This is a campaign against the old and featureless Microsoft Internet Explorer 6. That is because whenever a developer, designer …person decides to create a web related product, the first roadblock is IE6.

SaveTheDevelopers.org is one of those sites that is against using IE6. No more hacks, no more wasted time and more productivity a developer will get if he will ignore IE6 in the development process.

The nice thing about this site is that it really is a success story. Many developers were enchanted by this initiative and they supported the idea. You can do the same by placing a link or implementing a javascript in your site that will check if the browser is IE6 or better.

Kudos for this idea and the support for modern browsers. If you happen to be one of the IE6 users, please consider alternatives like: Opera, Firefox, IE7, Safari or the new Chrome. Cheers!

The Wall Street Journal, online version, one of the most important financial news site has a new look. After years when the only thing important was the content, now WSJ.com decided that any good content needs good presentation.

Well, from the beginning I want to tell you that I really like the new design. And it is also noticeable a boost in speed for Wall Street Journal Online beside the look.

The thing that I like the most in this new appearance, is that the designers highlighted the content and not the ads. It is annoying these days when you read websites and the designs are burden with heavy graphics from the commercial ads. That is not the case in this design, because the ad spots are not even together as a big block, instead there are several areas, small areas for this purpose.

Changing from blue/white color scheme to gray/white was a big win. Now the site has more contrast and can support better the content. Also the new design helps the user to stay focus on the article which is a good thing. There are other features like new improved video player, Ajax based controllers, the “Newsreel” component and many more.

Another thing that I see and is very important is placing the comments related to an article in a separate section. In this case the user can only see the article and if he clicks on the comments tab, he can visualize the comments. So, the time response is faster and the user experience better.

Overall I think this a true redesign. Kudos for all team members behind this move and I invite you to test the new WSJ.com

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As you know we are not forever on this Earth and life is the perfect gift for every human. I really appreciate those persons that are good in life and their legacy “echoes into eternity”. This post is dedicated to the movie industry, to all great actors that were for a couple of hours a reason for joy in our life.

The topic is targeted at Romanian actors - an entire generation that made us happy, sad and also proud. A generation that narrows its members day after day… sadly. A generation that will go on in our souls.

The first movie that I will introduce is Michael the Brave (Mihai Viteazul - in Romanian). It is the first ruler that united the 3 small countries Moldova, Tara Romaneasca and Transilvania in one country. Although the union lasted only for a year, it is know as one of the bravest warrior of the 16th-17th century. Here is the scene of its death played by our brilliant actor Amza Pelea. This is a move so great (made in 1970), that even Peter Jackson will think twice whether to showcase Lord of the rings and Michael the brave in the same cinema (kidding - but it is great - no VFX, just stunts and good actors)

The second movie is the popular Vlad Tepes or Vlad the Impaler. It is the source for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Vlad Tepes (Stefan Sileanu) was actually a great ruler, and it is remembered in the history from his night attack against the Turks. This is a trailer from the movie - 1979.

And there are more movies. And there are many actors, that now are watching us from above. They will live through their work and we will always cherish them. And this is available for all that will leave behind more than a name written on a concrete piece. Live well and with no regrets.

I’m sure that by now, everyone knows about the famous deal between Microsoft and the one and only Jerry Seinfeld. A deal worth $10 millions with hope in gaining great reviews and a better view regarding Vista operating system.

The first commercial is called The Shoe Circus and it features Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. Enjoy!

From my point a view, the commercial is a success. It has good messages and a very nice story. Also Jerry and Bill are quite good. They look like they don’t fit and that is the beauty. Although Bill is not the best actor, but watching the ad we can all approve that the man has charisma.

Let’s take a look at Jerry’s first line. “Quality shoes at discount prices, why pay more?”
In this line you can find a description to Microsoft Vista. The motto refers half at Microsoft Vista, half at Apple. Because we all know that Apple has big prices, and we also know that Vista is a competitor in the pc/mac market share. So, that motto is not randomly placed there.

During the whole length of the commercial, some dialog lines are targeted at Vista but not directly. The ad has nothing aggressive and it is an enjoyable clip. It does not look like a classic commercial, but that gives an edge, curiosity and acceptance to the viewers.

I highly recommend this ad, if not for the product but for the amazing opportunity of seeing Bill Gates shaking his booty. Cheers!

PS: Soon I will debate the second commercial or mini-film from Microsoft.

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It has been over a week now, and most tech addict users can express their opinions. The big question is the same from the title: Does Google Chrome rule or suck?

Please make up your mind and choose a side. You can be in the side where the bad EULA is still haunting the users, or the fact that scroll up was not implemented on laptops. Also this side had some laughs with the childish crash from :% characters typed in the address bar.
On the other side there are those in love with V8 - the powerful Javascript engine, Google fans and users with wide acceptance to everything from Google.

Right know it is time to choose. Cheers!

Does Google Chrome suck or rule?

• It sucks!!!
• It rules!!!

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My workflow for writing a blog post was composed of multiple previews and changes. So basically, I was busy 60% of the time writing, and around 40% editing and placing the pictures and other additional tasks. That was up until today.

I want to introduce an awesome product for blogging. This is a new thing for me, and I want to share this nice piece of software that is helping me write this post. The application that I’m talking about is Windows Live Writer - made by Microsoft.  It is a simple desktop software that is does the writing activity more pleasant.

The first question that pops in readers’ mind is: why do you need something like that?
There is no standard answer for this question, but I will try to give my reasons. One of the most important fact is that in this way, by using an external and independent editor, my stats regarding visits will be more accurate. This is helpful when you are trying to see what type of content is more popular and other user behaviors. Other reason will be that I’m no longer forced to use a browser that will sometimes crash due to extensions (Firefox) or lack of stability (others).’

Regarding the program, Windows Live Writer is easy to install. But one nice part is that the configuration is painless - just 2 clicks away. And the benefits are much more than accurate stats - you can see the preview while typing your post, nice and clean interface. You can easily insert video files, pictures, tables (which is painful in Wordpress) and not to mention the Insert Map function.

Also you can add multiple plug-ins from Microsoft’s web site and you can extend this application. But you don’t need me to tell you this - you can find out for yourself. Anyway - Kudos for Windows Live Writer team for this productive piece of software.

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Not many words about the new Mashable website. It is good that now the site looks more integrated but the visual styles are still low. But first let’s define the pros and then the cons.

The pros
It is a good thing that Pete Cashmore thought of doing a redesign session. The previous version had many flaws and this version tends to fix them. For example I like the fact that the advertising is not displayed randomly. That is because Mashable has a simple layout with left side for content and the right sidebar for ads, links and any dynamic elements.

A new and quite interesting feature is the Ribbon. It is a hidden section with different actions, links and articles. But that’s about it. No more good stuff. Except for the small improvement in speed.

The cons
First of all the design is not sensational. Some will say that it is simple, but I say that it even simple layouts can look awesome. This one doesn’t.

There are few contrasts in the layout and also too much blue or whatever that color is. I really don’t like it because it is too homogeneous.

It has no typography and also a strange placement of the blog post elements. And, like all of these were minor issues, the site features a big and annoying “Keep reading”, that has the same color. Also, the menu has the weirdest mouse over effect.

Conclusion
I can’t say that the overall feeling was OK cause it wasn’t. The site is underdeveloped and I think the image that Mashable has should in the blogosphere should be reflected in the site’s interface. C’mon guys - you can do more.

In the last years, the internet world had a great dilemma: whether or not to follow W3C standards. For designers mostly this thing is a must in resume, and most of the showcase websites have as requirement W3C standards.

For this post, I had to check some stats for the first 10 most visited sites. After a visit to stats websites, I found out the formula of the first 10: Google, Yahoo, MSN, Live, Ebay, Youtube, MySpace, Amazon, Wikipedia and Aol.

Guess what? You will be surprised to see the following results. Anyway let’s check the next table and find out how Google and the rest are doing in the web standards area.

After a quick validation session, there was no clear winner. Actually no website was valid both in CSS and (X)HTML. On the CSS side, we have a clear winner, which is Yahoo!. It was the only website from this chart that had standard CSS code. Bravo.

On the (X)HTML side, the situation was quite unbelievable. That was because Microsoft had both sides aligned after the standards. Both MSN and Live passed the validation. And beside these 2 sites, there was only one valid - Wikipedia.

Google had a problem on the CSS validation. The script returned and error because it couldn’t find any CSS files. But at the direct input validation the code was valid. Anyway, in this case we couldn’t make an exception and so - Google was not proper for the CSS test.

So, it looks like in the end, we can see the standards like some kind of permissive guidelines. As an advice - try and make your site standards compliant and if it’s not possible, it doesn’t matter.

Back in February 2008, Microsoft bought the maker of TrueSpace 3D, Caligari Corporation. This move was made so that Virtual Earth team would have resources for 3d environments. A good move I think, because TrueSpace at that time was a good and competitive product. It is true that it didn’t had a good marketing campaign, but the program had features and strong capabilities to help Microsoft Virtual Earth.

It seems like a couple of weeks ago, based on Microsoft solid financial situation, the last version of TrueSpace 3D - 7.6 -, was released for free. Along with the application, the PDF files and also video tutorials were posted as free. Smart choice for Microsoft, which hopes to gain new users, that in the future will contribute to Virtual Earth 3D environments.

The purchase was a similar move as Google’s Sketchup aquisition, but compared to TrueSpace, Sketchup is just a kid. TrueSpace has professional features and capabilities along with a quite powerful community. And with this free release, Microsoft can start educational programs in order to make its name and services popular.

Keep in mind that this is not a free version of the application without some features, it is the full commercial application for free. So, if you are interested into 3d, you can check Caligari home page and download your own version of a powerful 3D application. Cheers!

First of all, this is not porn. Actually, I see it as art. It is very hard to represent beauty. Well, it seems that for Dior Addict this thing was a challenge.

I wanna tell you that the next image is not new. I saw it a couple of years ago in a store. And the nice thing was that the image was a big print with great details. I’m talking about a print ad for Dior Addict perfume. It is flawless - the execution, the attitude, the feeling. I honestly believe that this is, from my point of view obviously, the sexiest print ever. Don’t get me wrong, I like Kim Kardashian, Kate Beckinsale and Adriana Lima. But this image is the sexiest I’ve ever seen.

If you don’t agree, please reply with some example. The image is big in order to see the details. Enjoy!

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