I have posted a "super-short" survey regarding the next release of IP Locator. Please take 5 minutes to help me make it the best geolocation widget out there. Thanks!

SnippetComposer is for folks who know some HTML and want a way to quickly compose HTML snippets, for example, for posting to online forums.

Type or paste HTML in the top input box and SnippetComposer will show the rendered HTML in the bottom box. When you are ready, click the C button to copy your HTML to the pasteboard. Click X to clear the input fields.

New in Version 1.0.1:

- Fixed trailing newline issue when copying data to the clipboard (thanks Ben Kazez!)

Studies say 97% of spam (no, not Spam) happens because you posted your email address to a web page somewhere...The Obfuscator to the rescue! The Obfuscator converts your email address into an encoded string that spambots can't read, but web browsers and email programs can! For convenience, your obfuscated string is automagically copied to the clipboard.

New in Version 1.0.1:

- Fixed trailing newline issue when copying data to the clipboard (thanks Ben Kazez!)

Are you a web designer stuck using the 216 colors of the "web safe" palette? This little widget will help keep you safe! Ha ha ... get it? "Safe," like, the icon is a safe and these are the web safe colors. Oh, nevermind.

New in Version 1.0.1:

- Fixed trailing newline issue when copying data to the clipboard (thanks Ben Kazez!)

I made a widget for painter Duane Keiser. It's called A Painting A Day. Check it out!

For folks using Mac OS X 10.3.9 and enjoying widgets thanks to Mesa Dynamics’ Amnesty Widget Browser, I have posted the contents of the WidgetResources directory for download. Just unzip it and drop it in /System/Library/ and you will have access to widgets that are not “backwards compatible.”

Not ever having received a letter from Apple Legal, I thought I’d use their graphics and code to throw together a widget that counts down to the billionth song sold on iTunes. After much agonizing, I decided to call it iTunes Billionth. Enjoy!

I am excited to announce easily my most sophisticated widget ever, Sundial. In the past I have sort of hacked my widgets together. This project was for work, so I was really thorough and did things according to the Apple guidelines (imagine that!). What is Sundial, you ask? Sundial makes it easy to track time on projects through Basecamp. Check it out!

Over at clearwired.com, I have posted the first in a series of blog entries about What Sundial Taught Me. The first one is on Widget Localization. It’s a pretty thorough overview, if I do say so myself. If you’re a widget developer who wants to get started with localization, it’s worth a look!

Looking for a secure, random WEP/WPA passkey generator? Check out Entropy. It’s like Make-A-Pass for wireless.

Sundial 1.1 is now available. This version adds support for a truckload of languages and fixes a few minor outstanding issues. Download it now!

I am officially a freelancer, doing business as Newfangled Telegraph. If you need a widget developed, now is the time to contact me!

I am excited to announce that PHP Function Reference is now open source, under the the New BSD License. The project is being hosted on Google Code and I have a discussion forum set up here for it as well. So far, three individuals have stepped forward to contribute to the project: Kelly Patrick Robinson was first in line at the opening of the Albuquerque Apple Store and adds to his list of conquests as first to join PHPfr; Nelson Darkwah Oppong, creator of the Fire ftp widget, is a programmer and graphic designer from Germany; and Barbara Napholtz, a longtime, paid user of PHPfr has agreed to do quality assurance testing on the widget. I am hopeful that with this infusion of talent we will finally be able to push PHPfr to a stable, 1.0 release. Thanks Kelly, Nelson, and Barbara for joining!

Safari 3 beta breaks widgets that use the search history feature of search input field types. I have put together a version of IP Locator with that feature disabled for anyone who wants to continue using it with the broken version of Safari. You can download it here. A bug has been filed with Apple and I suspect this will be a fairly high priority fix considering how many Dashboard widgets are affected.

Fans of GetDilbert might want to check out Out There. Out There is a Far Side-like comic written by George Webster. Good stuff!

PHP Function Reference was mentioned today on Engadget. Cool! (Thanks to Rob Scriva, author of Dashalytics, for pointing this out.)

A few of you, loyal IP Locator users, have written to let me know that the widget is not working. IP Locator gets its geolocation information from DNSStuff.com. It appears that DNSStuff.com has moved to a subscription model for most of its services. I have written to R. Scott Perry, the owner of the site and asked him what is to become of IP Locator in light of this change. Scott and I have enjoyed a good working relationship since I approached him 2 years ago and asked if he would like to collaborate on the widget. I will post an update here as soon as I know more. Thanks for your understanding. –Andrew

I blogged today about the imminent release of PHP Function Reference 1.0 (and it’s about time!). PHPfr has been stuck at version 0.9.6.2b for over a year now, but the project is fast approaching this important milestone. There are some great new features and it’s localized in English, German and Romanian so far, with more to come. Watch this space for the big announcement sometime (hopefully) in the next week!

I built this bobblehead widget as a thank you to @heheboy for being my 1000th follower on Twitter.

Makes long URLs short using tr.im

New in Version 1.2:

- Added Growl support. Now, if you exit Dashboard before the URL shortening completes and you have Growl enabled, tr.im.it sends a Growl notification.

Makes long URLs short using Hurl.ws

New in Version 1.1:

- Added Growl support. Now, if you exit Dashboard before the URL shortening completes and you have Growl enabled, tr.im.it sends a Growl notification.

Fast lookup of information about the PHP web programming language. Features include:

- Offline access to the same documentation found on PHP.net
- Extensive cheat sheet of common PHP language syntax
- Interactive date string formatter
- Favorites list
- 1-click installation of documentation in different languages
- Localized in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, and Romanian

New in Version 1.0.1:

- Updated default (English) documentation to the most recent version on PHP.net (22 May, 2009).
- Fixed a bug that was causing the topics select list to be not selectable
- A couple of minor cosmetic fixes