Whether due to the economic crisis, or Microsoft’s business strategy dictates, in view of the lessons of Windows Vista, Microsoft is taking a more pragmatic attitude to promote Windows7 is not surprising. Microsoft Windows7 expectations of the upcoming self-evident, but the CEO Ballmer has said, Windows7 will drive the PC market demand, but the magnitude will not be great.

Despite Ballmer’s performance is very low-key, but the Windows family still has a considerable number of fans, according to Taiwan media reports, even though the system away from Microsoft’s Windows 7 launch ceremony of the first sale is still some time, but users have already started to line up 80 hours in advance waiting.

Reported that, Windows 7 operating system from the appearance to the performance of those who have been recognized outside the industry, unlike the Vista system, Windows 7 has not yet listed on the sought after by a large number of users. This new operating system in improving memory performance, reducing power consumption, reduce the memory resource requirements, enhance the speed of switching machines, has obviously improved. join touch features, so that this product adds a new bright spot.

According to foreign media reports, Microsoft Windows 7 development process has learned the lessons of Vista is responsible for all aspects of R & D personnel to enhance collaboration, and poor communication led to a certain extent, Windows Vista delays and defects. Microsoft CEO Ballmer (Steve Ballmer) also requires the software developers and Hewlett-Packard and other computer makers to cooperate more closely to prevent those issues that plagued Vista.

While the previous reviewer is right Windows 7 is given a positive evaluation, but asserted that the success of this new system is still too early, everything there is to be the market and users are given the conclusions.

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The source said that the new music service will be at least for U.S. users to open, but is still not clear what will be available for download services or streaming services, or both.

In fact, Google has launched a music search service, users simply search the key word is added before the “music:” you can. But no matter the results obtained are streaming content and downloadable music, these documents are not provided by Google.

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Other JavaScript UI libraries focus on desktop-like features such as drag-and-drop, sliders, sortable tables or draggable windows. They are meant to build “rich internet applications” (RIAs) such as email clients, task managers, image organizers or feed viewers. Websites are not desktop applications. They are different.

The most exiting fact about this library is that it is a single JavaScript file weighs only 5.59 Kb! This file can be included on your pages from free Content Delivery Network (CDN) so that it will be loaded to your customers fast no matter where they are on the globe.

You don’t need to be a programmer to use these tools. and you can copy their source code to your site and things will work. Each tool is used in a similar manner and by learning one tool you can easily learn the other tools.

This tutorial introduces some of the basic functionalities from each tool. We only scratch the surface here. If you want to see more jQuery Tools website offers lots of demos to explore.

jQuery Tools is open source and dual licensed under MIT and GPL 2+ licenses.

jQuery Tools / Overlay

Let’s begin with the Overlay tool. It can be used to overlay any kind of HTML on top of the main document in various ways. Overlaying HTML on top of the main document is one of the most common features in today’s websites. You need different kinds of overlays for different situations such as:

1. Great looking overlays for displaying your products.
2. Simple and snappy overlays for showing info or warning boxes.
3. Modal dialogs for prompting and alerting users.
4. “lighbox” style image galleries.

This tool handles all these different situations by offering a flexible effect framework. You can use the effect that is most suitable for the situation at hand.

HTML setup

Here is the HTML setup for the example above.

<!--
  trigger for the overlay.
  the overlayed element is specified in rel- attribute
-->
<img id="overlaytrigger" src="img/gustavohouse.jpg" rel="#overlay"/>

<!-- overlayed element, everything is styled with external stylesheet -->
<div id="overlay">
   <img src="img/gustavohouse-medium.jpg" />

   <div>
      <h2>Berlin Gustavohouse</h2>

      <p>
         The Gustavo House in Storkower Strasse. It was built in 1978
         and reconstructed in 1998 by the Spanish artist Gustavo.
      </p>
   </div>

</div>

JavaScript setup

// select elements and make them trigger an overlay
$("#overlaytrigger").overlay({effect: 'apple', expose: '#004C7D'});

You select one (or more) elements from the document to be overlay triggers with a jQuery selector. After that you call the overlay initialization function with various kind of configuration options. expose configuration property specifies the color of the “mask” that is placed on top of the document. effect property specifies the show/hide effect to be used.

If you want to understand this setup fully we recommend that you study the minimal setup for overlay. Here is another demo that shows you an Apple effect for overlay.

jQuery Tools / Tooltip

Tooltips are one of the most important JavaScript widgets on the web. Although important, they also happen to be a very badly misunderstood and poorly implemented component. This tool corrects the situation. You’ll get a professional piece of sofware that is easy to understand and use.

HTML setup

All you need is the trigger elements and a tooltip element. All aspects can be styled with CSS:

<!-- a couple of trigger elements -->
<div id="tooltips">
	<img src="img/tooltip/1.jpg" title="My tooltip #1"/>

	<img src="img/tooltip/2.jpg" title="My tooltip #2"/>

	<img src="img/tooltip/3.jpg"  title="My tooltip #3"/>
</div>

<!-- the tooltip -->
<div id="tooltip"> </div>

JavaScript setup

// select elements that will have tooltips
$("#tooltips img").tooltip({
	tip: '#tooltip',
	offset: [-15, 2],
	effect: 'slide'}

// use dynamic plugin to take care of the repositioning of the tip
).dynamic();

Here is the minimal setup for tooltip.

Here we use the tooltip tool together with a dynamic
plugin which takes care of tooltip repositioning if it does not fit into the browsers viewport. Just like the Overlay tool Tooltip also has an effect framework where you can specify how the tooltip is shown/hidden. If you master JavaScript you can make your own effects.

jQuery Tools / Tabs

Tabs are definitely the most popular user-interface component on the web. And for good reason: they are intuitive to use, people are used to them, and above all your can organize your pages in a more user-friendly way. It can load pane contents from the server, supports different kind of effects and has a solid plugin framework. You can also use browser’s back/forward buttons to navigate between the tabs.

HTML setup

We have the tabs and the container for the content. The content area is called a “pane”. Again. Everything can be styled with css.

<!-- tabs -->
<ul>
    <li><a href="#page1">Tab 1</a></li>
    <li><a href="#page2">Second tab</a></li>
    <li><a href="#page3">Third tab</a></li>
</ul> 

<!-- tab panes -->
<div>

	<div> .. content #1 ..</div>
	<div> .. content #2 ..</div>
	<div> .. content #3 ..</div>

</div>

JavaScript setup

$("ul.tabs").tabs("div.panes > div").history();

We select one or (more) tabs and the associative panes. history plugin takes care of the browsers’ back/forward buttons.

If you want to understand this setup fully we recommend that you study the minimal setup for tabs.

jQuery Tools / Scrollable

Scrolalble makes it easy to add customized scrolling functionalities to a website. Whenever you wish to scroll HTML elements in a visually-appealing manner, this is the tool you need. Here are some example scenarios where you would benefit from using the library:

• Product catalogues
• News tickers
• Custom select boxes in forms
• Image galleries
• Video playlists
• All kinds of navigational systems

HTML setup

<!-- "previous page" action -->
<a></a> 

<!-- root element for scrollable -->
<div>     

    <!-- root element for the items -->
    <div> 

        <!-- scrollable items ... -->
        <img src="image1.jpg" />
        <img src="image2.jpg" />
        <img src="image3.jpg" />
        <img src="image4.jpg" />
        ...
    </div> 

</div> 

<!-- "next page" action -->
<a></a>

JavaScript setup

$("div.scrollable").scrollable().navigator().mousewheel();

Select one (or more) scrollables from the page and make them scrollables. Supply the amount of the visible items in the configuration. We use a navigator plugin for scrollable to place those little navigation “dots” above the scrollable and a mousewheel plugin to enable scrolling with the mousewheel.

Look for more detailed explanation of the scrollable setup from jQuery Tools website. Note that every single element of the above setup can be modified. This includes the behaviour and styling. You can also make vertical scrollables.

jQuery Tools / Flashembed

Today the role of JavaScript is rising on a tremendous speed. All major browser vendors are competing with each other to make the best JavaScript engine in the world. We can expect to see more and more JavaScript widgets and goodies to appear on the market. Not just these tools. Having said that Flash technology still has an imporant role on the Internet. Especially when you want to play videos there is virtually no competition.

Flashembed is a JavaScript tool that you can use to embed Flash objects on your website. There are other tools for embedding Flash objects, but none of them offers the same flexibility and ease of use as this one. Here we have installed three Flash objects with a simple one-liner:

$("a.clock").flashembed("clock.swf");

And here is our HTML setup.

<a></a>
<a></a>
<a></a>

The result

Very powerfull.

Conclusion

It is recommended that you start designing your pages without using any JavaScript. There are many examples of highly functional, good looking and user friendly web sites that are not using JavaScript. The purpose of this library is to enhance an existing site with the great possibilities that modern JavaScript techniques has to offer. This is essentially the idea of “progressive enhancement” which is a common design pattern today. You should realize that highly professional sites don’t overuse JavaScript just for the fun of it. Scripting is only used when it truly makes the pages more readable and user friendly. This is where these tools comes in to play.

jQuery Tools is not a framework with a steep learning curve, lots of preliminary work and strict coding rules. You are not tied to any predefined HTML or CSS structures. You can include the library on your pages and start using it immediately. You can freely design the look and feel of your site or you can use the desing we have on our demos as a template.

These tools can be easily combined. Think of scrollables that trigger overlays or overlays that contain scrollables together with tooltips or whatever combination you can imagine. The possibilities are endless. And if that is not enough, you can harness the enormous power of the jQuery library. Many times you see complex JavaScript components implemented that could be done with just a few lines of jQuery code. For many websites, this may be the only JavaScript library necessary.

The old UNIX design philosophy “tools, not policy” is very important in web design.

From:http://www.noupe.com/jquery/jquery-tools.html

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To alleviate the work that your web server is doing, it’s a good idea to offload certain site features to share the burden. In this article, you’ll read about six site features you can easily offload, and the web services that you can use for them.

1. RSS feeds

Serving and managing your RSS feeds yourself can be a big burden on your server especially when you have many subscribers requesting your feed. What’s more is that there are aggregators such as AllTop and Technorati that automatically request your feeds at regular intervals for their own use, further adding to the strain on your server. You can easily offload your feeds using one of the following services.

FeedBurner is a feature-packed RSS feed manager. It has various options that will enable you to monitor, manage, analyze, and monetize your RSS feed. Recently bought by Google, it experienced a few issues during the transition but it’s now back to its full capacity, and then some.

Feedity is perfect for websites that don’t use a content management system (i.e. static HTML pages). All you have to do is type in the URL of the web pages you’d like to create RSS feeds for, and it will monitor it. Whenever there’s a page update, it will push it to people’s RSS feed readers. If the automatic feed it generates isn’t accurate, it has a Refine feature that let’s you select specific HTML elements in your web pages to watch for changes.

Page2RSS is a simple web service that keeps an eye on a web page for changes and notifies you via RSS feed. You can use this on your front page to let users know that your site has been updated. Check out an example feed using Google’s front page. The results can be clunky at times and doesn’t compare well to a real RSS feed service, but this is a great option for when you’re in a pinch. 

2. Site search

Site search can tax your server because it requires server-side processes that usually involve database queries. Additionally, by using search API’s of third-party services, you take advantage not only of their infrastructure, but also their more accurate and optimized search algorithms. Check out these two options by leading information search companies.

Google AJAX Search API allows developers to create mashup’s and applications with Google’s data. Don’t want to put a lot of work into creating your site search? Well that’s alright, they have a wizard-like tool that will generate the code for you to use on your own site so all you’ll need to know is where to place the code.

Yahoo! Search BOSS is similar to Google’s Search API, but the display of search results can be more integrated to your site’s design. Additionally, unlike Google’s search results, Yahoo! Search BOSS doesn’t display any advertisements. You can see a live implementation of Search BOSS on the WordPress.org site.

3. Serving popular JavaScript libraries

By offloading common JavaScript libraries such as jQuery, MooTools, and Prototype, you stand to gain a few things. First, it reduces the amount of work your server has to perform in order to send these libraries to users. Secondly, there’s a bigger chance that the library is already in the user’s cache because other sites they’ve visited previously may have already served them the file through the third-party site, increasing your page response times by taking advantage of a primed cache.

Google AJAX Libraries API can serve popular JavaScript libraries through Google’s content distribution network (CDN). This means that it will serve the libraries from a geolocation closest to the user requesting it from your site, which results in speed improvements on the user’s end.

4. Managing and processing web forms

If you use web forms on your website (i.e. contact forms), you can offload the processing and management of them to an external service. By doing so, you alleviate some tasks that your server has to perform in order to receive and process web form submissions. This can include monitoring for spam submissions, possibly administering and evaluating Captcha challenges, and utilizing your email server for sending email notifications when a web form is submitted.

Not only do specialized web form applications help with your server’s burden, they also have heartily featured administration interfaces for creating and organizing your web forms. The following are third-party web form services to check out if you’re looking to offload your forms.

Wufoo is an HTML form builder that is a cinch to set up and manage. They have various packages ranging from $0 to $200 dollars. The free version allows you to have 3 web forms with a maximum of 10 input fields each – more than enough for simple contact forms and questionnaires.

FormSpring is a robust and fully featured web form creation application. The free version gives you 3 web forms and 10 submissions a month.

FormSite gives you a free web form service that can have up to 5 web forms, 50 input fields per form, and 100 submissions a month. Additionally, you’ll be able to take in file attachments (such as images and other documents) – you get 50 MB of file space off the free plan.

Icebrrg makes web forms “chillingly simple”. For $0 dollars, you get up to 3 forms and 100 submissions per month.

5. Running Polls and Surveys

If you frequently poll your users, it’s a great idea to offload this site feature to a third-party service for the same reason as with offloading your web forms. Here are a few sites to peruse for your polling and surveying needs.

Vizu is a free web polling service that can be easily integrated into popular content management systems such as WordPress, Blogger, and Typepad.

PollDaddy offers free polling and surveying services for your site. You can create and administer unlimited polls a month, as well as take in 100 surveys. See their pricing table for comparisons between their other plans.

SurveyMonkey.com is a popular web service for administering surveys. It has a robust administration interface that provides you utmost control over the design of your surveys. It’s used by popular sites like Digg, a testament to the quality of their service.

6. Captcha challenges

Captchas can help prevent spam submissions by providing would-be web form submitters a visual challenge that they must solve. Having your own Captcha system on your web server can be very demanding: not only does your server have to process the serving and evaluation of Captchas, but it has to serve the Captcha images as well. Some Captcha services to check out are listed below.

reCAPTCHA is a free captcha service that serves a dual purpose of having users digitize books and newspapers. Users are shown images of words from print material, and when they solve it, they help verify and digitize the word.

captchas.net is free, even for commercial usage. If you can run PHP, ASP, Perl, Python, JSP, or Ruby on Rails on your web server, then you’ve got the only requirement that this service needs.

OpenCaptcha has a three-step copy-and-paste installation process that can get you using Captchas in no time.

come from:http://sixrevisions.com/web-applications/website-features-that-you-can-easily-offload/

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Last year, in January, Steve Jobs at the Macworld Expo keynote speech, Twitter interruption in service.

This year, Apple announced that vice president of marketing Phil Schiller (Phil Schiller) the responsibility to succeed Steve Jobs, Twitter suspended again.

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