How to Fix the Blogger Comment System
I'll be honest - I really like Blogger. Despite the fact that nearly every co-blogger I know has urged me to give Wordpress a try, I'm still (mostly) satisfied with what I've got. I serve static pages and other content myself, and let Google worry about hosting the blogs that account for over 90% of my total traffic. However, there is one thing, in my opinion, that is unforgivably lacking in Blogger: the comment system.
The comment system is so abysmal that I'm literally on the verge of creating my own message board that I can simply embed in an iframe. If I weren't so packed for time lately, you could consider it done. However, before I launch another harder-than-I-thought-at-first project, let me share with you the features that I believe, for the most part, any blogging platform should afford.
So here they are, in no particular order:
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Unique Styling for Author Comments
This one seems obvious to me. Every other message board on the planet does this, yet Blogger currently offers no CSS accessible way to distinguish an author comment from a user comment. I've previously discussed a
hackmethod using JavaScript to accomplish author comment styling, but it's ridiculously more painful than it should be. -
Threaded Comments
This one's pretty straight forward - users should have the option of replying to a particular comment, rather than being forced into a flat discussion. Tree style comment threads allow for individual conversations to be self contained.
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Collapsible Threads
This feature is obviously dependent on the previous one. But assuming threaded comments were implemented, I would expect the ability to collapse a thread that I was not interested in. Think Digg...
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Get Rid of that Separate Comment Page!
Why oh why am I taken to another page just to leave a comment? Can there possibly be a good explanation for this?
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Language/Profanity Filters
Ya, some of us are still old fashioned like that. This would be especially appreciated in family and faith oriented blogs.
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WYSIWYG Editor
Personally, I hate them - but the fact is, WYSIWYG editors are now a consumer expectation. Given the crowd that tends to follow my articles, this blog would probably benefit a lot less from this than a less code-savvy user base.
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Private Comments to Authors
I'll admit that from here on out I'm probably going above and beyond what I'd consider "minimum requirements." However, being able to send private comments to the author would be a handy feature. For one, it would be a safe and convenient way to share personal contact information.
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Spell Check
Since I use Firefox, I simply use the built in spell checker, but this would be helpful for visitors using other browsers. This is another example of something Digg did right...
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Arbitrary Thread Locks
The author of a blog should be able to enable or disable comments on a post-by-post basis. This disable feature should have the option to actually hide all the comments, or simply disallow additional comments.
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Statistics
This is probably the least crucial of all my wants, but it would be nice to see some overall statistics (e.g., average comments per post, post with most comments, etc...).
Well that's it for my list. Please feel free to add any additional ideas in the comments!
Source: blog.jeremymartin.name
Posted By: IndoSourceCode
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Is it game over for Windows Vista?
The saviour that was meant to be, Vista Service Pack 1, isn’t. In some cases it’s actually a performance decrease for an operating system already grinding up-to-date PCs to a halt.
XP fans (for the most part) are happily using Service Pack 3, and Windows 7 (formerly known as Blackcomb) is barking at the gates (or should that be Gates?), ready for an early release in Q3 2009. Windows Vista never stood a chance.
Not much has gone right for Microsoft’s fledgling OS. First it was delayed over three years (initially it was meant to be a stopgap between XP and 7, but then turned into a fully fledged OS), then stories of incompatible software and drivers surfaced. Most recently Vista Service Pack 1 was pulled from Automatic Download. Now that it’s back up and running it could very well be the one and only service pack ever released for the struggling OS.
Microsoft has shot itself in the foot in two ways with regards to Vista. Firstly, it went ahead with the release of Service Pack 3 for the hugely popular Windows XP. Secondly, its progress on Windows 7 and its potential release ahead of schedule has been extensively covered by the media. What this means is that consumers who were reluctant to switch from a perfectly reliable XP SP2 to Vista now have no reason to. They have a fresh upgrade in SP3 that should be able to see them through the roughly 1.5 years until Windows 7 hits shelves.
No matter what kind of reluctant computer user you are, swapping to Vista just doesn’t make sense anymore. There are a few different perspectives you can look at it from. It’s hard to come up with reasons for broad groups of computer users, like gamers, business users and home users to migrate to Vista as well.
Gamers especially should be running for the hills whenever they hear the word Vista. Yes, it’s the only way you can get DirectX 10, but is that really a big enough carrot to dangle in front of gamers? Not by a long shot. While DirectX 10 delivers a significant improvement in graphics, Vista provides a significant drop off in performance, even with SP1. In fact, it’s been proven that installing SP1 could actually make your PC slower. What’s more, over a year after Vista was released, there still isn’t a compelling enough library of games that make good enough use of DirectX 10 to justify the upgrade (around 20 only if Wikipedia is to be believed). It’s no wonder gaming PC manufacturers like Alienware and NRG by Altech have only just switched over to supplying their machines with Vista.
Business users are in the same boat. Most important to them is reliability and security. But Vista isn’t any better than XP in either reliability or security. Most of the security issues with XP were fixed with SP2 and even more have been fixed with SP3. Any additional problems are more than likely to have been dealt with by third party tools and applications. Reliability is a non-contest. XP has a five-year head start. Add to this the fact that the reason SP1 was pulled from Automatic Download was an issue with Microsoft’s Dynamic RMS software used by small to medium businesses and the Vista doesn’t seem all that welcoming.
Furthermore, business users are well aware of the fact that there are still plenty of drivers and software that won’t play nice with the OS, a particular problem for small businesses requiring obscure software. Financially, it wouldn’t be a smart idea for them either. The cost of upgrading an entire company to Windows Vista can’t be justified if another operating system is just around the corner.
Even general home users have no reason to upgrade. This is the group that doesn’t mind using technology that’s not at the forefront. They use PCs for email, music, the Internet and minesweeper. Upgrading from XP to Vista will likely turn a working PC into a sloth if users have less than 2GB of memory, and it can become quite costly if they need to upgrade their PC’s specs to handle the transition on top of purchasing the OS.
Source: loader.gadgetzone.com.au
Posted By: IndoSourceCode
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Nokia Already Shipping the N78
The newest addition to Nokia's Nseries family of high-end mobile phones, namely the N78, is available now in Finland and Nokia will probably announce its launch for the rest of Europe in the next few days/weeks.
The Finnish online retailer Verkkokauppa has started selling the N78 as of yesterday (May 23), for the retail price of 448.90 Euros, meaning a bit over 700 USD. This means 100 Euros more than the price initially announced by Nokia (350 Euros) and we hope that, after the handset is officially released, it won't be that expensive. Not that it's a phone that should come as affordable, but $700 is just too much.
Anyway, back to the availability of the N78, its release in Finland first is somehow logical, since we're talking about Nokia's home country. In case you want to check out the phone's selling page from Verkkokauppa, you can access it here (in Finnish) or here (in English, translated from the original page).
Part of the new Nseries line-up for 2008, together with the N96 flagship, Nokia N78 was first unveiled at the beginning of February. Like all the Nseries phones, the N78 brings a wide range of features. Users will get Symbian S60 3.2 OS, quad-band GSM and dual-band HSDPA connectivity, a high-quality 2.4 inch TFT display with 240 x 320 pixels and 16 million colors, Wi-Fi, GPS, Nokia Maps, advanced Web capabilities, email and Instant Messaging, Media player with lots of formats supported, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, a 3.5mm audio jack, FM radio, FM transmitter, document viewer and a 3.2 Megapixel Carl Zeiss camera with auto focus, geotagging, flash and video recording.
At 113 x 49 x 15 millimeters and 101.8 grams, Nokia N78 is not among the slimmest phones on the market, but the Nseries devices are not meant to be slim anyway, they're meant to be powerful.
While the N78 should be available across Europe in a very short time, North America will probably have to wait a bit more for it. Well, the important thing is that the handset will surely go there too.
Source: news.softpedia.com
Posted By: IndoSourceCode
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Click Web Framework 1.5 M1 released
Click 1.5 milestone 1 is available for download. This release introduces the concept of a container for building hierarchical components. The core has been refactored into pluggable services which enables support for Freemarker as an alternative template engine to Velocity. Lastly the mock package has been extended to enable unit as well as funtional testing.
A big thank you to all who made this release possible.
Important links:
Click is a stateless, page and component oriented Java web framework. It is built around concrete use cases instead of buzzwords and complex abstractions.
Pages and components are developed in Java while layouts are specified in Velocity, Freemarker or JSP. Components know how draw themselves so developers don't have to maintain redundant markup. The following introduction will provide a quick overview of how Click works and if it suits your style of programming.
New Examples:
- Custom Form Layout using Containers
- Virtual Keyboard field
- Country Select field
- JSP - Edit Customer
- JSP - Navigation
New documentation:
Issues resolved:
- Improved performance by rendering from a single non-blocking buffer. For some actual numbers see my answer to the first question here.
- Added a Country Select control based on the JDK's own built in Country/Locale support.
- Added a Virtual Keyboard control using GreyWyvern JavaScript library.
- Added support for setting Form action URL attribute. This issue was raised by Erdem Gunay [319].
- Added support for Page HTML imports with a new getHtmlImports() method. This enables Pages to programatically define HTML imports which will be included in a border template using the PageImports object. This issue was raised by David Frizelle [329].
- Add Page setTemplate(String) method to enable dynamic changing of a page border template. This issue was raised by Huy Do [353].
- Updated Page.setPath to handle JSP resources. This issue was raised and fixed by Huy Do. [141].
- Added support for Hibernate AnnocationConfiguration. This issue was fixed by Jean-Francois. [355].
- Improved FileUpload support. This issue was raised by Ricardo Lecheta [326].
- Improve File Upload support with new FileUploadService class. [326].
- Fixed Cayenne PropertySelect which is not reset to original value. This is was raised by Tore Halset [317].
- Fixed Cayenne 3.0M3 DataObjectUtils issue in CayenneForm when using JDK 1.5. Added CayenneUtils helper class [342].
Enjoy Click.
Source: java.dzone.com
Posted By: IndoSourceCode
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30 Websites to follow if you’re into Web Development
I’ve made it a goal to learn at least one useful thing each day so that I can stay sharp and well-versed on the topic of web development and design. To that end, here’s some of the websites I keep track of to find new techniques, resources, and news about building websites.
Most of these sites are updated frequently, so there’s never a lack of new content that fills up my Google Reader.
Because the role of the web developer is ever-expanding, I’ve also included a variety of sites that covers fields relating to web development - such information architecture, user interaction, and web/graphics design.
1. NETTUTS
NETTUTS is a recently launched blog/tutorial site that provides "spoonfed web skills". There are already plenty of useful and detailed tutorials that range from offloading static content to Amazon S3 to creating a beautiful tabbed content area using jQuery. NETTUTS is perfect for developers just starting out, since the tutorials are very thorough and in a "step by step" format. For more advanced developers, it’s an excellent source of inspiration and learning new techniques.
2. woork
Woork is a blog by Antonio Lupetti, a developer from Italy. He provides short, easily-consumable tutorials on various topics of web development such as PHP, Cold Fusion, JavaScript, and CSS. His knack for creating beautiful tutorials, chock full of custom-made images that illustrates the concepts he talks about is a testament to the detail and "work" that Antonio puts in each of his posts. Check out his awesome tutorial on a "Top-Down approach to simplify your CSS code" where he explains his preference on creating and formatting stylesheets.
3. Web Designer Wall
Web Designer Wall is a blog by Nick La that features design ideas and elaborate, stunning tutorials such as creating a CSS gradient Text Effect - a technique that uses an image overlay over normal XHTML text, and jQuery tutorials for designers which showcases ten techniques to get you started with jQuery.
4. Smashing Magazine
I won’t say much about Smashing Magazine since most of us have probably heard of it, but if you haven’t, Smashing Magazine is an excellent resource for web designers and developers looking to be inspired. Smashing Magazine also manages to publish almost everyday, despite their very detailed and thorough posts.
5. Vitamin
Vitamin offers a large amount of information on the topic of web development and design. With many contributors, Vitamin manages to cover a wide range of topics including Ajax, CSS, development techniques, best practices, and workflow management.
6. Wake Up Later
Wake Up Later is the blog of Samuel Ryan, a freelance web developer/designer. Rather than covering specific web development techniques or providing tutorials, he talks about general web development related things such as reasons not to write your own code, tips on improving productivity, and common design mistakes made by developers.
7. Snook.ca
Snook.ca is run by Jonathan Snook, an icon in web development and design. His blog provides tutorials and articles about PHP, JavaScript, and more recently (the blog dates back to 2001), Adobe AIR. He also provides useful resources and bookmarks that are worth a read, and talks about things that are part of being a web developer such as project management via email and maintaining your personal brand online.
8. Signal vs. Noise
Signal vs. Noise is a design/usability company blog by the people over at 37 Signals - known for developing remarkable web applications such as BaseCamp and their involvement in the popular open source web application framework, Ruby On Rails. The blog gives insights about being a productive and effective web application developer and keeping things simple, with entries such as "Workaholics fixate on inconsequential details" and "Sleep deprivation is not a badge of honor".
9. adaptive path blog
adaptive path’s company blog offers news and posts on the topic of user interface design. There’s a variety of useful posts that cover the topic of creating user-friendly designs (not limited to just web applications). Some things the adaptive path crew writes about are "Tips for presenting the look & feel to a client" and "The Lure of the Single Click".
10. Tutorial Blog
Tutorial Blog provides handy tutorials, resources, and lists on various web development and design topics such as code snipplets for web designers, using layer comps in Photoshop to manage designs, and Flash tutorials. Tutorial Blog has a section on user-submitted tutorials which allows readers to share their own tutorials.
11. WebAppers
WebAppers is a blog created by Ray Cheung, a freelance web developer. The premise of WebAppers is to provide news and resources related to open source and free applications that are useful to web developers and designers. From cost-free fonts and icons to navigation menus and image galleries, WebAppers seeks to hunt down useful tools and applications aimed at reducing your time developing custom solutions.
12. Web Resources Depot
Web Resources Depot is similar to WebAppers - it discusses new web resources that web developers and designers may find helpful. Web Resources Depot is an excellent way to stay up to date with what’s currently available out there all in one place.
13. Ajaxian
With continual advancements in Ajax, it’s imperative to keep up to date with modern techniques and news. Ajaxian is the leading Ajax community run by some of the biggest names in the field. You’ll find information, reviews on JavaScript frameworks, helpful tools, and server-side technology specific (like PHP, RoR, and .NET) articles. If Ajax news and information is what you’re looking for, you can be sure to hear about it from Ajaxian.
14.DZone
DZone is a social news site for developers. Users share links related to development and can vote on submissions (very much like Digg but limited to developer links). You can subscribe via RSS to various pages and sections such JavaScript, Flash/Flex, or databases if you want to get instant updates to things specific to your interests.
15. Design Float
Design Float is social media site created for web and graphics designers. Like Dzone, people get to vote up submissions. You’ll find stuff about CSS, HTML, and Photoshop submitted to Design Float.
16. IBM’s developerWorks
With the name camel-cased, you already know off-the-bat that it’s a great site for developers. developerWorks offers many articles and tutorials pertaining to development topics, not just about web development, but also on related fields such as systems administration and open source technologies and applications. developerWorks has a knack for writing about complex topics and boiling it down to consumable, understandable articles. Some of my bookmarks include "Debug and tune applications on the fly with Firebug" (an introduction to Firebug) and the "Make PHP apps fast, faster, fastest" series.
17. del.icio.us
del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site where members can post bookmarks to keep and share. It’s not strictly for web developers but you can monitoring specific tags such as webdev, development, or javascript.
18. Sharebrain
Sharebrain is site that shares useful resources for web workers. You can find resources and tutorials on various web development and design topics such as Photoshop tutorials, Usability, SEO Tools, CMS’s, and interviews.
19. Style Grind
Style Grind shares useful news and information about web technologies and designs. Resources and news reported by Style Grind include a variety of web development and design topics such as updates on Erik Meyer’s CSS Reset and new plugins for jQuery.
20. PSDTUTS
Your value as a web developer increases when you’re proficient in design as well. Some examples would be Wordpress theme developers who not only know how to develop themes, but can also design them. PSDTUTS is a great place to improve on Photoshop skills and is a site I follow to learn more about graphics/web design.
21. Design Reviver
Design Reviver is aimed at providing useful information for web designers. You can visit to read tutorials such getting started with 3D in Flash, to get free downloads like Photoshop brushes, and to find design inspiration.
22. Blog.SpoonGraphics
Blog.SpoonGraphics is a blog about graphics and web design created by Chris Spooner, a graphics and web designer. You can find many tutorials on Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, free, downloadable resources like “Sliding Door” tab menus, articles for inspiration, and news.
23. John Resig
John Resig is the self-titled blog of John Resig - a premier JavaScript developer and author most known for his creation of jQuery, a popular JavaScript framework. John Resig’s blog shares his thoughts about JavaScript development and web applications. It’s where I found out about the release of his new project: Processing.js (a JavaScript port of the Processing programming language) and where he voiced his thoughts on Google Doctype.
24. Boxes and Arrows
Boxes and Arrows is all about best practices, innovations, and trends in the topic of design - including information architecture, graphics design, and user interaction design. You can read about findability (how people look for information), counter-arguments of front-loading information above the fold, and web accessibility.
25. PHPDeveloper
PHPDeveloper brings together news and resources about PHP from blogs and sites that cover PHP. You’ll find reports varying from PHP video tutorials to interesting developments over at Zend.
26. Coding Horror
Coding Horror is a very popular blog (over 100,000 RSS subscribers!) by Jeff Atwood, a software developer. He talks about web development too, posing questions such as Is HTML a Humane Markup Language?, discussing Amazon S3’s viability to host images, and sharing information on versioning databases.
27. O’Reilly Network
The O’Reilly Network by O’Reilly Media (publisher of development books) features articles and blogs pertaining to web development and open technologies. Some recent articles include Creating Applications with Amazon EC2 and S3 and Getting Started with the Google App Engine. Some blogs that are part of the O’Reilly Network include WindowsDevCenter.com (for Windows Developers), ONJava.com (topics cover the Java language) and ONLamp.com (which talks about Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP).
28. Google doctype
Google Doctype is Google’s new project that will include entries "by web developers for web developers". Currently, it doesn’t have very many articles, but it’s certainly a resource to follow in the upcoming months.
29. Web Monkey
Web Monkey - the web developer’s resource is back! Though they’re just getting back to the swing of things, it’s definitely a website to keep track of.
30. Digital Web Magazine
Digital Web Magazine is the online magazine for web professionals (web designers, developers, information architects). You can find many things included here such PHP, Web Standards, and Programming.
Other notable sites to check out
- 24 ways - an annual collection of 24 development and design articles by some of the leading website builders.
- Noupe - Provides news and resources on web design and development.
- Vandelay Design - a blog on web design and development by Steven Snell, who contributed to Six Revisions last month.
- CSS Globe - Community-driven website on web standards.
If you’re looking for your favorite site and it’s not included here, check out something I wrote few months back called "20 Websites That Made Me A Better Web Developer" which talks about popular sites like A List Apart and 456 Berea Steet.
Because of the sheer quantity of great websites out there, I simply can’t talk about and share all of them (I wish I could), so I encourage you to share your own favorites in the comments section with the name, link, and a short description. In about a week, I’ll update this post with your suggestions. Thanks!
Source: sixrevisions.com
Posted By: IndoSourceCode
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Life after Aero, Microsoft Cooking Improved User Interface for Windows 7
It might not sound like all that much, but it is a definite confirmation that there is life after Windows Aero. And as far as the scarce details on Windows 7 go, any palpable piece of information goes a long way.
Microsoft is cooking an improved graphical user interface for the next iteration of the Windows client. Windows Division's Core User Experience team is hard at work taking both the user interface and user experience of Windows 7 to the next level.
"The Core User Experience team focuses on experiences that include interaction with the desktop, the taskbar, the start menu, switching between applications, control panels, gadgets, media experiences, etc. Essentially our charter is improving that "core user experience" that millions of users navigate daily so that the next version of Windows is not just improved, but a 'must have!'", Microsoft revealed.
As a mark of the evolution of Windows Vista in comparison to Windows XP, a new display driver model was introduced with the latest Windows release. The vast majority of Vista end users might not be aware of this but they use the new display driver model on a daily basis, because it is at the foundation of Windows Aero.
So far Microsoft has failed to reveal in which manner it will move Vista's visual interface technology further in Windows 7. In fact there is no telling how the architecture in the next version of the operating system will end up at this point in time.
"In addition to a big focus on user experience and customer feedback, we’re a highly technical organization that is focused on developing automated testing collateral. To that end, we’re big into testability (separate the UI layer so you can automate without the UI!) but also passionate about making sure we have the right experiences – something much more visceral", Microsoft added.
Vista takes full advantage of graphics cards with GPUs supporting the display driver model and with consistent volumes of dedicated memory. This is the main reason why the latest Windows platform fails to play well with hardware that doesn't live up to its requirements. One thing that Microsoft has done in Vista, was to focus the display driver model on its user-mode driver component, effectively taking it out of the operating system's kernel.
In this manner overall stability of the product increased, since graphic driver issues no longer delivered OS-wide critical errors. What Microsoft needs to do next in Windows 7 is to kick the componentization of the display driver model up a notch and make it completely independent of the kernel. But also work on delivering more performance with fewer resources, essentially perfecting the Windows Aero design.
Source: news.softpedia.com
Posted By: IndoSourceCode
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Microsoft Will Shut Down Book Search Program
SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft said Friday that it was ending a project to scan millions of books and scholarly articles and make them available on the Web, a sign that it is retrenching in some areas of Internet search in the face of competition from Google, the industry leader.
The announcement, made on a company blog, comes two days after Microsoft said it would focus its Internet search efforts on certain areas where it sees an opportunity to compete against Google. On Wednesday, Microsoft unveiled a program offering rebates to users who buy items that they find using the company’s search engine.
Some search experts said Microsoft’s decision to end its book-scanning effort suggested that the company, whose search engine has lagged far behind those of Google and Yahoo, was giving up on efforts to be comprehensive.
“It makes you wonder what else is likely to go,” said Danny Sullivan, editor in chief of the blog Search Engine Land. “One of the reasons people turn to Google is that it tries to be a search player in all aspects of search.”
Mr. Sullivan said that the number of people using book search services from Microsoft and Google was relatively small, but it included librarians, researchers and other so-called early adopters who often influence others. These users are now likely to turn to Google with increasing frequency, he said.
Both Microsoft and Google have been scanning older books that have fallen into the public domain, as well as copyright-protected books under agreements with some publishers. Google also scans copyrighted works without permission so it can show short excerpts to searchers, an approach that has drawn fire from publishers.
Microsoft’s decision also leaves the Internet Archive, the nonprofit digital archive that was paid by Microsoft to scan books, looking for new sources of support. Several major libraries said that they had chosen to work with the Internet Archive rather than with Google, because of restrictions Google placed on the use of the new digital files.
“We’re disappointed,” said Brewster Kahle, chairman of the Internet Archive. Mr. Kahle said, however, that his organization recognized that the project, which has been scanning about 1,000 books each day, would not receive corporate support indefinitely. Mr. Kahle said that Microsoft was reducing its support slowly and that the Internet Archive had enough money to keep the project “going for a while.”
“Eventually funding will come from the public sphere,” Mr. Kahle said.
Some libraries that work with the Internet Archive and Microsoft also said they planned to continue their book-scanning projects.
“We certainly expect to go on with this,” said Carole Moore, chief librarian at the University of Toronto. “Corporate sponsors are interested in whatever works for their commercial interests and their shareholders. Long-term preservation is not something you can look to the commercial sector to provide. It is what research libraries have always done.”
Microsoft acknowledged on its blog that commercial considerations played a part in its decision to end the program.
“Given the evolution of the Web and our strategy, we believe the next generation of search is about the development of an underlying, sustainable business model for the search engine, consumer and content partner,” Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s senior vice president for search, portal and advertising, wrote on the blog.
Microsoft said it had digitized 750,000 books and indexed 80 million journal articles.
Google, which works with libraries like the New York Public Library and those at Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan and Oxford, said it had scanned more than a million books. It plans to scan 15 million in the next decade. Google makes the books it scans freely available through its search engine but does not allow other search engines to use its database.
“We are extremely committed to Google Book Search, Google Scholar and other initiatives to bring more content online,” said Adam Smith, product management director at Google.
John Markoff contributed reporting.
Source: nytimes.com
Posted By: IndoSourceCode
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Neverwinter Nights 2 for Mac: Role-Play Fantasy World
Neverwinter Nights 2 for Mac (ESRB: Teen) is a game with interesting and in-depth story line, and dynamic characters and interaction. Anyone who likes role-playing games should love this game.
Sure to please everyone, this Macintosh game lets you design the character you like - good or evil, chaotic or lawful - as well as to role-play the way you want, and choose your alignment, allies, companions, and how you want your character to develop.
There is a pool of 12 non-player characters who can join the player’s party. In addition, the player can gain or lose influence with party members, which dictates outcomes to certain quests or causes strife in the party. Gameplay is not a continuation of the original Neverwinter Nights campaign, but makes references to the “Wailing Death” plague and the war with the rival city of Luskan from the original NWN.
Neverwinter Nights 2 is set in the fantasy world of the Forgotten Realms, one of the popular campaign settings of Dungeons and Dragons. The game centers around a powerful force of evil named the “King of Shadows” and an artifact that can ultimately defeat this arch-enemy. The game itself is divided into three Acts.
Throughout Act I, the Player’s Character witnesses and later endures an attack by a deadly warlock who is responsible for the Blacklake murders. The PC is initially led to believe that the warlock’s identity is the King of Shadows.
Act II is more role-play oriented than Act I, whereas a Luskan ambassador to Neverwinter, Torio Claven, frames the Player’s Character for the massacre of a Luskan town. The Player’s Character becomes a squire of a Neverwinter knight to protect him/her from the draconian Luskan justice system and must gather evidence to prove their innocence in several locales. Act II concludes with the search for a hidden stronghold, the magical Haven of Shandra’s ancestor Ammon Jerro where answers could be found regarding the silver shards, and Ammon’s subsequent surrender.
The main antagonists of Act III are the Shadow Reavers, powerful undead mages that include a revived Garius, intent on allowing the King of Shadows to reemerge. The player must prepare Crossroad Keep for imminent battle by fortifying its troops, lands and by finding allies from other lands. Once Garius is defeated, the surviving non-player character’s on a Good-aligned player character’s side must battle the King of Shadows and his avatars. Evil characters may choose to side with the King of Shadows and, as a result, must defeat every remaining non-player character party member to complete the game. The game ends once you either kill the king of shadows or your remaining companions.
As with the original Neverwinter Nights, the Mac version does not include the toolkit for users to create their own adventure “modules.” This toolset, called Electron, is included with the Windows version of the game. The Mac version can use player-created modules, however. Neverwinter Nights 2 is available through Aspyr’s web site, for $49.99.
System requirements:
Mac OS X v10.4.11 or 10.5.1 or later, Intel-based Mac running at 2.0GHz or faster, 1GB RAM, 6.5GB hard disk space, ATI Radeon X1600 or Nvidia GeForce 7600 or better with at least 128MB VRAM and DVD drive.
Source: palluxo.com
Posted By: IndoSourceCode
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Malware Is the No. 1 Killer of Windows Explorer
Windows crashes and blue screen have become without a doubt the stuff of popular culture, with Microsoft's operating system being derided, criticized and mocked for its luxuriant variety of issues, independent of the actual version of the platform.
Raymond Chen, a developer on the Windows Shell team at Microsoft has made public some internal data from 2007 containing the statistics extracted out of all Windows Explorer error reports. According to Microsoft, the number one killer of Windows explorer is malware.
"The XYZ virus (not its real name) and its variants together are responsible for the top six categories of Explorer crashes, and by an enormous margin," Chen stated. "Seventh place, an actual bug, comes in at only 1/80th the rate of number six; if you group all the XYZ virus failures together, then the combined virus failures outnumber the most popular Explorer bug by a factor of nearly 600."
Chen failed to explain what the "units" reference in the graphic represents. However, what is clear is the fact that a single piece of malicious code, along with two additional versions were responsible for causing 600 times more crashes than a bug in Windows Explorer. This is one case where Microsoft is not responsible for the user experience delivered by its operating system although some may argue that poor security is what led to the infections generating Windows Explorer crashes in the first place. However, the Redmond company is simply too easy a target, along with the Windows client, and the general tendency is to blame both for problems that are not directly connected with the quality of the operating system or with Microsoft.
"I remember reading a report that half of Explorer crashes can be directly attributable to malware. Seeing the top Explorer crash swamped by a single virus really drives that point home. The anti-malware team is very interested in this data, because when a new category of Windows crashes suddenly spikes in popularity, there's a decent chance that a new virus is on the loose," Chen added.
Source: news.softpedia.com
Posted By: IndoSourceCode
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Vista Codec Package 4.6.6
With Vista Codec Package installed, you won't need to install any other codec or filter. Many user suggested default settings are implemented. It does not contain a media player.
It does not associates filetypes. With this package installed you will be able to use any media player (limited only by the players capabilities) to play DVD's, movies and video clips of any format. Streaming video (real and quicktime) is supported in web browsers. Visit the homepage to get a 64bitAddon which enables xvid, divx and DVD playback in Vista's MediaCenter.
Vista Codec Package has the following other editions available: Vista Codec Package x64 Components.
Latest Changes:
* Add shortcuts for MP4 splitter choice
* Set Haali as the default 32bit MP4 splitter
* Upgrades are disabled - clean install required
* Update ffdshow to tryouts rev 1960
* Fix issues with single core systems
* Minor improvements
Download:
Vista Codec Package 4.6.6 (link 1)
Vista Codec Package 4.6.6 (link 2)
Posted By: IndoSourceCode
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