Think you (or someone you know) has contracted a virus or been afflicted with spyware? According to Microsoft’s Security Help and Support for Home Users page, you can call 1-866-PCSAFETY (1-866-727-2338):
This phone number is for virus and other security-related support. It is available 24 hours a day for the U.S. and Canada.
If you live in another region, there’s a link to find the phone number for your area.
(Thanks to Suzi Turner at Spyware Confidential for the pointer.)
Microsoft Office VP Steven Sinofsky tells CNET News.com that an Office 12 beta will arrive in November. But don’t expect to get your hands on it unless you’re an invited tester. And do be ready for some of the inevitable glitches, bugs, and instability that go along with beta releases:
When we come out with our beta, it will be our Beta 1. That’s the first of the betas, so it will be in the kind of shape that people normally expect Beta 1 to be in.
By contrast, 2006 should be an interesting year for anyone who wants to experiment with new software. The Beta 2 releases of Windows Vista and Office 12 should be available to anyone who wants to experiment with them, invited or not.
Not to get all weepy, or anything… But I thought Dwight might want to hear this from the normally ultra-cynical John Walkenbach:
Thinking back on four years of MVP Summits, this has been the best day of all in terms of interesting information. It was Office 12 all day. Unfortunately, I can’t talk about it yet. But I can say that Excel 12 is awesome. It does stuff that I didn’t even think was possible. I never thought I’d be saying that about Excel, but it’s true.
Just curious: When was the last time anyone said that about Quattro Pro?
In today’s Washington Post, Michael Tedeschi has a column on lossless audio formats. While it has some good information, it starts with a crucial error:
You may not have realized that the song playing through the earbuds of your MP3 player is actually a lower-quality, digitally compressed version of the original recording.
But try playing that same MP3 file on a high-end home stereo system and you’ll likely hear some hisses and snaps and pops in the music — even if you bought it from a download service such as iTunes or ripped it from your own copy of the original CD.
Sorry, but that’s not correct. A compressed audio file sounds worse than the original because big chunks of bandwidth have been chopped off. The highs and lows have been removed to save space. Update: As Dan notes in the comments, there’s more to the story than my original explanation would suggest: “Mp3s sound bad because frequency data has been altered and removed throughout the entire audible spectrum. The cleverer versions of the algorithm will alter the critical midrange, where one’s hearing is most acute, less than the extremes of the spectrum, but, in general, chunks of highs and lows aren’t just getting “chopped off.” The entire spectrum is being simplified (gutted, if you will).”
Clicks and pops can occur even if you use a lossless format like FLAC or Shorten or Windows Media Lossless or Apple Lossless. That usually happens during the ripping process. If there’s a scratch or other flaw on the CD, or if your CD drive is less than perfect, or if your CPU can’t keep up with the data being extracted, the result is a digital copy filled with errors.
In fact, every time you rip a CD using a consumer-grade tool, you’re probably getting less-than-perfect copies. If you’re just making copies for your portable music player, this might be no big deal, but if you’re an audiophile exchanging copies of live performances, it’s hugely important.
The solution? Try Exact Audio Copy. This postcard-ware program is an audiophile’s dream. Used in secure mode, it makes copies that are as close to perfect as you can get.
Highly recommended.
Following up on the news that Office 12 will directly output documents in PDF format, Mary Jo Foley writes:
[Office program manager Brian] Jones’ disclosure was somewhat surprising, given Microsoft’s announcement earlier this year of plans to incorporate “Metro,” Microsoft’s PDF/PostScript alternative, into Windows Vista. (Microsoft currently is using the XML Paper Specification (XPS) to refer to many of its Metro components.)
And Microsoft’s Metro announcement was seen by industry watchers just one of a growing number of direct shots by Microsoft at Adobe’s PDF/PhotoShop/Illustrator empire.
This is probably going to be the single biggest misconception you read this week. Only trouble is, it’s based on a fundamental misunderstanding. As I posted last April from the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference:
I also got a chance to look more closely at the “Metro” technology. It looks like there will still be room in the world for PDF files. The real impact is to replace the old Enhanced Metafile (EMF) format with a new, smarter native format for printed output. There’s a big overlap with PDF files, but it’s not as direct a competitor as early reports, including mine, might suggest.
Microsoft did a poor job when they initially talked about the Metro technology, leading lots of people to speculate that it was a PDF-killer. A closer look reveals it’s no such thing, but the original flawed description has already spread far and wide.
Update: Read more technical details on the XML Paper Specification (XPS) here. XPS is first and foremost a container specification for application data. It’s true that the XPS Document format is very PDF-like, but I don’t think anyone has any illusions that it will replace PDFs. If you use Office 12, it probably will allow you to edit XPS Documents in the same way that Acrobat (the full product) allows you to edit PDF files, without having to leave Office or buy a separate program.
It’s official. Microsoft’s Chris_Pratley reports:
Steven Sinofsky announced during his wrap-up Q&A this morning that Office 12 apps (OneNote included) will support “Save as PDF” natively.
Excellent! This upgrade is sounding better and better all the time. I got my invitation to join the beta program the other day, and I’m really looking forward to it.
CNET News.com says that a spokesman for Microsoft France has confirmed that Service Pack 3 will appear sometime after Windows Vista ships next year:
Windows XP SP3 will be available sometime next year–after the launch of Windows Vista, which “is the priority for the development teams,” according to Microsoft France.
Microsoft has yet to reveal details about the contents of the service pack. Laurent Delaporte of Microsoft France said: “Historically, certain functions of new versions of Windows are integrated in the service packs of previous versions.”
Intriguing. Wonder how many Vista features can be ported backwards?
Am I the only one surprised to see MSN Search blog mentioning a add-on for Firefox? Am I the only one surprised by this statement on the MSN Search blog:
some of our customers prefer using Firefox and we respect that choice.
I’m certainly not surprised. In Windows Networking and Security Inside Out, which is at the printer’s now, Carl and I spent a lot of time talking about Firefox. Whenever possible, we included instructions for accomplishing security-related tasks in both IE and Firefox. And we didn’t get any pushback from the publisher, Microsoft Press.
Through a random series of links, I read about a new service called MusicGiants, which recently opened its “high definition” digital music service. The online store offers tracks in Windows Media Lossless format (450 – 1100 kbps) instead of selling compressed MP3, WMA, or AAC tracks, as other music services do.
Good idea. On audiophile-quality equipment (including a Windows Media Center PC), I can hear the noticeable difference between a 128K MP3 and an original CD or a track ripped in lossless format. Those lossy files are fine on a portable player, but not in my living room.
And I really wanted to like MusicGiants. But after reviewing the terms of the deal, I give it a big thumbs down. What’s not to like? Plenty:
In fairness to the company, they’re probably not setting the price. Since they have deals with the big record labels, they’re not going to get a deal that’s any better than Steve Jobs got.
But then I read this profile of the company in Business Week:-Is This Digital Music’s Future? And I think the company may be truly clueless:
That’s why MusicGiants plans to sell a $9,500, 400-gigabyte device called the SoundVault that would sit in the stereo cabinet, just like a CD-player or receiver. (The package includes hardware, a high-end sound processing card, and networking gear.) That way, MusicGiants’ customers could bypass their PCs and load songs directly into their living room stereo. “It’s hard to sell gas, if no one has a car,” says [founder and CEO Scott] Bahneman, who hopes to get out of the hardware business as soon as other gear starts to appear.
$9500? And then another $6000 to fill it up? Please send me a bag of whatever this guy’s smoking, because it must be truly mind-bending shit. If anyone out there is willing to pay 15 grand for this product, I’m in the wrong business. I can build a super high-end Media Center system and fill it with perfectly legal lossless music for … oh, let’s say about $5000-6000. And it would also replace the TiVo and the DVD player and do digital photography too. If I can sell one or two of these babies per month for the price that these guys want to charge, I can make a pretty fabulous living.
Anyone want to take bets on how long this company lasts?
[Cross-posted at Ed Bott’s Media Central.]
Tom Tomorrow has some wonderful reflections on the Nashville sessions where Neil Young recorded (and filmed) the sessions for his new album, Prairie Wind
My copy’s on the way.
Ed Bott 