There was a problem with the Windows Live Hotmail service - Gmail is better

Just about every time I try to search my Hotmail email I get this message:

There was a problem with the Windows Live Hotmail service (a temporary network connectivity issue that has nothing to do with your computer). Please try again.

Trying again is just a waste of time. It doesn't fix the issue.

I'd move from Hotmail for good, but unforunately I was an early adopter (It was a good webmail system once) and I rely on it and can't forward the email to Gmail.

Gmail is 1000 times better and more reliable than Hotmail and I can think of at least 100 reasons to switch permanently.

Google Ads with sound ! Offensive and inappropriate but difficult to disable

Google should be ashamed of creeping in Flash Video ads with sound on its Adsense Network.

I was alerted to by members of my thriving online community that everytime they visited my site, a loud spinning wheel sound would start. It was driving users away in their dozens. Noone could work out why my site became offensive all of a sudden.

The culprit - a Google image ad in the footer of my website was displaying online gambling content. Appalled, I went into my Adsense settings to disable the audio, but couldn't find a setting for it and in any case, I would have to recreate the Adsense code, reupload and change the page code on my site.

I searched the Internet to find out what I could do about it, but came up with nothing.

However I decided to contact Google directly to report the offensive ad, after searching extensively I found this link for "Feedback on a Google ad in the content network":
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/request.py?contact=adfeedback

I am yet to receive any response from Google over this.

Apparently offensive ads sometimes slip through the cracks. But when it does, as a publisher, it can do some really bad damage to your sites reputation. To date I was impressed with the performance and relevance of image ads. However as a result of this experience, if Google don't change their policy on Flash ads, I'm considering moving back to text ads or moving away from Adsense altogether to a more discrete context advertising providers (as there are now plenty of Adsense alternatives out there).

Wikipedia and American English

One of the things that really gets me with Wikipedia is the use of American English for the titles of many of its articles. Not to mention that the English version of Wikipedia's whole world view is imbalanced toward the United States and Australia, where the highest number of Internet users per capita are located.

American English is not the authoritive version of English, it is a regional variation, but Wikipedia doesn't agree. American English its own language, riddled with idiosyncrasies of laziness. Even when I set English (UK or Australian) in Microsoft Word, the evils of American English keep creeping in. Now the definition of 21st century knowledge is also spelled out in stars and stripes.

Wikipedia should have a language definition purely for American English to rid Wikipedia from the problems that it creates and enable those who speak the Queen's English, the proper language, to continue to use it.

Can't find the Create Group feature in the New Facebook ?

You're not alone there. After the recent Facebook layout change I simply couldn't find the link to it anywhere. Not in the homepage, applications or even (where you'd expect to find it) in the groups section .....

However after searching Facebook and the web extensively for the create group feature I found this direct link which you might find useful:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/create.php

Bookmark it.

The new interface on Facebook is a disgrace. Groups and communities are a big part of what makes Facebook popular but it has been overlooked in favour of a focus on the Twitter style status updates system. As a result I've already moved to Orkut for social networking and Twitter for microblogging. They obviously don't do much user testing over there at Facebook HQ .....

Unless they find a way to quickly change direction from these latest changes I doubt it will be too long before the ship hits the Zuckerberg so to speak.

New Google Street View Interface Sucks

Yet again, Google have to ruin a completely good idea with a revamp which introduces usability headaches.

Google Street View used to be a really useful way of finding locations. It had the little option in the More Tab and you could click anywhere on the map - simple. Then you could use the arrows on street view to navigate the street scenes. Perfect.

But about a month ago, obsessed with going virtually full screen, Google went and made this handy app almost impossible to use. In the guise of "interface improvement" they've hidden it deep within the Google Maps navigation so that you have to search for an address first then find the link and click on it.
Then the street view appears in a little screen in the bottom corner while the map is still there.

But that's not the really tricky part. The interface for moving around the streets is now extremely awkward. There is an icon that you have to drag and you can no longer simply click on any point of the map. If you happen to miss your target, you almost have to simulate walking there by dragging the person icon over the map which is both tedious and annoying.

They've also introduced a split screen concept which reminds me of Nintendo 64 and makes me want to throw up. Bot the map and the street view become very clumsy to use in this mode.

All I have to say is why Google ... why ruin a perfectly good app with poorly executed ideas. I can only hope they learn from this and either return it to normal or try a different interface.

"Switch to a different publisher ID" doesn't work - More Google uselessness

It would be great if I could scrape up all the pennies from blogs I've published under a different name. But when I try to use the Google standard "Switch to a different publisher ID", it doesn't work and just does nothing.

Judging by their support response, apparently Google aren't really keen to fix it either ....

Wordpress Categories - where did they go ?

I have a Wordpress blog and I'm using version 2.6.2.

Recently, without having changed anything at all, all of my categories on posts mysteriously disappeared as well as my category list on the page.

I have combed the Internet for an explanation, but as yet - nothing.

Very frustrating. I'll let you know when I find a fix