After a month

After a month of not posting, the new site is almost ready. It’s been a hectic month for me, starting a new job and traveling almost everyday. But the new site is almost ready, I have the hosting, the domain and the layout pretty much done. I just need to migrate all of my stuff over and I’ll have a standalone WP blog. Check back in a few weeks for an update.

techswell.com

Review: Windows Live Writer 2009– Blog Publishing Tool

Microsoft has had a slew of new online services developed and overhauled over the past few years under the Windows Live branding. Windows Live Writer is one of them. It is a native Windows application that allows you to create and work on blog posts without ever opening a browser window. The best part is, it’s fully featured and looks more like a word processor than any other blog services’ online writing tools. It features many of the things you would expect from Microsoft Word, without the bloat, which IMO is great. Now that you know what exactly it is, let’s take a look at what it can do.

Initial Setup

Initial setup was very easy. You can download the file from the Microsoft servers here: Click to Download.

Once you download Windows Live Writer, install it on your computer and then open up the program, you are shown a setup screen. Follow the prompts and go forward, select your blogging service (whether it be Windows Live Spaces, SharePoint, WordPress, Blogger or some other service) and enter the web address of your blog as well as your username and password. After doing this, you will be asked if you wish to download your blog’s theme. I suggest that you download it so you can see exactly what your blog posts will look like on your blog before posting them. You are now setup and ready to start creating.

Main Interface

The main interface is very well crafted and looks akin to Microsoft Word 2003. The main thing I like about it, is that it is not cluttered at all, the workflow is very simple but don’t take my word for it, see a picture for yourself.

Those who are already familiar with a word processor will be right at home in the new application. The main focus is on writing a post so there are no distractions and no websites to drag your attention away (I’m horrible for this).

Features

This program is like a stripped down version of Word, but don’t let that fool you, it’s fully featured.

1. Add Hyperlinks, Pictures, Photo Albums, Tables, Maps, Tags, Videos and more.
2. Support for plug-ins. (This is fantastic except that the website only shows 3 available plug-ins at the moment. Fret not though, you can find other Live Writer plug-ins via the internet. One such list that you should check out is one at TechnoBuzz.net outlining 16 Live Writer plug-ins that you can’t live without. Check that out here.)
3. Set categories for posts, add tags, and choose a publish date.
4. Check spelling before posting and view word counts on the fly from your toolbar.
5. Manage multiple blog accounts from the same interface.
6. Integration with other Windows Live Services such as Spaces and Photo Gallery.
7. Publish videos from your hard drive directly to YouTube and Soapbox via the Live Writer interface.
8. Blogging from your browser with IE 8, including publishing of Snippets.
9. Manage advanced features before posting such as: Comments, Pings, Authors, Slugs, Password protection, Excerpts, and Trackbacks for multiple URLs.

Functionality

There are a few things you should consider changing in the ‘Options’ dialog underneath Tools.

1. Preferences> Open a new window only when there are unsaved changes to the current post.  Enable.

2. Preferences> Remind me to add categories before publishing, Remind me to add tags before publishing. Enable.

3. Editing> Automatically save drafts every 3 minutes. Enable.

4. Editing> Show real time word count in the status bar. Enable.

5. Spelling> Use real-time spell checking (squiggles). Disable.  (Reason: It’s distracting).

6. Spelling> Check spelling before publishing. Enable.

Overall

This is a writing software that will appease any blog writer. With it’s stripped down interface, it’s meant for getting work done, something that you may find hard to do within a web browser window. There is literally zero learning curve unless you’ve never touched a word processor before, but if you’re writing a blog, I doubt that is the case. I literally picked it up and used it to make this post and making lists, linking to web items and inserting pictures was never this easy on the WordPress Dashboard. I’d suggest that everybody that maintains a blog either casually or as a profession at least give this software from Microsoft a chance, I know I’ve been hard on them in the past, but this is a real gem. The only thing that I would like to see is advanced features that have the ability to be (de)/activated and integration with more web services other than Windows Live.

Rating: 4/5 stars.  

Video of Windows 7 RC shows uninteresting features…surprise?

In a video released by Microsoft, the newest features of Windows 7 are reviewed by a fellow with a rather dull and monotone voice. That aside, the video mostly outlines some minor feature improvements to the taskbar, an uninteresting spotlight on the new “Open with” command for opening files with various programs on the taskbar, as well as a mention of the dreaded XP Mode that I outlined (see my post on XP Mode here), some completely stupid and unneccesary changes to the way that the power management tool works, as well as some improvements to Windows Themes.

Something is wrong when the most interesting feature I’ve found in Windows 7 so far is customizable and downloadable themes and side by side window viewing via dragging a window to the side of the screen to put it to 50% of the screen size.

Microsoft, SHOW ME THE MONEY. Show me core improvements on the basic functioning on the OS, not some menial improvements to eye candy.  Give me stability and ease of use with advanced functionality, give me excellent base applications, give me everything Vista wasn’t. Make OS maintenance as easy as a few clicks a week (including constant defragmentation, registry repair, program updating, Security Updates and Virus/Spyware scanning) I really WANT to like Windows 7, but I’m finding it rather hard. Give me XP or give me death. Whatever you do, just make it WORK, that is what it comes down to. I don’t want to see another BSOD on live television or at an unveiling. That must’ve been embaressing, not once but numerous times.

You can find a list of the newest features on the Microsoft Windows 7 site here or you can watch the Youtube video below.

Let me know in the comments how impressed or non-impressed you are.

Tux saves dying PC

I found a video from the Linux Foundation promoting Linux, this is the first time I’ve really talked about Linux on the blog and I figured it would be a good time to start and a good time to show a funky video since I’m tied up in real world things today and won’t have time to post. It’s in French ( I assume) but you can still understand whats going on just by watching. Enjoy! GO TUX!

Apple Strikes AGAIN

So there is a new Apple Web ad being displayed on certain webpages across the internet. Again with Hodgman and the PC guy. You can check it out below in this Youtube video.