Being in the IT Development industry specialising in Web development, I am always interested in the 'next big trend'. That is, the next piece of development technology that I am going to have to learn and what it's going to be used for. On that note, I came across an article on The News & Observer entitled "3 Internet trends to watch".

The article goes on to describe what in the authors view is the next three themes that will shape the development of the Internet over the next few years. The first trend is as he calls it "the Internet as desktop". This has been bandied about for some time now, but I too feel that this trend is about to take off. He bases a lot of this theme on the introduction of Silverlight , which I too agree about. I think that this theme will permeate the Web rather rapidly, especially by those darned advertisers (which I always block from my browser through a number of means!).

The second theme is about "mashup" where the user is given the ability to take only partial elements from web sites and mash them together with other parts and produce a new piece of content for their consumption. Now, I'm a little worried about this one. Whilst I really can see the benefit for a consumer, but where is the benefit for the Web site owner/publisher who put all their effort into the site? I can see this trend being short lived as the Web site owners start to prevent their site from being mashed so as to protect their intellectual property and profitability.

The third theme I disagree with. Not because of the idea which is fine, but the fact that it will happen in the next few years. This theme is the implementation of search engines that flesh out information with database structure to find relationships between the key word elements of a search. I think that most search engines already try to do this, it is just that there is so much poorly crafted data out there on the Web that it's simply a difficult task to find what you want, because its hard to describe in the same way as everyone else. Everyone has their own way of describing things, and when your descriptions does not match theirs how do you know if there is a match?

Anyway. You head on over and have a read and let me know what you think.

I currently work for a company that uses Lotus Notes for email.  I simply can not stand using Notes for Email, it feels and is, in my opinion very old, antiquated and counter-productive.  I therefore break from the company policy and use Outlook 2003, with the Lotus Notes connector for Outlook.

I occasionally experience problems with the Lotus Notes connector for Outlook hanging on the message "Please wait while outlook shuts down".

Do others have access to your calendar or free/busy information (almost certainly!)? If yes then this is a known issue.

This issue can be resolved in two ways as detailed below.  First you need to kill the Outlook process, by using the task manager.  I have personally found option 2 to work best, as I do try to make sure that I am fully patched!

1. Make sure that Office, including Outlook is fully patched.
2. Start Outlook with the /cleanfreebusy command line switch.

I've been a developer for a very long time now.  I've written in many different programming languages over this time, some more successful than others.  I get a lot of people who have never done any development in their life asking me "how easy is it to develop", or saying "it can't be that hard to develop".

Today I came across the Microsoft beginer developer learning centre, and I think I'll point these people on over to this resource in future.  The beginner developer learning centre is a centralised learning environment specifically targeted to novices and beginners to programming.  It provides a rich array of learning content that starts with the basics, and guides the programmer step-by-step to becoming a developer.  It has provision for Web and Windows development, so it should suit all those budding programmers.

I thought that I'd bring to your attention a couple of great Internet Explorer toolbars/extensions that I use.

Just released is the official release of the Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar (IEDevToolbar).  It has just come out of beta, and available for download here.  If you do any development on Internet Explorer or want to 'dissect' Web sites then this is the tool for you.  I really love the ability to change the client code (HTML, CSS, etc.) dynamically!

The second tool that I use for Internet Explorer is the IE7Pro toolbar.  I've blogged about it before here, and it has been vastly updated and improved since then.  Despite it's name, this also works on IE6, so if you are still on the old browser, give it a go.  You can download the updated toolbar here.

I have long been interested in getting a big, wide screen TV.  After all, I do watch a lot of it, and a lot of movies.  So, today when I came across this article on the Pioneer Web site that says "The World's best flat screen TV", I was obviously going to be interested.

These "world's best" are Pioneers 8th generation plasma displays, and from the pictures on the site I cant really disagree.  However the proof will be actually seeing these in the showroom next to other TVs.  The apparent secret for the screens being the best is that the black levels are 80% deeper than what was previously possible to produce, and they have an amazing contrast ration of 20,000:1.  They also support full HD resolution (1080p), and not the cheap 720i that most current screens have (article on the difference between i and p here).

If I was to buy such a TV, I would really have to move apartment, otherwise it would be completely wasted in the hole that I currently live in!

I've been keenly following the developments of SilverLight as you can see here, and talking about it a fair bit within the office to my colleagues.  As such, one of my colleagues today sent me a link to and article on Scott Hanselman's blog.  His article is a good little collection of links to various samples on Silverlight that are currently out there.

As Scott says, "since Silverlight is all text...there's a whole world of copy/pasting out there just waiting for us...".  As everyone knows us developers don't actually write anything original, we simply copy everyone else...Only kidding src="http://blog.internetwideworld.com/smilies/happy.gif">

Virtually all development that I undertake is destined for the Web and HTML.  The trouble with the Web and HTML is that to get a great Graphical User Interface (GUI), it takes a lot of design and development effort.  This is also coupled by the usual user download requirements being very high.  That is, unless you use something like Flash.  However, for me, using Flash is really a designers tool and not a developers tool.  It is also restricted in that it's only really available from the desktop.  Thus it is not usable if you are on a Mobile browser or other 'limited' browsing platform.

As such, I have been following with some interest what people are calling Web 2.0.  It is perceived as the second generation Web.  Whilst this is true in some respects it really only means that there is a change in the way that developers are utilising the Web platform.  The main way that I feel this going is in the field of GUI design.

To make a real difference to the user experience of the GUI, we need to radically rework how this Web and HTML thing works together with other technologies.  I was really excited then when I read about the release of SilverLight.

"Microsoft® Silverlight™ is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. Silverlight offers a flexible programming model that supports AJAX, VB, C#, Python, and Ruby, and integrates with existing Web applications. Silverlight supports fast, cost-effective delivery of high-quality video to all major browsers running on the Mac OS or Windows."

For me if SilverLight takes off, I think that this will deliver what is expected from Web 2.0.  No longer would the Web GUI be limited to large blocs of text, interspersed with some static images, but it will take on a whole new organic life.  The reason I believe this is simply in the implementation of the graphics.  The way that Web 1.0 currently works is that a graphics is in either GIF/JPG/PNG format, and is of a fixed size and resolution.  These graphics do not scale well.  To provide a GUI in Web 1.0 to a different scale, almost certainly is there a need to provide a unique set of graphics per size and resolution.  This is expensive not only for development and maintenance, but also for the end download user.  However, the interesting thing about the way that SilverLight can implement graphics, is that it can be done through the use of Raster graphics.  These graphics are dynamically scalable on different devices and resolutions.  Have a look at some of the video lessons on the subject here, or have a look at "Building rich Web experience with SilverLight".

I honestly can't wait until I can get involved with a project that will allow me to utilise SilverLight.  I already have a personal project in mind, but that is a couple months away before I can really start working on it.  Keep tuned, as I intend to blog my experiences on this development (hopefully with SilverLight).

Way back in the mists of time, when I first had access to the internet, I remember the excitement I had at installing Netscape 0.9.  A lot has changed in the worlds of the Internet browser since then.  I used to be an avid Netscape fan, but they soon shrivelled up and more or less died away to be replaced by Microsoft's Internet Explorer.  I must admit that I never really used Internet Explorer until version 5, and since then I have always used Internet Explorer as my main browser of choice.  I have never really got into FireFox much, other than for accessibility and cross browser testing that I do a lot of.  I just want a browser that displays web pages!

Only since FireFox has taken a chunk out of Microsoft's dominance of the browser market has the giant Microsoft finally got off their backsides and made some improvements.  The market is once again competitive, and I feel that this can only be a good thing.  We saw that when IE vanquished Netscape to the great browserhalla, that browser progress and innovation slowed and died away.  Microsoft were basically 'begging' to have someone come into the market and challenge them.  Better that than an 'anti-competition lawsuit'!

As such I've not joined the browser 'wars', but I really, really do hate these 'browser bashers' who rubbish one browser over the other.  Oh grow up!  Each to their own.  The only reason why FireFox has made inroads to the browser market is in the home, where as in the business is is very solidly IE.  This is the environment I live and work in, so I'll stick with Internet Explorer thank you.

Enough ranting for now...

I was interested to read today that at the Mix'07 conference in Las Vegas (Microsoft's annual event for Web Developers and Designers), that there was some 'hint's as to what to expect from Internet Explorer 8 (IE8).  These hints can be found on the Internet Explorer Blog. The hints touted that the main improvements were to be for RSS, CSS and AJAX support.

I have really started to get into my RSS feeds, and you can subscribe to mine here.  As far as I am concerned the only improvements I'd like to see is improvements in speed, everything else I am happy with.

I do a lot of development around CSS, and I really do hope that Microsoft implement strict compliance to the latest standards for CSS.  The current non-compliance by Internet Explorer is a real nightmare for developers, and I can say that from experience that you have to really work at and 'bash' your CSS to get it to look the same just in two different versions of Internet Explorer!  That just isn't playing ball.

I'm only just starting to get into AJAX really, so I cant really comment about any improvements that are needed here.

It is also speculated that IE8 will also have support for what is known as microformats.  These microformats are small embedded tags in HTML that can be interpreted in various ways by software, such as calendar events or contact information.  Microformats are scheduled to be added to the next version of FireFox, so it is likely that IE8 will also have these, just to keep up.

The last thing that is hinted at being done in IE8, is more provisioning for user interface customisation.  As I have previously stated, I want a browser that does what it says on the tin...it serves me Web pages!  So, to me customisation is not something that I want, nor need.  How about putting the extra effort into improving the speed, reliability and what about reducing the size of the install (bloat ware).

I'm a user of a Windows powered mobile phone, which has Pocket Internet Explorer installed, which I use to surf the web with, whilst on the move.  I find this functionality invaluable, and it has made a dramatic impact/change to my life over the last couple of years.  Anyway, what I want to see for IE8 is a Windows Mobile version that properly supports everything that it's big brother desktop version provides.  I would dearly love to have full RSS, CSS, and AJAX support in the pocket version, along with Flash, JavaScript, iFrames, etc.

What do you think?

In my job I create a lot of Content Management driven Web sites.  As part of this process you need to mock-up what various page templates and styles look like.  This can be a real pain to put in some valid content.  Historically I always wondered how the designers that I have worked with managed to put in lorem ipsum to the design to make it more realistic.  Well, a while ago I found the lorem ipsum Web site.

I now use this site all the time to generate some dummy test for inclusion in my mock-ups.

Some details about Lorem Ipsum

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using 'Content here, content here', making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for 'lorem ipsum' will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).

I read an article today on the BBC Web site, about how BT are developing a motion-sensitive laptop, or more accuratley a device to attatch to the laptop.  The device, which is very much like the Nintendo Wii controler, I think is an idea but not a very good one.

The reason for the controller is apparently to help people with dissabilities  or the elderly.  I don't see that as it's primary use.  Why?  Because it wopuld be like using etch-a-sketch for these people.  How often have the able dodied 'just missed' that menu option, when using the mouse and clicked on something else?  What about those users who do not have full motor control?  Why not give them the same controls as an etch-a-sketch, the knob to move up and down, and the other knob to move left and right?  Would be much easier and simpler!

I see the primary is in the games industry just like the Wii controller.  But why bother?  When you can already buy such devices that are already much better?

Call me a cynic, but I personally think that it's the usual self promotion.  It appeases the share holders as BT are in the news, and it justifies them spending money on this department.  It also makes them look like they are trying to help the disabled and elderly.  If you have a look at the photos.  The laptop that the device is being used on is tiny.  Surely the laptop is too small for these disabled people to be able to see the screen clearly.  There is no way you would be tilting a normal laptop, they are simply too big.  Besides, who can afford such a small laptop, have you checked the prices of those things?  It's almost certinally to expensive for the disabled and elderly to justify.

To me, it's a good try, but too late and completley impractical at this level and target audience.

I posted a few days ago about Solid State Drives (SSD) and how I believe that they are going to change things in the world of Hard Disks (HD).  I was therefore very interested to read this article from Information Week.  It basically states that Samsung have begun the production of a 16 Gb flash memory chip.  These chips are expected to be used in digital music players, music phones and digital cameras.  I really want one of those!

The article goes on to say that in March the company introduced a 64 Gb solid state flash drive for ultra-portable notebooks.  Now, I really want one of those!