//beconfused

Probably due to an Internet Explorer favicon bug, my Windows Live Hotmail favicon turned into a Gmail favicon. Previously it was an ESPN favicon.

(My Windows Live Hotmail icon somehow turned into Gmail.)

This is not the first time I see the wrong favicon. Back then, when using Internet Explorer 6 in Windows XP, I remember encountering something like it. I guess they haven’t really fixed that bug up.

The following video will explain in detail how an email is processed within Gmail. It is educational and everybody ought to check it out:

Gmail: Behind the Scenes (Final Cut)

I think it’s video’s awesome! If you don’t know what’s going on, read here.

The beta of Windows Live Mail Desktop has arrived. I tested it out just now. Windows Live Mail Desktop seems to be built on Outlook Express. It’s better than Outlook Express but not as good as Office Outlook 2007.

_(Composing a new mail in Windows Live Mail Desktop.)_

I took some screenshots to show you how is Windows Live Mail Desktop like.

_(Your inbox, you can change your color too. I prefer it black. Click to enlarge.)_

The whole interface instantly reminds me of Windows Live Messenger, you can change the color of your application. And it has a huge advertisement too. Windows Live Mail Desktop checks your online Live Mail. You can add POP3 email even. It’s really Outlook Express in disguise – just nicer.

_(Searches are performed as you type, the results get narrowed down. This turquiose color is the default one in Windows Live Mail Desktop. Click to enlarge.)_

The search is a much needed feature in Microsoft’s mail application. It makes it much easier to find things.

The inclusion of RSS feeds is a good idea. That however requires Internet Explorer 7 beta to be installed. I haven’t done so and is not planning to install that beta anyway.

There are several downsides to Windows Live Mail Desktop. It has a huge advertisement on the right. The navigational tree on the left is a little confusing – I mean what’s Local Folders. Perhaps a more simple interface would be more appealing. It’s missing the ability to add a new email address too. I think showing an image in the contact list like what you see in Windows Live Messenger would be cooler.

As Windows Live Mail Desktop is a beta product, the features may not be complete. As of today, this beta gets 3.5 stars out of 5. It’s cool, but it won’t make me live the Windows Live Mail web interface just yet.

You can test out the beta at Windows Live Ideas.

Meanwhile, though this is old news – Bill Gates plans to make Microsoft his part time job to focus more in Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Good for him. He plans to make the move on July 2008. I wonder how would Microsoft be like without Gates as the Chief Software Architect. Replacing Gates would be Ray Ozzie. You can read Bill Gates email to his employer below.

*Email from Bill Gates to employees*

I’ve decided that two years from now, in July 2008, I want to devote more time to the work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Right now and for the next two years, my full-time job is here at Microsoft, and my part-time job remains the Foundation. Beginning in July 2008, I will switch that, to be full-time at the Foundation, while remaining involved with Microsoft as Chairman and an advisor on key development projects on a part-time basis.

On a personal note, I know that my work on global health and education issues at the Foundation would never have been possible without the enormous success of Microsoft, so I want to thank you and all of the employees past and present who have contributed so much to this company.

For these last 31 years, I’ve had the best job in the world. I’ve worked with some of the brightest and most passionate people in the world. Together, we’ve built a great company whose products have empowered people around the world.

Read more at source: Seattle PI

Well, I can’t understand why’s this a good time to announce leaving the company. Many exciting products are going to be released in a year’s time. That would include the Windows Live platform of web applications, Windows Vista, Exchange, 2007 Office System and .NET Framework 3.0. So many products and he’s leaving after these stuff are being released.

I think to a certain extend, spammers are in a fix. With spam filters improving so much, most of the spam gets trapped.

As spammer find new methods to break through these filters, spam filters are constantly improving too. Now it may seem that spammers are at a losing end.

Spam filters work by detecting a pattern in your email to see if that email message is an advertisement or something to cheat you.

Take a look at one of the spam I received in Gmail (want a Gmail invite?).

From: Sara Helms

To: dew [at] beconfused.com
Date: May 19, 2006 3:34 AM
Subject: composed

_(Click to enlarge to view contents.)_

I received 3 of these mails already, all the same content, just different subject and from address.

By using images, it poses problems for spam detectors to read what is in the text. I don’t think any spam filter deploy text recognition abilities. They’re just too resource intensive.

Well, here comes part 3 of the Windows Live Mail preview. You can check out part 1 and part 2 first before you read this.

Address filtering

(Filters email address as you type.)

This is one of the features I really like in Gmail, now it’s in Windows Live Mail too. That’s the way emailing should be like anyway. No one likes to open the address book to add addresses. Windows Live Mail does not implement them differently from Gmail. [Click here for a larger image.]

Sending mails in rich-text

The toolbar has been improved slightly. It looks quite similar to the existing one in Hotmail. I think it has a strange addition – to allow uses to add a search link to a particular text. Of course, Windows Live Mail tries to search in a particular search engine. It doesn’t change much, the existing one in Hotmail is already quite good already anyway.

By the way, I still don’t understand why their emoticon icon at the toolbar looks like a yellow french artist with a moustache.

Spel-chacking

(I tend to spell wrongly sometimes.)

One of the cooler features of Windows Live Mail is it’s spell checking feature. It checks as you spell, just like the way Microsoft Word does it’s checking. It is not as fast as the way Microsoft Word checks the spelling of course. I found the speed to be acceptable and I finally am confident of typing a formal email with Windows Live Mail. I always use a decent word processor to spell check my email before I send them to someone important.

Handling junk

(Emails in Junk are not displayed at all.)

Actually, I prefer to just call them spam. Microsoft calls it junk emails. Gmail just disallows images to be displayed and filters spam to put them in the spam folder. Windows Live Mail filters spam and put into the junk mail folder and went further to disallow message content in the junk folder to be displayed. I guess it is some kind of security feature to make sure no one even reads the contents of suspicious email. I think that move may be a little unnecessary though. [Click here for a larger image.]

Conclusion

Windows Live Mail is a significant improvement from the current Hotmail. There are some bugs which have yet to be fixed. One of which is that I can’t access my email from my company, which also means everyone in the army can’t access it I believe. While opening the page, Internet Explorer asks me to download a file named “attachmentpopup.aspx”. That doesn’t happen at my place.

At my workplace, I can only use Firefox to check my hotmail account. It has been “converted” to a Windows Live Mail beta account. Unfortunately, with Firefox, there are none of these cool features that you can play around with. It just hasn’t been implemented. In Firefox, Windows Live Mail is nothing more than the usual Hotmail with the Windows Live Mail look, it doesn’t have AJAX at the moment.

Note that what I wrote is just a glimpse of how Windows Live Mail is like as of Febuary 03, 2006. Microsoft may add and remove features. Sorry that I took so long to complete what was to be one post only. I wasn’t very free but I just want to show something (Windows Live Mail) I really like to you guys.

Read back

• Windows Live Mail Preview page 1 of 3
• Windows Live Mail Preview page 2 of 3
• Windows Live Mail Preview page 1 of 3 (you’re here)

You can read about part 1 of the Windows Live Mail preview. This post concentrates on the main portion of Windows Live Mail – the Mail part. You can drag-and-drop, resize the columns and more. It’s new interface is more functional and quicker, but it lacks the simplicity that Gmail offers. I find that with the new interface of Hotmail, I get my mail faster significantly – much thanks goes to the three-column interface.

Drag-and-drop fun

(You can now drag-and-drop email messages into folders.)

It’s probably one of the simplest feature you can think of in a normal desktop application but it sure took a decade before web mail evolved into incorporating such drag-and-drop features. Even in desktop applications, it is probably one of the most “forgotten” features. Most people just don’t think of using such features. I am a fan of drag-and-drop interfaces and I just have to mention this feature in Windows Live Mail. [Click here for a larger image.]

Handling unknown senders

Also, like what you see in Gmail and Outlook, images will not be shown if it’s from an unknown sender. Windows Live Mail went a bit further by even disabling links. Remember those “Click here if you can’t view the email correctly” links to link you to the web page to let you view correctly? Well, guess what, those links are disabled. I’m not complaining by the way, I’m just amused.

Right-clicking on multiple emails

(You can also select multiple emails and right click.)

Most computer uses still prefer right clicking or copy-and-paste to get things done. Windows Live Mail has right clicking too. Select multiple emails by clicking with CTRL button held down, then right click to mark multiple messages read. It works just like a desktop application. [Click here for a larger image.]

Resizing your three columns

(And the three columns can be resized easily.)

Think you don’t have enough space to read your email? You can resize it easily. My complaint is that no matter how I resize, I still don’t have enough space. This is due to the vertical advertisement that Windows Live Mail, like Hotmail, places on the right hand size. It takes up about 200 to 250 pixels maybe, and it’s precious when three columns are used instead of two. [Click here for a larger image.]

More to come

Well, the last part of this preview is on writing emails messages in Windows Live Mail. I actually intended to have 2 posts only, I guess it went to 3.

[On a side note, I have 7 Windows Live Messenger invites to give away now.]