Have you ever looked in a real DIYers toolbox? Or maybe even the toolbox of someone who's pretty handy, but who has a messy streak? So all the hammers might be together, or all the screwdrivers will be together, maybe even with some sort of arrangement as to Phillips or Torx heads... but there is almost inevitably, in some corner compartment of the toolbox, or some drawer (and maybe several of them, even) an area set aside for what amounts to a whole lot of miscellaneous "everything" bits. These pieces might logically be found with hammers, or dry wall tools, or about a million other things... But they aren't quite the same, and they aren't always used in the same manner. So they end up in a big pile, that you hope stays manageable enough you can find them again.

This week's Linux switch, the last of the web development stuff for a bit, is like that compartment. These are all nifty little tools, and great when you need them. But they are mostly small, and have a strange distinction of not always being associated with any one particular type of task.

Some, like FTP programs and plugins, are associated with other programs. But what if you love your editor and hate the uploading functions it has? Image maps can be a nuisance to set up, and we think that's probably part of the reason why you don't see a lot of them. But sometimes, they just fit the project at hand.

And you know how we said we'd go easy on the editors? Seriously, we meant it. However, there's one more editing tool we want to mention that's probably beyond most casual users, but will make Linux users who want to develop SWF9 applications pretty happy. We are not covering it in any great depth, because we are not any sort of whizzes with Flash development -- but we have to point it out. It's been a long time coming!

So welcome to our odds and ends compartment of web tools!

Wal-Mart has generally had a good-enough web presence online, that is for the most part helpful in finding products and priming the pump for customers to visit the store knowing what they will find already since they saw it online. I have used their website for a long time. Now, Walmart.com has had a face-lift, a make-over, and even to some extent, a make-under. Using open-source software, Wal-Mart has pulled the trigger on their reloaded web experience. New features include: the use of Flash for promotional spots and new flashy-popdown-menus to quickly find what you are looking for, which saves a lot of time having to click on each tab previously and wait for it to load. Alphabetical menus, a "what's hot" area, and logical product groupings make everything easy to find. Walmart uses OpenLaszlo and Flash technologies to accomplish this newly christened voodoo, making open-source a big component of their operation. One more thing, hub, the failed social networking experience is not a part of the new site, thank goodness. If you ask me, Wal-Mart should think about adding social product voting and interactive user comments on products. Turn the thing into a giant blog that the customer can contribute to. That would be something.