Monday, April 24, 2006

A Simple CSS Image preloading technique

So you need to pre-load images, but don't want to deal with javascript or complicated workarounds. What do you do? The solution is simple. All we need to do is designate a CSS style with multiple background-images. As your browser reads the style, it will load each image you designate in succession, thus pre-loading your images. Below is an example of the CSS:

#preloadedImages {
width: 0px;
height: 0px;
display: inline;
background-image: url(path/to/image1.png);
background-image: url(path/to/image2.png);
background-image: url(path/to/image3.png);
background-image: url(path/to/image4.png);
background-image: url();
}

The next step is to load this div in your page. This is accomplished by inserting <div id="preloadedImages"></div> once in the body of the page you are preloading these images. Now you can reference them anywhere on your page (rollovers, alternate image states, etc.), and the image will load instantly from cache.


By http://specere.net/?webtips

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Top Ten Coolest Laptop cases

Wallaaa soo coOoOoOoOooL Cases, mesh la yeeeji el laptop bel2awal :D

Watch this out: http://www.productdose.com/2006/04/04/top-ten-coolest-laptop-cases/

Virtual Screen from Samsung

Really Innovations doesn't stop!!!

Watch this out: http://www.unwiredview.com/2006/04/14/samsung-virtual-screen/

Vista won't show fancy side to pirates

With the new operating system, Microsoft is offering plenty of new graphics tricks, including translucent windows, animated flips between open programs and "live icons" that show a graphical representation of the file in question.

But before Vista will display its showiest side, known as Aero, it will run a check to make sure the software was properly purchased.

"Those who are not running genuine Windows will not be able to take advantage of the Windows Aero user experience," a Microsoft representative told CNET News.com on Wednesday.

The move is the latest salvo in Microsoft's broad attack on those who use unauthorized copies of its operating system. In the fall of 2004, Microsoft began testing the Windows Genuine Advantage program, designed to verify that a particular copy of Windows is legitimate.

At first an optional program, the piracy check eventually became mandatory for many types of Windows XP downloads, but was not required to run any aspect of the operating system itself. Microsoft has identified reducing piracy as a key way for the company to grow its sales of Windows, which is already used on more than 90 percent of personal computers.

Credit: Microsoft

Flip 3D is one of the Aero graphics
features planned for Vista.

But it's not just pirates who will be blocked from Windows' fanciest graphics. The Aero display also won't be available to those who buy Windows Vista Basic, the low-end consumer version of the operating system. And even those with higher-end versions won't be able to see the fancy graphics if they don't have enough memory, lack sufficient graphics horsepower or have a graphics chip that doesn't support a new Vista driver.

Microsoft has not issued the final hardware requirements for Vista itself, which is due to go on sale to consumers in January. However, the company has issued some guidelines for Aero, as part of a draft product guide that was briefly posted on the Internet this week.

What's needed
To run Aero, a system will need to meet some pretty specific and arcane requirements, including memory bandwidth of at least 1,800MB per second, Microsoft said in the document. The product guide said that Vista would include a tool for measuring this, but Microsoft did not offer further details on how consumers with existing PCs will be able to see if their machines meet the standard.

A Microsoft representative said on Thursday that more information for existing users will be available soon. There are diagnostic tools available on the Web, such as SiSoftware's Sandra, that provide memory bandwidth benchmarking information.

Microsoft is also building a performance measuring tool within Vista that will provide a numeric rating of how Vista-capable a system is.

The system will need a graphics chip with a Vista-specific driver, as well as a varying amount of minimum graphics memory, depending on the size of the monitor. A computer with a single display of 1280-by-1024 pixels or less, for example, must have 64MB of graphics memory. For a larger screen, 256MB may be needed, as well as additional memory for secondary displays.

Flying Aero

To get the best out of Vista's graphics, you'll need at least four things, according to tentative Microsoft guidelines.

1. A legitimate copy of one of Vista's higher-end versions: Home Premium, Business, Enterprise or Ultimate

2. A Vista-specific (WDDM) graphics driver

3. A minimum of 1,800MB per second of graphics memory bandwidth

4. Enough graphics memory (amount needed varies based on monitor size)

Source: Tentative guidelines inadvertently posted online by Microsoft this week.

A PC with shared memory--that is, memory that is used both by the main system and by the graphics chip--can also work with Aero. But it needs to have 1GB of dual-channel memory, with at least 512MB of that memory available to the main system.

Microsoft said that the Aero requirements stated in the product guide are not final. The Redmond, Wash.-based company has so far only released guidelines for machines that will display a logo indicating their Vista-readiness.

"A draft version of the Windows Vista Product Guide was posted inadvertently and includes information that is not yet final," the Microsoft representative said in an e-mail. "To date, we have only provided hardware guidelines as part of our Windows Vista Capable PC efforts. The Windows Vista Capable PC Program provides information to customers about PCs they can buy today that will be able to run Windows Vista."

Those Aero requirements are not easily understood by buyers or computer salespeople, said Michael Cherry, an analyst at market research firm Directions on Microsoft. He said, for example, that he has no idea how much memory bandwidth his computer has. "I wouldn't even know how to begin to measure it."

Cherry said that Microsoft still has work to do to translate these requirements into something that is understandable to the average PC user.

"I don't want to be an electrical engineer to figure this out," he said.

Microsoft Readies Storage Service to Rival Google's 'Gdrive'

Microsoft's "Live Drive" will provide users with a virtual hard drive, according to Redmond officials.

The MSN team is working on a new Windows Live service, code-named Live Drive, that will provide users with a virtual hard drive for storing hosted personal data.

Google's Gdrive solution is expected to provide both consumers and business customers with an unlimited amount of online storage for their data. Google has declined to provide further specifics or a timetable for its planned Gdrive rollout.

According to sources, Google is working two other storage-related services: GDS and Lighthouse. All three projects are focused on delivering "infinite storage" and "infinite bandwidth," according to slides Google shared with analysts.

Microsoft, likewise, has shared few specifics about Live Drive. Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Ray Ozzie publicly acknowledged Microsoft's Live Drive plans in an interview with Fortune Magazine published on April 19.

"Microsoft is planning to use its server farms to offer anyone huge amounts of online storage of digital data," according to Fortune. "With Live Drive, all your information—movies, music, tax information, a high-definition videoconference you had with your grandmother, whatever—could be accessible from anywhere, on any device."

Microsoft has been eyeing the hosted storage space for at least two years. In 2004, Microsoft was rumored to be readying a hosted backup-and-restore service for SOHO (small office/home office) and consumer customers.

Sources close to Microsoft described that service as one where Microsoft would back up users' personal files on CD and/or DVD. Users also would be able to back up financial files, legal documents, digital photos, online music and home videos, and even put their most important files into a "digital safe-deposit box," hosted by Microsoft, sources said.

The Microsoft hosted storage service was expected to be available via subscription. It originally was expected to debut in 2005.

There are other places where storage figures into the Microsoft Live equation.

In March, Microsoft officials described the company's plans for making Live a developer platform in its own right.

As part of that strategy, Microsoft is opening up the Live platform to other Microsoft and external third-party developers. At the "core" level, said Brian Arbogast, corporate vice president for the MSN Communications Platform with the MSN and Personal Services Division, Microsoft is making available to developers three sets of Live interfaces: contacts, identity and storage. Microsoft is expecting developers to build on top of these when devising new Windows Live services.

Street Level - MS Virtual Earth

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have you imagine that you can walk in the street through your Computer Screen, Well if this was a dream Microsoft Make it True.. Just imagine that Microsoft Virtual Earth Team announce two months ago the awesome street level technology , Now you can drive your car through the streets see the left, right and the front view as Reality. I was watching Channel 9 and I couldn't believe my eyes that this is true. They captured million of images to make this true and Ajax help the community to do an amazing feature like this. Try it your self dude and say Wooohoooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

http://preview.local.live.com/

Thursday, April 13, 2006

local coupons via RSS

check this out: http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/04/12/local-coupons-at-zixxo/

Microsoft writes a law for Oklahoma giving it the right to inspect your hard drive !!!

What the hell is that :- !! ,

check this out: http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=4963

is that true Microsoft ??!! or this is peace of crap ..

60% of IM users prefer MSN Messenger

quoted: http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2006/4/11/3557

What client do you use for instant messaging? According to a recent study by comScore Networks, there's a decent chance that it's MSN Messenger, which lassoed in 61 percent of worldwide instant messaging (IM) market share.

Besides determining the leading IM client, the survey also returned a hodgepodge of other interesting results. For instance, Europe has more people (82 million) using IM than the United States (69 million) does, which amounts to 49 percent and 37 percent of web users in the respective locations. In the United States, MSN Messenger usage is about even with AOL Instant Messenger usage while Yahoo's IM client only trails by a few notches. One other interesting point mentioned in the survey: 14 percent of all instant messengers use Skype, but that only amounts to 3 percent of IM users in the United States.

comScore based its survey on roughly 2 million consumers who gave the company permission to track their online habits. Companies which use comScore's services consist of AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Verizon, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Tribune Interactive, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestlé, MBNA, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, and Merck and Orbitz

Helath problems related to the geek lifestyle :)

i duno if this is a right place to post this article but it may be useful for some of us ;)

Check this out: http://www.carotids.com/lifestyle/health-problems-related-to-the-geek-lifestyle/

are they facts guys or just peace of philosophy?!! .. My self yes i feel some headache in the mid of night but am sure that geeks has faster response than any one could imagine + they think logically in their life-line, but what am sure is when they will get divorced all what they will do is to call the garbage collection as to redim another girl again :D, just joking.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

The next generation of Microsoft application building and Web authoring tools

check this out: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA101205221033.aspx

"What happened to FrontPage?

After nine years of being an award-winning Web authoring tool, FrontPage will be discontinued in late 2006. We will continue to serve the diverse needs of our existing FrontPage customers with the introduction of these three brand-new application building and Web authoring tools using the latest technologies, Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Designer 2007 for the enterprise information workers, Microsoft® Expression™ Web Designer for the professional Web designer and Microsoft® Visual Studio 2005 for the Web developer.""

Microsoft have announced the file formats for Office 2007

Microsoft have announced the file formats for Office 2007, the next version of Microsoft Office which is due to be released in early 2007. The most notable change is the obvious visual change in file names. No longer based around 3 characters (e.g. .doc), they are now 4 letters long.

Word = .docx
Excel = .xlsx
Powerpoint = .pptx

The naming change reflects the new xml technology being used by the files. We can but help think it reflects a desperate need to show that things have changed with Office 2007. But we're probably wrong.

The files will allow backwards compatibility with older versions of Office. Office will also support natively a save as PDF feature, and saving files as XPS. XPS is a file format that allows for advanced digital rights. The Office 2007 is still be trialed in beta, which you can get online.

Google v. Microsoft: New Search Interfaces

Posted by Michael Arrington http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/03/28/google-v-microsoft-new-search-interfaces/

Google and Microsoft both have new search interfaces in beta.

Google is testing a new “green bars” interface to the left of search results, allowing easy linking to search results for the web, images, groups, froogle and local. The green bar is an indication of what appears to be a result count.

Microsoft, through Live.com, is beta testing a new search interface that includes RSS feeds for each search, a much different image search (lots of results thumbnailed) and an “infinite scroll bar” that continues to refresh as you scroll down through results.

Live.com is usable by anyone who visits the site; the new Google search is available only to random users. However, Google Blogoscoped (as well as Digg and Download Squad) have instructions that show how anyone can see the new Google results. Based on this, I’ve had a chance to test Google’s new search interface as well.

In my opinion, both are lacking but for very different reasons. After testing each, Google’s new interface doesn’t seem to actually do much of anything, and Live.com, while inspired, is very poor in actual performance, mostly speed.

Google first. The quick links have been moved from the top of search to the left sidebar. The green bars do communicate total results information, but that’s it. For the majority of searches, the number of results is not important to deciding whether or not to click on the link. All in all, this is a feature that didn’t need to be released outside of internal testing before being scrapped or quietly incorporated. Furthermore, it makes no sense that Google would not incorporate blog search results into the sidebar along with froogle, images, news, etc.

Live.com is a different matter. The image search is excellent in that a very large number of results appear on the screen at one time. There are also more search results than on MSN search, and each search has a RSS feeds that can be added to your Live.com home page with a single click. Finally, the infinite scroll bar is a great way to save clicks to further results pages for deeper searches. But, Live.com has unacceptably slow loading times for searches, and the infinite scroll bar is extremely slow as well. So slow it is effectively unusable.

All in all, Live.com’s effort is much more creative and head turning than what Google seems to be testing. Others might argue, of course, that Google’s clean interface has served them (and us) very well over the years and needs little, if any, tweaks at this time. As Live.com becomes more responsive and faster, it will be interesting to see if people drift away from Google Search and over to Live.com. Either way, Microsoft finds itself in a difficult position - Google controls over 40% of the U.S. search market v. about 15% for Microsoft.

MS Virtual Server 2005 R2 for free!!

Microsoft is providing MS Virtual Server 2005 R2 for free, if you have never used Virtual Server now i think you should do, just imagine how could you play with your windows screen online using Microsoft Virtual Machine Activex Control nevertheless create your own machines and customize them as your demand. When we lack to use Virtual Server is in testing issues even i development and linking different servers together on the same local machine. My first experience with virtual machines were in Mac and it impressive to run different os during the runtime of another os but now with Microsoft Virtual Server you have reliable product that support more than 600 different OS. Wooho!

Link: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/default.mspx

WPF/E

"So what is WPF/E? It is a cross-platform, cross-browser web technology that supports a subset of WPF XAML. WPF/E also has a friction-free install model and the download size we’re targeting is very small. WPF/E supports programmability through javascript for tight browser integration. The WPF/E package also contains a small, cross platform subset of the CLR and .NET Framework that can run C# or VB.NET code. Yes, we are bringing C# programming to the Mac."

The big news in Mix 2006 that this feature will be shipped in summer and it will release in the first half of 2007 to allows web designers to write an amazing UI using XAML. i can't wait till it's over guys!

Those are some samples taken from Mikes' Harsh Blog:

Clock: http://static.flickr.com/35/116850753_ddda342668_m.jpg

WPF/E pan and zoom: http://static.flickr.com/37/116850754_f9628b295d_m.jpg

source article link: http://blogs.msdn.com/mharsh/archive/2006/03/23/559106.aspx