While Adobe wants to move the web to the desktop, Microsoft moves in the opposite direction (again). A new browser plugin named Silverlight will according to Microsoft:

• Deliver media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIA) for the Web that incorporate video, animation, interactivity, and stunning user interfaces.
• Seamless, fast installation for users, thanks to a small, on-demand, easy-to-install plug-in that is less than 2 megabyte (MB) and works with all leading browsers.
• Consistent experiences between Macintosh computers and Windows-based personal computers without any additional installation requirements.
• Create richer, more compelling Web experiences that take greater advantage of the client for increased performance.
• Stunning vector-based graphics, media, text, animation, and overlays enable seamless integration of graphics and effects into any existing Web application.
• Enhance existing standards/AJAX-based applications with richer graphics and media, and improve their performance and capabilities by using Silverlight.

Silverlight isn’t just about video distribution. Through the Microsoft XAML-language developers may create  web applications, games and presentations. XAML is a XML-based language for vector graphic which Microsoft introduced along with Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) to describe the user interface for applications of all kinds. Some fear that Microsoft will use XAML to eliminate the use of HTML in web applications, on the other hand Flash didn’t and it’s been around long enough.

A new beta of Sliverlight is scheduled for this week.

Ever since he was a governor in Texas George W. Bush has made great efforts trying to stop young Americans from having sex. Apparently he believes this is “the way” to go to avoid unwanted pregnancies and deceases.

After he became President Bush has spent huge amounts on banners, TV-ads and education trying to spread/implement his views/opinion. Unfortunately contraception was not mentioned, but according to the man himself that wasn’t necessary as the kids were not supposed to have sex anyway (great thinking…) !

The Guardian keeps us informed on his progress on this delicate matter.

$1bn “don’t have sex” campaign a flop as research shows teenagers ignore lessons…

After all, one of these young kids baby could be the next Bush, so shouldn’t we at least support him on this one?

In the early days, microsoft.com was just one computer tucked under a table at the end of a long hallway. It was designed to test Microsoft’s first 32-bit Windows implementation of TCP/IP, the software plumbing in Windows that enables Internet communications.

Microsoft legend says that this machine once lived under the desk of the site’s first official administrator, Mark Ingalls, but like most legends that’s only half true. A staging server for Microsoft.com was actually housed beneath his desk, and it was relocated because too often Ingalls reached down and turned off the wrong machine by mistake.

The first page however should rise some eyebrows, even though this probably was considered decent design 13 years ago…

And to see how Apple was doing at the same time check out this Flikr photoset.

Amazing isn’t it how the web, networks, design and programming has developed in such short time (compared to other forms of media).

In the past I’ve used Macromedia Dreamweaver’s insert feature ( “Insert -> Media -> Flash”) to inject the necessary HTML tags in order to display short flash movies/commercials on client websites. Recently I discovered that this doesn’t work quite as intended as my sites don’t validate over at W3C any more.

All my recent projects are made using XHTML and since <embed> is not part of the XHTML specification it will prevent the pages from validating. Fortunately there’s a very simple workaround.

Social bookmarking service Del.icio.us has one of the more popular Firefox Add-ons, but until recently it didn’t sync with your account and bring bookmarks and tags to the browser. A few months ago they quietly released a new version that basically takes over the Firefox bookmarking function, but it wasn’t syncing fast enough for power users.

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