My Insights

For the entire summer, I used Outlook 2007 (Beta 2) for email purposes. Although I am still not happy about the IMAP support by this product, overall there have been many improvements.

The UI has gotten more ‘Vista-Like’ for lack of better words. For the novice, that means more gradients and changing backgrounds with hovering mice.

The backend has also seen some new functionality such as integration with OneNote (yet to experience). However for the most part, the backend functionality behaves pretty much like Outlook 2003. If you are an avid Outlook 2003 user then Outlook 2007 will just seem like a new skin on your 2003 version.

About 2 months ago, I discussed this product with gokul over a series of emails and he expressed some concerns about the stability of this product. Although I didn’t relate to his concerns at that time, now that I have started to use this product more heavily, I can see what he is talking about. For example, the search folders on my IMAP account are highly unreliable and “Marking a message as Read” from within a search folder does not really mark the message as read.

I have also integrated my calendar and contacts information by importing using 2003 format .pst files from another instance of Outlook 2003 that I use at my work. The best thing I like about the calendar in Outlook 2007 is the fact that it can be published and subscribed to. To see my published calendar, click the My Schedule link on the right hand side.

Once you visit that calendar, you can actually subscribe to it in your Gmail calendar! Yes, this is one of those rare moments where MS and Google actually work in harmony. In order to subscribe to a published Outlook 2007 calendar in Gmail, first publish your Outlook 2007 calendar. You will get 2 links-

1) One that starts with http:// and ends with .htm: This is actually a MS hosted web version of your calendar. Ignore this

2) The second one starts with webcal:// and ends with .ics: This is the URL to subscribe to in your Google Calendar. However, there is a nasty trick to this. Before copying-pasting this link into google calendar to subscribe to it, change the webcal:// to http:// in order to make it work. Apparently, Microsoft came up with a fake enhancement to the http protocol and called the webcal protocol. It might provide them some extra functionality internally but as far as the iCal format goes, this webcal feed can act like a normal http-iCal feed.

The other issue I had with Outlook 2007 is related to hotsync. When synchronizing my Palm TX with my Outlook, it turns out that HotSync does not support Outlook 2007. There seems to be no update to HotSync to do this. The worse part is that due to this error in Outlook 2007 Synchronization with my Palm, the DocumentsToGo synchronization freezes up the entire HotSync process. It turns out that Outlook 2007 and Documents To Go don’t like each other. The solution was to turn off the HotSync Outlook synchronization and using Pocket Mirror to synchronize my Palm to my Outlook 2007 information. I am currently using a Trial version of Pocket Mirror but I am so happy with it that I might just pay the $29.95 for this software.

All in all, Outlook 2007 has been a fulfilling experience. I can’t wait for the TR (Technical Refresh) to the Beta 2 version of Office. In the meantime (before MS decides to let us know when Beta 2 TR is coming out), I will continue to work around the issues I have encountered with Outlook 2007 with a positive attitude.

A few years ago if you asked me whether we were going to have a third world war, I would’ve have said no. If you ask me now, I’m not so sure. With all the fighting going on in Iraq, Israel & Lebanon, and with America acting as a pompous dictator of the ‘free’ world, we might not be far from annihilating our world!

Does anybody else think that we are close to a global war or is it just me?

On Gokul’s recommendation, I’m trying out Window’s Live Writer to publish this post to my blog. My blog is setup using Movable Type and Microsoft is NOT affiliated with Movable Type.

The Setup Experience
I basically entered my website address (pranavsharma.com) and then entered my Movable Type username/password. Once I clicked next on that screen, Windows Live Writer automatically detected all the necessary settings needed for it to publish to my blog. I’m not sure if you’ve setup a Movable Type blog before but everytime I do it, it takes at least more than an hour. That doesn’t say much for what I have to go through everytime I blog something with a picture in it. I usually go through the pains of uploading each picture to my server via FTP just in case the original image source doesn’t exist at some point in the future.

Posting with a picture
Of course I was too lazy to post anything other than the sample picture that comes with Windows. I did use the inbuilt black & white filter, and the photopaper border offered by Windows Live Writer.

I’m just curious to see where this picture is uploaded to on my server. I will update this post as soon as I find out.

Update
It turns out that Windows Live Writer makes
a new folder at the root of the site called /WindowsLiveWriter and then creates a sub-folder using the Entry title. Pretty cool.

Conclusion
This has got to be the fastest I have ever posted something with a picture in it. Windows Live Writer definitely has passed my preliminary requirements. It is pretty cool and if it behaves as expected, it just might change the way I blog (hopefully it will make me blog more frequently as well). Hats off so far to this team!

This is without doubt one of the coolest PC illusions I have seen so far.

Follow these instructions:
1) Relax and concentrate on the 4 small dots in the middle of the picture for about 30-40 seconds.
2) Then take a look at a wall near you (any smooth, single colored surface)
3) You will see a circle of light developing
4) Start blinking you eyes a couple of times and you will see a figure emerging
5) What do you see? Moreover, who do you see?

I was recently filling out my application for citizenship. Under section 5 (Information for Criminal Records Search), there is a question about eye color. I’ll let you take a look yourself (click to enlarge)-

What bothers me is the fact that these guys thought that pink as an eye color is so mainstream that it doesn’t deserve to be grouped under ‘other’!