John Lamansky

Good news for National Treasure fans: a sequel is being planned for release in late 2007. I suppose this is old news, since it appears to have been announced a year ago, but somehow I must’ve missed it. Anyway, according to Wikipedia:

National Treasure 2 is a 2007 sequel to the 2004 film National Treasure. The only cast member known to be returning as of yet is Nicolas Cage. The Internet Movie Database reports that it will be directed by Jon Turteltaub and written primarily by Gregory Poirier. As of January 27, 2006, several producers are also listed.

It was stated in the first film’s commentary that there were no plans for a sequel, but, due to the first film’s impressive box-office performance, a sequel was given the go-ahead in 2005.

The IMDb reports that filming for the movie is scheduled to begin in fall 2006.

The studio has hired Gregory Poirier to write the movie, which will be directed by returning helmer Jon Turteltaub. Details of the story are being kept under wraps.

For more info, see the Wikipedia page and the Internet Movie Database page.

I’ve been using Microsoft Word for about 6 or 7 years, and this has always stumped me: how do I insert a simple checkmark into Microsoft Word?

Up until now I had been using the square root symbol (√), which sort of looked like a checkmark. But recently I decided that I wanted something better, so I did some searching and found these instructions on a Microsoft Office Assistance page:

1. On the Insert menu, click Symbol.

   Note: In Outlook, use the Insert menu in the message window.

2. In the Symbol dialog box, on the Symbols tab, in the Font box, click Wingdings.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the list, where you will find several common check mark symbols. Double-click the symbol that you want.

Nice!

Windows icons aren’t used in just Windows. They’re everywhere: in software and on websites.

I haven’t been able to find any information on the Microsoft website that prohibits the use of these icons, so I guess that means it’s okay, right?

For Windows XP, maybe. But according to a screenshot of the “About Windows” dialog in Windows Vista Business posted on the SuperSite for Windows:

The Windows Vista™ Business operating system and its user interface are protected by trademark and other pending or existing intellectual property rights in the United States and other countries.

Of course, the OS name at the beginning of the sentance will vary if you’re using a different edition of Windows Vista.

But compare this to the legal info found in the “About Windows” dialog in Windows XP:

Copyright © 1981-2001 Microsoft Corporation

Yep, just a copyright notice.

Obviously, the legal information in the About Windows dialog has changed significantly from Windows XP to Windows Vista.

Does this mean that programmers and web developers will be unable to use elements of the Vista interface, including icons? If so, does this interface protection cover just Vista itself? Or does it also encompass programs included with Vista, such as Windows Media Player 11 and Windows Internet Explorer 7? If IE7 is protected with a “trademarked interface,” does that mean that usage of the IE7 feed icon is illegal? What other implications might this possibly have?

I have previously considered the use of Windows XP icons on websites to be okay. Many popular sites use them, and Microsoft hasn’t complained about it as far as I know. In addition, the usage of Windows icons presents a consistent user experience for new PC and Internet users.

But it looks like this might be changing. For me as a programmer and web developer, I would find it very helpful if Microsoft would make it clear what exactly they want to prohibit and what they want to allow.

What do you think?

Just yesterday I arrived back from a two-week family vacation in Colorado. (You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t been posting for the last two weeks; that was why.)

The main reason we went to Colorado was because the Future Problem Solving Program International Conference was earlier this month at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. I competed along with three other homeschoolers in the team competition, which consists of packet and skit competitions. Out of about 60 teams or so, my team placed 15th in the packet competition and 6th in the skit competition.

After the FPSP IC, my family and I spent another week in Colorado doing vacation-ish stuff.

But now that I’m home, I finally have the first tastes of summer. Before the vacation, I was either doing school or working on getting ready for the vacation. But now, the at-home part of my summer vacation has started!

I’m planning to resume my usual try-to-post-something-every-day schedule re blog. I’ll also be working on the Disciples with Microphones website and a new feedreading/podcatching application. More on that later.