Have been down this road. FrontPage (shudder) in the 90's. DreamWeaver and others for a bit.

HTML, JS, CSS, XML, PHP, Python, Perl... it's all text. Finally realized I did not need a gui editor with internal browser.

Best bet is to know your code, have a good mental idea of what it will do, use the browser to verify.

The following is all open source, so no emptying of the wallet...

Put Apache on your dev machine so you can run vhosts. Modify your hosts file to point localhost to whatever internal-only domain name you choose.

Code with jEdit - java based so completely cross-platform, code folding, syntax highlighting, macro capability etc. A wonderful tool.

View with FireFox. Install the FireBug, Web Developer, ColorZilla and MeasureIt extensions. Find a 'doze machine somewhere so you can (begrudgingly) use IE just to make sure stuff is rendering as you expect. Install Opera & Chrome just because you can, though you'll use them the least.

Write code, save, tab over to FireFox, F5 to refresh. Rinse and repeat. You'll barely touch the mouse, as Ghu intended.

When things look good, upload with FileZilla (which supports SFTP, so you can safely dial in using your private key).

Good luck!

Just wondering when Andy Samberg will be collecting his Nobel prize...

The hosting company is the apartment complex. All they do is allow traffic to your door.

What you do in the apartment is your concern.

You may wish to involve a web programmer, or learn a whole bunch. ;)

-rant-
If the site will be taking money, beware PCI compliance. Experience shows most of the companies offering this "service" are just scammers. Just last night one of my sites failed due to alleged existence of a file that in reality is not even on the server. Not even the directory exists, yet it was flagged for this brand new "critical problem", and supposedly Visa can financially penalize the client due to "failure".

They're mostly a bunch of lazy crooks cashing in on FUD.
-/rant-

In a possible nod to Deacon Dodgson, Mr. Cleese, when asked on the Dick Cavett show about how Monty Python came up with their sketches, said:

"We take an illogical concept, and follow it through to its logical conclusion."

Sage advice. Any good programmer (at least ones that have to deal with UI's) learns to imagine what some random joe might do to his code.

I hear the Document Foundation may be a good fit for this OpenOffice project.

Tablets are a fad ... just like that intertubes thingy.

Glad this was done, but wondering when IT cops are going to move to the current century.

The authorities went physically to data centers & pulled the plug on suspect servers.

Yes, you'd want to confiscate the offending machines, but why not start by simply updating iptables on the core router(s) serving the DC(s), effectively and simultaneously shutting them off from the outside world?

Timing the takedown would be much better controlled, as it could be scripted and run from a central location. Just set it up and click the "Die Monster Die" icon (or run DMD from your shell) and all the heads of the Hydra get cut at once. Plenty of time for cleanup after you know for sure none of the C&C boxes can shoot out some last-minute instruction before getting shut off.

(Sure, there would be some tug of war on allowing one entity all those logins. That's what ACL's are for. They'd be updated as well after the takedown is complete.)

Thank Ghu for Parallels, now my Mac can run every developer's dream editor: Notepad!

"CS" is a very broad field. Are you a project manager? A SysAdmin? A repair tech? A coder - be it device drivers, websites, compiled apps, operating systems... ?

A certain amount of math is good for any human to have. If your field requires more, you should learn it.

Running cable or troubleshooting an ailing PC doesn't require much in the way of higher math skills, but coding requires at least a good grasp of logic.

Writing an app like Mathematica would certainly demand some serious chops. (Programming is like teaching, in this case teaching a computer how to act. You yourself must know how it works before you can explain it to others.)

Even if you're in a managerial role, riding herd over those doing the heavy lifting, it would still behoove you to be familiar with what your group needs to know to get the job done.

Others have suggested a VPS; that's just another way to get a static IP (under no circumstances consider shared hosting, you never know who your 'neighbors' may be spamming...) But, since you run the server out of your own shop, besides switching to a static ip for your own connection, get with StartCom or one of the other low-cost cert folks & switch to SSL for your email traffic as well. Any of the free DNS services (dyndns, whatever) can be used to create an A record for your IP.

The Vatican states iPhones are not qualified to hear confession.

Two possible reasons:

• They're afraid of the competition
• No one has stepped up to write the iPedophile app.

Only if one is not concerned by the prospect of our delicious green cheese being commandeered by commies.

Don't really believe in Astrology, but it does appear to be an amazing predictor of human personality.

So, I suddenly have to change my behavior?

As one born on the cusp (15 minutes as the clock flies, not degree-wise), guess I can now claim three signs. Things were confusing enough with just the two.

There's no problem with an "App Store" per se. It's just another shop. You are welcome to visit it, or not, as you prefer.

Owning just the single Mac product - a laptop - and not using iTunes, I'd had no experience with their store. However, it showed up after the latest software update, so thought to give it a whirl.

Very shiny. Very unusable. Even though it professes to have free items available for download, it does not appear possible to even create an account without providing some method of payment. Sure, you can look around, but how do you get the free stuff without being logged in? Nothing - even the allegedly free items - are actually available unless you're willing to pay.

Sure, there are ways around that. I could acquire a small pre-paid Visa or AmEx, use that to establish the account then actually spend the money somewhere else. But those are extra steps I shouldn't have to go through for free stuff.

I can understand their wanting to track who downloads what, but there's no reason to provide a method of payment for something that has no cost. Surely the system can be smart enough to require payment at the time it's actually necessary.

It's as if you were at the grocery store and the lady behind the display of chips offered a sample to you, but first you had to show her a ten spot.

Guess I'm welcome to shop elsewhere.

It's so hard to keep the fiction part of SF going these days. Lucas is working toward Star Trek's Holodeck.

Have been waiting for this technology to worm its way into society since Data and Jordie met Professor Moriarty. But simply inserting characters into their own known environment is just the beginning. Don't like how DeNiro handled Raging Bull? How about Stan Laurel instead? George C. Scott in Love Story playing Ali McGraw's part? Steven Seagal in It's A Wonderful Life? The possibilities are, quite literally, endless.

So is the opportunity for cries of plagiarism, but that's another discussion.