Question: I have Microsoft Office 2007 and people tell me they can't open documents I send them. What can I do?
Answer: Good question. When Microsoft released Office 2007, they changed all the file formats. They have always changed their Access database format. But with Office 2007, they changed all the file formats. This wreaks havoc on other people who only have the older version. You have two options to get around this problem. The first is for the person receiving these files to download a free converter pack that Microsoft has on their website. This will allow them to open the new formats. We'll have the link in the show notes at daconsult.com/forums. The second option is for you to save the files in the old format. To do that, click the Office button, go to Save As, and in the Save As dialog box, where it says "Save As Type" change it to the earlier version. Send them that copy.
Cool Site: Expedition Titanic: This week's cool site is Expedition Titanic. It's a site that brings together in a really cool way much of the information available on the Titanic's sinking almost 100 years ago. You can explore that part of the ocean floor where the ship currently resides. The site has a really interesting flash-based interface. You start at the top of the water and then as you drag the scroll bar down, presumably toward the ship, factoids appear that are related to that depth. Once you get to the bottom, a link takes you to a depiction of the site with animations and other factoids located all around. It connects with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr. There's even a link to their partner site, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. They've got videos posted on YouTube, 3D pictures of the area compiled by side-scan sonar. I personally don't get into the whole Titanic thing, but it's a hobby of sorts for some people, and in any event, this website is really cool. You've gotta check it out, expedition titanic.com.
Cool Gadget: Enterprise Pizza Cutter: Oh, my birthday is coming up soon, and this one's awesome! It's a pizza cutter.
Eddie: What's so awesome about a pizza cutter?
David: This one's shaped like the Enterprise from Star Trek - Yes! See, the saucer part (the Primary Hull) is a 4-inch cutter wheel and the rest of the ship is the handle. It's an officially licensed Star Trek collectible. It has a laser-etched stainless steel blade. It's 8.5 inches long, and weighs 277 grams. What's more, it's exclusively designed and manufactured by ThinkGeek. It comes in a padded gift box, and just looks cool. It's $24.99, but hey, it's a collectible.
It's All "Geek" To Me: Ripcording: This week's term is one I hadn't heard before: ripcording. It's a combination of recording, which it what happens when you capture audio and save it as digital audio files, and ripping, which is converting audio such as from a CD into MP3 files. This term refers to downloading audio or video streams off the internet. With a stream, there's no file to download, but if your computer can simultaneously play the stream and save it at the same time, that's ripcording.
