Web-based FTP Clients

AnyClient is a Java based web application. Although not as powerful as a desktop application, it is convenient when you occasionally need to connect to FTP site from other PCs (the only condition is the PC must have Java installed). Another good thing is, AnyClient requires no sign up. Note that if you are behind a proxy or a firewall that does not allow traffic on port 21, you won't be able to use this tool.

Other alternatives are net2ftp, 01ftp, and jscape.

Microsoft prepares 'Albany' to compete with Google Docs

As more and more desktop applications are moving to the web, Microsoft is planning a low-end hosted and productivity suite to compete with similar services like Google Documents, Zoho, etc. Although it is unclear how low-end it is, Albany will combine Office, Office Live Workspaces, Windows Live OneCare, and the Windows Live suite of services. With the strong presence of Microsoft in desktop arena, it will be interesting to see how much this online complement can hurt other competitors.

Source: InfoWorld

Silverlight DeepZoom Part 2

I have rewritten the code sample released on Expression Blend and Design blog last week into VB version with the following changes:

1.
When the MultiScaleImage (MSI) is loaded, it displays the images as you put them in DeepZoom Composer. I overwrite this default behaviour by handling MotionFinished event of MSI to call ArrangeIntoGrid() method. An interesting fact, if I handle the MSI's Loaded event, nothing will display on screen.

2.
In ArrangeIntoGrid(), I change the assignment of number of columns and rows of MSI into this:
Dim columns As Integer = Math.Sqrt(totalImages + 1)
Dim rows As Integer = totalImages / columns
where totalImages is total number of MultiScaleSubImage of MSI.
This is to ensure no matter how many images I put into my DeepZoom application, the application will always tries to arrange images into square tiles and fill the width of the screen when loaded for the first time.

3.
I add control to Zoom() method so that users cannot zoom in / out too deep until the view port is gone. I saw an example of using ViewportWidth property to control the zooming, but it is not perfect. So I calculate the current zoom factor to control the zooming. This method is better but still not perfect.

So here is my source code and video demo.



Outstanding issues:

• How to perform hit testing to identify selected image?
• How to retrieve meta properties of selected image?
• How to prevent users from dragging the viewport out of the boundary?
• A better way of filtering besides using Opacity = 0
• Arrange the images of different sizes 'properly' into grid
  

SQL#: Enabling more powerful SQL

One of the new features in SQL Server 2005 is CLR integration. And here is a class library called SQL# claiming it is to enable more powerful and more functional SQL. If you simply look at its homepage or feature list, I guess you are same as me, still confusing of the purpose of SQL#. Is it a query language like LINQ? Is it enabling you to write CLR store procs more easily?

Everything becomes clear until I read its documentations. It is in fact a bunch of CLR stored procs and CLR user defined functions / aggregates which are to be install into your SQL Server 2005 databases. And you can use CLR stored procs and UDFs to help you or make easier to write SQL statements. There are a lots of useful functions included in the class library. I feel excited now.

Go to SQL# website to find out more. SQL# comes with a free version and a paid version costing USD$25.

How many sex options should be available in a sign up form?

I found an Indonesian Digg clone website. When I get to the sign up form, the sex field is too...err...I run of out word to describe it....



I used to think 2 options (Male or female) are enough, but now, I know I am wrong. The most astounding option is actually 'None of the Above'.....hmm....my creativity fails me, I can't imagine what kind of homo sapiens would select the last option...

Adobe Photoshop Express: Yet another web based image editing application?

In my mind, Adobe products are always expensive, even more expensive than Microsoft products, and suddenly here is a free version of Adobe Photoshop called Adobe Photoshop Express.....

Due to the pressures from highly popular web based image editing applications like Picnik and many others, Adobe released Photoshop Express for free and trying to mess up the market share a bit, but will Adobe success? Or is it just yet another web based image editing application?

There are getting more and more players in this market, a quick scan through my del.icio.us bookmarks, I find dozens of online image editing apps...since I always don't tag my bookmarks properly, there could be some I have missed:

List of Online Image Editing Applications

• Adobe Photoshop Express
• Aviary - More than image editing, include video editing and music writing, etc. It is still in closed beta
  
• FotoFlexer - it is recently revamped with new look and feel (just announced a few days ago). I think FotoFlexer is the biggest competitor to Picnik
• FlauntR - This one is VERY rich in functionality, making me feel like it is a desktop app
  
• Graphita -It comes with tons of objects. Simply drag and drop the objects to decorate your photos
• Lunapic
  
• Mixbook - not really an image editing app. It has a set of rich layout templates to let you arrange your photos in beautifu photo book
• Mypictr - image clipping service
  
• Onlinephototool.com - most uncreative name. It is Java based
• Phixr
  
• Picnik - probably the most popular web based image editing app but I don't have any material to prove it
• Pic resize
  
• Pikifx - tons of built in photo effects
• Pikipimp - Amother app with tons of built in objects. Simply drag and drop them. But I like Graphita more
  
• Pixer
• Pixenate
  
• Rsizr - it has seam carving capability (I will talk more about seam carving in future posts)
  
• Scrapblog - not really an image editing app. It allows you to combine videos, photos, audio and text into one thing, i.e. it is some sort of multimedia blogging service, I have seen many creative multimedia scraps there
• Snipshot - AJAX based
  
• Splashup - The screenshots look fairly similar to Adobe Photoshop
• Wiredness
• XMG Image - Photo editing + Image hosting

22 items in my list..

UPDATE: I missed another one: PicBite - Allow you to annotate images with speech bubbles

Trouble of finding free stock photos for your projects?

Freerange is actually giving away stock photos for free. Note that, I said free, not royalty free. You don't have to spend a penny to use the photos in both your personal and commercial projects. What could be better than this?? This is the best resource that I discovered for last week.......

Earning money by uploading photos
If you are photographers, Freerange encourages you to upload and share your photos. You are allowed to put Google Adsense ads aside your photos to generate revenue. However, there is a catch, 20% of your revenue will got to Freerange, this is how Freerange survives by giving away stock photos.

Google goes black in support of Earth Hour

Google Israel turns black on 27th March in support of Earth Hour. (Note: Earth Hour in Israel is on 27th March).


And again on 29th March, Google.com turned black too.


I kept checking google.com.my yesterday, trying to see whether it is using black background, but it is not. Obviously, Google wants to "raise awareness of a worldwide energy conservation" in US and Israel only. Having said that, it is funny to see Google is using the black background while saying black colour actually increases energy usage....hmm....so Google is supporting Earth Hour or not?

Silverlight Charting Component

I just found a Silverlight charting component suite called Visifire. It is open source and is licensed under GPL. From the demo video below, it really get me excited, it supports most of the common chart types we need - bar, line, area, pie, stacked bar, and combination of chart types in one chart.



I haven't play it in Visual Studio, but by the look of the online Chart Designer at Visifire website, I guess most of the features are already exposed through properties, so it should be quite easy to use.

YouTube Now Offering Video Statistics

This is announced few days ago, but when I tried to find the video stats in my YouTube account last time, the service was not ready yet. Today, I log in to YouTube again, and found it is up and running now...



It is good to see You Tube is going one step forward to provides us with some useful insights of our videos...

You can access the statistics by....

1. Log in
2. Go to "Account"
3. Under "Manage My Videos", select "Videos, Favourites & Playlists"
4. Click "About this Video" for the video you wish to access the stats

EatLime: Share your file instantly even while you still uploading it

For most of the free file sharing / hosting web services that I know of, I usually try it for the first time and never return to it again. The reason is simple, most services have serious limitations which I can't tolerate, e.g. file size limit (usually 10 MB per file), non-permanent storage (The file will be removed automatically when there is 'no demand', but how to measure demand? No download in 7 days? 1 month?), and the most annoying one is the awkward download page (The advertisements are too intense, and the download link is located at less obvious place). Oh yeah, some services even change the file extensions!!!

But, speaking of EatLime, I am not saying it is the file sharing service I am looking for, I blog about it because I found it rather interesting, it offers something which competing services do not have - EatLime allows your friends to begin downloading the file as soon as you start uploading it, i.e. I don't have to wait for the file to finish uploading before they begin downloading.

Another feature I like about EatLime is, I don't have to sign up an account in order to use the service. The file size limit is 100 MB per file, which is good enough for me. However, after registration, the file size limit is 1GB.

MySong: Sing to Your Computer to Write Music

It is always interesting to check what is up at Microsoft Research. Here is one Microsoft Research project called MySong. It allows you to sing into a microphone and the software will automatically generates chords to accompany a vocal melody. The purpose is to help "folks who like to sing but would never get a chance to experiment with creating real original music".



How useful is MySong? I’ll leave you to judge for yourself. By the look at the comments to this YouTube video clip, I think.......

It is still under development, for more information, please click here.

Windows Vista in Pink packaging

Microsoft is doing anything to convince you to buy a copy of Windows Vista, this is happening in Japan now..

The original packaging of Windows Vista Home Premium....


The limited edition of Windows Vista Home Premium, wrapped in hot pink..

It is bundled with a year’s subscription of Windows Live OneCare and a copy of a Vista tips and tricks book too...

Source: Amazon Japan

More links on web developments and design

Rather than create another new post with 10 links, I have added the new links to the original post which can be located here.

DeepZoom: Does DeepZoom Composer compress your images?

I read a complaint from a reader about the lost of image quality in DeepZoom last night, which puzzled me as I never encountered this problem before. So, I decided to fire up DeepZoom Composer to test it.

So here is the original picture submitted by my reader....


And this is the result achieved by the reader...


And it is very obvious that both images are different. Judging from the file size, I guess the second image is cropped from the screenshoot.

From my understanding, DeepZoom composer converts images into JPG format then resizes and slices the images. There should be no compression going on.

So, I took the original image, DeepZoom it then copy the output to my Silverlight project. And the result is shown in the screenshot below....



The original image is on the left hand side. In the middle, you can see my testing DeepZoom application running in Firefox. On the right had side is the DeepZoom-ed image from the reader.

In my testing project, the output image from DeepZoom Composer looks exactly the same as displayed in MultiScaleImage control of Silverlight, so I leave it out from the screenshot capture. Also, I tested it on IE7, and the result is still the same as in Firefox.

If we compare carefully, the image shown in Firefox has darker colours. Beyond this, I can't spot any obvious difference in quality. I guess the darker colour is caused by conversion from PNG format to JPG format (I have tested it with other JPG images as the source images, and the output looks exactly the same as the source images).

In conclusion, DeepZoom Composer does not change your images although some differences may be caused by conversion into JPG format.

So, now the interesting question is - how the reader got that kind of output?? I am puzzled....is it caused by IE6 or other browsers? Or some properties are changed for the MultiScaleImage control??

By the way, you can download my test project from here. The DeepZoom project is a VB project. The mouse and keyboard support codings are not written by me but taken from MSDN Code Gallery.

How to cheat in Windows Minesweeper game

The trick I am going to mention below has been around since Windows 3.1. But there are still many people who do not know it.

Before I start, I must say I don't think the cheat is still available in Windows Vista, the cheat works on Windows XP and earlier Windows.

To always win in Minesweeper game, please do the following steps:

1. Launch Minesweeper game
2. Make sure the Minesweeper window is focused / active then type xyzzy
3. Press Shift + Enter
4. The cheat mode is now activated

You should notice a very small square ( 1 x 1 pixel) located at the top left corner of your desktop changes colour when you move your mouse over the Minesweeper tiles.

White colour square = The tile is safe, you can click on it.
Black colour square = The tile contains mine, flag it!!!

The square is very small thus it is very hard to see. Try to look carefully, if you can't see it, try the following things:

a. Adjust your screen positioning to make sure the top left corner is shown on the screen.

b. Change your screen resolution to 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768 so that it is easier to spot the tiny square.

c. Use single-colour wallpaper. The colour should be a soft colour to make sure it is easier to notice the black square.

d. Minimize all other Windows.

After you spot the square, you can challenge others that you can win the advanced mode.

Display Chinese calendar on your desktop

I created this application 2 years time ago and I decided to clean it up a bit and share it on the internet.

The application will auto-launch in the system tray when Windows starts up.


Clicking on the icon will show the calendar.


Right click on the icon will reveal a menu.


Select Convert Date if you want to convert a particular Gregorian date (The calendar system we use day to day is called Gregorian calendar) to Chinese date or vice versa.


My friends use it to check the day of the week of their birthday....

I actually wish to add Thai calendar into this application as well, but unfortunately I am not familiar on the display format of Thai calendar system (is it year-month-day or what?) and some other minor issues.

Any suggestions or comments are welcomed...


To install:

For Windows 98 to XP users, make sure you have Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 installed first.

For Windows Vista users, simply proceed to the download link below.

Click here to download

How to play Flash Video (FLV) in Windows Media Player?

Install PlayFLV plugin then you will be able to play FLV in Windows Media Player (WMP). PlayFLV will create file association for you, i.e. when you double click on a FLV file, WMP will open up and play the video.

PlayFLV is free and open source.

Visual Studio 2008 Setup Project and .Net 3.5 prerequisite issue

By default, every MSI package built using Visual Studio 2008 requires .Net 3.5 even though the application is actually targeting .Net 2.0 or .Net 3.0.

My computer has .Net 3.5 installed so I never notice this problem until I try to install the application on other PC. I changed the prerequisites in the project properties, but it didn't solve the problem. After spending almost half an hour inspecting every single properties in the setup project, I finally discovered the problem is caused by the launch conditions......

In VS 2008, go to View \ Editor \ Launch Conditions. Select '.Net Framework' under 'Launch Conditions' folder, then go to the Properties window. Change the 'version' to desired .Net framework version. Rebuild the project and the problem is solved.

Turn yourself into a movie star

Oddcast 3D Videostar is offering an impressive technology that allow users to import their faces into movie clips and replace those of movie stars. No word on when the service will be available, but the samples available at Oddcast website look fantastic. If this service is open to the public and is easy to use, I guess there will be many interesting video collages appear on YouTube soon.

Can you do maths faster than him?

So there is an occupation called mathematics magician. Watch the impressive video over here.

Silverlight DeepZoom demo

DeepZoom (previously called Sea Dragon) is a Microsoft Research technology which is going out from the research lab soon. DeepZoom, as the name implies, allows you to zoom into the very details of images. How much you can zoom in depends on your image resolution.

The video clip below is the DeepZoom application that I setup with mouse and keyboard supports. The application contains about 30 images, but you can only see 22 on the main screen. The remaining images are hidden inside Confucius eye. The images are 2 to 8mb each. The total output of the application is more than 200mb. That is why I upload the 50mb video clip but not the >200mb DeepZoom application to the web.

Zooming and scrolling of DeepZoom are actually VERY smooth, but the screen recording software degrades the quality. Also, I didn't edit any part of the recording, somehow the length of the video just match the music length coincidentally.



DeepZoom application is very easy to setup, the most time consuming step is to arrange the image in DeepZoom Composer.

Some limitations of DeepZoom:
- When you zoom in or out too deep, the images just gone. And you need to refresh it to start again. I am unaware of any technique to prevent users from doing this.

- How deep you can zoom is limited by the capability of DeepZoom Composer. I tried to put image inside another image to generate 30 zoom levels. And the DeepZoom Composer crashed. In my second attempt, I tried to generate 10 zoom levels, DeepZoom Composer didn't crash at first but failed to export the correct output. When I closed down the composer then re-opened the project, DeepZoom Composer failed to open it. So, the video shown above is my third attempt (and also NOT my best attempt).

Since the technology is still in beta, I hope the limitations are solved by the final release.

In addition, I am curious to know how the Hard Rock DeepZoom example detects the on focused image and display relevant side note to the image. Hmmmm...without this feature, DeepZoom isn't that useful at all...

WorldWide Telescope: Microsoft's answer to Google Sky

It is not good to blog about Google Sky (including Google Moon and Google Mars) but leave out WorldWide Telescope (WWT). WWT is created by Microsoft and it is coming in Spring 2008 as stated on its website (but it is mid-March now).



The key distinction of WWT from Google Sky is that WWT is using high resolution imagery. WWT also seems to have smoother zooming and panning (at least this is what I see in the demo video). WWT has interactive guided tours and a mini-zoom-map located at a corner, but in Google Sky, the navigation tends to be less systematic, I simply click randomly to discover things and I don't know where I am. Otherwise, I can't see much difference from Google Sky.

WWT is expected to be available as free download.

3D social networking platform

So, if you haven't feel tired of this social networking buzz, you might want to check this out, RipLounge, a browser based 3D social networking platform which bring more interactive online experience to you.



Judging from the demo video, I guess the creator plays The Sims too much.

RipLounge will be available publicly next month.

Source: TechCrunch

I need to pay $19.95 for a FREE software?

Everything about Windows Vista is 'slow,' even empty Recycle Bin is slow. I can't believe I have to wait for ages to copy files to my external hard disk. I remember there is a utility called TeraCopy which can speed the the copying process and it works nicely in Windows XP.



So I tried googling and landed on the CodeSector website (the maker of TeraCopy), and I found this....



CodeSector is charging $19.95 for a free utility?? It actually means TeraCopy is free for home users and there is a charge of $19.95 for the Pro version. Apparently, combining two two statements into one sentence can be confusing.

Physics Puzzle Game: Crayon Physics Deluxe

Crayon Physics Deluxe is the winner of MIX'08 Show Off contest. Out of the 16 contest entries I have seen, Crayon Physics is the coolest!!

It is a physics puzzle game and is made using Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express. In the game anything you draw comes to live and behaves physically correctly. I want the game now!!!



This is the last level of the game.


You can go to Kloonigames blog to check out the latest news on Crayon Physics Deluxe.

The future of personal health concept

Here is a video clip ripped from the MIX'08 webcast (hence the video quality is not very good) showing the Microsoft's vision of personal health system. The whole idea is to attach systems and internet connectivity to any devices and any surfaces, including table surface.



It is obvious this kind of 'seen only in movie' technology won't be realized in anytime soon.

Also, I like the digital wallet concept as I hate to bring keep too many cards in my wallet.

Del.icio.us 2.0 is coming

Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking service. Since it was acquired by Yahoo in 2005, it seems del.icio.us has no further development and the current web design looks very outdated. However, the usage continue to increase steadily. Currently, it has about 3 million registered users and 100 million unique URLs bookmarked.

So, what is coming in del.icio.us 2.0?

Item 1:
del.ico.us will be rebranding to Delicious.com. If you try
http://www.delicious.com now, the URL redirects you to http://del.icio.us. This change is a good thing since it is easier to type.

Item 2:
Integrating Delicious results into Yahoo search. I am not sure whether this is important to you or not. If I want to search the web, I rather go to Google Search.

Item 3:
Needless to say, Delicious 2.0 will feature new look and feel. The screenshots below are the preview version and may change in the final release.





Looking at the screenshots, we can see that there is a new sorting feature (e.g. sort alphabetically, sort by popularity, etc). Another obvious change is the addition of People menu item, which I am not sure what it is for. Probably a service to facilitate follow up or share bookmarks with others. And, I like the small screenshot displayed with the bookmarks, it reminds me the content of the website easily.

Delicious 2.0 is still in preview version. No news regarding the final release date. For more information, please go to here.

Google Sky is now available through your web browser

Google Sky was formerly available only within the Google Earth software but now you can explore it in a web browser. The navigation style of Goolge Sky is similar to Google Maps. It lets you pan through the galaxy. In addition, you can view different celestial bodies in ultraviolet, infrared, x-ray, or microwave light. Similar to Google Maps, you can search the galaxy by typing into the search box. I like the image showcases too. The best part of the image showcases is the historical maps of constellations. Also, do not to miss the podcasts while you exploring Google Sky.

Links
Google Sky
More information on Google LatLong Blog

Google Sky intro video clip...


Historical map of Aries...

Game: Old MacDonald had a farm

The Happy Farmer takes hours to play. In the game, you are started with some cash to manage a farm. First, you need to buy seeds from a nearby market to plant vegetables. Then you raise funds by selling vegetables to buy hens which lay eggs everyday. Then you start to plant fruits which are more profitable. See how much you can earn after one year.

A Silverlight game: Zombomatic

Zombomatic is a puzzle game. The game play is fairly simple: You reveal and then swap tiles to connect them into a path for the electricity to flow. It sounds like easy game but in fact it is quite challenging as you need to swap the tiles very fast otherwise the electricity flow is blocked then the game is over.

The best Firefox add-ons (Part 1)

1) Firefox Theme
When we talk about add-ons in Firefox, the first thing that comes to mind is Firefox themes!!

a) PimpZilla - The best theme I have seen so far




b) NASA Night Launch - One of the best dark colour theme




c) Blue Ice - Simple design. Suitable for minimalist




d) Macfox II graphite - My favourite Mac theme




e) Vista Firefox beta - Vista theme for Firefox. Isn't it look better than IE7?





2) Tab browsing add-ons

a) Tab Scope - At first look, it is similar to thumbnail preview on Windows Vista taskbar. If you pay close attention, it is actually a thumbnail viewer AND ALSO a mini browser (See the navigation bar embeded in the thumbnail viewer?)




b) Tab Effect - This add-on is not very useful but cool. It adds 3D effect when you switch tabs. Sometimes the 3D effect does not work. In this case, simply press Ctrl+N to open a new window. If the 3D effect works on the new window, you can close the old window.

Doraemon bowling game

It is fun to see characters in the manga become the pins of the bowling game. It is very easy to play...

1. Move your mouse left or right to determine the location of the bowling ball then click once
   
2. Click again to determine which angle the ball will roll out
3. Finally, click again to decide the speed of the ball....

Enjoy playing...

Best resources for Web developers and designers

* denotes new links added on 28th March

CSS

• TabCreator - A CSS Menu generator*
• Write a well structured CSS file without becoming crazy*
• Most used CSS tricks*

Data Management

• 50 Content Management Systems - some are free...

Design > Guidelines

• 20+ Free Web Design Ebooks And Guides
• 20 Free Ebooks and Whitepapers for Better Web Design*
• 20 Websites That Made Me A Better Web Developer*
  

Design > Icons

• 35 (Really) Incredible Free Icon Sets
• Best Small Web Design Icon Download Sites
• PI Diagona Pack

Design > Photoshop

• 45 Photoshop Tutorials for Better Navigation - I finally know how to make a nice looking button...
• Photoshop actions: 124+ Free Photoshop Actions to Boost Your Designs - some are really cool..
• 100 Photoshop Tutorials for Creating Beautiful Art
• 23 Most Incredible Photoshop Tutorials*
• 33 awesome body enhancement photoshop tutorials*

Javascript

• FancyZoom 1.1 Smooth Javascript Image Zooming For Your Web Pages - something different from the widely used Lightbox
• iCarousel - creating image / text carousel like widgets
• dfFlexiGrid - Liquid Javascript Grid Layout*
• 10 JavaScript Effects to Boost Your Website’s Fanciness Factor*
• Mootools - Allow you to write flexible, and cross-browser code with its API*

Security

• How Hackers Hack Your Website - informative...

Testing

• Browsershots - Free online service to test your web design in different browsers with just a few mouse clicks

Other great lists..

• 99 Sites ALL Designers Must Know About
• 100+ Resources for Web Developers

How to convert a web page into PDF file?

There is a free online service available to achieve this purpose: htm2pdf.

One important note, your converted files are published at htm2pdf website which are publicly available for anyone. So, in case you want to convert a confidential file, this service is not for you. In addition, sometimes the conversion failed but there is no reason given.

Evolution of Microsoft Word for Windows (1989-2007)

Prior to 1989, Microsoft Word was originally a DOS application with complex set of commands. It was later added with more graphical features but only available for Mac OS. The first Word for Windows appeared in 1989 and was designed for Windows 3.0.



When Word version 2.0 was released as part of Microsoft Office 3.0 in 1992. Word became the market leader which was partly due to major competitor, WordPerfect, failed to produce Windows version. You can see that most of the basic features we use today are already in Word 2.0.



Office 4.0 was released in 1994. Word was called Word 6.0 at this point despite the fact the previous version number was 2.0. The purpose was to use common version numbering with the Mac OS version. Word 6.0 is the first version of Word that I used, I was still a primary school kid at that time.




Word 7.0 was part of Office 95 which released in 1995 for Windows 95. Word is already more than a word processing application at this point, it included drawing tools, multilingual supports etc. The best feature is the real time spelling checking - the red-squiggle line.



When Word 97 released in 1996, it included a most stupid feature ever which had irritated most Office users - Office Assistant (the 'clippy-guy') which in fact wasn't assisting at all.



If I am no mistaken, Word 2000 (Part of Office 2000) released in 1999 was the las t release that support Windows 95. Office macro viruses were getting more widespread. Office Genuine Advantage was introduced at this time which allowed legal copy of Microsoft Office to download updates from the web. The major addition was the clipboard which allowed to hold multiple copied objects at once - very nice feature.