TRINIX

Today Google Docs & Spreadsheets has reales some new functionality and GUI.

The first that caught my attention was the new GUI. This has become more Web 2.0.

on the lef site you can find a Tree structure with nice clean information containing all the files, with the ability to filter. This new look makes it nicer to work with google Docs & Spreadsheets.

Another upgrade is the ability to show charts in the Spreadsheets.

A list of all the features: http://www.google.com/google-d-s/intl/en/whatsnew.html

If you are into Web 2.0 and AJAX then this article is pretty much like a bible.

It contains practically everything you need to know about AJAX and all it’s current techniques.

The header says it all:

80+ AJAX-Solutions For Professional Coding

A MUST READ!!!!

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/06/20/ajax-javascript-solutions-for-professional-coding/

I told you recently about portable tools (http://thim.trinix.be/2007/05/15/portable-tools/)

Now somebody has fixed it to make Internet Explorer 7 portable.

This can be very handy if you want to play with IE 6 and IE 7 on 1 system.

Because if you upgrade IE 6 with the microsoft update service you will lose IE 6 and there is no way of installing IE 6 or IE 7 separately on 1 system. But not anymore with this portable version.

you can find portable IE 7 here:



http://rapidshare.com/files/33815373/Port_IE7.rar

http://www.megashare.com/210903

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GVNJIXRI

Don’t know if this is all legal but I just found the links and wanted to share them.

I did not made the portable version.

Microsoft programs suite is vastly used world wide, but they are (mostly – all) desktop applications.

We live in an internet age where everything has to mobile and online.

So here’s on overview off all the online Microsoft alternatives.



Microsoft Word

• Google docs: http://docs.google.com/
• zoho writer: http://writer.zoho.com/
• Buzzwords: http://www.virtub.com/
• Writeboard: http://www.writeboard.com/
• ThinkFree: http://www.thinkfree.com/
• Writer: http://writer.bighugelabs.com/
• ajaxWrite: http://www.ajaxlaunch.com/ajaxwrite/

Microsoft Excel

• Google spreadsheet: http://docs.google.com/
• Zoho sheet: http://sheet.zoho.com/
• EditGrid: http://www.editgrid.com/
• ThinkFree Calc: http://product.thinkfree.com/desktop/calc/

Microsoft Powerpoint

• SlideRoll: http://www.slideroll.com/
• Empressr: http://www.empressr.com/
• Zoho Show: http://show.zoho.com/
• Google Presentation: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/were-expecting.html (still Béta)
• Spresent: http://www.spresent.com/
• vMix: http://www.vmix.com/

Microsoft Outlook

• Gmail: http://www.gmail.com
• Windows Live Hotmail: http://www.hotmail.com
• Yahoo Mail: http://mail.yahoo.com/
• @Nifty: http://www.nifty.com/
• Zoho Mail: http://mail.zoho.com/
• Zimbra: http://www.zimbra.com/

Microsoft Outlook Calendar:

• Google Calendar: http://calendar.google.com/
• Yahoo Calendar: http://calendar.yahoo.com/
• Kiko: http://kiko.com/
• 30Boxes: http://30boxes.com/
• MyPunchBowl: http://www.mypunchbowl.com/

Windows Live Messenger:

• Meebo: www.meebo.com
• Microsoft Web messenger: webmessenger.msn.com/
• eBuddy: www.ebuddy.com/
• Google Talk: www.google.com/talk/
• Campfire: www.campfirenow.com/
  

This listing is just a small part of the wide range of solutions that can be found online and / or in communities.

I hope I will find the time to expand this list.

Today I stumbled upon a range of articles of interesting topics:

Internet  To Don’t List : http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/web-publisher-internet-author-to-dont-list.html

Very interesting list if you are building commercial website or e-commerce even if you build a basic website

Open Source:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/open-source-life-how-the-open-movement-will-change-everything.html

How open source is key in the future of ICT (love the sound of it)

Solutions for modern day problems:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/solutions-for-7-annoying-modern-day-problems.html

Again nice list of modern list problems, especially the password problem topic and the identity theft issue.

Brainstorm Domain names:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/how-to-brainstorm-domain-names.html

What to do to get a nice, fresh domain name.

This is a rather personal item that’s been bugging me for quiet some time.

That’s the fact of over-usage or miss-use of buzzwords.

I’m� active in� Web development and I try to stay up2date with all the new technologies and all the development methodologies. But I have to realize that this is practically impossible seeing the current fact that the last 5 years the Web development world has exploded with all kinds of new approaches and techniques and technology.

I remember the days that a website consisted out of plain and simple HTML, than there was CSS and then came the server-side like PHP and ASP. Next came browser interactions with Javascript. Things started to enhance and more and more was possible with a website. Then things got out of hand.

They started to use buzz words like AJAX, RIA, SOAP , REST, Webservices, Extreme Programming, Agile Programming, ….

Ok, I like the evolution of Web 2.0, in fact I have always predicted that the internet will be the future of ICT. But with this evolution it’s very hard to stay up2date with the technologies if in fact the most companies (in Belgium) are just realizing the importance and possibilities of the internet.

So you have the rapidly evolving technology, methodology and buzz words on one side and on the other side you have the companies that are just starting to see all the possibilities of the internet.

It’s like comparing the year 3000 with the middle ages

I’m still pro this evolution but we have to keep in mind that perhaps it’s time to slow things down a bit because at this rate we can’t keep up. If you focus on 1 thing you loose 10 other things. And this 1 thing can be out-dated in just 1 sec. And what’s the best technology to develop Web applications is it AJAX, Flex, Silverlight, AIR (Apollo), … ???

The developers are doing their best they can to keep up. But then comes the manager who has no insight in the learning curve of all these technologies and he expects his team to just switch from 1 day on the other to a new technology all because he has just heard some buzz words.

Now it has even become a trend to use all the buzz words in one sentence without even any reference between the words. This makes it easy to blow people away with all these buzz words.

Example: “Building RIA is easy using XP in combi with AJAX and REST”

This example has in fact has a reference but for a ICT out-sider this still will be like chinese, but will blow them away.

Just call thing by name and stop making up all unnecesarry redicoulous buzz words.

And only use the buzz words if you totally understand the meaning of the words and keep in mind that not everybody has the time to keep up with all the new buzz words, so explain them.

In other words what has the most impact that you use the term AJAX or Silverlight or the fact that you can build an web application with the technology.

Again, I’m pro the Web 2.0 evolution but don’t make things any more complicated then necessary or to say it with a buzz word ::: KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid).

I don’t know if this post makes any sense but I’m always ready for a discussion.

One of the big problems with ajax website, like with flash, is that the websites can not be crawled or indexed by search engines like google and yahoo. This is a very big disadvantage. Because no indexing means less chance to be refered to, means less visitors …

So this should always kept in mind when developing and / or using ajax in your websites.

To bypass this disadvantage there a couple design considerations you have to keep in mind.

Rich McIver from http://www.softwaredeveloper.com/ has written an excellent piece on how to design ajax websites / applications that are Search engine friendly and can be index.

Read the article, I consider this essential reading for any serious developer.

http://www.softwaredeveloper.com/features/google-ajax-play-nice-061907/

I have only started blogging for about 2 months and I try to make my blog so complete as possible.

If you start blogging or you are an active blogger, it sometimes is difficult to choose from all the available extensions for you blog software.

There are tons of plugins, extension, …

I found a list of available resources that every blogger should have a look at.

The list can be found at: http://mashable.com/2007/06/19/blogging-toolbox/

I will check it out for sure, because i’m always in for some renewing

I like really nice screensavers like the one on Mac.

So I dugg up my old list of slick screensavers and share them.

The nice thing about my prefered  screensavers is that they work on Windows as on Linux systems.

For some screenshots:

http://rss-glx.sourceforge.net/screenshots.shtml

My favorite: Solar Wind

More screensavers can be found on:

http://rss-glx.sourceforge.net/

TOTALLY FREE!!!

Today, I came accross the adobe online colorshemer website.

http://kuler.adobe.com/

It’s a flash based colorshemer with everything you need at your fingertips.

You can view popular colorshemes, play around with settings, create your own colorshemes,…

It’s definitely worth bookmarking this site.

http://kuler.adobe.com/