iframe login dialog that uses a Cascading Style Sheet 3 function called mix-blend-mode.
Mix-blend-mode is a graphical component that's used to stack elements to add animation and other effects. The process essentially scans the screen one pixel at a time to collect information about each pixel.
The researchers say private images can be captured and so can users' responses but ....
If Firefox and Chrome are up to date, the exploit is blocked. Chrome users should have at least version 63. The current version is 67. Firefox users will be safe if they have at least version 60, which is the current version.
So check your browser and, if it's not up to date, be sure to install the current version. If you find that you already have the latest version, relax.
