Real World Computing

This morning I got a call from a colleague who was having problems opening one of our Microsoft Powerpoint files. After quite a while of saving back and forth (My newly created and not-yet-updated PC had no problems with the files), we discovered that it affects everyone in the office - in fact, everyone in the world. As it turns out, Microsoft issued a "Killer Update" on 12 April which causes Microsoft Powerpoint to fail when opening presentations or presentation templates which have a graphical background (like our company logo for instance). Microsoft's "Workarounds" They've acknowledged the problem here. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2464588 Their fix generally suggests that you upgrade; Workaround 1: Open the Affected file in Powerpoint 2007 or 2010..... Workaround 2: Open the affected file in PowerPoint 2010.... Workaround 3: Open the affected file in PowerPoint 2007... Workaround 4: After the error message is displayed, save a copy of the presenta...

We're currently testing Windows 7 - Not because we actually see a business need. It's not about support, applications or even new features. It's simply that it's too hard to buy PCs with Windows XP loaded on them these days. Over the last few months, I've learned one very valuable lesson: There is NO benefit in Windows 7 unless you go 64 bit! Of course, that doesn't mean that there are many 64 bit applications out there to run on it. Why is 64 bit so important for Windows 7? Well, like all new Microsoft Software, it uses a bit more disk space and a bit more memory that its predecessors. Unfortunately, there's a 2GB memory limit in 32 bit windows - and it still applies to Windows 7. That means that now Windows itself takes up more space but your maximum memory remains the same. Even if you have a PC with 4, 6 or 8GB RAM, 32-bit Windows will only use 2 GB. Windows 7 64-Bit is a different story but weirdly, the limits aren't imposed by the bit-space bu...

A couple of weeks ago my Blackberry Bold suffered misfortune during a canoeing event with the Scouts. I had to temporarily revert back to a barely functional pearl. Now however, I've got a replacement Bold and I'm reloading all my "stuff" onto it. I could have simply restored my settings from a backup of my old Blackberry but I figured that I'd rather exclude applications which I haven't used. So I did a manual reinstallation. I thought this might give me a chance to talk about some good blackberry apps. So... what have I got on my blackberry now? The Default Applications It goes without saying that I have mail, calendar, SMS, Messenger (which I never use), MemoPad (which I use heaps) and all of the rest of the default Blackberry apps. Google Applications Google Mobile App ( http://m.google.com/search ) - FREE This is usually the first thing that I put back on the blackberry. It gives you a google search portal but more importantly, it's a great starti...