Entries tagged with blogging - Channel 10

Get All the Microsoft Blogs at BlogMS

sarahintampa — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 04:42:00 GMT

At Microsoft, there are a lot of product and support teams blogging – so many, in fact, that it can be hard to keep up with them all. If you tried to subscribe to all the sites on your own, you could be overwhelmed by the sheer number of posts. Well, now there’s a better way to keep up with Microsoft news. A new resource called BlogMS makes it easy for you to follow all the Microsoft blogs by offering regular weekly and monthly updates from product, support and other specialist teams within Microsoft. The site tracks over 130 blogs in total! Every week and calendar month, BlogMS will also publish a full summary of all the latest articles in a single blog post on this site as well as offer a report which you can download. During the week, blog alerts will be issued to highlight important announcements. Here’s the list of all the blogs the site is tracking, but if you want to check out all the Microsoft produced blogs, you can go here to the Microsoft Community Blogs site. We hear that we have Brandon LeBlanc from the Windows Experience Blog to thank for getting this list started, so thank you, thank you, Brandon (and everyone else who ended up contributing to this site) for making our lives easier.

Zemanta Plugin for Windows Live Writer

sarahintampa — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:10:00 GMT

Zemanta is a technology used by bloggers that inserts automatic links, adds relevant photos, adds links to related articles, and automatically tags your posts. The technology is available either as a browser plugin or a server-side plugin that supports either WordPress, Movable Type, or Drupal. However, I recently learned that it’s available as a Windows Live Writer plugin, too!

After installation, the Zemanta plugin will appear in the right sidebar of WLW where you can see the content it is suggesting for your post. (You have to write at least 300 characters before it will provide any suggestions.) The plugin works on Live Writer versions 12-14. You can see what version you run by going to “About” from the “Help” menu in Live Writer.

To try the Zemanta plugin for yourself, you can download it from here.

JD, Nic, and Brian Podcast - Episode 8

brianjo — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:08:00 GMT

This week in the JD, Nic, and Brian Podcast, we talk about Shutter Speed, Nic's new photogaphy show on Channel 10, we discuss talking with bloggers about WorldWide Telescope, and finally JD hints at plans to build a car computer.

Links:
ShutterSpeed Episode 01
ShutterSpeed Episode 02
Blogger Back Channel Event: World Wide Telescope - AM Session
Blogger Back Channel Event: World Wide Telescope
Hands on with the Rio iBar Microsoft Surface units
Microsoft Surface at the Rio in Las Vegas; Your Virtual Wingman
WorldWide Telescope Home
Office Live Meeting

Get Your Hands on the New Live Writer

sarahintampa — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 03:31:00 GMT

Windows Live Writer has got to be, hands down, one of the most popular tools out of the whole Windows Live lineup. I know many a blogger (myself included) who can't live without it. That's why the recent release of the Windows Live Writer Tech Preview has everyone talking. The Windows Live Writer Tech Preview is really intended for developers, but that didn't stop a slew of bloggers from downloading this latest version.

So what's new?

For one, the UI - there are now tabs at the bottom that switch you from Edit mode to Preview mode to Source mode. This definitely makes switching quicker and easier than have to choose it from a menu option. The toolbar also got a refresh and the "Weblog" menu got moved to the top on the right hand side. For bloggers with tons of categories, a new category search feature will be greatly appreciated - making finding the right one much faster.

Also nice are the improvements in working with images - cropping tools are built-in, alignment commands now work on images, additional borders are available, Lightbox is supported, contrast adjustments and tilt adjustments can be made.

You can also upload videos from your computer to Soapbox from the new WLW interface, which is great for video bloggers.

And now, there's an official word count feature - something I only had via a plugin before.

For developers, there's an SDK available that comes with a Twitter sample plugin. (Learn more here).

If you're not afraid to get your feet wet with a beta, the Tech Preview of WLW is definitely worth a look!

CeBIT '08 - Stephan Walcher & Live Writer Blog

lorigros — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:57:00 GMT

Stephan Walcher ist Microsoft-MVP und leidenschaftlicher Blogger. Er führt unter anderem den populären Live Writer-Blog in drei Sprachen: Deutsch, Italienisch und Englisch und verfügt vermutlich über die größte Plugin-Sammlung für Live Writer außerhalb der Windows Live Writer Plugin Gallery – darunter Plug-Ins für Video-Einbettung, Integration der IMDB (Internet Movie Database), Übersetzung und viele andere Sachen – und kennt die deutsche Bloggerszene seit den Anfängen. Wer interessante Insideransichten über die Unterschiede zwischen deutschen und italienischen Blogs erfahren will, oder erfahren möchte wie Stefan ohne Internet über seine Tour entlang der Westküste der USA mit GPS und Virtual Earth bloggen wird, der sollte sich diesen Beitrag unbedingt ansehen.

A great video blogger...Wine Library TV

Tina — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:18:00 GMT

Every once in a while you come across a video blogger that really catches your attention. A collegue of mine Loke Uei Tan invited wine video blogger Gary Vaynerchuk to Redmond to attend an MS Mobile event. Gary runs a daily wine blog and even if you don't care anything about Cab's or Syrahs Gary is a great example of a great video blogger. He is absolutely passionate about his topic, he's enthusiastic and he gets right to the point. Check out a little bit from Gary's blog and then grab a snack, put your feet up and listen to Gary's story courtesy of Loke.

Wordpress Tags Plugin for Windows Live Writer

sarahintampa — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 08:00:00 GMT

I just keep finding great plugins for Windows Live Writer! I recently moved my blog to WordPress and wanted to find out if WLW could support tags instead of just categories. As it turned out, the support to post tags is not enabled by default, so there are some things that have to be done in order to enable the support to add tags when you blog from Windows Live Writer. (I found this tip at ruhanirabin.com)

To enable tags in WLW, do the following:

Download the latest version of Windows Live Writer.
Download the File wlwmanifest.zip from Wordpress Trac.
Unzip and upload all the included files with directories into your blog' root directory.
Update or Add your Blog in WLW from the "Weblog" menu in WLW.
Re-open WLW and, at the bottom, you'll need to click on the double up-arrow to expand the rest of the menu, which is hidden. This menu gives you access to all the metadata for your post, and now the keywords tags (WP tags) are available for you to enter in comma-separated list.

Politics and Blogging - Does it matter?

Tina — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 02:28:00 GMT

I'm sitting in my living room watching the results to the New Hampshire primary and earlier this evening it was projected pretty early on that John McCain would take the top spot among the Republicans. And Hillary Clinton just finished giving her speech as the winning Democrat. I have a love for politics and the history of it, although truthfully I don't know a ton about it. I do know however that running for political office these days must be drastically strategically different then even eight years ago. With MySpace, facebook, blogs and youtube, information and therefore opinions have a significantly different way of traveling these days. The scary part is sometimes you don't know when a candidate is actually behind a site or not. I've been asked by a few people myself about my personal myspace page. I don't have a myspace page. I'm not a myspacer. But somebody has created a page and pretends to be me. Why? I have no idea. I wonder how many fake sites have been created about some of the current political candidates. About a year ago I went to listen to John Edwards speak, he came to Seattle to chat with bloggers and ask questions about blogging for his campaign this year. I respected him for doing that. Here's the link if you're interested. Anyway, there actually is a point to the post. I'm just curious how you think blogging and the internet has changed the way we look at politics? And if there was one candidate you think would be playing Xbox live, which candidate and which game?

The ABC's of blogging

Laura — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 02:17:00 GMT

It seems that nowadays everybody has a blog. Some of us even have video blogs- well, I guess that's a vlog. (Bit of trivia: Blog is actually short for "web log") Anyway, for those of you out there who may be considering starting a blog, or even if you just want tips from some seasoned professionals, this video is for you. There are so many choices one needs to make when blogging- and some fatal traps you might fall in to. So I hit the pavement to find out what it takes to have a successful blog and and just how to get started.

Mark Cuban: Blogger

ambikas — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:12:00 GMT

Mark Cuban is the man. Charismatic, intelligent and every little kid’s dream – the basketball fan who grew up to own the team. At BlogWorld Expo, however, Cuban addressed attendees not as the Mav’s owner, nor as the Dancing with the Stars participant; instead, Cuban’s intro slide read “Mark Cuban: Blogger.” Blogger, really? Not billionaire, or chairman of HDNet, or even Guinness Book of Records holder for the "largest single e-commerce transaction" ($40 million) for his Gulfstream V jet? Nope. Blogger. A regular guy just like.. you and me?

Cuban began blogging in 2004 in an effort to correct a misquote in the Dallas morning news. Since then, his blog has grown to phenomenal popularity, covering diverse topics ranging from technology to the NBA – but always written with classic Cuban honesty, and often, some Cuban sizzle (in 2006 he was fined $100,000 by the NBA for being critical of the league’s selection of playoff officials, and for including tips on how improve playoff officiating).

His keynote at Blogworld lived up to his lofty resume and kept us all both laughing and taking notes on his insights. Ill talk about a few here, but if interested someone filmed the whole thing and you can check it out here.

Mark spent a fair amount of time talking about blogger's decisions to monetize their blogs, and the effects of such on their autonomy and credibility. He argued that ads cheapen blogs by detracting focus from the content - and, you are responsible to support your advertisers. "Personally, [said Mark] my blog has no advertising, because i want to be free to pick on everyone." In reference to bloggers who "sell themselves to an aggregator" or write on behalf of a company, Cuban advised that "it is not easy to be brutally honest when you have a boss." Well said Mark :)

As a caveat, however, Cuban cautioned against what he called the "FU Post." "Blogs are forever" - whatever you post will live on for eternity, so be careful what you say. "What you write is going to brand you for years to come. I'm not saying muzzle yourself, but be careful." Cuban, always self aware, ended his remarks on the subject with a reality check. "I can say stuff - I'm the luckiest guy in the world. I can sit up here and not care. I have more money than you!"

Cuban’s keynote at Blogworld Expo was clearly the highlight of the event. In other news, Mike Arrington of Techcrunch and Om Malik failed to attend the panels where they were listed as speakers, and many fewer attendees than advertised appeared to be present. In fact, when I arrived at the event, an organizer informed me that there were 1200 people present. However, at Mark’s keynote, I counted less than 400 in the crowd. Perhaps even more interesting was that at the beginning of his speech, Mark asked for a show of hands from bloggers, corporate bloggers, and then those who were there to sell stuff to bloggers (whom he diplomatically referred to as ‘those in the business of blogging’). I’d say the breakdown was something like 30/100/everyone else. So.. blogging conference. No bloggers. Hmmm.

It was puzzling to me to understand why bloggers didn’t think it was worth there time/money to attend this event. The organizers of the conference managed to pull together a pretty impressive panel, it was in Vegas, and everyone and their mom had a booth at the tradeshow. Thoughts?

Oh and, as a side note… Mark and I are now Facebook friends. Awesome.

Windows Live Writer 1.0 released, learn all about it here!

Duncan — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:54:00 GMT

Ever since its first beta release in August 2006, I've been a big fan of Windows Live Writer. Windows Live Writer is a fully featured Windows blogging client with support for spell checking, WYSIWYG editing, picture uploading and custom plug-ins (with a full SDK). In addition to the expected Windows Live Spaces support, it also supports a ton of other blogging engines including a generic metaweblog api setting that I can use to blog on both on10.net and duncanmackenzie.net!

With the 1.0 release it seemed like a good time to learn a bit more about this app, so I sat down with Becky Pezely from the Windows Live Writer team and got all the details. Check out the video for yourself, learn all about this cool product, then scoot over to download the 1.0 version. Don't stop there though, check out all the great plug-ins available for Windows Live Writer and if you are a Flickr user, make sure to grab Tim Heuer's Flick4Writer plug in (that I mention in the video) and insert your flickr photos into Writer with the greatest of ease!

Live Writer Plug-Ins

sarahintampa — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 18:07:00 GMT

On September 5th, the Live Writer team offered a new version of the popular blogging tool, Windows Live Writer. The new version, Beta 3, includes several enhancements, including the ability to upload to Picasaweb via Blogger, publish XHTML-style markup, support for 28 new languages, print & print preview for your posts, the ability to justify posts, better image handling, and some other bug fixes. However, one of the best new features is the ability to insert videos directly from Soapbox or the web. To insert a video from YouTube, for example, you just copy and paste the video's URL and Live Writer automatically generates the embed code.

However, some of us crave even more WLW goodness, and this can be achieved through the use of plug-ins for Live Writer. I recently found this list of great Live Writer plugins, which I bookmarked right away. On the list is one of my favorite tools - the "Blog This" browser add-on. "Blog This" lets you quickly post some selected text from the web to your blog. Also making the cut is flick4Writer, which lets you blog your flickr pics to your blog using Writer. Another plug-in, Social Bookmarks, lets you add social bookmarking icons (like digg, del.icio.us, furl, yahoo!) in your blog posts. And then there is the Screen Captures plug in, which inserts a screenshot of a webpage in your blog post. Even more WLW plugins can be found at the very cool site, wlwplugins.com or in the Windows Live Gallery.

A Strategy in the Raw

nhodge — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 01:08:00 GMT

For the first time in four years, I get up in the morning with a spring in my step. Finding what you are passionate about: getting a job that matches this passion; then having the scope to experiment doesn't pop up daily. I am, at heart, a storyteller.

Unless you create your own company, start it from nothing, build the 'widget' and keep driving - ultimate freedom is rare. Even the Scoble is finding startups have process.

Working in Microsoft Australia, not Redmond, I don't have access to all the internal stuff that Larry, Tina and Laura get to see. No breaking news stories from me.

What I do get to see are the real people in Australia, doing strange and amazing things in their lives with technology. And I just love hearing and retelling their stories. At heart, we all love stories. Movies, jokes, anecdotes, gossip: they all tell stories. Inside the story is wrapped a kernal of learning or insight. That "gotcha" moment.

Therefore, the content I can contribute are the stories of geeks, power-users, the hard workers behind the scenes and the thought-leaders in Australia. The mantra of "The Geek Stories"; tell the story.

We are in the middle of a lifestyle revolution accelerated by packets of digital bits. The stories that need to be told are where people are using technology to capture memories, and/or connect to others. Telling stories.

Being at Microsoft, obviously I am going be looking for stories that have some connection to our technology. Sometimes these connections will be tenuous. Other times, they will be overt. Ultimately someone has to pay the bills, and noone is free from the context of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

I think these technology areas include: social networking writ large(blogging, 'casting, IM'ing, wiki'ing, uses in learning), video/ photography/ audio, fun stuff (games, immersive online environments) and gadgetry. Each of these areas either capture or connect.

There is an intersection of various Microsoft-branded things that enhance these technology areas. I suppose a part of my job is to help connect the stories with the technologies.

All the MBA waffle aside, I am more than happy to be directed by you, the audience.