TextMate users have been waiting for the 2.0 release of their beloved text editor for over 5 years. Hints that it was 90% complete and full of exciting features kept fans anxiously waiting. Today, Allan Odgaard has finally released a “public alpha” of TextMate 2.0. It is currently available to anyone who has a TextMate license.

After having played with the editor for a bit, I have to say I really like the changes. Some notable changes are:

• Project drawer – replaced with a file browser sidebar, it includes SCM-badging.
• Search in project – merged with regular find dialog.
• Folder specific settings – variables and settings can now be set on a folder basis.
• Themes – you can now change font and font sizes per scope.
• Snippets – new syntax for pop-up menus.
• Session restore – now restores the full session including unsaved changes.

Hello, and Welcome to Movie Phone. If you know the name of the movie you’d like to see, press one.

PAUSE

Using your touchtone keypad, please enter the first three letters of the movie title now.

PAUSE

You’ve selected, Agent Zero? If that’s correct, press one.

PAUSE

You’ve selected, Brown Eyed Girl? If this is correct, press one.

PAUSE

Why don’t you just tell me the name of the movie you selected.

What We Are Using

Host: OSX Lion

VirtualBox: 4.1.0

Guest: Ubuntu Server 11.04 (Natty Narwhal)

I'm assuming you have installed VirtualBox and the VirtualBox Extension Pack from here:

http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Download Ubuntu Server 11.04 making sure you select 32 bit from the drop down:

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/server/download

Go ahead and install the VM into VirtualBox by select New and following the prompts, it will ask you for the location of the ISO you just downloaded to get started. After starting your new VM and following the prompts, make sure you install SSH server (checkbox) and write down the name of your VM, your username and password.

After creating the Ubuntu guest with SSH server installed, turn the guest OS completely off.

Go to terminal on your Mac (OSX) and type in the following replacing "Narwhal" with whatever you named your guest Ubuntu OS in VirtualBox.:

Start the Ubuntu guest OS.

Make sure your SSH service is running:

From your Mac (OSX) terminal SSH into your guest like this:

Adding Shared Folders

From your Mac (OSX) terminal window that is SSH'd into your Guest Ubuntu VM run the following:

Go to the VirtualBox Devices menu and select "Install Guest Additions"

From your Mac (OSX) terminal window that is SSH'd into your Guest Ubuntu VM type the following:

Don't worry if you see something that says "Installing the Window System drivers …fail!". It fails because we aren't using a GUI.

Now shut down your Ubuntu VM like so:

Go to VirtualBox and select your VM and go into its settings. Find the tab that says "Shared Folders" and click on the green folder icon with the plus sign. Click on the drop-down arrow and select some folder on your Mac you want to share. Select the auto-mount check box. Click OK twice and start up your Ubuntu VM. From your Mac (OSX) terminal ssh into your guest as before and type the following:

See your files? Your done!

Mac OSX is now up to 51% with Windows at 41% and Linux trailing at 4%. The JavaScript framework jQuery continues to outpace all others at an impressive 78% adoption.

Firefox is still the browser of choice at 54% with Safari at 20% and Chrome 17%. IE and Opera are close to being irrelevant.

It's interesting to note the adoption curve for HTML5, CSS3 and font linking. It appears that many developers are already using the latest web technologies to a limited extent.

Linux dominates all other operating systems at 62% for running web development servers with Apache the preferred web server at 69%. Of the developers who use backend frameworks, Ruby on Rails heads the list at 14%.

The database of choice is still MySQL at 70% with Microsoft SQLServer PostgreSQL and Oracle all trailing far back.

Are you considering using some of the latest new methods and technologies in your web development?

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." — Seneca

I have to admit upfront that I've had a Mint.com account for a very long time and never used it. Every time I went to enter my account information something made me pause.

"What am I thinking? I am really going to trust them with all of my money?"

When a technology journalist I like to follow mentioned that he finally entered his account information because his security concerns had finally been met, I thought I would finally take the plunge. Then, suddenly out of nowhere, Intuit decides to buy Mint.com.

This turn of events has made me pause once more. What exactly will the purchase mean for Mint.com? Many in the blogosphere who like Mint predict it's the beginning of it's demise. They don't like Intuit's website and think the same people will bring their terrible ideas to Mint.

The founder of Mint.com, Aaron Patzer, wrote in a blog post that this:

"could bring Mint.com's unique approach to personal financial management to millions more consumers and small businesses."

The interesting thing to note is that both the Windows and Mac updates to Intuit's desktop Quicken software is about to ship and won't get to see any of Aaron's "unique approach". Indeed, Intuit publicist Scott Gulbransen has confirmed as much.

So...I'm back where I was, interested in Mint's online service (I think I'd love the iPhone app), but afraid to take the plunge.

Do you use Quicken Online or Mint? How do you think this will affect you?