February 2, 2008 at 1:29 AM · Filed under Apple / Mac
We waited 4 years for this shit? Well, it wouldn’t be the first time. If you remember back in 1994 when Office 4.2.1 was released, it took Microsoft another 3 1/2 years to roll out a decent version of Office ‘98 for the Macintosh users. Here we are in the first month of the year and after running Office 2008 Beta for God knows how long, I made the switch.
Don’t worry. Microsoft put all the goodies in there just for you. Everything you love on Windows, including a copy of what I consider to be the most useless application on any Microsoft Windows installation, Messenger. Office 2008 for Mac was originally slated for release in the second half of 2007, however it was delayed until the first part of 2008 citing the need to “fix lingering bugs” if that gives you any sort of hint.
Not many people know this, but Microsoft Office first appeared on Mac OS before it graced the noisy hard drive of its Windows supporter. The first version of Office was released in 1989 with Microsoft rolling out a version of their own for Windows a year later.
The installation process of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac is very quick and painless. I want to say it moves along a lot faster on my Mac OS X Leopard (Intel 2.9GHz) than it does on similar hardware running Windows Vista. It takes a long time for each application to run for the first time. It may just be me but the Office applications seem to load considerably faster after you’ve run them once or twice. I was able to load Microsoft Word and PowerPoint simultaneously in under 10 seconds.
If you’re stuck on an older PowerPC Mac, you’ll want to stay away from Office 2008. Even though it’s a universal binary, Office 2004 runs a lot smoother on older Macs just like Office 2004 runs horribly slow with Rosetta on newer Intel-based Macs. Since Leopard has bumped up the requirements and left a lot of older Macs in the dust, I think 2008 will be further known as the year of the upgrade.
There are still a lot of little issues Microsoft needs to address (like letting us use our own native address book and calender) but for the most part, the average Office user who needs to write or edit a few quick pages for their Windows PC buddies will find themselves right at home overlooking random screwball errors and hiccups that has become Office 2008 Final. However if you’re a “power user” who’s always kung-fu’ing Office documents and have become a slave to the copier, I suggest moving back to iWork ‘08 until Microsoft releases some more “lingering” fixes.
February 1, 2008 at 12:32 AM · Filed under Personal Rants
I know, I know. 246 more days till the United States presidential elections and there are fewer faces running than when I first stepped out of my own little world and tried to imagine this beautiful country without another Republican in office. I’m not really trying to pick sides on this statement but come on, America. 8 years is long enough. It’s time for a change and whether some black man acting white or some woman who cries too much is our ticket to ending all this craziness, then let’s do it!
Yeah, I’m probably what you’d call a Democrat.
However, I’d love to see an independent party take the White House so all you Republicans and all you Democrats out there can work together for a change instead of working against each other. Pro war, anti terrorism, high gas prices, big oil. Those are the keywords of the United States these days and I think it’s time to change them.
Destroying an entire country to locate one man? That’s not what’s best for this country. “Big Oil” in the White House and gas prices reaching record highs? That’s not what’s best for this country. Efficiency in lawmaking? Nope, you guessed it. I’m not listing reasons why we should vote Democratic for the 2008 Presidential Elections. I’m just giving you reasons why you shouldn’t vote for another 4 to 8 years of what we’ve already been forced to live with.
On the flip side, it’s not looking good for the Democrats. As I write this, we are left with two minority runners and two firsts in the history of this country. In one corner we have Mr. Barack Obama, a 46-year-old black man and in the other Mrs. Hillary Clinton, a 60-year-old white woman. Considering this country was founded by white slave-owning men, who knows what we’re in store for but it sure is fun to watch on TV!
January 28, 2008 at 10:24 PM · Filed under The Internet
I’ve seen a lot of odd error messages from popular websites when something times out, goes offline, crashes, etc. but this is the first time I’ve seen an e-mail error message from one of the biggest sites of them all: eBay.com. It would appear SquareTrade wants to offer one of those amazing 5-year warranties and to show me how solid their service is, they’ve provided for me this lovely script error inside my e-mail.
What’s even more interesting is their choice of server names. If you notice at the bottom you’ll see the standard Apache error message followed by… what the…. ZEBULON? Do they mean the trendy Zebulon Cafe in San Francisco or should I prepare to be assimilated?
January 25, 2008 at 3:24 PM · Filed under Mobile Gadgets
YouTube Mobile has finally done the cell phone justice by launching an update to their website which will allow all 3G phones with video streaming support to access YouTube for Mobile, a service once reserved only for the likes of Verizon and Helio. Prepare to get fired from your job because YouTube is now more addictive than ever.
Among the changes, users can now log in to their YouTube account and access their favorite stuff, upload videos from their phones, and view an enormous number of videos that have never appeared on m.youtube.com for everyone else’s eyes.
There is also a new Java version of YouTube for Mobile that can be downloaded for free on a limited number of J2ME MIDP2 cell phones with streaming capabilities. Now in beta and only available to mobile warriors in the U.S. and U.K., the application is initially supported on only select Sony Ericsson and Nokia devices.
With the new ability to upload directly from your cell phone, I’m predicting a lot more crazy and hilarious videos to be seen in the coming months. Excellent.
January 24, 2008 at 12:59 PM · Filed under Mobile Gadgets
A few years ago when AT&T Wireless was bought by Cingular, Alltel Wireless had plans to cover the entire state of Florida by buying up AT&T’s old space, however the FCC let Cingular keep the cellular bands which put Alltel in a pickle. Fast-forward a few years to 2008 and Alltel is spotty at best in a lot of Sunshine State areas, relying on extensive roaming agreements with Sprint and Verizon to cover their asses.
While this is great for the normal cell phone user, high-speed EvDO coverage doesn’t come with Sprint or Verizon roaming in all areas because it’s based on availability. Of course, Sprint and Verizon customers would have priority over the EvDO network. 1X data is steady but slow, peaking an average of 40-50kbps in most areas of Orlando verses the 500-800kbps at my old house in rural Georgia.
The inconvenience is so great that I am seriously considering switching mobile providers in a few months when my Alltel contract is up. I won’t be able to obtain a local phone number for my smartphone because Alltel doesn’t exist in the 407. I will probably end up going back with Sprint who has done a lot of upgrades and changes since 2005 when I last used them.
I spoke with Alltel for a couple hours going over something strange I found. The latest PRL for Alltel’s network right now is 30029, however after taking a closer look at the file, it appears that this is for “regular” phones and not data cards or smartphones which require EvDO roaming. A quick chat with Level 2 data support (after being on hold for ages) forced an update on my Treo 700p to 40029 which includes Sprint EvDO roaming for most areas.
…And you learn something new every day. While trying to help out Mike, the guy who bought my PocketPC on eBay, I learned that the Treo 700p has had an open issue with three-way calling on Alltel. It appears until Palm releases an update, I cannot make a conference call.
How long has this been an open issue? Oh, since April of 2007.
