Saturday, October 11, 2003

Source: d2r If you use Moz Firebird you'd probably agree that one of the coolest small features it has is the search box that is at the top-right. Built-in, that search box supports Google and a mozilla search engine of some sort that I've never used. Its workings are a bit opaque, but once you've got a handle on it it's not bad. That box is in fact an easily extensible mechanism. Since I find myself depending on weblogs to find stuff that I want (and google is returning weblog results all over the place anyway) I spent a bit of time this morning creating a plugin for feedster search. So here it goes! Steps to install: First, download the plugin ZIP file, which contains two tiny files, the plugin spec file (.src) and an icon that I cooked up since I couldn't find a feedster icon on the site (not that I spent too much time looking...) Then, go to the directory on which you've installed Firebird. In there you should find a subdirectory "searchplugins" uncompress the content of the ZIP file into there. You'll notice that the other options are also found with .src and .gif files for the icons in that directory. Restart Firebird. And it's done! Now you can simply choose it by clicking (one left-click) on the icon of the search box. That pulls up a list of options, in which feedster should be one now. Choose it, and then search away! PS: This is actually a format that Mozilla (the original) uses for search plugins--it might work on Mozilla too. Haven't tried it though. If anyone does try it, let me know the results. [d2r] 7:38:22 PM    trackback []     Articulate []

Source: Steve Eichert says: Over the course of the last four years I've written a lot of web based applications for clients.  The applications started pretty simplistic and over the years have gotten more and more complex.  The one thing that has stayed the same over the years is the fact that the applications have been browser based.  This past week one of my colleagues posed a question that made me think about how much longer this will be the case.  The question he asked was something like this.... “If you had the option of choosing to create either a web (browser) based application or a smart WinForms client for a custom Intranet application which would you choose?” The first thought I had was to choose web based, but after another split second of thought I changed my mind.  Many of the reasons for sticking with web based applications have been nullified by the web deployment features available in .NET.  Although I haven't begun trying to sell clients on smart client applications I think it might be time to start.  Smart clients can provide users with a richer user interface while still providing many of the benefits of a web based application.  Future versions of the .NET Framework will surely make this even more true.  Is it time to move to smart clients?  I think so! [Steve Eichert] 9:48:39 AM    trackback []     Articulate []