TODAY'S E-MAIL (continued):
Docx format in Office 2007--Chris
I work at the IT department for Amherst College and have a couple
comments in regards to the docx format e-mail from Monday. Although not
compatible with anything currently out on the market, they are quite an
improvement on previous document formats for Office. They are actually
a zipped set of XML files of the seperate parts of your document. (You
can see this if you change the extension to .zip) This will eventually
allow for greater interoperability and flexibility with your data in
your files. It also is really nice for those of us in the support
industry. When or if part of the document becomes corrupted (an
occurrence that is less uncommon than we'd like) you can simply unzip
the file and recover the portions that are still readable. It also adds
for a nice bit of compression. Also, to compete for today's "well
actually" award, I'd like to point out that this is not the first time
Microsoft has changed its document format. I believe they changed it at
least once before, for either Office 97 or 2000, and in that case didn't
change the extension! At least this time we know! The network install
the Microsoft makes available for volume license users is also highly
customizable and IT departments can change the default setting back
to .doc. Anyways, love the show!
Dropping mutes on the Xbox Live punks--James H., Software Engineer
In today's 'cast, you mentioned a 'new' feature for HALO3 which
allowed users to mute players with the potty mouth. Well, that feature
is available in just about any Xbox live game today. You just need to
get to the gamer card of the user (usually via the player menu in a
game), and then select mute. I do this often to the children in love
with their own voice on COD3 or the racist hillbillies on
Gears of War. You can also report the user on this same dialogue
if you want, but I suspect Microsoft is searching for ways to hock
content that should be free on marketplace instead of dealing with
reports of jerk ^H^H^H^H^H^H paying customers.
CableCard delight--Ian (the sometimes programmer)
As the owner of an original TiVo Series 1 from the dawn of time, I
jumped at the chance in December to buy a Series 3 HD and transfer my
lifetime subscription to the new unit for $199. I thought, I live in
San Jose, in Silicon Valley. If CableCards are available anywhere, they
will be available here. I don't even need to check with Comcast. I
plunked down $1,400 for the 750GB TiVo with close to 100 hours of HD
(1,000 hours of regular TV at highest quality).
I was so excited I rushed to Costco and bought a 50-inch plasma-ýfor
$1,499.99. Very proud of myself.
Then I started to hear from everywhere how difficult it was to get
CableCards installed. From TiVo forums, from Buzz, from news stories.
Denials, runaround.
I scoured the Comcast Web site. I couldn't find anything. I searched.
No hits at all for "CableCard". OK, now I was becoming slightly
concerned about the $1,600 I had paid for the Series 3 HD and the
lifetime subscription.
I girded my loins and went into action. The order over the phone went
smoothly: "Yes, the guy will come out with 2 CableCards for your TiVo,
and it will cost you a total of $14 per month to move from analog cable
to digital, and you will get the HD channels."
I made sure that I would be home in person when the installer came, and
I was prepared to do battle.
The guy came in, I handed him the TiVo remote, and he knew exactly what
to do with it. He got on the phone with the dispatcher and did the
CableCard mating dance (pairing serial numbers), had me sign the work
order, and was gone in a few minutes.
It works. Perfectly.
Phew.
Google and Robot.txt--Maz
You were talking about the fact that you can put a robot.txt file in the
root directory, so Google won't index your site. You can also put a
robots meta tag on an individual HTML page. So if writers don't want
their articles indexed by Google, the news portal can just place the
meta tag. Just a thought.
I like the podcast.
Bye.
RIAA and the Federal RICO laws--Ken, from snowy upstate New York
I am not an attorney, but that's never stopped me before. Growing up in
New York City, I always heard about the 1800s Boss Tweed and Tammany
Hall, where corrupt politicians looked away while gangsters took
protection money "so nothing should happen to you or your store" from
small businesses and individuals.
What's the difference between a two-bit hood shaking down people for
protection money and the RIAA sending letters that say, "if you settle
now for a 'smaller' amount, we won't take you to court and 'so nothing
to happen to you'." What's the difference, the RIAA has lots more money
to spread around in Washington and the state capitals.
Don't we have racketeering laws or is the DOJ that comfortable with the
fine people who run the music industry. Hey, White House and the
California legislature, whatever the RIAA wants, they get! Right! :(
