Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Windows Live Writer

This post is a test of the Live Writer software, from Microsoft.  I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with it.  I was curious to see if it would pull my Blogger information, and sure enough, it did with no problems.  It pulled my stylesheet in, allowing me to create a post with the full look and feel, which is quite nice.  I haven't played with most of the other features, but overall I have to say this is a pretty solid product.  Only time will tell, however, if I go for this when I want to post, rather than just going to the the site.

UPATE:  One thing that is missing, inline spell checking - where are my little red squiggly lines under misspelled words?  Microsoft should really have including that feature - but I guess Live Writer is still a beta...

Friday, August 11, 2006

Bill Gates - My Hero

A lot of people have a lot of very strong feelings about Bill Gates. Some love him, some hate him. I've always respected his ability to create the most powerful software company in the world. From very humble beginning to an unquestionable powerhouse, the Microsoft story is pretty amazing.

Then of course there is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has done undeniable good in the various fights it has taken on. Now, according to the Toronto Star, the foundation is donating $500 Million Dollars to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. That is an unimaginable amount of money that hopefully will really make a difference in combating these diseases.

For becoming the wealthiest man in the world, and then using that money for good - Bill Gates is a hero to me.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Perfect Storm?

Among the normal spew of semi-interesting, often outlandish, and sometimes just silly posts that are normally on Digg, I found this one this morning. A slightly scary, very cool satellite image of 3 different typhoons forming in the Pacific ocean around Japan. I don't know if this happens often, but it reminded me of the plot of Perfect Storm. According to the article, this isn't an unheard of situation, and the three storms aren't moving toward each other, but still if I was living on the southern coast of Japan, I'd be a little concerned!

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

IFBIN

Learning Flex or Flash can be a bit frustrating - especially if you are coming from a different world, like say ColdFusion or ASP. A great resource IFBIN.COM, has just changed its model and is now a free open source tool! With 100's of very specific tutorials this tool is a real life saver for anyone who needs to pick Flex or Flash in a hurry. Check it out! :-)

80s ISUZU GEMINI

All I can say is WOW! This footage seems to be real, and not computer generated - if so, it is the best car stunts that I've ever seen. I don't remember the car - not sure if it was ever sold in America, but it looks to be your basic crappy entry level vehicle, which makes the shunts even more impressive.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Flex 2

In the little free time I have right now, I've been playing with Flex 2. Wow. Adobe really brought together a product that is light years ahead of the first version. The amount of tutorials, example applications and blog based information let loose by the company is quite impressive as well.

In the end, this is exactly what I would expect from Macromedia, it's nice to see that Adobe hasn't changed the culture, but in fact, seems to have enhanced it! Great job guys!