Not So Delicious First Impressions

I do not a very good first impression of Delicious:

Sorry, there is a temporary problem. Adding a new bookmark failed.

Please use your browser's Back button and try again. If this problem persists please contact support.

Hmm... isn't adding a bookmark the main feature of the service? Delicious has now broken over a dozen times in the first 10 minutes of use.

I would think adding bookmarks would be rock solid.

Ironically, many of the support pages fail to load properly because Delicious has mixed secure content with non-secure content causing warning messages to pop-up on a regular basis.

Delicious

Like Twitter, I have been hearing about Delicious for awhile now so I finally signed-up. I'm really glad they changed the main URL from http://del.icio.us/ to http://delicious.com/, the former was a challenge to remember (and type).

Follow me on Delicious:

http://delicious.com/Verious/

Web-based Services

I recently stumbled across Username Check, a website that lets you check if your preferred username is available at a variety of popular (and several obscure) websites. The complete list of websites is as follows:

• Behance
• Blogger
• Brightkite
• Colourlovers
• Corkd
• Dailymotion
• Delicious
• Digg
• Diigo
• Disqus
• Ebay
• Etsy
• Favtape
• Ffffound
• Flickr
• Friendfeed
• Funnyordie
• Hellotxt
• Hexday
• Identica
• Ilike
• ILikeLoveIt
• Imageshack
• Isfingawesome
• Jaiku
• Koornk
• Kwippy
• Lastfm
• Linkedin
• Livejournal
• Magnolia
• Meemi
• Mixx
• Multiply
• Myspace
• Pandora
• Picasa
• Plurk
• Posterous
• Pownce
• Rejaw
• Smugmug
• Stumbleupon
• Technorati
• Tinyurl
• Tipjoy
• Tumblr
• Twitter
• Typepad
• Vimeo
• Virb
• Visualizeus
• Vox
• Wordpress
• Xbox-live
• Yahoo
• Yoono
• Yotify
• Youtube
• Zooomr

Twitter

It was bound to happen sooner or later. I have been hearing about Twitter for awhile now so I finally signed-up.

Follow me or leave your username in the comments so I can follow you:

http://twitter.com/Verious/

Windows Live ID Web Authentication SDK

Recently I have been researching Single Sign-On options to streamline the user's experience. One interesting provider I found is Windows Live ID Web Authentication, which allows visitors to logon to a website using their Hotmail or Windows Live account. Microsoft describes the Windows Live ID Web Authentication SDK as follows:

The Windows Live™ ID Web Authentication software development kit (SDK) gives you a platform-neutral way to bring the power of the Windows Live ID authentication service to your own Web site.

According to Microsoft the benefits include:

• Ability to use Windows Live gadgets and controls to incorporate authenticated Windows Live services into websites
• HTTP-based, platform-neutral interface for implementing Windows Live ID authentication in existing websites, even if they are hosted by third-parties
• Freedom from the technical details of authentication
• Huge user base: any of the millions of users who have a Windows Live ID can login to Windows Live ID Web Authentication websites

Download Windows Live Web Authentication SDK 1.1

Manage Windows Live Web Authentication Websites

Experience the Nintendo Wii

I definitely encourage everyone to checkout the following link to a really cool Adobe Flash-based Nintendo Wii advertisement. The concept and implementation are first class.

Experience the Nintendo Wii

Windows Live Messenger

To remove advertisements from Windows Live Messenger without installing a patch or crack:

1. Run "Notepad.exe"
   Note: In Windows Vista, run "Notepad.exe" as an Administrator by right-clicking on the shortcut and selecting "Run as administrator"
   
   
2. Open the host file
   "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\Etc\host"
   
   
3. Add the following lines to the bottom of the file:
   127.0.0.1    rad.msn.com
   127.0.0.1    rad.live.com
   
   
4. Save the file and restart Windows Live Messenger
   (if it was already running)

To restore advertisements in Windows Live Messenger:

1. Run "Notepad.exe"
   Note: In Windows Vista, run "Notepad.exe" as an Administrator by right-clicking on the shortcut and selecting "Run as administrator"
   
   
2. Open the host file
   "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\Etc\host"
   
   
3. Remove the following lines from the file:
   127.0.0.1    rad.msn.com
   127.0.0.1    rad.live.com
   
   
4. Save the file and restart Windows Live Messenger
   (if it was already running)

Windows Live Alerts

Microsoft recently released a new version of Windows Live Alerts, which provides several exciting new features:

Windows Live Alerts enables customers to instantly connect to the information that they care most about via Windows Live Messenger, Mobile, and Hotmail.

When you update your blog or other RSS feed, Windows Live Alerts will automatically send a headline to all subscribed readers. The power of Windows Live Alerts is that users can choose where and when to receive alerts.

Learn about the new RSS feature of Windows Live Alerts.

Subscribe to Windows Live Alerts for this website by clicking on the following button (you can unsubscribe at any time by visiting alerts.live.com):