Brandon Live!

Looks like those crazy Live Search people snuck out another update!  The goofy scrollbar is gone (it now works like the Image Search one), and you can now create and edit Search Macros!

I’ve already made a couple:

Brandon.MSDN      - searches just MSDN and MSDN2
Brandon.WinDev    - searches MSDN, CodeProject, GotDotNet, OdeToCode, and some others.

By clicking on one of those and installing the macro, you’ll get them added to your search bar on Live.com - then you can refine you search to just those sites with the click of a button!

It’s been about 9 months since I transplanted my entire life from Albany, NY to Redmond, WA. 
Try and guess which characteristic of the Seattle area has made the strongest impression.  Is it the scenery?  The weather?  The housing costs?
Oh no, none of those.  It’s the fact that no one in Washington knows how to drive.

Now whining about this isn’t really going to make things better.  So instead, I’m going to post some guidelines that I think every Seattle area driver should really take to heart.

• Somewhere on your steering wheel, usually on the left-hand side, you’ll find a lever.  Moving this lever up or down will enable something called a “turn signal” or an “indicator.”  But those are really just fancy words for “flashy light on the side of your car.”  If you push up, the light on the right hand side will blink.  If you push down, the left one will.
• Using the “signal” mentioned above, you can actually tell other drivers what you’re thinking.  Like, “Hey, that’s my exit coming up.  I really need to get to that lane over there.”
• If you’re thinking, “Brandon, I know what turn signal is.  But why would I use it if I don’t see anybody in that lane?”  The answer here is quite simple:  Your use of the turn signal will provide extremely valuable information to the person you didn’t see.
• You turn signal doesn’t do any good if you only use it after you’re already halfway into your destination lane.
• If you see another car with a blinking light on the side of it, that does not mean you should:
       A)  Dash from behind him, into the lane he’s trying to get into. 
       B)  Close the gap that you left while you were accidentally not tailgating the person in front of you, because the worst thing you could possibly do would be to permit someone else to get where they’re going, you asshole.

Study hard, because next week there will be quiz!

Starfoce, the so-called “anti-copying malware” has done it again.  This time, not with crappy software or bully tactics against their critics.  No, now they’re apparently linking to illegal downloads of games that doesn’t use their so-called “protection.”  It seems like some kind of extortion scheme (use our shit or we’ll ruin you).  Should be interesting to see how this develops.

Update: Response from the game developer.

Today we released a new version of WDS!  It’s a beta of our 2.6.5 release, and you can get it here, or as an optional component to the Windows Live Toolbar Beta.

 Unofficial change list:

-All the features of the 2.6 Enterprise version (Search Pane on XP/2003, Outlook Integrated Results when used with the MSN/WinLive Toolbar).

-WDS can now be installed over the MSN Toolbar Suite 2.5.  This will remove your MSN Toolbar, but preserve your settings.  You can then install the standalone toolbar or the 3.0 Beta and it will remember your settings from the 2.5 installation.  Alternatively, you can upgrade to the Toolbar 3.0 Beta (which includes WDS 2.6.5 Beta as an optional component).

-The WDS Indexer has undergone some major changes to reduce disk I/O while indexing.

-Shutdown times have been improved significantly  (we think we’ve nailed the ”End Now” dialog problem).

-New group policies.

-Bug fixes and other general improvements (such as a cleaner Deskbar loading mechanism).

 Let us know what you think!

New Live.com!      - New UI!  New First-run experience!  New Gadgets!  Multiple pages/tabs!  FASTER!

New Live Search!   - Infinite scrolling (no paging!), adjustable detail level, Search-within-site, and the best image search ever.

Onfolio acquisition and beta of the Windows Live Toolbar!  (available tomorrow)

 The new Live.com site is in the process of coming online, and might be slower than usual as they ramp up the servers.  By morning it should be snappier than ever. 

This is just the beginning… There’s a lot more to come from Windows Live!

I’ll be posting more tomorrow.  Right now, I need sleep!

Recently a new tech news/blog site has popped by the name of LiveSide.  They’ve been getting all kinds of scoops about upcoming Windows Live services.  It appears their goal it to track everything that’s happening with Windows/Office/Xbox Live.

Check them out at www.liveside.net