Bye bye Firefox?
May 5, 2006
Well… I just wrote a post about how IE 7 had finally caught up with firefox. It's stable , fast (except for the tab creation part) and is having a dedicated add on site. Having been using it for the past week and not encountering any problem and almost enjoying it. Unfortunately, it seems there are still compatibility issues with some sites as the post i just published was actually … blank! Where did the text go in the process? Is this a security "feature"? no idea…Thank god it was only a few lines or i would have just.
It may have its fair share of problems (memory leak and processor misuse) but at least for the sake of compatibility, don't ditch firefox just yet…
Photo Gallery
May 1, 2006
After spending hours looking at excellent photos on pbase.com , i have finally started my own gallery here. Well there is no much of quantity let alone quality for the moment as it is the start of a long but fun learning process. It's been a pastime of mine already, this will just hopefully help me get more awareness of my environment.
As a side effect, it will also give me a break from the It world 😉
Your del.ico.us network
April 28, 2006
Afterseeing the likes of ma.gnolia or blinklist emphasizing their community features, it seem del.ico.us network is there tofill the gap missing in yahoo's service. From the announcememt :
Your network connects you to other del.icio.us users – friends, family, even new people you run across while exploring del.icio.us.
You can manage your network and keep track of their latest bookmarks by clicking the “your network” link at the top of the page, or by visiting del.icio.us/network.
When you save new bookmarks, you can share them with people in your network simply by clicking on a username. That user (or users) will then receive the sent bookmark and be able to view it by clicking on “links for you” at the top of the page.
If you are a user of the inbox, please note that your network now provides the user subscriptions functionality previously found in your inbox. Your user subscriptions have been automatically transferred over to your network and will continue to work as they did before. The inbox continues to be the place to manage your tag subscriptions.
I have tried it and … well … i can't see any difference between this and the "inbox" feature that has already been there for a long time. I guess it's a reranding to draw more users to use the inbox features. However, it's still quite limited compared to other bookmarking services community services i've tried but del.ico.us remains my favourite because it's simply the most usable/suitable i have found.
Technorati tags : del.ico.us bookmarking
“Move your lazy butt” blogs
April 27, 2006
One of the most talked about subject on blogs (after cool technology gadgets) is life, especially how to improve it/do something with it.
There are a lot of very good blog out there that can help people share and learn about life experiences. Here are the few that i have come accross a few that i have come accross :
http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/ : By the makers of the "Heads First" java books series. You will find both technical and life related subjects. One of the latter, one of the latest excellent post can be read here http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/04/angrynegative_p.html
http://www.bloodletters.com/hackyourself.shtml : Move , DO something now! It's good for you…
http://www.43things.com/ : interesting concept where people can share their goal and experiences on how to "make it happen"
http://blog.lifebeyondcode.com/blog : Rajesh Setty's blog, author of life beyond code. More targetted at IT professional, his advices would serve pretty much anyone who is looking for more in his career and personal life. He has compile his most ppopular articles here : http://www.squidoo.com/distinguishyourself
http://www.stevepavlina.com/ : One of the most popular personal development site on the internet by Steve Pavlina. Clear and powerful writing. Also provide podcasts.
Ok… So i will try to keep my online butt moving a bit too, by keeping this blog up to date
IE 7 Beta 2 quick Overview
April 25, 2006
That's it , Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 is out. I have been running the beta 2 preview and as far as i can see, the beta 2 is noticably faster, especially the tab creation/switching. Other than that, there are not major improvements but more some minor changes as you can see below
| IE 7 installer now asks you to verify your copy of windows |  |
| Important… Get the latest security updates fo IE |  |
| A classic. Still have to restart your PC. Still a pain |  |
| mmm nice you can see all your tabs with this quick view. As i usually have 20 to 30 tabs open , let's see how handy it can by in the coming days. |  |
| The search box is now appearing at the top right of the screen instead of in the middle. Well thanks it's better. Now the most important feature still missing is the "search as you type" search seen in Firefox. Just hope we have it for the final version |  |
It's actually starting to look pretty nice for this much needed version of IE 7. This release is already very usable and fast and is definitely worth upgrading now, just for the sake of having tabs.
IE 7 search feature is still lacking compared to its firefox counterpart though but to make up for that , you will have a fairly decent integrated RSS reader which will be a good introduction to RSS for the million of users who will be using IE 7 with XP and Vista. However, i feel that i have a better experience/efficiency with Firefox's "search as you type" feature and extensions for the moment so i will have to keep going with Firefox as my primary browser for a while.
Google mobile proxy : Mobile internet through Google
April 24, 2006
The google proxy wil convert any internet page to a XHTML version and resize for your mobile phone.
You can check it here : http://www.google.com/gwt/n
Google is using this proxy to display all sites you access from your mobile using google.com
Microsoft and Trust
April 24, 2006
Reobert Scole has a very nice post regarding microsoft trust and how to improve microsoft image and inspire its employees. I do think that the "trust" issue for microsoft online ("live") services is overstatedJust look at the crowd (of "seconf life" generation people) following every development of live messenger on the live messenger blog and to a lesser extent the same happening on the live mail blog. I don't think there is more of a trust issue with any of microsoft services than with google or yahoo services.Actually I would personnaly feel more confortable with microsoft handling my data than google and i think most people wouldn't care and go for the best service/package anyway.The trust issue is more with Microsoft as a whole, the company, than with any of it's particular product or services.Actually , speaking of products, how many can a consumer really buy? Windows, office, xbox… that's about it. Microsoft is a plateform company and most of its other products are targetted at companies or developers which makes it a bit of a stretch to compare it with Apple.But still, to come back to the trust issue, i think it breaks down on the following:
1. You can't trust Windows : it is insecure by default and you need anti spyware, anti virus , anti anything to keep it more or less working. On top of that, it "feels" insecure as you need to reboot it with every update. Looks like the problem is deep inside.
2. microsoft only works (well is compatible with) with microsoft.
3. lame desinformation campaigns against linux and/or opensource software. Why do you even think of spending money on that? Nice to see Bill Hilf lab bringing a bit of pragmatism there thoughfor the last 2 , the average non techy users don't care/know but the influencers (and most of the second life generation is going to be) will
Soo how to try to cure those sources:
1. Make vista unbreakable. Sell Win XP PCs with SP2 installed and fully patched
2. Give people choice. Accept that people can use other stuff than microsoft but this doens't mean they don't want to buy microsoft products.For example Why have the (great by the way) .net framework only run on windows while it could run on all OS.Windows can still be the best of breed platform to run .net apps offering the most features ut why not let it run on other OSes?A lot of companies would actually choose the windows solution over the linux solution but would just like to have the choice. Just by giving the choice, more people will trust microsoft and their investment in microsoft technology.So for the companies who run linux, you can still sell them visual studio instead of having no sale at all. If windows solution is so much better (and it will be) at running .net , people will choose windows, because the want it : more trust
3. Quit doing that, it's useless
Finally, kepp all the great people working at microsoft and keep them blogging (Scott Guthrie (one of the best), mini , the windows mobile team , Charlie Owen etc.. (long list of many other excellent ones))
Technorati Tags : micrososft
Everything you want to know about windows Vista
April 24, 2006
… except may be the release date
At last some decent piece of information regarding the upcoming Microsoft windows Vista. This 313 pages document released by Miscrosoft introduces most of the features we have already heard about (Aero interface, sidebar, gadgets, integrated search…) with ome nice screenshots and explanation
Download Here : Windows Vista Product Guide Beta 2.pdf (right click and choose save as)
As the quantity of tech information (of very disparate quality) available on internet is becoming unmanageable, we need to find improved ways to keep track of news in the areas important to us. MSN, Yahoo, google news, CNET news, pcmag or other established websites are clearly not enough to report all the latest news and point of views regarding the latest tech issues… So what is the solution? Well , it's a mix of RSS, blogs and appropriate tools: Let's start y one of the most interesting tech site to appear recently, tech.memeorandum
- tech.memeorandum is ctually using a software / bot which will crawl the web to look for latest tech info. It will then display the link to the info (web page / blog) on the main page as well as the link / discussions related to it. This is really the perfect place to have several point of views on a specific tech related news or issue.
After using tech.memorandum for a while, you will start to see recurrent names of bloggers and sites based on which information you are interested in. This is the moment to start using RSS and subscribe to the feeds of the sites you are interested in. I personnaly use the RSS client integrated with firefox because of it's quick and easy. Just browse to a page, watch for the firefox orange RSS icon to light up , click on it and that's it! IE 7 (now in beta 2) also have the same feature so the RSS subscribing via browser will be available to most users very soon. If your number of feeds start to grow exponentially , you can have a look at more advanced online RSS readers like Blogline (my favorite so far) or Rojo. Another good way o keep track of your own (and others) browsing so of the information you see is to use del.ico.us.
- del.ico.us is a bookmarking and tagging system that will help you keep track of the sites you visit. Thans to some handy buttons that integrate to your browser, you are able to bookmark sites as you browse. The URL of the site will be stored under your account on del.ico.us server so you will be able to access it from any computer connected to internet. Nice, no need to have all your favorites / bookmarks wherever you go! The other compeling feature of del.ico.us is the possibility to give tags to the URL / sites you visited.
Thanks to these tags you will be ale to retrieve information easily months after the site was bookmarked. Due to the growing number of bookmarks you tend to get, the tagging feature is most welcome to search through your bookmarks.. and others! Yep, you will also be able to search through other users tags with the search available on the del.ico.us site, anoter handy feature to get the sites related to your interest bookmarked by others. Also, as del.ico.us has recently been bought by yahoo (for around 40 million US $) , the integration of tag search with the main yaho search engine seems imminent though there is only speculation on how it will eventually be integrated. Ok, so that's a good start on the common sites and handy tools fot the moment. I will go into more details about del.ico.us and the favourite bloggers very soon! In the meantime start using tech.memeorandum.com, an RSS client together with a bit of del.ico.us and you should see a good improvement in your awareness of latest trends and issues related to the tech world. The combination of the same tools will obviously serve you well for any field you are interested in. For those interested in politic news, there is a version of tech.memeorandum, the original memeorandum, available at http://www.memeorandum.com/
Technorati tags : RSS del.ico.us technology
Nadal vs. Federer in Grand tennis Finale
April 23, 2006
If you want to have a look at the est of what modern tennis can offer, be sure not to miss the Monte Carlo final on the Sunday 23th April 2:30pm (GMT+1):
Roger Federer (World number 1) vs Rafael Nadal (World number 2) for their first meeting in a final on clay and a possible preview of the final of the French Open next month.
Nadal should have the advantage as clay is his favourite surface but Federer has been playing great tennis this week with one of his best clay court matches in quarter final.
I predict a 3 sets Federer win, but whatever happens, it should be a great match with the 2 best players of the moment in a total opposition of styles. Enjoy!
Gives me a break 