One of my favourite ugly sites gets a redesign: Delcious
Del.icio.us version 2, which is now a dots free Delicious (I never used the dots anyway) was publicly launched today. For the longest time this was my favourite ugly site, and wow was it ugly before. It has been completely redesigned and it only takes seconds to appreciate the new design.
Scrabulous is back! Well sort of
The makers of the incredibly popular Scrabulous application for Facebook were told to remove the application or face legal action by Hasbro, the makers of the original dusty Scrabble board. Hasbro lacking any vision of their own waited until they had their own Scrabble application. Reports are saying that this application is not near as polished as Scrabulous was.
Blackberry Bold in Canada soon
A bit of an update on the Blackberry Bold in Canada. The more I search about this phone for a release date the more illusive it becomes. Some sources said today, at least for business customers and then August 8th for regular clients. I’ve also read other reports saying it may not come out until late August or even September, so the official release date is when Rogers tells us. Maybe some other cool phones will be announced by Rogers in the mean time. I wouldn’t mind seeing the Samsung i900 Omnia offered, this is another smartphone that’s looking nice, but I’m already having enough trouble deciding as it is.
New search engine Cuil is underwhelming
I have been reading about this new search engine Cuil that is supposedly the biggest search engine on the web, even bigger than Google. It has been billed by some as a “Google Killer”. I think one of the reasons it’s getting so much publicity is because it is run by a team of former Google employees.
The first thing you will notice about Cuil is its unorthodox appearance. The main page is black and the search is centred in the middle.
The Zombie Survival Guide
The Zombie Survival Guide is the first zombie book by author and screenwriter Max Brooks. A lot of zombie fiction is either done poorly or in a silly way. That is the key difference between the way Max Brooks does zombies; you never feel like you are dealing with silly fictional monsters, with Max Brooks zombies are a serious issue and a matter not to be taken lightly. I recently finished reading the The Zombie Survival Guide and have to say that it is another fantastic Max Brooks novel. His second book titled World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War was also fantastic. I really hope he writes more in the future.
Blackberry Bold in Canada July 29?
Well, the new Blackberry Bold was supposed to be released on July 25. That didn’t happen, but Blackberry News has reported that it should be available at Rogers by the 29th. The Rogers Blackberry Bold web teaser has not been updated yet, but I’m sure it will be soon.
I’m still deciding which smartphone will be my first. Stories of a not so great battery life on the iPhone have held me back, of course having a good data plane here in Canada would have helped sway me. You can also find other country release dates on the Blackberry News website, but it looks as though Rogers will be the first to get it.
So many options just around the corner
The Blackberry Bold is one sweet looking phone, but then so is the iPhone and even Openmoko Neo FreeRunner has a lot of potential. Lets not forget RIM’s touch phone, the Blackberry Thunder which could really shake things up. Then there’s the new Android OS by Google which may show up on HTC phones later this year or early next year.
Update: Blackberry Bold in Canada soon
A message to the parasitic individuals of the web
We have all see it, spam messages in your email, spam on your phone, spam in your blog, forum, social media portal and chat windows. A quick search will show that unsolicited email accounts for 80-90% of the email we receive. This seems high, but a quick glace at my Gmail inbox currently shows a spam box with 3438 emails and Gmail deletes spam that is older than 30 days. By the way, Gmail has an incredible spam filter.
Websites that require a specific browser
Browser specific websites used to be the norm in the early days of the web. Back in the days when a site would tell you what resolution you should be using and what browser works best. This should be a thing of the past, but every now and then I still see “This site best viewed in such and such a resolution” and sometimes a splash saying “This site is only supported in Internet Explorer”.
Custom 404 error messages and how NOT to do them
User friendly error messages are an important part of good site usability, especially if you do not want to scare away a lot of your less web savvy users. A 404 page not found error message is one of the worst kind because if it is a new visitor there is a high probability they are going to click away to the next best site. If you have a friendly 404 you might be able to salvage the situation.
A 404 error message means that the server was successfully contacted but could not retrieve the file requested by the client (browser). This can happen because of an outdated or expired link, a linking error on the site itself, or a user typo.
Rogers, Bell, Telus, you’ve got competition, and soon!
For the past few months something has been happening in Canada’s telecoms sector; an auction for wireless spectrum licences. The auction is now over and the outcome was more positive than most analysts expected. The Canadian goverment pulled in tripple what they expected, a whopping 4.2 billion. The verdict? This should be good for Canadian consumers and it’s about time. Federal Industry Minister Jim Prentice said,
The industry now has an unprecedented opportunity — thanks to the government’s Advanced Wireless Services policy and auction — to develop products and services that offer choice to Canadian consumers and businesses. We think consumers will be the big winners in this auction.
