As I have mentioned a few times in the past the blog is not the only thing that WinExtra is the home to. Even before there was a blog installed and running here there has always been a set of community forums that has been the home to a really great bunch people. Before the web forums we all got together on an NNTP server that I ran for that purpose. Up until yesterday the forums was using software from Simple Machines Forums (SMF) but I have been getting dissatisfied with the software for some time.

Then yesterday morning I stumbled across a new software package for web forums called Vanilla 1 and after reading up about it on their site and spending some time with an excellent set of screencast for the software I downloaded an installation package for it. I should note that later I found out that one of my fellow writers at Mashable had included Vanilla in a round up of new web forums packages and Doriano also noted the excellent screencasts but together for the software.

Installation was a snap and almost as easy as the famous 5 minute install of Wordpress. Once the install was done the majority of the work between yesterday and today when I started redirected folks from the old setup was setting up all the options available and a laundry list of excellent extensions written by Vanilla community members that really fleshed out the basic install.

Having come from a software setup with SMF where setting the permissions for a variety of different member roles was enough to give me the shakes the way that they are handled in Vanilla is nothing short of a breeze. Along with that managing a membership and their profiles is just as simple but very robust. While the base install seems to be really kind of plain jane with very few features the fact is that this is its most powerful feature. Much as Wordpress is  improved by plugins by 3rd party authors the same applies here as well with Vanilla.

The one interesting thing I did notice as I went through downloading the extensions I wanted for my installation was that there were a number of extensions that were designed for a member’s profile page that would allow them to keep tabs on their social networks. Whether it be things like a person’s Flickr stream, or various gaming related stats and right through to a To-Do List extension the idea appears to be to create a landing zone for your members – they have a reason to stick around longer. Additionally there are a number of extensions that incorporate thing like sharing on Facebook or sharing posts on your other social networks.

The only real draw back I found is that there aren’t as many themes and styles available for Vanilla as I would have thought there would be given the apparent ease of creating them. Hopefully that will change as more people discover this great package. This is made up for though by the number of extensions available because it is these extensions that really expand on what your forums can look like and how they perform. As you can see by the partial list in the graphic to the left installing them is as simple as uploading the extension folder to your site and then enabling them in the Extension List page. Once loaded any that have their own settings will have a link to their settings page added to the sidebar area on the left. to give you a complete idea of some of the extensions available you can have a look at [edit - this ended up being an experiment that didn't go over well with the forum membership so it is no longer available] the WinExtra Forums bling page.

The real downside at this point is that there are very few data importers to be able to convert any other web forums into a Vanilla install. I know there is one for PubBB and Invision but my problem was that I was running a beta of SMF v2.0 and the only importer that is available would be for the 1.1 version of SMF. That said though for blog owners there are a number of integration options available for Wordpress, Drupal, Media Wiki and there are ongoing discussions about other platforms as well.

All I can really say is if you are looking to add a forums to your site take a moment and check out our forums and then head over to the Vanilla site and grab yourself a copy to test out yourself – I don’t think you will regret it.

Update: Even thought the current membership of the forums didn’t like the Vanilla software version of their home it doesn’t change the fact that I think it is really good software and if I were to be starting fresh with a new set of web forums for another project I would definitely be using Vanilla 1 to power them.

Conversation Tags: forums, software, Vanilla

One of the great things with WindowBlinds was the ability to skin; or theme, you desktop in just about anyway you want due to the incredibly large community that built up around the product. the only problem was that in many cases this didn’t include things like your desktop wallpaper or any of the widgets that you might be running. Some designers did include options for skinning those as well but it wasn’t a common thing. this meant that if you wanted a common look right across your desktop you had to do some hunting for matching themes and wallpapers.

With MyColors however this has changed as you can now select a complete theme package and apply it to your system with a simple one click action. The big difference is that while the WindowBlinds themes were made by community members and made freely available MyColors has become more a marketplace where the best themes available can be purchased thereby providing these creators with a way to finally make some money for all their hard work. there are some free ones available as well but the majority of the themes are available for anywhere from $9.95 up to the $20.00 range – but the quality alone makes it well worth the price.

When you install and start up MyColors for the first time you have one free theme package available besides the regular Vista Aero theme

The third theme you can see in the list is on of the other current free themes that I downloaded from the MyColors site. The fun part though comes when you decide to go do some shopping for new themes by clicking on the More Themes button and switch to the easy to use viewer of the additional theme packages available. This won shows the section called Rides and is devoted to car buffs

And then for the sports fans there are actually three sections available – NHL, NBA and of course the Collegiate Teams section

The beauty of the MyColors program is that everything is basically a simple one click operation – whether it be selecting the theme package to apply to your system or viewing all the ones that are available via their theme store. Plus if there isn’t enough there there to attract your attention you can always click on the View More button which will take you to the MyColors site where you can check out even more choices.

As much of a fan as I am of WindowBlinds I have to admit that MyColors has made a compelling case for replacing it as my default method of changing my themes. Even though this is more of a paying propositions that the WindowBlinds alternative with its extensive community of free themes I like the idea of paying for a more complete theme package of extremely high quality work.

This option won’t be for everyone but if you like the idea of being able to reward some excellent graphic artists for their work and the ease of being able to modify your desktop theme then this could be an alternative worth looking into.

Conversation Tags: desktop, graphics, Stardock, WindowBlinds, Impulse, MyColors

After all people deserve to be paid for their hard work so I dropped by the Premium purchase page to see how much it would cost me to upgrade. At first the upgrade price of $45.00 kinda set me back but still felt it was worth it when I had the money. Then I spotted the that was a complete deal breaker for me – see if you can spot it in the screen capture

Yup – the only purchase option was Google Checkout. Sure you could use your credit card at that point but that didn’t matter one iota for me since I don’t have a credit card or a Google Checkout account. The one way I pay for everything online – including my web hosting – is with PayPal which was not supported here.

Yes I could very well keep on using the free version but that isn’t the point. I wanted to spend my hard earned money and be able to have access to all the extras that come with the premium version. Not anymore.

And another excellent program destined for the recycle bin because of myopic ideas of how people might like to pay for the products they really want.

Conversation Tags: Evernote, Google Checkout, PayPal

While they might have a forum for people to be in contact with them I find that when I have things I want to talk about or suggest to the WLW team I usually end up using my blog. Such is the case now as I have three things that I would really like to see added to the blogging tool.

The first is the ability to add a caption to a image that is inserted into a post. I realize that the Polaroid plugin allows for this but I would like to see it added as a native option to the Image Insert.

Second I would like to be able to have a text pop out option that will let you add a section of text in a separate “box” that can have a different border and/or text style – much like you see in magazines and news articles in order to highlight a specific “quote”.

The last suggestion would probably be better suited to a plugin rather than a native option for the program but I would really like to see support for some of the plugins used on our blogs. Primarily among these would be support for PodPress [nw] and/ or Podango [nw] so that we could add audio podcast type things that would take advantage of the options provided by PodPress.

Conversation Tags: blogging, Windows Live Writer, podpress

With more and more software; whether it is games or the more standard desktop applications, being made available via the web way to distribute them easily and also for buyers to pay for easily is becoming more and more important. One of the most well known of these digital distribution systems is Valve’s Steam system for game distribution that is gaining real traction. However not everyone is a gamer and instead would like for a similar type of thing for regular software.

Enter Impulse by Stardock.

Now I am a big fan of the Stardock suite of programs having been a user of their Object Desktop suite until my subscription ran out recently. I personally wouldn’t want to be without their WindowBlinds program but they are a lot more than that as well and up until the release of Impulse their program line up was available as well via their Stardock Central distribution application which was the predecessor to Impulse.

With Impulse however they have updated from their SCD application and at the same time have opened it up to all developers of games and other types of software. As they said in the press release on June 17 2008

"Impulse is a platform first, a store second," said Brad Wardell, president and CEO of Stardock Corp. "Our primary objective with Impulse is to address the issues users have with their Windows experience today. That includes being able to boot up a new PC, install Impulse, and then be able to press a button and have it install all of your software and games with one click."

To this end, Stardock has been working with major PC game publishers and software developers to bring as many titles onto Impulse over the next several months. For developers and publishers, Impulse supports localized currencies, custom pricing models for affiliates, exclusive store items on a per-partner basis, publisher controlled availability, and more. For consumers, Impulse is expected to have the largest selection of digitally-available software on the market within its first year of operation. Currently Impulse features more than 100 games and software applications.

Of course being the cranky old fart that I am the first thing I did was to check out what payment methods were supported and much to my delight as with all Stardock products they have support for PayPal. For me this is always a deal clincher as that is the only way I pay for what I want online so I was really happy to see this. I know for me that when I go looking for software to buy know I’ll be checking the Impulse site to see if what I want is available and if it is they’ll be getting my money.

While they are still filling out their line of software from other companies being made available you can see from the screenshot that Corel has already jumped on board so here’s hoping more and more will do the same.

Now to go and install their client and check out what I can add to my list of software to buy.

Conversation Tags: Stardock, Impulse, digital distribution

Anita’s article is about the fact that the new iPhone Apps store will be charging for some of the software available from 3rd party developers for iPhone users. The sentence in her article that seems to have raised Paul’s ire; along with the folks at Macuser [nw] and The Macalope [nw], was this one - “So why can’t all iPhone apps be free?” which they all took out of context of the whole post making the woman look like she doesn’t have a clue or that she thinks all software should be free.

Now I have read Anita’s post over and over – paragraph by paragraph – and when read in full there is nothing to match up with what these guys are implying. Nada … zip … in fact if you actually take time to read her article without the Apple colored glasses you can see she is strictly reporting a well rounded story. There is nothing to misconstrue from what she wrote about Apple being wrong with putting price tags on any of the software that is available and yet the Mac patrol has come out in full force trying to make a mountain out of something that doesn’t even come close to a mole hill.

What I found really stupid though was Paul’s assertion that this whole free software mentality can be placed directly at the feet of the Windows world

There’s its Windows-centric presumption that no one pays for software.

Excuse me all to hell but the idea of no one pays for software is not a Windows-centric belief. You have to be right batty in the head if you think that. If anything this idea of everything needs to be free is the fault of the whole Web 2.0 movement – of which Mac users currently seem to be in the majority.

Taking a single line out of a post and building a post around it that is nothing short of whacked might make for good traffic but it also shows that the perceived idea that Macheads will attack anything that even mentions Apple in a sentence is true.

Windows-centric my ass.

Conversation Tags: Apple, software

As Cyndy over at Profy wondered this morning [nw]

I’ve wondered more than once what it must be like to have developed an application for Twitter only to see API calls throttled, changes made to the app and the API without warning, and constant outages. I imagine I’d probably have pulled my hair out by now. And I’d definitely be contemplating what Gene Smith did in shuttering Tweeterboard.

Well I can totally commiserate with Gene with what must have been his reasons and I can tell Cyndy that there were times that I seriously wondered why I was bothering. So probably for similar reasons as Gene I said enough was enough.

What happens though if this becomes a trend the longer that Twitter pisses around with the service trying to fix whatever screw-ups that they may have made in the past. With what has to be more than 50% of the Twitter traffic either coming from third party clients or any of the many other 3rd party services that have developed around Twitter there are a lot of people who have invested their hearts and souls into providing a better experience for using Twitter. It is these people who have really made Twitter what it is and nothing anyone can say will convince me otherwise.

Twitter is on a very dangerous precipice that only becomes more tenuous the longer it works to fix its problems. If more and more developers start feeling like Gene and decide that it is time to close the door on their Twitter development and go elsewhere this could spell some really bad times for Twitter.

As bad as this could be for Twitter it shows how very shaky the ground can be for developing against web based API’s. Developers that get excited about this new territory and being able to transform someone else’s ideas into something new by using these APIs jump in with both feet but totally at the mercy of the service providing that API. It is an API that can change overnight or it can literally disappear if the service decides that like Twitter they need to make radical changes.

While this type of thing might be rare it won’t be the originating service that the users of these 3rd party service add-ons will be yelling at. As applications built against web based APIs become more and more prevalent people will begin to see these 3rd parties as the actual providers of service so when the originating service goes down and as a result their applications aren’t working guess who’s going to have to deal with the angry users – it won’t be the API provider that is for sure.

These web based APIs might be the next greatest thing next to sliced bread but bread can turn moldy just as applications built against these APIs can suddenly find themselves with nothing to work against. In the end it is the users who will be getting the short end of the stick as usual.

Conversation Tags: API, web, developers, applications

When I first installed the CTP release and started using it I couldn’t understand why some of my posts where being displayed with varying length of whitespace between paragraphs. The problem even came through on the RSS feed of the posts. Then one day I was switching between the Edit and Source display and I noticed multiple lines of the paragraph tags in my post – much like you see with the accompanying screenshot I took of a previous post.

For some reason when you are writing your blog post in the WYSIWYG editor view at very odd times and places the editor will insert anywhere from two to a dozen lines of these paragraph tags. Unless you switch to the Source display before publishing your post you won’t know they are there but your post on your blog will now have a nice amount of whitespace between the paragraphs.

So a word of caution to those of you using the CTP release – double check your Source display to make sure there are no unwanted paragraph tags and if there are just delete them. Also to the WLW team this is a great release with the exception of this problem so hopefully it’ll get fixed up in short order. Keep up the great work.

Conversation Tags: Windows Live Writer