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Filed under: Design, E-mail, Microsoft, Browsers

Much ado about Outlook 2010's lame HTML rendering


There's a minor uproar happening on Twitter over Microsoft's plans to continue using Word to render HTML email in Outlook 2010. Fixoutlook.org reports that nearly 8,000 people have signed a petition via Twitter to encourage Microsoft to change its mind and support web standards before the new version of Office leaves beta. To back up its claims, the site links to an HTML email message rendered in Outlook 2000, and the same message in Outlook 2010: the new version looks a whole a lot worse.

By sticking with Word's rendering engine, which Microsoft started using to render email in Outlook 2007, Microsoft would also be sticking designers with outdated font tags and tables, instead of the latest CSS hotness. According to The Email Standards Project, Microsoft's reason for doing this is to allow Outlook users to use Word's prepackaged design tools and email templates, and have those render correctly for other Outlook users. Microsoft itself is worried that rendering through a browser could slow performance and lead to inconsistent appearance across different HTML engines.

Filed under: Internet, Social Software, web 2.0

Flickr caves in, agrees to free donut demands

Flickr donuts
A few days ago we reported that Flickr users were revolting. Wait, no that came out wrong. What we reported was that a group of very attractive (or so we assume) Flickr users are unhappy about the addition of video to the site. So they did what any self-respecting group of netizens would, they started a group and created a petition asking for Flickr to remove the video upload feature.

Flickr so far has resisted their demands. But demonstrating that the Yahoo! owned company can in fact be bullied into doing just about anything, Flickr's Mathew Rothenberg has agreed to another demand: free donuts for any member of the We Demand Donuts Flickr group who shows up to claim one in person. Seriously.

The We Demand Donuts group was obviously formed to mock the No Video on Flickr group. But so far more than 1800 people have signed up. While that might seem like a lot of donuts, Rothenberg is only promising one donut per member while supplies last, and members will have to show up at a San Francisco donut shop to be determined. So if you happen to be in San Francisco and want to see if it's possible for a donut shop to sell out of inventory, there's still time to sign up.

[via Thomas Hawk]

Filed under: Design, Internet, Video, Web services, Yahoo!, web 2.0

First came Flickr Video, now comes the backlash

No video on FlickrIf there's one thing we know about Flickr users, it's that they'r not shy about sharing their opinions. Shortly after Microsoft made an offer to buy Flickr's parent company Yahoo!, images mocking the deal started showing up all over the site. And now that Flickr has added the ability for uses to upload short videos, a large group of Flickr image-only purists has formed a "NO VIDEO ON FLICKR!!!" group.

Over 6,000 members have already joined the group, and more than 1600 have signed a petition asking for the new feature to be removed.

Basically, their argument is that there are plenty of places for people to upload and share videos. What's made Flickr special is its focus on images. Of course, anyone can filter out videos from their search results just by clicking on the advanced search options. It would be nice if the feature were more prominently placed, but why ask Flickr to modify its search bar when you could just try to incite a riot?

[via Thomas Hawk]

Filed under: Internet, Web services

eBay sellers launch boycott, nobody notices

eBay
What if you held a protest and nobody noticed? Unfortunately it happens all the time. And while a group of eBay sellers who are protesting eBay's new fees are getting some media attention for their week-long boycott, the truth is that it's hard to findy any real impact on the auction site.

The boycott launched on Monday, and according to Fortune Small Business, eBay listings are down just 3%. That might sound like a substantial figure until you realize that it means there are 14 million items listed for auction, down from 14.5 million a few days earlier.

Those figures come from third party services, while eBay officials tell Fortune that there's been no noticeable impact at all. And even if there was an impact, would it make any real difference? eBay is still the biggest name in online auctions, and even if the site isn't the seller's paradise it once was, it's still the go-to spot for buyers. So while sellers may be able to stage a one week protest, we're guessing they're going to wind up returning to the service soon with no choice but to put up with higher fees.

While eBay isn't the only online auction site around, it doesn't face very serious competition from any other service, so while there's pressure to increase revenue, there's little pressure to stay competitive with Amazon Marketplace or other rival services.

[via Silicon Alley Insider]

Filed under: Open Source

Today is International Day Against DRM

International Day Against DRMToday, October 3, has been declared the International Day Against DRM, a day for those who believe DRM is no good for consumers, no good for business, and no good for artists and other content creators to stand up and say no. DefectiveByDesign.org is your Day Against DRM headquarters and has ten things you can do today to spread the word, and Boing Boing has even more. Even if you don't think DRM is so bad, today is a great day to step back, think about how you use digital media, and learn more about digital rights management and how it affects you and how it will in the future. Viva la educación!

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With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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