Web standards and different browsers implementation have always been a nightmare for software developers. Joel Spolsky gives a nice explanation about the current situation.

Check his blog entry "Martian Headsets".

One of my favorite programs is FolderShare. For those who don't know, it is a small program that sits in your tray but gives you great features

1. The ability to share certain folders - Libraries in FolderShare terminology - with any number of your friends
2. Assign people who're participating in your libraries different privileges like reader, contributor or editor.
3. Synchronize different libraries across your different computers
4. Remote Access to any of your computers' file system.
   That's a real cool feature. I leave my home PC online 24x7. I can so easily access its files through a real simple interface from foldershare's website.

Microsoft bought FolderShare in 2005 and it was supposed to be integrated into Windows Live services but for the past 2 years there were no updates at all to FolderShare. That didn't bother me, I just loved the service the way it was. Today, however, the foldershare website has been updated at last to reflect the Windows Live brand and a new client is released. It can be downloaded from here. Check WL FolderShare blog.

There are no new features yet. However, I don't think that would last for much longer. FolderShare website and service appears to have been using PHP but the updated version, naturally, uses ASP.NET.

A couple of features I'd love to see

1. Integration with Windows Live ID
   Sign in once, use all WL services
2. Forget about Windows Live Messenger Sharing Folders. Do the sharing through FolderShare
3. FolderShare + SkyDrive. That would be a real interesting story. Have SkyDrive appear  as one of my computers in FolderShare so I can store Libraries on it, share with friends from it and sync my personal folders to it. That would just be great

I'm sure integration is WL ID is coming. It's the only logical thing to do next. Integration with messenger seems logical to me too but will they do it anytime soon ?!
I really hope someone is already exploring the FolderShare + SkyDrive integration. It will just rock.

Did you try Microsoft Photosynth?!
If you didn't then please go ahead. It's just a beautiful way of navigating through very large collections of images to the extent of building 3D models of places and scenes shot by thousands of different cameras and people.

Did you try Google/Windows Live/Yahoo maps?!
I enjoy all the zooming and panning through the maps. Maps work by loading images as we navigate where they load only the relevant pieces.

Have you ever wanted to do something similar with a large collection of images you own ?!
Navigate through a large collection of images while saving bandwidth and only loading the images you want ?!

Meet Deep Zoom.
It's just a fascinating piece of technology that allows you to create stunning user experiences using zoom and panning.

For some example sites check the following

• http://memorabilia.hardrock.com/
• http://www.vertigo.com/deepzoom.aspx

You should have Silverlight 2 Beta 1 runtime in order to try it.

You can give it a try and upload some pictures of yours and try it at Windows Live PhotoZoom. More on that from Liveside.net can be found here.

For developers, you can create Silverlight applications that take advantage of the Deep Zoom technology so easily

1. Grab Deep Zoom Composer from here and check the documentation
2. Grab the sample from Expression Blog (it's a real cool demo).

I was thinking about posting my demo application where I used several photos for lovely Angelina Jolie but then I searched for an example and I found a whole lot of them available. So if you struggle or something just search for Deep Zoom and I'm sure you'll get what you want easily.

Now you are ready to go.

1. I like how the domain name emphasized in the address bar to prevent phishing attacks
2. For me, I've fell in love with developing web apps using firefox only because of firebug. Firebug rocks. I'm glad to see MS addressing this issue with the release of integrated developer tools though I don't like how they did it in this release where the developer tools show in a separated window. It should be dockable to the bottom like firebug and the IE developer toolbar.
3. A great thing about the developer tools, they allow you to emulate IE5, IE7 or - no emulation - IE8. That's a real good thing for web developers who struggle to see the outcome of their work on multiple browsers.
4. IE8B1 passed the acid2 test, but I feel it's too slow where one sees the rendering details. I tried that with Firefox 3 beta and I didn't see such slowliness

I haven't installed IE8 at home yet. I need to try it more thouroughly as I think in addition to the developers features they added a couple of user friendly ones.

I also need to check Silverlight 2.0. The ease with wich one can develop a real attractive fully functional RIA using Silverlight is just amazing. Check ScottGu's Blog posts on Silverlight 2.0 tutorials and using Blend 2.5 with them.

A feature that I wish they had was to search in history, favorites and feeds. I love the search box in vista's start menu and the search for contacts in WL Messenger. If only they made something similar in IE8.

Update
check these entries from IEBlog

• http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/03/05/internet-explorer-8-beta-1-for-developers-now-available.aspx
• http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/03/05/why-isn-t-ie8-passing-acid2.aspx (the strange thing though is that it passes for me)

The funny thing is, a couple of Microsoft sites that talk about IE8 don't show well in IE8 !

• http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/cc304683.aspx