Microsoft msdn links for Xbox not working anymore - xna

I'm developing for the Xbox with XNA currently, but when I click on several links to the official Microsoft site, e.g. tutorials and files, then I get redirected to this page:
http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/t/19992.aspx
For example by clicking this link:
http://create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/sample/skinned_model
Anyone having the same problems with the official Microsoft site currently?

Yes. Microsoft are aware of this issue - although I'm not privy to any information about when/if they will fix it.
Basically, as part of the move to Windows Phone 8, they've separated out the Xbox and Phone development stuff.
If you come across old links like that, you can usually repair them by hand by changing the domain like so:
forums.create.msdn.com becomes xboxforums.create.msdn.com (change the subdomain)
And
create.msdn.com becomes xbox.create.msdn.com (add a subdomain)

Yes.
It'd be like this for a month now. It seems to suggest they are trying to downplay XNA for Windows 8 development which is saddening! You could always use Google's caching service to view the pages if you are finding them from Google... I don't think this will work for downloads though!

Related

Is MetaWeblog API still supported?

Is the MetaWeblog API still supported? I ask because while researching XMLRPC, the Cook Computing library and implementing MetaWeblog API, I clicked a link that took me to MSDN that states the topic has been removed.
There is a link there that takes me to new docs for Windows Live SDK. On the new page i cannot find current info on MWAPI.
I am using EF, MV3, and VB.Net.
MetaWeblog API support had always seemed (to me) tenuous at best. Seeing as how the project hasn't been updated since 2003 (http://www.xmlrpc.com/metaWeblogApi) I think it is safe to assume that support has essentially ceased. That's my .02 anyway.
(Also, the Yahoo web group's newest post is from 2004 (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MetaWeblog-API/))

How do Google opening links in a new window without target attribute?

i wonder how google manages to open external links in a new window/tab without defining target="_blank".
For example in google plus, all external links open in a new window.
I think its some Javascript voodoo but the .js code is obfuscated so i cant really look into.
edit: oh and followup question: why?
Using a framework makes this easy. Just have JavaScript look for links marked rel="external", or another identifier that shows them to be an external link, and dynamically add target="blank". Here's an example using Prototype:
$$('a[rel="external"]').each(function(a) {
a.setAttribute('target', '_blank');
};
It's not beyond reasoning for them to add the target attribute by javascript before allowing the anchor link event to return true.
It's Javascript. You can say:
window.open('http://example.org', '_blank').focus();
But please, don't. Opening links in new windows is almost always the wrong thing to do. Seriously, good uses of this are vanishingly few. If users want a link opened in a new window, they are quite capable of doing that themselves.
Jakob Nielsen was telling people this twelve years ago. Others have taken up the cudgels. The W3C removed the target attribute from HTML 4 because it was such a bad idea. I honestly don't understand how this usage persists. Don't you find it incredibly annoying when a website does this to you? Why would you want to write a website which does this to someone else?
Which brings me to your followup question. Why did Google decide to do this? I have no answer to that, and i am completely and utterly baffled how one of the very biggest, brightest, web companies could make such an elementary mistake. But then, a lot of the Google Plus interface has very poor usability (as in, mostly worse than Facebook poor); i suspect there is an interesting story behind it. Was the project under-resourced, and thus built cheaply on top of a rapid development framework such as GWT? Was it built as a spare time project by a lone wolf with a blind spot for web architecture? Was it driven by strategy wonks who didn't care about getting the technology right? Mystery.

Making a firefox/chrome extension from 0

i have a website, its to exchange links, files... to say it quickly it's my 'version' of twitter+megaupload,
Well, users add links all the time and so on, but i would like user be able to syinch his bookmarks from the browser to the ones he has at his profile of mywebsite,
Where should i look into?
Basically i need to be able to:
- Acces bookmarks file (1)
- being able to send the urls to my service ( 2 )
- maybe adding the login feature (in the future)
I was google'ing about this for ages few weeks a go and i kind of give up, because i'm ok with PHP and JS, but with this plugin languages i'm very lost. So i decided posting here, wich always brings positive answers
(1) - > I don't even know where to start
(2) -> i was thinking to have a website.com/auto_import_no_confirm.php?url=[URL] and put it in a for each.
how many different languages and extension files do i have to work with? I really need any kind of tip with point (1)
feel like?
-edit-
Just found This -> https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Code_snippets/Bookmarks
wich really looks like i need, but where do i place this code?
thanks!
Might not be a bad question, but there are too many subtopics raised to answer that. (And there is too much tagspam as well. Break up your question into PHP- and Javascript-specific tasks, when you have devised the general application scheme.)
But to get started, download similar Firefox extensions (.xpi) and unzip them to inspect the general structure. You'll find examplary code for bookmark handling and invoking remote APIs pretty quickly. And basically you only need Javascript for the extension itself. (It sounds like your extension does not need much UI.)
And there are many tutorials on designing Firefox addons: http://roachfiend.com/archives/2004/12/08/how-to-create-firefox-extensions/ or http://www.google.com/search?q=firefox+develop+an+xpi
The good news first, you won't need much more than javascript if you just want to access bookmarks and send them to a server, neither on firefox nor on chrome.
But still you'll have to make yourself familiar with the apis of the browsers and learn how to develop extensions.
However, both Mozilla and Google provide all necessary information on their developer sites.
For Chrome, this is a good place to start, you'll find the api for bookmark access here.
The Corresponding site for Firefox can be found here, with information on bookmark access here.

Where I can find an engine like OFPS Open Feedback Publishing

I'd like to write a little book on personal topics together with two friends of mine, remotely located. Do you know of any FOSS content publishing system like the one from O'Reilly (OPFS)?
I saw the one that powers the django book but It seems that the code It's not released yet. I accept any kind of backend technology for this project.
I'd like to:
edit the book on the web and let my friend do the same after authentication.
anyone of us could comment other's entries.
You could use Google Wave. You get the benefit of watching where others are editing / you can roll back the whole doc or specific parts / comment on specific parts plus you can use it from any computer so you don't have to be home or carry a laptop to edit your book when inspiration hits you.
OK, I'm going to roll out my own solution following the direction written here. I like a lot thigs like bitesizeedits or leanpub. The base will be a multiuser platform: mu. I'm quite fond with wordpress and as version control I'm happy with GIT. The commenting system will be digress.it.

How to make only certain parts of a site beta?

Most sites are either fully released, or in beta.
But what happens if you have a large site, and some of the parts are still in Beta, and other parts aren't.
How do you effectively communicate this to the customer?
Maybe take a look at how Facebook, Bloglines, Gmail did it?
Like "We have this beta thing going on, come on over and see the same site with new stuff, but if it doesnt work, use the old parts"
Maybe gmail labs where you can sign up for "beta features"
If there's a certain way you enter the part of the beta site, maybe you can have a modal that pops up that they have to agree to every time. I wouldn't have it on every page since it gets annoying, so I would only use this approach if there is a definitive way to get into that part of the site (e.g. people won't be coming to random parts of the beta section through Google or something).
One way I've used for non-web software is a change to background. So for example if your normal site tended to have a plain white background, you could have the beta site have a repeating beta text in a background image. You want to make it fairly faint so it is present but doesn't detract from the overall experience.
Another subtle but present option would just be to change the title bar.
Or you could do what google does, which is a large site with some of it in beta. Check out Google experimental search. Basically the site is no different, but it is hard to get to accidentally.
There are a few ways.
Provide access to the site via two domains (e.g. www.domain.com and beta.domain.com) and only allow access to beta parts of the site when going in via beta.domain.com.
People will be accessing the same code base, but will only get access to the beta sections if they've specified the beta subdomain. Trying to access beta sections of the site will explain this & tell them how to access the beta.
Strongly Flag the beta sections of the application as being beta, and force the user to acknowledge that they're OK using beta features with some kind of agreement screen. The first time they try to use the beta feature, they'll be shown the agreement screen. Subsequent uses of the feature will prominently deisplay that "thios part of the site is in beta and is used at your own peril."

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