Now IE9 has adopted these pinning features for Hotmail, making it seem more like a desktop email client, rather than a webmail client. Within the taskbar you can go to the Hotmail Home, Inbox, Calendar, Contacts or even go directly to sending an email. Just simply right click on the pinned site to get direct access to the pinning features. When Hotmail is pinned it will also inform you when you have new messages, so you don’t have to constantly check your browser for new Hotmail messages.

To pin a website simply drag it from the IE9 window to your taskbar. Many other sites can use the pinning features when used with Internet Explorer 9 and Windows 7 like eBay, Groupon, CNN, Facebook and many others.What are you doing to take advantage of site pinning in Internet Explorer 9?

Blogger is set out to change the way blogging is done by completely redesigning their platform. The new platform supports the latest web technologies, including HTLM5, CSS3 and AJAX and includes a couple of new features. New features include infinite scrolling, new layouts, speed and interactivity.

There are five new layouts which are probably the most noticeable change in the new Blogger update. While they are available for public view, they aren’t available for full use right now. One just has to had /view to the end of their Blogger URL to see the new templates in action. If positive feedback is received about the update, then Blogger will most likely release this as a permanent feature.

The five templates are Flipcard, Mosaic, Sidebar, Snapshot and Timeslide and all feature a different layout. Here’s a short little video showcasing the new templates on YouTube.

Note: I sent an invoice to a valid email address without a Paypal account. You can send invoices to non-Paypal and existing Paypal users.

1. Sign on to your existing Paypal account before proceeding with this guide.

2. Once you’re signed on click the Request Money tab on the menu bar.

3. Click the Create an Invoice button under Manage invoices.

A. Your contact information should be automatically populated from your Paypal account. If there’s something you wish to change, click the Edit contact information link to make the changes or if you wish to add a logo, click the Add logo link to upload your custom logo.

B. Enter the Recipient’s email address and if you wish to include more details about shipping (when shipping a product) and billing, click the Add billing and shipping information link.

C. Set the Invoice Number, the Invoice Date, Payment terms, and payment Due date.

D. This section of the form allows you to add items to the invoice. You can specify the currency to use for the invoice as well as the items included.

Use the Add/Delete row links to add and remove items from the invoice. You can also save frequently used items for later use by clicking the Save item link next to the item you wish to save.

You have the option of setting a Discount, Shipping/handling charge and a Tax on shipping. You can add Terms and conditions as well as a Note to recipient.

The last portion of the invoice allows you to add a Memo that is visible only to you.

4. When you are ready to send the invoice, click the Preview button to view the invoice and click Send if you are satisfied with the results.

On this same page you have the option of saving the invoice as a template or saving the invoice for later use.

Once the invoice is sent it will appear on your Invoices list when sign in to Paypal. You can quickly check the status of the invoice on this page as well as send reminders and cancel the invoice.

You’ve just sent your first invoice using Paypal. If you have any comments or questions please use the comments form below.

However, if your goal is growing your business, adding a large amount of dynamic content and so on, there may come a time when a VPS plan won’t be enough you’ll need to move up to a dedicated server.

You’ll know when you need to move on up when you notice your website’s response rate dropping due to inefficient power or bandwidth that your present plan provides.  But, it’s in your best interest to make the upgrade even before you start running into issues and troubles.

When your website begins to top the charts, it may go offline if your hosting plan can’t handle the traffic, which is never ideal for any website, especially if it’s your means of income.

Another reason for an upgrade would be in the case of working on a web application that will be moving out of the beta phase.  While you’re working on fixing bugs on your application, a VPS will work just fine.

But with the additional use of beta testers and developers in the system, it may be an overkill on your VPS, and even more so when you release your software to the public.  This is where you can depend on a dedicated server to handle the inevitable heavy traffic.  You don’t want to risk your new project crumbling right from the start.  But, regardless of website content, dedicated servers are always the safest and most efficient compared to any shared hosting plan.

Here are some of the popular advantages of dedicated sever hosting.

• Performance & Speed. Network and response times in shared hosting plans depend on the activity of others who you share resources with.  With a dedicated server, you will significantly increase response and load times because all systems are utilized and controlled by the application on your own server.  This includes your RAM, CPU, network bandwidth and disk space.
• Security. Dedicated servers are more secured because there is only one administrative access to all of your resources.  You’re able to configure and personalize all security policies, such as user level permissions and firewall protection.
• Reliability. A dedicated server lets you have unlimited access to server resources, software applications and operating systems.
• Multiple Domains. Dedicated servers offer management friendly and cost effective solutions for multiple domain hosting.  It’s a lot easier to to manage accounts as needed from a single interface.

When your expecting to have a very high traffic or a very resource intensive website, or are planning to resell hosting and hosting multiple domains, a dedicated server will no doubt be the best solution.  You don’t want to risk website failure due to lack of resources or minimal security, especially when you’ve already put so much investment into the actual website(s) itself.

Photo credit Flickr.

Software/Hardware used: Internet Explorer 9 running on Windows 7.

1. Click the Tools icon and then F12 developer tools.

A. The lower portion of the Internet Explorer window will split and the Developer Tools will appear. Here you will be able to inspect page elements, view code, change standards, and more.

To learn more about Internet Explorer 9 standards, check out the documentation from Microsoft.

The latest update sports over 17,000 pieces of user feedback and it bears the Release Candidate (RC) name which means that Internet Explorer is close to an official release as a stable product for deployment across the enterprise and to consumer’s computers. Speaking of deployment, Microsoft also made available the Internet Explorer Administration Kit 9 (IEAK 9) and the IE9 Blocker Toolkit for IT Professionals.

Check out two sites that are using Internet Explorer’s new site pinning feature for a completely immersive experience between Internet Explorer and Windows 7.

Twitter and Internet Explorer, a better social experience

Notice how the Back/Forward buttons change colors and the Twitter icon appears on the top-right corner. Internet Explorer is branded to Twitter’s look and feel. The next thing you will notice is that when you right-click the Twitter/IE icon on the Taskbar you will see the Jump List with a Tasks section that is specific to Twitter. Click on any of the Tasks to see the section listed.

Amazon and Internet Explorer, online shopping to the next level

As with any site that is pinned to the Taskbar, Internet Explorer will adjust it’s look to suit the site’s colors and icons (see Amazon below).

If you want to experience what Microsoft has done to integrate the browser with Windows 7, you’ve got to give Internet Explorer 9 a spin. Trust me, you will not be disappointed.

Download Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate from Microsoft.

Via the Windows Team Blog.

The application is free and requires Adobe Air to run. If you are looking for an app to generate your own icons, check out Icon Generator Pro.

Via Adobe Air Marketplace.

This announcement comes at a time when some of the parts of the standard are still in flux, however as more of the standard becomes available and more sites adopt the it, spreading awareness about the standard will help increase its adoption online. So if you’re using HTML 5 or develop HTML head on over to the official HTML 5 website to learn more and download the logo for display on your sites.

I currently use HTML 5 code for embedded YouTube videos, this allows users with iOS devices that do not support Flash video playback to playback the videos I post on this site. How are you using HTML 5?

Via Windows Team Blog.

I will provide you with a brief walkthrough explaining how the application works. If you have any comments or questions, please use the comments form at the end of the guide.

Icons saved with the following dimensions: 256X256, 128X128, 48X48, 32X32, 16X16

Creating and Saving the Icons Locally

1. Click on the Icon Design type.

2. Enter the Logo Name.

3. Choose the color scheme.

4. Click on the Save Icons button to save a copy of the icons locally.

5. Name the file.

6. Click Save.

Open the zip file to view the icons.

Update Your Twitter Icon

Aside from saving the icons to your computer, you can also have the application automatically update your Twitter account’s icon. Follow the steps below to update your Twitter account icon.

1. After you created your icon using the instructions above, click on the Update Twitter icon button.

2. Enter you Twitter credentials.

3. Click? Twitter icon updated.

When you visit your Twitter account, your account icon should have updated.

Download Icon Generator Pro from the Adobe Marketplace.

The ability to view a website’s source code is built-in most modern web browsers. The source code allows you to view how the website was coded, in other words put together, it also gives you a glimpse of certain data that would not be available to you by just browsing the website. You can view things like a website’s Meta Tags, which contain important information like keywords, author email, and other useful information, and you can see what services the website publisher uses.

So why should you care about other website’s meta tags, services, etc? Well I’ll give you my example, as a publisher I’m constantly on the lookout for new things to provide my readers on my website, whether it’s enhancements, design, or other features. When I visit a website that has something which I would like to implement on my site, I normally take a look under the hood (the source code) to see what the publisher is doing or using that I could implement on my site. I see it as a way to discover "best practices" among web publishers and designers. The guide below will demonstrate where this option resides in 3 popular browsers; Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera. If you have any comments or questions, please post them below.

Note: I used Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3.04, and Opera 9.62 for this tutorial.

-Internet Explorer

1. Click on the Page > View Source (located to the right)

2. Notepad will open with unformatted code

-Mozilla Firefox

1. Click on View > Page Source or keyboard shortcut (Ctrl + U)

2. A separate Firefox window will open with the formatted/color coded source code

-Opera

1. Click on View > Source or keyboard shortcut (Ctrl + U)

2. A new tab will open with the formatted/color coded source code.

The Verdict

So which browser is best for displaying source code? Well Firefox and Opera are tied, they both display the source code formatted and color coded, whereas Internet Explorer opens notepad and dumps the code unformatted. In the end it all depends on your preference.