When I wanted to write a post about WhatIsMyIP, the first thought that came to mind was about the commenters. I read all of your comments (thanks for your kind and useful ones!), and there are always those readers who are looking for the bleeding-edge stuff, and are disappointed when I write about things "everybody knows".

Well guys, this one's not for you – sorry! For those of you who did not know WhatIsMyIP.com, it's a very handy service for figuring out exactly one thing very fast: What is my "real" IP address right now?

This is something you're going to need every now and then, when troubleshooting network applications, trying remote control applications (although it's not needed as often these days), configuring certain games, et cetera.

WhatIsMyIP's advantage does not lie with edgy Web2.0 looks, or snazzy JavaScript. It's a pretty drab-looking site, and the copy writing is bordering on awful ("Whats My IP Address?"). But it has one big thing going for it: the domain name. It's really, really easy to remember. And it shows you your IP address in huge font right on top, and does not have any pop-ups, pop-unders, or blink tags. Sometimes, that's all I need!

The other day I asked about real-time collaborative Ruby editing. I mean, I found Amy Editor, but it just wasn't good enough. It was too slow and wonky, and didn't work well.

Well, I still needed a tool for coding collaboratively over the net, so I kept hunting and searching. And what do you know – it turns out Notepad++ has a plug-in that does exactly what I need.

Notepad++ is an awesome text editor in itself, and it's extremely versatile. It's one of the many editors I went through before finally settling down with Komodo Edit (for now, at least). It has themes, syntax highlighting for numerous languages, macros, endless configuration options, and, of course, plug-ins.

The plug-in that helped us out is called NppDocShare, and it comes completely devoid of any documentation whatsoever. What I did to make it work:

1. Put it in Notepad++ plugins folder.
2. Ran Notepad++, clicked Plugins > NppDocShare > Show Dialog.
3. Configured my router to forward any traffic it gets on a certain port (I'm not telling which) to port 20081 on my own computer.
4. Clicked Serve on the NppDocShare dialog.
5. Got a Windows Firewall warning, and allowed NppDocShare to accept connections.
6. Gave my IP address to my friend, who connected, and we could then cobble some Ruby together very smoothly and quickly.

The pros:

• It's fast. Way faster than any Web-based editor.
• You get to enjoy the full power of Notepad++.
• Each participant gets their own color.

The cons:

• Requires a bit of knowledge to set up.
• Absolutely undocumented (what you've just read is probably the most extensive documentation that currently exists for NppDocShare).
• When you switch to a different tab, you lose the syntax highlighting! This is a really annoying bug, which I hope will get fixed.

All in all, I'm very happy with this solution, and it worked. Maybe next time I will check out Gobby, which is supposed to be even better for collaborative editing (but lacks the power of Notepad++); if I do, I'll be sure to let you know how that worked out.

Have you ever wanted to compare how fast one site loads against another one? Instead of futzing around with multiple browser windows or a stopwatch, just head over to Which Loads Faster, and load the URLs into the split window interface. When you hit the GO button, it will load both sites in side-by-side frames, then make a judgment.

Keep in mind, there are a lot of variables at play, and you'll want to run the same test multiple times to get a better idea of what the average load speed is. Also, it's not clear whether the site automatically clears your cache, so you're going to want to do it manually between tests.

Of course, since each test will likely be different, it can help you create smart-ass screenshots like the header image on this post. Hey, we're just havin' fun here, right Lifehacker?

Squad (no connection to us) is an interesting collaborative text editor for coders. There are several things I like about it, and several things I don't. Let me count them off real quick:

I like:

• The general look and feel. Stylish!
• Real-time collaboration a-la Etherpad, but with proper syntax highlighting for JavaScript, HTML, and a bunch of other languages.
• The product has Pro versions, so hopefully it's making some money and will stick around for a while.
• The name, of course!

I don't like:

• The fact that there is no Word Wrap.
• That it's pretty slow with collaborative real-time editing.
• No Ruby syntax highlighting!
• No auto-completion.
• Banners for the Free version are huge, and very little screen space is left.
• Free version is extremely limited.

Bottom line: Squad has some great potential, and maybe the paid version is awesome. The free version doesn't quite make the cut, but with a few minor changes it could be a huge hit for collaborative development. [Oh, what happened to Google Wave... -Ed]

One feature I like being able to toggle in Firefox is tab thumbnails -- not the ones on the Windows 7 taskbar, mind you. I'm talking about in-browser thumbnails which get displayed when switching tabs. Chrome OS has that snazzy, Cover Flow-style switching interface, but that's not part of the Chrome browser on other OSes.

There are, of course, options available in the Google Chrome Extensions Gallery for those of you who enjoy a visual reminder when looking for that tab you misplaced -- or if you just want a little eye candy!

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