Microsoft Messenger 7:MAC Released

May 2nd, 2008

I have just downloaded and tested out the latest version of Microsoft messenger for mac, and once again I am very disappointed. We were all awaiting this release because we were promised the ability to webcam with our windows buddies, that however is not the case. It appears that this version does indeed have webcam capabilities but only on corporate accounts running windows communication server 2007.

Other than that massive let down, Microsoft has continued to try and make their apps look like it belongs on vista, it looks completely out of place on my nicely unified leopard desktop.

On the mactopia website for messenger, I was also amazed at the paragraph describing this latest update:

“Conveniently and instantly share files and gather feedback through Messenger for Mac 7. Attach Word docs, Excel charts, PowerPoint slideshows, or even emoticons to your instant messages.”

Have we not had the ability to share files and send emoticons for at least the last 10 years? Stop trying to make this release sound impressive. add webcam, no one cares about anything else!

Thing I have noticed that have been changed:

  1. New icon - I guess its better than the old one
  2. New glossy “Vista” look - once again destroying my desktops mac look.
  3. The ability to search your contact list by name or email (only useful if u have 50+ people online)
  4. Integrated Bonjour List (haven’t tested this out yet)

And thats about it - This should NOT be considered a whole new version, these are simple things that normally are taken care of in small updates.

Well, I’ll be switching back to Adium now, thanks for another useless product Microsoft. Maybe we’ll see webcam in another 5 years.

Here are some screenshots:

Contact ListMessage Windowmsn 7 icon

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Posted in Apple/Mac | 2 Comments »

Web Development Finally Made Easy on IE

March 28th, 2008

Web development has always been difficult on Internet Explorer. In fact, a couple days ago, I was ready to write off  IE6 debugging completely. I find it ridiculous that Microsoft has not complied with  w3c standards up until now (Thank god they announced that IE 8 will be standards compliant) .

I’ve been searching google lately for all types of fixes for IE6, for example, I created a nice CSS drop down menu for a clients site yesterday. It worked in every single browser but IE6.  I thought I would have to spend a few hours hacking up my css just to get it working, but that however was not the case.

I accidentally stumbled across a Eric Meyer’s Blog and saw that he has been working on a javascript library that fixes all the little css and rendering bugs in IE6 & 7.

All I needed to do was add  the “ie8.js” file into the root of the site and then add the following code to my <HEAD> tag.

<!--[if lt IE 8]>
<script src="IE8.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<![endif]-->

Immediately after adding this little bit of code, my drop downs started working in IE6, along with transparent png’s.
Read the google code site for a list of bugs this bit of javascript fixes.
I hope this helps you guys as much as it has helped me!

You can download the javascript library here.
View Demos Here

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Posted in Web Development/Design | No Comments »

iPhone Tip: Apollo Fix for 1.1.3

March 1st, 2008

Apollo IMApollo and mChat are two apps for the iphone that run much like adium or trillian, they are instant messaging clients that allow you to connect to multiple types of IM networks (msn,aol, yahoo etc.).

I’ve been trying to get Apollo or mChat to work on my iphone for a few days now, but I kept getting an error where it could not connect to network. After looking through many websites I still was unable to figure out why these apps would not work. I found the fix when I was searching through “installer.app” just looking for cool apps to install. The fix is listed under “Tweaks (1.1.3)” and titled “IM Chat 1.1.3 Fix” Simply install this, and then try logging into Apollo.

If you do not see “Tweaks(1.1.3)” listed under “install” in “installer.app” you must first install “Community Sources” which is listed under “Sources”, Once installed go back to the install page and look for “Tweaks (1.1.3)”.Also note, you must have “BSD subsystem” for Apollo or mChat to work. This is located under “system” in the install menu.

I hope this helps!

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Bought an iPhone for use on Rogers

February 26th, 2008

iphone rogersWell, It’s been a few days since I have posted anything on here, But I have a great excuse! Last week my previous cell phone, a Samsung d807x, decided it wanted to delete all of my contacts on it’s own. By doing so, it immediately got tossed and I went on a search for a new phone.
I had been waiting for a long time for Rogers to release the iphone in Canada, but clearly they are to stubborn over data rates to do anything about it. Anyways, I search craigslist for a few days and tracked down several numbers I thought could be good purchases. On Friday I went out to meet a guy who was selling an 8gb iphone, only used for 6 days (half the stuff still in wrapping). I had honestly never used the iphone before and was very curious to see if I would like the feel of the touch screen, and I was also skeptical if the phone would live up to the hype surrounding it. Well, the second I slid the “Slide to Unlock” button on the main screen, I fell in love. I was utterly amazed at the accuracy and feel of the touch screen! Everything about this phone is amazing! The physical styling looks gorgeous but also feels great, the screen is beyond anything I have ever seen, colors are incredible, the touchscreen - so smooth and quick to use, and best of all - OS X! Did I mention everywhere I go people stare at the phone in amazement?

iphone macbookpro

I will get into a break down of all the features and a more in depth summary of the iphone in a future blog post. However, I will answer a few questions that I know will arise.

  1. Durability?
    This is something I was very worried about when buying the phone. I usually treat my phones horrible and go through about 1 or 2 a year, just because I don’t really care about them. The iphone is different, upon buying the iphone I immediately went to the nearest 3rd party cellphone store (not Rogers or Fido or anything because they don’t have iphone accessories yet obviously) I found a store in Richmond Center Mall Called “Cellular Baby” which had what I was looking for. I purchased a clear screen protector which applies to the face of the phone with no air bubbles and no adhesive, you can’t even tell its there, as well as a silicon case that covers the body of the phone to keep it from scratching.
  2. Unlocked Software?
    Well not much to say on this part. I know a lot of you have been wanting an iphone up here in Canada, but are nervous about buying it unlocked or buying one from the states and having it unlocked. The phone works perfect, and unlocking it only takes a few minutes. If this is the only thing holding you back from buying the iPhone, don’t let it! go out now and buy one! I would however like to mention that I love to support Apple’s products, they pioneer incredible technology, and I would have loved to buy the phone from them. Unfortunately, given my circumstances I had to get the phone ASAP and since Rogers wont get off there butt and work harder to support the iPhone, I had to buy it - Sorry Apple!
  3. Data Rates!
    This is probably the main concern about using the iPhone in Canada. No one wants a $1000+ bill at the end of the month, just for browsing the web! Well, unfortunately if you try to connect through Rogers EDGE network, you WILL get a large bill. Fortunately, the iPhone is equipped with wifi so you can use it free of charge almost anywhere public these days. There are also websites and programs that show you where all the free hotspots are in your area. Even if I could use EDGE, I probably wouldn’t because the wifi on the iphone is very fast. Also keep in mind there is a rumor, that Rogers will have wifi disabled in there Canadian bound iphones to force people to use their EDGE network. If you look at their current line up of phones available, not one of them supports wifi!
  4. Battery Life
    Short and sweet - Incredible! This phone has a massive display, but due to its ambient light sensor, it will adjust the screen’s brightness to what is best viewed in your current location. This saves a lot of battery power. (Quick Tip: If your low on battery, or just want to conserve it. Rather than adjusting the brightness yourself by clicking through the settings panel, simply cover the ear piece with your finger before you turn it on from standby and slide to unlock. This sets the brightness down low because it thinks it is in a dark room.) The other cool feature is the proximity senor,while you are talking on the phone, the screen senses it is close to your face and turns the screen off. This conserves a lot of power, and also eliminates the accidental hitting of touchscreen buttons while talking…

iphone bbold!

If anyone has anymore questions regarding the phone, please just leave a comment and I will do my best to answer them.
As promised I will do a thorough breakdown of the phone in my next posting. For now, I gotta go play with my iphone

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Posted in Apple/Mac | 1 Comment »

bBold partners with British Columbia Seniors Information Directory

February 13th, 2008

sid_vertical.jpg

bBold! is pleased to be associated with the Seniors information directory of British Columbia and will be handling all design and production as well as databased web site applications.The 2008 plan calls for 22 neighborhood directories in the lower mainland, five on Vancouver Island and five in the interior of B.C. This handy guide provides a complete localized listing of housing, services and products and has been accepted by recipients as the single source for relevant information. Guides will be available in the following areas. Interior British Columbia (5)Kamloops, Salmon Arm, Vernon, Penticton, KelownaLower Mainland and the Fraser Valley (22)Richmond, Delta, South Surrey, North Surrey, Langley, Burnaby, New Westminster, West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Port Moody, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Maple Ridge, Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Vancouver (7)Vancouver Island (5)Victoria, Saanich, Nanaimo, North-Central Island, Saanich Peninsula and the Islands.

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Passport Department Letter - Hilarious!!

February 13th, 2008

Dear Mr. Minister,

I’m in the process of renewing my passport, and still cannot believe this. How is it that Radio Shack has my address and telephone number and knows that I bought a t.v. cable from them back in 1997, and yet, the Federal Government is still asking me where I was born and on what date. For Christ sakes, do you guys do this by hand? My birth date you have on my social insurance card, and it is on all the income tax forms I’ve filed for the past 30 years. It is on my health insurance card, my driver’s license, on the last eight goddamn passports I’ve had, on all those stupid customs declaration forms I’ve had to fill  out before being allowed off the planes over the last 30 years, and all those insufferable census forms that are done at election times. Would somebody please take note, once and for all, that my mother’s name  is Maryanne, my father’s name is Robert and I’d be absolutely astounded if  that ever changed between now and when I die!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SHIT!

I apologize, Mr. Minister. I’m really pissed off this morning. Between youan’ me, I’ve had enough of this bullshit! You send the application to my house, then you ask me for my @#&in’ address. What is going on? You have a gang of Neanderthals assholes workin’ there! Look at my damn picture. Do I look like Bin Laden? I don’t want to dig up Yasser Arafat, for shit sakes. I just want to go and park my ass on a  sandy  beach. And would someone please tell me, why would you give a shit whether I plan on visiting a farm in the next 15 days? If I ever got the urge to do something weird to a chicken or a goat, believe you me, I’d sure as hell  not want to tell anyone!

Well, I have to go now, ’cause I have to go to the other end of the city  and get another @#%in copy of my birth certificate, to the tune of $60! Would  it be so complicated to have all the services in the same spot to assist in  the issuance of a new passport the same day?? Nooooo, that’d be too damn easy and maybe make sense. You’d rather have us running all over the @#%in’ place like chickens with our heads cut off,  then find some asshole to confirm that it’s really me on the goddamn picture - you know, the one where we’re not allowed to smile?! (@#%in morons)

Hey, you know why we can’t smile? We’re totally pissed off!

Signed - An Irate @#%ing Canadian Citizen.

P.S. Remember what I said above about the picture and getting someone to confirm that it’s me? Well, my family has been in this country since 1776 when one of my forefathers took up arms against the Americans. I have served in the military for something over 30 years and have had security clearances up the yingyang. I was aide de camp to the lieutenant governor of our province for ten years and I have been doing volunteer  work for the RCMP for about five years. However, I have to get someone ‘important’ to verify who I am - you know, someone like my doctor WHO WASBORN AND RAISED IN COMMUNIST @#%ing CHINA !!!

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Posted in Humor | 1 Comment »

iPhone in Canada Soon! Rogers Update!

February 10th, 2008

iphone canada

For all you Canadians wanting an iPhone, it looks like our time is near. Rogers Wireless has finally released an “Unlimited Data Plan” - Much like AT&T did in the U.S. a year ago. According to Rogers you can add the package to your existing contract for $20 extra per month. The plan offers the following features:

  • Unlimited On-Device Mobile Browsing
  • 2500 Sent Text Messages
  • 1000 Sent Picture/Video Messages
  • Voice Mail
  • Call Display
  • Name Display
  • WhoCalled

Now, Rogers has not “officially” said the iPhone is coming, but considering this package was pretty much the only thing holding back the iPhone’s release, I would assume that it is just around the corner.

In Europe, when the iPhone was released, there was not much warning, I think consumers were only given a week or two notice it was coming. So maybe we will see the iPhone by the months end!

This move by Rogers is a HUGE step for the canadian wireless industry! The only concern I have is about the actual pricing of the phone, will get it at the same cost as our American neighbors, or will we experience the typical expensive Canadian price?

Either way, I know I’ll be having a sleep over outside my nearest Roger’s store in the near future!

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Posted in Apple/Mac | 5 Comments »

Set Files To Open In Default Programs OSX! Great Free APP!

February 9th, 2008

default appsOver the past few days i’ve been going because my files (php, html, css, javascript etc.) have been opening in random applications. For example sometimes an html file will open in my web browser, sometimes in coda, some times in dreamweaver, and sometimes in xcode. I know u can use the built in settings for OSX by right clicking (option + click) on the file, then choose: Open with, then click on the app you want it to open in and click “Always open in the application”. Many attempts of doing this failed and the defaults program was still sporadic.

After a quick google I found a great little program that installs into your preference pane and allows you to set all of the file types’ default application. I would highly recommend this free plugin to speed up productivity on your mac!

default_apps2

Click here for the download page!

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Microsoft Delaying MSN Messenger 7 for mac?…..AGAIN!

February 9th, 2008

picture-2.pngEver since these new Intel books from Apple started coming with built in iSight, I have been dyeing to video chat with all my buddies. If I had it my way, I would be on ichat and only ichat, however, since im in Canada and absolutely no one here uses AOL (AIM), ichat is basically a write off. The only exception is when I’m in the office and need to transfer files from one computer to another, then im all about “Bonjour” which I think is one of MAC OSX’s strongest features. Anyways - Back to my rant.

Windows users running windows messenger have had audio & video capabilities for as long as I can remember, as well as things like nudges, winks, games etc. Although most of those features are just little quirks, I still would like to see them on the Mac version of messenger.

Well Microsoft FINALLY got off their butt’s and release a new version of Office for mac (4 years to late). I realize that they had to convert all their code to run on intel macs properly but if Adobe can convert a whole creative suite to a new platform in about a years time, there’s no reason why Office took so long.

When Office 2008 was released in mid January, the Microsoft Business Unit (MBU) - who develops the mac based apps, told us the new version of Messenger would be available by the end of january. I have been watching the MBU’s mactopia site for any sort of update, but like usual, they don’t seem to care (not even a blog update!).

I’m really anxious to be able to finally use my Macbook Pro’s iSight for video chatting. Let’s just pray that the Messenger 7 for mac isn’t another typical bloated piece of software from Microsoft, much like the long awaited messenger 6 was. For the time being, I’m using Adium which is a fantastic app for chatting on multiple services at once. The team over at Adium says they are close to releasing a new version that also supports A/V, I wouldn’t be surprised if Adium supported the new features before the official release of Messenger 7.

This brings me to my question - Is Microsoft purposely delaying it’s release of products on the mac in order to push people to a Windows platform?

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Wholesale companies missing out on Internet Sales

February 8th, 2008

Many wholesale companies have been slow to embrace the internet. Sure, they have a web site. Who doesn’t. But is it effective? Does it make money? Does it save you and your customers time? Do you get a return on your investment?

For many companies it is good to think of their web site as a branch operation. The good news is, it can be open 24/7 and requires few employees and very little overhead.

Customers want to place their orders on their own time, perhaps at home on the weekend. Companies need to make it easy for them to review your products and take immediate action.

On the other hand it must be taken seriously, and it is good to have a written business plan or strategy that will define success or failure. From this plan, a solid budget can be developed that covers the cost of developing, maintaining, promoting and growing your web based business. This requires a commitment from management to make this a success. You wouldn’t open a branch office and just leave it to sink or swim. You need to be actively involved in developing ideas and plans to get people to your online business and once there, utilize the services you provide. It’s not easy, but it is necessary. In today’s world, you need to be able to do business online or you will be left behind.

Eight ways to increase your wholesale web site business:

1. Use the power of a database driven site
2. Develop a user friendly online catalog
3. Harness the power of a shopping cart
4. Improve customer service with great design and navigation
5. Save money by using self admin tools
6. Increase sales by using SEO techniques
7. Increase sales by using e-mail and one to one marketing
8. Call bBold! Design

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