Archive for June, 2007

Googlebar Lite 4.6.3 fixes two regressions:

• Bug Fix: An uncaught exception in the new URL parsing logic (added in 4.6.2) was causing the URL bar in Firefox to act incorrectly when a new tab was opened.
• Bug Fix: The new URL parsing was too strict. Because of this, search terms were not being updated appropriately on non-web searches (image searches, group searches, etc.).

Several weeks ago, I finally got around to installing Windows Media Player 11. Having put it through its paces, I’d like to share my thoughts on this release.

The most apparent change in WMP 11 is the new look and feel, courtesy of Windows Vista. In fact, the player features the Vista-esque minimize, maximize, and close buttons in the upper right hand corner. Strangely enough, a 1-pixel “dead zone” exists above each of these buttons when the application is maximized. I tend to run most applications maximized, and when I want to either minimize or close a window, I throw my mouse all the way up to the upper right of the screen. With Media Player 11, I can’t do that. Instead, I have to move the mouse down at least 1 pixel from the top to activate any of the buttons. What an unnecessary aggravation, not to mention a break in the Windows XP standard!

The entire interface, as with most things Microsoft tries to make modern, looks like it has been coated in plastic. Everything is black, with the exception of the buttons, which sport an electric blue, back-lit effect. Overall, the interface feels uninspired, but it’s one I can live with. It took me a while to figure out that you have to right click the top of the player to access the standard application menus. Why exactly is Microsoft getting rid of the menus in all of its new applications? Internet Explorer 7 does the same thing.

The new media library interface is a prime example of Media Player’s stance as an iTunes wannabe. Gone is the oh-so-useful tree control for browsing through your stored albums. Instead, the user is presented with a visual collection of music “stacks,” as Microsoft calls them. The more albums in your library for a particular artist, the bigger that artist’s stack will be. This new interface is fairly confusing to me. I have a much harder time finding the artist I want to listen to now, mostly because I can’t quickly scan for the artist’s name (looking down an alphabetized tree control was much easier). One other problem is that the media library is very slow, especially on initial startup. It takes Media Player a while to load all of the album art it needs to display, and this initial slowdown is quite noticeable.

Speaking of album art, Media Player occasionally can’t find the appropriate album cover image. One 2-disc collection of mine (John Denver’s Rocky Mountain Collection) has the correct album image for disc 1, but only has a blank placeholder for disc 2. I note that some of the meta-data for disc 2 also differs, so it’s no doubt a problem with the music database service that Microsoft uses. It’s still a noteworthy annoyance.

I can find at least one positive note about the new media library interface. Playing music from the artist level, rather than the album level, allows me to listen to all of a particular artist’s albums without having to click through them. Media Player automatically moves to the next album in the list when the current album has finished playing, a most welcome feature.

Playing videos through WMP 11 is fine, though I have experienced some occasional stuttering on locally saved files. I recently attempted to watch an episode of Diggnation that I had downloaded, and I found that I could not jump around in the video without experiencing incredible delays of 5 to 10 seconds or more. This wasn’t a problem in version 10.

Ripping music has changed slightly (progress bars now advance in 10% increments), but still seems fast. I have not yet performed a sync operation with my Creative Zen Micro, so I can’t comment on that part of the application. I’m avoiding the “built-in” Napster and URGE music stores, since I still prefer to obtain music on CD.

I’m not sure how to sum up Media Player 11. While it has a few nice features, I think Microsoft has generally taken a step in the wrong direction with this. Have you used WMP 11? If so, what do you think?

Googlebar Lite 4.6.2 has been posted over at Born Geek. Changes in this release:

• The “Google GMail” option in the Googlebar Lite main menu now points to the secure https:// address.
• Bug Fix: Searching country-specific pages often caused search terms to become corrupted in the Googlebar Lite search box. The URL parsing logic has been rewritten and should now work as expected.
• Bug Fix: Some translational errors in the Dutch (nl-NL) locale have been fixed.

Matt Mullenweg has an interesting post on security in WordPress. He points out that, as a product becomes more popular, its security issues garner more attention:

When a product is popular, not only does it have more eyes from security professionals on it, but any problems garner a level of attention which is not quite warranted by the frequency of the general event, like Angelina Jolie having a baby. There are certainly things intrinsic to coding that can make software more or less secure, but all things being equal the software with the most eyes on it, which usually means Open Source, will be the most robust in the long term.

Jeffrey Zeldman has written an intriguing article on why “maybe” is one option too many. He compares the usage of “maybe” in questionnaires to five-star rating systems, exposing a point I had never thought of. As always, it’s a well written article that makes you think. Zeldman FTW.

Best 5 second video ever (thanks Dustin)!

I just realized that this past Monday, Year of the Code Monkey turned 2 years old! Here’s a look back at my first post, The Bandwagon. Not surprisingly, it isn’t that interesting. Hopefully you’ll agree that things have gotten slightly better since then. At least the post from this time last year (Fun With Linux Development) is a little more enlightening.

On an entirely unrelated note, I made three small changes here at the site:

1. Each individual post page now has navigation links to the previous and next post, making it easier to move around.
2. The poorly named “Tips and Tricks” category has been renamed to “How To.” Stay tuned for new posts in this category.
3. I have removed a very small amount of padding around the post footer, something you probably won’t notice.

Let me know if I broke something.