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October 12 Zune Multi-Format Support on Vista64
Looking for Information on using Zune with x64 Vista?
Please visit the article at it's new location on my new blog at: Zune Multi-Format Support on Vista64 August 24 Do you want to create your own Windows Live Writer Plugin?Some of you may have noticed I've been keeping track of plugins that the community is developing on one of my blog posts. Others have been sending me links to their plugins, but the list is getting out of hand, which is a good thing. If you want to develop your own plugin, there is an excellent article from Keyvan Nayyeri on writing plugins here. You can join others in posting your projects on the common section on CodePlex for all toe share and see as well.
tags: C#, Windows+Live+Writer, Plugin, Coding August 19 Free Software from MicrosoftHere is a list of some free software utilities and add-ons. (this is posted more for me to go back and refer to at a later time) August 16 Clipboard to Image tool - Save that Screen CapHere is a simple, yet very useful tool for saving your ScreenCap buffer to a file for posting to a blog or sending in an email. It is alot easier than going into your graphic editor of choice to paste in and save!
Codeformat and Tablet Ink Writer Plugin's availiableWindows Table PC Ink Support
tags: Windows+Live+Writer, plugins, blog August 14 What is the point of the Live platform to users?The question was posed on various blogs regarding the point of Microsoft's Live services branding and integration. I thought about this, and tried to determine what does it mean to me as an end user, to have all the current services coming from a single provider, but still open enough to integrate with other best of breed, services from 3rd other third parties. I'm going to list all of the current Live services I use on a daily basis, and why I chose to use them as it relates to my online choices. I'm going to try and identify the main service and what the other services I can utilize with them. I'm sure I will be called a fanboy for this, but sometimes you have to go with what works versus what doesn't work. In this scenario the name of the game is integration of services, and what that brings to the end user. Windows Live platform, though still unsure of itself, seems to be well on the way to delivering that integrated experience without walling in it's users to only live services. i will also try to identify what other non live services that I use that can be integrated into the user experience.
This was the evolution of wanting to be able to use the hotmail web interface for some of my custom domain email addresses. While the original hotmail was not the greatest, it was simple, which meant that people of all technology backgrounds could grasp it easily. WLM has extended this with it's new web based interface. It now allows me to have a common contacts respository (something I have strived to do with other mail platforms and failed because those solutions were not mobile) with my IM client and my online and offline mail client. The addition of Windows Live Mail Desktop added the missing piece to allow me to sync my mailbox before going on an airplane, and then re-syncing when I got back to a data connection. AJAX is nice and pretty, but it doesn't do very well when you are not online to access the AJAX client. The ability for me to keep up with my email even on my Blackberry through the web browser makes it a truely on the go email solution for me as well. The tieing in of Live Contacts allows my contacts to manage their own contact information and for me to get updates as soon as they want to make them availiable. I have used yahoo mail, and I like their new interface. I have used Gmail and find it to basic of a service as it's to disconnected. It has recently added integration into Gtalk, but even that seems tacked on, and not how it could be done.
This is most likely the glue that binds many of the services together. With the integration of several Live services via messenger, it makes it eaiser to find value in using other live services. The many uses for this service are to many to go into detail about, so I will try to create a simple list.
This was a missing piece for me as I had mentioned. The desire to have access to my email while I am in an offline state is essential for someone who may spend alot of time traveling, or in places without a web connection. Without an offline capability, even the most feature rich AJAX client, does someone no good. Using such protocols as POP3 and IMAP are useless behind a corporate firewall that only allows out port 80 traffic, which WLMD connects to a web service over. I can utilize it as an RSS reader, but because of lack of centralization of feed repositories across multiple machines I find it fails in comparison to others such as FeedDemon with NewsGator. I can now sit at work, on my desktop at home, or on my laptop and sync my Live Mail mailbox and have access from all those locations. It also integrates nicely into other mail systems that provide POP3 and IMAP when I am behind an unrestricted firewall. This is still a beta product, and it shows, but all of the main features seem to work well. The integration of my Messenger/Mail contacts in an offline mode is priceless as it is what I had always tried to achieve and fail with LDAP directories or Firefox Plugins which tried to store this data on a website to poll. BTW - where is Windows Live Calendar?
This post was made using Windows Live Writer, and I think this product is one that extends the integration not only with Windows Live Spaces but many other 3rd party blogging solutions. The new plugin architecture will continue to bring further integration with other services which are not born out of the Live offerings.
WLS was the much awaited upgrade for the old MSN Spaces, and with it, it brought customization to the everyday user. The ability to have customized Weblogs has existed in many wonderful products, but the addition of Gadgets created by the more tech savvy allows people to choose what content they want to associate with their space. I am sure we will re-enter the over usage of flashing tags and dancing hamsters with some of these gadgets, but many are starting to show real value. The new Windows Live Writer brings a level of ease and simplicity to managing your own blog that I think it will allow those who were not so web savvy to be compelled ot give it a try. The integration of a friends list, and gleam notifications to buddies provides real value with using an integrated platform. Since RSS has taken off, and adding pretty much any RSS feed to my Space, I can pick and choose the content I want displayed from any third party who provides and RSS link. Currently the photo album support on WLS is subpar with that offered by Flickr, but since I can use my Flickr content in my Space, I get the best of both worlds.
I was a del.icio.us user for quite some time, for keeping track of my online bookmarks/favorites. The problem was I would add an entry, but always tend to end up using a search engine to find a link before turning to my online book marks. I like how WLF I can integrate into the desktop experience by using the WLF sync toolbar add on, so I tend to look there first before hitting the search engine. If they add a simple search provider in IE7 to search within my WLF, that might be a nice addition. So in the end, I utilize many of these services daily, and I can choose to find alternatives. There are many plugins and services from many vendors which try to acheive the integrated "feel" by using open standards, but for the most part they are only within reach of the tech savvy or the IT crowd. When integration exists between compelling services which work together, and works very well, it would have to be a very compelling reason to choose a unitasking service from a non-integrated solution. The tools are being made availiable to the public, and if there is not a form of integration you would like, go ahead and build it. The mindset of "It must be good, because it is Microsoft", is just a bad view as "It must be bad because it is Microsoft". Identify where the platoform is lacking (RSS feed Mobility!), and speak out how it could be made better. Through the usage of APIs, all kinds of new possibilities are coming about since the platform is there as a starting off point. If by using an integrated platform, that allows me to bring in the best of other platforms so that my online experience is made better, what is bad about that? The general population will not want to, nor know how to integrate all the web has to offer, without a consistent platform umbrella to do it under. The internet may have been started by the tech savvy, but it is no longer the sole inhabitant of the internet.
tags: Windows+Live You got your Flickr in my Spaces! You got your Spaces in my Flickr!
I have to say, this Flickr Plugin for WLW is just a great example of how things COULD work and more importantly SHOULD work together. I love the storage capabilities for keeping my photos on Flickr, and now that I can integrate that with my space postings, it is like the best of both worlds. If this is a taste of things to come from the community, which combines simplicity and openess, we are in good times. I was never one to use Technorati, but with the new Tagging plugin, there it makes it so easy to integrate I have no compelling reason not to use it.
tags: Windows+Live+Writer, Flickr August 13 Windows Live Writer PluginsIt is the first day that WLW has been released and plugins are starting to trickle in nicely. I'm going to catalog them here till Live Gallery contains them.
Windows Table PC Ink Support
There is also a list of plugins being developed on CodePlex. Excellent article from Keyvan Nayyeri on writing plugins here. Please visit the new WLW Plugins SiteSince the new site is up, I am not going to update this blog post anymore, but hopefully the exisitng links will lead you to the above site. Thanks :)
Last Updated 08-25-2006
tags: Windows+Live+Writer, Plugin, Google+Video, YouTube, Tablet+PC, Flickr Windows Live Clipboard....Coming soon?
Thinking this is going to be some sort of web based clipboard application, I thought I'd do some research to get more details of what it was, and when it would emerge. You can read more of this possible product on Ray Ozzie's Space
So in reading I can see how this could be used in blogging. I could CUT the picture from my flickr album online, and PASTE it into my Blog where it would maintain the structure of the picture on Flickr. This would make simpler to share common data types between 2 seperate applications simpler.
tags: Windows+Live+Clipboard May 25 Office 2007....and why Lotus Notes ruined my daySo I took a look at getting the new Office 2007 Beta 2 to take for a test drive on my laptop. The install went great, the applications worked rather well for a Beta 2 product, and the UI changes were not as harsh as I thought they were to be. So why did I de-install it less than 48 hours later ? 2 words: Lotus Notes Unfortunately the "enterprise" e-mail system for me is Lotus Domino 6.5.x, and which you would expect to use the Lotus Notes 6.5.x client to work "well" with. Since I come from an Exhange background, I am naturally biased towards a Notes world. I've worked at many large enteprises who migrated from Notes to Exhange for Messaging and PIM support, and never looked back. I suppose I will eventually write something on the pitfalls of the Domino platform where it comes to non-IBM integration, but let this rant exist about the client piece itself for now. So in the past I used Outlook with the MS Domino connector to get my Email and Meetings. It's been a rather excellent solution as it let me use the familiar Outlook interface, but still utilize the existing Domino backend. I was able to read all my E-mail, Schedule meetings, and even look at other Calendars of people who are usin the full Notes experience. For the most part, I was ok missing the backend features of Exchange that Notes was lacking out of the box because I could do 90% of what needed to be done. So I installed Office 2007 which upgraded my exisitng Outlook. This had the ability to break the Domino Outlook connector which I expected to happen. I thought of it as a chance to really give Notes a try and maybe I was wrong in my assumptions about what it can and cannot do as a messaging client. I figured I had a BlackBerry device that if all else failed I could function with. So I went about using Notes 6.5.4 client, and this is what I found:
Many people at my org know I whine about Notes deficiences all the time, so they are used to it. They don't understand why I complain and Notes is just as good as any email platform. Then it turns out they have only used Notes in the modern enterprise, and have not worked with Groupwise or Outlook. I have to wonder, if all you know is one system, can you really know what is "just as good" anyway? So yes, I wanted to try to use Notes. I know I can be biased because I am used to Outlook. Yet when I extended my hand to make peace with Lotus Notes, it kicked me in the shins and poked me in the eyes. I had heard it be said that using Notes every day at work is like being kicked in the balls everyday when you arrive at work. After my 48 hour wrestling match, I have to say that would be putting it lightly. I know change is hard, but when it's change in the backwards direction, it is even harder to accomplish. I could not stand using Notes any longer and had to remove Outlook 2007 B2. Outlook is now re-installed and working fine once again with Notes, and I am productive again. Hopefully once Outlook 2007 reaches closer to RTM a Domino connector will re-emerge to save the day. This is why you get to look at Betas, so you can get an idea of what is coming down the pike. It may not all work, but at least you get an idea. I can deal with using Notes only for Notes applications (which leave alot to be desired in this age of Web based apps), but for the core messaging of Email and Calendaring, Outlook is king. Maybe Notes 7 is better, but do I really want to keep hoping only to get let down again? Sure Notes integrates with Sametime, but how well do either interface with the Office Suite? I guess that is why Lotus Now has their own office suite they will be pitching soon. Funny, I remember they used to give the Lotus Office Suite away for free when you bought a new IBM Aptiva desktop computer in CompUSA. I wonder what will be different. |
While reading through the new Windows Live Writer SDK, I noticed many mentions about integration with Windows Live Clipboard. There appears to be a class related to data stored in your live clipboard known as the LiveClipboardContentSourceAttribute.
Essentially it appears to be a mechanism for transferring structure data (IE a Blog Entry, instead of just the Blog text) between normally disconnected apps.|
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