Tuesday, July 17, 2012

And now, the latest version of Microsoft Office can be previewed…


Microsoft has made available preview editions of the upcoming version of Office...

In a "Customer Preview Fact Sheet":
...customer preview of the new Office — formerly code-named “Office 15”...
…is available as the traditional suite of client applications and as an always up-to-date subscription service called Office 365 Home Premium...
Office Professional Plus 2013 Preview
This traditional client software suite...will be available as a traditional single installation on one machine.
Office 365 Home Premium
This cloud-based subscription service...
Notice the word "client" was used when describing Office Professional Plus 2013 Preview...and "cloud-base subscription service" is used in the description of Office 365 Home Premium.

When I installed Office 365 Home Premium, I did not notice an obvious difference that made me aware that it was not a "client" version (and that it is a "cloud-based subscription service").

I mention this because if you, like me, desire to have the software installed as a client...and presumably all of its features available when offline, and not connected to the internet...this may be as important to you as I believe it will be to me.

Preliminary system requirements for the Preview include the following:
Computer and processor: 1 Ghz or greater x86/x64 Processor with SSE2 instruction set
Memory: 1 GB RAM (32 Bit) / 2 GB RAM (64 Bit)
Hard disk: 3.5 GB free disk space
Operating System: Windows 7 or newer, either 32-bit or 64-bit; Windows 2008R2 or newer with .Net 3.5 or greater. It isn’t possible to install on a PC running Windows XP or Vista. To use with Windows 8 you must be running the Release Preview version or higher...
Graphics: Graphics hardware acceleration requires DirectX10 graphics card and 1024 x 576 resolution

What’s described as "Office 365 ProPlus Preview" (which I assume could be another way of describing "Office Professional Plus 2013 Preview") will allow computers to ""...run this version of Office alongside earlier versions..."

Friday, July 6, 2012

No internet for some July 9


July 9, if you have trouble with the internet...don't be surprised...

Lots of computers, "servers", that help to make the internet work were infected.

"The clean DNS servers will be turned off on July 9, 2012, and computers still impacted by DNSChanger may lose Internet connectivity at that time."

From as many computers as you can:

Go to the "DNS Changer Check-Up" website at http://dns-ok.us/ .  If the computer is infected with DNS changer malware, you might see a red background...

Next, consider going to http://www.dcwg.org/detect/ and read the section "Manually Checking if your DNS server have been Changed".

Facebook and Google are trying to help with this problem.  You can read more about it at these webpages:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-security/notifying-dnschanger-victims/10150833689760766

http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2012/05/notifying-users-affected-by-dnschanger.html

To try to help you not become infected in the future, take a look at http://www.stopbadware.org/home/badware_prevent

It's best to use the latest and greatest operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux, etcetera), and keep all of your software (and hardware) updated.  But you also need to be careful when using technology, and the internet and other services you connect to.