Tangential Thinking

One of the currently lesser-discussed Windows 7 features is Federated Search (also known as Opensearch). Extending Windows Search this feature allows Explorer searches to query online resources, anything from TechNet/MSDN to the likes of YouTube and Apple.

Much in the same way IE7 search providers are configured, Windows 7 Federated Search providers can be added via several sources.

The first and most common will be search sites themselves offering their providers for download. Simply execute the provided osdx file and the site will be accessible from within Windows Search.

It’s also possible to create your own search providers using either of two methods, the first for sites which support OpenSearch and are able to return results as RSS is to create an appropriate osdx as shown below. In this case I’ve created an OpenSearch provider for TechNet:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?><OpenSearchDescription xmlns=”http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/” xmlns:ms- ose=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/opensearchext/2009/”>
<ShortName>TechNet</ShortName>
<Description>OpenSearch TechNet using Windows 7 Search.</Description>
<Url type=”application/rss+xml” template=”http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Search/Feed.aspx?locale=en-GB&amp;format=RSS&amp;Query={searchTerms}“/>
<Url type=”text/html” template=”http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Search/Feed.aspx?locale=en-GB&amp;format=RSS&amp;Query={searchTerms}“/>
</OpenSearchDescription>

The areas highlighted require modification for each new provider.

Ampersands present in the real URL have to be switched to &amp; in line 4 and 5 as above otherwise the provider will fail to import.

Saving the file with the osdx extension will associate it with Windows Search and opening it will add the search provider as above.

The second method and suited to many sites which don’t support OpenSearch as yet  is to use MSN search to search the sites and return the results as RSS as in the example below:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?><OpenSearchDescription xmlns=”http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/” xmlns:ms- ose=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/opensearchext/2009/”>
<ShortName>Apple</ShortName>
<Description>OpenSearch Apple using MSN Search.</Description>
<Url type=”application/rss+xml” template=”http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q={searchTerms}+site%3aapple.com&amp;num=10&amp;format=rss“/>
<Url type=”text/html” template=”http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q={searchTerms}+site%3aapple.com&format=rss“/>
</OpenSearchDescription>

Obviously this method is more limited in terms of the format of the returned results but for anyone who frequenty searches online resources Federated Search in Windows 7 is already shaping up into a potentially very powerful tool.

windows 7

… a word of warning. Well several in fact.

Historically the release process for Service Packs from Microsoft has a pretty good track record. Occasionally one small irritating bug might make it out (Server 2000 SP6 anyone?) but for the most part the quality is high, any major issues which are uncovered prior to RTW will trigger a delay for a fix, (as occured with SP1 with E2007 when issues were found in particularly large trial environments).

Unfortunately today I’ve come across a blocking issue in deploying Exchange 2007 with SP2.

In short:

Exchange 2007 SP2 is currently incompatible with Active Directory  running at 2008 R2 functional mode

Or, to be more specific, if you only DCs are 2008 R2 and 2003 pre-SP1, or 2008 R2 only at its highest mode you’re currently unable to install the latest release of exchange.

The response from Microsoft thus far is quite weak, I’ve chatted with several people who have responded to say that a fix will follow when R2 is “widely available” which to say the least is is nice and vague.

Which leaves two options, fix the prereq xml that BPA queries by hand, or go 2010 RC. Neither of which are exactly supportable. Sigh.

Let me start of by saying that I’m a huge fan of Quicksilver. It’s one of those apps which keeps me using a mac as my primary machine and the first thing I install whenever I rebuild or get a new one.

But since Alcor abandoned the project and released the source the shine has begun to fade in places. On my macbook pro the main window occasionally freezes and requires the app to be forcibly quit while on my nc10 hackintosh the icon insists in remaining in the dock.

Sure there’s several efforts ongoing to tidy up the code, Ankur for one was working on it which spawned a google code project, but it’s just not the same.

Anyhow, while listening to MacBreak Weekly recently Leo mentioned that Alcor, now at google had released a new project – the Google Quick Search Box.

Being a Google ‘thing’ there’s much more emphasis on online searching but most of the core functionality that the majority of QuickSilver users want is in there including interacting with apps such as your contacts and iTunes library.

You can invoke the app with the usual keypresses, it also offeres a standard + (double tap apple) which I’ve begun to favor. Suffice to say I’m going to follow the project with great interest!

Windows 7 RTM’d a few hours ago, build 7600.16385.090713-1255 to be precise. Should be on TechNet/MSDN from the 6th August.

There’s a post on the Engineering Windows 7 blog about it here.

Tower defense games are all the rage at the moment and for good reason, the idea of having the bad guys line up to be passed ‘through the grinder’, wandering aimlessly though weapons you’ve lined up to chew them into itty bitty pieces turns is quite a lot of fun.

With the touchscreen interface the iPhone has several great tower defense games, the most popular probably being FieldRunners although personally being a sucker for the old neon/vector graphic style I’m personally partial to geoDefense.

At WWDC yesterday ngmoco, creators of Rolando showed off a new game, a 3d Tower Defense iPhone title called Star Defense.

I’ve been fairly skeptical of many 3D games and their claims but ngmoco did such a great job with Rolando I’ve given Star Defense a shot and to say I’m impressed is an understatement. Star Defense literally adds a new dimention to Tower Defense only problem now is all the hours it’s going to eat up trying to beat it!

I’ve had the same chat several times with people so thought I could kill several birds with one stone (or in this case one post) to list the fairly minimal number of plugins I use on this site.

In its previous incarnation TT used about 15 plugins for various things, since rebuilding it a couple of months ago however I imposed fairly drastic limits on myself as to what faffing I could do to try and get me writing (and look at how successful that was…).

Anyhoo, the list in full:

• Akismet – An easy starter for ten, Akismet should be installed and enabled for *every* wordpress blog which allows comments. By setting it up you’ll find a heap of the usual spam which would hit your site never happens.
• flickrRSS – Exactly what it says it is, set up a flickr account and add images, as you do they will appear in the widget providing they’re marked public. Nice for random cameraphone shots while I trek about!
• Google XML Sitemaps – Every site should have a sitemap and Google XML Sitemaps automates that process. Simple as.
• Lightbox 2 – All of the groovy image previews for embedded pictures are provided by this plugin. Clickthrough to view is so netscape navigator era
• Sociable – Those share links at the bottom of each post are care of sociable. There’s a huge selection of social network and bookmarking sites supported. Well worth a peek.
• Twitter for Wordpress – Give it your credentials and your posts are shared to the world at large via a widget.
• Viper’s Video Quicktags – Useful for embedding video from sites such as YouTube and Vimeo.
• WP-Cumulus – the nifty flash driven cloud tag to the right is care of this plugin.
• WP-Touch iPhone theme – browse the site via mobile safari for a specially tailored lower-bandwidth version.

And that’s pretty much it! The only other functionality I’d like is to be able to write/embed and parse hashtags within my posts. One of the evils of twittering so much I guess someone is bound to do something alone those lines eventually…

I’ve been so busy lately I’ve a heap of half-written posts, including one for yesterdays WWDC Keynote.

One of the announcements yesterday was Safari 4 making general availability. Without a great deal of thought I fired up software update and ten minutes my beta copy was gone and Safari 4 final installed.

Having used the beta since the original previews I’ve really grown to love the new interface, tabs in the top bar make much more sense, after all the address bar is owned by the tab and the title bar only served to duplicate what was in the active tab title.

Unfortunately Apple have really let us down, tabs once again appear at the bottom of the toobars, it’s not even something which can be restored, previously possible by toggling “com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4TabBarIsOnTop” to TRUE for the new style bar, FALSE for the old. Why Apple, why?

Sure, some users may have disliked it, but not even presenting the option in preferences? Bad show

Looking at the Safari 4 Tweaks page (already updated for the final version) consensus seems to be that we’re not going to get the option back. I’m really disappointed.