Microsoft Will Be Offering Fremont

In response to Google Base, Microsoft is in the process of developing Fremont, code name for its online classified listings. Fremont will be enhanced with Microsoft’s localized maps and will be available on Live.com.

Canvascape – 3D Walker

Look familiar? No, that is not Counter Strike? This game is being developed by Benjamin Joffe. What you see is written in Javascript. Pretty interesting. You can move around using your arrow keys and jump with your Spacebar key. Good stuff. Thanks to my buddy Jackson for the link.

Live Traffic Cameras for Washington DC Metro Area Residents

If you are a resident in the Washington DC Metro Area like myself, then you would be glad to have these live traffic cameras. Thanks TrafficLand Company.

Firefox 1.5 Available for Download Today

The new version of Firefox will be available for download later today.

Download the latest version of Firefox at www.firefox.com and www.mozilla.com.

Read more on the latest features of Firefox at www.techworld.com

Do You Know MapQuest.com?

Here are some interesting facts about MapQuest Inc. that I read today at news.yahoo.com:

• MapQuest’s roots date to 1967, when it was the cartographic division of the publisher R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. before becoming an independent company. In pre-Internet days, the group made the road maps that were distributed free at gas stations as well as the computerized TripTik system for AAA.
• MapQuest.com went live Feb. 5, 1996, and started trading shares publicly three years later.
• Of all people going to mapping sites, 71 percent visited MapQuest.com in September, roughly even from a year ago, according to comScore Media Metrix. Yahoo Inc. drew 32 percent, also about the same as last year, while new arrival Google Inc. had a 25 percent share.
• The number going to mapping sites leaped 33 percent to 51.3 million in the last year.
• MapQuest.com was acquired by America Online Inc. in 2000.

MapQuest.com has been seeing stiff competition from Google Maps, Google Earth, MSN Virtual Earth, Yahoo Maps and Amazon A9. What MapQuest.com needs is innovation to stay ahead of the mapping competition, in which it’s already a leader. MapQuest Inc. is heading toward its 10th year anniversary of its website. Go MapQuest.com!

Happy Turkey Day

Have a great Thanksgiving, everybody!

Check out this cool Thanksgiving Flash movie clip. Thanks to msn.americangreetings.com. Hope you enjoy it.

aspnet_regiis -i

Use the following commands to either register for the first time or re-register your ASP.NET with IIS.

For ASP.NET version 1.1.4322:
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322>aspnet_regiis -i

For ASP.NET version 2.0.50727:
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727>aspnet_regiis -i

New Moniker for Small Towns

A short while ago, I read about this small town in Texas changing its name to Dish to promote EchoStart Communications Corp.’s Dish Network, and today, another town in Idaho is going to change its name to Secretsanta.com in exchange for cash and a documentary deal. Here are some towns that changed their names in exchange for fame and money:

• Santa, Idaho – Secretsanta.com (115 people) – Year 2005
• Halfway, Oregon – Half.com (brought in $75,000 and 20 computers for its schools) -Year 2000
• Hot Sprints, New Mexico – Truth or Consequences (a radio program that became a TV game show) – Year 1950

You can read more about this at msnbc.msn.com.

inetmgr and iisreset

Internet Information Services or IIS is Microsoft’s web server application. It is based on Windows NT Server, and it supports the World Wide Web, FTP, and gopher, a menu-oriented tool used to locate online resources developed at the University of Minnesota.

Two tricks that I use most often with IIS are to open and reset IIS using the Run command line. Here’s how:

Typing inetmgr at the Run command line would open up the Internet Information Services GUI.

Typing iisreset at the Run command line would restart the Internet Information Services.

Search Engines Are Second Only To Email

According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, search engines have become the second most used Net application after email. On an average day, there are about 41 percent of the Internet using population in the US turn to search engines, up from 31 percent in the middle of 2004. This is about 59 million people. Email remains the number one online service with 52 percent of US population checking mail on any given day.

Google is still the search engine leader with 43.7 percent for local searches, while Yahoo! is number one with 27.6 percent in terms of Internet Yellow Page sites.

Read more about this Project in a memo compiled by Pew Internet Project Director Lee Rainie and comScore Communications Analyst Jeremy Shermak on search engine use in November 2005.