July 2009 - Posts

British Library "Turning the Pages"
31 July 09 11:38 AM | plaj01 | with no comments

I came across the website: British Library "Turning the Pages" the other day http://www.bl.uk/ttp2/ttp1.html

It is an amazing website which has digitized 15 of the Libraries most precious books. What is impressive, is the technology it uses. If you're using Windows Vista and have the "Premium" experience the plug in takes advantage of Direct X9 and all the wizzy graphics stuff. The quality of the images are outstanding and it brings the books to life! If you're unfortunate (or fortunate Big Smile) enough not to have Vista then a Silverlight version is available.

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Microsoft Wave
28 July 09 09:27 AM | plaj01 | with no comments
With the recent news that Microsoft has no intentions of cutting its annual $9 billion Research and Development budget, it is no surprise to see the UK Microsoft Team putting their name to the a new innovative site, Microsoft Wave. The site showcases the latest technology that Microsoft is working on, and also the pie in the sky, I mean future stuff, which is on the horizon!
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Windows 7 Important Information!
24 July 09 11:18 AM | plaj01 | with no comments

With the news that Windows 7 has been Released to Manufacturing (RTM) I thought it'd be best to quickly mention a few important bits of information.

  • Windows 7 in the UK will not come with Internet Explorer 8, due to EU regulations. You are advised to download a web browser to a USB drive or obtain a copy on CD before installing Windows 7. The edition without a web browser is called: Windows 7 E.
  • As Internet Explorer is not included with Windows 7, upgrades from Windows XP or Vista is not possible and Windows 7 must be a clean install.

Read up more here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows7/help/installing-e

Volume licence customers will be able to purchase Professional and those with Software Assurance, Enterprise Edition.

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Are You Still Using IE 6?
17 July 09 01:11 PM | plaj01 | with no comments

If so, ask yourself why?! 

There has been a lot of debate in the press about the future of IE 6. Whilst it is still supported for another year, websites such as You Tube will no longer be supporting the browser on its site, and is encouraging users to upgrade to Firefox, IE or Chrome.

With the news that HTML 5 will be banging on our web browsers door soon, which IE 6 will not be able to render, we are being encouraged to upgrade to the latest and greatest IE 8, Chome 2 or Firefox 3.5.

IE 6 is 2 versions out of date now as had a number of high profile vulnerabilities in the past. It was the default browser shipped with XP which is why experts seem to think its usage is still quite high.

I have no particular preference on Browsers, but just recommend you keep your browser and OS up-to-date with the latest security patches.