Blog Code - Come and get it.. Ah well, all of the disclaimers in the world won't help me now. The first official public download of .Text is now up and can be freely downloaded over on GotDotNet. [ScottW's ASP.NET WebLog]

Seeing as I'm off to play somewhere else for a couple of weeks, an odd time to say it but....

Zeepe 7 RC 1 is available over at zeepe.com.

This allows you to do witty things like toolbars etc that are described using XHTML tags (the zeepe: namespace), support javascript event handlers etc and are drawn by the native code so they look right on all Windows platforms.

Loads (OK I exaggerate...) of Microsoft program managers have taken issue with my comment that Scoble is loosing his marbles.

In the face of evidence such as this, I admit that fewer marbles have rolled off Mr Scoble's dinner table than I might have supposed and he does indeed have more that half a foot left in reality.

And if the IE program manager would like to contact me and fill me in on the scoop about ielementbehaviorlayout and why the notifications don't come in as documented I'll be very grateful <g>. I know this is old technology compared to .NET, but Longhorn is a few years off.....

RapTier. C#/VB database code generation tool. Besides new features, improved templates and fixed reported bugs, RapTier now has two editions: Lite and Professional. RapTier Lite is FREE. Enjoy! Multi-tier application development has never been easier! ! [123aspx Newest ASP.NET Resources]

Initial PDC Breaks published. [via Brad Abrams]

Hmmm, let me see - All of Client, all of web applications, most of server and a bit of architecture and languages look useful. What is the "Whidbey" timeframe, can't remember.

.. an essay on the fact that the user experience of the Net is ripe for revolution, and proposed that we start telling the world that if they use any browser but Microsoft Internet Explorer, they will have a better browsing experience. [ongoing]

In which essar we find:

We need a tight, crisp “Use a Better Browser” button that has a mouse-over and is linked to a message somewhere, and the message is simple:

If you were looking at this in any browser but Microsoft Internet Explorer, it would look and run better and faster.

I’d put one of those buttons on ongoing if it was good. I bet a few thousand other bloggers would too, if a few of us took the lead.

Now the trouble is, I've looked at the ongoing essay using IE 6 (OK, I'm using Zeepe 7 RadioCase, but its the IE renderer) and using Gecko based Phoenix. I can see no visual difference what-so-ever and it doesn't run any faster under Pheonix (it has a new name now, can't offhand remember what it is). And that's the trouble, Gecko et al may (do!) have better standards support, are likely to have some development over the next couple of years, will have a development path for OSs other than Longhorn but until such time as there is a demonstrable reason for switching on the generality of web pages, people are not going to switch. A plethora of web pages telling a story (...it would look better...) that isn't really true is not going to help.

Xopus response. Working on Xopus is really fun and challenging, but when you read this then you know that's really why you don't mind working long hours. [Sjoerd Visscher's weblog]

Way way back pre-release I saw showed great promise. I think this would be really nice wrapped up in a Zeepe 7 frame.

Higher Primates Can Program. [via Marquee de Sells: Chris's insight outlet]

Absolute belter.

Weapons witness 'badly treated'. As the hunt for missing weapons expert David Kelly focuses on a body found, members of the committee that quizzed him reveal the level of pressure to which he was exposed. [BBC News | Front Page | UK Edition]

What was the line? Oh, I remember "Things can only get better!" - time for the (new) Establishment to pause and reflect I think and time for whatever/whoever this (new) Establishment's "men in grey suits" is/are to consider matters.

For instance, today I was alpha testing an app that the team I'm a part of is building. It wouldn't start up correctly, so one of the guys who's developing it, sauntered down to my office, played around with a few things on my system and answered definitively: "We need to put MSHTML into your GAC". [The Scobleizer Weblog]

Very interesting: Scoble evangelises Longhorn, its his job. The team is to do with Longhorn and the PDC, perhaps this alpha application is for that. Lets put 2+2 together and what do we get:

If he's running Longhorn, MSHTML can run on Longhorn - no surprises there. But, Longhorn as currently configured is not using MSHTML for its HTML rendering from managed apps - one would assume that MSHTML would ship in the GAC.

If he's not running Longhorn then just shows the problems of trying to write an app in .NET that uses HTML.

Personally, I reckon he's not running Longhorn - it'll be running on Tablet PCs