- Life already sucks for Microsoft, but it’s about to suck some more for the company and its customers. A federal appeals court has brought the smackdown on Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates and Co., ordering them to strip custom XML support from Word 2007 by January 11 (which came and went), essentially banning the sale of Microsoft Word and Office in their current form. And who was the one to fell the mighty Microsoft giant? That would be the small Canadian firm i4i, which filed a patent infringement lawsuit by in 2007 that led to this injunction. In its lawsuit, i4i claims it owns the custom XML editing technology that is included in Microsoft Word. All they needed was for one judge or panel of judges to agree and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas filled the bill. Not only did the justices issue the injunction stopping the sale of Word 2007 in its current former, they also hit Microsoft with a $290 million. Predictably, Microsoft appealed, but the lower court's ruling was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals. The ruling gave Microsoft not nearly enough time to re-release Word and Office 2007 before being barred from selling the software. Microsoft's Director of Public Affairs Kevin Kutz issued a statement about the decision: “With respect to Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007, we have been preparing for this possibility since the District Court issued its injunction in August 2009 and have put the wheels in motion to remove this little-used feature from these products. Therefore, we expect to have copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Office 2007, with this feature removed, available for U.S. sale and distribution by the injunction date. In addition, the beta versions of Microsoft Word 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010, which are available now for downloading, do not contain the technology covered by the injunction.” Tough balls for you, Microsoft. Not only do you sell the crappiest operating system on the market, but the one software product you sell that is actually mildly usable is now under attack. You had better hope that subsequent versions of Word and the Office software suite in general are free of the sort of violation that led to this problem, or otherwise you would be forced to rely on the latest garbage version of Windows to bring in the money you need to keep chugging along and I think we all know how and when that would end……badly and very, very soon…………
- Following a strong episode of Heroes last week, this week’s episode was……not nearly as good. The show’s perpetual problem of not finding screen time for many of its key characters for entire episodes was back in full force. AWOL completely this week were: Peter and Angela Petrelli, Matt Parkman, Lydia and Eli (from Sullivan Bros. carnival) and Emma. Nearly AWOL (a minute or less of screen time) was H.R.G. Having cleared that up, let’s get on to those who were on screen. H.R.G.’s one and only scene came was he bade farewell to Mohinder Suresh, who teleported into his apartment at the end of last week’s episode along with Hiro and Ando. After fixing up a homemade compass for H.R.G. to help lead him to Sullivan Bros. carnival, Mohinder said his goodbyes because he had to go make good on a promise he made to a friend. As soon as the door shut behind him, Hiro collapsed at the kitchen table and was rushed to the hospital with Ando there by his side. As he was wheeled into emergency surgery, Hiro lapsed into a coma/dream that put him in an unusual-but-familiar place: the Burnt Toast diner in Odessa, Texas. It was where Hiro met his girl Charlie and where much of his time on the show has been centered, for better and worse. Inside his mental diner, Hiro was put on trial for using his power to teleport through space and time for personal gain. The judge was his deceased father Kaito Nakamura and the prosecutor was none other than Adam Monroe/ Takezo Kensei, the man Hiro met in Season 2 when he teleported back in time to ancient Japan and who became a nemesis of his in subsequent episodes, both in the past and in the present. Monroe first calls in past versions of Ando and Hiro’s sister Kimito, the versions from a visit to the carnival years ago who fell in love and were eventually married, but only after Hiro teleported back in time, stepped in front of a spilled slushy that Ando dumped on Kimito and thus prevented a moment that turned their relationship in the wrong direction. The next witness was Sylar, with whom Hiro struck a deal to heal Charlie from a fatal brain tumor in exchange for Hiro allowing Sylar to remain free, killing people and taking their powers. When Monroe attempted to call Charlie herself as a witness, he made his point instead by explaining that she could not testify because she was lost somewhere in space and time because of Hiro’s deal struck with Samuel. Asked to call his own witnesses, Ando (Hiro’s court-appointed attorney) calls Hiro himself and has him testify that ever since being given his power, he has attempted to make it a better place, do good and improve life for those he loves. Even if he has made mistakes, he feels that they have been with good intentions. At trial’s end, Hiro is found guilty and while still in his dream state, finds himself in an operating room where the doors open to reveal a long hallway with a bright light at the end. His jury, judge, prosecutor and attorney line the hall and as Hiro walks toward the light, he declares that in order to go out with honor, he will change his plea from not guilty to guilty. Kaito hands him a samurai sword and tells him to go out with honor, which turns out to mean a sword fight with Adam Monroe. Hiro battles and wins the fight, putting a sword right through Monroe’s gut. He turns around to see his deceased mother standing in the light, but instead of being there to welcome him to the afterlife, she’s there to heal his inoperable brain tumor. Back in non-dream life, Hiro regains a pulse and is apparently back among the living as a jubilant Ando looks on and later sits beside his bed as Hiro begins his recovery. Life is not so pleasant for Samuel, who thinks his dreams are coming true after kidnapping the longtime object of his affection, Vanessa Wheeler, last episode and bringing her to the carnival. Initially she was angry and wanted only to go back home, but this week she found herself charmed by Samuel as he always found a way to say the right thing to stir up fond memories from their past. He even takes her for a milkshake at a nearby diner and they share the proverbially cheesy two-straws-one-milkshake moment. As his coup de tat, he takes her to see the Garden of Eden-like paradise he and one of his super-powered carneys, Ian, created in the valley near the carnival. In the valley is a beautiful log cabin, just like the one the two of them used to dream about when they were dating. Samuel wants Vanessa to marry him and come live there, but as much as she loves how he has made the dream come true, she admits her life is not there and demands to be taken home. Samuel obliges, but later he goes for a meal at the same diner and jumps all over the waitress merely for the way she looks at him. Samuel’s rage causes him to unleash his power, setting off a major earthquake with effects that can be seen miles away at the carnival. A still-fuming Samuel storms back into the carnival, but no one dares look him in the eye or talk to him. What will the fallout be? The last storyline was Claire Bennet coming face to face with her archnemesis, Sylar once again. He visits her at Arlington University in Arlington, Va. because he can’t see to get his mojo back and find his inner serial killer/psychopath. Before he arrives, Claire and roommate Gretchen are in the dining hall eating lunch. Gretchen tries to get Claire to open up about her time spent recently at the carnival and her trouble with her father, but Claire resists. The writers and producers then made another blatant attempt to play up the lesbian tension between the two, with Gretchen trying to hold Claire’s hand in support and Claire pulling away. She heads off across campus to a review session for one of her classes but when she shows up, she finds herself staring into Sylar’s eyes. He explains that she must cooperate or he will kill Gretchen, whom he has kidnapped. Sylar goes on to explain that he and Claire are actually very similar – abandoned by birth parents who didn’t understand them, adopted by parents who didn’t understand them and trying to figure out their place in the world. Claire angrily declares that they are nothing alike, tells Sylar he’s a psychopath and storms out. He uses his power of telepathy to toss her down, then continues his monologue and explains that if she won't help voluntarily, he will merely pry into her mind and find out for himself. But instead of his usual M.O. of slicing her head open, he uses the power he picked up from Lydia at the carnival, allowing him to read her mind merely by physical contact. To rub in his control over her, Sylar chooses a kiss for the physical contact and finds out what he wants to know. He talks some post-kiss smack and Claire seizes the chance to jam a pencil into his eye, then escapes to save Gretchen. Back in the dorm room, she unties Gretchen and tells her that she’s sorry for what’s happening. Just then, a blast rips through the room, knocking out part of the wall. The girls flee into the hall and hide in a broom closet, where they try to evade Sylar and end up in a serious chat. Claire admits (time to ratchet up the lesbian tensions again!) that she does have a desire to explore things with Gretchen, but she’s scared and dealing with the ramipercussions of her power and all it entails. Ultimately, they reach the conclusion that it is actually similar to Sylar’s struggle and that the only way for him to feel connected to anyone and part of the human race is to give up his powers. Following that gem of wisdom, “Gretchen” morphs back into Sylar, revealing that it was him all along since Claire returned to the dorm room. A disgusted Claire rushes off to find Gretchen, who is still hanging out at the dining hall. Claire gives her a big hug, says that she wants to stop being scared and open up about her feelings and declares that she’s finally ready for a serious talk. The two then holds hands and traipse out of the dining hall, not worrying if people talk about their lesbian experimentation. And so that was the episode in all of its terribleness. Just a subpar episode overall and one that isn’t going to do much to bolster the show’s declining reputation. Hopefully next week will be better…………
- Ordinarily I would absolutely rip a professional athlete for insulting the intelligence and competence of the very fans who pay his salary by attending games and buying merchandise, but I’ll make an exception the case of Boston Celtics guard Ray Allen. Allen sees a clear problem when it comes to All-Star voting, namely that the fans who vote for the NBA All-Star game are clueless idiots. Evidence for this belief can be found by looking no further than this year’s voting, where in Allen Iverson and Tracy McGrady are in line to be elected as starters despite having made little or no impact on their respective teams this season. McGrady is easily the worse of the two, having played just six (SIX!) of the Houston Rockets’ 43 games, averaging less than eight minutes per game and 3.2 points per game. Inexplicably, the fans are trying to vote him in as an ASG starter. Ditto for Iverson, who couldn’t find a job this past offseason, signed with Memphis and was released after only three games because he was a me-first malcontent who couldn’t subjugate his own ego and come off the bench instead of start even though he clearly is no longer an elite player. He landed with one of his former teams, the Philadelphia 76ers, and has been decent but not great, averaging 14 points a game. Yet there he is, poised to earn an ASG starting spot over far more deserving candidates. In light of this, Allen has a few suggestions. "I like the fact that the fans get the opportunity to vote and pick who they'd like to see in the All-Star Game, but I don't think it should be 100 percent," Allen said. He went on to explain fan voting has made the game "watered down" and called fans to have 50 percent of the vote, with the other 50 percent being divided evenly between the media and the players. I don’t like the idea of including the media and think the 50 percent of the vote not in the hands of fans should be split between coaches and players, but I like the direction Allen is going here. The NBA, on the other hand, is in favor of the status quo. "We look at it as a great way to engage the fans," NBA spokesman Brian McIntyre said. "We think it's a
- I know the rule is that you don’t eat the yellow snow, but does the same principle hold true for other hues of the wintry precipitation? I ask this question not only for my own benefit, but also for the benefit of all my friends in and around the Buffalo, N.Y. area. One particular neighborhood in Buffalo, one located near the old Buffalo Color Plant at Lee and Elk streets, is currently dealing with the plague of pink snow. Most of the neighborhood is covered in the pinkish snow, both on the ground and on the rooftops of homes in the area Because the snow was obviously not pink when it fell from the sky, residents are left to wonder what caused the color change and if they should be taking any special measures to cope with it. The cause of the pink show would seem to be the demolition of the Buffalo Color Plant (makes sense, no?), but local health officials insist that there is nothing to worry about. They claim the color is the result of a food coloring, red dye 40, that was once manufactured at the plant. There was apparently a similar incident in the same area many years ago, but that didn’t allay the fears of residents and they want assurances that the pink snow is in no way dangerous to them or their children. Just don’t eat the pink snow or the yellow snow and all will be good, Buffalo residents…………
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