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  1. Manual = help on Office 2010 Technical Preview Leaked · · Score: 1

    What he means is "if I have to use Help to use the ribbon", and at that point *HE* is no longer beyond help, "Help" is. Now it is "online", your simple quest for that elusive facility turns into ANOTHER complete time waster: trying to figure out which of the gazillion answers the one is you're looking for. Try finding "document variables" (I keep using this as an example because it's about the most stupid thing I've come across).

    You will eventually find that it's no longer a 2 step jump - not until you've waded through about 4 levels of menu to switch doc properties on. And in that you will find (click + pulldown) eventually that old menu. Which doesn't work as good as it should either.

    I like the format preview in Powerpoint, but that's about it. To me, 2007 sucks seven ways to Sunday and beyond. And don't get me started about foreign and multiple language support.

    Having said that, OOo isn't devoid of stupid things either, but at least they stay consistent per release. Try doing conditional format in Calc - somehow you need to magically plan ahead and define the format you're going to apply, because you can't do it in the conditional format box. Makes for consistency, but also a huge amount of irritation the first few times you come across this. For the rest it's quite OK to work with, and word prediction in Writer is a lifesaver if you have complex words or foreign names.

  2. It's a subjective matter on Office 2010 Technical Preview Leaked · · Score: 1

    First off, I haven't played with it for days, I've been swearing at it for the last 6 months.

    If you're a beginner user of don't write long docs or have spreadsheets that have not too much special in them, or have Powerpoint with not too much thinking, fine.

    However, when you have been using the Office suite for some serious doc work where you use a lot of functionality, doc variables and on top of that you're using keyboard shortcuts because a mouse slows you down - well, forget the ribbon. Add to that the help "enhancements" which means it now suffers the Google effect if you're trying to find something (search for one thing and find 1000 irrelevant entries to wade through) and you can see why I lack your enthusiasm.

    Where it gets interesting is that I'm not the only one, and if MS didn't make it impossible to buy the "old" version we would have switched back - the whole office apart from some people that mainly live in Powerpoint.

    I would LOVE to go back the old way. The net loss of productivity this new version has caused with this rubbish has quadrupled the total cost of the product. So we're heading towards OpenOffice..

  3. Re:Can only improve on great from here on Office 2010 Technical Preview Leaked · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Maybe you should smoke less.

    1 - why do you need a Excel to be a portable database? If you must process that amount of data for anything analytical you are in serious danger of (a) losing data and (b) lose audit capability. If your model is worth anything to the business you should consider using proper tools for the job. If you crunch financials I think you may actually be in breach of a few laws.

    2 - if you need a database, use a database. That's why it's called a database - it specialises in these things. Trust me. I don't know about the new Access, but the "old" Access is a but Mickey Mouse in that aspect as it can't talk to proper databases without some help. But you you could always install OpenOffice Base instead, would also mean you could use a Real OS to do the work.

    3 - I'm glad the ribbon works for you. That does, however, indicate that you're not really a power user because anyone who wants to use more advanced functionality now has to hunt for it all (which is another reason why OpenOffice has become so popular, I think). So if MS has "nailed" it for one, that hammer has hit quite a few times past the nail for others.

    I've used both. OOo is driving me up the wall as well at times, but for more acceptable reasons (I admit that is slightly subjective - it works better for ME), the "WTF did that feature go" search takes too much of my time. Try working with doc variables, for instance. I wish you luck.

    No sale for me.

  4. Thanks, exactly my thoughts on Office 2010 Technical Preview Leaked · · Score: 1

    Desperately trying to make it seem like anyone still cares..

    I bet it's not even going to get pirated. Pirates only make duplicates where it makes money, and I'm not sure anyone will care. Which is a good thing IMHO.

  5. What a load of BS on Gartner Tells Businesses to Forget About Vista · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Sorry, but this *really* irritates me. These people appear to have reverse Alheimers: good short term memory and zero long term. But I haven't (more the reverse, so I may post this twice :-)).

    This is BS as it depends on two unmentioned assumptions:

    1 - businesses actually need anything more/newer than XP. Well, MS has been postponing the end of support a few times now because people would either not move to Vista or move to Linux which would REALLY be unacceptable because they wouldn't come back after sinking that one-off cost. Granted, Vista has apparently introduced some features that may help in the future, but MS has now learned that there is only so much beta, sorry, alpha testing the buying public will accept. And business has learned it doesn't actually NEED the repeated pain of migration, even if MS says so. You could say the racket is up, in almost the same way as the use of expenses by UK MPs.

    2 - somehow, Windows 7 will be better than Vista and not the disaster that Vista was. Well, we're back to business as usual then: the PROMISE of improvement. The eternal promise that has allowed MS to make a profit ever since they discovered with MS-DOS that people would pay for upgrades as long as it fixed something or looked different. The issue is that, here too, Vista has given that promise viability a serious dent. Well, without some volume deployment you will not find out where they screwed up this time, put another way, leave that all important hook to sell you the NEXT version. So that report is concluding something without any factual basis.

    Well, I think XP will be installed here a little while longer. And when supports ends it's a question if it will be Windows again. It could be Linux (some retraining required) or OSX (hardware costs, and not enough depth behind the interface - we`d like the control ourselves, Jobs, thanks). And OpenOffice, as I rather lose productivity once at the start of the day to start it up than the whole day because I have to figure out where they put all the functionality in Office 2007. If the argument for not moving to Linux is "that it looks different" I would be intrigued to see how Office 2007 was defended.

    Oh, and Gartner? Well, that doesn't need much more discussion now, does it?

  6. Just give her a present.. on Rotten Office Fridge Cleanup Sends 7 To Hospital · · Score: 1

    Why don't you buy her a nice candle, one on oil so it can be on all day?

    That will put the wind up her next time she reduces internal pressure, and you will still be considered a Very Nice Guy :-).

    Ah, evil social engineering - the best kind. Whohahahahaaaa!

  7. The key issue is "warrantless" on NY Court Says Police Can't Track Suspect With GPS · · Score: 1

    I'm all for going after criminals when there is a reasonable suspicion they're up to no good. The issue is that the police has been given special powers on the condition of exercising them with discretion, and the oversight is the warrant system.

    If you remove the warrant requirement you remove the controls. That is NOT a good idea IMHO.

  8. Get an MBA whwre possible on Go For a Masters, Or Not? · · Score: 1

    The brutal truth is that you have to pass that first fence: HR.

    From my experience, those people tick boxes. They will not look at intelligent things you've done (even when you're many years in the market) - they are just about qualified enough to see if certain keywords appear. Only when you cross that barrier can you expect someone to ask questions about ability and ambition.

    This means you have to stand out. An MBA will do that, plus it will build that vital understanding of how a business actually works, which means you'll be able to translate between the two worlds.

    Unless, of course, your aim is not to work in industry but in the academic world. In that case progress as suggested :-).

    Good luck either way!

  9. Re:If you're dealing with phone numbers on New Pattern Found In Prime Numbers · · Score: 1

    I don't buy that 100%, sorry. We tend to number from 1..9, so any situation involving numbers will always see a higher distribution at the beginning of the numbering scheme.

    Few start from 9 AFAIK.

  10. Key question: how good is the "expert"? on Court Sets Rules For RIAA Hard Drive Inspection · · Score: 1

    The issue is who is called in as expert. Remember, the RIAA "analysis" was considered acceptale until some capable people started to cast a critical eye over their statements..

  11. Re:Pull your head out of your A$$ on External Airbag Designed to Protect Pedestrians · · Score: 1

    You know, I don't see a problem. I have screen wipers. There are other valid reasons why you shouldn't mow down pedestrians, though, not only do they make dents at a decent speed, they also mess up your paintwork..

  12. Hey - cool feature on Soy-Based Toner Cartridges? · · Score: 3, Funny

    That is two solutions in one:

    1 - any report becomes invisible after a while. I bet Arthur Andersen would have paid a fortune for that feature alone. Besides, anything thicker than an 1 inch when printed is redundant the moment it's sent to the print queue (I just made that up, but feels about right in my experience :-).

    2 - the paper can be recycled. Maybe not as printer paper, but scrap. And folded paper planes look much nicer without print on them, I just don't know what soy toner does to the aero dynamics. I suggest a week long study to find out.

    On the serious side, thanks. Fade is a feature worth avoiding..

  13. VERY old idea on Google Mows With Goats · · Score: 1

    Over 2 decades ago I worked for a very large chemical company, and they used sheep to graze between the storage tanks.

    There were two arguments for that:

    1 - it works pretty much automatic, although you have to shield any cabling (sheep are apparently not terribly selective), and uneven terrain is not a problem. And you have to manage how many you have..
    2 - tank leaks (and a chemical environment) can yield combustible circumstances, a sheep is less likely to produce sparks than any mechanical device. Gives you a bit more time to address a problem when it shows up on the detectors.

    I don't think they were farmer for the meat, heaven knows what they ingested in the process..

    I like the idea of grazing animals, I'm not into lawns anyway (until they find animals that can graze as evenly as a mower :-).

  14. YouLube coming soon.. on Would You Pay For YouTube Videos? · · Score: 1

    Charging for access with a global economic crisis will turn it from YouTube into YouLube, because X-rated content appears to be the only thing selling right now. Given the quality of their age control mechanism I suspect it will take just over 0.43 msec for the first lawsuit to appear.

    To put it mildly, I would question the value of that idea. I understand the drivers, but there must be other things that can be done.

    Just my two cents.

  15. Well, stop submitting for a week on Apple Rejects Nine Inch Nails iPhone App · · Score: 1

    Let's face it. You write apps for the iPhone ebcause you like the product and want to get in front of that iPhone audience. For that, you will have to follow the dress code of the theatre (obligatory roll neck sweater joke omitted).

    In turn, Apple now uses the presence of so many apps as an extra argument to buy a product that is at best described as an intelligent phone for beginners (I don't like Windows, but HTC has IMHO done more to clean up that interface than apple, and they have at least an OS that knows vaguely about multitasking. In other words, you are helping them sell, and are mistreated as thanks.

    If you really, really want to fix this you should organise yourself and NOT upload apps to Apple for a week. Just don't. It's only a week's wait, but the marketing impact on Apple would be large enough (immense, I would imagine) for them to start paying attention - I cannot imagine anyone in th press miss an opportunity to write about Apple. Anything less will just drown in the background noise or won't penetrate the famous Reality Distortion Shield.

    So do something or stop whining.

  16. Re:Life Lessig err Lessons on Warner Music Forces Lessig Presentation Offline · · Score: 1

    I don't think so. In order to go after someone you have to have a reasonable chance of winning - these guys go for the easy kill because that clocks a lot of money for practically no effort. Going after someone famous only has intimidation value if you win, and I don't think they stand much of a chance here.

    There isn't much fame in "I lost from Laurence Lessig in a sham litigation"..

  17. Mod Warner up +10 Funny.. on Warner Music Forces Lessig Presentation Offline · · Score: 1

    Ah, the perils of broad brush litigation..

    This is a risk implied in doing things in volume, it is statistically a given that you will eventually hit someone you should really, REALLY avoided in your legal abuse. Small aside question: has anyone heard of a judge being sued yet? No? Given the "quality" of their research I think there must be *some* sort of end filtering taking place. Anyway, back on topic.

    I think this mistake is akin to jumping in shark infested waters while bleeding from an over-vigorous morning shave: very likely to end in tears.

    Applause. For fun value this almost beats the recent $329'000 it-looks-like-9/11 New York flyover..

    Note no myself: record who the lawyers are here. They may be worth avoiding.

  18. Re:Rapidshare is Swiss, actually on Rapidshare Divulges Uploader Information · · Score: 1

    If they are in Switzerland they would have problems divulging personal information under "Datenschutz" (Data Protection) laws, so I'd be interested to know how this happened. You need pretty hard evidence to get a judge to order this information to be accessed, and even then it is only made available to investigators to see if indeed the law was broken.

    Without a reasonable suspicion (and I mean documented and argued, not a la RIAA) this is not going to fly so I don't believe this just yet..

  19. Re:Meth? on Cosmetic Neurology · · Score: 1

    The money goes to other people.

    Other than that, the situation is more or less identical. The first shot is free and research into alternatives is belittled or suppressed. ADHD, for instance, can often be addressed with neurofeedback but that research doesn't get much money because nobody can pull a lifetime profit out of a kid that way.

  20. Re:Seems like karma to me. on California Family Fights For Privacy, Relief From Cyber-Harassment · · Score: 1

    I think it's fairly clear that you are not a parent - you're not quite living in the real world.

    You are, in all seriousness, more or less implying you have never in your life done anything stupid because your parents have always stopped you.

    I don't think so, or you have an extreme case of selective memory..

  21. Re:These pictures should be in every Drives Ed Cla on California Family Fights For Privacy, Relief From Cyber-Harassment · · Score: 1

    I'm all for educating our kids to they don't kill themselves prematurely (and maybe show them what smoking does to a pair of good lungs as well), but such pictures should not be used without permission of the family.

    They have to deal with the grief from her death already, which takes can years on its own. Adding what those sick idiots did isn't helping - releasing those images should have been their decision.

  22. Re:A true picture of the ugliness of humanity on California Family Fights For Privacy, Relief From Cyber-Harassment · · Score: 1

    Sorry, that's ridiculous.

    There is no argument whatsoever to post pictures of their dead child on the Net without permission of the parents, regardless if she's a Hilton heir or someone cleaning racks at Walmart.

    It doesn't matter how much you have when a child dies, it hurts just the same and it will continue to do so for years. To have to face those images on top of everything else is foul beyond belief.

  23. Re:Happy with Ubuntu on Ubuntu 9.04 Is As Slick As Win7, Mac OS X · · Score: 1

    I second that. I have given up on OpenSuSE. I tend to run a mixture: a desktop for me to work, with some server components (a LAMP stack, basically) to experiment. OpenSuSE made that easy to manage, but there's so much missing these days from the repositories, and what is there is often broken.

    Just have to get used to Ubuntu - not that comfortable with the desktop-server separation yet but it appears easy enought o grab what I want, and it's Debian background means most code is only an apt-get away..

  24. Re:downward trend on Microsoft Suffers Leaks, Lagging Sales Numbers As They Look Forward To Windows 8 · · Score: 1

    Can you even imagine a world without Microsoft?

    I can - the sun just broke through the clouds here. Excellent.

    My life will not end without Windows or Office, sorry. My company will not be affected by a lack of software that appears to be designed to milk my money, and to slow me down whenever a sales droid decides I need to go and spend money so they change the way things look (and even now, many years after networking was introduced I have a system ................ that .............. sometimes sits there for tens of seconds andtheneverythinghappensatonce, everthestuffIrepeatedrepeated repeatedbecausetherewasnoresponse.. I have yet to find where the hell that hides - I would like to nuke the responsible program but the system is simply dead for those seconds.

    On UI, I thought Vista was bad, but they have really outdone themselves with Office 2007 - it proved the push to totally move to Linux and thus recycle my hardware for something usable. The only thing that gets in my way on Linux is WiFi handling, on some distro's is crap, frankly.

    MS in trouble? Thank God.

    Maybe we can get some innovation in the market again then.

  25. Re:Patents run out in 20 years on Biotech Company To Patent Pigs · · Score: 1

    make some money by inventing something that helps people

    I'm OK with people making money off a good invention that indeed brings the world forward.

    However, the only people Monsanto helps is their executives and shareholders, and if you do some research you'll find that the methods by which they do so appear to put Microsoft and the RIAA very much in the shade. The mess in the finance industry (and thus globally) because they were left uncontrolled: no money for people to go round. Now do this to teh food industry: what are you going to eat?

    Do your research, and you too will wonder how this could be left uncontrolled for so long.

    The good news is that genetically engineered food has been banned in various EU countries, so there's at least a backup. However, that means that you may become totally dependent on Europe to genetically restock when it all goes to hell like it will. If you think an oil dependency is bad - you can still walk and there are substitutes. But how do you replace food?