Ken McGuire

Category: Software

  • Convert DOCX To DOC On A Mac (OSX)

    One of the developments of Microsoft Office 2007 was the introduction of the Office Open XML file format for Word Documents (extension is .docx), presentations etc. One of my clients has apparently upgraded in recent days as the new attachments I receive are all .docx, unreadable on the Mac in Office 2004, OpenOffice, any way you look at it.

    None of the online converters I tried seemed to be working (one wanted a “lifetime” fee of US$5 to access to a conversion tool). Microsoft, on the other hand, released a beta converter for OSX that will convert your unreadable .docx documents to DOC / RTF format allowing them to be opened and edited. Via Microsoft…

    Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 0.2.1 (Beta)

    This version of the converter extends the expiration date for this beta release.

    This version of the converter can convert the following Open XML file formats:

    • Word Document (*.docx)
    • Word Macro-Enabled Document (*.docm)
    • PowerPoint Presentation (*.pptx)
    • PowerPoint Show (*.ppsx)
    • PowerPoint Template (*.potx)

    The converter is a Beta release, and might be unable to convert all the data in Open XML files. After you convert a file, you should review the file carefully to make sure that it contains all of the information that you expect. For a complete list of known issues, install and open the converter, and then on the Help menu, click Office Converter Help.

    This Beta release expires on December 31, 2008.

    –

    As converters go, it does exactly what it says on the tin. It installs with ease into your Applications folder then works on a drag-and-drop basis i.e. drag your unreadable document onto the app window and presto, one readable and workable document. You can find it by clicking here.

  • Keeping The XP Machine Rolling

    Windows VistaIt looks like HP and Dell are going to continue shipping XP machines well past the June 30 expiry date, both manufacturers making use of “downgrade rights” offered as part of the Windows Vista license agreement.

    While new XP orders will phase out from mid-June this year, new customers will be able to pick up Vista machines, pre-downgraded to XP on request, a practice I’ve seen many people make use of since Vista was unleashed on the public.

    Barring the look and feel of the Vista interface, I’ve still not spoken with someone thoroughly happy with XP’s successor as a choice of operating system.

    However, come June this will apply only to those ordering machines in the Windows Vista Business or Ultimate Edition specs as standard home models can’t be downgraded. The upside is, if you do decide to upgrade to Vista at any point after your purchase, the upgrade is already catered and paid for.

    I’ll be weening myself off XP before the end of the year as it is. I’ve no intention at all of upgrading to Vista and with the purchase of the N95 now out of the way, the next target on the list is a new iMac for the house. The Mac Pro is just a little too far out of budget for the moment…

  • WordPress 2.5 Is Live And Wild (Plus Popularity Contest Notes)

    WordPress 2.5 Is Live And Wild (Plus Popularity Contest Notes)

    Update April 5th: Download patched version of plugin here.. Note you’ll still need to make the database changes if you don’t have the tables already in place.

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    The long awaited WordPress 2.5 has been released. In fairness, some of the advances in WP2.5 are as great that it could well have been labelled WordPress 3.0 but who’s to argue with version numbers.

    Before rolling out upgrades across a number of my own blogs and blogs I manage for others, I’ve been doing the precautionary thing of testing WP2.5 locally with a variety of homemade themes and some of my regular plugins.

    Plugin Issues

    So far I’ve only found an issue with with Alex King‘s Popularity Contest plugin – if you try to activate the plugin under WP2.5, for the moment, you’ll see it triggers a fatal error. This can be fixed as outlined here

    Open popularity-contest.php and scroll down to line 59. Replace require(’../../wp-blog-header.php’); with require(’../wp-blog-header.php’);

    However, in running the plugin locally I found that after making the changes in order to get the plugin to activate, it wouldn’t create the two tables needed in order to run, so these had to be entered manually (via phpMyAdmin). To create the tables, you’ll need to run the following SQL queries.

    CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `PREFIX_ak_popularity` (
    `post_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
    `total` int(11) NOT NULL,
    `feed_views` int(11) NOT NULL,
    `home_views` int(11) NOT NULL,
    `archive_views` int(11) NOT NULL,
    `category_views` int(11) NOT NULL,
    `single_views` int(11) NOT NULL,
    `comments` int(11) NOT NULL,
    `pingbacks` int(11) NOT NULL,
    `trackbacks` int(11) NOT NULL,
    `last_modified` datetime,
    KEY `post_id` (`post_id`)
    ) ENGINE=MyISAM;

    CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `PREFIX_ak_popularity_options` (
    `option_name` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
    `option_value` varchar(50) NOT NULL
    ) ENGINE=MyISAM;

    Note that PREFIX refers to your WordPress table prefix, in most common cases it is simply wp_ unless you’ve got multiple copies of WordPress running in the same database.

    Initial Impression

    Love it. I downloaded the latest SVN version only yesterday in the office though never got around to playing with it (of course not knowing the full release would hit today). The admin interface is much smoother, I’m liking the customisable dashboard (I used to edit the admin index and strip out everything bar the ‘write a post’ link and stats) and the overall colour scheme is much more appealing. I was never a visual editor user before (and won’t change in a hurry), but I do like the changes they’ve made, including the full screen option for those intensive blogging moments.

    I’ll have a full play around with the gallery / media functions yet as well as making sure my other preferred plugins (sitemaps, podpress etc.) are all up to working order before doing a widescale upgrade.

    You can download the latest version of WordPress 2.5 right here. You can also see a full list of new features right here.

  • Antitrust To Cost Microsoft Another €899m

    MicrosoftFour years ago Microsoft were fined €497m (as in million) by the European Commission, the company at the time ordered to release key parts of it’s Windows code to other developers. In 2006, the company were fined a further €280m. Today it emerges they’ve been stung for a staggering (in lay mans terms) sum of €899m, the EC finding Microsoft guilty of not handing over code and breaking an EU anti-trust ruling.

    The sum equates to $1.4bn which works out at what, around 3.5% give-or-take of the total offered in Microsoft’s proposal to take over Yahoo? At the very least it would pay for a B2 bomber.

    Whatever way you look at it, it’s still a huge chunk of cash to pay out, though I’m certainly interested in where this €899m will wind up. How about €899m worth of free software for schools in Europe?

    In the press this morning, however, one might draw the idea that Microsoft would be challenging the imposed fine as they see it relating to issues resolved in the past.

    We are reviewing the Commission’s action. The Commission announced in October 2007 that Microsoft was in full compliance with the 2004 decision, so these fines are about the past issues that have been resolved,” the company said in a statement. As we demonstrated last week with our new interoperability principles and specific actions to increase the openness of our products, we are focusing on steps that will improve things for the future,” the company said. (via)

    You think the EU could step in and ask Apple to check their currency conversion rates at all?

    This morning’s press release attributes the €899m fine to Microsoft having “charged unreasonable prices for access to interface documentation for work group servers“.

    Check here for history on the antitrust case with Microsoft.

  • Failed To Locate Reason Engine, Exiting

    If you’re having problems accessing Reason 3.0.5 on an Intel Mac after installation and you’re getting the message “failed to locate reason engine, exiting”, every time you try to launch, the likely reason is that your ReWire folder has been set to read only.

    You’ll need to change the permissions on the folder to “Read & Write” in order to launch Reason in ReWire mode.

    To do this…

    1. Open a Finder window.
    2. Browse your hard drive, going to Library > Application Support > Propellerhead Software.
    3. Control-Click on the ReWire folder and select “Get Info”.
    4. Scroll to the end of the info window and extend the “Ownership & Permissions” (small triangle to the left).
    5. Change the permissions in “you can” to “Read & Write”.

    If you can’t change permissions, or the box is greyed out, you’ll need to change the owner (or I did anyway). The default is set to ‘system’, click the lock beside the Owner dropdown and select your username from the menu. You’ll see the permissions box is no longer greyed out. Click the lock to prevent further changes on ownership and set the permissions to “Read & Write”.

    Go back to wherever you dragged your original Reason Adapted 3 folder to (I stuck mine in Applications) and launch Reason, problem free.

  • Remote Desktop Mac To PC (Windows)

    I picked up the Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac last week and immediately thought ‘where have you been all my life’.

    Connecting to the PC (or any number of PC’s) is a breeze, entering the machine name or IP address on the network, you’re pretty much good to go. The majority of my remote desktop work comes with managing an Apache install on a windows box in the office. Since I upgraded the RAM in my Macbook Pro a few months back I’ve been doing the majority of my office work on the laptop. Yet every time I want to make changes on the server I’m logging into another PC, remoting into the server PC (no physical display unit) and then going back to the Mac.

    Not any more says he.

    It is a beta product, and it does expire at the end of next March but it does exactly what it says on the tin and means I’m doing less moving around the office to get simple server changes done.

    The DMG installer is about 4mb, give it a whirl if you’re a Mac user looking for a remote desktop connection to a Windows based PC.

  • Beta Release Of Vista Service Pack 1? Full Release November?

    It looks possible that next week will see the beta release of the long-awaited Windows Vista Service Pack 1. I know I certainly won’t be downloading it anyway as a) my beta copy of Vista kicked the bucket about two weeks ago (or possibly before that, its been a while since I booted into Vista) and b) my experience with Vista to date hasn’t done anything at all to put a smile on my face.

    Great detail on ZDNet from Sunday on the Vista SP1 beta launch. It will certainly be “more about fixes than new features”, thats true.

    Leopard will be my next upgrade, looking forward to that!

  • Mac OS X 10.4.10 Update – Wha?

    There’s something I wasn’t expecting to see – another update to OSX before the release of Leopard later this year. Not only that but the 50 meg update (10.4.10) brings up version ten of my preferred OS.

    Mac OS X TigerThere’s improvements made in the handling and mounting of external USB drives, new RAW support for Leica users and those shooting the budget Nikon D40x, the problem with random frames being dropped on a DV cam import is fixed and there’s a few ‘security’ upgrades in there as well. Doesn’t seem all that long ago since 10.4.9 and I would have thought that the next logical step was 10.5 but I guess Apple can do what they like with version numbers – who said they have to stop at 9!

    Update to Mac OS X 10.4.10 now.

  • Getting OSX In Your Pocket (Before the iPhone)

    If you’re an owner of a Sony Vaio UX then you’re in for a treat as the handheld-pocket-fitting device will now run a copy of OSX thanks to some tasty modifications (nothing dangerous).

    Not only is it possible, but there’s a full picture-heavy tutorial on how to get the job done as well. Nice one.

  • And So We Wait For Leopard

    Daw mentioned it yesterday in a blog post and I hadn’t heard anything else online until digging about this morning. Disappointingly, Leopard (Mac OS 10.5) has been postponed until October, to coincide with the release of the iPhone.

    According to Cellphones etc.

    The main reason for the delay is that Apple had to reassign key software personnel from the Leopard to work on the iPhone, an even much-more anticipated product from Apple.

    .

    Both myself and John have been looking forward to Leopard’s release which I had thought would be fairly soon, or should have been at least, and it will likely be Christmas at this stage before I make the upgrade on the Macbook Pro. At least it isn’t at Microsoft level with the ever increasing delays in OS releases. Should the iPhone and Leopard hit the market on the same day it’ll be a good coup for Apple. Looking forward to the new desktops and upgrades to mail.app.

    And so we play the waiting game….

  • 10 Reasons To Ditch Windows Vista

    Been looking for reasons to go to Windows Vista (not that I will, but I’m just looking….) and came across Chris Pirillo’s post from the wee hours this morning who it seems is breaking up with Windows Vista.

    Greatest thing about it, I think, is this little quote….

    When I know I have time, I’m “upgrading” from Windows Vista to Windows XP

    That about sums it up….

  • Second Coming – Vista Eats Ram

    Had my second run on that new Dell laptop this evening, setting up a wireless net connection for a friend. Have to say – the thing EATS RAM and the machine is quite sluggish in its performance. Of course I’m smiling as I’m sitting in front of a MacBook Pro, but thats another matter altogether. Its a wonder why Dell allow their Vista machines to be shipped with a half gig of RAM, or they should at least carry a warning at the ordering stage that 512mb RAM can seriously damage your health (out of frustration or lack of patience).

    I’ve an RC1 copy of Vista running on my own machine, 1GB DDR2 behind it (2×512) and there’s never a been a performance issue. Even with everything now stripped out on the laptop (AVG is the only addition to memory-resident processes) it still performs like its been drinking for the day. Tip of the week – fork out for that extra 512mb RAM, if not more.

  • iTunes And Vista Don’t Mix

    I’ve steered away from using iTunes on my Vista install having found it was taking a small eternity to copy files to my iPod outside of iTunes. Turns out I’m on the right track anyway as Apple have announced that, for the present, iTunes and Vista don’t mix.

    Via the BBC

    Apple outlined the compatibility issues and suggested workarounds for those already using Vista in a support document on its website.

    Some problems listed were: failure to play music and video purchased from the iTunes store; poor animation performance; and a failure to automatically synchronize media, contacts and calendars.

    Apple has also offered Vista users a downloadable tool that will “repair permissions for important files,” but does not specify the precise nature of the incompatibility.

    Has anyone experience similar difficulties? Either through iTunes directly or in using a video iPod as a removable drive under Vista?

  • The Pitfalls Of Windows Vista

    Vista is up and out and about and in case you already didn’t know – there are serious Windows Vista pitfalls to look at when purchasing a copy of of the OS off the shelf, plus don’t even think of downloading a cracked version online.

    Highly rumoured and now a reality is the Vista registration system – fail to register your copy of Vista within 30 days and you’ll find that your Aero interface and any Vista-esque features will be disabled. Couple the fact that you will only be able to switch on your now highly restricted machine for only and hour AND the only thing you’ll really be able to do is go online and register, you’d want to make sure you get it done from the outset. I’m guessing that this applies to copies of Vista bought directly off the shelf as opposed to being bundled into a dealer’s offer (e.g. Dell).

    User Account Control looks to be a pain in the arse. I’ve got the beta release dual booting on my home machine and have had so since Microsoft opened it up to the public (by my records, June 17th). The beta release was prone to UAC popups at every change you were making – deleting certain files, installing drivers, changing Windows settings etc. which made some of the more advanced operations a real chore. While it has calmed down due to complaints and patches, there is still a bit of working to live a long and happy life alongside the new User Account Control setup.

    Other issues do exists, some of which you’ll find here. Has anyone yet bought themselves a copy of Vista and can say they’re enjoying the experience so far?

    The gas thing is, you could buy yourself a 5 license copy of OS X (Tiger) for the Mac for the around the price of the basic Vista license. Go figure!

  • What WON’T Linux Run On?

    Is there anything that Linux won’t run on with a little elbow grease? Looks like the Zune is the next candiate…

  • Why Are Apple So Expensive In Europe?

    Is there a particular reason that Apple are so expensive in Europe? I’d been reading through a US published magazine (whose name eludes me now) that featured an article on Apple forsaking their European market, then a day later when I hit the Apple Store at the Eaton Centre I was offered a copy of of Microsoft Office (for the Mac) for a price around EUR 250 only to find that when you look at the Irish Apple store online, the same copy is EUR 499. Whats the craic there?

  • 90% Of Email Now Spam

    Its me Jamie.

    Its me Lynette.

    Its me Justin.

    I’m getting sick and tired of these emails, the latest wave of junk mail passing through the office at the moment. Simple emails with random names after “its me” in the subject line just to add to my morning woes of clearing out the junk mail. Then again, these are just the latest addition to the high amounts of spam we already have to filter through.

    According to Digital Lifestyles now, the internet is truely under siege with “just over 90%” of email now junk mail. Figures estimate that the level of spam circling online has almost trebled from 2.5 billion mails in June to around 7 billion mails in November, still with a week left in the month.

    Thats some size of an increase over such a short period (5 months give or take), even with new spam legislation in place.

    Site Developer has a handy spam tutorial for users of Outlook, without delving into any additional software (though I know the source of the bulk of our spam and I’ll be putting an end to it within the next month) which is available here.

    While there are loads of commercial options available for beating spam, HelpYourself.ie (Aidan and Keith’s monthly talk) points to K9 as a free application to help you beat spam out of your inbox.

    Now, where did I leave my own spam beating stick?

  • Pirate Vista? Kiss Goodbye To Your Computer.

    Using a pirated version of Vista (when released) should be ok for a while. Then you might notice a few things go missing on your computer. Then, you might notice your applications won’t open any more. Then you might notice that you’ll only be able to browse the internet – likely being that case that you’ll be whisked off to the Microsoft website to purchase a legit copy of Windows Vista.

    Personally, I still haven’t seen the big plus side to jumping over to Vista. Mind you, its still in beta stage but every time the computer at home boots up I’ll still go for that “Earlier Version Of Microsoft Windows” option….

    Will XP become the new Windows 98 and in five years time people will STILL be running on a copy of XP SP2? With Microsoft not expecting “a slow adoption of the software”, how long before support for XP is wiped out?

    MSNBC has more….

  • iPod Video Convension Made Easy

    Videora is a “personal video downloading program”, labelling itself as a BitTorrent RSS Reader, picking out the videos that YOU want to watch.

    What they’ve also got is a fantastic and easy to use – and free – video converter. It comes in five different flavours, namely iPod video, TiVo, XBOX 360, PSP Video 9 and PMP format.

    Tested it out last night and I’m pretty pleased with the results of the conversion, my iPod now boasting a new episode of Weeds for the morning, along with a copy of The Frames video for Revelate and a feature length copy of ‘The Dark‘.

    Conversion for a 25 minute episode of Weeds originally at high resolution divx at 512kbps (video) and 128k(audio) at 320*240 resolution took about 10 minutes and zipped across to the iPod, with The Dark taking about 40 minutes to convert. Queue up all the videos you want, set the application to switch your machine off when its finished and away you go.

    After going through trials of various other commercial apps I’m got to give this one the thumbs up.

  • 3D Desktop Prototype

    Cheers Sean.