the air

I have heard some good tales about Windows Live Writer and I figured today would be a great day to try it out. This post has been completely composed using the said software. As you can see the picture above, that is the screen I got right after I installed it. The text is something I typed in, so do not expect Microsoft to have a nice warm welcome message for you. I want to use a blog post composition software because it really helps me out when I do not have an Internet connection or when I am not in the mood to connect to my blog to write a post. Often, in the past, I have written my posts in a word-processor and then copy/paste into WordPress’s own composition window. This resulted in the need to insert proper HTML tags and was a relative pain in the ass. I know there are many alternatives out there and I have used only one other software in addition to Windows Live Writer. That software was called w.bloggar, but I find it to be a bit more rudimentary than Microsoft’s product.

Windows Live Writer is still in beta testing and that means it could inadvertently crash or yield unexpected results. Essentially, Microsoft is saying that you are using this software at your own risk. However, in my experience so far, it is relatively stable and I have not encountered any major errors. The only problem I have with stand-alone blog post composition software is the fact that when you want to upload pictures, you have to do it using another software. I have not tried uploading pictures with this software, but I am assuming it will be unable to automatically upload pictures.

The nice thing about Windows Live Writer is its ability to present a more “nifty” and fun look to the user interface. As the name mentions, this software can integrate really well with Microsoft’s own blogging service. I have no experience with their service, so I cannot really tell you how well the experience is. It is quite easy to implement categories and unlike w.bloggar, this software allows me to select multiple categories with ease.

I generally prefer using the HTML view since I can easily ensure that all proper HTML tags are in use. At the same time, I find that the HTML composition view gives me much more control over how my content is laid out. Nevertheless, it is extremely easy to switch views and also have a rudimentary preview of how my post will look. It can even show me how my post will look like on the homepage of my blog, something w.bloggar could not do. You can’t say no to free software and Windows Live Writer is definitely free with no advertisements anywhere. Now that is what I call a bargain. If you are interested in composing your posts offline, you should give Windows Live Writer a try.

Some features that I wish it had:

• real-time spell check
• grammar check
• upload images/files automatically

UPDATE: Apparently Windows Live Writer automatically uploads images from your computer to your webserver under the appropriate folders. Not bad at all.

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Every year it seems that more and more of my college friends are entering deeper into debt. I’ve done my best to limit my credit card debt to around just under $300 total on both of my credit cards. Some of my friends have debt nearing $8,000 on their cards and they keep on charging for things they cannot afford. However, it seems that no one seems to know about a little clause known as the Universal Default Clause

This clause basically does the following:

• If you default on a payment on any of your credit cards, your interest rate could go up
• The interest rate could go up for late payments, exceeding your credit limit, bouncing your checking account, excessive debt, getting a new credit card, applying for a car loan, and applying for a mortgage loan
• Gives the credit card company the right to continually run credit checks on you without your explicit authorization every time.

I am surprised to learn that this practice is not exactly illegal. In fact, when most of us signed up for these credit cards, we inadvertently agreed to these terms. Luckily for me, Capital One does not engage in such practices.

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The Evil Blog Lord, His Holy Evilness, Incarnate of The Panda Slaying Tribes, The Root of All Evil, His Majesty’s Disdain, The Dishonorable John Chow has just unveiled another contest. This time he is giving a way a free Nintendo Wii. The contest is also sponsored by 1234pens.com, which made some of the promotional pens John gave away earlier this year. It should come as no surprise that this will John move up in the Technorati rankings and help him move up in Google Page-Rankings. What an evil man.

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It has been a while since I’ve been to the movie theater to watch a great movie. In my opinion, Hollywood is simply producing sub-par movies with appalling plots and shoddy acting. My friends were able to finally convince me to fork over $7 and watch 300. My initial assessment of the movie once it was complete was pure satisfaction.

The film 300 is based on the events at the battle of Thermopylae. I’m a big fan of Greek and Roman history and I certainly appreciate the fact at how real this movie feels when you watch it. However, the actors fail to incite strong emotion from within. For example, when I saw Saving Private Ryan, I felt a strong sense of the pain and grief that the soldiers shared. In 300, I could not feel the emotion, but the action sequences did an excellent job of illustrating the savagery of ancient warfare.

I’m not going to waste time analyzing the plot or the cinematography because that is what all those other critics do. I am going to encourage you to watch this movie if you felt that Troy or Alexander were disappointments. In my opinion, 300 is definitely a much better movie than Troy or Alexander.

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I can’t stop drooling over this car. It comes with over a thousand horses and runs on E85, otherwise known as ethanol. Considering the fact that ethanol is considered the next fuel for vehicles, this car will literally be pocket friendly on gas budgets; not like most of us can even afford a car in this price range. Oh, this car will probably get a little under 10 miles per gallon on E85. Now that is what I call “environmental” friendly.

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