Google’s ‘Sidewiki’ feature…

Blogging / Customer Service / Microsoft / Software / Technology / Websites

Back in the mid-1990’s when I was working on the MSN Engineering team at Microsoft, one of the projects we started to work on was a tool that would allow people to post comments about web pages "on" the webpage. That is, it was a feature in Internet Explorer very similar to the "Comment" feature in Microsoft Word. As with far too many Microsoft products, they started it, then shelved it. I was really excited about it back then because of the great potential for true customer service …

Will Windows Vista be the next Windows Me?

Microsoft / Software / Technology

For those who even remember it, Windows Me (Millennium Edition) was a stinker. Even internally at Microsoft no one (at least the people I worked with on various engineering teams) liked it. There’s plenty of websites dedicated to why it was a stinker, so I don’t need to go into those details. But, with Windows Vista, there was a lot of the same vibes… which made me think, will Vista be the next ‘Me’? Like with ‘Win Me’, Vista was plagued with issues of all kinds, but the …

PLEASE help me find a MS Laser Mouse 6000 (NOT wireless!!)

Hardware / Technology

Yes, I’m particular… but I LOVE the Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000 USB WIRED mouse. But, Microsoft has quit selling it! :( I use the wheel mouse a lot, but mine has been acting up for well over a year now, and it’s driving me a bit nuts. I’ve taken it apart several times and cleaned it, but it’s a mechanism problem, not dirt. I love it because it’s a 5-button mouse, and since I do so much on the web, I use the side buttons for "back" and …

2D barcodes, winners and losers

Marketing / Microsoft / Phones / Technology

Although 2D barcodes (also called QR codes – short for Quick Response) aren’t new, but they still haven’t caught on in the US. I’ve been asked by a lot of people “What is that?” when they see a QR code. To answer those people, they are postage stamp size or larger mathematical image that smartphones (with a high enough resolution camera) can read and convert to characters. Those characters can be a web address or a block of text or just about any input that a smartphone can …

Why doesn’t YouTube have a charge-for-play model?

Technology / Websites

I’ve been saying for quite a while that YouTube should have a “charge-for-play” model, where they get a cut of each transaction… just like PayPal or eBay or Amazon or any number of other companies… Yes, I know they are working on the advertising model, but it would be so easy for them to put together a package for content creators who want to SELL their videos to consumers. There are plenty of content creators out there who would LOVE to have a charge model via YouTube. No, …

How to disable the UAC Prompt for a specific application: (Windows 7)

Software / Technology

Open the Task scheduler. Right click on the "Task Scheduler Library" and create a new folder called "myTasks". Right click on the "myTasks" folder and select "Create Task…" (not "Create Basic Task…") Enter a name for the task (I always name them "autoElevatePROGRAMNAME". (i.e. "autoElevateProcessExplorer") Check the "Run with highest privileges" checkbox at the BOTTOM of the window. Click the "Actions" tab at the top. Click the "New…" button, and browse and select the ".exe" that you want to run with elevated permissions. Click "OK" to create the …

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