At the end of last month, my debit card expired and until now, I hadn’t realised just how many online/subscription-based services I use which depend on that card number. Services which would stop working when the card expired. I must have spent the best part of a morning working out which services had my debit card details and then visiting each to update the number.

Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a service, like Gravatar, where I could enter my card details once and have that propagate to all the services that needed it? I see the major challenges facing a service like this as:

• Trust – it would be hard for a start-up to offer this, because who would trust their debit/credit card details with an organisation they’d never heard of
• Proliferation – tied into the first point. If, say, Paypal offered this, it would quickly gain traction because they’re a recognised brand
• Security – goes without saying. Any service that stores credit card numbers better be as secure as they come, especially if that data is being fed into other places. (And maybe that’s the showstopper?)

Perhaps Paypal is the answer, and if more services supported Paypal as a payment method, this would solve the problem – I could update my details there and have done with it.

Another key selling point [according to Microsoft]: if you choose to use Google Apps, your formatting may be screwed up when you inevitably have to work with others who are using Microsoft Office. When all else fails, turn to FUD.

This isn’t FUD.  When it comes to collaborating with Microsoft Office users, Google Apps (and Zoho Writer, for that matter) do screw around with formatting.

Like many people today, I’m looking for work, so I’m sending my CV/résumé out several times each week to recruitment agencies.  Most recruiters and job sites will insist on having CVs sent to them in Word format, so I have to export my document as a .doc file.

And there’s the problem: a document that looks fine in Google Docs can be all over the place when it’s saved as Word document. Inconsistent tab- and line-spacing; random hieroglyphic characters in place of bullet points; disobedient font sizing are just some of the problems I’ve encountered.

It would be great to be at a point where I could simply share a link to my CV with a recruiter, a job site or an HR department, but we’re not; Microsoft’s Office document formats are still what most businesses use today. My CV is usually my first means of introduction to a prospective employer, so there’s just no way I can afford for it to look untidy – it would be like turning up to a job interview with breakfast down my jacket.

If there’s one feature that cloud-based word processors absolutely must get right, it’s making sure that exporting to the most widely-used document format works faultlessly.

I visited the Adobe website today to purchase a copy of Lightroom.

So, that’s £228.85. When you add shipping (and VAT) it comes out at £234.72. Not cheap when compared to something like Aperture, but Lightroom is  highly recommended by a number of pro photographers, not least of whom is my younger brother, Chris.

Wanting the instant gratification that only the internet can bring and expecting a digital download to cost less, I hit the drop down next to “Delivery Method” and saw the price adjust accordingly:

Wait… What?

It’s cheaper to have a physical product boxed, put in a vehicle and shipped to my door than it is to download a file to my computer? Thinking I must be missing something obvious, I followed the link to the FAQ:

According to the FAQ, I can “Skip the shipping and save money”. Hmmm….

I realise the price difference is a small one, but that difference should be in favour of a digital download.

So what do you think? Is this an admin error, or have Adobe put a price on the “got to have it now” mentality of the internet shopper?

At first, I thought I had simply clicked through on a previous screen without deselecting the two options I didn’t want, so I cancelled the install and started again. Same result – at no point was I asked if I want to deselect these optional extras, which means you can’t install Live Writer on its own.

The system requirements for Live Writer make no mention of Sign-In Assistant and Messenger being required components, so I can’t understand why they’re not optional. There’s no good reason I can think of for a legitimate application vendor to install stuff on my computer that I don’t want or need, and Microsoft really should know better.

Equally annoying (but, at least de-selectable) the 4 boxes for Mail, Toolbar, Photo Gallery and Family Safety are checked by default.

The new release does have some new features, like the ability to insert video and preview within a Live Writer dialogue:

Also included in this release is support for printing, which is a bit of a puzzle to me, but I guess someone might need to print out their blog posts, as well actually post them.

After going for so long without an update, it’s good to see another release (and not just a bug-fix, too,) so soon after the last one. Live Writer is easy to set up, easy to use and is still my blogging tool of choice. And, despite my mini-rant just now, I would highly recommend you check it out, if you haven’t already.

Hat-tip to Springnet, for the heads-up via Twitter.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Live Writer, tools, blog, writing, utilities

I’d had a bit of a problem with email reminders, which I posted to the GooSync Google group. Within an hour or so, Stuart from GooSync had posted a reply to say that the feature I was asking about wasn’t available in the free subscription, but was available in the paid subscription.

About an hour after that, this appeared in my Inbox:

Dear Andrew Terry
*********************
Special GooSync Offer
*********************
For this month ONLY the GooSync team are giving you 24 months subscription for the price of 12, that’s a full 2 years worth of GooSyncing for an amazing £19.95. Don’t delay order TODAY, offer ends 30th June 2007.
If you think your FREE GooSync account is good check out the list of the great addtional features available in our paid subscription service:
 - Configurable Sync Window: You can select +- 365 days, allowing you to sync any events that fall within this sync window.
 - Multi Calendar Support: Allows you to select and sync events from any of your Google calendars.
 - Attendees: Allows you to know who’s coming to that meeting by syncing any confirmed attendees to your device.
 - Additional Sync Modes: Supports all SyncML sync modes.
To take advantage of this rare offer and get all these great features visit: http://www.goosync.com/Subscription.aspx
Do not hesitate to contact us if you require any further information or assistance.
Thank you,
Kindest Regards,
The GooSync Team.
***************************

The timing is too perfect for this to be coincidence and I have to applaud GooSync for being so on the ball; what better time to  wave a special offer under someone’s nose than when they’ve just been told that the feature they want is available by subscription only? That is smart, targeted marketing.

Cosmetically, it doesn’t look that much different to Beta 1 – although, the colour scheme and menu bars have been tidied up, making the Live Writer Beta 2 look much slicker than the previous version. Reading through some of the comments at the Live Writer blog, other users have had problems installing Beta 2 over the top of Beta 1, but for me, all of the blog account settings I created before were left intact after installation. I did manage to crash the application by clicking the Manage Weblog button:

but I think this was more to do with Firefox asking if I wanted to restore a previous session. One frustration which has been carried over to Beta 2 is the inability to centre an image by clicking, oh, I don’t know, an icon. For some reason, Live Writer still wants you to specify the margin settings. Until a toolbar icon appears, I will continue to find it easier to switch into HTML view and use the <center> tags around my images.

Previously, when using the Web Preview view, the Beta 1 ignored the WordPress plugins that I use on my blog, but this version doesn’t, so now I get a much more accurate preview of the posts I’m writing.

The ability to tag posts has been significantly improved. Within WordPress, I use Broobles’ excellent SimpleTags plugin, which enables me to markup the tags inside a <tags>, </tags> pair, and then creates a “Technorati Tags:” list on the fly. Live Writer Beta 2  does that all for me now and provides a pop-up, which also remembers the tags you’ve used before and does suggests them as you type. You can select from a number of pre-populated tag sites and configure your own choices, too:

The output can be seen at the bottom of this post, which has been done using the improved Live Writer tagging functionality.

Another new feature in the Beta 2 is the ability to add categories. Its omission was something that annoyed the heck out of me in Beta 1, so I’d love to be able to describe it here, but – and I’m super-embarrassed to admit this –  I just can’t find it! The screen capture at the Live Writer blog suggests that the option is available from the pop-up menu where you to select the categories for each post, but it’s not! So, if you’re playing around with Beta 2, and find out how to add categories, please do let me know.

I’ve only used the Beta 2 to write one post so far – fittingly, it’s this one – and already I love it more than the previous version. This is a much better product than its predecessor; it doesn’t feel like beta software anymore, and I’m really pleased that Live Writer team have been quietly improving it in the background. Maybe they’ll actually use it now, and keep their user community updated more often!