Tao’s Blog

Played with the Windows Live Spaces, since it is already pre-installed on my T-Mobile Dash phone, and their mobile site is rather easy to use. So, the reason is, maybe I can use the Live Space blog as a backup blog just in case my main blog, http://tongtao.com/blog goes under?

Spent some time fooling around with the site, it is not bad. I can easily write blogs on my cell phone and post them immediately. I am too lazy to set up my own WordPress blog with email publishing and mobile gateways, etc. Too much work.

However, one thing I discovered that Windows Live Blog doesn’t give you the option to search your own blog, which is rather disappointing. The whole point of having a blog is to have an online depository for my random and whimsical thoughts, and the only way to locate some entries is via the search tool. Unfortunately, Windows Live Spaces blog doesn’t have it. So, even I publish my mobile blog there, I am still going to re-publish the entries on my main blog, which is not elegant, but doable.

So I put the link of Windows Live Spaces link on my blog, on the upper right side.

There are two ways to write blogs on my mobile phone, which is a T-Mobile Dash. It’s a nice Windows Mobile 6 Smartphone, with a very elegant mini-qwerty keyboard, aka thumboard.

The first method is to log on the Windows Live Space mobile site directly, using the mobile internet service and the Mobile Internet Explorer. Live Space has a very good mobile site, very easy to use on the small screen. One can write blog entries directly with Mobile IE.

The second method can forgo the whole Internet and Mobile IE stuff. Suppose you cannot find a good internet connection? As long as you have MMS service, it can still be done. Here is how:

First, on desktop, log on to your Live Space account, on the right side, choose Options. Find the “Email Publishing” menu item. Inside, there are detailed instructions on how to set up an email address solely used for mobile blog purpose, and remember don’t share this address with others, for security considerations.

You will set up two addresses: one for blogs, the other for photos. After that, you can MMS your blog entries and phone pictures to Live Space by MMS on your mobile phone, or any emails you set up in the “Email Publishing” set up page.

Happy mobile blogging!

Will bring my Dash to China next week. Already got it unlocked.

Yesterday, I tried to set up Windows Live SMS alert. I gave my number to the website, it sent me a confirmation code, and I am supposed to enter that code on the website to finish the registration. The problem is, I never received the confirmation SMS.

I tried twenty or so times, never received a single SMS confirmation. Tried on my friend’s number, who used the same wireless carrier, and he received the SMS confirmation within seconds. However, I can receive all other SMS and emails sent to my phone number, but not the Windows Live SMS alert confirmation. Later, I tried Yahoo SMS alert, the same problem, cannot receive the confirmation SMS.

I even tried to put the SIM card to my old Moto SLVR L7. No luck. Both my T-Mobile Dash and SLVR cannot receive the SMS confirmations.

I gave up.