Back in the day Konfabulator had the coolest cross-platform widgets. Widgets are small programs that add some functionality. They still have cool widgets but since they sold out to Yahoo, at least in my opinion, they lost some of that independent cool factor.

I have done some testing of the Windows Vista Sidebar and the Yahoo Widget engine. I like both but the Yahoo product has the widgets I prefer. Both have weather and battery status widgets, and both have international time display widgets, but I prefer how the Floresense WorldClock 1.2 Yahoo widget works, especially since it synchronizes time and accounts for localized daylight savings time.

… Anyway, back to my rant! Here I am installing the Yahoo Widget thing on my new Vista laptop, and the damn software wants to change my homepage and search engine. What the hell! Both options are checked (true) by default, if one is not paying attention their browser would become totally jacked by Yahoo. How rude!

That’s fine to offer changing my browser preferences, but ask me first and don’t assume I want to see a big red Y in my face every time I open my web browser. I’ve been on the web since there was a web, I have very specific browsing preferences, and I take offense to having my settings changed by anyone or anything. {end rant}
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My freaking power bill nearly doubled this year versus same time last year, with not much increase in power usage. $340 in March, $345 in April, and I have a very small house. That could have been a new car payment! Fucking BGE. Oh well, guess I’ll be playing Call of Duty and Counter Strike with a window fan blowing instead of the air conditioner …

Note that if Google considers the base URL to be the newsworthy site, and does not specify a sub-folder, then the Google News sitemap must be in the base folder. If the content you wish to feed Google is in a sub-folder then place the script in the base folder and modify where the script is pulling the WordPress data from. For example, change:

require(”wp-config.php”);

to

require(”newsroom/wp-config.php”);

The line to modify is on line 27 of the current script version (download).

You may also rename this script and replicate to point to multiple feed sources; in my case I had two feed sources (WordPress blog installations) on the same website to submit to Google.

>> Don’t forget to change the keywords list on line 58 to match your site content! See the list of Google News Categories here.

See the Google News Sitemap Generator page from November 2006 for more details.

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Eventually I learned that you need to run the Office software one time using the “Run as administrator” option to allow the Office EULA thing to save it’s settings to the registry. But this option is not available from the Start menu or desktop program shortcuts; you have to navigate through the Program Files and locate the Office software to run it direct. On my computer I found the Office software installed in the “C:/Program%20Files/Microsoft%20Office/OFFICE11/” folder. Once you find it just right-click on an Office program file (I ran Excel) and then “Run as administrator”. Works like a charm!

Many features look familiar from IE7, some are new. Of course there are others out there posting their own reviews, this posting discusses features I feel are worth mentioning. Below are some screen shots and my 10 minute review of Internet Explorer 8. Please pardon the poor quality dithering.

Download Internet Explorer 8, go through the normal installation windows and TOS agreement stuff. One thing I like to see is Microsoft providing and running a malicious software removal tool. It may only provide a minor security benefit (I’ll post much more security-related musings soon) but nonetheless I appreciate the effort.

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IE8 has a browser import feature that can import favorites, feeds and settings from other popular browsers such as Firefox and Safari.

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The installation process allows you to do a quick default install which pre-loads the settings with Microsoft services such as web search, blogging, dictionary lookup, language translate and more. These services are later available from the top toolbar or by selecting web page text and right-click menu option. The online search providers page is familiar from IE7, simply click a link to add the search provider.

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The activity providers options is something new and interesting. This is where you can add providers for those new menu and right-click options. There aren’t many providers listed on the service gallery page, we can hope that more become available as IE8 matures.

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The next thing I looked at was internet options. Most are carried over from IE7, though I did immediately notice the multiple tab homepage option. The General tab lists the stuff that most users should limit themselves to - set your homepage(s), clear browsing history, adjust search provider, mess with tabs and adjust color/appearance.

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I then notice a cool tool added to IE8 - the Developer Tools button.

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Of course I clicked it! I was rewarded with a code view of my web page. But much more than that. This thing shows code hierarchy (yes I misspelled it in the screen grab lol), actual CSS code listings, CSS layout and raw CSS script.

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You can highlight a specific page code element and IE8 will display the CSS code applied to it - very slick!

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I do have a couple of irritations with IE8. First, my Print-Screen button seems to have been hijacked! It was previously mapped as the hot button for my Snag-It screen capture software. I lost that functionality and have been unable to restore it thru the software settings, so I was forced to map a different key combo. Secondly, on some pages I browsed the CSS layout appeared different than in IE7 or Firefox. In one case a page element normally found on the right side suddenly moved to the left. In another I notice where I applied a graphic (arrow) thru CSS to display in a bullet list, the graphic is no longer visible (see images below). I haven’t gone back to diagnose, maybe my CSS is funky, maybe IE8 is. If I find any errors I’ll report back.
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Here is the bullet list viewed in Firefox

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And the same bullet list viewed in IE8 (no pretty orange arrows)

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Comments welcome! - Dave

Click here for pictures I posted on the Harford Emcomm website.

I also shot an amateur video (below) of the riders as they turned from Route 1 north onto Route 136 south. It is just over 5 minutes in length from the beginning to end of the procession. Click here to view the Bikers for Babies video!

From the top toolbar in Word, click on Tools -> Options -> Track Changes tab.  Then under the Markup section, simply change the Comments color to whatever you desire.  See the screen shot below:

** This is not a WP plug-in, but is a stand-alone script for generating a sitemap RSS feed for Google News.

UPDATE March 10, 2008 - I fixed the invalid date format error bug.

Google announced their new Sitemaps for Google News program on November 21, 2006. I checked it out and the protocol is fairly standard and simple to follow. See the URL above for more information and technical specs.

I modified a simple, standard sitemap generator script (author URL dead) to output a Google News sitemap feed. All you need to do is download and unzip the file (below), open the php file with a standard text editor, modify the categories keywords list (click here for a list of available categories), and upload to your main WordPress directory.

You call up the script directly to generate the Google News sitemap file on-demand. For this site, the URL is http://www.kb3kai.com/david_stansbury/news-sitemap.php.

Once you have the program uploaded and running properly, you need to submit the feed URL to Google. Simply sign into (or sign up for) Google Webmaster Tools and, if your site is already considered a news source by Google, simply submit your feed URL as shown below:

If your site is not in Google News you can request inclusion here.

Download the WordPress script here, verified to work in WordPress 2.0: Google News Sitemap Generator for WordPress

UPDATE March 19, 2008 - I used this script on a live Google-News-worthy website and submitted to Google Webmaster Tools as a Google News sitemap feed. They seem to have accepted it okay, see the screen shot below.

Have fun and happy publishing!

- Dave

Preparedness is both simple and complex. Think about what you need if the power goes out; you will probably need batteries, heat to cook food, a way to stay warm. If your water supply was cut off you would need sufficient water.

In it’s simplest form, being prepared for an emergency is being able to take care of the basic necessities for you and your family. Self-reliance is essential, you can’t depend on a government agency to supply your needs. More complex issues would include medication supplies, powering medical equipment, a supply of non-perishable food, personal hygiene, etc.

Please take a little time and reflect on how you can prepare for the unexpected. One day you may thank yourself!