Via Arve. Opera releases the first Beta for Version 9 of their browser today. Big news from my perspective is support for the audio object. Read the rest of this entry ...

§250 · April 20, 2006 · Ajax, Laszlo, Opera, RIA, Software, SVG, Technology, Web · 5 comments ·


Over a month ago, I got an invitation to try out Hotmail evolved: Windows Live Mail Beta. I decided to go for it, since I don't use my Hotmail account for anything critical and most of my colleagues have switched over to using my Gmail account when they want to send me an email. I was disappointed but not surprised to find out that Windows Live Mail Beta is nowhere near fully functional in Firefox and Opera. The ony things you can do are: Read your mail, Delete your mail and Write a New Message. You can't attach files to mails. You can't edit in rich text mode. You can't even reply to mails that you get from within Firefox/Opera. This is a significant step BACKWARDS in functionality that already existed in Hotmail! Read the rest of this entry ...

§227 · February 14, 2006 · Ajax, Firefox, Microsoft, Opera, RIA, Software, Technology, Web · 6 comments ·


Just last week, I posted about how impressed I was with Outlook Web Access 2003. On slashdot today along comes the story that MSN Hotmail is going to undergo a much-needed Ajax facelift (called "Kahuna"). The screenshots look very similar to Outlook Web Access 2003 but with ads, so I'm sure most of the code is shared.

The update is going public some time in 2006, though phase 2 of the deployment, rolling out to 200,000 "technical enthusiasts", is starting today. Hey, I'm an "enthusiast" too...maybe I was 200,001st on their list...

This is good news, not just because Hotmail feels woefully outdated after using Gmail for a year, but I'm sure this means they'll maximize their user base and ad revenues (and avoid holy wars) by fixing the broken bits in Outlook Web Access when using browsers like Firefox and Opera. Those fixes should logically trickle back to Outlook Web Access 200x and this would strengthen the case for alternative browsers in the corporate environment.... Hmm, maybe it's not so "logical" after all 😉

§164 · October 11, 2005 · Ajax, Firefox, Opera, QuickLinks, Software, Technology, Web · Comments Off on Kahuna Coming ·


My work environment has support for Outlook web access to our Microsoft Exchange Servers so we can access our email anywhere from Internet Explorer as long as we're connected to the corporate LAN. They recently updated the version of it and I was really impressed this morning when I needed to use it (so much so that I decided to write about it). Read the rest of this entry ...

§161 · October 3, 2005 · Ajax, Firefox, Opera, Software, Technology, Web · Comments Off on Microsoft (hearts) Ajax ·


I've been pecking a way at this online chat program that I started as an excuse to learn some JavaScript and enhance my PHP skills (as well as get around a certain corporate firewall). It's coming along nicely. Tonight I added a RSS feed for it so that users can monitor the most recent conversation without having to be constantly logged in. I've been trying to figure out a good way to manage the deployment of the web application. Read the rest of this entry ...

§96 · May 24, 2005 · Ajax, JavaScript, PHP, Software, Technology, Tips, Web · Comments Off on Deploying For The Live Web ·