Microsoft Jumps into Bookmarking

Microsoft Labs recently launched ThumbTack, which is a bookmarking website geared less towards social bookmarking and more for research bookmarking by allowing you to store full text copies of the page.

ReadWriteWeb has reported that the concept of storing the full text page is a powerful concept, it falls short by messing up pages that use javascript and does not grab embedded pictures and videos.

Only time will tell if this little application will make it out of the R & D department.

SQL Server 2005 Crash: Non-yielding IOCP Listener

A client of mine recently had their SQL Server hang up and crash. The error log displayed a dump and the error "Non-yielding IOCP Listener". After a bit of research I have discovered that this error is in result of a bug in SQL Server 2005.

Microsoft has released cumulative hotfix patches to resolve this issue but they did not include them in automatic updates, citing that if you are not experiencing this specific problem, then the updates are not necessary.

For more information, visit the knowledge base article kb941689

iPhone 2.0 Not Meeting Expectations - FollowUp

Below is a video that compares the speed of the iPhone 3G in their commercial to the iPhone 3G in real life. Apple has missed the mark if this new iPhone is supposed to be the solution to slow transfer speeds.

The Rise and Fall of Twitter

To funny to not post. This was done by the team at Crunchbase comparing the rise and fall of twitter to the rise and fall of Germany.

Stones Thrown at Giant's Just Bounce Off

Ex-Google employees and an IBM refugee banded together to attempt to solve a problem, a problem that has not been solved by giant's Google or Microsoft. Cuil's approach to search, is that the internet has grown and that search provider's such as Google, Microsot, Yahoo and AOL have not grown their search databases to match it, leaving websites and pages from being indexed and unable to be searched.

The three founders, Costello, Patterson & Power set out on a quest to improve the search industry. They raised $33 Million in VC funds, created a huge uproar in the social media landscape and within weeks they are nearly off the radar.

Cuil came to the battle with a loud horn and a bunch of stones. They stormed the battle field with their horns blaring and began throwing stones at Google's massive castle walls. The problem here is the shear size of the footprint that Google holds in the market. Even if Cuil's goal was to replace MSN in the search industry, they will most likely run out of money before they make any real dent.

Google, Yahoo, and etc, despite an obvious deficit in search indexing, have already monetized their products, have created complimentary services and products that will allow them to maintain a much higher rate of loyalty from their customers. A newcomer such as Cuil will be hard pressed to gain the market share needed to allow them to monetize their products. If they cannot monetize, they cannot get cash flow, if they can not generate cash flow, the $33 million drips away and they will find investors reluctant to hand over more funds.

Cuil appears to have followed Jerry Maguire when he asked "Who's coming with me?". I wish the team at Cuil the best of luck and if they survive and prove to be successful, I have a feeling they will experience more low points than highs over the next few years.

HowTo: Change Dreamweaver to Default HTML Editor on Windows Vista

I encountered this problem on my work PC when I went to "edit" an .html file and Word opened...

To do this, we have to edit the registry. If you are uncomfortable doing this, then please do not attempt this hack. As usual, please back up your registry before you begin hacking away, as your registry controls your entire operating system.

1. Click start -> type "regedit" into the search box and press enter
2. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSSES_ROOT -> .htm -> OpenWithList and verify that "dreamweaver.exe" is listed as a key. If not create it.
3. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSSES_ROOT -> applications -> dreamweaver.exe -> shell.
4. Create a key and name it "edit".
5. On the default string that is within the edit key, double click on it and set the value to the following(assuming you have Dreamweaver CS3 and you installed into the default path, otherwise edit as necesary, include the double quotes) - "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Dreamweaver CS3\dreamweaver.exe", "%1"
6. Press ok and exit regedit by hitting the x in the corner.
7. Open IE, click tools -> internet options.
8. Navigate to programs -> select the drop down for html editor and choose Dreamweaver. Press OK and you are all done.
   

HowTo: How to Get iLife Back After a Fresh Install of Mac OSX

A while back thru Apple Developer Connection, I received the new version of Mac OS X, Leopard. I was delighted to have the newest OS from Apple for my MacBook Pro. From natural choice I chose to install from a fresh hard drive, meaning that I erased the hard drive and installed a fresh copy of the OS.

Once I was in the OS I was excited to try all the new features, especially spaces, but I was disappointed to find that I no longer had Photobooth or iPhoto which is two applications I began to enjoy with my new mac laptop. I figured that they were lost to me, until recently when I chatted with a Genius at the Genius Bar of our local "Apple Heaven". This "Genius" informed me that I can take my original equipment cds that came with the laptop and install the software onto Leopard. I was originally unaware of this being a "PC Refugee", so I am so delighted to find out this information that I am sharing it with all of you.

1. Load the install disk 1 into your mac
2. navigate to the drive in finder
3. open optional installs
4. follow the prompter.

Congrats, you once again have iDVD, iPhoto, iWeb, Photobooth and more. Enjoy.

HowTo: Convert Cellpadding & Cellspacin into CSS

A while back a friend of mine were working on a project together. He used tables heavily for layout design and I used a good mix between styles and tables to manage layout. We had to work together which means we had to meet each other in the middle. We came upon the problem of converting HTML's table attributes CellPadding and CellSpacing into CSS attributes. Below is the equivalents of cellspacing="0" and cellpadding="0" respectively in CSS.

table { border-spacing: 0; }

table { border-collapse: collapse; }

I hope this helps others. I still have not perfected this. But I hope I am getting closer