How many people use categories service in Windows Live Spaces? Are you using or intending to use this service?

I have used it from now on. I knew it very early. But I never tried. Last month I read an entry which was about how to make blog more famous. It said that bloggers should arrange their entries under categories. It's good to visitors of their pages. Visitors can read and understand the entries more easily and handily. And visitors will more possibly love the blog site, if they are interested in the entries. Out of question, if you want your blog more popular, you need to classify your posts.

It also looks like a catalog of your all entries. It will be helpful when I search some given entries, especially those which I posted long before.  Syllabuses and clues always seem very useful. So if there are no categories within your entries, I think you could have a try.

I will show you the details of how to begin the category journey.

• You can add a category when you publish an entry. Click on Add a category.

• Then input the name of a category you like. Click on Add.

• There are some default categories provided by Microsoft. You can use them if you feel that they are also satisfying. Now you can choose a category while publishing entries.

• If you want the categories to display in the form of a list, you need the space module called Categories. After show the Categories on the page, visitors will be able to see your entry categories and also they can subscribe to categories they like. When the category is updated, they will get the feed.

• If you don't need a category any more, you can delete it in Blog Settings. And don't worry about it. If you delete a category the entries in that category are not deleted. However, visitors can no longer sort these these entries by that category.

Well, are you clear about the Categories? I hope you can enjoy it.

Many of users in Mainland China are Google Fans. We love products and service which Google supplies us with. Such as Google search, Gmail, Google Talk, Google Earth, etc.

After Google acquired Blogger, the largest blog platform all over the world, we can own a blogspot account. That's so great! I'm sure that many bloggers like its service. We write posts there and exchange everything with people from many countries. We have been fond of Blogger, I think.

But then, something happened unexpectedly. The website of Blogger, www.blogspot.com was blocked in China. Till now, users in Mainland can't still visit their blogspot site. What a pity!  It means that quite a few visitors can't read what we post on blogspot. Incredible!

I also use blogspot service. When blogspot blocked, I felt helpless. How can visitors and me visit blogspot directly again? I had no idea.

Last night, I unconsciously found some easy ways to visit blogspot. Some must have known the solution, but still more users don't know it. I think it's necessary to share the details with you.

I will show you how to do it below.

• Visit blogspot with the help of website mirrors                                                                                       We are lucky for we can visit www.inblogs.net and www.pkblogs.com. We can visit our blogspot sites via either of these two websites. It's so easy to do that. If your blogspot URL is blogname.blogspot.com, you just need to type http://www.inblogs.net/blogname or http://www.pkblogs.com/blogname in your IE address bar. By clicking on the link, you will see the blogspot site immediately. Convenient! Huh?
• Use RSS readers                                                                                                                    You can subscribe to any blogspot you like in your RSS readers. For example, add subscription of blogspot to Google Reader. Paste the blogspot URL and click on Add.                                                                                    Or you can subscribe to the blogspot site by using the link which displays within inblogs.net or pkblogs.com.  But I think this kind of ways is not very valuable. Since you have entered the blogspot directly in IE browser on a website mirror.

There are some other ways to visit blogspot. But they are inconvenient. So I won't show them to you here. And if you have any better way or question, please contact me. We all don't want blogspot to disappear from our sight.                                                                    

Hey, do you know MySpace? Are you using MySpace? I guess many of you must know and be using it.

What is MySpace? MySpace is an online community that lets you meet your friends' friends.

Create a community on MySpace and you can share photos, journals and interests with your growing network of mutual friends!See who knows who, or how you are connected. Find out if you really are six people away from Kevin Bacon.

MySpace is for everyone:

• Friends who want to talk Online
• Single people who want to meet other Singles
• Matchmakers who want to connect their friends with other friends
• Families who want to keep in touch--map your Family Tree
• Business people and co-workers interested in networking
• Classmates and study partners
• Anyone looking for long lost friends!

MySpace is now popular and still growing up. It's the largest social network in U.S., according to a report released by a research institution this November.

I heard of MySpace as early as two years ago. Nevertheless, I didn't use it at that time. On the contrary, I am using Window Live Spaces all the time. Because I thought of Live Suite including Hotmail, Messenger, Spaces better than MySpace. What I needed most is blog service, so I chose Window Live Spaces which was called msn space.

This afternoon, after reading the report, I thought that maybe I should try MySpace. I wouldn't miss any good website or service. I love well-known brands. So I signed up for membership. It's very good. Its features and contents fascinated me so much. I have been falling love with it. I also downloaded the MySpaceIM, with which we can enjoy some service and not having to do things in IE browser. And this client enables users to call Skype users without installing additional Skype software.

China has a large market for its population and consumption which no multinational enterprise could ingnore. Hence, MySpace provides a Chinese version, www.myspace.cn. Quite a number of Chinese people are using its service. Whereas, I do prefer English version.  

But I am a newer here. I'm not very familiar with its running. If you have been a MySpace user, you can find me on MySpace and be friend. We may exchange the feeling when we use it. I'm also looking forward to posting my feedback here not before long.

Hey buddy! Why not try Yahoo! Messenger 9.0?

Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta was released on November 30th. But I didn't download it at that moment.

I have used Yahoo! Messenger for several years. Like what I did in the past, I preferred English version. But I couldn't do it. Because English version of Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 don't support E-mail address like sample@yahoo.cn. As you know, @yahoo.cn is used widely in China. So I gave it up.While an Chinese version, Yahoo! Messenger 8.3 can be signed in with an id like sample@yahoo.cn. So I chose this version.

I ever took it for granted that all English versions of Yahoo! Messenger couldn't support @yahoo.cn. Then when 9.0 Beta came out, I didn't try it out at once. Last Saturday, I reinstalled the operating system. And I had an idea of downloading the latest version, 9.0 Beta. I did it. I just wanted to see what new features included in this new version. So I didn't sign in with a sample@yahoo.cn id when the new version was installed. I signed in with another id @yahoo.com.

An hour ago, an odd idea impacted me suddenly. Why not try singing in with my @yahoo.cn id and see what happened then? That's a good idea, I think.

I certainly tried it. It displayed Signing in as sample@yahoo.cn. But to my surprise, this @yahoo.cn id was successfully on-line. Oh, my God! Version 9.0 has been available for signing in with @yahoo.cn. That's great!

Let's have a look at what new features included.

• A whole new look for your contact list
• Brand new skins and emotions
• New Flickr integration in the photo sharing feature
• A new in-line media player
• New features for voice calls

You can download it here. Yahoo! Messenger 9 Beta

Be known that, it's not important that the address you are using is either @yahoo.com or @yahoo.cn. No matter which domain you use,  you can enjoy it perfectly. If you are fond of Yahoo! Messenger, why not try this latest version right now?

This morning I received an alert from www.liveside.net . Then                                                             I clicked on the link in this alert. Oh, that's great! Live Search Maps announced via their blog that a new Chinese version is now available. Users can visit http://ditu.live.com to use this service.

In this version, business search, collections, and public transit features were emphasized, covering over 100 cities with 7 million business listings.

In Chinese market, Products and Services of Microsoft are always released later than they do in other market. We must try other versions before Chinese version is available.

How about this new version? Useful or just so-so? Before knowing this, you can visit the website and begin your search tour. Maybe there are something you need.

And you can also compare this website with Google Maps. Then you will distinguish that which one is better.

RSS is very popular in Web 2.0 era. We can subscribe RSS feed to get update via this new technology. And many websites provide their visitors with RSS feed now.

Several days ago, I spent hours acquainting myself with RSS technology. I heard of it two years ago. But till now I know well about it. It indeed advantages readers of a website.

Then I put some feed buttons on my home page. Such as Add to Google, Add to Yahoo and Subscribe by Anothr. E-mail subscription is also available. I want to make all of you know what I have updated more conveniently, i.e. I hope there will be more readers visiting my blog.

How many people visited my blog? Or how many people concerned about my blog?

I'm not sure about the number of readers who often visit my blog. But I really want to know that.

So, if you subscribed my blog, either RSS or E-mail subscription, please let me know.

Several days ago, I introduced Windows Messenger 9.0 Beta to you. I also put a download link of mutli-login patch there. Honestly, WLM is so nice.

But then I found some bugs come out.

With this multi-login patch, I could sign in more than one MSN id at the same time. It indeed advantaged my use. However, a problem existed. That is, I could only sign in MSN through a LAN proxy. If I connected to Internet directly, some errors would occur.  And these errors would disappear through a SOCKS proxy.

Why? This problem puzzled me so much.

I tried many ways to find out what the problem was. Then I found that it was arise from the mutli-login patch. After I replaced the file which was modified by this patch with a backup file, the problem showed in the picture above disappeared. I could connect to .NET Messenger Service directly again.

One of my friends used this multi-login patch, too. And there was nothing wrong with the program running in his computer. So it was my computer that aroused this connection problem?

Did anybody encounter this problem like me?

Without the multi-login patch, I couldn't sign in more than one MSN at the one time. Then I tried some other patches. I tried A-Patch141rc1b1_WLM.exe. Many users said it's good. Unexpectedly, an error occurred after installing this .exe patch.

Right now I found an easy way to solve my problem. It's UltraEdit! Open msnmsgr.exe with UltraEdit, Ctrl+G and type 0xb38d6. Then modify B7 to B6. Click on Save to make the modification take effect. Now double-click on the shortcut to Windows Live Messenger, you will find that you can sign in more than one MSN id at one time! Cool!

If you want multi-login, it's the easiest way, I think.

To realize multi-login, download UltraEdit here.

http://1.gobee.cn/FTP/2007-12/01/36%20UltraEdit-32%20V13.20.rar?0000000367530942130tflag=1196612913opin=206a57a6cff75993ebf35c94a249e3cd&ip =202.112.90.6.rar

Update on 2007/12/24

Acctually, the latest version of MSNShell which includes the function of multi-login was released five days ago. This version is available for 9.0. Many users in China like MSNShell very much. You can also try it.

Good news! Microsoft has invited users to participate in Windows Live Messenger 9.0 Beta test. Go to http://connect.microsoft.com for the details. Check your e-mail inbox. If you received the invitation letter, paste the invitation code in Microsoft Connect and take part in the beta test. Then download the setup file.

Maybe you don't receive the invitation. Don't worry. You can still try this latest version. You can paste the URL below in your download tool to download the setup file of Windows Live Messenger Live 9.0 Beta. Don't open it directly in IE browser.

 https://fp1-sin.ds.microsoft.com/TransferFile/FileTransfer.dll?Cmd=1&MN=577788333&Dir=1&Mode=0&Off=0&TS=6121A5E2-442C-4C41-AC09-C2EB83352FC4&CVN=5,0,0,30

If you own more than one Live ID, install the patch to try multi-login. This patch is mainly for Chinese users, so the interface language while installing is Chinese.

multi-login patch

There are some new features in this version. You must love it!

Good news here! On November 7th, Microfost opened Windows Live ID sign-up to global users. In China, anyone can sign up sample@live.com or sample@live.cn now. Before this date, users in China zh-cn market could only sign up Live ID sample@hotmail.com.

I have dreamed of @live.com for a long time. I tried many times in many ways, even used a US IP proxy. But I failed. That's because I live in China and @live.com was not available in China before November 7th. I nearly asked a friend living in America to sign up a @live.com ID for me. Now I can get @live.com successfully. That's great!

However, for @live.cn users, Skydrive is still not available in Chinese market.