News: Jeeves, Where Can I Buy Some Plus-Fours?

By | November 24, 2011
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 Here’s a new way of finding what you want to buy: Ask Jeeves. Ask Jeeves started out as a place you could ask normal questions (‘How long is a piece of string?’) and get answers that closely match your question, culled from the web (‘Want to buy a G-string?’). At least that’s been my experience. Still, it’s sometimes useful. Now, its new Smart Product Search feature, Reuters reports, will help consumers find, price and compare products on the Web.
 
 
Smart Search results already cover most consumer electronics, including cameras, computers, MP3 players and video games. In coming weeks, consumers will also be able to see Smart Search results for additional categories, including home and garden, apparel and children’s products.

Update: Office Update You Should Probably Have

By | November 24, 2011
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 If you’ve already upgraded to Microsoft Office 2003 (why, exactly?) there’s an update you should download. This update, Microsoft says in its understated way, “fixes a problem that occurs when you try to open or to save a Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 file, a Microsoft Office Word 2003 file, or a Microsoft Office Excel 2003 file that includes an OfficeArt shape that was previously modified and saved in an earlier version of Microsoft Office.”
 
It turns out that if you save one of those files containing an OfficeArt shape (a particularly kind of graphic) in Office 2003, then open it in an earlier version of Office, you may lose the whole thing. Or, in Microsoft-speak, “you may experience the following symptoms:
The document may not open completely.
The document may be corrupted.
The document may open but with missing content.
You might receive an error message.”
You’ve been warned. More details here.

Update: Online Music Gets Nasty

By | November 24, 2011
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 This whole online MP3 download service business is getting nasty. The Register reports that MusicMatch and Apple, once in cahoots, are now doing what they can to elbow the other off the stage. “Apple and MusicMatch are locked in a battle to see who can infect as many personal computers with DRM (digital rights management) as quickly as possible,” The Register says. Good point: with different systems in place for managing the MP3s you download, users will find it hard to have two or more subscriptions to these services going at the same time. The upshot: whichever software you use will determine which subscription service you use.
 

Update: More On Bluejacking

By | November 24, 2011
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 Interesting discussion about Bluejacking — the new craze whereby folk send messages to unsuspected cellphone/PDA users across the room — on Slashdot. The impression I get is that parts of Europe have already been using the Bluetooth function on phones to spam other people for some time. One contributor says that in Copenhagen
…every other time I get in a taxi I get a Bluetooth transmitted business card from the company or sometimes specifically the driver of the taxi. The first time this happened it was a slightly novel new thing I didn’t mind much – but now I find myself cursing the people who implemented this standard for not doing it like on Palm where you have to ‘accept’ the infrared beamed cards. On the Nokia cellphones it’s just stored without question so if this practice gets more widespread, soon your address book will be seriously burdened with unwanted business cards. Just finding them will be a big hassle. That’s when you switch off Bluetooth I guess.