Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview Logo

In my previous post Setup: Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Technical Preview, as pointed out by Ganesh I didn’t mention the system requirements for Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Technical Preview.

So here it is:

The requirements is same as Office 2007, which is very good and the other thing to note is that the 64-bit Office 2010 is not supported on Windows XP 64-bit and Microsoft has no plans to support it in future either

Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview Logo

As mentioned in the previous post, I am testing the 64-bit version of Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview, so here’s how the install process went.

The installer for Office 2010 Professional x64 is 598 MB and contains Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access. There is a separate installer for Visio (342 MB), InfoPath (281 MB), SharePoint Designer (75 MB) and SharePoint Workspace (246 MB).

Right now I have only installed the Office 2010 Professional Technical Preview x64 pack.

It’s not possible to upgrade a 32-bit Office installation to a 64-bit, since the complete architecture is different. Here are the upgrade scenarios:

The Office client upgrade scenarios are as follows:

• A 32-bit 2007 Office system installation can be upgraded to 32-bit Office 2010.
• A 2007 Office system running on a 64-bit Windows operating system cannot be upgraded to 64-bit Office 2010.

Even if one tries to do so this is what you will get:

Office 2010 TP Setup Error x86 to x64 upgrade not allowed

The whole installation process was pretty straight forward, just like in Office 2007. The only grouse being the need of a system restart at the end of the whole process.

Here’s a screen by screen tour of the process:

• Launch the installer



• Enter the Product Key



• Accept the EULA



• Customize




• Installing



• Installation complete



• Reboot

The activation process seems to be a bit buggy as usual for the test phase, and that’s the reason I haven’t been able to activate Office 2010 as of yet.

Gmail Task

Tasks is a Gmail feature designed to help you keep track of the things you need to do. You can create lists of items, set due dates and notes, and even add Gmail messages directly to Tasks

Tasks is available for Gmail, Google Calendar, iGoogle and mobile phones.

Task in action:

Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview Logo

Yesterday morning when I checked my mails I was pleasantly surprised to see an email from Microsoft, stating that my request to be an Office 2010 Beta tester had been accepted. Yes, surprised because the news of it being previewed to the audience was already out on Monday, and so I had thought that I had been left out, which now is not the case.

Initially all testers were barred from disclosing anything by a NDA or Non-Disclosure Agreement, despite the fact that it was already a public knowledge. But today morning as I logged into Microsoft Connect they had an announcement waiting, which said

The Office 2010 clients have been publicly disclosed and are not under a confidentiality obligation. You are free to talk about the Office 2010 client build as you wish.

Please remember that the builds you have received are for your use only. Please do not share these builds.

So now with permission being granted to openly talk and discuss about it, I’ll be sharing my experience about Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview with all of you, so keep coming back for regular updates.

P.S: I only plan to test the 64-bit version as of now.

UPDATE: Setup: Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Technical Preview

Bajaj XCD 135 DTS-Si

Yahoo!, we have a new bike, Bajaj XCD 135 DTS-Si, and right now I’m feeling on of the top of the world.

The bike with its stunning design, especially the classy rear twin LED tail lamp, a spec-sheet full of goodies:5 speed gear box, digital instrument cluster with analogue tachometer, front disc brake, alloy wheels, etc, makes you fall in love with it instantaneously. The version we bought is in Black-Blue colour (pictured above) with Electric Start and Disc Brakes. I really wanted the Red one, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be available for at least a couple of weeks

It has an excellent pick-up and power delivery and am hoping the fuel mileage come out at least above 65 kmpl. The gearing is a bit short especially for the first gear, where you have to up-shift instantly to second and then third, but this short gearing ratios means that the power delivery is seamless. I’m just lovin it.

A small tip for Bajaj, improve your sales personnel’s technical knowledge, and please produce more colours which the customer wants

So here’s small quick list of changes

• Live recording
• Instant pausing and frame-by-frame support
• Finer speed controls
• New HD codecs (AES3, Dolby Digital Plus, TrueHD, Blu-Ray Linear PCM, Real Video 3.0 and 4.0)
• New formats (Raw Dirac, M2TS) and major improvements in many formats
• New Dirac encoder and MP3 fixed-point encoder
• Video scaling in fullscreen
• RTSP Trickplay support
• Zipped file playback
• Customizable toolbars
• New skin for the skins2 interface

Along with some major bug fixes, for a complete list of changes check out the changelog.

If you are using VLC player then you know its the best and version 1.0.0 is a highly recomeneded update as it will most probably fix the grouse you have had with it, and if you have never used it, then well just download it yourself, to see why millions are such die hard fans of VLC Media Player.

Download: VLC Media Player

I have given my Final Year B.Sc. (I.T.) exam (results awaited) and my PG course in Advance Software Technology only starts on 10-August-2009, so now I should have plenty of time to blog.

You might call them silly reasons, but for the better part of the last One & half year I didn’t have a proper internet connection, all I used was my phones GPRS via proxies and it was really slow (48 kbps) and proxies meant that I had no access to messengers. Plus I didn’t get time as I used to be busy with my college work.

A lot has changed over the last year and half and hopefully that’s what I would be blogging about over the next couple of days, haven’t thought of anything in particular but there are tons of things on which I could write.

Please do leave your valuable suggestions good or bad so that I can improve the blog.

Well the only new year resolution I have made is to not procrastinate. Yes its just one to keep this time around and is a very big one frankly. I have a list of few other things to do, but they are just goals to be met and will only be met if I don’t procrastinate.

Under my to-do list is posting regularly on the blog (and not just disappear for almost half a year, sorry), getting the About Me page which I have been planning for such a long time. But my foremost priority is to complete my college’s IT fest’s Yantrika ‘08 website.

I have a year back in review post coming up soon. Sorry can’t commit a date because I have a paper lined up on Monday, then a few more test and then the college fest, but I will surely try my level best to post it ASAP.

P.S.: If you decide to leave a comment and see some strange error messages, then don’t fret your precious comment wont go anywhere it gets saved properly. I am trying to fix it the error as soon as I can. Again I apologize for the inconvenience it may cause.

Well lets look at the standings at the end of Turkish GP.

In the drivers championship its still very much even-stevens with anyone in the top four in with a chance. I wont dare pick the order, but I feel it would be Lewis Hamilton who will take home the honors.

Whereas in the drivers Ferrari have come in striking distance (just 11 points) but I have a deep feeling whatever the points situation now be, Ferrari will take home the constructors trophy. And that wont be because of what they do on the track, but off it, and to be precise in the court room over Stepneygate Spy Scandal. Ferrari will make sure that McLaren at least loose all the constructors points.

As for the rest I don’t see much changing. Maybe Nico Rosberg moves up the ladder a bit in the drivers championship and make the world take notice of him (which I believe he already has).

Please do share your thoughts on how you see the season unfolding.

As you might be aware that I was doing B.Sc. (I.T.) part-time from Mumbai University, but this month for the second year I got admission in a college near my home and yes its full time.

Since Mumbai University is famous for it screw-up’s, our semester-2 exams were held when full time colleges had their semester-3 starting, and as a result I am over a month late and have tons of stuff to catch up and a lot of assignments to complete. Plus the first internals begin from August 6, so I might not be able to post anything new again at least for next fortnight.

So just stay tuned to the blog just in case I find something very interesting and put it up on the blog.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX-GwXKD0aM)

Personally I still haven’t been able to stop laughing, what about you?

(Please click on the image for better clarity.)

Well I don’t have a problem per say with Sunita Williams. She has reached some amazing milestones including the honours for longest stay in Space. My problem is with the fact that media claims her to be an Indian, and then running SMS campaigns for her safe landing. What about the other six on board, aren’t they also entitled to our good wishes. The bigger problem is when they claim her to be India’s daughter, when her nationality is American and also her birth place being Euclid, Ohio, USA. So can somebody explain how a person born and brought up in America with an American Passport be an Indian Property. Another thing being her father stating that “Sunita is India’s Daughter.” I just have one thing to say, how can a person who ditched his Indian passport in favour of an American Passport, dedicate his American daughter to India.

When will our media stop claiming people who are not Indians to be Indians and concentrate on much more important stuff. People like Bobby Jindal, Sunita Williams, Kalpana Chawla all have some ancestral roots to India and nothing else. What have they given to the Indian society other than confirming the facts that you won’t make it big in India, go abroad.

People like Lakshmi N. Mittal are much better who at least haven’t given up their Indian Nationality (its a different fact that he enjoys huge tax benefits under UK’s domicile tax policy).

I hope our media stops giving such people useless attention, and give me news that actually makes a difference to my life.

Anyways the exams were great and as far as I am concerned they were pretty easy. After the exam got over, we went to Juhu Beach and had a blast, then got completely drenched in the first monsoon showers, which I was very much looking forward to since that day began. I never really had so much fun after the end of my exams.

I then spent the whole of Friday sleeping and on Saturday, I went to meet my good buddy Amit, from my engineering days.

As for today, I am just eagerly waiting for the US F1 GP to start and see how the Lewis Hamilton & Fernando Alonso drama unfolds.

Basics:
Firstly get a good client such as µtorrent or Azureus(Java), BitComet(C++) .Other Clients are not recommended!

The torrent file is not the file you aim to download, but a small file containing information where the bits of files are are located and information of trackers. Bittorrent isn’t linear though, it randomly sends and receives pieces from random users connected via the same torrent file.

Terminology:

• Leecher: That’s the guys that don’t have the complete file.
• Seeder: Those that now have the entire file, 100%, and therefore only function to upload to those that haven’t got the whole thing yet.
• Peers: All users connected to the same torrent. The more peers, the greater the speeds, providing there are enough seeders.
• Tracker: The centre when you start up the torrent. In short – it connects you to other users and is also the thing that sends you messages to your client.

Complete list of terminologies.

How to download:
Head over to your favourite Bit torrent website which mind you don’t host files but simply host the .torrent file.When you find a torrent file online, you download it to your computer. Its recommended to keep the actual .torrent-file on your hard disk, in case you need to restart it. Now open the .torrent file in your bit torrent client, and tell it the place you want to store it. It starts download the minute the tracker has picked up on you being amongst the peers. Most tracker needs AT LEAST a few minutes to pick up, so leave it alone for a while.

The stuff I have is very little and it would help you greatly if you read the complete guide: http://www.fudge.co.in/2007/06/01/torrenting-for-dummies/

Now that conversation was at about 6 PM, and by 8 PM it hadn’t rained a drop and I was wondering if that same thing was repeating here. But the at about 8:30 I heard the kiddies scream out side “Baarish ayaa baarish ayaa“. The showers weren’t that hard but it was a pleasant feeling, that it had rained. But by 9:20 PM it started raining heavily, making me run all across the house to see if there is leakage from any place that we fixed during the summer, and barring 1 place (which still needs some work) all was fine.

At about 9:45 PM, it was still raining heavily, and boom there went the power supply. I don’t no, why but I had a gut feeling that this was coming. The difference this time was that instead of only a single phase being cut all 3 phases went down. The whole of New Mumbai was dark. It was the The First Blackout of the First Showers, and the met department says that these are just pre monsoon showers, the monsoon fury is still to come. Any ways, the power supply was restored in our phase by 10:30 PM where it took another 30 to 45 minutes for power supply to be restored in the other lines of my neighbours. It did rain slowly all night.

The news papers are reporting that yesterdays showers affected the Train Services in some ways. So the Babu’s are running helter skelter, since all their claims have been shattered by Mother nature with its very first shower.

Plus again today morning, in a detour from the normal, we had almost 3 hrs. of load shedding. I say that because we had hardly had any power cuts over the last 15 days because it had rained in the interior parts of Maharashtra, and plus even last year once it started raining our load shedding came to almost zero because of the reduced demand from the agri sector. Lets just hope that there are no more power failures, so that we can enjoy the rains.

So I look forward to giving my exams in this crazy Mumbai monsoon, which starts from Monday 4th June.

If they are to be believed the British rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton is already being linked with a shock switch to Ferrari, replacing Kimi Raikkonen. Its also being suggested that his route to Ferrari is already being ‘lawyered‘. Hamilton has a long term long term contract with McLaren, which reportedly extends till 2011.

Hamilton has even been mentioned as the instigator of the FIA investigation into McLaren Team Order Row, charges of which they were cleared off, after suggesting to reporters last Sunday that he had been ordered to finish second to Fernando Alonso because he is ‘the number two driver‘ at McLaren. Its also being claimed that Hamilton was unashamedly ‘angry’ in Monaco when it became clear that he was being asked to sacrifice his lead of the drivers’ championship and settle for second

Hamilton’s annual salary could potentially rise from about $500,000 in 2007 to up to $40m ‘or more’ with Ferrari.

But I do doubt that it is anything more than just a ‘rumour’. The reasoning is that Ron Dennis has groomed Lewis Hamilton through racing’s junior classes at huge expense. Plus the long term contract mentioned above. You just don’t ditch your Godfather after one fight. Plus if it were about the money I am pretty sure McLaren would pay him what he asked for after he has shown that he is THE next big guy, and McLaren won’t risk losing him.

The other significant factor to be considered here is Who do Ferrari replace if Lewis moves to the Ferrari camp. Kimi has a 3 year contract and Filipe Massa’s contract end only in 2008. So whom do they show the door. Showing Kimi the door after a few dismal performances and mostly because of sheer bad luck and the so called Schumi Syndrome. Kimi appears ‘paralysed’ every time the retired multiple world champion and team ‘advisor’ Michael Schumacher strolls into the garage wearing a red uniform, maybe its just the anxiety/enthusiasm to live-up to the icon he’s replacing. Which I guess is no more than some pep talk and an awesome race away. So that leaves us with Filipe, and I doubt Ferrari will want to be without him after the performance he’s shown this season, along with all the grooming from Schumi last year and at Sauber before that. He belongs to the potential group of new F1 drivers and you jut don’t let them go.

So at the end of the day, I am pretty sure its just a rumour and nothing more.

Following are the excerpts from the official FIA statement, which clear the air around the controversy.

• A two-stop strategy is the optimum at Monaco unless the safety car is deployed, in which case one-stop can sometimes be better and the safety car has been deployed during four of the past five Monaco Grands Prix, but was not deployed this year.
• It is clear from FIA measurements taken after qualifying that McLaren fuelled Hamilton for five more laps than Alonso. This allowed Hamilton the option of a one-stop strategy should the safety car have come out during his first stint.
• With no safety car during Alonso’s first stint, there was a small but finite risk that it would come out during the five laps before Hamilton had to refuel. This would have put him behind the field and at a significant disadvantage to any car on a full (as opposed to optional) one-stop strategy. The latter cars would be expected to refuel around lap 40 – ie after the safety car had pitted if it came out during Hamilton’s extra laps.
• For similar reasons Hamilton was called in early for his second pit stop, thus assuring his second place, with or without a safety car.
• Had the car in front of Hamilton not been his team-mate, McLaren might (probably would) have decided to risk the safety car and let Hamilton run for as long as his fuel load allowed in the hope that he would come out of the pits in the lead after one of his pit stops. There is, however, no obligation on them to take this risk in order to overtake their own car. Indeed it would be foolish to do so.
• It is standard procedure for a team to tell its drivers to slow down when they have a substantial lead. This is in order to minimise the risk of technical or other problems. It is also standard practice and entirely reasonable to ask the drivers not to put each other at risk.
• McLaren were able to pursue an optimum team strategy because they had a substantial advantage over all other cars. They did nothing which could be described as interfering with the race result.

The point to point explanation of McLaren strategy, leaves no doubt in my mind that had the safety car been deployed, Hamilton who would have been in a position to make the most of it. Plus the strategy in accordance with McLaren pace at Monaco was an almost foolproof one for a 1-2 finish, sans any technical or driver error.

So, I must say, it was perfect a race weekend with a perfect strategy for Team McLaren that ended the way it was supposed to, along with all the free controversy and publicity.

The one reason I liked McLaren, has also been lost now. McLaren were the only team that had refrained from any sort of team orders and let free racing between their drivers, and that was seen at its peak with the rookie Lewis Hamilton leading the world championship over the reigning world champion Fernando Alonso. But that’s all gone down the drain after what happened on Sunday’s race in Monaco, plus team orders were banned after the infamous incident where Rubens Barrichello let Michael Schumacher pass on the last turn of the ultimate lap at Austrian Grand Prix in 2002.

McLaren boss Ron Dennis admitted the unusual strategic requirements at Monaco meant the team had to more or less decide in advance which driver would win, and Alonso and Hamilton were told to hold station in the latter stages of the Grand Prix.

The FIA have initiated an enquiry, but have refrained from stating what the likely punishment might be in case of McLaren being found guilty.

Its pretty clear that they are favouring Alonso, over Hamilton, who could be one the biggest F1 stars ever, from the following quotes.

But Dennis admitted he “virtually had to decide in advance” which one of the drivers would win in Monaco.

Hamilton said: “It is something I have to live with. I’ve number two on my car and I am the number two driver.”

Well, I would like McLaren to be docked of their 18 Constructor’s Points, and the drivers be spared the points axe. But if the points axe were to fall on the drivers then it should only be on Alonso, because he was the main beneficiary who robber Lewis of his maiden victory. As it is I don’t like Alonso and Team McLaren just gave me another one to not like him

To end this post, it was Lewis Hamilton who I thought might just make me shift camps from Ferrari to which I have stayed with for almost 10 years now, but that’s not going to happen. And now this year I will be cheering for Lewis Hamilton to win the World Championship but also cursing Fernando Alonso to bite the dust. And along with Alonso’s defeat I would like McLaren to lose the constructors trophy with Ferrari walking away with the Constructors Cup.

Please Click on the image to see the image more clearly. (Opens in a new window)