lunedì, dicembre 31, 2007

Inspirational Photos in 2007

I was just browsing Photojojo’s “19 New Year’s Photo Resolutions — Goodbye 2007, Hello Two Thousand and Awesome!” and thought you might like some of their recommended photo lists of 2007.

mercoledì, dicembre 19, 2007

Creating SharePoint-Style Menus

An example of using SharePoint styles in a content editor webpart to make a simple menu.

 

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="zz1_TopNavigationMenu_5">

  <tr>

    <td style="width:0px;"><div align="center"></div></td>

    <td id="zz1_TopNavigationMenun2" onMouseOver="Menu_HoverStatic(this)" onMouseOut="Menu_Unhover(this)" onKeyUp="Menu_Key(this)"><div align="center">

        <table class="ms-topnav zz1_TopNavigationMenu_4" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="100%">

          <tr>

            <td style="white-space:nowrap;"><a class="zz1_TopNavigationMenu_1 ms-topnav zz1_TopNavigationMenu_3" href="/Company%20Trainings/Pages/TrainingSchedule.aspx" style="border-style:none;font-size:1em;color:#000000;">Schedule of Classes</a></td>

          </tr>

        </table>

      </div></td>

    <td style="width:0px;"><div align="center"></div></td>

    <td style="width:0px;"><div align="center"></div></td>

    <td onMouseOver="Menu_HoverStatic(this)" onMouseOut="Menu_Unhover(this)" onKeyUp="Menu_Key(this)" id="zz1_TopNavigationMenun2"><div align="center">

        <table class="ms-topnav zz1_TopNavigationMenu_4" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="100%">

          <tr>

            <td style="white-space:nowrap;"><a class="zz1_TopNavigationMenu_1 ms-topnav zz1_TopNavigationMenu_3" href="/Company%20Trainings/Pages/Rapattoni101Presentations.aspx" style="border-style:none;font-size:1em;;color:#000000;">Rapattoni 101 Presentations</a></td>

          </tr>

        </table>

      </div></td>

    <td style="width:0px;"><div align="center"></div></td>

    <td style="width:0px;"><div align="center"></div></td>

    <td onMouseOver="Menu_HoverStatic(this)" onMouseOut="Menu_Unhover(this)" onKeyUp="Menu_Key(this)" id="zz1_TopNavigationMenun3"><div align="center">

        <table class="ms-topnav zz1_TopNavigationMenu_4" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="100%">

          <tr>

            <td style="white-space:nowrap;"><a class="zz1_TopNavigationMenu_1 ms-topnav zz1_TopNavigationMenu_3" href="http://www.rapattoni.com/multimedia/mls/v10/spotlights/" target="_blank"style="border-style:none;font-size:1em;;color:#000000;">Feature Spotlights and Show Me Tutorials</a></td>

          </tr>

        </table>

      </div></td>

    <td style="width:0px;"><div align="center"></div></td>

    <td style="width:0px;"><div align="center"></div></td>

    <td onMouseOver="Menu_HoverStatic(this)" onMouseOut="Menu_Unhover(this)" onKeyUp="Menu_Key(this)" id="zz1_TopNavigationMenun4"><div align="center">

        <table class="ms-topnav zz1_TopNavigationMenu_4" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="100%">

          <tr>

            <td style="white-space:nowrap;"><a class="zz1_TopNavigationMenu_1 ms-topnav zz1_TopNavigationMenu_3" href="/Company%20Trainings/Pages/Rapattoni101ReferenceDocuments.aspx" style="border-style:none;font-size:1em;;color:#000000;">Reference Documents</a></td>

          </tr>

        </table>

      </div></td>

    <td style="width:0px;"><div align="center"></div></td>

  </tr>

</table>

Moebius transformations

This is an interesting video courtesy of chronicle.com. (It starts to do transformations about 30-40 seconds into it.)

“It’s hard to explain Möbius transformations with a flat illustration in a textbook. But two professors at the University of Minnesota found that a 3-D animation lets them show the mathematical concept in a way that seems to have sparked the imaginations of a wide range of viewers. The video has been watched more than one million times since it was put on YouTube.

 

martedì, dicembre 18, 2007

Video: Office Live Workspace Beta

I like the “thought bubble” in this video! Although, it’s a little haunting to know that Microsoft is following me…all the time!

Interesting that this presentation is Flash-based, rather than Siliverlight.

 

SharePoint 2007: Obtain the Page Title or URL through JavaScript

<script language="javascript">

var Test = document.getElementById('ctl00_PlaceHolderSiteName_onetidProjectPropertyTitle');

alert("Test of URL --> " + Test);

var Test2 = document.getElementById('ctl00_PlaceHolderSiteName_onetidProjectPropertyTitle').innerHTML;

alert("Test of Name--> " + Test2);

</script>

lunedì, dicembre 17, 2007

Velocity matters

Google Gets Ready to Rumble With Microsoft
The New York Times looks at Google Docs and Google's software (Dec 16 2007)

Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt recalls that shortly after joining Google, “he was frustrated that people were answering e-mail on their laptops at meetings while he was speaking. ‘I’ve given up” trying to change such behavior, he says. “They have to answer their e-mail. Velocity matters.’”

 

 

Sync Your Database to SharePoint Using SSIS

This article shows how to build a SSIS application that performs a one-way sync from the Northwind database's Suppliers table into an equivalent custom list.”

SEO for Beginners

11 Steps to Successful SEO for Your Business
A beginner's guide to search engine optimization from Search Engine Journal

Google goes knolling

I was just reading in Pandia Search Engine News that Google will be testing a new online knowledge repository called Knol.

Earlier this week, we started inviting a selected group of people to try a new, free tool that we are calling “knol”, which stands for a unit of knowledge. Our goal is to encourage people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it. (…) At the heart, a knol is just a web page; we use the word “knol” as the name of the project and as an instance of an article interchangeably. It is well-organized, nicely presented, and has a distinct look and feel, but it is still just a web page.

To us it looks like a cross between the Wikipedia and Squidoo or Helium.

 

giovedì, dicembre 13, 2007

Earthmine

Another awesome find from ER:

3D mapping company Earthmine  -  JPL Exclusive Licensing Press Release



 

 

National Geographic's Desktop Wallpapers

National Geographic has some lovely wallpaper images.

mercoledì, dicembre 12, 2007

Unsubscribing in 2007 Marketers Can Get More Out of Goodbye

I thought this article had some interesting points:

Why scrutinize unsubscribe practices? Because providing a method for subscribers to leave your mailing list is a crucial component of email marketing, contrary to almost any other form of marketing and advertising.

  • Consumers who don't trust your unsubscribe process are more likely to report you to their ISPs as a spammer.
  • The unsubscribe process itself is a rich vein of information about how your subscribers are thinking, how they see your company and what they want from you.
  • Having a workable, trustworthy unsubscribe process can even retain a customer for you if you give them other options.

 

martedì, dicembre 11, 2007

The Internet. The TV.

From the WSJ:

Here's how to finally bring them together.

Millions of people love watching Internet video on their PCs. So why can't the technology industry figure out how to get them to watch Internet video on their television sets?

 

lunedì, dicembre 10, 2007

Adding Color to SharePoint Calendar Items

I was recently reading about a clever technique to add color to SharePoint calendar items (a combination of using a calculated field and a bit of JavaScript to color the calendar “after the fact.”) Neat stuff!

Note: another blogger has graciously solved the cut and paste errors that can occur by copying from the article above.

The Future of Cell Phone Headsets

Another awesome article, brought to you by  ER. I wonder if monitors will tread in this direction, too?

The Future of Cell Phone Headsets

There are some interesting speculations in an O'Reilly Network article by Peter Drescher entitled The Annoying Future of Cell Phone Headsets. The predictions start about halfway down page three of the article, and focus on the rise of stereo headsets for phones (as in the iPhone):

Until recently, talking on the phone was, without exception, a monaural experience. Even now, I almost always pull out one earbud out when I'm on a call. But the case of "listening to music, then the phone rings" is so common you quickly get used to the schizophrenic feeling of the voice in your head. In fact, it can even make you feel more connected to your caller, and facilitate communications in high-noise environments, like, say, every street-corner call you've ever made.

Stereo headphones create an audio barrier around your head. The world goes silent (or at least gets a lot quieter), and you navigate through the environment with your own soundtrack. But with stereo headsets, people who have your phone number can now pierce that barrier and join you inside it (and in the exact center of it). If your caller is also wearing a stereo headset, it's as if your bubbles are connected.... You're inside of their head, and they're inside of yours.

The article goes on to suggest some of the new social behavior (and supporting applications) that will start to take hold when stereo bluetooth headsets are the norm:

•             Better sounding phone calls. "There's no reason why the headset can't produce full-resolution voice audio, since it's already doing it for music playback."

•             Better conference calling. "In a mobile broadband world, you could receive multiple streams of conferenced calls and position them in the stereo field for increased intelligibility."

•             Sharing audio, with conversation. "Imagine if I could authorize your headset to pick up my phone's audio signal, then we could both listen to what my phone was playing.... These headsets have built-in microphones, so there's no reason why you couldn't mix your voice into the shared music stream. Then I can talk to you, you can talk to me, and we can both still hear the music."

•             Sharing game sound. "Speaking of 3D audio, let's use that feature in a mobile Star Wars game to send those damn Imperial TIE-fighters buzzing around your head like flies, giving you more reason to swat them out of the sky. Then you can switch to multiplayer mode and contact the rest of your squadron. Now you're bantering via voice data network with Red Leader on your left and Red 5 on your right, all while blasting spaceship formations in coordinated attacks."

The article concludes with a compelling vision of a likely future:

I'm looking at wireless stereo headsets, and thinking that as they become more comfortable, more useful, more powerful, more commonplace, and more stylish, there will be fewer and fewer reasons to ever take them off. Eventually, you'll just stick them in your ears and forget about 'em. They will become like acoustic contact lenses, or a heads-up display for your ears. They'll let you access and control a virtual audio reality that streams in from wireless networks all around you and is mixed with voice data from your phone and from everybody's phone. And although the ubiquitous audio network I'm describing does not yet exist, you can actually listen to what it might sound like today.

It's completely analogous to being in a recording studio, isolated by big headphones, auditioning multiple tracks, and talking to the control room via live mic. I remember my first time in a real studio: I put on the cans and was astounded by the sense of space, the detailed audio field, and the sound of my own voice — in my head, through the mixing board. Now imagine that feeling as a mobile experience, but instead of talking to the engineer on the other side of the glass, you're walking down Broadway, talking to someone on the other side of the world.

I'm sure that at first, when only a few people are living in the mobile "heads up" auditory network, they will be quite "annoying" in public spaces, but eventually, I imagine we'll figure out how to deal with that. There's a lot that's compelling in this vision. I've always imagined heads-up visual displays being one of the harbingers of the era of wearable computing, but Peter makes a pretty compelling case that it's in audio that we're going to see the first signs of ubiquitous wearable computing.

 

venerdì, dicembre 07, 2007

Customizing the WSS 3.0/MOSS 2007 Menu Control

Hm…I’m not sure this is what I’m looking for. But I’ll “bookmark” it to the blog just in case. J

The AspMenu class that ships with WSS 3.0 (and by extension MOSS 2007) is nearly identical in behavior to ASP.NET 2.0’s Menu class (as the name implies). AspMenu derives from Menu and adds tweaks to work around a few reasonably well known annoyances and provides improved highlighting support.

 

giovedì, dicembre 06, 2007

Slacker

A new digital music player called the Slacker plays music that is absolutely free, contained in preprogrammed Internet radio stations instead of individually selected songs and albums.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid452319854/bctid1334372817

 

Convert yourself to Scrooge...or an elf.

mercoledì, dicembre 05, 2007

No more "click to activate?!"

No more “click to activate?!” Check out this article from the IEBlog:

“Back in April 2006, we made a change to how Internet Explorer handled embedded controls used on some webpages. Some sites required users to “click to activate” before they could interact with the control. Microsoft has now licensed the technologies from Eolas, removing  the “click to activate” requirement in Internet Explorer. Because of this, we're removing the “click to activate” behavior from Internet Explorer!

It’s important (and cool) to note that this change will require no modifications to existing webpages, and no new actions for developers creating new pages. We are simply reverting to the old behavior. Once Internet Explorer is updated, all pages that currently require “click to activate” will no longer require the control to be activated. They’ll just work.  

So you’re probably wondering when we are going to release this update? The first chance will be with an optional preview release, called the Internet Explorer Automatic Component Activation Preview, available in December 2007 via the Microsoft Download Center. Additionally this change will be made part of the next pre-release versions of Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3. After giving people enough time to prepare for this change, we’ll roll this behavior into the IE Cumulative Update in April 2008, and all customers who install the update will get the change.

 

Nielsen plans to offer a service to prevent piracy of copyrighted video distributed on the Web

It looks like Nielson is entering the online video market!

The Nielsen Co. said it has developed a product that would allow media companies to police the distribution of their video content on sites like YouTube—and ultimately help them make money on the consumer-driven phenomenon.

“The media research firm and parent company of Adweek has partnered with Beaverton, Ore.-based technology vendor Digimarc to launch a new service, Nielsen Digital Media Manager, designed to aid TV networks, independent content producers and various online video distributors track where users are posting and streaming copyrighted video content.”

Rolling out in mid-2008, the new service combines two tracking techniques: digital "watermarking" and "fingerprinting." In tandem, they should provide producers with a complete picture of where their content resides on the Internet.

 

 

lunedì, dicembre 03, 2007

Classic ASP - Display the Current File Name

A nice tip from thescripts.com.

aPath = Split("/" & REquest.ServerVariables("PATH_INFO"), "/")
sFilename = aPath(UBound(aPath))
response.write(sFilename)