Windows Live Gallery – Writer

Finally, more action on live writer–my favorite? A blog this extension for FireFox. 

• Featured

• What are Writer Extensions?

1  Event Plugin

2  Blog This for Internet Explorer

3  Flickr4Writer

Event Plugin

Created by: WindowsLiveWriter

Category: Miscellaneous

Average rating:

Updated: 9/27/2006

Certified

Description

Inserts events into a blog post. Enter your own events, or search for them on Eventful.com. Several formatting options are available and the post contains hCalendar microformatting.

Download

Blog This for Internet Explorer

Created by: Microsoft

Category: Blog this

Average rating:

Updated: 9/27/2006

Certified

Description

The “Blog This” IE button launch Windows Live Writer prepopulated with content from the current web page. Use it to quickly blog about interesting content you find while browsing the web.

Download

Flickr4Writer

Created by: timheuer

Category: Pictures

Average rating:

Updated: 9/27/2006

Description

Flickr4Writer is a plugin that enables interaction with the Flickr(tm) services. You can browse by tags, photosets, or a simple photostream. After browsing, the plugin enables inserting the image reference into a post. A Flickr(tm) account is required.

Download

1  About Writer

2  Content Source Plugins

3  Application Addins

About Writer

Windows Live Writer is a desktop application that makes it easier to compose compelling blog posts using Windows Live Spaces or your current blog service. Insert rich content like pictures and maps, edit your post using the styles from your blog and know exactly what it will look like before you seamlessly publish it to the web.
Get the latest version of Windows Live Writer

Content Source Plugins

Content Source Plugins extend the capabilities of Writer to insert, edit, and publish new types of content. Examples of content types that can be added to Writer using Plugins include:
• Images from online photo publishing sites.
• Embedded video or audio players.
• Product thumbnails and/or links from e-commerce sites.
• Tags from tagging services.

Application Addins

Application Addins allow other applications and web services to launching Writer to create new posts or “Blog This” for Links, Snippets, Images, and Feed Items.

Top categories

• Miscellaneous (3)
• Blog this (2)
• Pictures (2)
• Media (0)

Top downloads

• Blog This for Firefox
• Flickr4Writer
• Blog This for Internet Explorer
• Event Plugin
• Insert Spaces Emoticon
• Acronyms Plugin
• Ink Blog Plugin

What’s new

• Flickr4Writer
• Acronyms Plugin
• Event Plugin
• Blog This for Firefox
• Blog This for Internet Explorer
• Ink Blog Plugin
• Insert Spaces Emoticon

Source: Windows Live Gallery – Writer

 

Technorati tags: livewriter, firefox extension

3D Lighting Concepts

This is not a topic that I have talked about for a long time. But it is one that I have been interested in for 20 years or more. I love technology and a large spectrum of usage and software. What can I say, it’s what makes me what I am.

I use Poser a lot. I guess you know that by now. I have left it alone for 5 years. Asleep for a bit I guess. I have a CSN song about that I will reference. Graham Nash. Let’s stay on topic for a minute.

Poser does a funny thing with lighting, it randomly, as far as I can tell, I don’t know the algorithm, sets up lights, their position, type and color. Sometime it works, most of the time it is…muddy.

I wanted to know how to fix this. I started a little research. I used to go to Barnes and Noble twice a week to computer section and see what was happening. I found a book by Jeremy Brin.

I learned more about lighting and rendering reading this book that you can imagine. It is a classic. It changed my poser work significantly. I created a series of tutorials about lighting in 2000 that are now lost but were kind of frenetic but good. Curious Labs, now efrointer was so interested in my tutorials that they sent me several free copies of poser, included me in their beta and bought four computers for a school that Judith and I were supporting. I didn’t get any money but I thought this was generous.

Anyway, since I have been playing with Poser again, now version 6, which is incredible, I wanted to review the lighting precepts I learned. I left the book in Utah when I moved to Arizona, like so many other things. So I went to Amazon and discovered that Jeremy has written the second edition of Lighting and Rendering. Money was tight, but I bought it anyway. Scarcity sucks. Abundance rules. 

This book is awesome. Even better than the first edition. This guy knows his stuff and has tested and practiced endlessly. He give you exercises at the end of every chapter.

I finally come to my point. That is the “function of lights.” Lights make your 3d scene. everything else is great but the lighting is so much the finishing touch.

In this section we will look at several functions of lights used on characters, and how to set them up in computer graphics:

• Key
• Fill
• Bounce
• Rim
• Kicker
• Specular

I know I have some graphics I did that illustrates the power of lighting just a sec, let me look. This is where Picassa rules.

It took only a few seconds to see that I don’t the photos anymore. In Utah again eh! To quote my Canadian friends.

I am playing with it again so I will show you when I am done. Oooh. I just had a thought. Maybe I still have some of the tutorials. I will look and see.

I guess I am done for now.

tags: poser, lighting, rendering, graphics, jeremy+brin

No Expanation, now it works.

I decided to try and document what was happening when trying to use CardSpace in FireFox with the java extension. So I set everything up and started capturing screens. What you know, now it works. The only thing I didn’t like was that it doesn’t use the same set of InfoCards that IE does. What is that about?

It worked though. I just had to create more infocards. Confusing and shouldn’t be necessary.

tags: FireFox, CardSpace, extensions

FireFox CardSpace Extension Doesn’t Work

I have been playing with CardSpace for a long time. As a reader pointed out to me, Chuck Mortimer and his crew released a FireFox extension that is supposed to support CardSpace. I got around to downloading it.

I then tried to login to www.identityblog.com. Total failure. Kim’s site tells me I am missing a plugin but can’t find a plugin. I try  to login and all I get are obscure java class code errors.

Chuck, tell me where to go or what to do.

tags: FireFox, CardSpace, extensions

There are two groups of people

There is a great scene scene in the movie signs that has come up for me in the last few days. The conversation isbetween Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix about some fundamental philosophical thinking. I looked it up andactually found a transcript of the conversation, it is as follows:

Group number one sees it as more than luck,
more than coincidence.
They see it as a sign...
evidence that there is someone up there
watching out for them.
Group number two sees it as just pure luck,
a happy turn of chance.
I'm sure the people in group number two
are looking at those    lights in a very suspicious way.
For them, the situation isn't   -  .
Could be bad, could be good.
But deep down,
they feel that whatever happens,
they're on their own.
And that fills them with fear.

It isn't exactly as I remembered it but it makes my point. I don't subscribe to this thinking exactly but itis a brilliant observation about two groups of people, group one that sees things as more than luck or coincidence and group two that feels that deep down they're on their own.

So which are you?

No Expectation of Privacy!

1. I was listening to Talk of the Nation on National Public Radio this afternoon. There was a good discussion going on sparked by the fiasco that happened at HP the last few weeks. Since I cover lexicon, identity, and security, I thought it would be a good idea to cover some of the conversation.
2. What has emerged new to the general conversation is the term “pretexting”. This is the practice that investigators–both private and internal–use to pretend that they are someone else to obtain personal information from service companies. This includes, the phone company, cell phone companies, banks, utilities, county ownership records, and other private and public agencies.
3. This is not a new term, but one that is getting public recognition as a result of the HP fiasco.
4. According to the conversation that I heard, there is a synonymous term in the hacker community for pretexting called “social engineering.” There are some states that have made pretexting and social engineering illegal. California, Tennessee and Florida are exceptions maybe. This is a gray area and is only coming to light after these events.
5. The previous hacker turned consultant in the conversation is the author of the book The Art of Deception.
6. Here is my take on this. The government and agencies are not going to be able to cope with this problem. This means that it is your responsibility to protect yourself. There are a few major areas that you can focus on that will help you.
7. Use InfoCards for login when you can. I admit this is new stuff, but it is fundamental in protecting your information from phishing and hijacking. InfoCard technology will change the future of hackers and thieves. You can support this by understanding it and using it.
8. Stop using common methods of identification. Your social security number, you mother’s maiden name and your birth place are redily accessible to social engineering agents.
9. Use encryption for your data and emails. There are several technologies that will help you with this. You can do it at work and for your personal emails where needed. Without encryption, you have to assume that your emails are totally accessible to anyone who wants them. The current email technology is hackable and in clear text that is readable by anyone.
10. You have to assume that at work, there are people keeping track of what you do with your computer. This is an issue, but you can also understand that your employer probably doesn’t have the resources to look that closely at what you do.
11. However, they also had a guy on the program that was being offered a job–a high profile and high paying job–that was revoked after the person had some email conversations about the terms of employment with his attorney. The company actually monitored his email conversations and gave him the choice of resigning or being fired as a result of the interchange. Scary.

Ms. Dunn at HP has stuck a deal with the HP board to resign as a result of the press and fiasco. Did she know what the legal dept. was doing? Probably not. My opinion is that she should have found out on an issue of this importance at that she should probably step down now and not later.

Your comments are welcome.

tags: security, identity, pretexting, social+engineering, encryption

FireFox and CardSpace

I have been fiddling with and blogging about CardSpace for two years. It is finally starting to emerge. One of my readers recently commented.

Hey Craig,

Regarding support for Card Space on Firefox:

While it’s still only a proof of concept, Chuck Mortimore has implemented a Card Space selector that runs entirely in Firefox. It’s available http://xmldap.org/.

Also, at IOS on Monday, Garret Serack mentioned that he’s been hacking a Windows-only plug-in for Firefox that will invoke the native CardSpace selector. I don’t think he’s released it quite yet.

So maybe you won’t have to leave Firefox quite yet.

Ian Brown [spam@hccp.org] • 9/12/06; 5:26:58 PM #

I haven’t tried this out yet. I will presently and let you know how it works.

tags: cardspace, firefox

The edges of the Internet

My old Novell compadre–Scott Lemon–tests the edges of the Internet. We have a lot of infrastructure work to do. (Poor sap, still uses Radio….uh…I still use Manila.)

 

The edges of the Internet

This year it has been fun to retest the edges of the Internet.  What I mean is “How easy is it to get on the Internet from various places?”
In May I took a trip to the Philippines (Philippines Videos) and was blown away at how easy it was to get Internet access everywhere.  There were cost-effective Internet Cafe’s all over the place.  I was there from the 21st to the 31st, and travelled from Manila to Baguio, to Iloilo and Bacolod, and back to Manila.  Internet was everywhere.  Cheap and plentiful.
I’m posting this from the coast of Cuba, on the way to Labadee, Haiti.  I’m aboard the Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas, and yes … there is Internet.  In fact, I’m on Wifi sitting in a lounge on the 14th deck looking out over the upper decks of the ship toward the distant horizon.  Somewhere out there is Haiti.  We’ll get there sometime tomorrow morning … I think.
Slowly but surely access to the Internet is reaching everywhere on earth.  Everywhere.  It was interesting to see that even cellular is reaching out … there is a Cingular cell onboard the ship and so I have full strength cellular service and SMS text.
As technology continues to advance, wireless technologies improve, and business models support it … the edges of the Internet are slowly going away.  It is inevitable that when something like the Interent permeates the entire planet … there are no longer any edges … it simply becomes something that is.

[tags: internet cruise inevitable cuba haiti cellular cellphones wifi]

Avatar Art–

Order Avatar Art

MMO Art specializes in providing you with artwork for your Massive Multiplayer game avatars. The gallery is impressive. Prices range from a quick portrait sketch for $20 to a full-blown digital paint character for $600. I wanted to give this a test-drive but the artists are overwhelmed with work right now (they’ve been covered on Boing Boing) and you need to wait till the queue emptied.

I will just stick with Poser for now, but the gallery is impressive.

tags: avatars, art, gallery

We have seen the future of music

Whoever thought this up was brilliant. I downloaded a few of her songs. Never would have listened otherwise. I liked it. Check it out.

Juliana Hatfield offers honor system downloads

Posted Sep 4th 2006 1:46PM by Grant Robertson
Filed under: News, DRM

Popular singer-songwriter Juliana Hatfield, who has spanned from near-punk to glittery-pop over her career, is trying something new via her website.
In a manifesto about file-sharing that calls both the big four and the p2p pirates to the carpet for their own respective sins, a representative for Hatfield lays out a new plan.
“There’s a furor raging over the legal and ethical reality of music downloading and sharing. On the one hand there are huge multinational corporations suing children and grandparents for copying digital files that let them listen to songs so ubiquitous as “Paranoid” and “Happy Birthday.”

tags: music, honor+system, future, mp3