We know the hardest part of blogging is actually writing posts. And most blogging software,  and even word processors, do little to help writers write. Today at WordPress.com we're  proud to announce a new kind of feature, aimed at helping the writing process, called Writing Helper. It's a new box that appears underneath the edit box on the Add a Post Screen (the entire box can be dragged to the right side if you want it next to the edit box, ins … Read More

via WordPress.com News

Have you ever come across a blog post that you enjoyed so much you wanted to easily share it with the readers of your own blog? Sure, you can copy and paste the link and perhaps even a snippet of text with your own comments, but overall it's not a particularly enjoyable experience. We wanted to change this and make sharing other posts with your readers as easy as posting to your blog. Today we're introducing a new like and reblog feature enabled … Read More

via WordPress.com News

I’m among the first with access to Windows 7 RTM along with support and technical content included with my msdn subscription.

Downloading Windows 7 RTM from my MSDN Subscription.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/securedownloads/default.aspx?pv=36:350

Nokia PC Suite is a free PC software product that allows you to connect your Nokia device to a PC and access mobile content as if the device and the PC were one.

With Nokia PC Suite 7.1, you can:
# Manage your device calendar in the Calendar view of Nokia Communication Centre
# Create and delete contact groups on your device, and add and remove group members
# Start calls and pick up incoming calls with Nokia Communication Centre
# Get a notification on your PC about a low device battery level
# Save device battery by setting off call, SMS and battery level notifications

Released 11 December, 2008

Direct Download Link: Nokia PC Suite 7.1.18.0

Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier. It has one box for everything: Type in the address bar and get suggestions for both search and web pages. Will give you thumbnails of your top sites; Access your favorite pages instantly with lightning speed from any new tab.

Google Chrome is an open source web browser developed by Google. Its software architecture was engineered from scratch (using components from other open source software including WebKit and Mozilla Firefox) to cater for the changing needs of users and acknowledging that today most web sites aren’t web pages but web applications. Design goals include stability, speed, security and a clean, simple and efficient user interface.

Direct Download Link: Google Chrome 1.0.154.36

The first thing you’ll notice about 2.7 is its new interface. From the top down, we’ve listened to your feedback and thought deeply about the design and the result is a WordPress that’s just plain faster. Nearly every task you do on your blog will take fewer clicks and be faster in 2.7 than it did in a previous version. (Download it now, or read on for more.)

Next you’ll begin to notice the new features subtly sprinkled through the new interface: the new dashboard that you can arrange with drag and drop to put the things most important to you on top, QuickPress, comment threading, paging, and the ability to reply to comments from your dashboard, the ability to install any plugin directly from WordPress.org with a single click, and sticky posts.

Digging in further you might notice that every screen is customizable. Let’s say you never care about author on your post listings – just click “Screen Options” and uncheck it and it’s instantly gone from the page. The same for any module on the dashboard or write screen. If your screen is narrow and the menu is taking up too much horizontal room, click the arrow to minimize it to be icon-only, and then go to the write page and drag and drop everything from the right column into the main one, so your posting area is full-screen. (For example I like hiding everything except categories, tags, and publish. I put categories and tags on the right, and publish under the post box.)

WordPress 2.7 has been downloaded 200,187 times (while i’m writing this post)

See the live counter at http://wordpress.org/download/counter/

Wishing everyone a Happy EID.

Enjoy & have fun with your Friends & Family.

Eid Mubarak

WordPress Release 2.7 is implemented for all wordpress.com blogs.

WordPress Release 2.7 will be available for Self hosted blog owners on Friday next.

Waiting for that release to update my blogs.

The performance of this new release of WordPress is way too high than those previous releases. The developers of WordPress have made a lot of improvements.
Every self hosted WordPress Blog owners will upgrade to this new release.

It’s really helpful to be upto date with the latest release.

blog.amitbd.com or amitbd.com/blog

My MSDN Premium Subscription

Files in JPG & PDF Format

File Download: infopathobjectmodelmap.pdf

(Note: Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view the file.)

The Look (and visible features)

The first thing you will notice of course is the completely different look:

[Windows Live Messenger Main Window – 8.5 (Vista Business) and 9.0 (Vista Ultimate)]

What we notice first in the above is that the buttons for Shared Folders, Live Space, MSN Today and Mobile have disappeared. The only thing familiar that’s left in the top part is the Mail button, and that one has moved to the right. So where have they gone?

This is what we see when we hover over our own DP. There they are! Well eh most of them anyway. Online files what? Yes Online files, not Shared Folders

See they did think about the sharing folders we already have on our computers too, can’t just get rid of what we already shared now can they! The new thing will be sharing your files online with Skydrive (not working yet, Page cannot be displayed).

We are also missing the tabs (really? do you use them?). Apparently they moved to the bottom even though at the moment I only see Today (MSN Butterfly) there. If you look at the picture Chris posted before you see more of them.

And what happened to the buddies in our contact list? They have been replaced with colored blocks. The colors stand for your contact’s status:

You also see this coming back in the DP rims (your contact’s and yours), they color along with status too. As you also notice the number of statuses has been reduced to 4, no more “Be right back”, “In a call” and “Out to lunch.” Online has been renamed to Available.

In addition to the changing color for the rim in appear offline the DP will also fade.

Hey, I see the brush appear there in the top corner! It’s hidden there till you hover over the header, so what is that for? We are used to it for changing our Messenger’s color scheme. Well we can still do that but there’s more! Scenes!

Changing the scene will change the look of the main screen, but it won’t change the look of the conversation screen. Why won’t it? Because your contact’s choice of scene will determine what that looks like, a few examples are shown above. In addition to the themes available you can also drag and drop your own picture in the header, this will also be seen in your contact’s conversation screen.

Just as with DP and Personal message this will be stored in the cloud if you have Messenger set to use the same display picture and personal message wherever you sign in ( Tools > Options > Sign In tab under General).

We already noticed the black transparent box when we hovered our own DP, you will see the same look come back when you hover over your contact’s name in the contact list:

In this screenshot you also see the What’s new feed. This will rotate the What’s new feed you see on Live Spaces, you will be led there if you click on the What’s New link, and also inform you when people change their DP or personal message. We also see Scott is playing a song…now that’s nothing new but what is new is that you can display both your Personal Message and Now Playing at the same time!

Here you see the header in my main screen (where contact list is) with Personal Message and Now Playing and the convo header I saw when messaging Scott earlier.

Let’s look at the Main windows some more, there are two features that were not present in Windows Live Messenger 8.5, namely:

Favorites:

Neat, now you can have the ones you speak most to at the top at all times, no more searching through the contact list. Though I use the contact search bar for that.

Groups:

Groups, isn’t that how we sort our contacts? It was, yes, but now that is called Categories. Groups is new and is to create a multiple person chat that will stay till you delete the group. Each group can hold up to 20 members.

Not everything is functional yet, everything under the Group button is grayed out (Group Website,  share Photos, Share Files, Discussions). After you created your first group the link/Category will disappear, don’t ask me why…it’s not logical at all but well eh if you want to create another group right click an existing group and choose “Create a group.” A group will look like this in your contact list:

Leaving a Group is done by right clicking on the group in the contact list and choosing “Leave this group”

You can also convert a category to a Group by right clicking on said Category and choose “Convert to group.”

I mentioned the contact search bar before, huge improvement there too: previously we had a search bar for Contacts and one to search the web, now these are integrated into one! Yay! Saves room!

But..but..wait a minute…what’s that button there in the middle? I never saw that before in 8.5, let’s investigate, it says Change contact list layout…

Now that’s way cool! We can now choose whether we want to show a DP in the contact list or just the colored block…and for both Favorites and Other! Can even vary with the size of the DP. Labeling can be done by “Display name” or “First and last name” and organizing by ”Categories” or Online status. We also see the return of what we saw so briefly some when in a previous beta: sort within categories by status! They also speak of SMS contacts, shouldn’t that be Mobile? They are grouped as Mobile anyway.

New Applications and (not directly visible) Features

Multi Point of Presence (MPOP)
You can now be signed in in different locations and receive your messages on all those locations

Alerts and Sounds
Those both got their own tab now

For all of the events you can set one of the sounds that come with it or add your own sound:

Ever wanted to let your contacts know vocally that you are online? That’s possible too, we call that Signature Sound:

Now first time “Turn on Signature sound” will be grayed out and you can’t enable it by just checking the box, don’t freak out over that (it’s confusing I know), just click the Change sound button and set a sound. You’ll see it’s enabled after you did that. Then next you can disable/enable as you normally would. Again here you can also set your own, so be creative! Getting sick and tired wondering where all those sounds come from? They’ve thought about that too, check “Mute my contacts’ Signature Sounds.”

Hold on! What about a setting a special sound for your contact instead of listening to the ones they’ve set? You can do so for sign-in sound and message sound if you right click on said contact in the contact list and choose “Choose sounds for this contact”. Here you will again have the choice of either setting one of the sounds already available or adding one of your own choice. You can set a different one for each if you want!

Photo Share
A new application is Photo Share. You start it by clicking on the Photos button in the conversation window. Next you browse to a picture you like to share and Click on Open. You will see the application load inside the conversation screen:

Scott asked a good question there and unfortunately I didn’t find how to save a shared picture either, am I overlooking or… If not there that would definitely be something to ask for before it goes final!

Note: If you try to send a screenshot with paste it will add it to Photo Share or start Photo Share instead of sending it.

How does Messenger integrate with other Windows Live Applications and Services

We already know we can open up either Hotmail or Windows Live Mail directly from Messenger but there’s more under the hood. Think about directly going to your Live Space and Skydrive (Online files), watching your friends profile or sending him/her an SMS. The search bar is powered by Live Search. And what about the new What’s New Feed, that’s also closely tied with the feed on spaces. Surely with Groups we’ll see even more integration with the web…

This is still a beta and things may or may not work (already noticed a few here) and things can still change too. I may have even forgotten or overlooked things, please let me know if I did in the comments below, thanks

Updates:

I forgot something quite visible and new :O
You can now hide the toolbar at the top, look at the arrows I’ve put a white square around.

Should you ever want to hide display pictures or hid them by accident and want to show them again, there’s an arrow to do that on the left side of the conversation window too, just hover towards there and it will appear.

Links
- Links (including mail button) now open in the default browser.
– Links in the contact list and conversation headers are clickable.

Display Pictures (Tools > Change display picture)
- You can now have an animated display picture, it will take GIF files. Thanks BV2312, I completely forgot about that one already. 
– You can create your own display picture from webcam snapshots.
– Create your own dynamic display picture with Mood tiles:

This requires a webcam. As you can see you assign an emoticon to the picture so changing it is as easy as putting in one of those emoticons in your conversation.

Wave 3 is the new release of the Windows Live Suite of programs, these beta programs are available from download.live.com. The program list includes Messenger Beta, Movie Maker Beta, Live Mail Beta, Windows Live Writer Beta, Photo Gallery Beta and others. These are packaged with a common installer, you can choose which programs you want to install from the list, if you have already have some this programs installed they will get updated.

You can get the installer from here or, Direct Download Link, open the installer it will show the list of programs, select the ones you want to install, if you select all of them the download size is around 150MB. Movie Maker is available for only Windows Vista.

Direct Download Link

Great poster for Microsoft Office System Developers.

Poster in 1Format (PDF)

2007officedevelopermap.pdf

AMC Online is Registered Partner of Microsoft

Visit the following link or Open the attached Image to see more information about AMC Online.

Microsoft Solution Finder – View partner
https://solutionfinder.microsoft.com/Partners/PartnerDetailsView.aspx?partnerid=b3f2279059d04fc58451d0bd7f983f25

AMC Online is Registered Partner of Microsoft

2 File Format (PDF & JPG)

net_35_namespaces_poster_jan08.pdf

Faster than ever. It’ll be up to 70 percent faster to sign in and see your e-mail.1 Of course, along with more speed, you’ll get powerful technology that deflects spam and helps protect you against viruses and scams.

Simpler, cleaner design. We’re combining the classic and full versions of Hotmail, so you get access to everything Hotmail has to offer. The reading pane will let you check out your e-mail without having to open it up.

Put more you in your e-mail. New themes and colors will let you design the look of your inbox, so your personality can really shine through.

Closer to your contacts. Just start typing in the “To” line and you’ll get a choice of e-mail contacts that most closely match what you’ve typed. Plus, it’ll be even easier to e-mail groups of people.

Cool stuff coming soon. We’ve got even more great updates to Hotmail for you to look forward to, like ever-increasing storage2, the ability to IM right from Hotmail, and new calendar features that make it easier to share your calendar with family and friends.

1 Based on Microsoft tests performed July 2008, Hotmail showed up to 70% greater speed for the following transactions over broadband connections: sign in, view e-mail, open e-mail. On narrowband connections, the tests showed up to 56% greater speed for the same transactions.

2 Hotmail storage will automatically grow with you. That means the more storage you need, the more storage you’ll get. There are limits, but they’re so large that chances are you won’t even come close to them. If, for some reason, you’re coming close to exceeding those limits, we’ll send you an e-mail to let you know.

Hotmail is improving

Sure, the updated Hotmail will be faster and better.

Here is a list of some very creative ways which can help you make your blog popular. If not popular, at least it will give you some ideas of what to post on your blog if you are running out of topics to write about.

1. Start a controversy. Just remember not to cross the line.
2. Start a contest. Make sure to end it too.
3. Give away free goodies. People love them.
4. Write about other bloggers to interest their visitors to read your blog. Keep it positive.
5. Dress up your blog often (By dress-up I mean tweaking the design)
6. Interview other bloggers and post the interview.
7. Write about your personal life sometimes.
8. Ask questions to your visitors.
9. Share some secrets.
10. Celebrate your birthday with your visitors. Think of innovative ways for doing this.
11. Celebrate your blog’s birthday too.
12. Write something funny or disgusting. (Don’t make it a habit)
13. Make a bumper sticker with your blog’s name and stick it on your car. (Just make sure you drive often)
14. Write an e-book and distribute it to your visitors for free.
15. Introduce a commission based affiliate program.
16. Tell your visitors about your latest fad or obsession.
17. Post interesting pictures of your pets.
18. Congratulate the top commentators occasionally.
19. Encourage sharing of opinions.
20. Donate for a cause or become a volunteer for a non-profit organization. Ask your visitors to join you.
21. Put your blog’s ad in the local newspaper or the yellow pages.
22. Hold blog competitions.
23. Create polls.
24. Hold an auction and let people bid for something useful (For example, advertising space on your blog).
25. Write about your blog achievements.
26. Share your hopes and aspirations about your blog.
27. Start an award distribution system.
28. Make contact with your local visitors and hold a get-together or a bloggers’ meet.
29. Start a blog comic strip.
30. Dig up some old article that you wrote on your blog which became famous and start a discussion.
31. Try and get a photograph clicked with a real celebrity and post it on your blog. (Hold on Tiger..don’t rush to that Photoshop button!)
32. Post videos that will help your visitors learn something new. Also submit them to video sharing websites like YouTube.com.
33. Write about your hobbies and interests. (For example, if you like cooking, post a new recipe)
34. Post about one of the weirdest thing that you ever did.
35. Get featured in a print magazine.
36. Buy a paid review from any famous blogger(s).
37. Brand your blog with a catch phrase along with a logo.
38. Distribute T-shirts or merchandise with your blog name on it.
39. Join Yahoo! Answers and put a link on your website to your answers.
40. Keep a track of websites that pick up your articles or press releases. Offer them exclusive news or content.
41. Do surveys and publish the results to your visitors.
42. Build tools that your visitors might find use for.
43. Start a newsletter.
44. Podcasting is another good way to make your blog popular.
45. Publicize your blog to your friends and relatives and let them do some work for you.
46. Be active in Social Bookmarking websites.
47. Share Link Love and you will get it back.
48. People like to read about Web 2.0. Write about it.
49. Write about something that’s already famous.
50. Last but not the least, be yourself.

If you are new to WordPress and looking for reasons to use WordPress as a CMS (content management system) in your new website, let me give you some.

Open Source Software

WordPress is an Open Source software which allows it to be used free of cost. You can use it on any kind of personal or commercial website without have to pay a single dime for it. It is built on PHP/MySQL (which is again Open Source) and licensed under GPL.

User Friendly

You don’t really have to be experienced to use WordPress on your website. Nowadays most of the hosting companies provide the ability to install WordPress on your site at a single click of the mouse. The administration section is easy to navigate and its even easy to add articles/content to your website.

Themes Support

You will never run short of templates when using WordPress. If you don’t like the themes that come with the default installation of WordPress, you can hunt on the Internet and you will find thousands of free themes that you can download and use for your website. There are themes which can even make your website look like a regular site instead of a blog.

Plugins Extend Functionality

WordPress plugins allow you to do just about anything that you want and can be installed in a jiffy. For example, you want to paginate your blog posts, just look on Google and you can easily find the relevant plugin that will easily do the job for you.

Standards Compliant

WordPress is one software that follows all the Web Standards and keeps your blog or website compliant to all the rules that have to be followed when running a website.

SEO Friendly

Search Engines have to be definitely kept in mind when building a website. WordPress uses different functions which allow it to be search engine friendly. For example sending pings to other sites, making categories, tagging your posts, use of h1/h2 tags etc.

Large community Support

As per recent statistics, WordPress is used on more than 1% of the websites on the Internet in the world. There is a large user community backing the development of this software. So, whenever you face any problems, you can go through all the available WordPress forums and communities and find answers for all your questions.

So, you see the benefits of using WordPress now?

Amit & Farah’s Photo Album

305 Photos & Counting…

http://picasaweb.google.com/amit.amconlinebd/AmitFarah

blog.amitbd.com
amitbd.com/blog

blog.amitbd.com
amitbd.com/blog