This morning I downloaded IE7 RC1 from Microsoft.  It's apparently coming out soon and I'd like to check out the sites that I work on to make sure all of the formatting looks and acts like it should (I've only found one minor thing so far).

Upon opening it, I found out right away that I did not like the new font-enhancement (ClearType).  Ironically enough, I do use an LCD screen here at work and at home but I've just never liked ClearType.  To me and my eyes, it appears fuzzy almost blurry.  This to me seems to cause eye strain rather than help it.  But this is just me... I know a lot of people who love it and I'm not knocking it.

Without ClearType:

With ClearType:

So you can imagine my reaction when I first opened IE7 to see everything in ClearType.  Wanting to check out all of the new features and check out my sites with the new browser, I didn't try to disable ClearType right away.  So about 10 minutes later (I went fast) I set out to turn it off. 

My first inclination was to go to "Tools" then fonts but it wasn't there and rightfully so; ClearType is a font-enhancement not an actual font (from what I've read).  Next was to go to the "Advanced Settings" from within "Internet Options".  There simply, about half way down under "Multimedia" was the option "Always use ClearType for HTML".  Unchecking that option then restarting IE7 brought back the font I know and love.

Advanced Settings:

UPDATE: As noted by some readers; before turning ClearType off try and fine tune it first.  There is a web version that works quite well or you can download an XP PowerToy to do the same.

The first rule of the Men's Room is, you do not talk in the Men's Room.

The second rule of the Men's Room is, you DO NOT talk in the Men's Room.

Third rule of the Men's Room, someone says "hi" or tries to talk to you, the bathroom break is over.

Fourth rule, only two guys at or near the urinals.

Fifth rule, one person taking a shit at a time, fellas.

Sixth rule, no sitting down to pee.

Seventh rule, standing at the urinal acting like your peeing to avoid walking out with somebody else will go on as long as it has to.

And the eighth and final rule, if this is your first time in the Men's Room, you have to use the urinal.

"I'm half asleep again; I must've left a floater in the toilet." - Narrator

Although I like Live Writer and I've been using it lately, I have issues with some of its functionality. 

Currently in Beta, Live Writer (review from techcrunch) enables blogger's such as myself to easily add/edit/delete entries on one or multiple blogs on many platforms from one central location.  With that said and knowing it's still a Beta release, most of my qualms with it below may or may not be fixed (enhanced) in the final release.

These issues include:

• When uploading images (.jpgs doesn't seem to be an issue with .gifs - haven't tried .pngs) Live Writer takes my original image and reprocesses it and runs some type of filter on it - why I do not know - leaving behind a grainer, blurrier version of the original. 

Original image:

Image enhanced by Live Writer:

I don't care why it does it, just give me the option to skip it if I don't want it. 

• Pasting does not preserve certain color formatting.  Now this one is a double edge sword.  Nobody likes it when Word "styles" pasted text into a document.  All of the <font> tags and CSS styles are bloated and it NEVER seems to get it right.  Recently I discovered a macro for Visual Studio.NET that allows me to copy code keeping the original color formatting even using simple styles to do so.  The nice thing about it is that it gives me two options; copy as html or copy as a style.  The former is self descriptive, the latter is nicer in that you can paste the text into a notepad and it has NO html but paste it into a ANY rich textbox editor and the style is there.  My problem is that the Windows Live Writer rich text editor is the ONLY one I've found that does NOT paste the style properly.  I can still do it however if I select to copy as HTML, switch to HTML view then paste but I'd rather not have to do it that convoluted way.
• There is a lovely dropdown from which I can select one or many categories for the current entry but there is no way to add a new category.
• While posting yesterday I noticed a fatal error that kept popping up when I actually published a post but it didn't crash the program and went away when I closed the program later and reopened it.  Unfortunately I didn't take a screen shot of it but if I run into it again I will update this post with it.

That's about it.  The pros way out number the cons on this one.  If you post from work and home, try using folder share and syncing your "My Weblog Posts" folder in "My Documents".  Any posts you draft at home will be available for you at for when you get to work and vice-versa.

Well to be fair, it's not just my blog it's mine and other blogs thanks to the new service hiddennetwork.com.   

Basically, Hidden Network - currently in beta (from the maker of The Daily WTF, which I am an avid reader) will display job ad's solely on blogs (tech blogs for now I believe).  Paying per 1000 impressions plus a per successful referrer bonus, makes this service inviting. 

Personally, I don't look for a new job except when I have to.  By doing this though, opportunities that may be better than my current situation might just pass me by.  But if I could see job opportunities from respective employers throughout the day while reading other tech blogs I might be presented with an opportunity that I might not have seen otherwise.  Plus, I would stay on top of job trends, something I could only do when actively looking for a new position.

I must say, I'm anxious to see where this service goes and doubly anxious to get on their blogger network.

Bernadette Baker (shown on right; affectionately known as Bernie), literary agent, small business owner and friend made the local paper in an article titled Bound to books.  Here's a quick excerpt:

“I love Portland,” she says. “For our business it’s a really great place for us to be starting. If we were to go to New York right now, as a business, we would not only have to transplant our whole lives, but we would be competing in an environment that is already really competitive. In Portland we have an edge because there are a lot of creators here but not a lot of industry here. The publishers here are more niche, and it’s a small community.”

Baker believes that Portland and the surrounding area, full of talented, creative writers, is a natural place to develop more of a publishing industry.

Congrats Bernie.

Be sure to check out her site; www.bakersmark.com.