Microsoft SP1 for Office 2008 or Macintosh

Microsoft has announced that they will be releasing SP1 for Office 2008 for Mac. Info on that here.

They have also announced that Visual Basic support will be reinstated for the next version of Macintosh Office. How do you like that, Microsoft listening to its customers? I guess enough people with some pull convinced the project managers to reconsider. Nice.

What a genius!

Brian Caulfield of Forbes.com is kind enough to let us know that you suckers who bought the first generation of iPhones are going to be upset when the next generation of iPhones hits the streets! Oh noes! I thought my iPhone would be the only version that Apple would ever release and never be obsolete! I need to become a writer for Forbes, apparently brains are not a requirement.

12 Byzantine Rulers Podcast

Well, a sad day has arrived for me. Yesterday (1-29-0 Lars Brownworth had released the last episode of his fabulous podcast 12 Byzantine Rulers. This podcast covers the history of the Eastern Roman Empire via the lives of 12 notable rulers. This (IMHO) is the best history podcast, and also one of the most highly rated podcasts ever. Mr. Brownworth is a high school teacher at a private school in New York and brings the story of the Empire to life with this series. I have followed it from day one, and have eagerly awaited each new episode over the 2 years it was released. Luckily for us, he is planning a new Podcast and has scored a book deal to write a new book on Byzantine History. Good luck to Mr. Brownworth in his new endeavors!

Rain

Wow, we sure are getting a lot of rain this week. Last year in Los Angeles, we had under three inches of rain the whole year. I believe we have over twice that in a one week period.

Tags: Rain, Weather

Post Thanksgiving Day Sales

Well, I usually avoid shopping for anything on the day after Thanksgiving. Too many people and of course the bad behavior that goes along with it. This year, against my better judgment I headed out to Fry’s with Very (37prime guy). I did pick up a new Samsung 20″ LCD monitor for my Windows/Linux machine. Pretty good price too, only $250. I also picked up a new Video Card, a EVGA Geforce 8600GT with 512MB ram for $99. It did not have the dual DVI that I would have preferred, but for the price I can’t complain.

Synchronize Gcal with Sunbird

I found a spiffy little Sunbird/Lightning extension that allows you to suscribe and make changes to your Google calendar. It works well, and the price is right. (free) I wish this guy could make a plugin for iCal on the Mac. Spanning Sync does this, but they want a ridiculous amount of money for it.

 

Office 2008 Macintosh Beta

Well, I have come across a copy of the Office 2008 beta for Macintosh and have some initial conclusions. Overall, it feels pretty zippy on my Intel iMac with a Core Duo processor. Much better than using the Rosetta based Office 2004. I have opened a few Office XML files from Windows machines and they open just fine, although, I have not opened very complicated documents. The updated interface is nice, and looks more in tune with the Apple programs like Pages. Seems stable, I have not had it crash on me yet, so kudos to the MBU at Microsoft at that. Some items I did notice were missing from the Mac version compared to Office 2007 for Windows. The equation editor has not been updated to the same version of the Office 2007 version. The equation editor in Office 2007 is really good, actually approaching the quality of Latex based output. Secondly, there is no support for blogging, (or I am not smart enough to find it) which is another cool feature of the Windows version. I have not tried any of the Exchange functionality, as I use imap for my email. If someone gave me an Exchange account, I could give it a try.

Amazon music store…

I just tried out the Amazon Digital music store after hearing about it on CNET. I must say it has some good prices and features DRM free MP3 files at 256KB bit rate, which is excellent. The price seems to be 89 cents per song which beats the iTunes music store. I doubt Apple could care, since the MP3 files will play on a iPod or any other music player for that matter. I’d imagine it is because of some idiot music exec thinking they can get back at Apple over the pricing issues. Well, I doubt it will make any difference in the number of iPods sold, you idiots, and you are probably making less money per song than with the iTunes music store. But hey, what do I care, all I know is I got a 7 Seconds record for only $7.

Office 2007 test post

Above you can see the lovely aromatic compound nitrobenzene. According to the Wikipedia article: Nitrobenzene, also known as nitrobenzol or oil of mirbane, is a poisonous organic compound with an almond odor and chemical formula
C₆H₅NO₂. It may be found as either bright yellow crystals or an oily water-insoluble liquid.

It is used as a solvent and as a mild oxidizing agent. It is most frequently used specifically in the manufacture of aniline, but also used in the manufacture of insulating compounds and polishes

Office 2007 Packaging.

My god, what were they thinking? This is the first software box I can’t figure out how to open without some help from the Internet. And apparently this guy from Microsoft is proud of it. Take note, this is exactly how not how to design a box.

Tags: Microsoft, Packages, Microtards