Blog Flak

There’s a new article up at Yahoo News describing quite a number of annoyances built into Microsofts flagship new OS. Sounds like a dog to me, I personally have no plans on “upgrading” any time in the near future and you may want to read this article before you drop a bundle on the latest.

There’s lots to like in the newest version of Windows. Vista’s look is stunning, the OS should be more secure, and finding things is often easier. But Windows wouldn’t be Windows without those aspects, big and small, that just drive you nuts with frustration. Here’s our list of Vista features that just make us wonder, “What were they thinking?” Yahoo Article

I’m still fuming about the changes they made to Internet Explorer, IE 7 gives me fits every single day. And don’t bother telling me to “Get Firefox” because as a web developer I have to use all browsers interchangeably. I don’t like Internet Explorer but unfortunately I don’t have much of a choice. And to top it off I have to use a second PC to run IE 6 to check pages as well. I have to agree, “what were they thinking”?

tags: windows vista, Microsoft, operating system, software

The official Google Blog has announced that it’s no longer necessary to get an invitation to open a Gmail account. This is welcome news, Gmail is one of the best email programs out there. I’m constantly in awe of how well it’s spam filters trap all the nasty stuff and I’ve used a lot of different email programs. It’s now available in 40 different languages to boot! How cool is that? To sign up for your free Gmail account just head over to www.gmail.com and get yours!

This looks rather interesting but it’s still basically the same as the fact that last parts of a style sheet will overide settings written in further up the page. But it could be useful for people with little experience.

Wordpress and theme upgrades generally mean one thing to designers & developers — major adaptation headaches. Here is the simple way to futureproof your CSS mods and avoid those upgrade headaches forever.

read more | digg story

The .custom tag could be handy, but so are comments to show updates.

Digg rolls out new smart buttons to make tagging easier! Check it out!

“We’re glad to announce an update to our Digg This button. You used to need different tools to provide links on your site to submit content to Digg versus buttons to Digg content you’ve already submitted. Our new Digg This button has finally been given a brain to do both!”

read more | digg story

Scientific Blogging, a very cool new place for scientific types, has entered a private beta phase for testing their new interface and has an open invitation for science writers to sign up for an account and create a free blog. The site has 6 different main categories and an unlimited number of sub-categories allowing authors to express themselves in the field of their choice. The site will also feature articles by prominent authors in a number of different scientific fields. There are already a number of great articles there, as well as up-to-date news feeds.

One of the featured authors is math wizard Garth Sundem who appeared on Good Morning America with Diane Sawyer last week. His new book, Geek Logic was the subject of the appearance. You can catch Garth’s articles here.

From Newswire:

“There are a lot of science sites out there,” said Hank Campbell, CEO, “but the more we read the more we realized that most science sites were primarily interested in either politics or they were narrowly focused. We contacted some scientists we already knew, and some we had the good fortune to later meet, and they wanted a place to write where they weren’t limited by space considerations but could still reach a general audience. So we decided we had to create the site we wanted to read. I know that most scientists love to talk about their work outside their speciality and they like to have their efforts recognized by the public.”
Unlike other science sites, Scientific Blogging will also allow science writers from all over the world to have their own columns. “There are some terrific scientists writing out there who aren’t reaching a large audience yet - science is all we’re about so the audience is built in.”

So, for all you budding scientists out there, put your geek hat on and check it out!

tags: science, community, blogging, journals