Microsoft and the Future - The Way it Should be

Downloaded WorldWide Telescope (WWT) : pretty neat

Tue, 13 May 2008 06:19:59 GMT

So I thought I should mention this again before you download this : WWT works on PC's and Macs, you need to install the latest .NET framework (the reason my installation went foul at first), and be aware that this program is a BETA. It doesn't state beta on the site, but it claims it's a beta when you launch the program.

I'm no astronomer, but I went around exploring it. Here are some screenshots:

4 different ways to view data on WWT:

Earth - This is the planet Earth of course. You can view Aerial, Hybrid, Street, and even Night view among others.
Planet - You can view other planets from the list next to this box, and also see the moon, Jupiter's moons, among others
Sky - This is the main universe view. There's a lot of ways of viewing the universe, like by microwave, infrared, x-ray, gamma, and other advanced views
Panorama - These are like live camera feeds from other places like McMurdo, Erebus and a few others.

View many tours made by users, make your own tour, and it's really fun.

You can rate tours and view profiles. (Hopefully some Live ID integration sometime soon, for those that do use it, and it wouldn't be mandatory. Imagine sharing some stuff with your friends real easy.)

Tour maker.

Right click anywhere on the universe, and instantly receive any data associated at that point. (You have to press the "Close" button or the "X" near the magnifying lens to get rid of the info box. Clicking on the universe won't get rid of it).

Geospatial data and content search filter are at the bottom.

The Earth has never looked any better. (although maybe except in NASA WorldWind)

Earth at Night. NOTE : For some reason, you can't zoom into much detail once at the city level. Not just Night, but also in Aerial, and Road (both based on Virtual Earth). I'm hoping it's just a bug. I would love to zoom in closer. They might put all VE features into the Earth view someday.

So that's all I feel like sharing. You should try it yourself. Remember, it's FREE, works on PC's and Macs, you need .NET 3.5, and off you go.

WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is released - Download it!

Tue, 13 May 2008 04:09:34 GMT

Yes! I just checked the WWT site today, and found out it's now live. You can download it right now. I'm surprised nobody else has blogged about this yet.

The site is very similar to the Microsoft Surface site in the way it looks and is designed. I'm hoping this becomes a style Microsoft will do more in the future.

There's some tours available. Hopefully they might think of having a blog that we can tune into. Can't wait.

There seems to be a lot more info. than what was previously on the site before. There's a press release info., a way to search for tours, help & support, what is WWT, etc. So go ahead and download it!

Stay tuned! I'll write some more posts about my experiences.

Live Translator gets an update - Real "live" translating and Encarta dictionaries

Sun, 11 May 2008 22:16:11 GMT

I already thought Windows Live Translator was a heck better than Google Translator, but this seals the deal even more.

Two new features: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AsCA0kVWbZ.8iqKv0RolGXps7hR.;_ylv=3?qid=20080511133036AA6tT6l

Live Translations - This is an option to pay someone to translate text for you into the language you want. You get the bonus of having a probably more accurate and natural translation, than a machine-made one. It will cost you though - it starts off at $2.99. I typed in 25 words, and that prices goes to $5.74. So you pay them, and depending on the language (translations to Spanish and French take only 12 minutes, and others are up to 24 hours), you'll get them sometime via e-mail. There's a lot of languages that it supports. Live Translation HAS NO RELATION to Windows Live Translator, other than the fact their name is similar. Two separate companies.
Encarta Dictionaries - If a word doesn't look right to you, you could also utilize the Encarta dictionaries for direct word translations. It supports: English, Spanish, German, and Italian. The only translations are to English, and from English. Like you can't do Italian to German. Or Spanish to Italian. Only English conversions. I've used the Spanish dictionary for a long time, and it's pretty ok.

Helvecio Ribeiro has the official scoop.

MSN Toolbar (new) - My review

Sun, 11 May 2008 18:28:39 GMT

It's been awhile, but now I'm going to tell you my opinions on the MSN Toolbar. To cut it short, USE MSN Toolbar if you're an avid fan of MSN content and want the latest info. instantly from your browser. DON'T USE the MSN Toolbar if you really don't have a thing for MSN content.

So here's some good points that I could think about the new MSN Toolbar:

Very fast and responsive - Like when I press one of the buttons, a small box with some articles headlines comes out in just a second. I don't find it at all slow, and it's pretty interactive enough.
Live search box - It's hard to not find a toolbar with a search box included these days, and Live search isn't so bad.
Nice look and design - The look is overall pleasant. I like the way the boxes that pop out are designed with several tabbed categories and a search box that pertains to the content the box is from.
It's free - like most other toolbars
Utilizes Silverlight - Though they could probably do more, this is an interesting use of Silverlight right on a browser

What I don't like :

Search button to big - They could conserve space if they made it into Live's magnifying glass icon
Top portion of beveled bar too shiny - I find that the top portion of the beveled bar is just too shiny. They could tone it down a little, or make it just slightly darker again at the very top
Live searching opens up a new tab/window - If you use the Live search on the toolbar, it opens up a whole other tab/window. Kind of annoying and you don't have an option to fix this
No customizable buttons - You can't make your own buttons like you can on the Windows Live Toolbar. Nor choose any.
No customizable search - Again, unlike the Live Toolbar, you really can't customize what search engine you can use.
No options panel - There's a nice help button but that's not enough where you can't change the settings
It's just MSN content - More or less, it's just MSN headlines in a nice shiny box and toolbar. But it's still MSN when you go to the site. Most people, including myself, find that the way most MSN sites are designed, is that they're just plain paltry. Until MSN can design much better looking sites, chock full of great content and features, then it's not a great pull.
IE-only - Microsoft's "openness" doesn't show through this toolbar as well as the Live one when working with other browsers beyond IE

Overall, I don't suggest you download the toolbar. It's not worth it. I installed it about a month or 2 ago, hid it in the browser, and just opened it again today. You just really have to be an avid MSN fan to appreciate this. I'm hoping Microsoft will update their Live Toolbar with some new and better goodies (though it's nice and fine now) and make it compatible with other sites.

That's what I have to say. Here are some screenshots:

For now, you can download it from this site : http://beta.toolbar.msn.com/Default.aspx?loc=en-us

Zune 2.5 update

Sat, 10 May 2008 23:35:48 GMT

So the Zune 2.5 update came around of Monday, 5/5/08. This update contains many of the features that users have been asking for (that got removed in the new software), and now we finally have it.

So what's new? Well there's:

gapless playback
improved syncing controls (syncing groups)
metadata editing
auto playlists
better Zune Pass - more marketing (ad), and instant playback of songs (not just 30 sec. preview) of a friend's Zune Card song
TV shows - Episodes from NBC, MTV, MTV2, Nickelodeon, Sci Fi Channel, VH1, Ultimate Fighting, Comedy Central, Anime, [Adult Swim] - only a few series from each network. Anime has the most with 11 different TV series. Hopefully more will get added. About $2.00 each (
Browse by genre (music an video) or by series (video)
Flagging for purchase - If you receive a song from another Zune user, you can flag this song if you wish to purchase from Zune Marketplace, and you'll be asked to confirm this when the Zune syncs. If you have a Zune Pass, you can just add it to your collection in one click.
Live Messenger integration - The "Show what I'm listening to" status for Windows Live Messenger now works with Zune as well. Something that a few Zune users have been wanting. (though I still prefer playing on WMP 11).
Zune Card for Facebook and MySpace - It's much easier to get a card working for Facebook, MySpace, and even Live Spaces. Or any site with an HTML widget/sandbox.
Build a reputation within the Zune Social - With this release, you can earn achievement badges in Zune Social that are displayed on your Zune Card. Similar to Xbox LIVE, these are graphical icons on your Zune Card that represent milestones like being the top listener of an artist, passing a specific number of total plays, helping other users in the Zune forums and more.
New "My Social" Page - The page shows what your social is like, from what you're doing to what your friends are doing. Lists show up as well as you can hover over albums of friends' cards to take a quick look.
Album reviews and fan comments - You can write an album or artist review directly on the artist’s page.
Built-in friends - New members joining Zune Social now get out-of-the-box Friends to help them get started. These are music editors from the Zune team will now automatically be part of your initial friends list when you join the Social.
Finding friends - It’s become easier to find people in the Social Zune Social members have new options to add information like name, location and biography, to their profile page. This makes it easier for others to find someone and add them as a friend in the Social or to identify someone asking to be added to your list.
Multi-device syncing - Now that many of us have multiple Zune players in the household, this version lets you sync more than once Zune at a time. Also new in this release, you can drag-and-drop content to a Zune player that is not yet connected - and that content will sync the next time the player is connected to the PC.

Great new update, huh? What else do you think the Zune could use?

Here are some good sites that I thought you should read if you're interested:

Zunerama - http://www.zunerama.com/zune-software-2-5-overview.php

WinSupersite - http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/zune25.asp

I HAVE A ZUNE - http://www.ihaveazune.com/?p=1212

I HAVE A ZUNE (badges) - http://www.ihaveazune.com/?p=1226

Gizmodo - http://gizmodo.com/387446/zune-25-update-brings-tv-shows-more-social-networking-improved-software-features

Engadget - http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/06/zune-2-5-update-brings-tv-downloads-zune-card-sharing/

Also, in other Zune news :

Zune's are coming to Canada on June 13th. - http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=942f31a9-4a99-4155-a9da-18413a22d7d1&k=95737

Zune by now has sold 2 million units - http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/05/09/microsoft-surpasses-2-million-zunes-sold-apple-sells-2-65-million-ipods-month

i'm Making a Difference now works for Hotmail

Wed, 07 May 2008 07:13:09 GMT

The popular i'm Making a Difference initiative that Microsoft launched a year ago, is still going on, and also now supports Hotmail.

The same 10 organizations to choose from are still there. You can use the same one as you did for Live Messenger, or you can pick a different one for Hotmail. It works out great either ways. So every time you send an e-mail to someone, a bit of the ad revenues that Microsoft receives goes directly to the organization you picked. It's so easy (something you probably do often enough) and it really helps out somebody.

Here's how to do it :

1. Go to http://mail.live.com/ and sign in.

2. Check out Options and go to More Options

3. Go to the Customize your Mail section and select i'm making a difference

4. Pick the organization you would love to support

Select Save. That's it.

So just send e-mails, and you're helping your cause. An extra bonus is that instead of the usual ad that gets attached to the bottom of your message when you use the web version (if you use Live Mail client, no ads at all!), you instead get a little tag that shows how you're helping out by using Live Hotmail. Really neat.

And people claim that Microsoft is just another one of those greedy corporations. :^)

Also of note, the i'm site launched a new featured called the Community Corkboard. The Community Corkboard "is an open forum for discussion and dialog. Post your thoughts and opinions about the topics that matter most to you, and check back often to keep the dialog going." I personally find it rather cool and creative. This an the whole i'M initiative is really different from the usual boring Microsoft, and I encourage MS to do neat things like this. Here's a screenshot:

You just hover around the edge of the visible Corkboard to get around the board and view other notes. To launch a note, you click the top part of it. You can also make your own character avatar (called Muggins on the site). Live Messenger could use this built-in.

The whole site is pretty educational and fun to work with. I really suggest you go for it.

Pro Photo Tools 1.0 comes out

Wed, 07 May 2008 06:01:35 GMT

Microsoft has released a small tool for photographers that offers rich metadata editing, and a geotagging function. It's called Pro Photo Tools 1.0.

Features include :

address to latitude/longitude conversion
latitude/longitude to address conversion
loading track routes stored by GPS devices
placing images on track routes based on time stamps, with a visual adjustment tool
integration with Virtual Earth for
-- text based location searches
-- interactive placement of photographs
-- visualization of track routes
-- 2D and 3D map browsing
RAW image support
edit numerous metadata fields

Though you have to wonder why Microsoft can't simply just include this within Vista/Live Photo Gallery. It would be much nicer if Microsoft could just make a nice all-in-one photo editor solution, instead of bits and bits of photo tools. I'm hoping that a combo of Live Photo Gallery, Pro Photo Tools, Photosynth, HD View, Group Shot, and all of Microsoft's other work in digital photo technology can all come into one.

I tried to install Safari two times already, but just can't

Tue, 06 May 2008 02:12:30 GMT

As if it wasn't enough that Apple feels the need to bundle their browser by hiding it within Apple Update for Windows (also putting the check mark on by default), I can't even install Safari as easily if I wanted to. I tried a month ago, and couldn't. I tried today and couldn't. All I got was this stupid message:

Thanks Apple. Now I find that I don't need to try such a stupid browser that can't install right on my computer. Forget it. I was going to actually try Safari, but I still see no compelling reason after coming with this error.

Photosynth appears on CSI: NY

Sun, 04 May 2008 00:40:26 GMT

Photosynth made a great appearance on CSI: NY when it broadcasted 5/1/08 Wednesday night.

In this episode, the team uses Photosynth to help recreate a scene of interest (the main ballroom of the academy's celebration) from the many phones and cameras collected by the CSI team The devices get connected to the computer, the Photosynth software analyzes them and then it's ready to explore.

In the first part, when the team uses Photosynth, they use it to determine who the murder victim was leaving with out the door.

In the 2nd part of the team using Photosynth, they find out another suspect about to leave the ballroom at the time of the murder victim's speech. Both clues have shown to be quite helpful, thanks to Photosynth.

I thought this was pretty neat. Microsoft didn't even have to pay the producers of CSI: NY to get this on. CBS was quite happy to have the latest technology right on their show.

Here's some articles of interest:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2008-04-29-microsoft-csi-product-placement_N.htm

http://labs.live.com/Photosynth+Solves+The+Case.aspx

Live QnA finally gets an update

Fri, 02 May 2008 23:15:55 GMT

I thought Live QnA would be discarded someday, but the team actually game through. They gave the site a whole new look.

The new look is kind of good. Simple, yet pleasantly aesthetic enough. I'm really digging this new UI from Live.

So here's what's new:

New look - of course this is the main thing. The UI is now very much simpler, aesthetic, and just better to work with. Very clean and organized. Though I might have kept the same site layout the same as the previous one with the refreshed look, this one isn't too bad. I just wish more space could be filled instead of being left blank (you see this more on the right column). Though I heard they're going to put advertising later. Overall, I like it.
Emphasis on tags - You can't go pass a page without seeing a tag space box. I love the tagging. I like how they made them look better.
Q&A Pane on every page - Just like tags, there's pretty much a Q&A pane on every page. It's at the top of the page where you can "Ask a Question" or "Answer", and you can just select from there. Pretty handy.
"Comments" section in user profile - Now you can view spots where you added your latest comment. Can be useful if you need to check back.
"Top Reputations" and "Top Scores" section in Superstars - There's now 2 different ways to view how the users in the community rank. Top Reputations shows the users who contribute a lot to QnA, have many stars, and are found very helpful by other users. Top Scores is whoever gets the most points in the monthly/yearly period. It's a way to get the competition going.
Top Contributors - Users who participate a lot, and are also helpful get a "Top Contributor" logo on their user profile picture. Helps identify who's very active and reliable.
RSS - There's more opportunities to get a feed on something, like the question's status, new questions that appear under your favorite tags, a specific user, etc.
Live QnA is now Live Search QnA - In what I thought was pretty dumb, the Live team decided that QnA should fit more closely to the search experience, so it's now Live Search QnA. Just like Live Search Maps that could simply be shortened to Live Maps.

The newer things are great, but I felt QnA missed and dropped a few things with this new update:

No points for just voting - I used to vote a lot because I liked help picking what I thought was the best answer, and at the same time getting a point. Now there's NO points rewarded to people that vote. I find that pretty sad. Giving users the incentive to vote, will allow the community to pick better answers to the top. With no incentive (or points), users will find this as a waste of time and probably find some other way to contribute. You still get 4 points if the answer you pick also got picked by many users as best, but I still want that one point.
Text box - It's still not WYSIWYG like Yahoo! Answers is. You have to double space for blocks of texts to have a space between them. Text box input tools (like bold/italics/underline, bullets, hyperlink, etc.) are still not available, which would be a great help and feature on QnA. There's a spell check button, but that should be included with IE! Overall, QnA should really revamp the text input system to make it rival that of Yahoo! Answers. Mediocre won't do the job anymore.
No friends mini-network - You can't connect with many users personally on the site, like you can with Y! Answers. Having the ability to have a mini-network for friends on QnA would be great. You can find out what you're friends are up to (without needing to find them), and help answer questions they might have. It's a win-win.
No deleting/editing questions and answers - There's still no absolute way you can edit/delete questions and answers if you don't like them. They stay there permanently. You could add comments to suffice, but it's not the same. You can edit the question right before an answer appears, but that's a pretty small time frame. How hard is it to include this function?
No way to block users - Suppose you don't like this pesky user. You should be able to have protection from such things. If you could block really nasty users with a single button click, that would be nice.
Search could be better - It's kinda improved. I just wish there were more ways to filter out results. Like making the open/voting more noticeable and let you search through a timeline or specify how far back you want the results.

Anyways, those are my main dislikes against Live QnA. Overall, the new update is good. If you want to simply get answers to a question from REAL people, Live QnA is a good site for this.

Microsoft Office Lite - Microsoft's solution for a lower-end MS Office?

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:57:52 GMT

People have been begging Microsoft to make a lower-end version of Office, without making it as awful as Microsoft Works.

Maybe soon, Microsoft will offer such a thing.

So what could be expect in Microsoft Office Lite? Well here's what I think:

Ads - Of course, there has to be ads when it's free. I'm guessing maybe a banner ad at the bottom (text ads are too annoying when creating docs). Worst would be one of those ads where you hover over text, and a ad display pops out. Ugh.
Most Office 2003 features, with an Office 07' look - The simplish functionality of Office 2003 (or older), with a more modern twist. Some sort of Ribbon-eque look and maybe some new themes.
Works right in a browser - All you need is a Live ID, and you're info. can work just anywhere there's a browser or Lite program. Full support for IE, Firefox, Opera, and Safari.
Easy synchronization to Live Mesh - One-click saving to Live Mesh to easily share and collaborate with people.
Save in the popular Office formats - No more .wks (spreadsheets), .wdb (database), and .wps (processor). Just plain regular .xlsx, .docx, .pptx., and other OOXML formats for better standards.
Free - Most basic thing of course. Completely free. The only "pro" upgrade is Microsoft Office.
Integration with other Live services - At least some things. Like the Outlook alternative would probably be Windows Live Mail. Live search box in a corner. Simple solutions like that.
Add-ons and extensions - Let them be available.
Lightweight - These are rather simple, so why make it complex?

That's what I basically would hope to see in Office Lite. Any other suggestions?

Live Mesh came out

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 17:51:44 GMT

A bit late, but I'm going to cover Live Mesh. So Live Mesh came out earlier this week. From what I've seen, I would state it as a service where users can easily synchronize their devices, and be able to access most content from these devices.

Nice service, though I'm not particularly interested. Probably because I don't really have a lot of devices worth synchronizing.

Most people have had a positive view on what Microsoft's offering in Live Mesh. Live Mesh isn't just a service, it's a platform. It'll be opened up for a lot of people to work with, and mobile and Mac support is coming soon. I'm not going to bother with screenshots and everything, but I'll hand out some good useful links:

Official Live Mesh site : http://mesh.com/

Basic info. about Live Mesh : http://www.liveside.net/blogs/main/archive/2008/04/23/live-mesh-it-s-everything-we-told-you-about-and-a-lot-more.aspx

First look at Live Mesh : http://www.liveside.net/blogs/main/archive/2008/04/23/live-mesh-technology-preview-first-look.aspx

Find or share Live Mesh invites : http://sharemesh.com/

Mary Jo Foley's list of 10 things she think we oughta know about Live Mesh : http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1355

MSR Video - Sneak preview at Live Mesh, Surface Sphere, Windows Search, and other goodies

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 05:23:37 GMT

A new MSR video got on the web, and it's pretty fascinating to see some of the the things that the video shows.

I like to point out Live Mesh, Surface Sphere, and Windows Search. First, Live Mesh.

In the video, you can see some screenshots of Live Mesh. At 3:54:

@3:56:

Interesting, huh? Then there's the whole Surface sphere. @3:08 :

@3:56 :

@3:57 :

Then there looks like a new Windows Search (WinFX?). @1:35 :

Really interesting, eh? I hope that some of the screenshots will be a dream come true sometime soon. Here were other things I thought worth noting:

Social Networking:

WorldWide Telescope:

Others:

NOTE: The times I posted my not be accurate for this embedded player. The one directly on YouTube has an option to turn on better quality and view in full time. So go ahead, and give it a watch yourself.

I hate CAPTCHA! Bring out reCAPTCHA and ASIRRA

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 20:48:07 GMT

I've always had a strong dislike when a site requires you to enter in a CAPTCHA code to verify you're not a spam bot or something. Why do I not like it?

Mainly because I can't read it sometimes. It's so encrypted that you can't even read it. Then you have to enter in a different CAPTCHA, and then sometimes you have to do it again. It's an amazing waste of time is what it is. Here's an example of one of those stupid CAPTCHA's.

Really, can anyone guess what the code is? I have none. I tried bcqr3 and got it wrong. What a joke. Instead, there's been some newer technologies that do better than this. Such as reCAPTCHA. reCAPTCHA is developed by Carnegie Mellon University as a way to help digitize books, at the same time keeping bots off the sites. The text is much more readable than conventional CAPTCHA's, and has proven to be more safe. It also helps with the book digitization system. Here's a typical reCAPTCHA from Dopplr:

Can you read it? It says now unbeaten. Makes perfect sense now, doesn't it? It also lets you choose another reCAPTCHA just in case you couldn't read this one. There's also an audio option, along with a help button. It's a great solution, and I wish the Live team would go for this system instead of the old way.

There's another way of human verification developed by MSR called ASIRRA. Instead of text, it's images that you have to identify. Like for example on their site, there's 12 pictures, some with cats, some with dogs. You're suppose to hover over all the images, and select them if they're cats. When you select, they get an outline around them. The site claims that systems like reCAPTCHA among others "have a common weakness: they use relatively small image databases". I don't know if this really makes ASPIRRA any safer, but it's just as easy to use. I just wished they would limit the amount of images that comes up (no more than 6 please), and make sure the photos are clear enough to distinguish. Here's a screenshot:

Anything would be better than the usual junky CAPTCHA in the first image.

New Live Search games - Matt Lauer and Picture This

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:15:59 GMT

One game is great and easy to get points, while the other isn't as good and you get very little points.

Matt Lauer is the good one. Even though Matt Lauer, from the Today show, just stands there and doesn't say a word or anything, the games named after him. (personally, I would just call it Live Maps Trivia) So this games utilizes Live Maps and associates geography trivia questions with it. You can pan around the map to help find the answer, or use Live Search (the maps didn't help that much).

You can get up to 20 points for each game. There's usually 4 questions, with 3 multiple choices each. If you get a question wrong, you lose 2,500 points (points in this game aren't associated with Club points). Get it wrong again, and you lose another 2,500 points. (HINT : you can't get automatic Live Search help. You lose points if you press the search icon on the answers).

It's a relatively super fast game, and offers a lot of useful points. Plus users get to try out Live Maps. Here is a screenshot:

Then there's Picture This. It's basically a game to help improve the Live Image Search index. Very similar to Google Image Labeler. They're both similar in that they're both designed to help making the image search experience better. Two users selected at random are suppose to work together to pick the best picture results. Pick the same thing, and you and your partner earn some points. However, they both do it in different ways. On Google Image Labeler (GIL), a picture pops up and you and your partner are suppose to come up with labels or tags that best match with it. Get the same label and you guys receive points.

On Picture This, a search term has been entered and you and your partner pick the BEST picture, from a range of results. Just ONE picture that you think really matched the term. If you and your partner pick the same, you both get some points. Both games last 2 minutes long. Personally, I think GIL is better than Picture This. At least I think it will do better to improve the search results on Google than Live. Because on Picture This, many pictures are generally good at matching the search term, and there are a few bad ones you can report. With GIL, you can help add more tags so that if people search them, they'll find it. That's my opinion.

Anyways, you don't really get a lot of points with Picture This, compared to the other Live Search Club games, but you can send them to charity or use it to earn prizes. GIL is basically Google's way of getting free labor, in exchange for a "game".

Here's some screenshots:

Not too bad. I would improve it though by letting us add tags to these pictures, and we if partners get the same tag, there's more points. And I think the minimum # of points for this game should be 10-15. Not a measly 3.

I just love getting sappy Customer Support e-mails from Microsoft, don't you?

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 05:50:46 GMT

Just kidding. But I mentioned several times about the stupid spam on Live Spaces, so I thought I should do the right thing and report the naughty spammer.

I did, and I exchanged an e-mail from Microsoft, and this is what I got in return:

"Hello Michael,

Thank you for writing to Windows Live Spaces.

As the owner of the Space, you can allow or prohibit visitors to add comments in your blog using the Settings page. Please note that this setting applies to all visitors.

Here are the steps:
1. On your Space, click the Options tab.
2. Select the Space Settings tab.
3. Scroll down to Comments.
4. Do one of the following:
- To allow visitors to add comments to your blog, select the "Allow visitors to post comments on blog entries" check box.
- To disallow visitors to add comments to your blog, clear the "Allow visitors to post comments on blog entries" check box.
5. Click Save.

We would like to assure you that we will be monitoring the person responsible on this incident and we will take appropriate action depending on the result of our investigation.

We appreciate your continued support as we strive to provide you with the highest quality service available. Thank you for using Windows Live Spaces.

Sincerely,

Arlith
Windows Live Spaces Customer Support"

Ok, the letter wasn't awful, but that's it? So Live Spaces is suggesting I have NO comments at all? Wrong. I don't want SPAM on this site. Not comments in general. I love getting comment. NOT SPAM.

He did not that the will be "monitoring the person responsible" but I'm not sure if that's a promise, if their solution before that was simply disabling everything. I'm guessing Live Spaces just really doesn't care about spammers. Kinda sad.

Live Search gets a new look - I don't like it

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 05:42:46 GMT

Seems like Live Search is already getting another new look. I can't say that I like it.

Looks far worse than the nice simple one they have now:

Let me point out why I have a dislike for the new one:

Search box isn't directly in the center - I like my search box right in the center when the page comes up. It feels very organized and balanced there. The new box is slightly angled towards the upper left.
Ugly "Flair" comes back - I didn't really much care for the Flair design, but now it's coming back in a hideous way. It stands randomly on the right side of the page.
Unneeded bars - Notice the blue/green bars on the new page? Absolutely wasteful. We don't need another link telling us to put them as their homepage, where most users would if they had wanted to. And we really don't need another mini-Live advertisement telling us to try their services. At least in the older one, it was more subtle.
Ugly search box - Yikes. It's rather ugly to me. I like the new updated search icon, but it belongs outside the box. Not inside where it crams. The search fields on top need a better looking arrangement.
Waste of space - Any good artwork doesn't waste space. You fill as much as you can with the goods. But the odd positioning of the search box, the Flair sticking out, and the choice of color schemes won't win any design awards for wasting this space with a yucky look.
Very top bar misses links - I liked have quick access to web Live Hotmail, and Spaces. I liked how the Live Orb had quick access, but it's like they got rid of that quickly. Now it's just plain dumb. How about putting the US flag instead of same old boring United States country link.

I don't know if Microsoft will every get better designers to think things carefully and make them at least look nicer to work with. I've drawn my own concepts, though I doubt MS will ever take a look at them. I really hope that's not the final version. The link was available at http://search.live.com/ but they reverted back to the original.

Blog spam X 20

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:12:55 GMT

I received a lot of spam today. Want to guess how much? Well here's a look at "some" of the comment that's unfortunately ended up today:

A lot, isn't it? Exactly why one of my other blog posts (the one about Live Spaces needing better spam/comment control), is absolutely right on the spot. Without a spam/report/block button, or an easy and direct way of deleting comments, things like this happens. Spam pulled all over my Live Spaces, and I have to go in and delete every single one myself. Definitely not something I enjoy.

And this is the exact same guy that does this a lot. Some Chinese dude thinking it's his job (which it probably is for all I know) to post spam on users' blogs and get a profit for clicks. What a loser. So you know what I did? I went to his space and reported him. Here's his profile page. I pressed the report abuse button on the bottom of the page. What I found surprising was the choices of abuses to pick from:

No spam option? I mean is Live Spaces aware of this problem? I know for sure that a good number of users went on my blog and agreed and consented with my article about this problem. Seriously, nudity? Who cares? Spam is a more serious offense here.

Fun isn't it? If you have something to say, please comment.

White House imagery under Birds-eye view is pixelated?

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:58:30 GMT

I didn't notice before, but the birds-eye imagery for the White Houston is VERY pixelated. More birds-eyes views are usually rather crisp and more detailed, but this is quite a surprise:

Have a look yourself.

I'm not surprised, because it's most likely a matter of safety, but it's not as if any helicopter couldn't pass by the White House and take snapshots. Or somebody could gain rooftop access on nearby buildings for snapshots as well.

So pixelating the birds-eye imagery wasn't nice. The aerial photos aren't as good either.

Well I thought you might want to know.

Live Maps for UK is now Multimap - UK users angered

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 23:29:54 GMT

The same day Live Maps/VE gets the new updates, Live Maps UK redirects users to Multimap, a web mapping site acquired by Microsoft. UK users are definitely not happy.

I've taken a look at Multimap before, and I just took a recent look again, and I have to agree - it's horrible! Why so? Well because:

No scroll wheel zoom - something people kind of expect in 2008.
Horrible map UI - It's ugly, more cumbersome than the real Live Maps, and it's something that makes you want to find another site
No collections or 3D - a biggie. You can't make a collection nor can you navigate in 3D. Thanks for throwing us to the dark ages.
Lots of serious lag and slowness - You really notice it
Ugly - Did I already mention that?
Getting to Birds-eye view is hard - You like have to double click if you're too high above. It's kinda complicated, and change orientation view is weird.

So these users would have better luck going to Google Maps for the UK as it seems. I honestly have to agree with these angered users, Live Maps was better than what Multimap offers. Plus Live Maps fits in with the whole Windows Live branding, which I'm quite sure many UK users actually do use.

Though I'll probably never use it, I did notice 3 things I kinda liked.

Useful information box - Like Tube stations, Wikipedia points of interests, petrol stations, parking, etc. If you zoom and pan along a map, and the info. is there, you'll notice the numbers pop alongside the category. Check mark it and view them.
Boxed street and district names in directions - In the direction, street names are emphasized with a box around it, and section districts are in a green box. On Live Maps, names are just bolded. Though boxes would be a nice indicator.
Walking directions - Some people like to walk. It's part of the Virtual Earth update, but Live Maps doesn't have the new walking directions feature.

But I agree, I'd rather have Live Maps and what that has, rather than dealing with Multimap. Some people are astounded that Microsoft has done nothing about it, or made any comments about it. Well they did post something on the Multipage homepage.

The blue link takes you here : http://maps.live.com/?mkt=en-us

I guess you'll have to pretend being an American. :^)

They say they'll have collections and 3D soon, but I'm thinking most users still WANT Live Maps. Not this contraption. It's a step backwards from what Microsoft should be doing. You have to wonder what bonehead decided this. Instead, they should have ported some nice features like the 3 things I noted above (useful info., boxed names in directions, and walking directions) into the superior Live Maps, instead of taking some parts of Live Maps to Multimap.

I hope that for you UK users, that you'll receive the real experience for UK soon. I heard from a commenter that he contacted one of the guys who ran the VE/Live Maps blogs, and that Microsoft is working on fixing this. At least it shows Microsoft cares. Though that's what they should have done in the first place.

(one of the many comments complaining about the switch over to Multimap)

Photo Album: Blog Images

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 03:01:51 GMT

Blog Images

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