WebCards News and Updates

Latest WebCards Version 2 Updates

Lots of updates are happening with WebCards version 2 and I just wanted to keep everybody informed of what’s going on. We also have a new WebCards newsletter going out, so make sure you signup for all the latest information and updates.

You can always check out the latest updates at the development demo.

Firstly, the sending routines have been seriously overhauled. Parsing a message and sending a card is now faster, more accurate and more reliable. Send a card from the demonstration and you will see that you message will be properly parsed and smileys work now too.

Gravatar support has been added. When a user receives a WebCard from you, your Gravatar will be added to the card so they can see who sent it.

An account settings and history section has been added to the members section. You can see cards that you have sent, cards send to you and cards that are pending to be sent in the future. The does away with having to request a pickup be sent to you by email if you lose it. Just login to your account and you can see all the cards that have been sent to you that are still active. You can also change your timezone settings, your password and look at your PayPal payment history.

We have also created a new WebCards Newsletter so you can be kept up to date with the latest announcements. You won’t receive emails everyday, we promise. Use this link to signup.

Keep your feedback coming about the new version of WebCards, it really helps us to know how the new features are being received.

Looking Towards WebCards Version 2

The current version of WebCards is definitely starting to show its age. It is still a strong piece of software that can stand up with best, but it definitely needs some work doing. That is why we are looking towards the version 2 release of WebCards.

You can see it in action over at the demonstration site and some of the new features are clear to see. You need to register an account to send WebCards now but registration is very quick and easy. The demonstration also supports PayPal payments, but there is no need to pay to use the demonstration.

Let’s take a look at the new features of the latest version of WebCards.

• Membership support
• PayPal support including instant, automatic confirmation
• Bulk image Uploads
• Infinite subcategories and the ability to add a single image to multiple categories
• Rich text editor for creating more powerful messages

These are a few of the more significant features of WebCards 2. There are of course many, many smaller new features, bug fixes and security improvements.

We invite you to test this early version of WebCards 2 at the demonstration site. You can leave feedback at the special forum for version 2 feedback. It is the first category listed at the forums. Please feel free to leave any comments there.

Support Forum Back Online

I had to close the support forum for a few days while I cleaned up some of the spam.

I apologise to anybody who saw some of the horrible stuff that was posted, I will try to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Unfortunately, I have now had to now enable to registrations and CAPTCHA to try and avoid the problem happening again.

Sorry for any inconvenience this has caused.

Internet Explorer 8 Beta Released

Microsoft has released a beta version of Internet Explorer 8.

You can download it from the Internet Explorer 8 website.

Release notes are also available.

New WebCards Website Design

Today I unveil the new WebCards Website design. I hope you like it.

The site should be easier to navigate and the HTML is much more lightweight. The XHTML validates (mostly) to the XHTML Strict specification. Please let me know if you have any problems with the new design or experience any errors. Leave your ffedback over at the forums.

Why Linux Is Not Spreading

I came across an Article via Slashdot entitled Why Linux Doesn’t Spread – the Curse of Being Free. It is a very good read and tries to explain some of the reasons that Linux hasn’t taken off big time. Although my opinion is that Windows is dominant simply because every PC you buy comes installed with it, the main focus of the article is the fact that Linux is free.

He sums is up very well with this paragraph:

We don’t value things we can get easily. Yet we’d climb mountains, cross rivers and travel across deserts just to reach something we can’t easily get our hands on.

When you think about it, humans do tend to equate price with quality. More expensive must mean better quality. True in a lot of cases, yes, but not all the time.

My own experience however, is that I just prefer Windows. Sure it has many, many problems but I know how to use it and I am comfortable with it. I have tried using different versions of Linux in the past but I become frustrated with using it. I know with some persistence I will get the hang of it but I really don’t have the patience. And if I, an experienced computer user, can’t get the hang of it, how is the average inexperienced user going to get to grips with it.

Upcoming Feature: Bulk Upload

I just wanted to let people know about the latest feature coming in the next version of WebCards: bulk upload.

You simply upload all your chosen images to a specified folder (“import”) and refresh the page. All the images in the folder will be listed. You can choose which ones to upload and choose and name an category for each one. Thumbnails are automatically generated. There is no messing about with advanced options and it is a very quick way to add a lot of images.

The screnshot on the left shows what the bulk uploader looks like in the admin centre. As you can see, you don’t have to import all the images and you can choose which ones to upload.

I am keen to know what you think of this feature and anything you think needs adding or changing with it. Please post any suggestions you have on the forums.

How Popular is Firefox? Depends Which Statistics You Look At

French Internet traffic analysis company XiTi has released data showing that Firefox is slowly increasing its market share over Internet Explorer. Their results are based on compiled data from 2007.
XiTi Monitor reports a worldwide browser share of 66.1% for Internet Explorer and 28% for Firefox. Opera has a 3.3% share and Safari 2%. Firefox usage is as high as 45.4% in Finland. You can take a look at the full statistics over on Wired’s blog.

But are these statistics any more useful than any other statistics. Opera says no.
Interestingly, XiTi’s map misses out several European countries where Opera claim their browser is popular.
From Opera’s blog:

People may not be aware of this, but Opera is doing pretty well in Russia. In fact, some Russian stats suggest that Opera may have more users than Firefox… Whether this is the case or not is not that important (and as we know, browser stats are highly unreliable), but it is rather interesting that this particular country is left out, as if it wasn’t part of Europe at all!

The important thing to realise about browser statistics is where they come from. XiTi’s data can only come from a small set of websites that use their services. Most statistical data will be skewed in some direction or another.

Take this website for example. In 2007 32.7% of visitors used Firefox. But this is a website for webmasters. They tend to be more tech savvy and so I would expect this site to have a higher proportion of Firefox users than, say Google.

So whenever you are relying on web browser statistics, bear in mind that the data you are using is probably (as Opera says) “crappy.”

Review: Sweeney Todd

As I hadn’t been to the cinema in such a long time I decided to take my wife and see the first move that was on when we got there. It was Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

If you don’t know, it’s based on a Broadway musical by Stephen Sondheim. I hadn’t seen any trailers for this movie and I was taken aback when I realised that the movie was a musical too. However, the content is not what you would expect to see in a musical. You don’t often see a film’s genre listed as horror/musical. It is rated 18 in the UK and R in the US. And it is very,very gory.

Johnny Depp stars as Todd, a man scorned by the local judge, played by Alan Rickman. Todd’s “business partner” is Mrs Lovett, played by Helena Bonham Carter. I must says how strikingly similar they are to the puppets that they voice in another Tim Burton film, Corpse Bride. There is also a great appearance by Sacha Baron Cohen.
Mrs Lovett runs a meat pie shop and Todd, being the Demon Barber, slaughters his customers and provides her with the “meat.”

As a musical I thought it worked quite well. Initially it took some getting used to and at first I struggled to hear the words over the epic musical score. As I got used to it I really began to enjoy it. There is definitely more music in the first half of the film though.

It has an inevitable ending. But there is a little bit of romance to finish with too, which makes us think that all the throat slashing is worth it.

Don’t be turned off by this film just because it’s a musical. It is a great film. Some positive points to end on? Well, Nightmare Before Christmas had songs in it. And if that’s not enough of a positive? Cloverfield is out next week.

New Feature: Search Cloud

Introducing the latest WebCards feature: the search cloud. OK, it ’s not a major new feature but I just want to let people know that latest WebCards development news.

If you don’t know what a search cloud is, it is a list of recent search terms with more emphasis given to terms that are searched for more frequently. More popular search terms are shown with a bigger font and less popular terms with a smaller font. They are popular on a lot of the social networking sites, such as last.fm and technorati.

The search cloud can be “dropped in” anywhere you like but I currently have it on the advanced search page.
You can take a look at the latest WebCard feature on the demonstration page. Although the demo is not particularly useable at the monet, you can still use the search feature and you can see how the search cloud changes.

Let me know what you think of it over on the forums.