Microsoft launches On10.net

Microsoft recently launched a new website On10.net.  On 10 is website for people with a passion for technology.  The website is very Web 2.0-ish and sports a cool, clean, and fresh design.  It appears the site is utilizing a bit of Microsoft's ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit formerly known as "ATLAS" so head on over to On10.net and check it out.

tags: On10.net, Web+2.0, ATLAS, ASP.NET+2.0

Segoe UI and IE7 feeds

About mid-way through the day I began noticing that the feeds I read in IE7 suddenly looked different - the items were all listed in a new font.  So I pull up the DOM explorer using the DevToolbar for IE and use the Find > Select Element By Click feature and lo and behold all items were using Segoe UI font.

A quick Wikipedia search reveals that Segoe UI is one of the new fonts in Windows Vista.  Not that I mind the fresh look, but I sure would like to know how it got changed.

tags: IE7, fonts, Segoe+UI

RSS Feed Readin' - IE7 is king

Between all the browsers that I've tried (Firefox, Opera, and IE7) and all the feed readers I've tried out (including Outlook 2007 RSS) nothing beats the simplicity and ease of reading feeds of IE7.

Most, if not all others that I have seen, utilize some type of split screen much like you would see in Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.  Perhaps it's the familiarity of reading messages like this that makes everyone build their feed reader like that, but give it up to IE7 for thinking out of the box first for a change.

Now, there are several improvements that I would suggest IE7 implement, but for the most part, I am completely satisfied with the speed and ease that I can comb through the feeds that I have subscribed to.  And the real benefit is in efficiency as I can with a single click read all the new items from a single feed - none of this split screen click for each item nonsense.

If I had a single suggestion to make, it would be to include an index at the top of the feed with the headlines from each post, and clicking the title would take you to the desired item.  This would easily allow me to comb over the headlines of a feed without having to scroll.  This is the only advantage I see over the current split screen readers out there today.  Including that type of feature in IE7's reader would make it that much more attractive.

tags: IE7, RSS

New Look

I decided to give this blog a new look and applied a different template.  I also wanted to try out the new "Insert Tags" feature of Windows Live Writer.  Actually, it is a plugin for Windows Live Writer I found on CodePlex called Tag4Writer

I haven't given up on creating my own blog and hosting it, but I really haven't had the time to get back to that yet either.  So in the mean time, enjoy the new look.

tags: blogger, life, windows+live+writer, codeplex, tag4writer

Caps Lock? NumLock? F-Keys? WTP?

I've been reading a few blogs (here and here) about useless keys on the keyboard.  Heck, they even have a campaign dedicated to removing the CAPS LOCK key from the keyboard:

http://capsoff.org/ (Main Site)

http://capsoff.blogspot.com/ (Blog)

http://anticapslock.com/ (Early campaign against CAPS LOCK)

To all of this I say: "What's the Point?"  Well, the point is that the modern keyboard is an outdated, and is desperate need of a total overhaul.

To bring the keyboard up to speed, it needs a fresh new design that takes modern and future uses into consideration.  Did you know that the QWERTY keyboard is based off of earlier typewriters?  Surely you do.  But did you know that the QWERTY layout was introduced in the 1860s?  But do you also know the reason why the keys are arranged in this fashion that can still be found in keyboards today was arrange keys in a way to alternate keystrokes to avoid jams?

And we still use this design today!  Can we not do better? 

A few years ago, I started playing around with the Dvorak Keyboard Layout and what I found was that I experienced less fatigue and straining.

In this generation of innovation and technology, don't we owe it to ourselves to explore better designs for one of our main input devices?

I think we should stop complaining about useless keys and step back and look at the broader picture.  Why waste time and effort in moving a key or two when the entire keyboard needs an overhaul?

How to Use Notepad to Create a Log File

If you have ever wanted to create and maintain a simple log file, then you need to know about this nifty trick to creating a simple log file in Windows.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=260563

This nugget has been out there a long while and recently has been making it's way around the blogs and social networks, but I really didn't use it until lately and that is why I am sharing it with you now.

Tags in Outlook?

Taglocity is a tool for Outlook 2003 that allows you to tag messages in Outlook.  Unless you've lived under a rock for the last year or so, or perhaps you don't visit too many social networking sites, whatever the case, tags or tagging are ways to organize information.  While I have not tested the product, I like the concept, and it is a bit familiar...oh yeah, sounds oddly close to the concepts of labels in GMail!

Okay, Okay, it's not the same - personally I think GMail should change the term "label" to "tag" to better align itself with the mainstream social networks.

Back to the topic...Tags in Outlook is a fantastic way to better organize information.  Too many times, I see upper level management (and really anyone with too much email) struggle to stay on top of important messages.  In many cases, I try to let these people in on a little secret (it's not so secret!) called Search Folders.  Search folders isn't so much about organizing messages as it is finding messages.  Combine search folders with tagging and I can see mailbox organization come back to the norm for most people.

Okay, now I have convinced myself to try out the add-in...I'll let you know how it goes.

Windows Live Writer (Beta)

The bloglines are buzzing with the recent release of Windows Live Writer (Beta) so I decided to try it out myself.  You can download the writer directly from here.

At first glance it looks and feels very cool.  This post is coming to you from the writer.  It has a lot of tools that you may or may not have depending on your blog service, and it is really easy to use.  It has a really cool mash-up with Microsoft's Virtural Earth, allowing you to insert a map with a few quick clicks.

I'll be trying it out over the next few weeks and let you know what I think.

Windows Live Writer (beta) Download - writer.msi

Click-density website heat map

I ran across this nugget on Lifehacker.com. After spending several sessions at Search Engine Strategies 2006 San Jose on site architecture, usability, and site design, I thought this was a great addition to any webmaster toolkit - especially while doing any type of usability testing of a website.

Click-density web site heat map

SES 2006 San Jose - Day 3

Sorry I didn't get to post anything yesterday, but I crashed after the Google Dance (more on this later). Day 3 of the conference was good, and we started off with a conversation with Google CEO Eric Schmidt. You can find links to that conversation anywhere on the net, so just search for it.

Session 1 was on Linking strategies from which I was able to take away quite a bit of information, especially from Eric Ward. Session 2 was a bit less informational for me, primarily because personally I'm not too interested in buying or selling links, but again good content. For the third session I decided not to stick to the fundamentals track, and went to the "Usability & SEO: Two Wins for the Price of One" which was great. Some of the main concepts that I try to pass on to developers and continue to improve upon in my own coding is the usability of a website. I'm always looking for ways to improve, and this session gave me some great ideas. In the fundamentals track there was no late afternoon session, so I headed over to the "Pimp My Site!" session. The information here was presented in a case study-like fashion, and while the information was good the main attraction was the wack outfits that the presenters wore. I'll post these pictures and the rest of my photos from SES (including Google Dance photos) in the next few days.