Happy Thanksgiving!

Err. Yea. Give thanks and eat turkey.

Now, onto a more serious note. Try to think about how fortunate you are (for one, having internet) and maybe give something back to the world.

Enjoy today, and remember what Thanksgiving is all about.

Live Mesh for Windows Mobile – US/UK workaround

The Live Mesh service just released 2 new clients today: Windows Mobile and Mac. The Mac version is available for download in any country, but the WIndows Mobile version is only for the United States and United Kingdom.

What? You don’t live in the US/UK?

Therefore, I am posting a workaround that does not involve making a new account and using that for Live Mesh.

It is relatively simple:

1. Go to http://account.live.com
2. Login with your main WIndows Live ID account (the one you intend to use Mesh with)
3. In the middle column, there should be a link to “Registered Information”. Click that.
4. Make sure your birth date is set so you are over 18! This is important. If you aren’t over 18, set it over 18, or else you won’t be able to use your account anymore. If you can’t set this, I can’t help you. Abort this process now.
5. Click “Save”
6. Return to the Registered Information page
7. Under Home Country/Region, select “United States”
8. Click “Save”
9. Click here (thanks LiveSide)
10. Click on “Add device”
11. You should now have a link available for Windows Mobile
12. Download it to your device
13. Return to Registered Information, set Country/Region back to your country, save, then set your age back to current age if you changed it

This works because after the Mesh promotion is activated, it doesn’t check anymore to see if you are still a “US resident”. It worked for me. Have fun, and grab it whilst its hot!

The HTML/CSS problem

The problem itself is with div tags and alignment. To align a div, all you have to do is add “style=”margin:auto”" to the div tag, and there you have it: a centered div tag. But what if you want it vertically aligned?

As far as I know, aligning a div tag onto the middle of the screen still needs a div tag spanning the whole screen, which is vertically aligned to the middle, in which case you have your other div tag wrapped inside.

In other words, it’s easier to use a table.

Most people are telling you not to use tables to wrap your whole webpage in, as they’re slow to load and don’t display until they’re fully loaded. Well, some people just got to ask “is it for my convenience I just use tables, or is it better to use CSS and extra tags, which sometimes doesn’t even work in some browsers?”.

Go figure -.-

Windows. Mobile.

I hope this would be my last fustrating outrage towards Windows Mobile. After that, the product probably won’t improve and I would probably just give up ranting about it.

Windows. Mobile.

7.

Delayed. Til the second half of 2009. I really don’t get it. How are they supposed to try and increase their market share with the Android platform, Blackberries and iPhones ever increasing their own percentage of users? The last Windows Mobile update was 6.1, and what did that bring? Finger-friendly interface? No. Numbers you can actually put your whole finger on in the dialpad or calculator? No. A today screen that has bars big enough for your finger to tap on? No. Uncluttered menus? No. Being able to close a program instead of minimizing without going to start, settings, system, task manager? No.

Woah, that’s a lot of stuff done there. I can’t believe I didn’t get it the first day it was out! Oh… right… HTC didn’t release an update for my phone until a week before today. Even though it didn’t cost them a thing to get 6.1 into their hot little hands.

The reliance on third-party software to do something the OS should be able to do is massive. WinMo doesn’t even come with a registry editor.

And yet the third-party software has their own massive range and no quality control. There’s the good (SPB software) and the bad (too many to list). Without a standard system of distributing applications from one place, where ratings can be compared from program to program, the platform is set up for failure.

And now the next update won’t come until 1 year after Android gets a foothold or handhold into the market. How good can it get?

If Microsoft doesn’t do something drastic, soon, my next phone’s definitely not going to be a Windows Mobile, no matter how many Microsoft Word documents it can read.

If you aren’t interested in Tech-related stuff

I’m just going to say it here. I’m no longer updating this blog regularly. I’ll still do it sporadically though. Once every 2 week or so?

For a more regular blog about more regular stuff, go to my new http://mixt.wordpress.com blog. Right there, there’s no archives. Everything’s kept new, and what’s over is officially in the past.

Cya there.