Mister T: Blog

Mix07

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 17:34:09 GMT

I hope to meet many of you at Mix07 in Vegas on Monday 30 April. John and I will be there with some great news about Spaces. If you can't make it, not to worry; the session will be recorded.

John and I are going to introduce the development platform for Spaces, and show you how to start taking advantage of all our features to build cool applications for you and your audience. We'll be showing many different ways to use the platform, because we will offer multiple different API suites to capture Spaces in your applications.

I'm looking forward to meeting many of you and hearing your feedback!

Thomas

Talking about When you speak, we listen. New features launched today!

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 19:49:19 GMT

So, we've just realized our latest set of features and updates. I hope you enjoy playing with the site. Please let me know your space, so I can visit and sign your guestbook :)

The areas I've been working on in this release are related to the brand new developer platform. This platform will appeal to different types of developers. I'm going to be posting in detail about this shortly, but here is a preview of what our platform will be offering:

1) Brand new RSS feeds.

2) A suite of HTTP url-based intentional APIs.

3) Gadget improvements.

4) Metaweblog API

We're taking a very serious look at making Spaces extremely developer-friendly and accessible to a variety of programming applications. Please bookmark our Spaces and http://dev.live.com/Spaces. We'll be adding plenty of documentation and discussion as we get the platform working for you.

Thomas

Quote

When you speak, we listen. New features launched today!

Thanks to everyone who has sent us feedback over the last few months. We’ve heard what you’ve been asking for with Spaces, and we’ve been working hard to create new features, which we hope you enjoy.
There are a lot of features here, so sit back, take a read, and then go try them out. Next week we’ll be posting more about each feature – one per day – so stay tuned for more. Sign up to get alerts when there’s a new Space Craft post.
Also, please keep the feedback coming— both in the comments on the Space Craft as well as through the Spaces Feedback form. We care about what you want, and we’re listening!
— Chris
Product Manager, Windows Live Spaces

New in Spaces:
Communication
There are brand new ways to communicate with your friends, as well as with new people that you’d like to meet.
Your new Spaces home page
Now when you log in, you’ll see a new page dedicated to keeping you up-to-date on changes to your space and what’s new with your Windows Live Messenger contacts. In one glance you’ll see who has updated their space and who has added comments to your space. Roll over their picture to see who’s updated their photos, who’s posted a blog entry, and who’s added new lists.

Messaging
Keep in touch with your Spaces friends and meet other people on Spaces by sending them messages. Just put your cursor over their profile picture and you’ll see a “Send a message” link.   You can also use the link in the Visitor tools module on a person’s space.


Guestbook
Add the guestbook module and people visiting your space can leave comments with rich formatting, including images and video. Add the guestbook to your space by clicking here.

Customization
There are many new customization options for Spaces, so you can better control how your space looks.
Custom background image
Now you can upload whatever picture you want from your computer and use it as the background of your space. Upload your image in the Customize menu under the Advanced tab.

Additional colors and themes
There are now more themes to choose from and an easy-to-use color picker. You can also change the fonts!

Gadgets and Modules
With the changes we’ve made to gadgets and modules, now you can customize them to create the layout and design you want for your space.
Size and style
Most gadgets and modules can span the full width of a column, and you can now remove their borders or change their titles to whatever you want by clicking on the arrow in the right hand corner of the gadget or module when you are in Edit mode.

Other cool stuff
You can have multiple modules at the top or bottom of your space that span all of the columns – perfect for your space title and tagline. You can also have more than one version of the same gadget on your space. And if you’re on someone else’s space and see a module you like, you can add it to your space by clicking the “+” sign in the upper-right corner of the module.
Check out and install some spaces gadgets today from the Windows Live Gallery.

Photos
With over 18 million photos uploaded by Spaces users every day, we know that improving the experience of managing photos is important to you, so we added a few new features.
Managing your photos
There’s a brand new page for viewing and editing albums on your space.

Viewing photos
There’s a new layout for the individual photo pages so it’s faster and easier to view your photos and see all of your comments at a glance.

Mobile
There’s been a dramatic increase in Spaces mobile usage over the past few months, and we wanted to provide great mobile interaction with Spaces. Here’s what’s new:

See at a glance the recent updates and comments on your space
Add, delete, view, and browse your friends
View profile information

Interested in learning more about mobile features for Spaces? Read this Space Craft blog entry

Lists
Lists are now easier to use – and they look even better.
Music lists
Now you can show specific music lists on your spaces home page as well as see multiple results when searching for music on Amazon to create your list.

Book lists
Same as with music! Search for the book and add the information and picture from Amazon.com to your list.
Looks better in narrow view
We’ve make some improvements to make your lists look better when in narrow columns on your space.

APIs and Feeds
We wanted to give you the ability to access your Spaces information from a variety of locations and services, so we added new RSS feeds and opened up our APIs to allow you more freedom. Go crazy with your Spaces data!   Visit: http://dev.live.com/spaces over the next few days for more information. Note: Only spaces with permissions set to “public” can use RSS feeds and APIs.

Profile Updates
There are some new, cool additions to profiles.
Enhanced contact updates preview
When you see a profile picture on Spaces, just put your cursor over the picture and you can see a lot more information about the person than ever before.

Have fun using the new features! We’re looking forward to seeing what you do with your space.   And if you got this far, leave us a comment and let us know what you think.

Technorati tags: Windows Live Spaces, Spaces, Microsoft, Social Networking, New Release

Windows Vista and Office 2007

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 06:54:04 GMT

How many of you have installed Windows Vista and/or Office 2007? Have you started browsing Spaces with them? How's the experience? I'm really curious!

A While

Mon, 25 Dec 2006 07:15:22 GMT

Hi everyone,

I apologize for being gone for months; It's been a very busy year, and I've been distracted by other activities. I'm on vacation and will return in January. In the meantime, I'll try to answer any urgent questions you might have in the blog.

Merry Christmas, and have a Happy New Year!

Thomas

DNS

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 18:12:29 GMT

Some of you had concerns about "Page not available" errors a month ago. I think we've fixed this problem now. For those of you affected by this, I'd really like your help in verifying that things look good for you. If you have an opportunity, browse the Spaces site as much as you can later tonight, to see if you experience any trouble.

This is really for the users who got the DNS/Page Not Available error. Most of you were not affected by this error, so you can safely ignore this message.

More gadgets available.

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 05:38:27 GMT

Hangman (http://gallery.live.com/liveitemdetail.aspx?li=6d02ccea-65e8-4d0d-b0f9-60ee289b4100&l=1&subtype_filter=0&date_filter=0&sort_by_filter=1&c=0&view_style=full&page=5)

Well, I don't really have to explain this one, do I?

Mortgage rates watch (http://gallery.live.com/liveitemdetail.aspx?li=c6c50609-e4d2-4c07-9051-75d581c50eac&l=1&subtype_filter=0&date_filter=0&sort_by_filter=1&c=0&view_style=full&page=6)

This one looks interesting, if you're investing or just interested in real-estate.

Rock Paper & Scissors (http://gallery.live.com/liveitemdetail.aspx?li=0a004918-6784-4f12-b89d-950b0ab9d3ea&l=1&subtype_filter=0&date_filter=0&sort_by_filter=1&c=0&view_style=full&page=7)

If you never had a chance to learn this when your age was still in single digits, here's good opportunity for catch-up.

Pong (http://gallery.live.com/liveitemdetail.aspx?li=f20b08a0-6e6f-415e-9e56-43bb1cd1fe63&l=1&subtype_filter=0&date_filter=0&sort_by_filter=1&c=0&view_style=full&page=8)

This is one of the more promising ones, but it kinda cheats, because it's loading a Flash player :) Nonetheless, it's fun. I wasn't sure if there was a resizing problem when using this gagdet; if you see problems, provide feedback on the gadget's home page in the Live Gallery.

Live Noid (http://gallery.live.com/liveitemdetail.aspx?li=82beff12-f479-463b-a6c6-b79e6472bb72&l=1&subtype_filter=0&date_filter=0&sort_by_filter=1&c=0&view_style=full&page=10)

This looks really promising. I haven't tried it yet.

TrackWord (http://gallery.live.com/liveitemdetail.aspx?li=6d41b226-be71-4bf1-95cf-1181c73b7d56&l=1&subtype_filter=0&date_filter=0&sort_by_filter=1&c=0&view_style=full&page=10)

A letter game. Reminds me of Boggle.

GMT Clock (http://gallery.live.com/liveitemdetail.aspx?li=8af7eb96-971f-4d14-90bc-2fed6ce92a45&l=1&subtype_filter=0&date_filter=0&sort_by_filter=1&c=0&view_style=full&page=10)

The clock; the lifeblood of almost every desktop I've seen. Here's a chance to stick one on your Space.

Gas Prices (http://gallery.live.com/liveitemdetail.aspx?li=6f77c7b3-3d88-4f69-9207-8699d6673509&l=1&subtype_filter=0&date_filter=0&sort_by_filter=1&c=0&view_style=full&page=12)

Needless to say, I LOVE this one!

Technorati Search Gadget (http://gallery.live.com/liveitemdetail.aspx?li=f9c0d676-c537-4a06-9463-99bca82ae434&l=1&subtype_filter=0&date_filter=0&sort_by_filter=1&c=0&view_style=full&page=14)

The ubiquitous Technorati Search engine at your Space.

Apartment, Condo Finder (http://gallery.live.com/liveitemdetail.aspx?li=353f1696-368e-47c0-9be7-e91cb6b3f8fb&l=1&subtype_filter=0&date_filter=0&sort_by_filter=1&c=0&view_style=full&page=16)

If you use your Space as a flyer portal, here's your dynamic Apartment bulletin. Very handy for freshmen, new hires in companies, etc.

IE 7 pre-release version out.

Sat, 26 Aug 2006 02:27:52 GMT

For those of you not already aware, Internet Explorer's next version is 7, and a version very close to the final gold is available for you to install in Microsoft's Web Site. Check it out at http://www.microsoft.com/ie/.

My favorite reasons to use IE7 are its advanced printing features and tabs. RSS support and Phishing detection are the other big stories from IE7.

Give it a shot, and let me know what you think. Unlike Spaces, this is not one of my creations, but I'll be happy to communicate any serious feedback to the team :-)

Talking about Introducing Windows Live Writer

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 08:58:27 GMT

I suspect most of you already know about this, but in case you don't - there's a pretty awesome tool that lets you post to your blog and do other creative things with your Space without visiting the browser - it's Windows Live Writer. Click on the link referenced below and enjoy.

Quote

Introducing Windows Live Writer

Welcome to the Windows Live Writer team blog! We are excited to announce that the Beta version of Windows Live Writer is available for download today.
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.
Blogging has turned the web into a two-way communications medium. Our goal in creating Writer is to help make blogging more powerful, intuitive, and fun for everyone.
Writer has lots of features which we hope make for a better blogging experience. Some of the ones we are most excited about include:
WYSIWYG Authoring
The first thing to notice about Writer is that it enables true WYSIWYG blog authoring. You can now author your post and know exactly what it will look like before you publish it. Writer knows the styles of your blog such as headings, fonts, colors, background images, paragraph spacing, margins and block quotes and enables you to edit your post using these styles.
Writer also includes other views including HTML source-code editing and web preview mode.
Now you don’t have to waste time going through the process of publishing, refreshing, previewing, and tweaking your post to get it looking the way you want. It’s all right there in Writer as you create your post.

Photo Publishing
Writer makes inserting, customizing, and uploading photos to your blog a snap. You can insert a photo into your post by browsing image thumbnails through the “Insert Picture” dialog or by copying and pasting from a web page.
Once you’ve inserted the picture, Writer provides contextual editing tools to modify size, text wrapping, borders, and apply graphic effects. Writer also allows you specify a smaller thumbnail to that will link to a larger image for detailed viewing.
Photos can be either uploaded directly to your weblog provider (if they support the newMediaObject API) or to an FTP server.

Map Publishing
Whether you are blogging about a vacation or a political conflict, maps are a great help in engaging the imagination of your readers. You can do this using Writer's ability to insert a Windows Live Local map directly into a post.
Even better is that the map can be customized directly within Writer - including changing the view to show road, aerial or bird's eye detail and by adding pushpins (including custom links and/or photos for each pushpin).
When readers click on the map they get a larger view on the Windows Live Local site.

Writer SDK
Already thinking of other cool stuff you want to insert into your blog? Good!
The Windows Live Writer SDK allows developers to extend the capabilities of Writer to publish additional content types. Examples of content types that can be added 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

We can't wait to see all the things people cook up with the SDK!

Compatibility

Writer is a great client for Windows Live Spaces but also works with other weblogs including Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, WordPress (and many others).
Writer supports RSD (Really Simple Discoverability), the Metaweblog API, and the Movable Type API.
We want Writer to work well with every blogging service out there. If you can’t get Writer to work with your blog, we want to know.

Stay Tuned
We will continue to post updates and other information on the product to this Space in the coming weeks. Please subscribe to our RSS feed or visit again soon to get the most current information on Windows Live Writer.
J.J. Allaire,
Windows Live Writer
[Digg this!]

What the hell do you think you're doing!

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 03:31:42 GMT

Audience: All

I want to thank all of you for posting your feedback on spaces. When I read them, I noticed that many of the things you reported were spot on, and would be great things to have. I'd like to call out a few that I liked (I liked many more, but can't post everything):

Wes: "We shouldn't need workarounds." This is my professional motto and I'd gladly paste a bumper sticker with that message on my door at work (Not on my car though, sorry. You never know if some workaround-loving-extremist is itching to scratch your door.). I hate workarounds. I hope we aren't making that necessary too often, but this is alwys going to be there, isn't it? You guys are always one step ahead, finding a way to use spaces that we didn't think of :)

Elaine, Liz: More feminine themes, better themes. Definitely agree that we can add even more themes for you. You know what I find tough? I don't have a particularly good imagination when it comes to figuring out what most people might find pretty on their websites. I'd love to know, though. Perhaps you guys could include a link to a style you like? Just a thought. Love the Christmas, special occasions idea, too. Note, though, that we do have Birthday themes. You know what'd be tight? Having the birthday theme come on on your birthday, without you doing it yourself. What do you think?

Justin P: Photo limit counter. Agree that this would be good, especially when you're always uploading lots of pictures.

Baltazaar: "A posting permission list....sticky articles" - Good idea. The sticky articles idea is especially important in a forum-oriented setting. I'm a car fanatic, and I find it very useful to have articles about detailing and upgrades made sticky.

Eddie: Transferring content... This is indeed a good idea, but it's a bit more difficult than initially expected. For example, while transferring the space is straightforward, transferring the friends list and messenger buddy information is not. And currently, your friends list follows your space. When your space is deleted, it's gone, too. Page for drawing... definitely good idea.

Now, here's another exercise. I'd like to understand what you guys do with your space, and what you want to do with it. For example, what do you use it for? Do you use it to express things about yourself? Do you use it for a community, to discuss topics, plan picnics, host competitions via the comments thing? Do you use it as a guest book? Do you use it to share a hobby, like discuss cars, horses, etc?

And, what are things you want to do with it, that you cannot? I'm not talking about specific details like not having custom HTML, etc. I mean your intentions. I refer to, say, wanting to leave a voice message on someone's box, or draw a picture of an ugly cow on your ex-best friend's space, or buy stuff. Whatever it is, say it, and don't feel shy to want crazy stuff, as long as it's legal and rational enough ;-) For example, don't expect to host a porn site here anytime soon. Not that you'd do that, of course!

Later.

Check out your stats.

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 02:50:00 GMT

The stats page is back from a well-deserved vacation. Check it out, and report back if you see any funky behavior.

Gadgets (You thought I forgot, didn't you?)

Wed, 09 Aug 2006 21:43:18 GMT

Sorry if I was a bit unavailable. I've been working on some of the feedback and cleaning up some issues like the one Eddie, Jose and other customers were seeing.

I browsed the Gadget gallery and saw a coule of new gadgets. One is a calendar one. I'm not sure what it does, exactly, but it looked interesting.

http://gallery.live.com/liveitemdetail.aspx?li=8c931622-6731-4c3b-96fd-aaa0774ec72c&l=1&subtype_filter=0&date_filter=0&sort_by_filter=1&c=0&view_style=full&page=10

Talking about Talking about Empty page

Wed, 09 Aug 2006 04:49:00 GMT

How is connectivity now? Does anyone have trouble hitting our site?

Quote

Talking about Empty page

Thank you very much for your comments. The information has been very important and helpful to me.
We have presently made some changes to the system, and I'd like you guys to do the following exercise, the next time you see a problem. Please let me know what you see. Your reporting so far has been exact and precise, so keep it in the same format, please.
Next time you see a problem (page not found), do the following.
Let's say that the space you had a problem with is called "mike."
Do the following.
1) Try http://mike.mobile.spaces.live.com/. This is the cell-phone version of the space. LEt me know if you see the same error.
2) Try http://spaces.live.com/. Let me know if you see this page show up. This is the homepage of our site, of course.
3) Try http://sc.services.spaces.live.com. Here, you should see the warning: "You are not authorized blah blah". You should NOT see "Page not found."
4) Try the original space url again. http://mike.spaces.live.com/. I want to know if the error you see keeps happening.
Also, please be sure to record the time you encountered this, and when the problem went away.
I look forward to fixing this matter with your helpful information.

Quote
Empty page

I've heard of folks complaining about not seeing people's spaces. Has any of you seen an empty page when trying to access someone's space? I'm not talking about "Access denied" here. I'm talking about a completely blank page that says "Page cannot be found," or something similar. If so, can you please tell me more about it? I want to fix this problem for you, and need to know some additional information. Specifically:

1) What time did you see this exactly?

2) When you next see this, can you try going to http://spaces.live.com? Can you please tell me if you see this URL successfully?

3) How long did you see this before the problem went away?

Thanks very much! I'm determined to get this addressed, and your input will be essential, as it always is.

Talking about Empty page

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 19:33:04 GMT

Thank you very much for your comments. The information has been very important and helpful to me.

We have presently made some changes to the system, and I'd like you guys to do the following exercise, the next time you see a problem. Please let me know what you see. Your reporting so far has been exact and precise, so keep it in the same format, please.

Next time you see a problem (page not found), do the following.

Let's say that the space you had a problem with is called "mike."

Do the following.

1) Try http://mike.mobile.spaces.live.com/. This is the cell-phone version of the space. LEt me know if you see the same error.

2) Try http://spaces.live.com/. Let me know if you see this page show up. This is the homepage of our site, of course.

3) Try http://sc.services.spaces.live.com. Here, you should see the warning: "You are not authorized blah blah". You should NOT see "Page not found."

4) Try the original space url again. http://mike.spaces.live.com/. I want to know if the error you see keeps happening.

Also, please be sure to record the time you encountered this, and when the problem went away.

I look forward to fixing this matter with your helpful information.

Quote

Empty page

I've heard of folks complaining about not seeing people's spaces. Has any of you seen an empty page when trying to access someone's space? I'm not talking about "Access denied" here. I'm talking about a completely blank page that says "Page cannot be found," or something similar. If so, can you please tell me more about it? I want to fix this problem for you, and need to know some additional information. Specifically:

1) What time did you see this exactly?

2) When you next see this, can you try going to http://spaces.live.com? Can you please tell me if you see this URL successfully?

3) How long did you see this before the problem went away?

Thanks very much! I'm determined to get this addressed, and your input will be essential, as it always is.

What do you want?

Sat, 05 Aug 2006 07:56:02 GMT

Ok. I have designated this post to be a feedback box. Tell me your honest opinions and suggestions for the next version of Spaces. Just to show you that I actually read your stuff, I will create a Suggestion Box that documents your feedback. Not all comments will make it there, but most will. The list will be visible in my space.

Here are some ideas to start with:

1) More Themes.

2) Even faster pages.

Update: Gee, thanks guys! You're going to make me work long hours just to read this. Just kidding :-) This is great feedback. Of course, the Suggestion Box idea is gone to hell; if I put everything you aske for in it, my Space might sink the Internet. What I'll do instead is consolidate your feedback into different categories and submit it to my team. Thanks again, and keep them coming!

PS Elaine - I'm not sure what made you think we didn't have female graphic artists... maybe I don't want to know the answer :-) We definitely have them, and we occasionally hire other companies to design the themes. I doubt any of them are male-only outfits, though. I'll submit your feedback nonetheless.

Empty page

Sat, 05 Aug 2006 07:39:38 GMT

I've heard of folks complaining about not seeing people's spaces. Has any of you seen an empty page when trying to access someone's space? I'm not talking about "Access denied" here. I'm talking about a completely blank page that says "Page cannot be found," or something similar. If so, can you please tell me more about it? I want to fix this problem for you, and need to know some additional information. Specifically:

1) What time did you see this exactly?

2) When you next see this, can you try going to http://spaces.live.com? Can you please tell me if you see this URL successfully?

3) How long did you see this before the problem went away?

Thanks very much! I'm determined to get this addressed, and your input will be essential, as it always is.

Talking about Secrets to a perfect gin and tonic - The Perfect ... - MSNBC.com

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 22:56:18 GMT

Audience: Gin aficionados :-)

Ok, I admit that I'm breaking the rules. This is supposed to be about work, but I thought I'd sneak this in.

I am one of the folks who don't appreciate a good Gin & Tonic as an acquired taste. It's friggin love at first sight! Acquired taste is what someone gets after being force-fed animal fertilizer for a year. Or, worse, pasta from my work cafeteria.

A great gin & tonic, on the other hand, is a magical experience. The author of the article below agrees, too. It has the qualities that are HUGE to me - a product that shines because of its simplicity and elegance, yet trips people who make the foolish mistake of mistaking simplicity for easy. G&T is so easy to make right, but even easier to make wrong. The use of a beverage gun explains why most bars I've visited made such deflated G&Ts. I'm going to try the recipe in the article and see how much better my drink is.

My favorite gin is Tanqueray Ten. TT&T is what life in the big city is all about. Hell Yeah!

Quote

Secrets to a perfect gin and tonic - The Perfect ... - MSNBC.com

Using Gadgets - The Gallery

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 06:50:32 GMT

Audience: If you're interested in having a gadget on your space, this is for you.

Gadgets for your Space are found in two chief areas.

Pre-created gadgets

The first area provides a few gadgets that Spaces has already created for you. Find these in your Customization page, by clicking the "Customize" link when editing your space.

Windows Live Gallery

Go to the portal. The second place is the Windows Live Gallery. It's at http://gallery.live.com. Think of this place as a massive portal for everything Windows Live. Gadgets are just one of the many things you'll find there.

Browse. Click on the Gadgets link, or click here. I recommend you browse the selection first (http://gallery.live.com/results.aspx?l=1). Here, you'll see a bunch of different ways to find a gadget you like.

Select a gadget. To find a gadget for your space, focus on the gadgets that have a "Add to your space" link. These gadgets will work in Windows Live Spaces. Check them out using the "Preview" button, and if you like what you see, just click on the "Add to your space" link. That should take you back to your space, where you'll have a chance to arrange the gadget in the right spot in your space.

I haven't seen a lot of gadgets for Windows Live Spaces yet. Here are the ones I've found so far:

Jack Bauer Facts

Similar Artists

Song Fight!

One of my personal favorites is the Live Clock. I hope they have it for Spaces soon. I'd also love for it to be customizable, so I can have a Rolex version to bling it a bit.

This isn't a lot yet; give it some time, and I'm sure you'll see more gadgets pop up in the Gallery. I'll also try to check it once in a while, to see if there are cool ones you might be interested in. Please do the same and post a note here, if you find something exciting.

Writing Gadget Series - The Basics

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 03:35:36 GMT

Audience: Programmers and those who are interested in programming gadgets.

Note: This post is best viewed in full blog mode.

This post is the first of several I promised - it's a simple explanation about Gadgets and how to create them.

This post is not for those who're only interested in using gadgets. I write about that later. Rest of you, let's move on.

Required Reading

http://thespacecraft.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!8AA773FE0A12B9E3!23013.entry Stop rolling your eyes. I am not leading you to yet another webpage that makes you long for a car repair manual instead. This is a very good introduction to what Gadget development is all about. It goes through the key steps of gadget development for Live Spaces.

Basics

A gadget is a mini-application that essentially consists of three important pieces. These are the manifest, the style and the code. For those who prefer a more nerdy definition, they are the XML, the CSS and the JS files respectively.

Manifest. Confession: What the hell is a manifest? This is one of the many words I did not even know existed, until I started working in the computer industry. It's kinda like "ping" and "online" and "Dodgeball." I personally hate this word, because it's a difficult word that doesn't really mean anything. No wonder it's hardly used in a book. Have you ever read that word in a Toni Morrison novel? What about Tom Clancy? In the gadget world, think of it as the Gadget's business card. Every gadget needs to identify itself to the rest of the world. When you share a business card, you share key pieces of information essential to others about you. A gadget is an important application whose sole purpose in life is to be of value to someone else. Everything that is important about that gadget to that someone else is described in the gadget manifest.
Summary: The manifest is a file that serves as the gadget's business card.
My name, my code, my style. Just business.
So what's in this manifest? Is it a bunch of 1's and 0's? You're gonna be shocked. The stuff in there is actually readable. Maybe not quite on par with Harry Potter, but it's straightforward. It contains a bunch of information essential to a gadget. What's essential? Its name, of course. Sure enough, you'll see it there. What else? Its code, right? Well, the manifest has a URL to the gadget's code, too. Because most gadgets are visual - a gadget also has attributes that define its user-interface, or style. The location of its style description is also found in the gadget. That's three main things. There are more, but these are the most important.
Summary: A gadget manifest is like its business card. It is a human-readable file that contains its name and URLs to its key parts. Some of its key parts are its code and its style.
Here's an example of an actual manifest. The title is in purple, the code URL is in green, and the style URL is in blue.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:binding="http://www.live.com">
<channel>
    
    <title>Hello World</title>
    <link>http://www.microsoft.com</link>
    
    <description>A sample hello world binding.</description>
    
    <language>en-us</language>
    
    <binding:type>Microsoft.Live.GadgetSDK.HelloWorldGadget</binding:type>
    <item>
      
      <link>http://localhost/Gadgets/Hello/HelloWorldGadget.js</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      
      <link binding:type="css">http://localhost/Gadgets/Hello/HelloWorldGadget.css</link>
    </item>
</channel>
</rss>

Code. The gadget manifest contains, among other things, a URL to its code. What exactly is in the code? I'll go into more details later, but will give you a "Sales VP summary." The code in a gadget is some text written in a language that is executed by another program that runs in Spaces. This program is called the Framework. When the framework looks at the code, it knows exactly what to do to create the gadget and make it useful to its audience. How? The code in the gadget, written in Javascript, describes the gadget as a Javascript class. This class has a name and contains code. You can actually put many classes in the same code file, so the name is how the Framework knows to find the correct code for the gadget. How does the framework find the right name? You guessed it - from the business card - the gadget manifest. When the framework creates a gadget, it inspects its business card, looking for its code URL and style. It also looks for the class name. After it has fetched the code, it looks for the class mentioned in the manifest and creates that class. Here's an example of a code file that contains a gadget class. The gadget class is actually the one mentioned in the manifest example above. The class name is Microsoft.Live.GadgetSDK.HelloWorldGadget.
//----------------------------------------------------------------------------
//
// Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2006. All Rights Reserved.
//
// Project: Web Gadget SDK Sample
//
// File:  HelloWorldGadget.js
//
//----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// register your Gadget's namespace
registerNamespace("Microsoft.Live.GadgetSDK");
// define the constructor for your Gadget (this must match the name in the manifest XML)
Microsoft.Live.GadgetSDK.HelloWorldGadget = function(p_elSource, p_args, p_namespace)
{
    // always call initializeBase before anything else!
Microsoft.Live.GadgetSDK.HelloWorldGadget.initializeBase(this, arguments);

// Private method to output "Hello World"
this.Output = function()
{
  p_elSource.innerText = "Hello, world!";
}
Microsoft.Live.GadgetSDK.HelloWorldGadget.registerBaseMethod(this, "Output");


this.initialize = function(p_objScope)
{
     // Call base class's initialize method
  Microsoft.Live.GadgetSDK.HelloWorldGadget.getBaseMethod(this, "initialize", "Web.Bindings.Base").call(this, p_objScope);
  this.Output();
}
Microsoft.Live.GadgetSDK.HelloWorldGadget.registerBaseMethod(this, "initialize");

this.dispose = function(p_blnUnload)
{
     // Usually, you would add your dipose code here, but we have nothing to dispose for this Gadget



     // always call the base object's dispose last!
     Microsoft.Live.GadgetSDK.HelloWorldGadget.getBaseMethod(this, "dispose", "Web.Bindings.Base").call(this, p_blnUnload);
}
Microsoft.Live.GadgetSDK.HelloWorldGadget.registerBaseMethod(this, "dispose");
}
Microsoft.Live.GadgetSDK.HelloWorldGadget.registerClass("Microsoft.Live.GadgetSDK.HelloWorldGadget", "Web.Bindings.Base");
I will go into details later. For now, if this looks a bit strange, don't worry. The important thing to note here is that all gadget classes will have the same basic structure as the class I've pasted above. This basic structure defines the gadget and it's exactly what you need to have in your own gadget's class in its code file. More details about the basic structure later.
Style (in a CSS file). All the things that make the gadget become visible to your eyes define its style. These are stuff like its colors, the pretty fonts, the ugly lines, whatever. All of them go here. The style is stored in a file called the gadget CSS file. As you imagined, you define all your styles in the CSS language, and put them in this file. Put the location of this file in the manifest (see above). Here's an example of the CSS file that contains the styles for the example above.

.Microsoft_Live_GadgetSDK_HelloWorldGadget
{
color: navy;
letter-spacing:2px;
font-weight:bold;
}
It was a pretty brief file, wasn't it? That's because this gadget doesn't really do much except have a blue color with bold text. You can add much much more. Notice that class name above the style attributes. This is not accidental. What this is saying is that the styles in this CSS apply only to the gadget whose class is Microsoft.Live.GadgetSDK.HelloWorldGadget. If you have many gadgets and want to store the styles in one file, you can put them all there, and won't have to worry about mixing them up, thanks to the class name.

Summary

A gadget fundamentally consists of three things: Its business card, or manifest, held in a manifest XML file, its code, held in a Javascript file and its style, held in a CSS file.

I'll plunge into the devil's details in a future post. For now, explore a few gadget files from the Samples Website and see how they're similar to each other.

Windows Live Spaces - finally here!

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 01:39:05 GMT

Phew - we're done - and present to you our new and shiny Windows Live Spaces! Thanks for your patient wait. For those of you who want to know about this release, check out the Spacecraft post below. We have a social network, a gadget framework, a brand spanking new UI, many bug fixes, performance improvements at both the client and server, and much more. Everyone in Spaces is excited about helping you take full advantage of the new powerful tools in this release. Enjoy! And keep your feedback coming, either via the feedback link below, or via blog comments. The usual. You know the drill.

We just released, so bear with us a bit, as the site tries to settle down and the performance quirks are ironed out. I'll be talking more about the features later - for now, explore and enjoy.

Quote

Windows Live Spaces - It’s Here!

Hey Spaces Fans!

We’re thrilled to announce that Windows Live Spaces has just released and we hope you’re loving it! We’ve talked about some of the cool new features of Windows Live Spaces, but if you’re not sure where to start, here are a couple of tips:

1. Set-up your friends list. Simply add the new Friends Module to your space, or click here to automatically add it to your space, and start inviting your friends. Once your friends accept your invitation, they will appear to visitors of your space. You can also explore your contacts’ friends (and their friends too) directly from Windows Live Messenger. Simply click on your contact’s Messenger icon to view their contact card, and then click on the “View this contact’s Friends list” icon on the bottom right hand corner of the contact card. This will launch the cool new Friends Explorer feature that will allow you to easily navigate through lists of friends.

2. Add gadgets. Jazz up your space by adding cool new gadgets. All you need to do is click on the “Customize” link in your Space when you are in the editor mode, and then click on the link titled “Add gadgets from Windows Live Gallery” to be taken to the Windows Live Gallery where you can select gadgets you want to add to your space. Check out the “Updated Spaces” gadget we just added to The Spacecraft! You can add this gadget automatically to your space too by simply clicking here.

You will also notice that we heard your feedback on photo navigation features and have brought back the filmstrip as a result!

To find out more of the cool new features of Windows Live Spaces, check out http://discoverspaces.live.com/. You can also check out spaces guru Mike Torres’ video, where he demos how easy it is to use the new Windows Live Spaces here.

Have fun and let us know what you think of the new Windows Live Spaces!

The Spaces Team

Performance Tips

Tue, 01 Aug 2006 21:48:34 GMT

I know many of you have wanted Spaces to render even faster than ever. It's a good expectation - in my opinion, no web site is fast enough, ever :) There are many things that affect performance, and they differ widely in scope. For example, some issues can be addressed by us, and others can only be fixed with faster servers. Some others may not be fixed easily.

Then there are the things that are within your control. A few things that you, the Space owner, can do, to make your site faster. Here are some:

- Remove things you don't need. This goes beyond the obvious - there is special code on the server that fetches everything you need to render your space, and nothing more. If you have more modules, the server will need to get data for all of them. Take a second look at your space; if you have modules you don't care about, you can hide or remove them. Of course, this is an optimization - if you do need the modules, or find them useful, this is pointless :)

- Consider your permission settings. There is a very good reason for permission settings - they are what protect your Space from unwanted attention. If, however, you don't really have a reason to hide your space from anyone, consider making your space public. Because public spaces render faster. We have made very fine optmizations to render public spaces quickly, with very little server effort. Important warning/disclaimer: Do NOT set your space to public just to experience this optmization - it is there, but it's not anywhere as significant or important as your reasons for keeping your space private or protected. Privacy and security always trump performnace.

- Avoid unnecessarily clearing the IE cache, if you can. We have worked hard to make sure that static content is available for browser caching. If the cache is cleared, any space you visit will render slower, as your browser scrambles to fetch all the images and other static files needed to render the page. Note: There are good reasons to clear your cache - this is just an option to exercise if you don't have to clear your cache, and were thinking of doing it for fun, in case you had no other plans for Friday.

- Avoid deleting your space cookies, if you can. There are many things in the cookies that help the server server the page you're looking at. Think of them as hints to our server. If you delete the cookies, things will still work, but only after making you wait :-)

- Consider our preferred browsers. We have worked very hard to make sure Spaces performs its best under the auspices of Internet Explorer 6 and 7, and Firefox. You make the final call, of course. Choose whatever browser you feel happiest with, but do note that our code works very hard with these browsers to be clever about performance.

Access

Tue, 01 Aug 2006 08:02:10 GMT

We had a little hiccup earlier today. Some of you may not have been able to access your space. We've fixed the problem and things should be good now. Please let us know if you see any more issues. I'm sorry about the inconvenience this might have caused you.

Creating your own Gadgets 101 (Must be taken for a letter grade)

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 03:00:16 GMT

I'm pinging you all about the gadget discussion. From the get-go.

I want to get folks started on creating some awesome gadgets for their Spaces. One thing before we really get started - folks in the computer world love to take a perfectly well-behaved word like "Offline," "Get," "Go," "Ping," and abuse them rudely - pretty soon enough, you hear monologues and dialogues like this: "From the get to.... " - "Let's take this offline." - "Ping me later." - "Gadgets are sweet...." I find this extremely annoying. Let's stop the abuse. I believe in using precise, exact words. I believe in no middle names, even though I have one. "Gadgets" is an inexact word, because there are actually three things that it means in the world of Windows Live: "Gadgets for Windows Sidebar," "Gadgets for Live.com," and "Gadgets for Windows Sideshow." We're going to focus on "Gadgets for Live.com," because it's these gadgets that your Space will be able to host. When I say "gadgets," I mean "Gadgets for Live.com."

So, what are they, again? In English please.

Gadgets are programs that can run in a web page, thanks to a combination of slick elegant programming in a language known as Javascript, the relentless torture of the Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers and the genius of their inventors Scott Isaacs and Steve Rider. Gadgets brilliantly work the last tearful bit off these long-suffering browsers, producing slick powerful programs that often rival those you have installed on your laptops or PCs. Imagine a stock ticker dangling in your space, or a chess game, or a currency exchange that calculates your amounts with real-tme precision. Well, stop imagining. Most of these are out there. (The chess one isn't, but what are you waiting for?)

I've seen enough of you tear into every little available avenue of opportunity to customize your space, leaving some of them looking nothing like we intended it to, so I know many of you will love to have a chance to do something cool. You need to write a gadget, and show it off.

You need a server to put some files in.

Before getting started - one thing you will need is a place to put some files where anyone can access them with an internet url.

Hands-on coming up...

Then, read this page. No, I'm not being lazy. This is a quick, albeit dry, document that gives you an overview. The essence of it is this - the Gadget application consists of a few important files. Instead of talking you through what they are, and why they exist, I'll demonstrate them by creating a gadget application and walk you through it. I'll do this in a post probably tomorrow, as I am about to go hit the clubs. It's time for a Tanqueray-Ten Tonic. Have a good weekend.

Update: I want to clarify one thing. These instructions are for creating your own gadgets. If you want to add a gadget that someone already created, ignore these instructions - for one thing, you do not need to have a server ready. It's simpler. Thanks for pointing out the potential confusion.

Good news: Served sometime next week.

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 17:52:09 GMT

As you know, sometime next week, changes will be happening. I warned you about the URL changes. If you think of that as the bad news, here is the good news.

We're going to give you some really awesome things to put in your space. Here is just a partial list. I'm not going to reveal everything, because it's more fun for you to figure the rest out.

Gadgets. Have you seen the module about weather and the horoscope? Well, that module is actually called a Gadget. Why, you might ask. Well, it's not like the other modules in Spaces - it's actually a little program that sits right on your Space and figures out how to show you the weather, or your daily reading or whatever. Think of gadgets as smart modules that don't stay still. They do things constantly. Today, you could only add a few of these to your space; in our next release, you can add gadgets that you write yourself, or someone gave you. Spaces will be able to host virtually any gadget you want. Think of a stock gadget, or a map gadget that you fancied. If you don't know how to write a gadget and want to learn, I'll write a post later about how to get started. In the meantime, look at some gadgets already out there, at the Windows Live Gadget gallery.
Social Network. How do you link your space to your friends' Spaces today? It's a bit hard, isn't it? You pretty much have to create a list and add each one to your list. Wouldn't it be better to have a picture of each of your friends so that you can click and go to their Space? You could then see their group of friends, and click there, and so on. Even better, you could go really far away, to someone you didn't know, but liked to meet, and ask them to be your friend, just with a single mouse click. Well, that's the beginning of the Windows Live Social Network. Stay tuned. It's hot. Within a month, I expect to see many of you to have huge friends networks. I can just see it happening, by looking at how popular your spaces are today.
Pretty. Our UI is going to look really pretty, and will be easier to use for many people around the world, especially those who are sight-impaired and those who have other special needs at the computer. This means that your Space is going to look even better than it does today. Looks are usually a subjective thing, but the new look gives you more options than today's look.

A final reminder about the URLs - they're going to move under your feet. Make sure to use the new URL scheme, because that's the quickest way to show your space.

Let me know if you have any questions. And get a good rest this weekend, because you'll be very busy next week at your Space :)

Spaces announcement

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 19:47:04 GMT

MSN Spaces will be changing in a number of important ways in the next week. Here are some of them:

Name Change: Our name is changing. Our new name is Windows Live Spaces. So, if you call us by our old name, don't be surprised if we pretend not to hear anything. Kidding.
URL Change: Our URL structure is changing. Take a guess - the old name, MSN Spaces uses the url: spaces.msn.com. What do you think is the url for Windows Live Spaces? Yeap, no surprises there - spaces.live.com. Here's what will change: spaces.msn.com becomes spaces.live.com, yourspace.spaces.msn.com becomes yourspace.spaces.live.com, and so on. Many of you swear by the urls you use, so I hope this is enough forewarning. However, don't panic and change all your bookmarks; we will support all the old MSN URLs you use and more. Here are some of the urls that we'll continue to support:
1. ken.spaces.msn.com
2. spaces.msn.com/ken
3. spaces.msn.com/members/ken
4. www.ken.spaces.msn.com
5. www.ken.spaces.live.com
As Mike points out in his blog, this URL change will reset your RSS readers. I apologize for the frustration ahead :-(

Let's start work!

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 04:52:00 GMT

This is my business space, where I share aspects of my working life, and discuss topics about my work.

I am one of the developers of MSN Spaces itself, and personally designed and wrote many of the parts of this website. My area of expertise is performance, scalability and platforms. I'm basically the "perf guy," responsible for making sure that this website can stay running when millions of people all over the world bombard it every day when they post photos, write to their blogs, or simply browse and read.

Today, we're the world's largest blogging site. That's right. Not MySpace, not Blogger. It's MSN Spaces. To keep everyone happy in MSN Spaces, the website has some very powerful design artifacts that keep it lean and mean, staying up 24 hours a day.

I'll talk about some of these things in future posts. I'll also share some interesting things about Spaces that you might find pretty cool. For example, how many of you know where your actual blog and photos are sitting right now? Where in the world are they stored? Answers coming up later.

I'm also here to listen to YOU, the Ultimate Critic, about your thoughts and criticism. I don't even care if it's mindless whining. Bring it on! This is the place to talk about your experiences in Spaces. If you have some critiques about our performance, tell me where you've been bitten most, or enjoyed it most. I cannot promise results, but will read what you have to say carefully.