Windows 7 RC1 (Build Ver 7100) leaked on the Interwebz
This bit of news comes close on the heels of signs from Redmond on progressive builds of the latest and perhaps the greatest of Microsoft’s releases in a while (at least since XP) – Windows 7.
News around the blogs and tech sites are exclaiming that leaked copies of the first Release Candidate (RC1) are freely available on Torrent trackers and News sites all around. I quickly checked and indeed it is true. This from BinSearch.
Release Candidates are usually public betas (therefore legal), so I would encourage people (the more adventurous of the readers) to go ahead and procure a copy and try out this magnificent OS asap.
Of course, Leopard trumps anything Windows (disclaimer disclaimer).
Remove Attachments in Apple Mail ⌘
Right under my nose all the time, and never did I actually care to look for it, but rather bemoaned the lack of a “remove attachments” feature in Apple Mail.
You see, I was looking in all the “wrong” places, namely in the contextual menu when one right clicks an email in Apple Mail. Other clients like Thunderbird and Entourage offer the option to remove attachments from an email in the contextual menu. Apple decided against it, as perhaps people don’t use it (the world according to Apple).
Message -> Remove Attachments
This morning I tried and lo and behold I found the option to remove attachments from the emails I get. Now I can archive the message without necessarily storing for all eternity the added fluff some people usually attach with their mails. My Mailbox size has gone from 420 MB to just 11MB.
The discovery of this feature has made this already amazing Apple Mail app, even more invaluable in my book.
How to edit the Normal template in Mac Word 2008
As I began to rely solely on Word 2008 for my needs, I found myself messing around with the app to customize it to my needs. One of the first and most basic issues I faced from the get-go was using my own “Normal.dotm” template, as well as my letterhead. I could of course double click on the template files on my HD and work on the same in Word, but that was an extra step I didn’t wish to undertake, not to mention if I happened to press CMD-S I could overwrite the template with whatever I happened to be working on then.
Turns out the solution, in true Mac fashion was simple. The default template “Normal.dotm” resides in
~/Library/ Applications/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/Normal.dotm
Open it in Word (make sure to open it via Word, and not by double clicking the file). Modify the template, and save. Voila, the template is modified. This location is also the central repository for all templates.
However, if you are anal like me, and don’t like personal documents, templates and such lying around in the ~ folders, make a Symlink!
Time Warner Caps Dropped! Victory!
We won! Perhaps… but it is a start. Time Warner has dropped its plans to enforce Bandwidth caps across Texas and NY! Though with caveats, this is a great day! And that too, after I had ranted on in the previous post. Seems Senator Schumer’s displeasure was the push needed to bring down this ill-conceived plan on the part of Time Warner.
Time for celebrations in Blogosphere! One down, Comcast next.
Time Warner bandwidth caps in Texas and NY
In this age of ubiquitous Internet access, not to mention the plethora of content that has been migrated from more traditional delivery media, to online repositories (read Hulu, CBS, etc), it is preposterous to even conceive, much less bring into regulation, that which is anathema for all dedicated, educated web users, namely Bandwidth Caps.
I have watched in alarm as Time Warner, Frontier, Comcast – the “premier” ISPs in this region have started this new exercise of enforcing (at various stages of implementation) bandwidth caps – limitations on how much a user may download – across markets in Texas and Rochester, NY. This does not affect me directly at present, as where I live, these caps are yet to be implemented and it stands to reason that since this area is a “highly-competitive” region, caps will probably not be implemented anytime soon. However, this is a travesty no matter where it happens.
The companies maintain that without caps, they simply can’t survive and limitations free Internet access is not viable. Hogwash, the amount they plan to charge PER GB is nearly 98 cents/ dollar more than what the cost is to them. It is a case of utter greed, and turning unimaginable profits by bilking consumers which due to the already monopolistic reach of ISPs are starved for choice.
I point to examples from the rest of the world. Sweden, Japan, Netherlands – ultra fast access with none of the limitations hogwash. So this utter nonsense of non-viability, is this restricted to the ISPs in the English speaking world?
Some argue bandwidth caps as those implemented by Comcast are fair and just – and to those arguments I thumb my nose. Any kind of restriction, any kind of caps are anathema to this medium, as we approach the age of DOCSIS 3.0, and Fiber Optic to home. An analogy I read on one of the blogs around the webz, likened the situation to regulating the number of hours one may watch TV.
Suppose for the basic channels one subscribes to, one is told that for $50 a month one may watch 20 hours of cable, and for each additional hour the cable company will charge an extra dollar. I am sure some of the meek ones in the crowd will comply and some might even cut down the amount of time they watch TV to 20 hours a month. Whichever the case may be, the viewer has lost the freedom to choose. No matter if the company allows 20 hours or 50 hours, any kind of cap runs against the grain.
There is hope and there are voices rising in crescendo against these ISP enforced regulations – voices from across the blogosphere, twitterscape and forums that are reaching our representatives. Representatives such as Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY), Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Mayoral candidate Lee Leffingwell, and others are proactive in their condemnation of Time Warner and their proposed bandwidth caps.
An excellent website to keep abreast of developments and network with like-minded users is StopTheCap. Join up and share your ideas, and if you are affected/incensed by this, join in the effort. We need to speak up now as a community.
