paidcontent has the scoop on that thing falling apart. If it looks like a brick, weighs the same as a brick…maybe it’s a brick. The PS3 soon to follow.

I’m not a fanboy, I’m a big fan of Microsoft. But when something is doomed to fail despite the marketing hubris and mindless press releases and media coverage, you can’t just but feel the glee as it all comes around and minds meet reality.

I have ever encountered. It is written terribly, there are tons of spelling mistakes in the example code.

The official list of corrections names only seven errors, but I have found that many in just one example. Every chapter is populated with them. Some of them are just really sloppy like extra quotes in strings and who knows what. If you type the code in examples as is, often it wont compile. I have spent hours debugging code in the book. The CD comes with example code (first of all, it doesn’t even install to where the book says it will install), but that code is the finished code, and yes it works, but you don’t get the step by step from it.

It’s just very poorly done, and the writer should really never write another programming book again. Had I been smart and read it got on Amazon.com, maybe I would have bought a Wrox book instead.

I don’t generally use IE, but I opened it for some reason, oh to do go to a microsoft site and this is what it looked like after I installed windows, Google Pack, Yahoo Messenger, and Windows Messenger Live:

Opened up my email this morning and got one from Microsoft. They have a new service they want people to try out, Office Live. Looks like Microsoft is giving away free domain names with their office live beta trials! Did they do this intentionally? You need a product key for it, a quick internet search has told me. Better get in on it while you can! Too bad I’m on Linux. No free domains for me. I only get a free operating system.

MSN weblog: Microsoft.com’s site search is now powered by MSN Search. I tried a search for ‘Firefox’ (hehehe) and it actually looks like it does a well enough job. The search actually led me to new information. I was surprised to find out that Microsoft made a Firefox plugin: it’s a validator that ensures you’re using a legitimate copy of Windows:

Users of the Firefox browser are automatically offered a Firefox browser plug-in for WGA validation and instructions for plug-in installation. The browser plug-in provides the same Windows validation as the ActiveX control.

Oh bother, the only time they support Firefox is when they’re worried about their core business. Anyhow, back on topic: for those that remember the old Microsoft.com site search, the MSN search seems to be a big improvement. It makes sense to utilize a major search engine service if you just happened to offer one.

msn, search, microsoft