50 Great Widgets For Your Blog

MyBlogLog’s Recent Readers - this widget can easily be called a hit amongst blog owners; its popularity even managed to convince Yahoo into buying MyBlogLog. The widget lets you see the avatars of recent visitors to your blog, provided they’re also members of MyBlogLog.
Mashable - get the latest social networking news from this very site.
Flickr Flash Photo Stream Badge - display images from your Flickr profile with a handy Flash photo stream.
Preview Anywhere - see a live preview of outgoing links in a small popup which activates on mouseover. Some find this annoying, while others might find it useful.
Twitter Badge - if your life is so interesting that everyone must know what you’re up to all the time, then a Twitter badge is the ideal counterpart to your blog. It’ll proudly displays your recent tweets.
Digg News - display the latest Digg links on your blog. Themeable and fully customizable.
FEEDJIT - real time traffic data directly in your blog’s sidebar.
LineBuzz - inline comments for your blog. Very handy for blogs with frequent lively discussions.
Flixn - display a stream directly from your webcam, so your blog visitors can always see what you’re up to.
3Jam - lets your visitors send messages to your mobile phone, without them knowing your phone number.
Jaxtr - with Jaxtr, your visitors can actually call you to your mobile phone; again, your number stays private.
LinkedInABox - show off your LinkedIn profile. Perfect for personal blogs.
Box Widget - enable visitors to use box.net’s online storage directly on your web site.
Price of gas - displaying gas prices on your blog might seem unnecessary to some, but it’s cool if you have a traffic/travel related blog.
iBegin Weather Widget - Display weather information in your sidebar. Just like with Price of Gas, works great with travel-related blogs.
ClockLink - display time in various time zones with these nifty Flash clocks.
Film Loops - display the latest loops from your FilmLoops account.
Daily Painters - display paintings from famous painters on your blog.
WhoLinked - show your visitors which sites have recently linked to your web site. Works with all major blog platforms.
Criteo AutoRoll - displays links to blogs similar to your blog.
Bitty Browser - embed a cute, fully functional mini web browser to your blog.
Leafletter - create a mini website and embed it into your blog.
WikiSeek - search Wikipedia with this simple widget.
FeedCount - show off the number of visitors to your blog with this handy little button.
Technorati Link Count - display the number of links your website has from one of the biggest blog authorities - Technorati.
MyPageRank - another good way to show how “big” your blog is is to show off your Google PageRank.
CheckPageRank - in addition to showing your PageRank, this widget also shows your Alexa ranking.
BlinkxIt - embed a link to related videos directly into your website.
Skype button - display your Skype online/offline status on your blog.
RockYou Horoscope - not something I would personally use, but some people are into horoscope. Hell, most people are into horoscope. Anyway, this widget shows horoscope (doh!) and does it in a nicely designed colorful box.
del.icio.us Tagometer - display how many times have del.icio.us users saved your page.
del.icio.us Linkrolls - this badge shows your latest bookmarks from del.icio.us.
Timelines - need to create a timeline? Seek no further. This widget makes it really easy.
PollDaddy - PollDaddy lets you create beautiful polls in no time, and display them at your blog.
Vizu - another poll-making widget, compatible with all major blog platforms.
AnswerTips - display definitions from Answers.com for various terms on your blog. The definitions are shown in bubbles which are activated on doubleclick.
AnswerBoxes - give your visitors a chance to enter a term themselves, and get a definition from Answers.com
Now Playing - if you got to share your current playlist contents with the world, Sigamp will do the trick. Works with most popular music players, including Foobar, Winamp, iTunes and others.
BuzzBoost - display headlines from your RSS feed on any website.
LibraryThing - show off the latest books you’ve been reading.
Plaxo Address Book - let your most faithful visitors access their address books direclty from your site.
AuctionAds - a widget that displays auctioned items on eBay, and gives you a percentage of the price paid when sometimes buys an item.
aStore - similar to AuctionAds, only for Amazon. Create a mini-store on your site and receive profit when someone buys an item through your store.
Plazes - show your current location on a Plazes map.
Stockalicious - track your portfolio with this widget, and share it with others. Let everyone know how much money you’ve lost.
Yahoo! For Good - create a charity badge and ask for donations for a worthy cause.
Giftspace - your friends never know what to buy you for birthday? Let them know what you really want with this nifty widget.
MixMap - see where are the visitors to your MySpace profile from on a map.
Google Map Widget - display a searchable Google Map on your website.
Google Video Search - add a video search form and selected videos to your web site.
Odeo player - display an Odeo player for and podcast right there in your sidebar.

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Microsoft: Windows 7 will run on SSD netbooks

Microsoft is not pushing Vista for netbooks because of its larger footprint, but Windows 7 will be able to comfortably run on netbooks with as little as 16GB of storage

Netbooks equipped with solid-state drives (SSD) sporting as little as 16GB of storage capacity will be able to comfortably run Windows 7, Microsoft said on Thursday.
The operating system and auxiliary files generated by Windows 7 -- including restore files, log points, hibernation files, and temp files -- will require 8GB, leaving 8GB for applications and user data, Microsoft senior lead program manager Leon Braginski said during a presentation at its Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC).
The entire install of Windows 7 will be smaller than Vista ," Braginski said. Thus, 16GB is "enough for a good Windows 7 experience."

The first subnotebook computer, or netbook, released last year, the Asus Eee PC 701, came with a 4GB SSD. It ran Linux because Windows Vista could not fit , and because Microsoft refused to license XP to netbook makers at that time.

As netbooks started taking off, Microsoft came around , allowing netbook makers to license Windows XP Home Edition .

Though many netbooks now come with standard hard drives, Microsoft is working on slimming down XP too so it can fit on low-end netbooks with SSDs as small as 2GB , such as the One Laptop Per Child project's XO laptop.

Microsoft is not pushing Windows Vista for netbooks today, in part because its larger footprint , and because larger-capacity SSDs, i.e. with 8GB or 16GB or more, remain pricey.

Gartner expects the wholesale prices of SSDs to be halved by 2010, when Windows 7 is expected to be released.

Braginski would not say whether Microsoft plans to create a stripped-down version of Windows 7 specifically for netbooks. He did say that Microsoft has no plans to create a special user interface for Windows 7 for netbooks' smaller screens. Windows 7 will also not officially support boot from USB flash drives, Braginski said.

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Anti-malware testing standard proposed

Symantec, McAfee, F-Secure and Kaspersky are among the names who have pledged support for the project, which boasts a list of more than 40 security vendors and media groups as part of the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organisation.

The new system would provide guidelines as to how a test should be conducted, including the types of malware used, method of analysis, and accurate support for a conclusion. The guidelines also outline procedures for studying and disclosing new malware samples.

Many security vendors and experts have suggested that an updated standard for testing be established in recent years. Current security tests, such as the VB100 system, have been criticized for their testing procedures and what some say is an inability to accurately access certain types of anti-malware programs.

The group hopes that its outlines will allow both security firms and independent testing groups to research the effectiveness of anti-malware software with better accuracy and a built-in neutrality.

"While there have been many great security software reviews in the past, many poor reviews have confused or misled people," commented McAfee senior vice president Jeff Green.

"This is a significant milestone that should skew the balance towards fair and scientific testing, providing users with a true viewpoint on the security protection vendors provide."

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Warning on Halloween web fraud

Scammers are latching onto Halloween web sites as a method of spreading infectious code internet monitoring company Websense is warning.
The company is warning that sites selling Halloween gifts and services have been targeted as never before and internet users can be put at risk of infection from code embedded within them.

“One particular example is a Web site selling Halloween costumes. The deobfuscation returned by ThreatSeeker shows that the JavaScript has multiple layers of obfuscation,” the company said in an alert.

“The script contacts a malicious server in the .biz TLD. Within the ThreatSeeker network, we have seen almost ten thousand sites infected with the same obfuscation technique.”

Another technique involves building a redirect into a popular web site. Websense has detected over 13,000 such script injections in popular sites.

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Critical infrastructure often under cyberattack

Computer systems that run the world's critical infrastructure are not as secure as they should be and insiders are mad.
That's according to a new survey released Monday that asked management, network engineers, and administrators in nine infrastructure industries about the state of cybersecurity in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

Insiders felt that all of these industries, save financial services, were unprepared for cyberattacks. These unready industries included: water, utilities, oil and gas, telecommunications, transportation, emergency services, chemicals, and the shipping industry.

And that's bad news because more than half of them said that their companies had already been hit with some sort of cyber incident, data leak, or insider attack. Another 14 percent said they were expecting something like this to happen in the next year. "None of them thought that they were very prepared for either insider threats or data leakage," said Elan Winkler, director of critical infrastructure solutions with Secure Computing.

About 90 percent of the survey's 199 respondents were directly employed in infrastructure industry with the other 10 percent listed some other occupation such as academic or consultant. Winkler's company paid for the study, which was produced by IDC's Energy Insights. IDC is owned by the IDG News Service's parent company, International Data Group.

Although there have been scattered reports of computer compromises affecting critical infrastructure, most companies keep this kind of information secret because it is considered to be potentially embarrassing.

That's not the case in the IT security industry, which often prides itself on the open disclosure of information, and there is often a culture clash between IT security folks who push to make security information public, and more conservative utility security workers, who worry that this kind of knowledge could be misused.

The Energy Insights survey found that many insiders are dissatisfied with the lack of preparedness within their own industries. About three quarters of respondents said they were "annoyed, angry or frustrated" with the state of critical infrastructure security, Winkler said.

"These are the people who actually know what's going on and they're unhappy," she said. "That, to me was a real surprise"

Some industries are farther along than others, Winkler said. Financial, energy and telecommunications are the most prepared, she said. While the water industry, shipping, and transportation industries were rated least-ready.

However, the Energy sector was considered the most in need of improved security because it is the biggest, most vulnerable and easiest to breach, respondents said.

Cost was ranked as the biggest impediment to security, Winkler said.

Industries that have already seen how a major disaster can affect their bottom line are more likely to have a serious risk analysis models that take things like cybersecurity into account, said Eric Byres,] chief technology officer with Byres security, a critical infrastructure security consultancy. "What I'm seeing is that there is a real mix," he said. "Some companies are really on the ball... and then I see other companies that are very much in the dark, who don't get it."

The companies that are prepared for the next cyber attack are the ones that have buy-in from the bosses, Byres said. "It really gets driven from the upper management," he said.

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New worm exploits critical Windows bug

A worm that exploits the bug Microsoft patched in an emergency update 11 days ago is actively attacking systems, several security companies and researchers said Monday.

The worm, which Symantec Corp. labeled " Wecorl " but was dubbed "MS08-067.g" by Kaspersky Lab and Microsoft itself, likely originated in China, said Kevin Haley, a director with Symantec's security response team. "It may have come out of China," said Haley, who added that it appeared to target Chinese language versions of Windows 2000.

Haley confirmed that the worm is both different from the information-stealing Trojan horse that prompted Microsoft to issue the out-of-cycle patch on Oct. 23, and circulating in the wild.

Other researchers echoed Symantec's take that the worm installs multiple components on victimized PCs, including a Trojan downloader and rootkit code to mask it from security software. Helsinki-based F-Secure Corp ., for example, identified the former as "Trojan-Dropper.Win32.Agent.yhi" and the rootkit bits as "Rootkit.Win32.KernelBot.dg."

According to Haley, if the worm manages to infect a Windows PC, it also tries to attack all the machines on the same subnet. "If it can get behind the [fire]wall, then it can infect other systems," Haley said.

"That circumvents the firewall mitigation that Microsoft noted," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security Inc. "Enterprises typically have laptops configured to be location aware so when they're on the company network, parts of the firewall are disabled, or port 139 is allowed from known IP addresses."

In the security bulletin it released two weeks ago, Microsoft said that "standard default firewall configurations can help protect network resources from attacks that originate outside the enterprise perimeter."

Within days of the emergency patch , hackers had published working attack code on the Internet.

F-Secure said that the just-released worm is based on the exploit code that had been posted online last week. nCircle's Storms agreed that's likely.

Symantec rated the worm as a "Very Low" threat, although it maintained its ThreatCon, an all-around indicator of Internet security, at "2" because Microsoft issued an emergency patch. "It doesn't appear to be very widespread, although that could change, of course," said Haley.

As counter-intuitive as it sounds, Storms said that the appearance of a worm is actually a good thing. "Evidence that we're finding and detecting it means we're in a better situation than we were earlier," he argued. "If it had gone undetected and unfound [it would have meant] that enterprises didn't have any defense-in-depth. But because we're finding it, that means we have signatures for it."

Storms urged users who had not installed the MS08-067 update to do so immediately. "The worm may not have many legs, but you should get ahead of the game and deploy now," he said.

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Researchers crack WPA encryption

Two researchers have apparently cracked a part of the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) encryption protocol.

Erik Tews and Martin Beck claim to have broken the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol in under 15 minutes. The breakthrough means that data sent from the router to the PC can be scanned, but not the other way around.

Access to this traffic could also enable a hacker to send false information to a client on the network.
The researchers developed a way to get the router to send out large volumes of traffic, thereby giving them a large data set to work with, in order to break the key using a mathematical formula the pair developed.

WPA's predecessor, Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), which was developed as one of the first wireless security systems in the 1990s, is now considered almost completely unsecure as it can be hacked in just a few minutes using tools easily available on the internet.

WPA2, an advanced version of the protocol, is not susceptible to the new attack and is still considered secure.

But WPA2 is a relatively new platform and was only made mandatory in all new products from March this year, meaning that many users may have routers that do not support the standard.

Experts believe that this latest development could open the door for a host of new wireless network attacks, forcing many businesses to upgrade their systems to remain protected.

Full details about the WPA hack will be revealed and discussed next week at the PacSec Applied Security Conference in Tokyo.

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Window 7 Calculator for Windows Vista

Windows 7 (seven) as the Younger Generation from windows the Vista was still not marketed by Microsoft. Was based on information that I could, windows 7 will be released next year (2009) in public. However for you that used SO your Vista possibly could feel mengunakan Windows 7dengan used Calculator Windows 7 to just was stylish as using Windows 7 or while waiting during the SO Window release 7 tsb. I myself have tried him and compared between calculator that was met to Windows Vista Windows 7. There was gotten by several differences feature and tampilan him. Calculator in windows 7 far more better than that was had by the vista. Pay attention to the picture was supervised this:

This was snapshot calculator that was met to Windows Vista:

And this was snapshot Calculator Windows 7:

Seen clear from tampilan him that windows 7 better. For the function and fitur-fitur him also often was gotten by the increase. One of them in calculator windows 7, we could edit again results of our counting. Then was gotten mode; programmer, statistic. In options him also was gotten; Date Calculation, Template, Unit Conversion. And we could also count easily the calculation of the issuing like the pay, and counted the loan of the pay. And that attracted him this application did not need us install to be able to be undertaken. I myself was still trying him to OS Windows Vista. It did not yet try him in Windows XP. Jika you intended to try him to OS Windows XP, don't forget review him through comment. If you wanted to try him in windows your Vista could download in link download was supervised that was given by me.

Free Download Here (Gubuk Free Download) :Windows 7 Calculator

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Internet Download Manager 5.15 - Full Version

The internet of Download Manager (IDM) already update and merelease the version 5,15 to 28 oct 2008. If you were still using IDM vers 5,14 already could immediately mengupdate him. Because in this new version was gotten by several improvements and optimasi so as to make the Internet of Download Manager increasingly effective to be used by us. And in the version this time the price from IDM was $30 that if you wanted to buy him officially. But if you wanted free could download in link was supervised that will be provided by me. If you wanted to know in more detail about IDM could read to my article beforehand here (the clique here) I personally suggested that you chose and used IDM as download the Manager you, apalgi to that hoby and liked download-download in the internet. Many surpluses that were owned by IDM compared with programs of Download Manager other like flashget or DAP.



The Install guidance:

• It was first that you download File Installer IDM 5,15 and file pach-a
• Afterwards you install to your OS(Operating System)
  
• After being finished,was opened file pach that was met to the folder of idmpatch5.15-www.d60pc.com
• Copy would file this inside directory where you install IDM (C:\the Files Program\the Internet of Download Manager)
• Then was opened file this and Run the program
• Finish
  

DOWNLOAD HERE

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Window 7 Calculator untuk Windows Vista

Windows 7 (seven) sebagai Generasi penerus dari windows Vista masih belum dipasarkan oleh Microsoft. Berdasarkan informasi-informasi yang saya dapat, windows 7 akan dirilis tahun depan (2009) pada public. Namun bagi anda yang menggunakan SO Vista anda mungkin bisa merasakan mengunakan Windows 7dengan menggunakan Calculator Windows 7 untuk sekedar bergaya seperti telah menggunakan Windows 7 atau sementara menanti saat rilis SO Window 7 tsb.

Saya sendiri sudah mencobanya dan membandingkan antara calculator yang terdapat pada Windows Vista Windows 7. Ada terdapat beberapa perbedaan feature dan tampilannya. Calculator pada windows 7 jauh lebih baik daripada yang dimiliki oleh vista. Perhatikan gambar dibawah ini :

Ini adalah tampilan calculator yang terdapat pada Windows Vista :

Dan ini adalah Tampilan Calculator Windows 7 :

Terlihat jelas dari tampilannya bahwa windows 7 lebih baik. Untuk fungsi dan fitur-fiturnya juga banyak terdapat penambahan. Salah satunya pada calculator windows 7, kita dapat mengedit kembali hasil penghitungan kita. Lalu terdapat mode ; programmer, statistic.

Pada optionsnya juga terdapat ; Date Calculation, Template, Unit Conversion. Dan kita juga dapat menghitung dengan mudah perhitungan pengeluaran seperti gaji, dan menghitung pinjaman gaji.

Dan yang menariknya aplikasi ini tidak perlu kita install untuk dapat dijalankan. Saya sendiri masih mencobanya pada OS Windows Vista. Belum mencobanya di Windows XP. Jika anda berniat mencobanya pada OS Windows XP, jangan lupa reviewnya melalui comment.

Jika anda ingin mencobanya pada windows Vista anda bisa download pada link download dibawah yang saya berikan.

Download Disini :Windows 7 Calculator (Gubuk Free Download)

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First look at Windows 7's User Interface

At PDC today, Microsoft gave the first public demonstration of Windows 7. Until now, the company has been uncharacteristically secretive about its new OS; over the past few months, Microsoft has let on that the taskbar will undergo a number of changes, and that many bundled applications would be unbundled and shipped with Windows Live instead. There have also been occasional screenshots of some of the new applets like Calculator and Paint. Now that the covers are finally off, the scale of the new OS becomes clear. The user interface has undergone the most radical overhaul and update since the introduction of Windows 95 thirteen years ago.
First, however, it's important to note what Windows 7 isn't. Windows 7 will not contain anything like the kind of far-reaching architectural modifications that Microsoft made with Windows Vista. Vista brought a new display layer and vastly improved security, but that came at a cost: a significant number of (badly-written) applications had difficulty running on Vista. Applications expecting to run with Administrator access were still widespread when Vista was released, and though many software vendors do a great job, there are still those that haven't updated or fixed their software. Similarly, at its launch many hardware vendors did not have drivers that worked with the new sound or video subsystems, leaving many users frustrated.
While windows 7 doesn't undo these architectural changes—they were essential for the long-term health of the platform—it equally hasn't made any more. Any hardware or software that works with Windows Vista should also work correctly with Windows 7, so unlike the transition from XP to Vista, the transition from Vista to 7 won't show any regressions; nothing that used to work will stop working.
As well as these broader industry trends, Microsoft also has extensive data on how people use its software. Through the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP), an optional, off-by-default feature of many Microsoft programs, the company has learned a great deal about the things that users do. For example, from CEIP data Microsoft knows that 70% of users have between 5 and 15 windows open at any one time, and that most of the time they only actively use one or two of those windows. With this kind of data, Microsoft has streamlined and refined the user experience.
The biggest visible result of all this is the taskbar. The taskbar in Windows 7 is worlds apart from the taskbar we've known and loved ever since the days of Chicago.
Text descriptions on the buttons are gone, in favor of big icons. The icons can—finally—be rearranged; no longer will restarting an application put all your taskbar icons in the wrong order. The navigation between windows is now two-level; mousing over an icon shows a set of window thumbnails, and clicking the thumbnail switches windows.

Right clicking the icons shows a new UI device that Microsoft calls "Jump Lists."

They're also found on the Start Menu:
Jump lists provide quick access to application features. Applications that use the system API for their Most Recently Used list (the list of recently-used filenames that many apps have in their File menus) will automatically acquire a Jump List containing their most recently used files. There's also an API to allow applications to add custom entries; Media Player, for example, includes special options to control playback.

This automatic support for new features is a result of deliberate effort on Microsoft's part. The company wants existing applications to benefit from as many of the 7 features as they can without any developer effort. New applications can extend this automatic support through new APIs to further enrich the user experience. The taskbar thumbnails are another example of this approach. All applications get thumbnails, but applications with explicit support for 7 will be able to add thumbnails on a finer-grained basis. IE8, for instance, has a thumbnail per tab (rather than per window).

Window management has also undergone changes. In recognition of the fact that people tend only to use one or two windows concurrently, 7 makes organizing windows quicker and easier. Dragging a window to the top of the screen maximizes it automatically; dragging it off the top of the screen restores it. Dragging a window to the left or right edge of the screen resizes the window so that it takes 50% of the screen. With this, a pair of windows can be quickly docked to each screen edge to facilitate interaction between them.

Another common task that 7 improves is "peeking" at windows; switching to a window briefly just to read something within the window but not actually interact with the window. To make this easier, scrubbing the mouse over the taskbar thumbnails will turn every window except the one being pointed at into a glass outline; moving the mouse away will reinstate all the glass windows. As well as being used for peeking at windows, you can also peek at the desktop:

Peeking at the desktop is particularly significant, because the desktop is now where gadgets live. Because people are increasingly using laptops, taking up a big chunk of space for the sidebar isn't really viable; Microsoft has responded by scrapping the sidebar and putting the gadgets onto the desktop itself. Gadgets are supposed to provide at-a-glance information; peeking at the desktop, therefore, becomes essential for using gadgets.

The taskbar's system tray has also been improved. A common complaint about the tray is that it fills with useless icons and annoying notifications. With 7, the tray is now owned entirely by the user. By default, new tray icons are hidden and invisible; the icons are only displayed if explicitly enabled. The icons themselves have also been streamlined to make common tasks (such as switching wireless networks) easier and faster.

The other significant part of the Windows UI is Explorer. Windows 7 introduces a new concept named Libraries. Libraries provide a view onto arbitrary parts of the filesystem with organization optimized for different kinds of files. In use, Libraries feel like a kind of WinFS-lite; they don't have the complex database system underneath, but they do retain the idea of a custom view of your files that's independent of where the files are. The other significant part of the Windows UI is Explorer. Windows 7 introduces a new concept named Libraries. Libraries provide a view onto arbitrary parts of the filesystem with organization optimized for different kinds of files. In use, Libraries feel like a kind of WinFS-lite; they don't have the complex database system underneath, but they do retain the idea of a custom view of your files that's independent of where the files are.

hese UI changes represent a brave move by the company. The new UI takes the concepts that Windows users have been using for the last 13 years and extends them in new and exciting ways. Windows 7 may not change much under the hood, but the extent of these interface changes makes it clear that this is very much a major release.

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First look at windows 7's user interface (part3)

Peeking at the desktop is particularly significant, because the desktop is now where gadgets live. Because people are increasingly using laptops, taking up a big chunk of space for the sidebar isn't really viable; Microsoft has responded by scrapping the sidebar and putting the gadgets onto the desktop itself. Gadgets are supposed to provide at-a-glance information; peeking at the desktop, therefore, becomes essential for using gadgets.

The other significant part of the Windows UI is Explorer. Windows 7 introduces a new concept named Libraries. Libraries provide a view onto arbitrary parts of the filesystem with organization optimized for different kinds of files. In use, Libraries feel like a kind of WinFS-lite; they don't have the complex database system underneath, but they do retain the idea of a custom view of your files that's independent of where the files are.

These UI changes represent a brave move by the company. The new UI takes the concepts that Windows users have been using for the last 13 years and extends them in new and exciting ways. Windows 7 may not change much under the hood, but the extent of these interface changes makes it clear that this is very much a major release.

source :http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081028-first-look-at-windows-7.html

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First look at windows 7's user interface (part2)

Text descriptions on the buttons are gone, in favor of big icons. The icons can—finally—be rearranged; no longer will restarting an application put all your taskbar icons in the wrong order. The navigation between windows is now two-level; mousing over an icon shows a set of window thumbnails, and clicking the thumbnail switches windows.
Right clicking the icons shows a new UI device that Microsoft calls "Jump Lists."

They're also found on the Start Menu:

Jump lists provide quick access to application features. Applications that use the system API for their Most Recently Used list (the list of recently-used filenames that many apps have in their File menus) will automatically acquire a Jump List containing their most recently used files. There's also an API to allow applications to add custom entries; Media Player, for example, includes special options to control playback.
This automatic support for new features is a result of deliberate effort on Microsoft's part. The company wants existing applications to benefit from as many of the 7 features as they can without any developer effort. New applications can extend this automatic support through new APIs to further enrich the user experience. The taskbar thumbnails are another example of this approach. All applications get thumbnails, but applications with explicit support for 7 will be able to add thumbnails on a finer-grained basis. IE8, for instance, has a thumbnail per tab (rather than per window).
Window management has also undergone changes. In recognition of the fact that people tend only to use one or two windows concurrently, 7 makes organizing windows quicker and easier. Dragging a window to the top of the screen maximizes it automatically; dragging it off the top of the screen restores it. Dragging a window to the left or right edge of the screen resizes the window so that it takes 50% of the screen. With this, a pair of windows can be quickly docked to each screen edge to facilitate interaction between them.
Another common task that 7 improves is "peeking" at windows; switching to a window briefly just to read something within the window but not actually interact with the window. To make this easier, scrubbing the mouse over the taskbar thumbnails will turn every window except the one being pointed at into a glass outline; moving the mouse away will reinstate all the glass windows. As well as being used for peeking at windows, you can also peek at the desktop:

Read More

First look at windows 7's user interface (part1)

At PDC today, Microsoft gave the first public demonstration of Windows 7. Until now, the company has been uncharacteristically secretive about its new OS; over the past few months, Microsoft has let on that the taskbar will undergo a number of changes, and that many bundled applications would be unbundled and shipped with Windows Live instead. There have also been occasional screenshots of some of the new applets like Calculator and Paint. Now that the covers are finally off, the scale of the new OS becomes clear. The user interface has undergone the most radical overhaul and update since the introduction of Windows 95 thirteen years ago.
First, however, it's important to note what Windows 7 isn't. Windows 7 will not contain anything like the kind of far-reaching architectural modifications that Microsoft made with Windows Vista. Vista brought a new display layer and vastly improved security, but that came at a cost: a significant number of (badly-written) applications had difficulty running on Vista. Applications expecting to run with Administrator access were still widespread when Vista was released, and though many software vendors do a great job, there are still those that haven't updated or fixed their software. Similarly, at its launch many hardware vendors did not have drivers that worked with the new sound or video subsystems, leaving many users frustrated.
While windows 7 doesn't undo these architectural changes—they were essential for the long-term health of the platform—it equally hasn't made any more. Any hardware or software that works with Windows Vista should also work correctly with Windows 7, so unlike the transition from XP to Vista, the transition from Vista to 7 won't show any regressions; nothing that used to work will stop working.
So, rather than low-level, largely invisible system changes, the work on Windows 7 has focused much more on the user experience. The way people use computers is changing; for example, it's increasingly the case that new PCs are bought to augment existing home machines rather than replacement, so there are more home networks and shared devices. Business users are switching to laptops, with the result that people expect to seamlessly use their (Domain-joined) office PC on their home network.
As well as these broader industry trends, Microsoft also has extensive data on how people use its software. Through the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP), an optional, off-by-default feature of many Microsoft programs, the company has learned a great deal about the things that users do. For example, from CEIP data Microsoft knows that 70% of users have between 5 and 15 windows open at any one time, and that most of the time they only actively use one or two of those windows. With this kind of data, Microsoft has streamlined and refined the user experience.
The biggest visible result of all this is the taskbar. The taskbar in Windows 7 is worlds apart from the taskbar we've known and loved ever since the days of Chicago.
source :http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081028-first-look-at-windows-7.html

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Download Flash Player 10 RC2 (IE)

Adobe Flash Player is the high performance, lightweight, highly expressive client runtime that delivers powerful and consistent user experiences across major operating systems, browsers, mobile phones and devices.
Installed on over 750 million Internet-connected desktops and mobile devices, Flash Player enables organizations and individuals to build and deliver great digital experiences to their end users.
Immersive experiences with Flash video, content and applications with full-screen mode.
Low-bandwidth, high-quality video with advanced compression technology.
High-fidelity text using the advanced text rendering engine.
Real-time dynamic effects with filters for Blur, DropShadow, Glow, Bevel, Gradient Glow, Gradient Bevel, Displacement Map, Convolution, and Color Matrix.
Innovative media compositions with 8-bit video alpha channels.
Blend modes, radial gradient, and stroke enhancements.
Additional image formats: GIF, Progressive JPEG, and PNG.
This download is the standalone ActiveX installer for Internet Explorer. download now

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Microsoft releases IE8 beta 2

The installer weighs in at 23.1 MB and users will be required to remove beta 1 before it can be installed.Windows Vista users will have to dig deep to find the uninstaller for beta 1, it is located under: Control Panel, Programs & Features and in the left menu: "Installed Updates" under the listing Windows Internet Explorer 8. You will then be required to restart your system before beta 2 can be installed.Download: Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 12 MB (x86) 23.1 MB (x64)

source:http://softdennz.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html#1232123349850454306

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Microsoft previews Windows 7 client OS

Compatibility, user customization, energy efficiency, and multitouch interfaces among the Windows 7 planned enhancements

Microsoft today touted the five themes of the upcoming Windows 7 client OS and made a pre-release version of the software available for developers at the company's Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles. A full, API-complete beta release that developers can begin using for app development is planned for early 2009, said Debby Fry Wilson, senior director of Windows product management at Microsoft. General release is planned for early 2010.

Mobile computing. This includes improvements in energy efficiency, security, and the ability to move in and out of networks.
Services design. The OS will focus on core capabilities and take out client applications focused on communications and user experience. Instead, these services will be offered (likely for a fee) on the Windows Live cloud service for those who want them.

Personalization. The OS will adapt to how a user interacts with a PC and how the user wants the user interface to look and feel.

Entertainment optimization. This includes features for device management and "media experience."

Compatibility and stability. Microsoft says the revised OS will focus on application and device compatibility and ensuring that applications and devices work properly -- an apparent response to the problems with Windows Vista. "Our goal is to have any application and device that works on Vista to [be] compatible with Windows 7," Wilson said.

Other capabilities include location-aware printing, in which the OS knows whether a printer is at work or at home, and home networking capabilities. Also, Microsoft says that users will be able to access their company's intranet sites without requiring a VPN. Multitouch capabilities a la those in Apple's iPhone and new MacBooks -- as well as in Microsoft's Surface technology -- also are planned.

source:http://www.infoworld.com

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Mandriva unveils Linux for netbooks

Linux publisher Mandriva has unveiled a version of its platform designed specifically for the new breed of mini laptops.
Mandriva Mini is aimed primarily at vendors of so-called 'netbooks', and is customised for this category of small form factor device, Mandriva said.It features a fast boot-up, comprehensive connectivity support and multimedia codecs, and is adapted to work on key netbook platforms such as Intel's Atom. Unlike Windows, which powers many mini laptops, Linux versions such as Mandriva Mini are customised for a small footprint and efficient power management, and have user interfaces adapted to smaller display screens."We are very proud to bring to the market a product which answers the needs of OEMs and ODMs and we are busy distributing it to clients and prospective clients," said Mandriva chief executive François Bancilhon.Mandriva previously offered a customised version of its 2008 Spring release for the Asus Eee PC, and was a distributor of Linux for Intel's Classmate PC initiative.

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Google phone debuts

SAN FRANCISCO: Amobile telephone tailored to run on Google’s Android software is to debut on Tuesday in New York City.
US telecom carrier T-Mobile is slated to unveil on September 23 a “Google phone” built by Taiwanese firm HTC and to have the device for sale in stores in the month of October this year.
The mobile, already dubbed the “G-phone,” will run on Android, Google’s new software for mobile phones. It will be launched in New York tomorrow afternoon, and will be available in the US next month. It is anticipated that the phone will be available in British stores by November. The G1 is expected to cost about $199, which would be around the same cost as basic 8GB version of the iPhone.
Google is hoping Android will become the dominant operating system for mobile phones. It is designed to improve the speed and quality of using the Internet on handsets.Android is being developed as an “open source” platform, meaning anyone is free to use the technology to make mobile telephones compatible with the networks of multiple carriers.
Google announced Android plans late last year and analysts reacted by saying it could potentially transform the mobile telephone market by providing service supported by advertising instead of subscription fees.
“We are seeing a number of technology companies demonstrating how Android will operate on their technology,” Google spokesman Barry Schnitt told AFP at a Mobile World Congress gathering in Spain early this year. “Clearly momentum is building.”Google announced a 34-member group called the “Open Handset Alliance” in November of 2007 to develop Android, including China Mobile, HTC, Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm, T-Mobile, Telefonica, LG and eBay.ARM, Marvell, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, NEC, ST Microelectronics were reportedly among companies that demonstrated Android phone prototypes at the Mobile World Congress.

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Google Chrome

System requirements: Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or later, or Windows Vista
Pros: Easy to use, good performance
Cons: Awkward bookmark management, some beta stability issues
The final word: Google has produced an excellent browser that is friendly enough to handle average browsing activities without complicating the tasks, but at the same time it's powerful enough to meet the needs of more-advanced users.

GOOGLE takes aim squarely at Microsoft with its web browser, Chrome.
And Microsoft should be very afraid: Chrome lives up to its hype by rethinking the web browser in clever and convenient ways that make using the web a more organic experience than you'd get with either Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 or Mozilla's Firefox 3.
Initially available for download for Windows Vista and XP, Google plans to expand its Chrome offerings to the Mac and Linux platforms as well. The company doesn't offer any timeline for these versions, though.
Chrome automatically detects the web browser you're using and prompts you through the process of installation (right down to telling you how to access downloaded files within Firefox, for example). When you first run the application, Chrome imports your bookmarks, passwords and settings from Firefox or Internet Explorer. It even can grab username and password data, and it automatically populates those fields for you when you use Chrome for the first time to visit a particular site.
After running through a quick import checklist, Chrome opens on your desktop – and right away you begin to experience the web in a new way. Chrome's layout is very simple: You'll see a row of tabs running along the top, a web address bar, and a bookmarks bar that runs beneath the address bar. A separate recent bookmarks box appears at the right of the screen, as does a history search field.
Like its Google stablemates, Chrome has a remarkably minimalist interface. There is no full-scale menu bar and no title bar – and few distractions. All controls are buried beneath two icons to the right of the Omnibar (as Google refers to its address bar): a page icon for managing tabs and using Google Gears to create application-like shortcuts from your desktop to a web site; and a wrench for history, downloads, and other browser options.
You can set your own home page, or you can use the “most visited” sites page as your starting point. This page provides thumbnail images of your most frequently visited sites, shows recent bookmarks, and supplies a search field for searching your page history. You can change your default search engine, too: This option is located beneath the wrench icon, under Options.
Chrome's design bridges the gap between desktop and so-called “cloud computing”. At the touch of a button, Chrome lets you make a desktop, Start menu, or QuickLaunch shortcut to any web page or web application, blurring the line between what's online and what's inside your PC. For example, I created a desktop shortcut for Google Maps. When you create a shortcut for a web application, Chrome strips away all of the toolbars and tabs from the window, leaving you with something that feels much more like a desktop application than like a web application or page. The lack of forward and back buttons means that if you browse between pages in a saved Wwb application you may find yourself a little confused if you want to go back a page. Chrome does let you right-click to navigate backward, however.
This being Google, search is an integral part of Chrome; and Google has added some clever features to make searching easier. Chrome goes beyond its Microsoft and Mozilla competition by searching your browser history's page titles as well page content. The history results show the title of the page, as well as a thumbnail representation of the page (for some sites but not all; it was unclear why some sites were visually represented while others were not), but it doesn't show the actual web page address. The lack of URL information can make it difficult to identify the specific web page you're going to, especially if the site's title bar description is not specific (because, say, different sections of the same site have identical title bar descriptors).
For example, earlier today I read an article on Macworld about an upcoming Apple launch event. To find the article in my browser history, I simply typed 'apple event' in the Omnibar. The resulting list showed every page I had visited that contained the phrase 'apple event'. Conveniently, the Omnibar lets you search not just your history, but Google and other sites as well.
The default search engine is Google, as you might expect. However, you can choose from a list of nine other search engines, or you can manually add your own search engine. Type “google fish sticks” to search for fish sticks on Google. The same syntax works for Yahoo, Amazon, Live Search, and other sites that are already recognised by Google or that you add. This feature, though nifty and promising, proved inconsistent in the early going: It worked for me most of the time on a Windows Vista PC, but two of my colleagues who were testing Chrome on Windows XP machines had trouble getting the feature to work. Google provides keywords to activate this search feature, but some of us had to edit the search engine keywords manually before the feature would function properly.
Chrome includes a number of features that appear in other browsers, such as a private browsing mode dubbed Incognito, tools for web developers to use in viewing and troubleshooting source code, and the ability to restore all tabs from a previous session. Chrome also features tab isolation: If an internet page causes a problem with Chrome and leads to a crash, the crash will affect only the tab displaying the page and not the whole program. Internet Explorer 8 will offer a similar feature, but Chrome takes the idea a step further by adding a task manager that gives the user an idea of how much memory and CPU use a page is eating up, and by allowing you to kill anything that is causing a problem. Unfortunately, you have to configure this tool manually.
In my early testing, I ran into some problems. Chrome can be a little unstable, which is not surprising considering that it is a beta. Also, I have found that Flash does not work with Chrome on my Vista-based system, though my two colleagues running XP had no issues with Flash compatibility. They did, however, experience software crashes when searching in the history section. And when Chrome crashes, it takes everything with it unless you manually configure the browser to act otherwise (the configuration options are buried under the wrench icon, in the Options/Basics menu). In contrast, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 automatically restore your previous session in the event of a crash.
The sites I visited that rely on JavaScript and Ajax seemed to work fine, but Microsoft's Silverlight wouldn't work with Chrome. Google's browser uses WebKit, the same engine that powers Apple's Safari web browser – and Silverlight only works with Safari for Mac. Google has produced an excellent browser that is friendly enough to handle average browsing activities without complicating the tasks, but at the same time it's powerful enough to meet the needs of more-advanced users. The search functionality of the Omnibar is one of many innovations that caught my attention. PC World has chosen to rate this beta version of Chrome because of Google's history of leaving products and services in long-term beta and in an ongoing state of evolution. In the past there has been some speculation that Google would develop its own operating system, but I think Chrome's launch makes one thing is clear: The web browser is Google's operating system.

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